Blackcap making touch down

This is an exciting time of year with our resident birds starting to nest and 'our' summer migrants winging their way back to Britain and Ireland. On the BTO reserve in Thetford in Norfolk, there are at least four singing male Blackcaps that have returned and more are surely on the way.

Male Blackcap - Mike Dawson

We recently received an email regarding a first year male Blackcap that had been ringed by West Wilts Ringing Group on 28 Sept 2010 (6am) near South Marston, Swindon (see blue point on map below). The finder mentioned it hit an airport window at Pamplona, Navarra, Spain (red point, 980km from ringing site), presumably on it's migration towards the UK. Interestingly this seemed to be the only British/Irish ringed bird found under that window, out of the whole 400 strong flock that was found dead!

We reported last year on the large exodus of Blackcap being caught in the autumn (click here), so it is good to hear that large numbers are now coming back towards the UK, however grim the outcome for these individual birds was.