First BTO Chiffchaff to Hungary

It's not every day we see recoveries of passerines in Hungary, as it's much more expected to see records of things like colour-ringed Mediterranean Gulls from there (almost 1000 to date!). In fact, there are just two records of BTO-ringed passerines found in Hungary and, unsurprisingly, both were Lesser Whitethroats. The other way round, the only Hungarian-ringed passerine found here was the equally exceptional record of a Sand Martin recaught by ringers in Lincolnshire in 2008.

So it was a pleasant surprise to hear of a BTO-ringed Chiffchaff caught in Hungary (at Hódmezővásárhely, Csongrád) on 2nd November, shown by the star on the map below. This bird had been ringed as a juvenile at Eskmeals, Cumbria, in July 2013, so was presumably still on southward migration when recaught: or perhaps displaced by the back end of 'St Jude'?

ADV129 when recaught recently in Hungary

Foreign finding and ringing locations of UK Chiffchaffs

It would seem more likely to find a British Chiffchaff so far east on spring migration, but oddly the only vaguely similar record concerns a Ukrainian-ringed bird killed by a cat in Peterhead, Grampian, in December 1987. This bird had been ringed two months earlier so who knows where it was going!

Thanks (and congratulations) to Erna Borbáth for the photos of the bird in Hungary.