November 11th - Reculver's second Pied Wheatear

My blog today is starting with this afternoon's excitement! After this morning's ringing session at Reculver, Matt came home with us for lunch after which we agreed to meet at Reculver for a walk. He arrived before us and as we walked up to the car park he was beckoning us to hurry up as he had found a pale female wheatear on the rocks at the car park. It spent the afternoon flycatching from the rocks but often disappeared from view behind them. We were able to eliminate Desert Wheatear on the limited extent of black on its tail so that only left Pied or Eastern Black-eared Wheatear. After taking photos and studying its plumage we became pretty sure it was a female PIED WHEATEAR (193rd) and put the news out. This is the second record of this species for Reculver following on from a first year male on 18th and 19th October 1986.

Female Pied Wheatear - Matt Hindle

We spent the morning ringing at Reculver where we saw 11 Redwings, 2 Pied Wagtails, 8 Lesser Redpolls, 71 Siskins, 2 Cetti's Warblers, 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Goldcrests, 6 Brambling, 1 Green Sandpiper, 10 Song Thrushes, 3 Green Woodpeckers, 1 Kestrel, 1 Common Buzzard, 20 Tree Sparrows, 160 Linnets, 3 Jays, 5 Grey Partridges, 1 Peregrine, 5 Yellowhammers, 790 Starlings W, 9 Mute Swanss, 3 Mallard, 1 Woodcock, 47 Chaffinches, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker.

Birds ringed 34: Goldcrest 1, Wren 1, Chiffchaff 2, Robin 4, Lesser Redpoll 1, Chaffinch 1, Dunnock 1, Song Thrush 5, Blackbird 18