Ben picked me up early as the dawn just brushed the horizon but within 20 minutes it was light as we walked out onto Chippenham Fen. Heading West to the ringing site the exotica of Yellow-browed Warbler song pierced the subdued autumnal chorus - Rich evidently had sprytefever and hoped to attract a 6 striper with the tape loop. I'd not been to this ringing site before - a step up in scale and potential from the scrubland at Queen Adelaide that had been a ringing focus for some years.
Long rides between the scrub, fen and woodland allowed for long chains of nets and Rich had already got a round of catches to process. A Redwing was in one bag, to be pipped to the post as my woefully late first of the autumn by a bird seeping overhead. There were definitely birds on the move with Song Thrush, Skylark and Meadow Pipits vocal overhead. I settled into the rhythmn of a ringing session enjoying seeing the birds up close, learning and revisiting the process of feather and moult analysis, species by species, allowing us to age and sex most of them.
A later trap round revealed my only Spotted Flycatcher of the year, and a late one at that, sitting a top a dead tree. The bags filled with Warblers and buntings and things got very busy for Rich after a large Tit flock moved through and lots ended up in the nets alongside a couple of Treecreepers.
From the restful recline of the patio chairs both Marsh Tit and Nuthatch were vocal in bursts over the delicious song of Redstart from the tapes. Towards the end of the session I glanced behind and across the clearing and called the Sparrowhawk that was gliding across the back. Rich raised his bins and declared "male Gos" and thankfully the bird glided back across in front of us before dropping vertically into the western woodland, scattering the Woodpigeons like snooker balls after a powerful break. Really nice views of a Cambridgeshire and Ely10 mega, my first in over a decade. Doing a little Google map work I reckon the nearest territory is in the Brecks just over 6 miles away, so perhaps we should expect more, it was Richard's second of the year at the site. Ben's rule of thumb still works "Jesus on the cross - not a Gos" and the bird was good to that alongside more conventional ID features. The silhouettes below, from photos, show this subtle but consistent structural/jizz feature nicely. You can't always judge size readily but below it's clear to my eye - the Sprawk is Jesus on the cross, the Gos is at the Crossroads.
Andy Butler's flight ID info is very good and worth a regular retread, no matter your experience with these enigmatic raptors.
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