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. 

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.

Long-tailed Tit feeding behaviour.

Way back in December 2013, the 24th to be precise, I was watching birds visiting the feeders in the garden when I noticed a Long-tailed Tit hanging from a twig by one leg whilst holding a sunflower heart in the foot of the free leg and feeding on it. I had never seen a Long-tailed Tit feeding on a sunflower heart in this manner before and I couldn't find any descriptions or reports of this behaviour in the literature I had to hand or from internet searches. I posted a brief account of what I had seen on the blog at the time and a link to that post can be found here.

It didn't appear to be common behaviour amongst the many Long-tailed Tits visiting the garden back then and although I observed this feeding behaviour on more than one occasion later that winter it may have been limited to just one individual. This was one of those situations when it would have been really informative if the Long-tailed Tits were colour-ringed as I would have been able to establish how many individuals were involved but what I can say is I didn't see more than one bird feeding in this manner at the same time.

I have seen and photographed Long-tailed Tits using this feeding method each winter since that first encounter and it has gradually become more common amongst the birds that visit the garden. I haven't started colour-ringing my Long-tailed Tits (yet) so it is still not possible to be certain of the number of individuals involved but last weekend (13th & 14th Jan) at least 4 were using the 'hanging and holding' feeding method simultaneously out of a total of ten or so that were in the garden at that time. Establishing numbers is further complicated by the fact that more than one Long-tailed Tit flock may visit the garden over the course of a day and birds from the same flock may switch between feeding on sunflower hearts and fat cakes but there is no doubt it has become more prevalent amongst the the birds that visit my garden. This also begs the question as to what extent it is an innate skill as opposed to having to be learned. Again colour-ring could help answer that as it could show if there are any differences between age groups (potentially a nice line of research for someone).

There is a bit more to it than just hanging upside down and eating - a Long-tailed Tit will take a sunflower heart from the feeder and carry it in its bill to a suitable twig and then hang upside down before transferring the seed to one of its feet. Now I don't know if individuals have a preference over which foot they hang from and which foot they hold the seed in or if they can be ambipedal but I have seen individuals hang from either foot and photos in this post show that (now there is another research project for someone). The twig that an individual chooses to hang from may be near the feeder but is often one or two metres away, presumably to avoid disturbance from larger species that may come to use the feeder. The twig selected obviously has to be a suitable diameter to enable the bird to get a good grip and the way the tendons work in the birds leg and foot probably allows it to hang with little or no effort.

There are a couple of aspects of this feeding behaviour that I find really interesting, one is that they seem to be increasingly taking advantage of a relatively new food source in the form of sunflower hearts and the other is the question of how common and widespread it has become. With that in mind I contacted Kate Risely, who runs the BTO Garden Birdwatch project, to see if it was something she was aware of and if had been reported before. Kate wasn't aware of any reports of this behaviour and thought it was interesting enough to try and find out how common and widespread it is by putting a request out on Twitter (link here). 

Kate also did a little digging and kindly pointed me to some references in the literature on Long-tailed Tits feeding whilst holding food items in one foot and hanging from the other. Two of them were notes in British Birds, one from 1959 and the other from 1989, and related to food items that had been provided. Ornithologist Derek Goodwin commented on the latter report saying: 'this is normal and usual behaviour if a Long-tailed Tit finds an insect too big to be swallowed immediately'. This shows the feeding method itself is not that unusual, although I would say I think it is one that is easily missed or overlooked in anything other than a garden or feeding station setting as Long-tailed Tit flocks are usually always on the move. However, the use of this feeding method to exploit sunflower hearts taken from feeders does appear to be relatively new.  It remains to be seen how common and widespread it is or if it is an increasing trend as has been the experience in my garden. Early replies to the BTO tweet show it has been noted elsewhere but none make comment on how long it has been happening or if it is increasing at the locations concerned.

References:
Hall-Craggs, J (1959) British Birds 52, 21-2.
Shackleton, K (1989) British Birds 82, 373-4.

It's grim up north

To say the weather has been grim is a bit of an understatement and we now have storm Henry to contend with. It wouldn't be so bad if there was the odd calm day in between the storms but unfortunately it has generally stayed quite windy and I have done very little ringing as a result.

On the plus side I have spent more time watching the birds in the garden and noted an increase in the number of Siskins visiting the feeders. There have been up to nine which is a really good number for the time of year as I don't usually get Siskins in the garden before the second week of February in a good Siskin winter. In many respects getting Siskins in the garden is a sign of spring as they can be quite early breeders and they need to fatten up before migrating back to breeding areas in Scotland and and northern Europe. Some birds start heading back to their breeding grounds before the end of February and there can be a big turnover of birds in late February and throughout March. In 2013 I ringed 102 Siskins in the garden between 9th February and 30th March and in 2014 the total was even higher with 179 ringed between 18th February and 4th April.

Male Siskin

It was quite frustrating having the Siskins in the garden and not being able to put a net up for even an hour, so on Wednesday night I rigged up a trap using an old budgie cage and hung it in a tree with one of the feeders inside. Next morning I was up early and was pleased to see that the birds were not put off by this new garden feature and 3 Siskins went inside to feed shortly after arriving in the garden and were caught. As soon as they were ringed and released another 2 Siskins went in the trap and were duly ringed. Pleased at having caught 5 in the space of 10 minutes I took the trap down as it had proved its effectiveness but it did just look like an old budgie cage stuck up a tree. I need to make something that is more refined and less obtrusive if it is going to become a semi-permanent fixture in the garden.

Not being able to put a net out for the Siskins was not the only frustration as there have also been 3 Lesser Redpolls coming to the feeders over the last week and one of them is ringed. I have never ringed a Lesser Redpoll in the garden so this bird is a guaranteed to have been ringed elsewhere. In fact I have never had more than the occasional singleton in the garden before and then they have usually been one day wonders so having 3 visiting on a regular basis could be the start of them becoming regular winter visitors. Redpolls have become more frequent visitors to gardens across the country in recent years so getting them in my garden is somewhat overdue.

A very poor photograph of one of the  Lesser Redpolls but it is the best I have been able to get so far.

I hadn't seen the Belgian ringed Blackcap in the garden for a four days (27th to 30th) and I was beginning to think it had moved on or had been predated but it suddenly reappeared yesterday. I don't think I had just not noticed it as it had been visiting the feeders regularly throughout the day so was hard to miss; I would usually see it while I was having my first cup coffee in the morning. I have no idea where it has been but I can only presume it has been favouring neighbours gardens.

A soggy Blackcap photographed yesterday through a rain lashed window. I got enough photos of the ring to see the number and be sure it was the same bird.

Hopefully we will see an end to this miserable weather but any respite seems to be a long way off at the moment.