1st to 3rd April highlights

1st April

A day of showers but a brief ringing session at Billinge during a dry interlude produced my first Willow Warbler of the year, a new Blackbird and a retrap Great Tit. At least 2 other Willow Warblers were recorded at the site along with a singing Blackcap (per CAD). On returning home I was greeted by another Willow Warbler that was singing in the gardens behind the house.

Willow Warbler 01/04/2017

2nd April

Totals for a longer ringing session at Billinge (using just 2 nets) were: 1 Common (Mealy) Redpoll, 3 Lesser Redpolls, a retrap Chiffchaff (originally ringed as a juvenile 24/07/16) and a retrap Willow Warbler (originally ringed as a first-year 23/07/16). There was very little in the way of visible migration but 3 Crossbills and a Sand Martin went north. A Wheatear was also seen leaving the site and heading off north.

Not the frostiest Mealy Redpoll but a Mealy nevertheless.

Mealy Redpoll (left) and Lesser Redpoll (right).

Back home a Red-green Carpet, 2 Caloptilia stigmatella and a Caloptilia elongella were the pick of the moth catch.

Red-green Carpet

Caloptilia stigmatella. Micros are not my forte but some are fairly easy to identify.

Caloptilia elongella. This species can be difficult to separate from Caloptilia betulicola but I am fairly confident this one is elongella.

3rd April

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) for another session at Billinge were: Willow Warbler 1; Chiffchaff 1 (1); Blackcap 1; Lesser Redpoll 2. The retrap Chiffchaff was originally ringed as a first-year on 20/09/16. There was virtually no movement overhead despite the seemingly perfect conditions and just 1 Siskin and 2 Meadow Pipits were recorded going north during 4 hours of observation.

Female Blackcap. The feathers around the base of the bill were matted with pollen residue, a sure sign of a recently arrived migrant. 

Chiffchaff

The new Chiffchaff had relatively pale legs rather than the text book dark brown or blackish legs.

Back home the moth trap held a surprise in the form of a Water Carpet; a new species for the garden. Having run a moth trap in the garden for many years the catching of a new species has become an increasingly rare and sometimes less than annual event.

Water Carpet: a first for the garden!!!

All in all an interesting few days and a good start to the month.

Unusual Hebrew Character

The Hebrew Character (a moth for those that don't know) is named after the black, roughly saddle shaped mark in the middle of its forewing. There is some variation in this marking and there may also be some variation in the general ground colour of the forewing but the Hebrew Characters I usually catch in the garden are what you might describe as much of a muchness.

When I checked the moth trap on the morning of 31st March there was a reasonable catch that included a Red-green Carpet, a Small Quaker, an Early Grey, 8 Common Quaker, a handful of Clouded Drab and a similar number of Hebrew Character. When I am recording the contents the trap the common species like Hebrew Character don't usually get much of a second look but on this occasion one of them really stood out as looking very different.

Unusual looking Hebrew Character.

All the same but different. I hate to think of how many Hebrew Characters I have seen over the years (probably in the low thousands by now) but the unusual looking specimen in the middle was a first for me.

When faced with what appears to be an unusual variant in moths there is sometimes the possibility that it isn't a variant and it turns out to be a different species or if it is a variant that it is a distinct, named subspecies or named form. That isn't the case with this unusual individual and it appears to be a very rare form or aberration that hasn't been named.

There is an image of a similar looking individual on the UK Moths website (link here) which is simply described as an 'unusual form' but that is the only reference to anything similar I can find.

Hotchpotch

This post is an assortment of things that I have photographed over the last week along with a short summary of recent ringing activities.

Woodpigeons have caught my attention again but this time it was birds that were in the top of an Ash tree (Fraxinus excelsior) across the road from the garden. I had noticed birds spending a lot of time there and hadn't really thought much of it as seeing Woodpigeons in a tree is hardly unusual. However, when I got my bins on them and had a proper look I could see they were eating the leaves and that was a bit of a surprise, to me at least. I knew Woodpigeons were partial to the flowers of Ash but I didn't know they also ate the leaves and they have really thinned out the leaves in the top of this particular tree.

This bird is about to swallow a piece of a leaf and you can also see that some of the smaller branches have been stripped of many of their leaves.

In this image you can easily see some of the leaves that have been partially eaten against the birds upper breast..

Another leaf is about to be eaten.

I am not into flowers in a big way but the meadow areas at the Billinge ringing site have some of the most impressive areas of Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) that I have ever seen and they are at their best at the moment. A few orchids are also flowering and while I hadn't gone looking for nests I found a Meadow Pipits while photographing the flowers.

Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) 08/06/2016

Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi) 08/06/2016

Marsh Orchid spp. 08/06/2016, probably Southern Marsh Orchid or Southern hybrid.

Meadow Pipit nest 08/06/2016

Back at home the moth trap hasn't produced anything out of the ordinary but variety and numbers are slowly improving.

Lime Hawkmoth 08/06/2016

Ruby Tiger 08/06/2016

Green Silver-lines and Miller 10/06/2016

Pebble Hook-tip 12/06/2016

Peach Blossom 12/06/2016

Scorched Wing 13/06/2016

On the ringing front a very short ringing session at Crawford on the 9th and another there on the 12th produced combined totals as follows (retraps in brackets): Tree Sparrow 20 (4); House Sparrow 2; Greenfinch 17 (2); Goldfinch 9 (2); Chaffinch 2; Robin 3; Dunnock 2; Whitethroat 1; Great Tit 5 (1).
Tree Sparrows seem to be having a good breeding season as I have now caught 33 at Crawford in the last 10 days with 30 being juveniles.

Juvenile Tree Sparrow

Adult male House Sparrow; an increasingly scarce sight these days.
Studies have shown that individuals with larger black bibs are more dominant.

Juvenile House Sparrow 12/06/2016.
While Tree Sparrows seem to be doing ok the same can't be said for House Sparrows. They have virtually disappeared from my garden.

Juvenile Greenfinch 12/06/2016.
The extensive areas of yellow on the tail and outer webs of the primaries mean this bird can be easily sexed as a male.

I am still catching quite a few new Starlings in the garden (mostly juveniles but a few new adults too) and I have now ringed 287 juveniles over the last 5 weeks. Numbers visiting the garden should tail off rapidly now, as birds disperse and form post breeding flocks, so I don't expect to ring many more this breeding season.

This and that

It has been a couple of weeks since my last post so I thought I should cobble something together by way of a catch up. There hasn't been one stand out thing to write about but there have been some bits and bobs worth mentioning. On the birding front I have had Common Crossbills flying over Billinge and Crawford on a total of 4 occasions with most heading west. There have also been some unusually early flocks of Siskins moving south which are likely to be the forerunners or foreflyers of a large scale irruption this autumn. 

Sitka Spruce produced a bumper crop of seeds last year which meant few Crossbills, Siskins and Redpolls migrated in search of food and led to an almost complete absence of Siskins on garden feeders this spring. A bumper crop generally results in better survival and a good breeding season but is often followed by below average seed production and so provides the circumstances that can lead to large scale irruptions of the associated species.

It really looks like we are heading for one of those autumns/winters where the irruptive species come to the fore and steal the birding headlines. I don't think these irruptions will be confined to a few seed eating species either as I also think the conditions are developing for a good arrival of Waxwings. It may not be quite on the scale of the 2012/13 irruption but I certainly think it could be a good one. Why do I think it could be a Waxwing winter and the simple answer is the cold spring and its impact on pollinators and berry production across much of northern Europe. If the Rowan and Hawthorn in this area are anything to go by the berry crop could be down by at least 50% on last year if not more.

So there are some predictions or perhaps I should say educated guesses based on recent observations. Make of them what you will but right or wrong I will refer back to them later in the year when we know what has actually happened. I certainly think it is a year where some big irruptions are on the cards. One thing we don't have to wait for is to know that it has been an abysmal breeding season for many insectivorous species. I have never known so many warblers singing so late in the season such has been the level of nest failure so far and the woods and scrub near me are what you could call almost titless. 

So what have I been ringing? Well I am still catching Redpolls and Goldfinches coming to the feeders at Crawford although Tree Sparrows have dropped off now that winter cereals are starting to ripen. My last visit to Billinge on the evening of the 9th produced a few Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Linnets along with a fairly good catch of 21 Swallows that came to roost in the willows. As for the garden my local Starlings seem to have gone on their summer holidays and have largely vacated the area despite the constant supply of food. However I have caught a few Woodpigeons in the garden including two that needed fishing line removing from their feet. One of these Woodpigeons also happened to be an unusually dark individual.

Adult male Lesser Redpoll

A duskier than normal Woodpigeon and it does stand out as looking dark in the field.

This Woodpigeon was lucky to be caught and have the fishing line removed before any permanent damage was done.

Moth catches have remained below par to say the least and are a fraction of what they should be at this time of year. The only species that seem to be present in near normal numbers are Buff Ermine and perhaps Ghost Moth. Not much else I can say about the moths or lack of them other than it was nice to catch two Garden Tigers today. Garden Tiger is a declining species that is less than annual in the garden despite its name. However, Poplar, Elephant and Eyed Hawk moths are regular in the garden although they have generally emerged later and in smaller numbers this year.

Garden Tiger 12/07/15

Garden Tiger 12/07/15

Poplar Hawk Moth

Poplar Hawk Moth

Elephant Hawk Moths

Eyed Hawk Moth

Finally, an odd looking Blackbird appeared in the garden earlier today. It looked like it was carrying something until I realised it had a huge growth in its bill. It turned out it was a bird that had been ringed in the garden on 9th May when it showed some signs of a problem with the upper mandible but nothing on the scale of its appearance today. I was surprised to see that it was still able to feed with such a large mass growing from the roof of the upper mandible but it managed to pick up some food from the bird table. However, the growth is clearly taking its toll on the bird's ability to preen and clearly limits its forward vision. It is a surprise it has managed to survive thus far and shows how resilient some birds can be.

No it isn't carrying anything it is a growth on the underside of the upper mandible.

The same bird when it it was ringed on 9th May

Become a birdwatcher for £15.49

I am still not getting out much and have become stir crazy or perhaps I should say Starling crazy as a result. This self imposed incarceration is down to my attempts to catch all the adult Starlings that visit the garden. Recapturing some of the birds that were ringed in previous years has proved to be quite difficult and some individuals have taken many hours to catch. Each bird is caught individually in a manually operated cage trap and I have to watch all the birds that go in the trap to feed to see if they are birds I need to catch for the study. Birds I have already colour-ringed happily come back to feed in the trap and I may have to watch dozens come and go, several times in some cases, before I see one that I need to catch. I have now caught 128 different adults and this probably represents about 95% of the Starlings that breed within feeding range of the garden. With a week of the study period to go I may be able to push that percentage even higher.

The first juvenile Starling followed its parents into the garden a couple of days ago and the numbers have grown since then. I have only ringed 9 of the juveniles so far as I am still concentrating on the adults but I expect to ring up to 200 juvs over the next month or so.

So what do I do while waiting for Starlings to enter a trap; well the answer is all manner of useful and not so useful things that don't take me too far from the window. Today I found myself thumbing through a product brochure that had been posted through the door. To my amusement I found becoming a birdwatcher only costs £15.49.

Another advert that caught my eye was for toast tongs. Apparently they have a little magnetic bit for handy storage and I am sure we all know a place that we would like to stick such an item.

The advert that gave me the biggest smile was for coal paint, yes coal paint as in paint for coal. If your imitation nutty slack is not black enough then this is the product for you. I would love to meet the person who has dull and faded coals that are in need of a lick of coal paint. I bet they have toast tongs stored in a very handy location and also became a birdwatcher for £15.49.

Back to more usual blog content and I haven't mentioned moths recently and that is because the moth trap has hardly caught a thing for a while now. It has been one of the worst springs for moths that I can remember and this must be having a knock on effect on some species of birds as there will be fewer caterpillars around as a result. There were only 3 moths in the trap this morning which was really poor given the date. There were 2 Poplar Hawk Moths and a Bright-line Brown-eye, both species being firsts for the year.

Poplar Hawk Moths 24/05/15