Chiffchaff Conundrum

A clear, cold start to the morning gave way to a beautiful, warm and sunny day as Yehonatan and Michael headed to open the nets at Kabeltromlen. They were kindly joined again by Oluf whilst Simon is away, as well as our guest Hans, and had a good catch of 20 birds including a Rørspurv (Reed Bunting) ringed at another site in Denmark.

Lauren and I headed to World’s End 1 and joined the large group of birders out to observe this morning. Although it was rather quiet in terms of number of migrants, we still had an excellent morning with a summer-plumage White-billed Diver (Hvidnæbbet Lom), a Red-rumped Swallow (Rødrygget Svale) (both found by Jakob Engelhard), a Serin (Gulirisk) and an immature Golden Eagle (Kongeørn).

Our typical counts were interrupted early however, when I heard a Siberian Chiffchaff-like (Sibirisk Gransanger) call in the willows behind me. I quickly located the bird which immediately looked too yellow and pale legged for a Siberian. A small crowd gathered and we considered the possibilities. The call sounded descending and Iberian Chiffchaff (Iberisk Gransanger) felt like the best fit, we were still unsure though and decided to put the bird out as a possible Iberian. Unfortunately the Ringing Centre were not able to give us a permission in time to catch the bird, very frustrating. Afterwards I contacted Magnus Robb, an expert on bird sounds, who replied that he did not think the call was descending enough for Iberian. Very interestingly though he suggested that the bird could be brevirostris, a subspecies of Chiffchaff from the Anatolian peninsula. This subspecies would be a first for Denmark, but we will probably never be able to prove it as such…

Unidentifed Chiffchaff by Daniel Palm Eskildsen x2

Skagen Fuglestation: Yehonatan Ben Aroia, Michael Colley, Lauren Evans, Dante Shepherd, Hans & Birthe.

Kabletromlen Ringing Totals:

Gransanger (Chiffchaff)- 8

Fuglekonge (Goldcrest)- 1

Løvsanger (Willow Warbler)- 2

Rødhals (Robin)- 1

Musvit (Great Tit)- 2

Rørspurv (Reed Bunting)- 3

Bogfinke (Chaffinch)- 1

Solsort (Blackbird)- 1

Gulspurv (Yellowhammer)- 1

Total: 20