Rapid Goldfinch movement.

Earlier this month, in a blog post titled 'fatties', I mentioned catching some Goldfinches at Crawford that had significant fat deposits. I went on to say that they were migrants that would be heading much further north to breed and presumably to somewhere in Scotland or Northern Ireland. Since then I have caught other Goldfinches at Crawford with varying amounts of fat and I recently received a recovery report for one of them. Goldfinch ACF5670 was ringed at Crawford on 07/04/2019 at 09:20 and was subsequently caught by a ringer in Leswalt, Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway just 2 days later on 09/04/2019 at 14:00.

It was a small female that wasn't particularly fat and weighed 15.2g at the time it was ringed and subsequently weighed 13.9g when it was recaptured at Leswalt. The weight difference of 1.3g gives some indication of how much fat it used to make the journey. The straight line distance from Crawford to Leswalt is 219 km but most of that direct route is over the sea, as can be seen from the map. Goldfinches generally avoid making long sea crossings and migrate overland as much as possible so it is unlikely to have taken the shortest direct route. If this bird took an overland route to Leswalt it will have travelled around 300km and possibly quite a bit further than that if it followed the convoluted coast of Northwest England and Southwest Scotland, even with a bit of a shortcut across an estuary here and there. There is also the possibility that it took a relatively direct route via the Isle of Man and there have been some recoveries that make that a realistic option but it still involves quite long sea crossings. One thing is sure it is an interesting movement for its speed whatever route was actually taken.





Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) Ring no: ACF5670
First-year Female   07-04-2019  Crawford, near Up Holland, Lancashire, England
Caught by ringer    09-04-2019   Leswalt, Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland
Duration: 2 days Distance: 219 km Direction: 317deg (NW)

Goldcrest Recoveries

It was a fantastic autumn for Goldcrests at Billinge and large numbers were ringed even before the big influx of continental birds that came in October. The ringing site itself doesn't hold any breeding pairs or wintering birds so all the Goldcrests caught are effectively passage migrants. A few pairs breed nearby and the first birds of the autumn were dispersing juveniles with 8 being ringed in July followed by another 16 in August. Autumn migration proper got underway in September and 258 were ringed that month. Numbers were boosted in October when some of the continental birds worked their way across the country from the east coast and the month ended with another 336 having been ringed. Reasonable numbers were still moving through in November but only 75 were caught as poor weather frequently hampered ringing.

In addition to the 693 birds ringed a total of 7 controls (birds ringed elsewhere) were caught and I have now received details for 6 of these birds. The first of the controls was a short distance movement of 3 km, a bird ringed at Kings Moss on 12/10/14 and controlled at Billinge on 07/09/15 and isn't mapped. The other controls had moved a good deal further as can be seen from their details and the map below. The two red pins mark the ringing sites of birds that are most likely to be from the British breeding population whilst the 3 yellow pins mark the ringing sites of continental birds that were caught during the large influx along the east coast. The black pin marks the ringing site at Billinge.

HKD161 ringed 05/04/15 Bardsey Island, Gwynedd - controlled Billinge 25/09/15
EBK202 ringed 11/10/13 Greystoke Forest, Cumbria - controlled Billinge 28/10/15
HVB825 ringed 16/10/15 Skelton Castle, Redcar & Cleveland - controlled Billinge 28/10/15
HHJ840 ringed 17/10/15 The Headland, Hartlepool - controlled Billinge 28/10/15
JDP045 ringed 11/10/15 Kilnsea, East Riding of Yorkshire - controlled Billinge 31/10/15

Control Goldcrest HHJ840 had been ringed 11 days earlier in Hartlepool.

It is early days yet but there have been two recoveries of Goldcrests that were ringed at Billinge this autumn and both were found freshly dead having flown into windows. JBX684 was ringed on 13/09/15 and was possibly still migrating when it was recovered in Long Itchington, Warwickshire on 19/10/15. 




The second recovery is of bird that was ringed quite recently and it was recovered surprisingly quickly. JJH263 was ringed at Billinge on 22/11/15 and was found dead at Lathom, Lancashire the following day having moved 11 km NW. This is a quick recovery and although it hadn't travelled far it shows that this bird still hadn't found a suitable unoccupied site where it could settle down for the winter. Goldcrests' food requirements of insects and insect eggs in particular means they can't winter at high density, even in good habitats, so this must play a big part in their movements and winter distribution. I did notice some noisy and aggressive behaviour between 3 Goldcrests near my garden recently. This appeared to be territorial in nature and such behaviour presumably plays a part in spreading birds out.



Details of the outstanding control and any further recoveries will be posted in due course..

Goldcrest HJV774 controlled at Billinge 20/10/15.
The ringing details of this bird have yet to be received but it certainly looks like a continental bird so it may also have been ringed on the east coast ??

One, two, Tree,............ eleven Pipits

I was back at Billinge just after sunrise this morning and the forecast was bob on, a light east to south easterly breeze and full high cloud cover forming a milky sky. I tried a new net configuration and set out to try and catch more Tree Pipits if any were passing over. I had checked various reports last night to see when peak passage of Tree Pipits occurs in autumn and the likes of Bardsey Island Bird Observatory usually records a peak in the second half of August. As the breeding season has been a little earlier this year I suspected the peak movement may be a little earlier too so I thought today may be a good time to start testing this out.

The first couple of net rounds were really disappointing as no birds were caught, zero, nothing, a complete blank. It seemed the clear skies in the early part of last night had resulted in quite a clear out of warblers as few were calling from the bushes. At 07:00 I heard the first Tree Pipit going over but on the next net round only a Willow Warbler and a Yellowhammer were caught so it looked like I wouldn't be catching very much at all. However the following net round produced 2 Tree Pipits, a Willow Warbler and a feisty juvenile male Sparrowhawk. After that it got even better with 4 Tree Pipits caught in one net and another 3 walking around underneath. The flurry of Tree Pipits continued and by 09:15 a total of 11 had been ringed from an estimated 15 to 20 seen, a very good day total in anybody's book and in many county reports too.

Tree Pipit. Only a few hundred full grown Tree Pipits are ringed in the UK each year.
See online ringing reports here.

Tree Pipit (Anthus trivalis).
You could get really bored of seeing pictures of these birds if the rest of the month is as productive as I hope it is.

Juvenile male Sparrowhawk.

Juvenile Whitethroat, one of only a few warblers that were around.

If you had not already guessed I have become really hooked on Tree Pipits after today's success and following the 2 ringed earlier this week. Will today's total be repeated or even bettered over the remainder of the month? Have numbers peaked already? There is only one way to find out.....................

Ringing totals for 08/08/14 with retraps in brackets:
Tree Pipit 11
Whitethroat 3
Willow Warbler 2
Chiffchaff 1
Long-tailed Tit 3 (2)
Chaffinch 1
Yellowhammer 1
Sparrowhawk 1
Goldfinch (1)
Total 23 (3)

Coot GC22050

Coots are really underrated birds. They move far more than people think because these movements are almost exclusively at night. I ringed GC22050 as a pullus (chick) within a few yards of my front door in Orrell on 10/06/10. It was subsequently caught and colour rings were added by Kane Brides in Southport. After that it was sighted at Martin Mere twice and then I photographed it at Pennington Flash, Leigh on 10/06/12. This latter sighting was two years to the day from ringing.

As their main food supply of aquatic vegetation varies in abundance between season and between sites it makes sense for them to know or be able to find potential feeding sites over quite a large area. Artificial food supplies will also influence movements. We think we know a lot but we have hardly scratched the surface even with quite common species like Coot. That is why I love ringing birds.


View Coot GC22050 in a larger map