We opened all nets (Clausjanic and me) and were ready opening at 4.45. The wind was still strong (10 m/s) and it had rained in the night. Numbers of birds in the garden are still relatively low for the time of the year. But we had our first Whitthroat (Tornsanger), so there is some progress. In total we caught 44 birds (37 new and 7 recaptures).

We caught a relative large willow warbler (wing length 72 mm) and th bird appeared to be lees green as normal Willow Warblers (løvsanger). Also the underside of the bird and the throat were not as yellow as the normal one. It could have been the Nordic Willow Warbler a different subspecies as the normal one. I have added a picture, not a good one. The bird refused to calm down and then it is difficult to make a good picture. And in addition I do not like to make pictures under those circumstances too.

In the last edition of the Dutch Birding you can find an article about the difficulties between recognising the different (sub)species of the Chiffchaff (Gransanger). There was a research project on this complex of (sub)species: collybita, abietinus and tristis. The result of the project (DNA analysis) was that Dutch ringers are able to recognise in most cases tristis but were in most cases not able to pinpoint abietinus. They say in the article that it is impossible to differentiate between those two subspecies based on plumage and on size.

Maybe to differentiate between de Nordic Willow warbler and the normal Willow Warbles is also not really possible. There is a huge overlap in size and the plumage is also vary variable.

The weather in the afternoon was pretty nice so I decided to eat outside. But I had to go inside again because there were too many, I believe in English, picnic beetles (could not find the Danish name), but maybe somebody can help me. See picture.

Tomorrow on my own again and I am possitive for the day to come, maybe Hans has to help me.

Ciao Robert