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Chiffchaffs (1 Viewer)

S

Staysee

Well-known member
I had a chiffchaff in my garden like...last week i think it was and when people on here identified it for me, they also said it was a migrator....now he or she is back again today, been in the garden for ages and was able to get within about 6ft to get some good pictures, unfortunatly the best one...he/she was looking the wrong way haha

So, i just wanted to know basically how they're migration works? will he/she stay here all winter? or is he/she just filling up before a journey elsewhere? And if he/she is staying....is there like a cut off point where like if he/she is still here you know for sure that the little one is staying the winter out here
 
I'm not sure but I was wondering, I noticed them round here a lot in the Spring, everytime I go to one or two of my patches I hear several still singing away so doesn't seem like they're leaving yet!
 
I've never even seen one before like last week, well when it first arrived in our garden....tho i suppose last year for the first couple of months we might not of looked so much, but christmas time we had the garden full of birds feeding, so musta started feeding in oct im guessing and never saw one then

so god knows what they are up too haha but its only one here
 
As far as I understand it the Chiffchaff mainly migrates to the Med. but over recent years it has become more and more common for some to over winter in the UK,particularly the south, so your bird may indeed stay all winter.
 
I would love it if it stayed as i really enjoyed watching it today hoping around the net covering the pond, got within about 6foot of it before it flew off
 
I don't know the numbers, but many many chiffchaffs over winter now, over much of the country. So yours could well be around for a while. The tend to join up with the winter foraging parties of tits.
 
What's been said above about over-wintering is quite right, but it's also true that autumn migration of birds like Chiffchaff can be very leisurely, so it may stay for a while then move on. There was one singing in my street this morning: you would think that means it's thinking of setting up a winter territory, but quite probably not. It seems sometimes they sing just for the fun of it ... or to help us identify them ...
 
I guess how long it stays depends on how many insects there are in the garden. There were 3 chiffchaffs around about our local sewage treatment works for most of last winter, plenty of insects there! Maybe putting a bucket of ....maybe not!
 
Mary said:
I guess how long it stays depends on how many insects there are in the garden. There were 3 chiffchaffs around about our local sewage treatment works for most of last winter, plenty of insects there! Maybe putting a bucket of ....maybe not!
Click to expand...


haha tempting....but i'll pass on the bucket

we do get plenty of insects on/around the pond, but wether they will stay all winter just to be eaten by the chiffchaff, i dunno....they may seek another pond
 
I usually get pulses of Chiffchaffs pausing for a few days out the back of my garden, where there are willows along the brook.

A group of 7 might be there 2 days then vanish on a clear night, then 1 comes in a day or so later and numbers build up before they all vanish again, then another group arrives all at once....

I have had one or two winter but not the numbers that go through between end of August and Mid-October.

John
 
Farnboro John said:
I usually get pulses of Chiffchaffs pausing for a few days out the back of my garden, where there are willows along the brook.

A group of 7 might be there 2 days then vanish on a clear night, then 1 comes in a day or so later and numbers build up before they all vanish again, then another group arrives all at once....

I have had one or two winter but not the numbers that go through between end of August and Mid-October.

John
Click to expand...

Is your garden a Chiffchaff airport???
 
well, our chiffchaff was back again today, tho unfortunatly couldnt get a picture as he was hiding behind leaves on the little shrub beside the pond haha
 
Hello everyone, greetings: must be Chiffchaff many English who are now here in southern Spain.
In this week have captured two of BTO by my peer group.
I have not had such luck and I caught one yesterday for 209 Chiffchaf banding.
The step here in the South is now too large for this species.
More information on my blog:
http://birdringal-andalus.blogspot.com/
Regards, Fernando.
 
Thanks mate - although I'm just the trainee.
But it proves they don't all go on the Winter hols CB!
 
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