Starling stuff

Well I am still here, for the time being at least, and my study Starlings seem too be doing particularly well. My RAS season started on 21st April and I have recorded 103 colour ringed Starlings visiting the feeders so far. This is an exceptionally good start to my RAS season and it looks like it will prove to be an earlier than average breeding season too.

DO6 is a regular visitor to the garden and has been recorded on numerous occasions during the breeding season since being ringed in February 2016. The photos are a bit crappy but my excuse is they were taken through a window in harsh light.

D06 again left and A59 right. Both are males and A59 has been recorded on numerous occasions each year since being ringed in May 2015.

Back to blogging

It has taken a while, and much longer than I would have liked, but I have finally got round to posting on the blog again. I am not one for mentioning much about my personal life but the ups and downs of life, with all their twists and turns, have taken up a lot of my time over the last few months and pushed the blog to the bottom of the things to do list. Principal amongst the lows was the failing health of my 97 year old mother and the difficulty of trying to meet her wish of staying in her own home. Eventually, caring for her there became impractical and we had to move her in with us until old age and age related heart failure finally got the better of her. That is more detail than I would normally give on such matters and was only one of the factors involved but I thought such a long absence from the blog merited some explanation.

So enough about that stuff, this blog is about birds and other wildlife and I have managed to fit in some ringing despite all the other things that have been going on. Back in late May I completed my Starling RAS project for this year and it was another successful season with a total of 168 different adults encountered (31 new birds and 137 colour-ringed birds re-sighted). Starlings appear to have had a good breeding season and I have ringed more juvenile Starlings in the garden than in any previous year with the total currently standing at 489 (it increased by 3 whilst writing this post). I don't usually catch many juvenile Starlings after the middle of June and, initially, that was the case again this year but numbers visiting the feeders started to pick up again in late July and small numbers have been making regular raids on the fat feeders since then. This has resulted in 85 being ringed since late July compared to only 25 over the same period last year.

Visits to other sites have been less frequent than in other years but I started to rectify that once we got into August. A visit to the site at Billinge on 30th August was the most productive of the recent sessions and is worthy of specific mention. I had been joined by Mark, who was over from America to visit family, and we set 3 nets in the top willows. Conditions were ideal for mist netting, being calm and largely overcast, and while ideal netting conditions don't always coincide with good numbers of migrants this was one day when they did. Blackcaps were the most numerous species and the total of 20 ringed was a new day record for the site. Twenty isn't a big catch by the standards of some sites but it is for the Billinge site which isn't blessed with much in the way of berries. The most unusual captures were a male Redstart, which Mark was especially pleased to see in the hand, and 2 Spotted Flycatchers which were caught just after he had to leave, well you can't win them all. A catch of 9 Willow Warblers was also a decent number for late August. A total of 60 birds were ringed which broke down as follows: Blue Tit 10; Great Tit 5; Chiffchaff 9; Willow Warbler 9; Blackcap 20; Robin 2; Spotted Flycatcher 2; Redstart 1; Goldfinch 1; Yellowhammer 1.

1cy male Redstart

1cy Spotted Flycatcher

I can't promise when the next post will be but hopefully there won't be anything like a gap of 3 months before the next one comes along. In fact it should be fairly soon as I hope to get out on Wednesday and failing that there are some interesting recoveries that I want to share.

First 100 juvs and counting.

The first juvenile Starling caught for ringing this morning was the 100th of this season and it was quickly followed by another 24. Productivity seems to be good despite the cold start to the spring and many pairs have 4 juveniles in tow. I haven't had time to total up the number of colour-ringed adults that have been resighted since 21st April but it is at least 130 and in addition another 40 new adults have been ringed and colour-ringed for the RAS project. 

 

A typical scene on the lawn taken through the window. A similar number of birds were feeding on the suspended fat block and bird table out of the shot

There are usually around 30 Starlings in the garden at any one time but well over 100 individuals visit over the course of a day and the true number could be over 200. They are currently getting through 2kg of home made fat blocks,15 or so shop bought fat balls and the odd loaf of bread each day. The warm and very sunny weather we have been experiencing is helping the Starlings get through the fat blocks and fat balls a bit faster than they otherwise would as it is softens them as the day warms up, so I am currently making batches of the home made fat blocks 3 times a week to keep up with demand.

Melt 6 blocks of dripping in a large jam pan.

Add about 7 margarine tub size scoops of meal worms.

Then add about 20 crushed shop bought fat balls.

Mix well until you have a nice even consistency and fill old margarine tubs to form blocks.

The result is yummy if you're a Starling and should be given how much it costs.

It is not just the Starlings that benefit from the feeding regime and we have one or two Hedgehogs that visits the garden every night to feed on any crumbs from the fat blocks that fall to the ground and don't get cleared up by the Starlings. I also put out a few meal worms for them in a purpose made feeding station.

The current run of sunny weather has resulted in a few of the young Starlings flying into windows from time to time and one of my neighbours upstairs windows in particular. Thankfully the young Starlings don't fly that fast so there haven't been any injuries or fatalities or at least none that I am aware of but they have certainly left their mark on the glass.

My neighbours will get value for money from the window cleaners the next time they come round. I may also have to power wash their garden path by way of a thank you for their tolerance not least because the Starlings are extremely noisy in addition to being a bit messy; the noise being more noticeable as most people have some windows open because of the very warm weather.

That's all for now as I have another batch of fat blocks to make and lots of other stuff to do.

Quick Update and Starling RAS progress.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently but I have been busy with one thing or another and there has not been a great deal of interest to report on the migration front. The dearth of migrants at Billinge and other sites I visit has continued with hirundines being particulary scarce. While it has not been a silent spring it has been a pretty quiet one and it wouldn't surprise me if national population declines are reported for many species when all the data is in.

Much of my ringing effort over the last 3 weeks has been directed towards my Starling RAS project and I have clocked up around 75 hours of recording colour-ringed Starlings feeding on the fat blocks in the garden. As I have been running the project for a few years most of my local Starlings are colour-ringed and I have resighted 100 Starlings that were ringed prior to the start of this year's recording period with over 25% of those birds being more than 3 years old. It didn't take long to record the first 60 or so individuals but after that it became more like looking for a needle in a haystack as it gets progressively harder to pick out any that haven't been recorded before from all the ones that visit the fat blocks on numerous occasions each day. In addition to recording all the previously ringed birds I selectively trap and ring any unringed Starlings to add them to the study population with 20 new adults being ringed and colour-ringed so far.

With at least 70+ different Starlings coming they are currently getting through 1.5 to 2 kg of home made fat blocks each day. This will increase as more young fledge.

It is often a bit of a scrum at the fat blocks with the birds jostling for position. This can make reading the codes on the colour-rings quite difficult.

The timing of breeding has been pretty much as expected and the first adult was seen carrying food on 21st April and this was soon followed by many others. The first young started to fledge about 6 days ago and the first juveniles started to follow their parents to the the fat blocks in the garden in the last couple of days. This is very similar to last year and just over a week later than 2016, which was an earlier than average breeding season anyway. While the severe cold spells in the early part of this spring delayed the onset of breeding in many resident species it doesn't appear to have had much of an affect on Starlings, in this area at least, or that is the initial impression. It still remains to be seen what the fledging rates and brood sizes are like overall so it will be later in June before we get a more complete picture.

Adult male A12 is one of the many regulars and was originally ringed in December 2014. This male has been recorded numerous times in each breeding season since being ringed.

The first juvenile ringed in 2018. This bird was caught earlier this morning (14/05/2018). The first juvenile was ringed on the same date last year and on 7th May in 2016.

Quiet at Billinge but busy in the garden.

It has been very quiet at Billinge over the last week and 4 visits (22nd, 24th, 25th & 28th) only resulted in a combined total of 7 birds caught [Willow Warbler 1, Blackcap 2, Robin 1, Tree Pipit 1, Great Tit 1 (1)]. Visible migration was minimal, to say the least, and there was no significant change in the numbers of warblers present with Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap the only species on territory.

It may have been a poor week but a Tree Pipit, the 2nd to be ringed this spring, provided some consolation.

While there has not been much happening at Billinge the garden has been getting very busy. The cold spring has delayed breeding in many species but it doesn't appear to have had much of an effect on the local Starlings and most pairs are feeding nestlings now. I run a RAS project on Starlings and attract them to the garden with home made fat blocks but more about that in a future post.

The vast majority of Starlings coming to the feeders were colour-ringed in previous years and 77 individuals have been re-sighted in the last week.

Starling RAS round-up

Sorry for doing another post about my Starling RAS project but it is virtually all I do in May on the birding front. It has been particularly busy this year with 193 different adult Starlings coming to the feeders in the garden between 21st April and 24th May. This is roughly double the number of adults recorded over the same period in the previous 2 years. This big increase has probably been caused by the dry spring which will have made it a lot more difficult for the adults to find enough soil invertebrates to feed to their young and made them more reliant on garden handouts.

A large proportion (118) had been ringed prior to the start of this year's RAS period with 99 having been ringed during the previous two breeding seasons or earlier. Looking at these known age adults 66% were at least 2 years old and 34% were ringed last year, as juveniles, so were breeding for the first time. This is a good sample size and is probably representative of the age structure of the population in this area. As the majority of adult Starlings are faithful to their breeding sites the age structure of the population is largely a function of the adult survival rate so the survival rate for adults in the population will be at least 66%. The actual survival rate is likely to be slightly higher as two adults, both at least 2 years old, have been recorded since the RAS period ended and a few others could have been missed or moved territory outside of the catchment area for my garden. The actual adult survival rate for my population is probably closer to 70%. This fits well with some other studies and shows the RAS project is producing good data for monitoring the annual survival rates of adults in this area.

It is harder to say how the breeding season has gone for Starlings for various reasons; not least because juveniles become very mobile and disperse over a wide area shortly after a fledging. I have ringed 266 juveniles this May compared to 215 in May last year and that is despite broods fledging around a week later this year. However, there is no indication there will be a doubling of the number of juveniles coming to the garden this year, as seen with adults, so productivity may actually be lower than last year as might be expected in a very dry spring when natural food is much harder to come by. The recent rain hasn't improved soil moisture levels all that much so I would also expect juvenile mortality to be higher than it would otherwise be if the spring rainfall had been nearer to average levels.

P45, just one the 266 juveniles ringed this May

My interest in Starlings doesn't end when my RAS period finishes and I will continue to ring and record sightings of colour-ringed birds over the course of the summer. Yesterday I caught a new adult that had already started to moult and is the earliest moulting adult I have ever recorded. It shouldn't really be a surprise that adults are starting to moult earlier as they moult soon after they have finished breeding and the breeding season is averaging earlier now than it used to. There is a chance it could be a failed or non breeder but even if that is the case it is still relatively early for it to be in moult and it is yet another a tiny piece of evidence that birds are responding to changes in our seasons and climate. If nothing else it is a reminder that it is never too early to start checking for moult these days.

Moulting adult Starling photographed 01/06/2017. Both wings were symmetrical.

Awash with Starlings

I am surprised I have not had complaints from neighbours about the number of Starlings that are coming to the feeders as they have been making a right din and a fair amount of mess too. The begging and contact calls of many dozens of juveniles in and around the garden can be loud enough to wake all but the heaviest of sleepers and starts not long after sunrise, which is just after 5am at the moment. As for the mess it is not that bad unless your a stickler for a clean car and clean windows. On the plus side one of my neighbours certainly got great value for money out of his window cleaners yesterday.

Just a few of the adult and juvenile Starlings that were feeding in the garden yesterday morning.

To give you an update on the number of birds involved 163 different adults have been recorded in the garden since 21st April with that number being made up of 94 birds that were colour-ringed during or prior to the 2016 breeding season and the remaining 69 being ringed over the winter or during this breeding season. On top of that there are still a few unringed adults coming to the feeders so the total number of adults using the garden could be around the 180 mark. Judging by the re-sightings of colour-ringed birds many are visiting the garden on a regular or frequent basis and a total of 78 different colour-ringed adults were recorded in the garden on 15th May alone and I am sure I didn't manage to record them all, but it does give and indication of how busy the garden is.

Most if not all of the adult Starlings have fledged young now and a typical brood size seems to be at least 4, so given there are 80+ pairs using the garden they could be feeding over 320 juveniles and it certainly sounds like they are at times. The first juveniles were seen in the garden on the on the 11th but I didn't ring any until the 14th when 7 were caught. Since then the number of juveniles has rocketed, as is to be expected with a species that has a highly synchronised breeding season, and the number ringed over the last 5 days now stands at 99. As productivity appears to be as good as it was last year I am likely to ring another 200 juveniles over the next few weeks but only time and a lot of effort will tell.

The bird bath gets well used at this time of year and needs filling several times a day.

This adult seemed to want the bird bath to itself.

Young Starlings soon return to feeding in the trap after being ringed and as I colour-ring them all there is no need to trap them again.

This one was in a berberis right in front of a window and was picking midges off the leaves. This and all the photos above were taken through double glazing so aren't as crisp as I would like them to be.

Starlings will continue to take up most of my time until my RAS period ends on 24th May and then I will have a bit more time to get out and about.

Starling RAS update

The first juvenile Starling of the spring was seen in the garden today. This is a week later than last year and 11 days earlier than in 2015. Juveniles have usually been out of the nest a few days before they appear in the garden but the first date they are seen still gives an indication of variation in timing of the breeding season between years. Quite a few juveniles have fledged judging by the begging calls coming from the trees and roof tops round about so an increasing number will be following their parents into the garden in the coming days.

The first juvenile Starling in the garden was probably having its first bath when I noticed it.

I have ringed or recorded an additional 23 adult Starlings in the last 3 days including 10 that were ringed in previous years. This brings the total number of adults recorded since 21st April to 112 with 75 being birds that were ringed in previous years. I am on track for recording more adults this RAS season than in the previous 2 years and this may in part be due to the dry weather having a limiting effect on the availability of soil invertebrates. Adult Starlings are probably turning to garden handouts, like my fat cakes, more than they would if there had been more rain and soil invertebrates were easier to get at.

Not the sharpest of photos as it was taken through double glazing and not the cleanest either, but it does show just how stunningly colourful adult Starlings are.

Starling RAS half time scores

This year's Starling RAS has just passed the half way mark and 89 different adults have been recorded in the garden in the first 18 days. My RAS period is relatively short and runs from 21st April to 24th May but it still requires a plenty of commitment as I usually clock up at least 100 hours of effort over that period. Now if you don't know what a RAS project is you can find out more here and here but in simple terms it allows adult survival rates to be calculated from retrap or resighting data gathered over a number of years from a ringed population of breeding birds.

As I have been running a RAS project for a few years now the majority of Starlings that breed within foraging range of the garden are already ringed with both a BTO ring and a numbered colour ring so most of the effort involves recording colour-ringed birds when they come to feed. My Starlings are pretty well trained and come to a supply of home made fat cakes in a cage on a bird table and hung in a tree near a window. This means I get to do most of the observations from the comfort of an armchair and with a plentiful supply of coffee at hand. Any unringed birds are easily caught for ringing if they enter the cage to feed as the door on the cage is closed via a string that comes in through a window.

Ringed birds like this one (E11) happily feed in the cage as the door is only closed if an unringed bird enters. E11 was originally ringed as a juvenile last year. The fat cakes I make are an irresistible mix of beef dripping, dried mealworms and finely chopped peanuts.

Of the 89 adults recorded so far 65 were ringed in previous breeding seasons with 47 being at least 2 years old and the remaining 18 being ringed as juveniles last year. If those birds are representative of the local population as a whole it means 72.3% are experienced breeders and just 27.7% are breeding for the first time. There is still plenty of time for other colour-ringed birds to be recorded so it will be interesting to see what these figures look like at the end of the RAS period.

D25 has been resighted numerous times this season and was originally ringed as a breeding adult in 2016.

The primary aim of a RAS project is to establish the survival rates of adults but it has to run for at least 5 years before the data gets processed by the BTO and this is only my 3rd year of intensive study. However, the high proportion of colour-ringed birds recorded so far suggests it will produce some useful results in due course.

They really are a smart looking bird. In addition to providing fat cakes I occasionally throw bread, suet pellets and a few dried mealworms on the lawn.

I happened to photograph this Starling having a quick shake.

Starling cam.

Although my Starling RAS period has come to an end I am still in Starling mode and catching lots of juveniles. I have caught 104 since my last blog post and the total number of juveniles ringed currently stands at 208. This is an excellent total for so early in the season and especially when compared with last year which only saw 32 juveniles ringed by the same date and a grand total of 162 ringed by late June. On the face of it Starlings have not only bred a good two weeks earlier this year but it looks like they have been more successful too.

While catching Starlings over the past few days I have been playing with a small action camera rather than the usual dslr and long lens. The following videos are the best of my initial attempts and were set up to show the antics of the birds but they also show the camera's potential for reading the numbers on the colour-rings. Now I know what it is capable of I will certainly be using it to record the numbers on the colour-ringed adults next year.

Bathing often seems to be infectious in gregarious species like Starlings; once one starts others soon join in. There is a bit of a lull in the action in the middle of the video but it picks up again towards the end.

The meal worm rich fat cakes are a highly prized food source and the birds are currently eating their way through about 2 kg of home made fat cakes each week.

The final video is with the camera set up in the trap that I use to catch all of my Starlings for ringing. The camera isn't set up in a very good position (it was my very first attempt) but it shows how freely birds come and go after some initial wariness of the camera and curiosity in seeing their refection on the plastic housing. There are three funnel entrances in addition to the entrance in view so that is why more birds leave than can be seen entering.

Starling RAS 2016

Over the past few weeks most of my ringing effort has been directed at my Starling RAS which runs from 21st April to 24th May each year. A total of 129 different adult Starlings were recorded in the garden during that 5 week period last year and all of those birds were colour-ringed. Fewer adults have been recorded this year with a total of 85 individuals recorded to date but that number could still increase as there are a few days of this year's RAS period to go.

Adult male Starling

Although the number of adults is down on last year's total, 62 of the 85 were resightings or recaptures of birds ringed prior to the start of this year's RAS period and only 23 were new birds. More importantly 47 were birds from last year's RAS period which gives a provisional re-encounter rate of just over 36%. This is very good re-encounter rate for a RAS project of this type and means the project is on track to provide high quality data on adult survival when analysed in more detail by the BTO.

The local Coal Tits have no problem dining with Starlings.

The most striking feature of this year is that Starlings have bred a good two weeks earlier than they did last year (in this area at least). This can be illustrated by the occurrence and ringing of juveniles in the garden with the first juvenile ringed on 7th May this year compared to 22nd May last year. In addition 105 juveniles have been ringed up to and including today and I didn't reach that number until 4th June last year with a similar amount of effort, so it certainly isn't a case of a few pairs nesting early.

Juvenile Starling coming out of the trap that it was caught in just a day or two before. I catch Starlings using a very simple cage trap, operated by a pull cord, and this allows me to be highly selective. Once Starlings have been colour-ringed there is no need to recapture them so they are free to take advantage of the food in the trap as often as they like and a great many do. This has the advantage of attracting unringed birds into the trap which I usually manage to catch without retrapping any previously ringed birds.

I also have a fat block feeder near the trap that is specifically positioned to make it easy to read the numbers on the colour-rings. Birds happily move between this feeder and the food on offer in the trap.

Juveniles are not intimidated by the adults and have no problem competing for food.

The abundance and availability of soil invertebrates, especially leather jackets, is one of the factors that could influence the number and frequency of adults visiting the garden. Observations at a nearby playing field suggests there is more natural food available this spring and that may be one of the reasons behind the smaller number of adults recorded in the garden this year. It is also likely to be a factor in this year's earlier nesting.

Starlings feeding on the nearby college sports pitches.

Another factor affecting the number of adults is likely to be the ongoing loss of nest sites due to property improvements. The replacement of old wooden soffits and facias and or the pointing up of gable end ridge tiles potentially results in the loss of up to 4 nest sites on a single property. A few houses are 'improved' in that way around here every year so the population seems set to decline irrespective of other factors unless more people can be persuaded to put up Starling nest boxes to compensate for such losses.

More information on RAS projects can be found  here,  here  and  here.

From Siskins to Starlings

Up to a dozen Siskins are still visiting the feeders each day or perhaps I should say the peak daily count is currently 12 and has been for a few days. I don't usually get Siskins in the garden this late and for the counts to still be in low double figures makes it even more exceptional. What the daily counts don't show is the turnover and I have ringed 116 so far this month compared with 84 in March (when the peak daily counts were often much higher), 77 in February and only 6 in January. Another 23 Siskins (22 retraps and 1 control) that were ringed prior to April have been recaptured making it a total of 139 different individuals that have been handled so far this month.

Many of the Siskins ringed this month have been carrying a lot of fat and this male certainly looks plump to say the least.

I was lucky enough to get a nice sequence of shots of a different male going from an alert posture through a very upright alert posture and then back to relaxed.

The total for the year now stands at 283 and is the most I have ringed in the garden by some margin but it is a little disappointing that I have only had one control as other ringers seem to do far better in that regard, judging by various reports and blogs I have read that is. Anyway one control is better than none and hopefully it will prove to be an interesting movement.

While I have had no problem attracting Siskins to the garden the same can't be said for Redpolls. I did have 3 visiting the feeders for about a week at the end of January and I hoped that numbers would build up but there has only been the odd one since then. Why I don't do better for Redpolls is hard to understand, especially given their increasing use of garden feeders, but it continues to be one species that is still fairly uncommon in my garden.

This Redpoll was in the garden today but why don't I get more?

One species that I didn't expect to feature on the blog for a while was Blackcap but a tired and hungry looking individual found the apples today. It was quite fluffed up and didn't look in good condition when I first saw it which suggests it may have had a rough journey and exhausted its fat reserves. It certainly took a liking to the apples and fed on them regularly throughout the day and was still feeding right up to dusk.

More and more Starlings are visiting the fat cakes and I suspect some are already feeding young which is about ten days earlier than last year. I have started recording all the colour ringed birds for my RAS (retrapping adults for survival) project although the main period of the study only starts later this week and runs through to 24th of May.

Adult female Starling.

B28 is an adult male that was colour-ringed for the study last May.

I colour-ringed 123 adult Starlings in the garden during the 5 week RAS period last year and the aim is to re-sight as many as possible during the same period this year to establish the survival rate. I also need to catch and colour-ring any new (unringed) breeding adults so I have a busy few weeks coming up.