Crawford: 4th June 2016

I resumed baiting the farmland site at Crawford recently as it can attract good numbers of juvenile Tree Sparrows in the period just before the first crops of winter cereals start to ripen. It is also a good site for Goldfinches and catching adults at this time of year allows me to confirm their sex by the presence of a brood patch or a cloacal protuberance. Sexing Goldfinches from their plumage characters is a long standing interest of mine but I am also interested to see if there is much, if any, change in their appearance as birds age. This site gives me the best chance of retrapping known sex adults that I have photographed in previous breeding seasons.

Another reason I like baiting this site at this time of year is that I don't have to get up at daft o'clock to get a good catch so I only set the first alarm for 5am and eventually set off just after 6. The drive to the site is usually uneventful but I hadn't gone far before I encountered a Woodpigeon that was suicidal or playing a game of chicken very badly. I slowed right down and nearly had to stop such was its ambition to become another avian road casualty. It wasn't the only one and every few hundred metres there were Woodpigeons in the road, presumably all taking grit, and it wasn't long before I came across a freshly exploded Woodpigeon lying in a wide halo of body feathers. However the most unusual sighting along the route was Roe Deer as it was the first I had seen in that area. At least it showed some road sense and went back through the hedge on my approach.

On getting to the site I was greeted by the calls of Tree Sparrows and it didn't take long to set up a couple of nets in a line by the hedge and feeders. The first net round produced 7 Tree Sparrows, 2 Great Tits and a Chaffinch with only one of the Great Tits being a retrap. In between some of the quieter net rounds I checked out some of the adjacent fields and it was nice to have 3 Corn Buntings singing in the usual spots and the recent large influx if Diamond-back Moths was much in evidence with dozens being disturbed along every few metres of some of the field margins.

Diamond-back Moth

Reports from the south and east coast suggest that many millions of these tiny migratory moths have come into the country in the past few days with upper estimates in the low millions coming from the recording areas of just two two coastal observatories.

11 of the 13 Tree Sparrows caught were juveniles like this bird.

Adult Tree Sparrow

I packed up at at 10am having caught 29 new birds and 2 retraps. Species totals (retraps in brackets) were: Tree Sparrow 13, Greenfinch 6; Chaffinch 4; Goldfinch 2; Whitethroat 2; Robin 1; Great Tit 1 (2).

I was disappointed that I only caught 2 Goldfinches on this visit but every adult caught at this time of year adds to my collection of photographs of known sex birds and my understanding of the variation the sexes can display. As you can see the red on the face of this bird doesn't extend very far behind the eye but blowing back the feathers of the vent confirmed it was a male.

The lesser coverts of the same bird had narrow and well defined brown fringes which is typical of many males.

Surprise 'Sibe'

I was joined by Wayne for a Redpoll ringing session at the baited site near Scotman's Flash this morning or at least that was plan. We erected 2 nets near the feeders and another net further away with an MP3 lure playing redpoll song. The idea of the set-up being that we would either catch birds coming to the feeders and or attract any others passing over to the lure and with a bit of luck both. The feeders had clearly been well used since I had last topped them up so we were optimistic about our chances of catching a few birds although the current fine spell of weather could have caused them to disperse or move on.

We heard the first Redpolls before we had finished erecting the nets but it was only a couple of small groups. There didn't seem to be that many birds about and the initial 2 rounds of the nets only produced 5 new Lesser Redpolls. Similarly, there seemed to be very little in the way of newly arrived migrants and literally nothing on passage overhead; no pipts, finches or wagtails of any description. A few Sand Martins were seen along with the odd Swallow but they didn't appear to be going in any particular direction in a hurry so may have been local breeders.

Quite a few Lesser Redpolls were attracted into the net by the MP3 lure and may just have been intercepted on their way to the feeders but interestingly we only caught unringed birds in this net whereas birds caught in the nets by the feeders were close to a 50:50 split of retraps and new birds. It may be that there were a few Redpolls on passage with some being attracted to the lure but if there were they must have been passing over a considerable height.

On approaching the net with the lure at about 07:30 we could see we had caught a couple of birds. One was obviously a Lesser Redpoll but the other was totally unexpected and a complete surprise.

What have we here then.

OK I have strung this out for long enough, it was a Siberian Chiffchaff as you may have guessed from the post title and a proper one at that. Proper in that it that it was the classic grey-brown and white of a 'tristis' without a hint of yellow and what little olive green there was being confined to the fringes of the primaries and tail feathers. Also it was just finishing its moult as some of the body feathers were still growing and partially 'in pin'. This late moult is also characteristic of Siberian Chiffchaffs from what I have read.

Siberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita tristis)

Separating Chiffchaff races is not easy and there is a degree of overlap between tristis and abietinus in particular. A quick search on the Internet will find loads of articles on the subject some of which are much more helpful than others but beware some of the photographs and descriptions may leave you even more confused. Anyway in the absence of DNA confirmation I am as happy as anyone can be that this is a 'classic' Siberian Chiffchaff.

Ringing totals for the morning with retraps in brackets:
Lesser Redpoll 15 (6)
Willow Tit 1 (1)
Chiffchaff (tristis) 1
Robin 1
Reed Bunting (1)
Total 18 (8)

Spring fever

Today was always going to be too nice to do anything other than get out and make the most of it. I have never known a more eagerly awaited spring but it is hardly surprising after the miserable, wet and windy winter we have endured. Spring fever is evident in many birding blogs and websites and I am showing some symptoms too. In my case a sure sign of spring fever or should I say migration fever is a willingness to be up before first light several mornings on the trot but then it isn't often that good birding and good weather coincide in the UK.

This morning I went to the baited site at Longshaw with Wayne (WP), a trainee ringer. There had been a good number of Chaffinches and a few Bramblings present when I had topped up the feeders yesterday afternoon so I hoped to catch a few this morning. We put up the usual nets and waited for the birds to arrive whilst listening to the background chorus of Mistle Thrush, Song Thrush, Robin, Wren and Treecreeper to name a few. The first round of the nets only produced a Dunnock and a Chaffinch and the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds weren't any better. There were a few finches around and we had a group of 7 Bramblings circle the area but they were reluctant to come down for some reason. Although the ringing was slow there were a few birds on the move including 2 Grey Wagtails, 4 alba Wagtails, 2 Lesser Redpolls, 4 Linnets and Skylark. A Chiffchaff was almost certainly new in and sang occasionally and up to 4 Buzzards circled overhead.

We had only caught 8 birds by 11:20 and I began to think we should have packed up earlier when we suddenly started to catch a few finches and Wayne got his first Brambling, a fine male. This first Brambling was soon followed by another 4, all equally fine males, along with a good backing cast of Chaffinches and Greenfinches. We ended up with a total of 34 birds, 26 of which were caught in an hour and a half around midday when catching normally tails off! This is the second time this has happened at this site recently so I am going to try an afternoon session next time to see how we get on.

male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
None of the Bramblings were carrying much in the way of fat so they may be around for a week or two yet.

Ringing totals for 10/03/14 with retraps in brackets -

Brambling 5

Chaffinch 14

Greenfinch 5

Bullfinch 1

Wren 1

Goldcrest 1

Dunnock 1 (1)

Long-tailed Tit (1)

Robin (1)

Great Tit (2)

Blue Tit (1)

Total 28 (+ 6 retraps)

Spring fever takes many forms and it also caused me to put the moth trap on last night for the first time this year. There was a very modest catch of 3 Common Quakers, a Clouded Drab, a Hebrew Character and an Oak Beauty but a good start to the season nevertheless. Hopefully this year will be a much better year for migrant moths, it certainly couldn't be any worse than last year turned out to be. I will run the trap most nights now until early November or perhaps a bit later depending on how the year goes.

Common Quaker (Orthosia cerasi)

Clouded Drab (Orthosia incerta)

Hebrew Character (Orthosia gothica)

Oak Beauty (Biston strataria)

Yesterday's post

I wrote this last night but couldn't upload any photos hence the delay. Still had problems uploading them today but finally managed to do it in HTML.

I went up to the baited site at Haigh yesterday for the first ringing session of the year; we are 5 days in now so it doesn’t feel that new anymore. It was overcast and very mild to say the least; almost spring like apart from the dullness. All but one of the feeders were empty and all the loose feed had been eaten so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

As it turned out it was quieter than might be expected for January and the mild conditions probably contributed to that. Around 50 Goldfinches left the nearby roost with some finding their way to the feeders and making up the bulk of the new birds ringed. Only 10 Brambling were seen along with around 35 Greenfinches. A few Chaffinches came and went but only in dribs and drabs. Tits weren’t that plentiful and Nuthatches didn’t come near although several could be heard.

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Four new Blackbirds were caught which isn’t particularly unusual but 3 were long winged birds and likely to be of continental origin. One was a very mottled first winter male and more dark brown than black.


A rather mottled male Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Looks even more interesting up close.

Ringing totals for 04/01/13 with retraps in brackets

Blackbird 4
Blue Tit 4 (9)
Brambling 1
Bullfinch 2 (1)
Chaffinch 7
Coal Tit 1 (1)
Goldfinch 11 (1)
Great Tit 1 (4)
Greenfinch 5
Long-tailed Tit – (1)
Robin - (1)
Totals 36 (18)

 

The mild and damp conditions are clearly benefiting fungi and I noticed this brown job. Not a clue what it is and I don’t think I have seen it before but then I simply may not have noticed.


unidentified brown job

unidentified brown job

Weekend roundup

I went ringing at the baited sites at Haigh and Longshaw over the weekend. Haigh produced 41 new birds and 24 retraps. Chaffinch numbers had increased on last week with 11 ringed; 9 of these were aged as adults which is an unusually high proportion. Some of the male Chaffinches were of continental origin judging by their colour but none had particularly long wing lengths. Again a few Bramblings were present and 3 males were caught.



Male Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs). This bird is a typical colour for a bird of British origin. Comparison shots showing the variation in colour will be produced in a future blog.

I have only been putting seed down at Longshaw since Tuesday so I wasn’t sure if many birds would be present. Shortly after first light I was pleased to hear the calls of a good number of Chaffinches and Bramblings. By the end of the morning 34 new birds and 10 retraps had been caught including 12 new Chaffinches and 4 new Bramblings. The Chaffinches included a number of continental birds and one had a wing length of 95mm. The continental theme was supported by a single Waxwing flying north during the morning.

First winter male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)

Given the promising catch at Longshaw I made a couple of extra feeders from plastic drain pipe that, hopefully, will only need topping up once or twice a week. All I have to do now is work out how I am going to pay for all the seed that I am likely to use baiting both sites.

 

It may have been a disappointing autumn for many species but it looks like being an above average winter for a few and Bramblings are at the top of my list. In a good Brambling year I generally catch them in the second half of the winter so to have caught 12 so far this autumn is particularly encouraging. However it does indicate that natural food sources are in short supply which could impact on survival.
 
Totals for the weekend were:
Blackbird 3
Blue Tit 6 (+14)
Brambling 7
Chaffinch 23
Coal Tit 2 (+6)
Dunnock 0 (+1)
Goldcrest 3 (+2)
Goldfinch 3
Greenfinch 14 (+1)
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Great Tit 6 (+6)
Lesser Redpoll 2
Nuthatch 0 (+3)
Reed Bunting 1
Robin 3 (+1)
Wren 1
 
Total 75 (+ 35 retraps)

Christmas is coming

I went up to Haigh this morning as I have been baiting the site all week and it also offered the best chance of shelter from the cold northerly wind. It felt more like winter than late October with a very sharp frost. I soon regretted wearing wellies with thin socks as I quickly lost the circulation in my toes; very painful.

I put up a 60ft and 30ft net in the usual dog leg and also set up 3 MP3 lures. In general the catching rate was what you might call steady all morning but there were far fewer Chaffinches than expected given the habitat. The MP3 lures added 8 Goldcrests and 4 Lesser Redpolls to the catch and possibly helped the Greenfinch totals too.

Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)
 

Visible migration was dominated by Pink-footed Geese with at least 750 birds in 5 skeins flying south-east. At least 4 other skeins were heard and not seen so the total could have easily exceeded 1,000. Around 80 Redwings were seen flying west and 3 Fieldfares flew north. Only 6 Redpolls were recorded, 4 of which were caught and a group of 3 Siskins flew north.

Ringing totals were (recaptures in brackets):

Greenfinch 28 (1)

Goldcrest 8
Lesser Redpoll 4
Goldfinch 1
Chaffinch 7 (1)
Bullfinch 2 (1)
Great Tit 13 (1)
Blue Tit 7 (2)
Coal Tit 1 (3)
Robin 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1
Dunnock (1)
Totals 73 new birds (+10 retraps)



Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos major)

After returning home and lunch I walked across the road to Orrell Water Park to check out the Black-headed Gulls for rings/darvics. I took the big camera and long lens so I could photograph any ringed birds. The only ringed Black-headed Gull was an adult wearing a chunky foreign type ring. I managed to take enough photos to get the full number and address which showed it was ringed in Germany. This is the first German Black-headed Gull I have controlled.

 

German ringed Black-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) photographed Orrell Water Park 27.10.12