Friday, 3rd November 2017

An Icelandic race of Redwing, coburni, was trapped & ringed this morning. This is the first record of this subspecies to be recorded at the Obs. 

 

When this bird was being extracted from the net it looked dark and felt bigger than iliacus. The biometrics confirmed it's size with a wing of 127 mm and it weighed 72.8 g, and wasn't carrying any fat. 

 

Plumage details included darker upper parts, especially the ear coverts and crown, and a more buffy/yellowish wash on the underparts. Broader and more intensely streaked dark feathers on the breast, lacking the whitish breast centre of iliacus, and darker under tail coverts.

 

 Iliacus Redwing

The two pictures below are of the Icelandic race of Redwing coburni.

 

 

 

Offshore

18 Common Scoters west, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Red-throated Divers west, 2 Great Crested Grebes west, 2 Guillemots west and 9 Auk sp. west.

Visible Migration

9 Starlings south, 2 Redwings east, 1 Meadow Pipit south and 7 Chaffinch south-east.

Grounded Migrants 

2 Goldcrests, 15 Blackbirds, 1 Fieldfare, 3 Song Thrushes and 12 Redwings.

Others

800 Pink-footed Geese, 480 Wigeons, 600 Teal, 4 Shovelers, 4 Goldeneyes, 3 Little Egrets, 600 Lapwings, 41 Ringed Plovers, 76 Black-tailed Godwits, 200 Turnstones, 95 Sanderlings, 230 Dunlins, 4 Snipe, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Stonechats and 1 Grey Wagtail.

Ringing

2 Blackbirds and 2 Redwings.