A real dump of snow greeted me first thing this morning and it continued to snow for a good few hours. Some snow had been forecast but I had expected it to be wet sleety stuff and soon turn to rain but this was the real deal and covered everything in a good 3 to 4 inches of the white stuff before it finally stopped.
The view from the front door.
The view towards Orrell Water Park.
The snow clearly had an impact on the birds and the garden feeders were busier than they had been during the recent severe cold spell. We didn't get much snow then and many species, especially seed eaters, still had access to natural food sources and didn't seem pushed for food despite the very cold temperatures. This morning was a different story with the thick covering of snow limiting their feeding options and causing more birds to come to the feeders.
Birds were queuing up to use the feeders and I have quite a few dotted around the garden.
The birds gather in the trees across the road from the garden before dropping down to feed.
Another group on its way in.
You could imagine this Goldfinch thinking 'Where did this lot come from'.
and this one was really shaking its head.
Some Goldfinches were clearly in pairs.
and another pair.
This male Chaffinch is in one of those 'what are you looking at' poses.
Looking at its tail shape this female Chaffinch is almost certainly an adult.
Female Chaffinch. I only included this photo because of the lump of snow on her head. The snow really did come down thick and fast.
It was nice to see a few more Greenfinches at the feeders but they are nowhere near as numerous as they used to be in the 'good old days', when Greenfinches were ten a penny.
Male Siskin
I was able to read part of the ring number on this female Siskin and it is not one that I have ringed. It will be really frustrating if I don't manage to catch her and establish where she has come from.
Three Pied Wagtails fed on the lawn below the feeders including this fine male. This bird has been a regular in the garden for much of this winter.
It won't be long before my Starling RAS starts. This adult male (A57) was originally ringed as a juvenile in June 2012.
Female Starling
Male Blackbird
Female Blackbird
Judging by the size of of its bib this Coal Tit is a male.
Woodpigeons haven't visited the garden much recently as they have been spending a lot of time feeding in a nearby field of oil seed rape.
The fat cakes have certainly helped this Goldcrest survive this winter.
Winter may not have released its grip just yet but give it another week and I should be writing posts about returning Chiffchaffs and other spring migrants.
This post is an assortment of things that I have photographed over the last week along with a short summary of recent ringing activities. Woodpigeons have caught my attention again but this time it was birds that were in the top of an Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) across the road from the garden. I had noticed birds spending a lot of time there and hadn't really thought much of it as seeing Woodpigeons in a tree is hardly unusual. However, when I got my bins on them and had a proper look I could see they were eating the leaves and that was a bit of a surprise, to me at least. I knew Woodpigeons were partial to the flowers of Ash but I didn't know they also ate the leaves and they have really thinned out the leaves in the top of this particular tree.
This bird is about to swallow a piece of a leaf and you can also see that some of the smaller branches have been stripped of many of their leaves.
In this image you can easily see some of the leaves that have been partially eaten against the birds upper breast..
Another leaf is about to be eaten.
I am not into flowers in a big way but the meadow areas at the Billinge ringing site have some of the most impressive areas of Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) that I have ever seen and they are at their best at the moment. A few orchids are also flowering and while I hadn't gone looking for nests I found a Meadow Pipits while photographing the flowers.
Back at home the moth trap hasn't produced anything out of the ordinary but variety and numbers are slowly improving.
Lime Hawkmoth 08/06/2016
Ruby Tiger 08/06/2016
Green Silver-lines and Miller 10/06/2016
Pebble Hook-tip 12/06/2016
Peach Blossom 12/06/2016
Scorched Wing 13/06/2016
On the ringing front a very short ringing session at Crawford on the 9th and another there on the 12th produced combined totals as follows (retraps in brackets): Tree Sparrow 20 (4); House Sparrow 2; Greenfinch 17 (2); Goldfinch 9 (2); Chaffinch 2; Robin 3; Dunnock 2; Whitethroat 1; Great Tit 5 (1). Tree Sparrows seem to be having a good breeding season as I have now caught 33 at Crawford in the last 10 days with 30 being juveniles.
Juvenile Tree Sparrow
Adult male House Sparrow; an increasingly scarce sight these days. Studies have shown that individuals with larger black bibs are more dominant.
Juvenile House Sparrow 12/06/2016. While Tree Sparrows seem to be doing ok the same can't be said for House Sparrows. They have virtually disappeared from my garden.
Juvenile Greenfinch 12/06/2016. The extensive areas of yellow on the tail and outer webs of the primaries mean this bird can be easily sexed as a male.
I am still catching quite a few new Starlings in the garden (mostly juveniles but a few new adults too) and I have now ringed 287 juveniles over the last 5 weeks. Numbers visiting the garden should tail off rapidly now, as birds disperse and form post breeding flocks, so I don't expect to ring many more this breeding season.
Scraping frost from the car was a bit of a novelty this morning as it was only the third or fourth time I have needed to this winter. Having defrosted the car I headed off to Crawford a little later than planned but that was largely due to my reluctance to get up and need for large quantities of caffeine rather than the time taken up by clearing the thin layer of frost from the windscreen.
I had three nets set up at the feeders by 08:30 which was early enough as it was still ahead of the main arrival of birds. A good number of finches and a few Tree Sparrows started to arrive after I had set up and the first round of the nets produced 17 birds. The change to more normal temperatures seemed to have sharpened their appetites and by late morning a total of 46 birds had been caught.
Goldfinch was still the dominant species but there was a noticeable, if slight, increase in the number of Tree Sparrows and Greenfinches coming to the feeders and this was reflected in the numbers caught. On the other hand Chaffinches continue to be in relatively short supply and only one Yellowhammer was seen coming to the seed all morning. There are still plenty of stubble fields around and Chaffinches and Yellowhammers are presumably taking advantage of them, not that I have seen many doing so. It may take a covering of snow or the action of the plough before more need to take advantage of my seed offerings, although I suspect there are simply fewer around following last year's poor breeding season.
Adult male Goldfinch.
Adult male Greenfinch.
Tree Sparrow
Adult female Yellowhammer. This was the only Yellowhammer seen at the feed this morning and turned out to be a retrap when caught. It was originally ringed at the same site on 17th February last year.
Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 11/01/16 were: Woodpigeon 1; Blackbird 3 (1); Robin (1), Dunnock (1); Blue Tit 1 (1); Great Tit 1; Goldfinch 16 (6); Greenfinch 4 (1), Chaffinch 3 (1); Tree Sparrow 4; Yellowhammer (1).
When I got home I heard the sad news that David Bowie had died and while I couldn't class myself as a huge fan he has produced some great music. Like many people of my age his music has punctuated a large part of my early life so here is one of my favourite tracks by way of a small tribute -
The arrival of the New Year means the ringing totals start again at zero so I was pleased to be able to get out to Crawford this morning for my first ringing session of 2016. I have been feeding the site for about 3 weeks now but the dreadful weather of late has limited opportunities to do any ringing there or anywhere else for that matter. The forecast on the run up to this morning had been for a frosty start with only a light south easterly breeze but it changed and the breeze was light to moderate at first and increased as the morning went on. The stronger breeze caused the nets to billow and ripple more than I would have liked but this was partially offset by full cloud cover which developed just as it came light. The cold temperature coupled with stronger breeze also made it feel very raw especially when compared with the comparatively balmy conditions of December; I was certainly left feeling a layer of clothing short. I had 3 nets set up just after 8:00am, a 14 m and 18 m in a line by the eastern hedge and a 6 m set in the side of a large willow, with a new Blackbird being caught before I had finished setting up. This was quickly followed by a new Fieldfare, a new Chaffinch, 2 new Goldfinches and 2 retrap Robins in the first full round. The number of finches present increased with the light levels until there was a mixed flock of about 60 visiting the feeders; Goldfinches being the dominant species by far.
Adult female Fieldfare.
Greenfinches were poorly represented (maximum of 12) and their decline, largely due to trichomonosis, doesn't seem to have bottomed out yet. This begs the question how low will they go as it wasn't that many years ago when they were the dominant species at nearly every feeding station and in every garden that provided peanuts and or sunflower seeds in some form. During the winter of 1996-97 I ringed 711 Greenfinches at a feeding station not that far from Crawford and rarely used more than one 18m net, such was their abundance at that time. The UK population of Greenfinches has declined by millions and while it may not have been the largest decline in percentage terms it probably has been one of the largest in terms of overall numbers. Yesterday's common or even 'pest' species can easily become tomorrow's Dodo or Passenger Pigeon and we should never loose sight of that. Enough of the depressing stuff and it was a fairly productive morning despite the paucity of Greenfinches. By the time I packed up, late morning, I had caught 40 new birds and only six retraps with most being caught in the 6 m net. Goldfinches easily took top slot with a very respectable 30 new birds and 3 retraps (originally ringed 15/06/14, 27/04/15 & 18/12/15) making up the bulk of the totals. Had it been calmer I would have probably caught even more but it doesn't seem to take much of a breeze to make the nets by the eastern hedge more obvious and easy for the birds to avoid. Ringing totals for the morning (retraps in brackets) were: Blackbird 2; Fieldfare 1; Robin (2); Blue Tit 1 (1); Chaffinch 3; Greenfinch 3; Goldfinch 30 (3). Total 40 new birds and 6 retraps.
Male Goldfinch (I doubt anyone would disagree with the sex of this bird)
Female Goldfinch (oh yes it is as we are in pantomime season)
Male Goldfinch (I doubt anyone would disagree with the sex of this bird either)
Male Goldfinch (A mix of red, orange and paler feathers but a male nevertheless)
Male Goldfinch (and oh yes it is even though the extent of the red is similar to the female 3 images above)
Female Goldfinch This first winter female had a wing length of just over 80 mm (not quite 80.5) so beware if you sex some of your Goldfinches on size or use size to sway you.
All of the Goldfinches were aged quite easily but sexing was a different matter and a few needed a bit more consideration than others. I was unsure of the sex of four birds although I suspect all of these were females and I provisionally sexed them as such. The most interesting Goldfinch was a very obvious female with a wing length of just over 80 mm, as it emphasised that size has very limited use when sexing this species (I checked the wing length more than once if you are wondering). I used to be confident that birds with a wing length of 80 mm or more were male and while that may be correct most of the time it is not 100% accurate as this bird shows. The most numerous species seen during the morning was Pink-footed Goose with at least 800 feeding in and moving between the fields adjacent to the ringing site. The largest flock gathered in a harvested potato field just across the road from the ringing site. Geese that feed in this area seem to be fairly accustomed to people using the footpaths on the adjacent roads and well walked public footpaths and will tolerate a fairly close approach. A large flight of geese is a birding spectacle that is hard to beat and just seeing these geese would have been a great start to the New Year on its own.
