26/08/13: the end of a busy bank holiday weekend

I went back to the reed bed site yesterday evening (25/08/13) with my son Jack and Bryn, the dog. The conditions were ideal with no wind to speak of and we soon had the nets up.  We were joined by John G and George P a little while later. I played a warbler/Long-tailed Tit mix on the MP3 lure at first and we soon caught a few Reed Warblers and Blackcaps along with a Chiffchaff. As soon as the first Swallows arrived we switched tracks on the MP3 players to Swallow and closed one of the nets.

The motley crew waiting for the Swallows 25/08/13

The number of Swallows built up as usual and by sunset there were at least 800 over the reed bed. The Hobby wasn't seen and the birds started to settle about half an hour sooner than they had the previous night. We controlled the catch by careful use of the MP3 lures and it wasn't long before we had caught 92 Swallows including a retrap from last year and another control.

I had set up an actinic moth trap in the reed bed which meant I had to go back this morning to check it. I was undecided as to whether I would go early and put some nets up but as it happened I did and it was well worth it. I had 4 nets up from just before sunrise and it soon became apparent that there were plenty of warblers about; the moth trap quickly becoming a secondary consideration. Most of the birds were caught in one of the nets with aid of the MP3 lures with warblers accounting for 51 of the 64 birds caught. A total of 21 Blackcaps were ringed which is an exceptional number for this site.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Buoyed up by the success of this morning I went back this evening to make the most of the fine weather and to try for a few more Swallows at the roost. This session produced another 79 new Swallows and 1 control. This brought the number of Swallows ringed this month and for the year to 1,061 and another 6 Swallows ringed elsewhere have been controlled.

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis).
These often get caught in mist-nets when ringing in reed beds at this time of year.

Ringing totals for 26/08/13

Morning session
Blackcap 21
Blue Tit 7
Bullfinch 1
Chiffchaff 5
Reed Bunting 1 (1)
Reed Warbler 12 (1)
Sedge Warbler 6
Swallow 3
Whitethroat 5
Willow Warbler 1
Total 62 (+2)

Evening session
Swallow 79 (+1 control)
Total 79 (+1 control)

and here are a couple of moths from the day:



The Chevron (Eulithis testate)



Blood-vein  (Timandra comae)

Waxwing lyrical part 36 - 1st May 2013

My wish to see Waxwings in May came true this morning when 6 arrived at 05:40. I was more than happy with that number but more arrived over the next half hour or so and a maximum of 23 were counted a little while later. They spent more time feeding in the garden today than they have done of late although they still went elsewhere for a while around midday. They were back by mid-afternoon and stayed feeding on and off until 20:05.

The fine weather gave me plenty of opportunities to get a few more photographs although, with more leaves on the trees, getting a clear shot is becoming increasingly difficult. Blackcaps are still taking advantage of the apples too and at least 3 were feeding in the garden today.  I have now ringed 17 Blackcaps since 15th April and many more have passed through without being caught and ringed. Like the Waxwings this number of Blackcaps is totally unprecedented for the area.

The following selection of photos sums up the activity in and around the garden today. Hope you enjoy them.

Soaking up the rays and preening after the initial feed.

Feather management is really important and Waxwings spend a lot of time preening.

Very round and plump. This bird will be as fat as it looks.

This bird also looks very fat.

Getting stuck in.



One of the Blackcaps fattening up on apples today.
Not a local breeding bird judging by her weight.

Take off.

Waxwing lyrical part 32 - Blackcap bonanza

It may seem strange including Blackcap in the title but this post is still about the Waxwings. I had arranged to do another ringing session this morning and was joined by Duncan Bell who had driven up from Hampshire overnight such is the lure of Waxwings. Duncan drove up a few weeks ago and featured in my post Waxwing lyrical part 10 - the big grin. We arranged to meet at around 05:30 and John G also joined us before going to work.

The first few birds arrived just as we had finished putting up the nets at around 06:00. We retired to the house and waited for the rest of the birds to arrive. Duncan was in the chair by the window and counted in the squadrons of Waxwings as they arrived. Numbers built up quite quickly with at least 120 present by 06:20. This is a significant reduction in numbers on a few days ago and shows that the birds are finally starting to leave in good numbers. This was fairly predictable given the weights some of the birds had reached and the good weather.

Birds soon dropped down and started feeding on the apples in the garden with Duncan describing it as the greatest show on earth; it is something quite special watching them all glide down into the garden. On the first round of the nets we caught 11 Waxwings and 2 Blackcaps. Now a couple of Blackcaps isn't that unusual in the second half of April but we subsequently noticed that there were quite a few around feeding on the apples. There must have been an arrival of these warblers overnight and they were taking full advantage of the Waxwing's apples to refuel. It was difficult to gauge their numbers as some birds seemed to feed for a while and then move on but there were at least 9 Blackcaps and there could have been a few more. That sort of concentration wouldn't be very unusual on the coast in autumn but is exceptional inland in spring and in such a small area.

I get the odd Blackcap in winter so I have seen Blackcaps feeding with the Waxwings before but to see several in amongst the Waxwings seemed really strange. Unfortunately they weren't easy to photograph as they didn't go quite as far as sharing an apple.



Who has been eating my apples.

Spot the female Blackcap

We caught quite a few retrap Waxwings that showed good weight gains and most were carrying moderate levels of a fat. There were few very heavy birds that weighed over 70g and these are likely to be the next to leave. One of the birds caught was a control (ringed elsewhere) and its ring number was very close to the ring numbers of two other birds we have controlled; the ring numbers of these three birds almost being consecutive (NW236 _ _ series). It will be interesting to find out where these birds were ringed. We took the nets down before mid morning having caught 28 Waxwings including retraps and the control, 4 Blackcaps and a Wren.

Much of the rest of the morning and afternoon was spent taking a few photographs and inputting the ringing data onto the computer. Blackcaps continued to feed on the apples with the Waxwings so I put a net up again in the early evening and caught 2 more along with 2 Long-tailed Tits and a Great Tit.



Female Blackcap.

Male Blackcap

adult male Waxwing

adult female Waxwing

This bird is fat but not as fat as it looks in this shot.
It had just fluffed up and was shaking its feathers.

Ringing totals for 20/04/13 with retraps in brackets.
Waxwing 12 (15 + 1 control)
Blackcap 6
Great Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 2
Wren 1
Total 22 (15 + 1 control)

Blackcap Weekend

Went to Haigh Hall yesterday and today for a few hours and managed to catch a few birds. Yesterday was mainly spent cutting back along some net rides after carefully checking that there were no nests but I did have a couple of nets up for a while.

A bit more effort was put into ringing today with Blackcaps being the main target. One of  the male Blackcaps caught had a largely brown cap that was just flecked with black. I haven't caught a spring male with such a brown cap before.


male Blackcap (Sylivia atricapilla)

   

male Blackcap (Sylivia atricapilla)

 Also ringed a few birds in the garden over the weekend including the first juveniles of House Sparrow and Starling.

Weekend Ringing totals:

Haigh Hall
Blackcap  10
Willow Warbler  1 (1)
Chiffchaff  2
Long-tailed Tit  2 (1)
Goldcrest  1
Blue Tit  1
Bullfinch  1
Blackbird  2
Robin  1
Total  21 (+2 retraps)

Garden
Starling  3
House Sparrow  1
Robin 1
Total 5

Before and after gets ten out of ten

The weather forecast was really good for mist netting this morning so I decided to squeeze in a quick ringing session before work. Being based in an office at a country park which is also one of my ringing sites also helped.


The office

Blackcaps were going to be the target and two males were singing at the side of the car park behind the stable block on my arrival. A 20ft net was quickly erected and a short burst of Blackcap song from the mp3 player produced a female (first female of the spring) and then a male.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

The net was then moved about 50 metres and the male of another pair was caught within a couple of minutes. The female came close but skirted round the net twice so I decided to move on. Before I did I noticed a Chiffchaff nest building close by and seemingly oblivious to my presence; one to find on another day.

I then went round to the area I use as a baited site as I also wanted to collect all the feeders so I could give them a clean before putting them into storage for the summer. I quickly put up the 20ft net again, as I still had time, and a Willow Warbler and then another male Blackcap were both caught in less time than it had taken to put up the net. It was far too nice a day to go to work but unfortunately the bills don't pay themselves so I had to pack up and head to the office.


Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

My work took me to Pennington Flash Country Park later in the day and as the weather was still ideal for netting another short ringing session beckoned before going home. Same technique, 20 ft net and two locations 12 metres apart producing another three male Blackcaps, a Chiffchaff and by catch in the form of a Willow Tit.


Willow Tit (Poecile montanus)

Ringing totals for the day: Blackcap 7
Willow Warbler 1
Chiffchaff 1
Willow Tit 1
Total 10