Savvy Siskins and Sneaky Snipe

In an previous post I mentioned how Siskins had started visiting the feeders in my garden much earlier than usual this winter and that the first two seen in late November were already ringed. I speculated that both were likely to be returning birds rather than having been ringed elsewhere and I thought I would be able to confirm that by retrapping one or both of them within a relatively short space of time. I have caught 11 Siskins in the garden since then and over 100 Goldfinches but haven't caught either of those ringed Siskins, both of which were adult males, or any others that had been ringed prior to this winter, let alone ringed elsewhere. Now that I have ringed some Siskins this winter it isn't possible to say a bird could be a returnee by the mere presence of a ring as I was able to with those first two males.

It is fair to say that I am both surprised and disappointed that I haven't retrapped either of those ringed Siskins and that disappointment has been compounded by two I have photographed recently. I have got loads of photos of Siskins, some of which are really quite good, but that doesn't stop me from trying to take more, and I have done a bit of 'snapping' over the last week or so. When I review photographs I always look to see if I can read any rings, if present, and I managed to read part of the ring numbers of a couple of Siskins and, surprise surprise, they weren't birds I had ringed this winter. The first, a male photographed on 24th Jan, was wearing ring that started Z0..... which is the start of a sequence that I was using in the garden 2 to 3 years ago and certainly not this winter. The second was a female with a ring inscription that started with the letter S...... and another photo showed more of that ring number which pointed to it having been ringed in the garden last January.

Z0........ male Siskin

The other photos of this bird revealed more of the ring number which, by a process of elimination, is almost certainly a bird that was ringed as an adult female on 22/01/2017

I have no way of knowing how long they have been visiting the feeders but there is a chance the Z0....... ringed bird could have been one of those initial males. What I can say is that at least 3 Siskins, ringed prior to this winter, have visited the feeders and that all 3 have evaded recapture to date. Their ability to avoid being caught strengthens my view that they are all returning birds and that they are quite savvy when it comes to avoiding a mist-net in my garden because they have seen it all before. Net shyness, as it is sometimes referred to, is not unusual and is most common in resident birds or at times when a population becomes relatively static such as birds visiting feeders in winter and is something I try to minimise in various ways, so it is interesting that these Siskins appear to have remembered or perhaps I should say retained that level awareness despite being away from the garden for over 7 months. Obviously there is still a chance that these birds will end up being caught at some point later this winter but I wouldn't like to bet on it.

Regular readers of this blog may remember some photographs of Snipe roosting in a field of winter cereal that I posted on the blog last winter (link here). Snipe roosted in this field from November (when they were first found and up to 29 were counted) through to at least mid-January (when the crop started to grow and made the birds harder to see). I had never seen Snipe using an arable crop as a daytime roost site before and, knowing how traditional Snipe roosts usually are, I wondered if they would use the field again, especially if the type of crop changed. As things turned out the field was sown with rape in the autumn and I thought that change, and the fact that rape has a different structure, can get denser and a bit taller than autumn sown cereals during the winter, may put the birds off.

I didn't spot any birds using the field during November and the density of the crop meant any birds, if present, had a much better chance of remaining unseen, especially if they had chosen a different part of the field to roost in. It started to feel like I was looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack but I continued to scan the field from time to time. I probably could have got permission to do a walk through survey but it would have been very difficult to find a time when other people weren't around and I was concerned it may have drawn others to think it was OK to do the same, so I decided to stick with observations from the adjacent public footpaths to be on the safe side. Unfortunately there is trend for people in this area to think it is OK to walk around the headland of just about every field and even walk through crops with their dogs rather than sticking to the numerous public footpaths and public open spaces.

Anyway, I happened to be scanning the field about a week ago, on one of this year's rare sunny days, when I noticed a Snipe amongst the rape and it was in the same part of the field that the birds used last winter. Further observations revealed a few more and I eventually counted 10. A few days later I could see a similar number in the same area when a loud bang and some crashing from a building site about half a mile away caused a few more birds to pop their heads up and I ended up counting a minimum of 19. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me on either occasion but I have managed to get some images since.

The images above give you an idea of how difficult the are to see but it gets a bit easier once you get your eye in. I am sure they have been using the field all winter and that I have simply overlooked them until recently. If you think they were quite difficult but want a real challenge have a look at the series of images below. 

Spot the Snipe, not that you have any chance of finding it in this photo.

Try again in this zoomed and cropped image but I wouldn't waste too much time trying.

Same image again but even with a nice red arrow pointing it out you will probably struggle to see anything identifiable as a Snipe.

.....and here is a tighter crop of the same image and you can just see the distinctive crown stripes of a Snipe's head. Now that was a difficult one.

I certainly believe the use of this field by Snipe in successive winters qualifies it as a traditional roost site (and Snipe could have been using it prior to last winter) but it remains to be seen how long this particular winter roosting tradition can survive in the face of modern agricultural practices and crop rotations.

The wrong kind of nice.

It was a nice day today but the wrong kind of nice for me. Nice days in February should be crisp and cold not pleasantly mild and touching on being warm. Our seasons have become messed up, to say the least, with winter increasingly being a thing of the past, spring is often cold and wet, summer is increasingly an unsettled none event while autumn is becoming more like summer than summer.

Temperatures are forecast to be well above average for the next few days and while that may help me save money on my heating bill it won't do our wildlife any favours. It is likely to be warm enough to bring some butterflies, moths and bats out of hibernation prematurely and cause them to waste valuable energy. Basically some of our wildlife will get off to a false start and things will get out of sync.

Anyway I went for a walk with the dog this afternoon and as soon as I got into the park I noticed that a pair of Great Crested Grebes were back on one of the lakes, and they were displaying. Sods law I hadn't got a camera with me so I nipped back home and picked one up. I thought I was going to be treated to the full courtship display and weed dance but while there was some weed carrying it was a case of head waving rather than dancing.

The grebes moved out of range after a while so I continued my walk and checked out a nearby field of winter cereals for roosting Common Snipe. The winter cereal crop is starting to put on a bit of a growth spurt but I was still able to pick out 7 Snipe and there could have been a few more.

I first noticed snipe roosting in this field last November (post here) and they have used it all winter or what has counted for winter so far. I have never heard of Common Snipe using a field of winter cereal as a regular roost site before and as far as I am aware this is the first record of such behaviour. Snipe duly recorded and photographed I headed for home and was treated to another performance by the Great Crested Grebes as I passed through the park.

Yes, it was nice afternoon weather wise but the wrong kind of nice for mid-February. Still it was great to see the grebes displaying and that the snipe are still roosting in the cereal field.

A walk in the park.

I took one of the dogs for a walk through Orrell Water Park and around some of the adjacent farmland at lunchtime and it produced some really good sightings. I had only just walked into the park when I came across 15 Goosanders on the top lake which is easily a record count for the site. There has been a really confiding bird recently and that one even comes out of the water for bread, but the species is normally a scarce and visitor (in low single figures) and they usually fly off as soon as there are a few people around. This flock was remarkably settled and didn't seem to mind numerous people and their dogs walking round what is only a very small lake. The light wasn't very good but I thought it was worth getting a few record shots so I nipped back home for the camera.

After getting a few photos I carried on through the park and around one of the adjacent fields that has been holding a small roost of Snipe. I only counted 9 but there could have been a few more as they can be difficult to see if they are well hunkered down. I first noticed that Snipe were roosting in this field on 12th November, when I counted 19, and a few days later (15th) there were at least 27. I have not seen Snipe roosting in a field of winter cereal before and it was even more surprising because there is a very popular dog walking route that goes around the perimeter of this field.

There are at least 9 Snipe in this photo, 6 in the little huddle and at least 3 others dotted about to the right.

A zoomed in view of the huddle taken from a closer vantage point.

After checking out the Snipe and throwing a ball for the dog for a while I headed back towards the park and home. The light was a little better as I was passing the top lake in the park and the Goosanders were still there so I took a few more photographs.

12 of the 15 Goosanders plus a Great Crested Grebe.

This Great Crested Grebe is a youngster from a late brood and semi-mingled with the Goosanders. It also indulged in a bit of display towards them at one point as can be seen from the sequence of shots below.

After photographing the Goosanders I decided to check out the gulls by the car park so I took the dog home and grabbed a few slices of bread. Somebody was already feeding the gulls and tame wildfowl as I approached and it wasn't long before I saw a familiar ringed bird. It was the German ringed Black-headed Gull that I first recorded on 27/10/2012 and has wintered at the site each year since. It is usually present from late October to late February and is often one of the first birds to come to any handouts.

German ringed Black-headed Gull.

IA141745    Black-headed Gull (ringed as an adult)
Ringed              29/04/2012  Bohmke und Werder, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.
Photographed   01/12/2016 Orrell Water Park, Orrell, Greater Manchester. 1102 km W.





IA141745 wasn't the only ringed Black-headed Gull and I also noticed one with a green colour ring inscribed J360P. This is a bird I hadn't seen or photographed before and it also had a metal ring with number K06036 and Stavanger as part of the address, so it was obviously a Norwegian ringed bird. A did a quick search on the internet when I returned home and soon found the colour ringing scheme and a site where I could report the bird and access the ringing data as detailed below.

Norwegian ringed Black-headed Gull

K06036 (J36P)  Black-headed Gull (ringed as a chick)
Ringed              14/06/2015  Søndre Langåra, Frogn, Akershus & Oslo, Norway.
Photographed   01/12/2016  Orrell Water Park, Orrell, Greater Manchester. 1065 km SW.





I also photographed a colour-ringed Canada Goose. This bird was originally ringed in Cheshire and I have recorded it numerous times already this year.

Canada Goose C75

5260475   Canada Goose (ringed as a first year)
Ringed              05/09/2013  Baddiley Meres, Natwich, Cheshire.
Photographed   01/12/2016  Orrell Water Park, Orrell, Greater Manchester. 53 km N.

All in all not a bad set of sightings in the space of an hour or so.