Waxwing lyrical part 18 - WaxFinch weekend

A bit of a mixed bag all round this weekend both in terms of the weather and on the ringing front. I woke up to hear it raining on Saturday morning but got up anyway to see how many Waxwings would arrive. The rain had almost stopped just before the first Waxwings were due and I contemplated putting a net up but I decided not to. The first few Waxwings arrived and low and behold the rain stopped completely so I hastily put up the 18ft net. At least 56 gathered in the trees along the road before dropping into the garden as usual.

I caught 2 Siskins and 4 Waxwings quite quickly but then a few spots of rain put a damper on things and I furled the net. The rain lasted until mid-morning by which time there was a bit too much of a breeze so I took the net down. The garden was still full of Waxwings and even though I can happily watch them all day I decided to tear myself away after lunch. I went up to my baited site near Haigh to top up the feeders and to do a couple of hours ringing weather permitting.

One Waxwing was unusual in that it had some diffuse white markings across the
middle of the wing feathers and adjacent to the yellow tip on the tail (below)

 

It started raining shortly after I set off and the rain then turned to hail so I wasn't sure if I would get any ringing in at all. I needn't have worried though as it was an isolated shower and confirmed by the weather app and rainfall radar on my phone. I topped up the feeders and put up a 60ft net. The ringing was more productive than expected for an afternoon session and I caught 57 birds over the next 3 hours; finches featured with six species being caught.

The differences in the plumage the male Chaffinches displayed was quite striking.
The left hand bird is in full breeding plumage with blue crown and nape and
blue bill with darker cutting edges. This was a short winged bird and presumably
a local breeder. The right hand bird was longer winged and carrying a lot of fat
and presumed to be of continental origin. It had a horn coloured bill and the blue
crown and nape were concealed by brown tips. It doesn't need to get into full
breeding until it returns to its breeding grounds in the next few weeks.

Male Brambling

male Bullfinch

male and female Goldfinches.

male and female Siskin

On my way home I made a bit of a detour to do some more guerrilla pruning from a location the Waxwings have yet to find. It had started raining again and it looked like it had set in for a while. When I got home it was raining quite heavily but Waxwing duty called and I spent a good while putting out apples and cotoneaster berries. It took longer than usual as I wear glasses and the rain made it difficult for me to see what I was doing added to the fact that it was dark by this time. Darkness, rain, spectacles and sharp things like a knife, secateurs and scissors don't always mix and my hands now carry the marks.

This morning dawned dry and quite calm so I tried for the Waxwings again. John G joined me on his way to work and a good catch was on the cards. Unfortunately the Waxwings hadn't read the script and only 3 were caught before an unforecast breeze picked up and made the net stand out. We took the net down at this point rather than try and catch birds when the conditions weren't quite right.

It was still early so I decided to go back to Haigh for a couple of hours to see if I could catch a few more finches. It wasn't as productive as yesterday afternoon but I still managed to catch another 26 birds. On returning home at lunchtime there were no Waxwings around but there were very few apples left in the main feeding tree so they had clearly eaten well.

I got the ladder out and restocked the tree before feeding myself. Shortly after a few Waxwings reappeared, these were soon followed by a few more small flocks and soon there were 62. The birds fed in the garden for much of the rest of the afternoon and the light allowed me to get some more photographs. I hope you enjoy this small selection.

 

 

Combined ringing totals for the weekend were:
Siskin 9
Goldfinch 10 (10)
Chaffinch 8 (3)
Greenfinch 3 (6)
Brambling 2
Bullfinch 1
Dunnock 3 (2)
Robin 1 (1)
Blue Tit 12 (5)
Coal Tit 4 (3)
Great Tit 1 (1)
Blackbird - (1)
Waxwing 5 (2)
Total 59 (+34 retraps)

In addition the colour ringed Waxwing from Aberdeen and Estonian ringed bird were both seen and photographed.

Super Saturday

I have been putting plenty of seed down at the feeding stations at Longshaw and Haigh during the week and made some additional feeders to ensure there is a continuous supply of seed. The large capacity and design of the feeders should mean they will only need refilling a couple of times a week although that could change if the number of birds continues to increase. When I went to put food out on Thursday there were good numbers of finches present including 30+ Bramblings at both sites so I was keen to try and fit in a ringing session at each over the weekend, weather permitting.



This morning looked like being the only decent opportunity for ringing with a forecast of heavy rain and increasing winds from late Saturday afternoon through to Sunday morning. I decided to go to Longshaw as there was also the chance of luring a Waxwing in again although expecting a repeat of last week was a real long shot. I met up with John G and we had 3 nets up before first light, one 60ft and two 30ft nets. I also set up a couple of MP3 lures players playing Waxwing on the off chance. 

Bramblings and Chaffinches started dropping in shortly after first light but no Greenfinches. For some reason Greenfinches only start to arrive about an hour or so later and peak numbers are only present from around mid morning onwards. I am not sure why there should be such a difference in arrival times between these species but it is very noticeable. The distance from their respective roost sites could be a factor but can’t really explain such a big difference in arrival times and the even later build up in numbers of Greenfinches. They may simply leave their roost sites at different times but that would seem strange for similar species with the same diet. Anyway there is always something to learn and that is what keeps my interest. 

The morning progressed in a steady fashion but with fewer retraps than might be expected given the number of birds ringed last Sunday. At around 9:30 a single Waxwing turned up but history didn’t repeat itself and it wasn’t caught. On the next round of the nets 2 Coal Tits were amongst the catch of finches which is not that unusual but one of these birds was a control (ringed elsewhere); ring number starting Y99. There has been an eruption of this species in the UK this autumn so it will be interesting to find out where this bird has come from. Hopefully it will be more than a local movement.

We packed up at around 11:30 having caught 62 new birds and 16 recaptures. Finches dominated the totals with 22 Brambling (including 3 retraps), 20 Chaffinch and 19 Greenfinch. 

The sky had greyed during the morning and the wind was still very light so I persuaded John to give Haigh a try in the afternoon before the rain arrived. After a quick bite to eat we drove up to Haigh and put up a couple of nets. The breeze was picking up but this was offset to some extent by it being very dull and overcast. 

Afternoon ringing sessions are usually much less productive as birds have had all morning to feed up and there is usually more wind making nets easier to see. There were a lot of finches present on arrival with over 60 in the vicinity of the feeders, mainly Bramblings and Greenfinch. Two Blue Tits were caught in the first net while the second was being put up getting us off to a very quick start. 

Bramblings dominated the subsequent catches and made up a third of the afternoon’s total of 75 birds. One of these Bramblings was a control (ringed elsewhere); ring number starting D170. This was aged as a first year bird and will have been ringed relatively recently because of that; possibly as a newly arrived migrant on the east coast. The first spot of rain arrived shortly after 15:30 curtailing a very productive 3 hour afternoon ringing session.

 

Adult male Brambling left and first winter male Brambling right. Note the more extensive orange across the breast of the adult and the narrower and less extensive pale fringes to the head feathers.

The total for the day was 153 birds, comprised of 107 new birds and 46 recaptures. Bramblings made up nearly one third of this total with 43 new birds, 3 retraps and 1 control. This brings the number of Brambling ringed this autumn to 80 which is an exceptional total for us this early in the season. Anyone who has read my last few posts will know that Bramblings have featured in one way or another and that looks set to continue on today’s performance. Most of my ringing effort will be at these two baited sites until next spring so I am likely to become a real Brambling bore judging by recent performance. Such events don’t come around very often and I will happily bore you with many more Brambling related posts given half a chance. 

Today’s ringing totals, retraps in brackets:

Brambling 43 (+4 including a control)
Greenfinch 31 (+2)
Chaffinch 23
Bullfinch 0 (+2)
Blue Tit 6 (+17)
Great Tit 1 (+5)
Coal Tit 1 (+3 including a control)
Long-tailed Tit 0 (+5)
Blackbird 2 (+1)
Robin 0 (+5)
Dunnock 0 (+1)
Nuthatch 0 (+1)
Totals 107 new birds (+46 recaptures)