Mainly negative news

Another 2 disappointing visits to the site at Billinge but at least the garden is producing better than expected results.

Billinge 12th September 2018
A total of 31 birds from 3 nests may not sound too bad but it was well below what I have come to expect from this site in mid-September. The big news was the continued lack of Goldcrests, only 1 caught and that was the only one seen or heard, and the low numbers of Chiffchaffs, 2 being a pitiful total for the date. Visible migration was almost none existent and the few Meadow Pipits that were moving were not even passing over at the rate of a trickle, more of an an intermittent drip. The only highlights were a late(ish) Willow Warbler and a similar late(ish) Whitethroat.
Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) were: Blue Tit 8 (1); Great Tit 4; Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 2; Blackcap 2; Whitethroat 1; Goldcrest 1, Song Thrush 1, Robin 1, Meadow Pipit 4, Linnet 2, Goldfinch 2, Reed Bunting 1.

Willow Warbler 12/09/2018

Whitethroat 12/09/2018

Billinge 13th September 2018
If I thought the 12th was poor the 13th was even worse. Nothing was caught in the first hour and only 9 birds were caught after 3 hours so I cut my losses and packed up early. Goldcrests were absent again which continues to suggest there has been a crash in their population; I have only ringed 3 so far this September compared to 56 by the same date in 2014, 34 in 2015, 58 in 2016, and 90 in 2018. The lower than usual numbers of Chiffchaff also continued. Sightings of note were limited to a high flying Song Thrush that was heading south, a Siskin south and another or the same north later, and a grounded Wheatear.
Ringing totals were: Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 3; Chiffchaff 3; Blackcap 1; Reed Bunting 1.

Garden 1st to 14th September 2018
Back home Starlings are visiting the feeders in bigger numbers and more often than they usually do at this time of year. A total of 53 were ringed from the 1st to the 13th and I manged to ring another 8 on the 14th which is unprecedented for my garden. While I catch large numbers in May and June numbers usually fall off sharply in July and I don't normally catch any in August or September. This year numbers dropped off as usual through most of July but then they started to pick up again towards the end of that month and they have continued to increase since then. Now a mob of up to 30 Starlings visit the feeders periodically throughout the day and more than one mob may be involved.

A retrap Starling caught on the 13th was suffering from avian pox. It had at least 11 lesions of various sizes dotted about its body although most (6) were on its head. It was originally ringed on 20th May when it showed no sign of the disease. A set of images and details will be sent to the Garden Wildlife Health project via their website.

Billinge 6th & 7th August: First Tree Pipits

It is that time of year when I expect to get my first Tree Pipits of the autumn and I wasn't disappointed with 1 ringed yesterday and another 3 today. None of them announced their presence by calling before they were caught and I didn't see any of them drop in as I usually do when passing birds are attracted to the audio lures. A total of 3 were seen yesterday but the 3 ringed today were the only ones recorded. Over the last 3 years the first autumn sighting has been between the 1st and 7th of August so yesterday's birds were pretty much bang on time.

Tree Pipit 06/08/17

Other highlights from the 2 sessions were the capture of 4 Garden Warblers and 5 Whitethroats; the latter qualifying a highlight because I only managed to ring 1 Whitethroat in the whole of July. Another 6 juvenile Goldcrest supports my previous comments about the species having a productive breeding season. Goldcrests have a long breeding season and many pairs are probably still churning out more young so it may turn out to be another bumper year.

Garden Warbler 06/08/17

Ringing totals for 05/08/217 were: Goldcrest 3; Blue Tit 18; Great Tit 2; Coal Tit 1; Chiffchaff 3; Willow Warbler 17(4); Blackcap 3; Garden Warbler 3; Whitethroat 2; Wren 1; Blackbird 1; Tree Pipit 1; Chaffinch 2; Bullfinch 1. Total 58 new birds and 4 retraps.

Ringing totals for 06/08/17 were: Goldcrest 3; Blue Tit 3; Chiffchaff 2, Willow Warbler 8 (2); Garden Warbler 1; Whitethroat 3; Wren 1; Song Thrush 2; Robin 1; Tree Pipit 3; Bullfinch (1); Goldfinch 1. Total 28 new birds and 3 retraps.

Billinge 28th to 31st July 2017: More adult Willow Warblers

The weather hasn't been particularly favourable but I managed to get out on the last 4 days of July. I went up to Billinge and set 3 nets in on each occasion although I had to change the net positions on some days to get adequate shelter from the breeze. The 29th provided the best conditions but the sessions on the other days were restricted by light showers and or a strengthening breeze.

I made the effort because I was curious to see how many juvenile and adult Willow Warblers I would catch and if the proportion of juveniles would increase. A total of 100 birds (92 new & 8 retraps) were caught over the four sessions and almost half  (43 new & 4 retraps) were Willow Warblers. Interestingly, the proportion of adult Willow Warblers remained relatively high with 11 out of the 47 being adults, although one had been encountered earlier in the month.

Adult Willow Warbler showing quite an extensive pure white belly.

 The total number of individual Willow Warblers handled in July ended up at 104 and of these 77 were juveniles and 27 were adults which gives a simple ratio 2.85:1. While this is the lowest ratio of juveniles to adults encountered in any July the total number of juveniles handled this July is similar to 2014 & 2015 as can be seen from the table below. 2016 seems to have been an exceptional year for juveniles as a similar pattern was found when I looked at the July totals for Chiffchaff  (2014/42, 2015/45, 2016/73, 2017/40) and Blackcap (2014/35, 2015/42, 2016/65, 2017/41). So the number of juvenile Willow Warblers encountered this July has ended up in what might be considered the 'normal' range for the site.

July Willow Warblers
Year	Juveniles	Adults	Ratio (rounded off)	Visits
2017	77	27	3:1	13
2016	101	6	16:1	13
2015	71	14	5:1	11
2014	81	9	9:1	13

A ratio of just under 3:1 is much closer to the actual productivity of Willow Warblers but that is not what I am used to seeing at this site, hence my interest being sparked by the high number of adults encountered this year. There did seem to be more adults around in the spring so better over-winter survival resulting in a higher breeding population may have played a part, although it appears to be too much of a increase to account for it all. If a much higher breeding population was part or all of the cause then it still suggests productivity is low this year as more pairs would be expected to produce more offspring unless productivity has been negatively affected in some way. There is also the possibility that some of the adults were migrants rather than local birds as some were nearing the end of their moult and many adults will start migrating just before the innermost secondaries are fully grown. Either way I have caught a lot more adults this July than usual and multiple factors may be involved. As I said in my previous post it will be interesting to see how the 2017 CES results and other surveys compare.

 

Adult Willow Warbler showing more extensive yellow across the belly and a relatively pointed tail. This bird didn't shout adult and is the sort of bird that can trip you up if you're not careful and rely too heavily on a particular feature such as the colour of the underparts. Careful examination revealed it was still in active wing moult, but only just, as can be seen in the image below. 

Primary moult was just about complete but the big give away was the inner 2 secondaries that stand out as being that bit shorter than the longest tertial. Examination from underneath showed the inner 3 had some feather sheath at their bases. It is always worth giving those inner secondaries a look as the moult usually finishes with the innermost secondary rather than the outer primaries. 

I don't operate a standardised mist-netting regime so that has to be borne in mind when looking at the figures, ringing effort, however, was reasonably consistent so I still thought the figures were worth sharing. Willow Warblers are declining across the UK with the exception of Scotland and I am lucky to have a site that still has quite a good breeding population and also attracts good numbers of passage migrants (especially for an inland site). In 2016 a total of 367 Willow Warblers were ringed at the site which, like the 2016 July totals, was significantly up on the previous 2 years (2015/256 & 2014/240) so it will be interesting to see what the total looks like at the end of this year.

Highlights amongst the other birds caught included the first Garden Warbler of the autumn. A Whitethroat was also a first for the autumn but an unusually late one at that, I don't catch many Whitethroats at the site but I've usually caught a few juveniles well before the end of the month. Goldcrest on the other hand appear to be having a good year with another 10 bringing the total for July to 19. This compares favourably with the July totals for previous years - 10 in 2016, 8 in 2015 and only 3 in 2014.

Combined ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 28th to 31st July 2017 were: Goldcrest 10; Blue Tit 3; Great Tit 4; Chiffchaff 4(2); Willow Warbler 43(4); Blackcap 7(1); Garden Warbler 1, Whitethroat 1; Treecreeper 1; Wren 4; Song Thrush 1; Robin 2, Chaffinch 1; Bullfinch 2; Linnet 5; Goldfinch 2 (2); Reed Bunting.

Garden Warbler. A scarce passage migrant at the site with most records coming in late July and early August.

Whitethroat.  A few pairs breed at the site so I usually catch a few juveniles in July but not this year.

Mainly Chiffchaffs & Goldcrests

A ringing session at Billinge this morning produced 46 new birds and just 3 retraps. Chiffchaffs made up nearly half the total with 20 ringed and 2 retraps and became the largest catch of the species so far this autumn, if only by a margin of 2. The retraps had been ringed as juveniles on 18th & 23rd July and today was the first time either had been re-encountered. The post juvenile moult of this species is very slow and it would be interesting to know how far juveniles wander during this period.

Goldcrests were the 2nd most numerous species with 11 ringed and included the first adult to be caught this autumn. The number of Goldcrests ringed this month now stands at 69 and the total ringed since mid July has reached 118 so it looks like we are still on for a bumper autumn for this species.

Adult female Goldcrest

It is getting late now for both Whitethroats and Willow Warblers so catching 2 of each is worthy of mention. One of the Willow Warblers was an adult that hadn't quite finished moulting its primaries and just had a small amount of sheath at the base of the 2nd primary. This feather was probably fully grown rather than still growing and remaining feather sheath, that was visible at base, just needed to be shed.

Whitethroat 14/09/16

There was a bit of movement overhead that included a trickle of Meadow Pipits, a few pulses of Swallows, at least 4 Grey Wagtails and a single Tree Pipit. Singles of Siskin were heard on 2 occasions as was a high flying Song Thrush and 3 or 4 alba Wagtails. There was certainly more to see and listen out for than of late giving it more of an autumnal feel even if the very high temperature suggested anything but.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 14/09/16 were: Goldcrest 11; Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 1; Chiffchaff 20 (2); Willow Warbler 2; Blackcap 6; Whitethroat 2; Robin 1; Chaffinch 1; Reed Bunting 1 (1).

Waxing Gibbous Moon - 95.5% of full.

There was a cracking moon tonight and I am sure large numbers of night migrants were taking advantage of the clear conditions. It wasn't quite full with the full moon being due on the 16th. It will be interesting to see if there has been a clear out of birds at Billinge tomorrow and if they have been replaced by any new arrivals.

Billinge: 3rd September 2016

The weather forecast for this morning showed a band of rain moving in from the west and south west. The only question was the timing with one forecast showing the rain arriving at 09:00 and another showing it arriving a bit later, at 11:00. Either way there was an opportunity to get out for at least a couple of hours before any rain arrived. 

I set the 3 nets in the top willows before first light and in what were near perfect conditions. As the light levels rose it was clear that there were a few birds around with the calls of Chiffchaffs interspersed by the occasional tacking of Blackcaps. The first round produced 2 Chiffchaffs, 2 Blackcaps and a Bullfinch. One of the Blackcaps had the most striking appearance and had a series of pale bars across the wings and tail. These bars seemed to be caused by a lack of pigment in that part of the feathers and looked markedly different to typical fault bars. The feathers didn't look like they had any structural weakness as is usually the case with fault bars but the cause is still likely to be some form of nutritional deficiency when the bird was in the nest and the feathers were growing.

Not your typical fault bars.

Whatever the cause, it had a striking effect.

There didn't seem to be any Goldcrests around at first but it wasn't long before the first one was caught and by the end of the session a total of 11 had been ringed.  Most had completed their post juvenile moult, or very nearly so, but one was still largely in juvenile plumage. This 3J must have come from quite a late brood but then this species has a long breeding season and can still have young in the nest in early September.

This 3J Goldcrest is only just getting the first yellow and black feathers on its crown.

There were no surprises although Reed Buntings seemed to be around in better numbers than usual and this may reflect a good breeding season, locally at least. I haven't noted any passage of Reed Buntings yet but it won't be long now and usually starts about the same time as that of Meadow Pipits. The single Tree Pipit caught nicely brought the number ringed this autumn to 50 and hopefully won't be the last. It was also nice to catch a Whitethroat as I don't catch many in September; this bird also had a fault bar with the distal potion of the tail being much darker than the rest.

1cy Whitethroat. You can just see that the last quarter of the tail is darker than the rest.

I had to keep a wary eye on the weather and on the rainfall radar on my phone as the morning went and I could see the rain had reached Liverpool (about 20km away) by 08:30 so I took one of the nets down. The first few spots of rain arrived just after 09:00 and I had the other nets down soon after. The final total of 36 new birds and 3 retraps was quite good for what was a relatively short session.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 03/09/2016 were: Goldcrest 11; Coal Tit 1; Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 2; Chiffchaff 9 (3); Blackcap 4; Whitethroat 1; Wren 1; Tree Pipit 1; Chaffinch 2; Bullfinch 1; Reed Bunting 2.

More F F Fog

The forecast for this morning looked quite promising with a band of showers predicted to move through in the early hours and followed by a relatively clear and dry dawn. I expected this to result in a good movement of diurnal migrants over Billinge; however, my optimism was soon dashed when a misty early start deteriorated into a very foggy dawn. At one point visibility was down to around 200 metres and every time it looked like the fog was starting to clear more fog would roll back in.

It seemed like plenty of birds were itching to move and every now and then a few Meadow Pipits dashed through and gave a taste of what could have been had the conditions been better. Grey Wagtails weren't daunted by the conditions either and a total of 7 went south before the fog eventually cleared at around 10am. Other birds with itchy feet included a few Skylarks, Chaffinches, Lesser Redpolls, Siskins and Reed Buntings.

It was good to catch another 2 Grey Wagtails but without the fog I would have probably caught 4 or 5.

Grey Wagtails are easy to age with first year birds usually having 1 or more unmoulted greater coverts. This bird  had only replaced 1 greater covert and this feather stands out as being darker and fresher looking than the 9 unmoulted feathers.

It is getting late for Whitethroats now and this one could end up being the latest record for the site this year

The most unexpected sighting of the morning came when 2 Egyptian Geese headed north just after 10am. They really took me by surprise when I first glimpsed them out of the corner of my eye and they even caused me to lift my bins faster than usual.

Ringing totals were better than I had expected given the foggy conditions but fell short of what I had hoped for in terms of numbers if not variety. The Woodpigeon was a nestling from a nest I have been watching for several weeks now. The nest is only 4ft off the ground in a hawthorn bush and is the lowest Woodpigeon nest I have ever found.

A well fed Woodpigeon nestling.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 22/09/15 were: Woodpigeon 1; Meadow Pipit 2; Grey Wagtail 2; Dunnock 1; Wren 2;  Robin 1; Whitethroat 1; Chiffchaff 4 (1); Goldcrest 6 (2); Chaffinch 3, Goldfinch 1; Linnet 1, Lesser Redpoll 1; Reed Bunting 2. Total 28 new birds and 3 retraps.

Warbler fest and House Martin surprise

I made a half-hearted attempt at getting up early yesterday morning and set the alarm for 05:30, after couple of snoozes I eventually got up and went to the site near Billinge and put up a couple of nets. It was a glorious morning with a light breeze and little in the way of cloud cover but on the down side the clegs and horse flies were out in abundance and certainly made their presence felt, literally.

It seemed fairly quiet at first with few birds calling but a steady stream of birds were caught and ringed over the next few hours. In fact it turned out to be a really good session considering I was only using 2 nets totalling 32m in length. Warblers made up the bulk of the 44 birds caught and included 14 Blackcaps, 7 Whitethroats, 9 Willow Warblers and 4 Chiffchaffs. Best of the rest were a Yellowhammer, a Willow Tit and 5 Goldfinches. The Willow Tit was a  retrap and one of the Goldfinches was already ringed but was one I had originally ringed in my garden, 2 km away, last December.

This juvenile Whitethroat had almost completed its post juvenile moult although most had only just started.

All the Blackcaps caught were juveniles like this one and had only just started their post juvenile moult so will be around for a few weeks yet.

Most of the juvenile Willow Warblers were close to completing their post juvenile moults like this bird and could be migrating south before the end of the month.

This adult female Chiffchaff  looks rather scruffy in its heavily worn plumage but had just started its complete moult. It will replace all of it feathers over the next few weeks before migrating.

Adult female Yellowhammer.

This male Goldfinch was originally ringed in my garden on 01/12/13.

As the wind remained light I went back to another part of the site in the evening to see if the Swallows were still roosting in the willows. I set up the usual 2 nets and waited for the birds to arrive. Before the Swallows started to gather another 5 Willow Warblers, 2 Chiffchaffs and a Whitethroat were added to the day's warbler total. Swallows started to arrive as usual but in smaller numbers than there had been last week when up to 1,000 were present in the roost, around 150 Swallows eventually gathered and 28 were caught before they finally settled.

I had noticed a few House Martins amongst the Swallows just before they settled so I played House Martin song on one of the MP3 lures and 2 juveniles were caught almost immediately. This was the first time I have caught House Martins in a roost situation and it will be interesting to see if I can repeat this at this site. Very little is actually known about the roosting habits of House Martins, there is some suggestion they roost in trees and also that they roost on the wing. Both may be true at times but it is really difficult to establish what they actually do and nobody really seems to know for sure. It is certainly one of those mysteries I would like to help unravel.

A poor photo of one of the juvenile House Martins. Where do they roost?

Ringing totals for 21/07/14 with retraps in brackets.
Chiffchaff 6
Willow Warbler 12 (2)
Blackcap 14
Whitethroat 8
Goldfinch 4 (1)
Yellowhammer 1
Willow Tit (1)
Robin 2
Blackbird 1
Swallow 28
House Martin 2
Total 78 (4)