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.

 

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. 

Morning ends with a quick Dip...

I went up to Haigh this morning and was joined by John G. There was more of a breeze than we would have liked as the baited site isn’t sheltered from the wind when there is any easterly component to it. However it was very overcast so we decided to give it a go and put up three nets.

The first net round only produced 8 birds which was less than expected given the snow cover and cold conditions of the past few days. In fact there was a surprising lack of birds in general, especially tits, with only 1 Great Tit and 1 Coal Tit caught or seen! Goldfinches were largely conspicuous by their absence with none coming to the feeders and only a couple being heard flying overhead.

The catching rate didn’t improve and the easterly breeze started to pick up so we packed up at 10am.

Given the time we decided to go to another site a short drive away to look for Dippers. We put a 30ft net across the river and then checked the area out, flushing 2 Woodcock in the process but seeing little else. A little while later a Dipper was in the net and quickly extracted. It was a new bird and not one of the pair I had ringed at this same location last spring. A nice end to an otherwise lacklustre morning.

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Ringing totals for 20/01/13 with retraps in brackets.
Blackbird 1 (7)
Blue Tit 1 (7)
Brambling 2 (1)
Chaffinch 3
Coal tit - (1)
Dipper 1
Great Tit – (1)
Greenfinch 1 (1)
Robin 3 (3)
Total 33 (12 new and 21 retraps)