It was such a lovely day at the Observatory and felt properly like spring was on the way! I had a few nets up and it was pretty quiet with 12 captures, 9 new and 3 retraps. However, I caught some very interesting birds. We had our first Chiffchaff of the year, the first of many to come hopefully! The highlight of the day was a Treecreeper!! This is the first one we have ever caught in the spring at the Obs, and the first since 2023. It is an infrequently ringed species here with less than 25 records. We also caught 1 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Robin, 3 Goldfinch, 1 Great Tit, 2 Coal Tit and 1 Blue Tit.

Afternoon haze over the Broadwater

Quiet ringing sessions also give a good opportunity to really scrutinise moult in our common species. I caught a few Goldfinch today and one was doing something really interesting with its moult. It had replaced most of its primaries (nice new shiny, black feathers), and then stopped with the last four (brown, old feathers), we call this arrested moult. It’s not something I’ve ever come across before, but based on the condition of the retained old feathers, I think this bird hatched last year. The primaries are less worn than you would expect in an older Goldfinch, as the primaries would be approx. 18 months old compared to 8 months old. A Goldfinch hatched last year undertaking a complete moult (aka replacing all its primary feathers) is still an unusual thing in the UK, but does occur regularly in southern Europe. Most Goldfinch here do a partial post juvenile moult, so a bird hatched last year usually will still have all their old primaries they grew in the nest and will replace these at the end of the breeding season this year, but a small proportion of the population in the UK are doing partial primary replacement like my bird. Birds are fascinating.

Goldfinch showing old primaries 

Otherwise around the reserve the 2 Avocet were still showing well feeding from the car park pool. There was a Whimbrel over the grazing marsh.

Shannon