Monday 14 May 2018

Spotted flycatcher and wood warbler

A spotted flycatcher arrived yesterday at llandilo and has been singing his heart out from dawn til dusk ever since. The territory has been used annually by spotted flycatchers since 2013. It's a puzzle how spotted flycatchers attract a mate by singing, as the song just sounds like a newly fledged brood of robins, except at about a quarter of the volume.

The wood warbler is still present and now has a mate. As soon as she arrived the male stopped using the 'tiu tiu tiu' part of the song and just stuck to the trill, or spinning penny part.

The male was wearing a metal ring, and it turns out that he was originally ringed on 13th May 2016 at Ffynone by Teifi RG. This declining species has not been the subject of a dedicated ringing study in Pembrokeshire, and there have been no previous ringing recoveries in the county, so whether individuals regularly change breeding sites or not isn't known.