1st to 3rd April highlights

1st April

A day of showers but a brief ringing session at Billinge during a dry interlude produced my first Willow Warbler of the year, a new Blackbird and a retrap Great Tit. At least 2 other Willow Warblers were recorded at the site along with a singing Blackcap (per CAD). On returning home I was greeted by another Willow Warbler that was singing in the gardens behind the house.

Willow Warbler 01/04/2017

2nd April

Totals for a longer ringing session at Billinge (using just 2 nets) were: 1 Common (Mealy) Redpoll, 3 Lesser Redpolls, a retrap Chiffchaff (originally ringed as a juvenile 24/07/16) and a retrap Willow Warbler (originally ringed as a first-year 23/07/16). There was very little in the way of visible migration but 3 Crossbills and a Sand Martin went north. A Wheatear was also seen leaving the site and heading off north.

Not the frostiest Mealy Redpoll but a Mealy nevertheless.

Mealy Redpoll (left) and Lesser Redpoll (right).

Back home a Red-green Carpet, 2 Caloptilia stigmatella and a Caloptilia elongella were the pick of the moth catch.

Red-green Carpet

Caloptilia stigmatella. Micros are not my forte but some are fairly easy to identify.

Caloptilia elongella. This species can be difficult to separate from Caloptilia betulicola but I am fairly confident this one is elongella.

3rd April

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for another session at Billinge were: Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 1 (1); Blackcap 1; Lesser Redpoll 2. The retrap Chiffchaff was originally ringed as a first-year on 20/09/16. There was virtually no movement overhead despite the seemingly perfect conditions and just 1 Siskin and 2 Meadow Pipits were recorded going north during 4 hours of observation.

Female Blackcap. The feathers around the base of the bill were matted with pollen residue, a sure sign of a recently arrived migrant. 

Chiffchaff

The new Chiffchaff had relatively pale legs rather than the text book dark brown or blackish legs.

Back home the moth trap held a surprise in the form of a Water Carpet; a new species for the garden. Having run a moth trap in the garden for many years the catching of a new species has become an increasingly rare and sometimes less than annual event.

Water Carpet: a first for the garden!!!

All in all an interesting few days and a good start to the month.

Bramble finch fest and a Waxwing too

I went to the baited site at Longshaw yesterday morning to top up the feed and was really encouraged by the number of finches present. At least 75 Chaffinch, Brambling and Greenfinch were present with roughly equal numbers of each making up the flock. Small groups were coming and going all the time making overall numbers difficult to gauge. With the forecast looking really good for this morning a productive ringing session was on the cards.

I met up with John G just before 7:00am and we had a 60ft and 30 ft net up just after first light. I put out an MP3 lure playing Redpoll and another playing Waxwing. There are no berries at this ringing site but I had brought a few berry laden sprigs of cotoneaster, hawthorn and rose hips and secured them in a willow bush by the 60ft net. This was more in hope than anything but you never know with so many Waxwings in the country, many of which are still on the move.

 

male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
 

male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)



female Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
 

Chaffinches and Bramblings started to arrive soon after first light and the first round of the nets produced 24 birds including 12 Chaffinches and 10 Bramblings; an excellent start. About half way through the morning I thought I heard a Waxwing call back to the MP3 lure while we were on a round of the nets. We couldn’t see any and we didn’t hear any more calls other than from the MP3 player so I put it down to wishful thinking. A little while later a party of 9 Waxwings appeared from the direction of the 60ft net. A quick check of the net found one Waxwing had been caught and what a stunner (as they all are). It was an adult but the sexing characteristics were within the overlap between male and female or were borderline.

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)
 

Catching rates generally decreased as the morning progressed although there was a flurry of Greenfinches at the end of the morning including a control adult male Greenfinch. The ring number started TR6 - a sequence we have not come across before. The last net round also produced 2 more Bramblings bringing the morning’s total for the species to 20 new birds and 2 retraps (both ringed the previous weekend); a fitting end to a memorable morning.
 
Ringing:
Waxwing 1
Brambling 20 (+2)
Chaffinch 20
Greenfinch 16 (+2 includes 1 control)
Blue Tit 2 (+8)
Great Tit 0 (+3)
Dunnock 1 (+1)
Robin 0 (+1)
Total 60 new birds, 16 retraps and 1 control

At home the moth trap contained a Red-green Carpet despite it being a cold night and the lateness of the season for this species.

Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata)