Chiffin'

After having seen a Chiffchaff looking for insects/spiders on the side walls of the 'river' bridge on Sunday, and then hearing it or another in full song 100m further up the lane yesterday, it was my pleasure to ring one in the garden today.


As expected, it was a male (with a wing of 62mm) and it was carrying little fat at 8.0 grams. It had obviously been feeding up fairly recently as it had what we call "pollen horns" (see photo). Some of the nectar that the bird has been collecting from the flowering trees and shrubs sticks to the minute feathers around its upper and lower mandibles, producing this effect. Nectar is a good and quick source of sugars which the birds convert to fat to power their migration flight. It would, most likely, have obtained this 'horn' in northern Spain or south-west France before making a concerted push to arrive here in England yesterday or today.

Many ringers have reported catching their first Chiffchaffs in the last two/three days.