Garden birds: winter 2020-21

It has been a very poor winter for birds in my garden, except for the Moorhen which stayed around until mid December, and it has not been for the lack of food on offer. The number of Goldfinches using the feeders has been low and only in single figures throughout. Perhaps the lockdowns have encouraged more people to feed birds in their gardens and this has provided species like Goldfinch with more options than in previous winters. It could also be because there is more natural food available this winter or a combination of the two. Siskins had been totally absent until recently with the first and only sighting of the winter being a fine adult male that visited the feeders yesterday. Use of garden feeders by Siskins is closely linked to availability of natural food supplies so it suggests there has been an abundance of natural food for that species, at least.

Adult male Siskin 09/03/2021

The rounded tail shape and uniform greater coverts and tertials make this Siskin easy to age as an adult (2CY+)

Blackbirds appear to have used the garden in slightly larger numbers with 26 being ringed over the course of the winter but that may be a consequence of the lockdowns and increased time spent catching and ringing Blackbirds rather than any real increase. One species that has seen a real increase in numbers is House Sparrow with up to a dozen visiting the feeders every day and a nice roost gathering in a neighbours conifer hedge. They had become very scarce in recent years so it is nice to see that they have made a bit of a comeback.

Also on a positive note it has been good to have a Blackcap visiting the feeders since the start of the year. It was an occasional visitor at first but has become a regular visitor over the past month or so. I assumed it was the same individual each time until 2 males were on the same feeder on 22nd February. I caught and colour-ringed one of them on 6th March and that bird has been seen in the garden numerous times each day since then but an unringed male was also present yesterday so perhaps there have been 2 birds all along.

Ringed male Blackcap 08/03/2021

Ringed male Blackcap 08/03/2021

Ringed male Blackcap 08/03/2021

Unringed male Blackcap 09/03/2021

Both Blackcaps are likely to stay around until late March by which time they will have fattened up and be ready to migrate to breeding areas in Europe or possibly elsewhere in the UK.

Billinge 29th October 2018

I wasn't sure what to expect after my week away, more so given the clear and frosty start, but it ended up being quite a good session for late October. There were a few thrushes moving early on resulting in 9 Redwings, a Fieldfare, and a Blackbird being caught but they soon fizzled out. There wasn't much in the way of visible migration, once the thrushes had stopped, but a Crossbill and a few high flying Siskins were noted along with a small movement of Woodpigeons. The most interesting sighting came mid-morning when a Woodcock (my first of the autumn) landed on the track near to where I was stood, it took a few steps and then fanned its tail and raised it over its back in the manner of a Black Grouse but then it noticed me an flew off. I have never had such a good view of a Woodcock before or seen one tail fanning so that was a nice bonus.

The nets continued to produced a few birds after the initial rush of thrushes and the final total of 36 new birds and 1 retrap was quite a good result, all things considered. There were no surprises but 10 Goldcrests was a good number and a flock of Long-tailed Tits helped bulk the numbers too, while a female Sparrowhawk caught in the last round was a great way to end the session.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 29/10/2018 were: Sparrowhawk 1; Coal Tit 2; Blue Tit 2; Great Tit 1; Long-tailed Tit 7 (1); Goldcrest 10; Robin 1; Blackbird 1; Fieldfare 1; Redwing 9; Lesser Redpoll 1.

This 1CY female Sparrowhawk was in one of the nets when I went to take them down at the end of the session. I have done quite well for catching female Sparrowhawks this autumn as they are usually very good at getting out of mist-nets.

 

Tales of the unexpected.

I had an unexpected visitor in the garden on the 6th in the form of a Blackcap. I had been keeping an eye on the feeders when I suddenly noticed there was a male Blackcap feeding on the fat blocks. There hadn't been any Blackcaps in the garden during the winter nor had I encountered any of the summer visiting variety this spring so it was my first sighting for the year, anywhere. As it seemed quite at home feeding on the fat blocks I suspected it could be a bird that had wintered in the UK rather than one that had just returned to breed as I wouldn't have thought the latter would recognise the fat blocks as food. Obviously it is only a suspicion but I think it is a reasonable one.

Not the sort of feeding behaviour you would expect to see if this were a returning summer visitor or at least that is my thinking. 

It looked to be an experienced garden hand-out junkie and chose the fat block over the apples that were available.

I put a net up in the garden the next morning (7th) with the primary aim of catching Siskins as a few were still visiting the feeders. The first bird caught was a Blackcap and it was almost certainly the bird I had seen on the fat blocks the previous day. It was a 2nd calendar year bird, so hatched last year, and it was carrying a moderate amount of fat with a score of 3 on the ESF scale. More importantly it now has a ring on it so there as a chance of finding out which type of Blackcap it is, winter visitor or summer visitor.

I only caught one other bird before rain curtailed proceedings and that was a Siskin, the target species, and it was the fattest Siskin I have caught this spring. It weighed 17.0g which means at least one third of its weight was fat. Siskins that attain such weights are likely to be of Scandinavian origin or from further east as it is far more fuel than would be required if it was just returning to Scotland to breed.

Yesterday (the 8th) I went up to the site at Billinge in the hope there would be a marked increase in warblers and some Redpolls moving through. Unfortunately the session was marred by fog which was very slow to clear and when it finally did some banks of fog or murk lingered in the surrounding areas. There were one or two more Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers singing but that was about it and there were no Redpolls or anything else on the move overhead. However, it wasn't a complete waste of time as I did catch a bird that I would never have predicted, and that was a Fieldfare. They are pretty scarce on this side of the country once you get into April and they are never easy to catch so ringing one today was totally unexpected. It wasn't the only Fieldfare present as another was heard and seen through the gloom along with a Redwing.

Fieldfare 08/04/2018

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 8th April 2018 were: Goldcrest 3; Blue Tit (1); Willow Warbler 1; Blackbird 1; Fieldfare 1.

Siskin Summary

It has been a reasonable winter and early spring for Siskins in the garden and it isn't over yet. The first Siskins were seen on the feeders back in late November which is relatively early for my garden and, interestingly, both were adult males and both were already wearing rings. Counts stayed in single figures through December, January and the early part of February, although ringing showed there was a little bit of  turnover. Numbers increased in the second half of February and peaked in early March when up to 20 were counted but there was some turnover over the course of each day so the actual peak was probably closer to 30. Counts fluctuated markedly through the middle of March and continued fluctuating as numbers dropped off through the latter part of the month. That brings us right up to today when 5 were present.

Adult male Siskin ringed 28/03/2018

A total of 77 have been ringed and there has been 1 control and that had been ringed 4 days earlier at a site 6km away. Regular readers of the blog will know I have photographed several birds that were ringed prior to this winter and although I wasn't able read the full ring numbers I could read enough to be reasonably confident that they had been ringed in the garden. Frustratingly, they all managed to avoid being recaptured but a different returning bird was retrapped recently; S144917 had been ringed on 19/04/2016 and was retrapped a couple of days ago, on 28/03/2018.

Adult female Siskin S144917 was originally ringed in the garden on 19/04/2016 and retrapped there on 28/03/2018

I have had similar retraps in subsequent years before and they are interesting because Siskins are irruptive migrants. The proportion of the population that migrates and the distance they move varies from one year to the next in response to the availability of food. In some years, like autumn/winter 2014/15, they don't migrate and are able to stay on or very near their breeding areas because of an abundance of natural food. I didn't get any Siskins in my garden that winter or in the following spring, as was the experience of most ringers. The recapture of birds from one winter or spring to the next or after intervals of more than a year shows that some birds use traditional routes and traditional feeding sites, including well stocked gardens like mine, but only when they need to move that far.

8th March 2018 and it's snow joke.

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. 

Siskin surge

In my last post I commented on how the number of Siskins visiting the feeders in the garden had gone down as the cold weather moved in and that there had been a similar dip in the reporting rate on BirdTrack. Numbers remained low for the duration of he cold spell when a maximum of 4 visited the feeders but as soon as the thaw set in they started to go back up and at least 8 were present on Sunday (4th). Numbers have continued to increase and at least 20 were in the garden at one point today and 16 new birds were caught and ringed in a very short ringing session that lasted less than an hour. It will be interesting to see if this increase is also mirrored by the reporting rate in BirdTrack when it is next updated.

While photographing the Siskins I couldn't resist taking some photos of a Goldcrest and Wren that frequently feed on the fat cakes. They are not brilliant photos but they were the best I could get in the heavily overcast conditions and through double glazing.

Hopefully Siskin numbers will continue to increase but you never know and today could have been the peak. I will just have to wait and see but whichever way Siskin numbers go I will report it on the blog.

Not much to report from the cold weather.

The recent cold weather didn't result in any significant increase in birds visiting my garden and perhaps that is because we didn't get much snow in this area. Siskin, Long-tailed Tit and Starling actually visited less frequently and in smaller numbers than they had before the onset of the cold weather, which was a bit of a surprise. The smaller numbers of Siskin and Long-tailed Tit was mirrored by a dip in the BirdTrack reporting rate so it wasn't just a local phenomena as far as those species were concerned. On the other hand, the reporting rate for Starling increased on BirdTrack so my garden bucked the trend in that case. Garden birds just didn't seem to be pushed for food in this neck of the woods and the only unusual visitor I had in the garden was a Black-headed Gull that dropped in and took some bread from the lawn. It was a one legged individual and would have found feeding more difficult at the best of times so the fact that it risked landing in a small enclosed garden, crossed by telephone lines, during a severe cold spell is not as surprising as it otherwise might have been.

I have seen some effects of the cold weather when out an about including a few Woodcock in unexpected places, a sizeable flock of Redwing foraging in a woodland and a few displaced Meadow Pipits, but that is about it for me. Several checks of the Black-headed Gulls on Orrell Water Park have only produced one ringed bird that I have not encountered before and that bird was ringed as an adult near Hempsted in Gloucestershire on 13th  January 2007. The Scottish and 2 German ringed Black-headed Gulls have been seen from time to time and all 4 ringed Black-headed Gulls were photographed yesterday along with a ringed Coot that was originally ringed in south Wales. 

EL71428 first photographed on 28/02/2018 and again yesterday.

It rarely kept still so I had to take quite a few photographs before I managed to get the full ring number - EL71428

Scottish ringed Black-headed Gull EZ33149 has been a regular this winter.

German ringed Black-headed Gull DEH IA141745 almost has a full brown hood now.

 German ringed Black-headed Gull DEW 5437612 has barely started to get its brown hood.

Coot GR03863 was originally ringed at Comeston Lakes, near Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan on 23/12/2010 and has been recorded at Orrell Water Park on numerous occasions since. 

Curly claws, pigeon porn and other garden goings on.

I was photographing birds in the garden yesterday afternoon when I noticed a Goldfinch that was sat belly down on a branch. It had its back to me but its abnormal posture clearly indicated that something was wrong. At first I thought it was a sickly individual, perhaps suffering from trichomonosis, but then I realised it had abnormally long claws and couldn't grip the branch normally.

I eventually managed to get some photos of it face on and apart from its feet it appears to be in good condition.

I have occasionally come across birds with overgrown bills but it is more unusual to see birds with hugely overgrown claws. It obviously had some form of skin condition affecting its feet, possibly knemidocoptic mange, and this has presumably led to the overgrowth of the claws. It was able to use the feeders that have perches but the state of its feet must impede it when more acrobatic feeding methods are required. Diseases that affect birds feet are becoming an increasing health issue for birds that are attracted to garden and other feeding stations with Chaffinches being the most affected species.

As for the pigeon porn, it was, as you may have guessed, just a pair of Woodpigeons mating. It is quite early for them to be breeding but then a pair of Woodpigeons usually manages to rear an early brood near the garden. I have seen recently fledged young in early to mid April in previous years and allowing for a nestling period of about 33 days and and incubation period of 17 days that gives a first egg date in mid to late February, so this pair is continuing that early breeding trend.

Mating Woodpigeons. Spring was certainly in the air for this pair.

The last week has seen a increase in the number of Siskins visiting the garden feeders, not a big increase but a noticeable one nevertheless. I still haven't seen more than 10 at the feeders at any one time but the varying proportions of males and females along with ringed and unringed birds shows there is quite a bit of turnover during the course of a day. In addition, recent ringing activity has produced 16 new birds and photography has shown that some of the savvy returning ringed birds are still present and avoiding recapture. However, the most obvious sign of the higher numbers has been the increase in the volume of chatter coming from the birds when they sit in the tops of the trees between bouts of feeding.

Almost two thirds of the Siskins caught this winter have been adults which suggests they didn't have a particularly good breeding season last year.

Although I wasn't able to get the full ring number this bird is almost certainly one that was ringed in the garden last winter or early spring.

Long-tailed Tits are still regular visitors but the flocks have largely split into pairs now. With some very cold temperatures forecast for the next week it will be interesting to see if any of the flocks reform temporarily or if they remain in pairs.

I managed to read just enough of this bird's ring number to be able to say that this one was ringed during the winter of 2014/15.

Robins don't feature in the blog very often but an unringed bird appeared to be a newcomer to the garden and was doing its best to assert its place in the pecking order. There was a lot more in the way of chasing than I have seen of late and it seemed to have claimed top slot by the end of yesterday. Its reign may only be temporary though as there is likely to be a lot more competition and far more aggression between the local Robins as we move into the spring.

Cock Robin 22/02/17.

Goldcrests have been regulars at the feeders this winter and, even though there is usually only one bird in attendance, ringing has shown that four birds have acquired the habit of feeding on the fat cakes and fragments of sunflower hearts.

Lastly, a Wren has also taken to feeding on the fat cakes and is a frequent visitor to the fat cake in the bird table trap. It is free to come and go as often as it likes as the trap has a manually operated door that is left open and is only used very selectively.

For the record all of the photos were taken through double glazing which does have an effect on image quality, well that is my excuse. I have come to the conclusion that it is better to make that compromise on image quality rather than risk missing out on photo opportunities and adding to global warming by leaving the windows wide open for hours at a time. That's all for now and I hope you found something of interest.