Migrants on Hilbre

Now I've got a bit more time on my hands its been nice to be able to visit Hilbre more often. As always there is plenty of maintenance work to do to the observatory building, heligoland traps and various gates and fences after the winter period. The running and maintenance of the observatory relies upon a small group of dedicated volunteers - whether its ringing, recording or maintenance the work involved in running an accredited observatory is never ending!

Spring migration is now well underway and an early morning trip last week with the Chairman resulted in a few birds being caught and ringed in the newly repaired heligoland traps (well, they're nearly finished!). My first Wheatears of the year passed through pausing only for a quick photo at the south end.

The first Willow Warbler of the spring was trapped and ringed along with a couple of Chiffchaff which made for a nice comparison between these two species.

 Chiffchaff above, Willow Warbler below

We've already had a controlled Chiffchaff this year and it'll be interesting to see haw many other controls we get this year.