Another Un-bill-ievable Blue Tit

 A Blue Tit with a deformed beak has been visiting the garden for the past couple of months. Its very overgrown mandibles clearly cause it problems when feeding but it has adapted by tilting its head to one side and searching through suet pellets on the bird table to try and find smaller pieces and crumbs it can pick up and eat. It frequently feeds on the ground below a fat ball feeder where it can also find small pieces and crumbs that other birds drop or dislodge when feeding on the fat balls.

More recently it has taken to using a window feeder that allows it to pick through sunflower hearts, suet pellets and partially crushed dried mealworms. I wouldn't normally use a window feeder but it was bought for me as a Christmas present so I decided to give it a go and I am really glad that I did. Birds didn't go near this feeder for ages but this Blue Tit eventually started to take advantage of it and brought it close enough for me to photograph it.

This isn't the first Blue Tit with an overgrown beak I have recorded in the garden and I did a blog post about one I caught in the garden nearly 10 years ago (blog post link here). That bird was more extreme case and had an even longer lower mandible. One thing I have noticed with the current bird is that its bill still appears to be growing, especially the lower mandible. When I first saw it in the garden the lower mandible barely seemed to extend much beyond the upper mandible where they cross but now it clearly extends past the upper by a few millimetres. I suspect both mandibles are still growing but it is just easier to see the change in the lower mandible. If it hangs around long enough I may be able to take more photographs to show that its bill is still growing in the absence of normal wear from pecking, feeding and bill wiping.

Garden birds: winter 2020-21

It has been a very poor winter for birds in my garden, except for the Moorhen which stayed around until mid December, and it has not been for the lack of food on offer. The number of Goldfinches using the feeders has been low and only in single figures throughout. Perhaps the lockdowns have encouraged more people to feed birds in their gardens and this has provided species like Goldfinch with more options than in previous winters. It could also be because there is more natural food available this winter or a combination of the two. Siskins had been totally absent until recently with the first and only sighting of the winter being a fine adult male that visited the feeders yesterday. Use of garden feeders by Siskins is closely linked to availability of natural food supplies so it suggests there has been an abundance of natural food for that species, at least.

Adult male Siskin 09/03/2021

The rounded tail shape and uniform greater coverts and tertials make this Siskin easy to age as an adult (2CY+)

Blackbirds appear to have used the garden in slightly larger numbers with 26 being ringed over the course of the winter but that may be a consequence of the lockdowns and increased time spent catching and ringing Blackbirds rather than any real increase. One species that has seen a real increase in numbers is House Sparrow with up to a dozen visiting the feeders every day and a nice roost gathering in a neighbours conifer hedge. They had become very scarce in recent years so it is nice to see that they have made a bit of a comeback.

Also on a positive note it has been good to have a Blackcap visiting the feeders since the start of the year. It was an occasional visitor at first but has become a regular visitor over the past month or so. I assumed it was the same individual each time until 2 males were on the same feeder on 22nd February. I caught and colour-ringed one of them on 6th March and that bird has been seen in the garden numerous times each day since then but an unringed male was also present yesterday so perhaps there have been 2 birds all along.

Ringed male Blackcap 08/03/2021

Ringed male Blackcap 08/03/2021

Ringed male Blackcap 08/03/2021

Unringed male Blackcap 09/03/2021

Both Blackcaps are likely to stay around until late March by which time they will have fattened up and be ready to migrate to breeding areas in Europe or possibly elsewhere in the UK.

Conifer loving Moorhen

The Moorhen has been a regular in the garden all week and its favourite hiding spot is high up in a fairly tall, dense conifer (highlighted by the red box and arrow in the image below). It sits up there for long periods in between bouts of feeding. 

It is not easy to see when it keeps still.

Every now and again it decides to come down for a feed.

Getting ready to launch.

And then it goes for it.

It seems quite at home strutting across the lawn and it happily stands its ground against the feral pigeons that visit the garden.

It does appear to be resident in the garden as there haven't been any sightings to suggest that it commutes between the garden and the lakes in the park across the road. It has adapted to the garden habitat and happily struts about on the privet hedge and drinks drops of water from their leaves when it is raining. It occasionally takes cover in the dense yew hedge but its favourite resting spot is up in the conifer or Lawson Cypress to be precise.

Garden Gallinula and Orrell Water Park Dipper

I had an unexpected first for the garden earlier in the week when I spotted a juvenile Moorhen feeding under one of the bird feeders. It has been quite a long time since I recorded a new species in the garden, when I say garden I mean small front garden, and Moorhen isn't one that ever seemed likely. Moorhens breed on the small lakes in Orrell Water Park across the road from where I live so don't have to wander far but there is a mature and quite dense belt of trees that surrounds the park along with the park's perimeter wall, and then there is a fairly busy road to negotiate to reach my front garden and the garden itself is surrounded by dense evergreen hedging. Those features have successfully prevented Moorhens from reaching my garden in the 20 plus years I have lived here, not to mention the local cat population and general levels of human activity.

I didn't manage to get any photographs on that first day but the Moorhen has been seen numerous times since and I managed to get some record shots yesterday (15/11/2020). These regular appearances in the garden beg the question - is it commuting between the garden and the ponds in the park or has it taken up temporary residence in the garden. As I detailed earlier there is no easy route for for a bird like a Moorhen to get between the garden and the ponds in the park even if a mixture of walking and flight is used. Temporary residence seems just as unlikely given the size of the garden and the nature of the neighbouring properties but it has been seen in a tall conifer hedge at the back of a neighbours property and in a tall conifer in the front garden so it knows how to get out of the way when people are around. Either way anyone who knows my garden will find this record just as unexpected and exceptional as I have.

The House Sparrows don't seem too impressed with this new visitor.

The Moorhen wasn't the only first I had in the past week as on Friday the 13th no less I saw a Dipper on Orrell Water Park which was my first record for the site. I had heard a second hand report of one being seen there last winter but I didn't know how reliable that sighting was and I didn't connect with it on my regular walks back then. There is very little suitable habitat for Dippers within the park boundary and the site is heavily disturbed with walkers and dog walkers, with me being one of them, so this is going to be a difficult species to see for anyone who keeps a tick list for Orrell Water Park. I didn't expect to see one despite the report of one being seen last winter so two good firsts for me in the same week. 

Late breeding

The breeding season is well and truly over for most birds in this part of the world but for at least one species it is not over yet. I was on the phone to my broadband provider at lunchtime today when I noticed a juvenile Woodpigeon on the privet hedge in the front garden and it appeared to be a young juvenile at that. The phone call quickly became the least of my concerns and I grabbed my camera and hastily took a few record shots through the window.

The original Boaty McBoatface.
Juvenile Woodpigeons have a wide almost boat shaped bill which helps them take pigeon milk, a crop secretion they are fed on, from their parents. 

You can see it had already replaced a few feathers on the head and the shoulder of its wings but that could have started immediately on fledging or even before it left the nest. Juveniles of some species start moulting before they leave the nest and this can be accelerated later in the season.

It quivered its wings from time to time which immediately suggested it was trying to solicit food from a parent and then I noticed an adult Woodpigeon a couple of metres away on the bird bath. The adult Woodpigeon then joined the juvenile and started to feed it. There is nothing subtle about an adult Woodpigeon feeding a juvenile and it often looks like a tussle and a trial of strength.

Get in there.

Woodpigeons have quite a long breeding season which can start as early as February and can extend into November and even December, although there can be some variation between years, regions and habitats. While this record of late breeding isn't without precedent for Woodpigeons it is certainly the latest I have recorded locally and for my garden in particular. Woodpigeons are one of the few species that are on the up and have benefitted from both garden feeding and some changes in agricultural practices.

Siskins in short supply.

Things had been looking quite promising for Siskins in the garden this spring with birds starting to visit the feeders back in late December and then more regularly through January and into early February. Up to five were seen visiting the feeders in late December and that increased to between five and ten through January and into early February but then numbers fell away. That sudden and unexpected drop off in numbers was also mirrored by Goldfinches and other species so it wasn't just a Siskin thing which makes it a bit harder to understand.

The prospects for the spring looked to be good at the end of January with up to 10 Siskins visiting the feeders.

This is one of 7 feeders in the garden. All were well used in late January and needed topping up or filling every day.

The drop off in numbers of all species started ahead of the spell of exceptionally warm weather that came in late February but that doesn't mean the weather wasn't a factor. Temperatures could be involved as it has been quite a mild winter overall but wet or dry conditions can make a difference too. Cones on alder and conifers open and close in response to moisture levels which can make their seeds more or less easily accessible and their productivity also varies from year to year. The mild conditions have caused some tree buds to develop early and willow catkins to emerge which are another energy rich food source for Siskins and other finches. The fact that Siskins are variable migrants in terms of numbers and distances involved and can be very early breeders all adds to the complexity but it is all food related in one way or another. Bottom line it is currently looking like being a relatively poor spring for Siskins in my garden this year. Currently a maximum of three are visiting the feeders at any one time and then only on a fairly intermittent basis. If it was going to be a good spring for Siskins I would expect counts to be in double figures by now (18 were ringed in the garden on 6th March last year) with birds being seen in the garden throughout much of the day.

Ringing revealed there were a few more Siskins visiting the feeders than the counts alone had indicated, as is often the case, but the overall picture was the same. At least 7 different individuals visited the feeders in late December and one of those was a retrap that was originally ringed in February 2018. In January and February a total of 16 different individuals were captured: of these 12 were new birds, 3 were retraps that had been ringed in December and another retrap had been ringed in December 2017. In the past Siskins were exclusively late winter and spring visitors to the feeders but the last few years have seen small numbers arriving much earlier in the winter with some being ringed returning birds. It will be interesting to see if this trend of early arrival and winter to winter retraps continues or even increases in the coming years.

Male Siskin 31/01/2019.
I took a series of photographs of this bird and managed to read part of the ring number which pointed to it being one of the returning wintering birds.

Female Siskin 31/01/2019

There is still time for numbers to increase as we move further into spring but any build up in numbers will be much later than usual and is likely to involve fewer birds than last year, if it happens at all.  

Mainly negative news

Another 2 disappointing visits to the site at Billinge but at least the garden is producing better than expected results.

Billinge 12th September 2018
A total of 31 birds from 3 nests may not sound too bad but it was well below what I have come to expect from this site in mid-September. The big news was the continued lack of Goldcrests, only 1 caught and that was the only one seen or heard, and the low numbers of Chiffchaffs, 2 being a pitiful total for the date. Visible migration was almost none existent and the few Meadow Pipits that were moving were not even passing over at the rate of a trickle, more of an an intermittent drip. The only highlights were a late(ish) Willow Warbler and a similar late(ish) Whitethroat.
Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) were: Blue Tit 8 (1); Great Tit 4; Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 2; Blackcap 2; Whitethroat 1; Goldcrest 1, Song Thrush 1, Robin 1, Meadow Pipit 4, Linnet 2, Goldfinch 2, Reed Bunting 1.

Willow Warbler 12/09/2018

Whitethroat 12/09/2018

Billinge 13th September 2018
If I thought the 12th was poor the 13th was even worse. Nothing was caught in the first hour and only 9 birds were caught after 3 hours so I cut my losses and packed up early. Goldcrests were absent again which continues to suggest there has been a crash in their population; I have only ringed 3 so far this September compared to 56 by the same date in 2014, 34 in 2015, 58 in 2016, and 90 in 2018. The lower than usual numbers of Chiffchaff also continued. Sightings of note were limited to a high flying Song Thrush that was heading south, a Siskin south and another or the same north later, and a grounded Wheatear.
Ringing totals were: Blue Tit 1; Great Tit 3; Chiffchaff 3; Blackcap 1; Reed Bunting 1.

Garden 1st to 14th September 2018
Back home Starlings are visiting the feeders in bigger numbers and more often than they usually do at this time of year. A total of 53 were ringed from the 1st to the 13th and I manged to ring another 8 on the 14th which is unprecedented for my garden. While I catch large numbers in May and June numbers usually fall off sharply in July and I don't normally catch any in August or September. This year numbers dropped off as usual through most of July but then they started to pick up again towards the end of that month and they have continued to increase since then. Now a mob of up to 30 Starlings visit the feeders periodically throughout the day and more than one mob may be involved.

A retrap Starling caught on the 13th was suffering from avian pox. It had at least 11 lesions of various sizes dotted about its body although most (6) were on its head. It was originally ringed on 20th May when it showed no sign of the disease. A set of images and details will be sent to the Garden Wildlife Health project via their website.

Back to blogging

It has taken a while, and much longer than I would have liked, but I have finally got round to posting on the blog again. I am not one for mentioning much about my personal life but the ups and downs of life, with all their twists and turns, have taken up a lot of my time over the last few months and pushed the blog to the bottom of the things to do list. Principal amongst the lows was the failing health of my 97 year old mother and the difficulty of trying to meet her wish of staying in her own home. Eventually, caring for her there became impractical and we had to move her in with us until old age and age related heart failure finally got the better of her. That is more detail than I would normally give on such matters and was only one of the factors involved but I thought such a long absence from the blog merited some explanation.

So enough about that stuff, this blog is about birds and other wildlife and I have managed to fit in some ringing despite all the other things that have been going on. Back in late May I completed my Starling RAS project for this year and it was another successful season with a total of 168 different adults encountered (31 new birds and 137 colour-ringed birds re-sighted). Starlings appear to have had a good breeding season and I have ringed more juvenile Starlings in the garden than in any previous year with the total currently standing at 489 (it increased by 3 whilst writing this post). I don't usually catch many juvenile Starlings after the middle of June and, initially, that was the case again this year but numbers visiting the feeders started to pick up again in late July and small numbers have been making regular raids on the fat feeders since then. This has resulted in 85 being ringed since late July compared to only 25 over the same period last year.

Visits to other sites have been less frequent than in other years but I started to rectify that once we got into August. A visit to the site at Billinge on 30th August was the most productive of the recent sessions and is worthy of specific mention. I had been joined by Mark, who was over from America to visit family, and we set 3 nets in the top willows. Conditions were ideal for mist netting, being calm and largely overcast, and while ideal netting conditions don't always coincide with good numbers of migrants this was one day when they did. Blackcaps were the most numerous species and the total of 20 ringed was a new day record for the site. Twenty isn't a big catch by the standards of some sites but it is for the Billinge site which isn't blessed with much in the way of berries. The most unusual captures were a male Redstart, which Mark was especially pleased to see in the hand, and 2 Spotted Flycatchers which were caught just after he had to leave, well you can't win them all. A catch of 9 Willow Warblers was also a decent number for late August. A total of 60 birds were ringed which broke down as follows: Blue Tit 10; Great Tit 5; Chiffchaff 9; Willow Warbler 9; Blackcap 20; Robin 2; Spotted Flycatcher 2; Redstart 1; Goldfinch 1; Yellowhammer 1.

1cy male Redstart

1cy Spotted Flycatcher

I can't promise when the next post will be but hopefully there won't be anything like a gap of 3 months before the next one comes along. In fact it should be fairly soon as I hope to get out on Wednesday and failing that there are some interesting recoveries that I want to share.

Quiet at Billinge but busy in the garden.

It has been very quiet at Billinge over the last week and 4 visits (22nd, 24th, 25th & 28th) only resulted in a combined total of 7 birds caught [Willow Warbler 1, Blackcap 2, Robin 1, Tree Pipit 1, Great Tit 1 (1)]. Visible migration was minimal, to say the least, and there was no significant change in the numbers of warblers present with Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Blackcap the only species on territory.

It may have been a poor week but a Tree Pipit, the 2nd to be ringed this spring, provided some consolation.

While there has not been much happening at Billinge the garden has been getting very busy. The cold spring has delayed breeding in many species but it doesn't appear to have had much of an effect on the local Starlings and most pairs are feeding nestlings now. I run a RAS project on Starlings and attract them to the garden with home made fat blocks but more about that in a future post.

The vast majority of Starlings coming to the feeders were colour-ringed in previous years and 77 individuals have been re-sighted in the last week.

Tales of the unexpected.

I had an unexpected visitor in the garden on the 6th in the form of a Blackcap. I had been keeping an eye on the feeders when I suddenly noticed there was a male Blackcap feeding on the fat blocks. There hadn't been any Blackcaps in the garden during the winter nor had I encountered any of the summer visiting variety this spring so it was my first sighting for the year, anywhere. As it seemed quite at home feeding on the fat blocks I suspected it could be a bird that had wintered in the UK rather than one that had just returned to breed as I wouldn't have thought the latter would recognise the fat blocks as food. Obviously it is only a suspicion but I think it is a reasonable one.

Not the sort of feeding behaviour you would expect to see if this were a returning summer visitor or at least that is my thinking. 

It looked to be an experienced garden hand-out junkie and chose the fat block over the apples that were available.

I put a net up in the garden the next morning (7th) with the primary aim of catching Siskins as a few were still visiting the feeders. The first bird caught was a Blackcap and it was almost certainly the bird I had seen on the fat blocks the previous day. It was a 2nd calendar year bird, so hatched last year, and it was carrying a moderate amount of fat with a score of 3 on the ESF scale. More importantly it now has a ring on it so there as a chance of finding out which type of Blackcap it is, winter visitor or summer visitor.

I only caught one other bird before rain curtailed proceedings and that was a Siskin, the target species, and it was the fattest Siskin I have caught this spring. It weighed 17.0g which means at least one third of its weight was fat. Siskins that attain such weights are likely to be of Scandinavian origin or from further east as it is far more fuel than would be required if it was just returning to Scotland to breed.

Yesterday (the 8th) I went up to the site at Billinge in the hope there would be a marked increase in warblers and some Redpolls moving through. Unfortunately the session was marred by fog which was very slow to clear and when it finally did some banks of fog or murk lingered in the surrounding areas. There were one or two more Chiffchaffs and Willow Warblers singing but that was about it and there were no Redpolls or anything else on the move overhead. However, it wasn't a complete waste of time as I did catch a bird that I would never have predicted, and that was a Fieldfare. They are pretty scarce on this side of the country once you get into April and they are never easy to catch so ringing one today was totally unexpected. It wasn't the only Fieldfare present as another was heard and seen through the gloom along with a Redwing.

Fieldfare 08/04/2018

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for 8th April 2018 were: Goldcrest 3; Blue Tit (1); Willow Warbler 1; Blackbird 1; Fieldfare 1.

Siskin Summary

It has been a reasonable winter and early spring for Siskins in the garden and it isn't over yet. The first Siskins were seen on the feeders back in late November which is relatively early for my garden and, interestingly, both were adult males and both were already wearing rings. Counts stayed in single figures through December, January and the early part of February, although ringing showed there was a little bit of  turnover. Numbers increased in the second half of February and peaked in early March when up to 20 were counted but there was some turnover over the course of each day so the actual peak was probably closer to 30. Counts fluctuated markedly through the middle of March and continued fluctuating as numbers dropped off through the latter part of the month. That brings us right up to today when 5 were present.

Adult male Siskin ringed 28/03/2018

A total of 77 have been ringed and there has been 1 control and that had been ringed 4 days earlier at a site 6km away. Regular readers of the blog will know I have photographed several birds that were ringed prior to this winter and although I wasn't able read the full ring numbers I could read enough to be reasonably confident that they had been ringed in the garden. Frustratingly, they all managed to avoid being recaptured but a different returning bird was retrapped recently; S144917 had been ringed on 19/04/2016 and was retrapped a couple of days ago, on 28/03/2018.

Adult female Siskin S144917 was originally ringed in the garden on 19/04/2016 and retrapped there on 28/03/2018

I have had similar retraps in subsequent years before and they are interesting because Siskins are irruptive migrants. The proportion of the population that migrates and the distance they move varies from one year to the next in response to the availability of food. In some years, like autumn/winter 2014/15, they don't migrate and are able to stay on or very near their breeding areas because of an abundance of natural food. I didn't get any Siskins in my garden that winter or in the following spring, as was the experience of most ringers. The recapture of birds from one winter or spring to the next or after intervals of more than a year shows that some birds use traditional routes and traditional feeding sites, including well stocked gardens like mine, but only when they need to move that far.

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.