Festival Weekend

I spent the weekend on the east coast helping out at the Spurn Migration Festival. There was a packed programme that included migration, sea and wader watching, various guided walks, illustrated talks, moth trap demonstrations and ringing demonstrations. In addition there were photography workshops, art exhibitions, optics trade stands and a hog roast.
 

It was a well attended event but unfortunately it was relatively quiet on the birding front for the time of year. On the plus side the weather was very pleasant being sunny and warm throughout with the generally southerly wind direction contributing to the lack of birds. Having said that Wryneck, Red-backed Shrike and Common Rosefinch were present and there was some southerly passage and movement over the sea.
 
My role was to provide the ringing demonstration at the Warren and I did manage to catch a few birds for very appreciative audiences. As the catching rate was fairly low I was able to allow quite a few people to hold and release birds, much to their delight. Hopefully everyone will have gained something from the experience and a few may have been encouraged or inspired to take up ringing.
 
I did manage to take a few photos around the ringing and those I have chosen to post are fairly random. They show there is always something to look at or that there is always a new way of looking at something you have seen before. It is a while since I have been to Spurn and it was great to catch up with friends that I haven't seen for some time. It was good to be back and made even better by great people.
 

Starlings are declining as resident and migrants birds and shouldn't be taken for granted.

No question which way the wind was blowing.

Gutter Pigeon at Warren Cottage

Migrant Hawker

Keeping Warm



My wire



Feather management



View from Spurn Lighthouse looking northeast



View from Spurn Lighthouse looking southwest

I don't usually play with the art modes on my cameras but here are a few in what are called dramatic mode.
 

 

 

 

 

 
And back to normal with a Comma.


Comma on a mist-net pole

Waxwing lyrical part 10 - the big grin

The weather forecast was looking good for ringing again this weekend so another ringing session in the garden was on the cards. John G was planning to join me this morning along with Duncan Bell, a group member who now lives in Fareham, Hampshire. Duncan drove up last night, a journey of 250 miles and of around 4 hours drive time. He had not seen any Waxwings for a couple of years and hadn't seen one in the hand in the 30 odd years he has been ringing so thought is was worth the 500 mile round trip to get the chance of closer look.

We put a net up at 06:30 and then retired to the house and waited for the birds to arrive. I had restocked the trees with apples last night so there were more than 60 apple halves carefully presented. The first group of Waxwings arrived quite early and perched in the trees along the road. More birds arrived and the flock soon built up to 57, the second highest count since they have been feeding in the garden. The birds followed their usual pattern and moved along the tree line before dropping down into the garden.

What would Alan Titchmarsh say?  I don't think my garden will win any awards
 for design but who cares when you can watch Waxwings every day.

The look on Duncan's face was a picture as he sat by the window and watched all 57 Waxwings descend into the garden and start to feast the apples, some were only 15 feet away. They had been feeding for about 10 minutes before the first bird flew into the net but it was soon followed by a second and then a third. The grin on his face increased when another 4 quickly joined them. The feeding birds went up into the trees across the road so we went out and extracted the birds that had just been caught without having to disturb any feeding birds.

We had only just walked to the back of the house when the flock descended into the garden again and settled down to feed. Duncan soon got to grips with characteristics for ageing and sexing Waxwings. White / yellow edges to tips of the primaries, extent of yellow on tip of tail feathers, number and length of the red waxy tips on secondaries / tertials and border definition of throat patch. The grin on his face says it all.



The big grin. Duncan about to ring his first Waxwing.

Total concenration when checking the age and sex.

Another Waxwing another grin. These are marvelous birds and they could have
  travelled well over 3,000km to be here. This is not part of any regular migration.
 This is an irruptive species and I have never had them in my garden before and
 it may never happen again during my lifetime. That is why I don't mind
 trashing the garden and spending more than £5 on apples each day. 

We only had the net open for a short time and closed it at 07:40 after two catches. We paused for breakfast and opened it again briefly at 09:00 to 09:20. By this time we had caught and ringed 21 new Waxwings and 7 new Siskins. That brought the total number of Waxwings caught since 23rd Feb to 46 new birds and 2 controls. Duncan's total for the journey works out at roughly at 1 Waxwing ringed per 24 miles driven for the round trip but he would have happily driven all 500 miles for just one. That just goes to show how enigmatic, scarce and unpredictable these birds are in the UK.



Adult male Waxwing. White/yellow angles to primary tips including
 longest primary, long red waxy tips to  secondaries, extensive yellow
 band to tip of tail , well demarcated black bib.  The tail feathers also
 had red shafts to the yellow tips. 

Both the Estonian and Scottish ringed birds were seen in the garden this morning adding to the data about those individuals. A Sparrowhawk flushed things big style mid morning but around 30 Waxwings returned in the afternoon and fed on and off until about 5pm. Another 5 kg of apples have been put out again tonight in readiness for a similar number of birds tomorrow. Judging by the number of unringed birds seen this afternoon the total number of birds coming to the garden could well exceed the maximum flock of 62 recorded to date but only time will tell.

That time of year

Merry Christmas or should I say a soggy Christmas with even more rain or showers forecast for the next ten days, yes ten days. Not a single dry day in the forecast and precious little sunshine but I will try and grab every opportunity to go out birding or ringing that I can.

Anyway I would like to wish anyone who follows or stumbles across this blog a very merry Christmas (not that I am a God botherer) and more importantly better weather for the 2013; whatever that means for you in the blogosphere.

 

 

'Net shy' finches rule the day

I met up with John G at 7:00am this morning and we walked up to the ringing site at Longshaw. We had 3 nets up by first light and waited for the first birds to arrive. I had put out an MP3 lure playing Grey Wagtail as one had flown over at dawn on each of the last few ringing sessions. Like clockwork one came over, it dropped down to the lure and was caught.

Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea)

A few Blackbirds were attracted to the apples I had put out during the week and several were amongst the first birds to be caught. Plenty of Bramblings and Chaffinches started to arrive but seemed reluctant to settle. Conditions were perfect at first but some mist and fog started to develop which didn’t help but it was obvious that the birds had the situation sussed anyway. Looking at the birds that perched in the tops of the willows it was obvious that a good proportion were already ringed.

It is not unusual for some birds to learn to avoid mist nets and to become ‘net shy’, especially where there’s a fairly static population and a regular ringing routine using the same net rides. It can be counteracted to some degree by leaving bigger intervals between ringing sessions, changing net positions and times of visits and I will be doing this over the coming weeks now that catching rates have fallen off.

Whilst we didn’t get the numbers we had hoped for we did get some variety with the aforementioned Grey Wagtail, a Reed Bunting and a very benign Jay that didn’t take any chunks out of us like they usually do. A few finches did get caught towards the end of the session including 4 new Bramblings and a control Greenfinch (ringed elsewhere) ring number starting TT09___.

male Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Jay (Garrulus glandarius), a relatively benign individual but if looks could kill......

Ringing totals with retraps in brackets.
Blackbird 6 (1)
Grey Wagtail 1
Jay 1
Reed Bunting 1
Chaffinch 5 (1)
Brambling 4 (1)
Great Tit 2 - (1)
Greenfinch 1 (1 control)
Blue Tit (4)
Dunnock – (3)
Robin – (1)
Total 21 new birds, 12 retraps and 1 control.

I ventured onto Orrell Water Park in the afternoon to check out the gulls. There were plenty of Black-headed Gulls but only one ringed bird and that was the German ringed bird that I have recorded several times now.

 

On thin ice, Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus).

Black-headed Gulls (Chroicocephalus ridibundus) in action.

A quickie before work

I am sure the title of this post is likely to attract some views and I am sure some of those viewers will be very disappointed and rightly so. With sunrise at around 08:20 there isn’t much time to fit in a ringing session before taking my son to college in time for a 09:15 start and getting to work. However, flat calm conditions and plenty of birds visiting the garden due to the cold conditions tempted me to put up an 18ft net for half an hour or so.
 
I put the net up in a different alignment to the usual setup as it was more likely to intercept the Blackcap that has been feeding in the garden as mentioned in my last post. The net hadn’t been up for more than a few minutes when a Blackcap type bird bounced but I didn’t get good enough views to be sure in the half light. First birds caught were a retrap Blue Tit and most surprising of all a Pied Wagtail, another bird that featured in my previous post.


male Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii)

The Blackcap wasn’t put off even if it had bounced and was soon back feeding on my mix of beef dripping and chopped peanuts along with the plums I had secured in the same shrubs in place of the usual half apples. I then saw it fly towards the net and u-turn at the last second, I say last second when last few millimetres would be far more precise. A Blackbird and a few retrap tits then blundered into the net. Having processed those birds it was time to take the net down when I found a male Chaffinch and a Blackcap had been caught. An excellent end to the quickie and sorry to those who were expecting something completely different but then you deserve it.

male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Ringing totals, retraps in (brackets)
Pied Wagtail 1
Blackbird 1
Chaffinch 1
Blackcap 1
Coal Tit – (2)
Blue Tit – (1)
Great Tit – (1)
Total 4 + (4 retraps).

A day of two halves

I went to Longshaw with John G this morning hoping for another good catch of Bramblings and Chaffinches. I had been keeping the site well fed all week and the weather forecast was good for this morning at least. We had 3 nets up by first light but when the first birds started to arrive it was quite clear they were fewer in number compared to the last few weeks.

Catching rates were slow and were not helped by frost forming on the nets. This turned them white for a while until the sun rose above the tree line. We packed up at around 11am having only caught 23 new birds and 12 retraps, around a third of last week’s total. Only 2 new Bramblings were caught along with 12 new Chaffinches.

Longshaw ringing totals, recaptures in brackets.

Chaffinch 12 (1)
Brambling 2
Greenfinch 2
Blue Tit 2 (5)
Great Tit 2 (1)
Blackbird 2 (2)
Dunnock 1 (1)
Robin 0 (2)
Total 23 new birds and 12 retraps

I decided to go to Haigh this afternoon as the wind was still very light and the forecast was for much stronger winds tomorrow. John had better things to do so I went alone and had two nets set up by 12:50 which is usually a quiet time of day in ringing terms. There were plenty of birds about and the ringing totals didn’t disappoint in sharp contrast to Longshaw this morning. A total 21 Bramblings were caught including 2 retraps. Interestingly one of these ‘retrap’ Bramblings had actually been ringed at Longshaw on 18/11/12; a movement of 9km northeast.

 

A net full of Bramblings (Fringilla montifringilla)

Short distance movements such as this are interesting in their own right. I have been feeding both sites equally well and there are other feeding stations closer to this bird’s ringing site including Kings Moss on the other side of Billinge Hill used by Pete Fearon (blog here). It makes sense for wintering birds to familiarise themselves with food availability over a fairly wide area. This will enhance their chances of survival should any one food supply become exhausted as would happen with natural food sources. It will be interesting to see if there is more interchange between sites over the winter.

One thing that has surprised me is how well we have done for Bramblings relative to other feeding stations in the northwest. The ringing total now stands at 144 Bramblings for this winter but, clearly, the birds are still moving around and numbers at other sites are likely to increase as the winter progresses.

A single Siskin was caught and was the first for the winter at this site; it was an adult male and a little gem. It had found the nyger feeders and it is hoped many more will follow before the winter is out. The ringing totals were excellent for an afternoon but could have been even higher as the session was curtailed at around15:30 when drizzle arrived.

male Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

Haigh ringing totals, recaptures in brackets.
Brambling 19 (2)
Chaffinch 10 (2)
Greenfinch 13 (5)
Goldfinch 2
Siskin 1
Bullfinch – (1)
Blue Tit 5 (4)
Great Tit 1 (3)
Lotti – (2)
Coal Tit – (1)
Blackbird 1
Total 52 new birds and 20 retraps.

Bramble finch fest and a Waxwing too

I went to the baited site at Longshaw yesterday morning to top up the feed and was really encouraged by the number of finches present. At least 75 Chaffinch, Brambling and Greenfinch were present with roughly equal numbers of each making up the flock. Small groups were coming and going all the time making overall numbers difficult to gauge. With the forecast looking really good for this morning a productive ringing session was on the cards.

I met up with John G just before 7:00am and we had a 60ft and 30 ft net up just after first light. I put out an MP3 lure playing Redpoll and another playing Waxwing. There are no berries at this ringing site but I had brought a few berry laden sprigs of cotoneaster, hawthorn and rose hips and secured them in a willow bush by the 60ft net. This was more in hope than anything but you never know with so many Waxwings in the country, many of which are still on the move.

 

male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
 

male Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)



female Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla)
 

Chaffinches and Bramblings started to arrive soon after first light and the first round of the nets produced 24 birds including 12 Chaffinches and 10 Bramblings; an excellent start. About half way through the morning I thought I heard a Waxwing call back to the MP3 lure while we were on a round of the nets. We couldn’t see any and we didn’t hear any more calls other than from the MP3 player so I put it down to wishful thinking. A little while later a party of 9 Waxwings appeared from the direction of the 60ft net. A quick check of the net found one Waxwing had been caught and what a stunner (as they all are). It was an adult but the sexing characteristics were within the overlap between male and female or were borderline.

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus)
 

Catching rates generally decreased as the morning progressed although there was a flurry of Greenfinches at the end of the morning including a control adult male Greenfinch. The ring number started TR6 - a sequence we have not come across before. The last net round also produced 2 more Bramblings bringing the morning’s total for the species to 20 new birds and 2 retraps (both ringed the previous weekend); a fitting end to a memorable morning.
 
Ringing:
Waxwing 1
Brambling 20 (+2)
Chaffinch 20
Greenfinch 16 (+2 includes 1 control)
Blue Tit 2 (+8)
Great Tit 0 (+3)
Dunnock 1 (+1)
Robin 0 (+1)
Total 60 new birds, 16 retraps and 1 control

At home the moth trap contained a Red-green Carpet despite it being a cold night and the lateness of the season for this species.

Red-green Carpet (Chloroclysta siterata)

Seeking shelter

A moderately windy day limited my ringing options to the woodland at Haigh Hall. I found a couple of sheltered spots and tried a few different lures but there was little about or passing overhead to call in. I was hoping the good blackberry crop would produce a few late Blackcaps but not a single Blackcap was heard or seen.

It was fairly slow going but I had a new camera to get to grips with and that helped pass the time. Goldcrests topped the totals with 7 ringed bringing the total ringed at Haigh to 34 this month and to 55 for all sites. These birds fascinate me and it will be interesting to see how many October will bring.

Passage overhead was largely limited to small numbers of Meadow Pipits along with a few Swallows and House Martins. However, a Turtle Dove caused me to do a double-take and was a complete surprise given their status these days.

A Southern Hawker was caught in a mist net and gave a photo opportunity as did a sheltering hoverfly and a Speckled Wood. The temperature only just reached levels to make these insects active and then only for very brief periods as clouds rolled by.

Anyway here a few photos taken with the new camera; an Olympus XZ-1 compact.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Wren (Troglodytes troglodytes)

 

Spangle Galls

 

Dunnock (Prunella modularis)

 

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)

Long-tailed Tit (Aegithalos caudatus)

 

Speckled Wood (Pararge aegeria)

 

Hoverfly spp.

 

Hoverfly spp.

 

Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)

 

Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea)

Ringing totals for the day were:

Goldcrest 7
Great Tit 3 (1)
Goldfinch 1 (1)
Coal Tit (2)
Wren 1
Dunnock 1
Long-tailed Tit 1
Blue Tit 1
Nuthatch 1
Greenfinch 1
Total 17 new birds and 4 retraps