The lure of Tree Pipits.

I have been really frustrated by the weather over the past week or so to put it mildly. Just as we were getting into the peak migration period for Tree Pipits the weather pattern changed and low pressure dominated bringing wetter and windier conditions. Unfortunately this part of the country has been dogged by frequent showers coming in off Liverpool Bay on a stiff north westerly wind with the showers being most frequent in the mornings. When the showers have cleared it has generally been far too windy and too late in the day to contemplate any ringing. However, I have done what I can and even gone ringing for very short periods between the showers on some of the calmer mornings. On the plus side some of these outings have resulted in good catches of Willow Warblers that were grounded by the showers.

Ringing totals (retraps in brackets) and number of Tree Pipits recorded:

15th - Linnet 14, Willow Warbler 10 (1), Chiffchaff 3, Blackcap 1, Bullfinch 2, Chaffinch 2, Reed Bunting 1, Tree Pipit 3. At least 11 Tree Pipits were recorded heading south.

16th - Willow Warbler 13, Whitethroat 3, Linnet 2, Goldfinch 3, Robin 1, WillowTit 1. No Tree Pipits ringed but 3 went south.

20th - Willow Warbler 13, Goldcrest 1, Tree Pipit 2. A total of 4 Tree Pipits seen in this very brief ringing session.

21st - Willow Warbler 4, Chiffchaff 3, Goldfinch 1, Robin 1. At least 7 Tree Pipits went south but none were caught.

22nd - Willow Warbler 4, Chiffchaff 2 (1), Goldcrest 2, Garden Warbler 1, Sedge Warbler 1, Jay 1, Chaffinch 2, Tree Pipit 3, A total of 7 Tree Pipits recorded.

With 8 Tree Pipits ringed from a minimum of 32 recorded it is clear that many have pushed through despite the unpromising wind direction and very showery conditions. Had the weather been more favourable it is likely that the number of Tree Pipits seen and ringed would have been higher. Having said that another 8 Tree Pipits ringed from a total of 32 recorded is still a significant number for the county, never mind one site. It will certainly change the status of Tree Pipits as a migrant in this area, especially when the previous catches and sightings are taken into consideration.

The only glimmer of hope in the weather forecasts for drier and calmer conditions was with a ridge of high pressure that was due to sit over the country today (24th). Fortunately the forecast came good and I was out well before first light to make the most of it. Today was either going to be a day of delight or a day of disappointment but as it turned out it was somewhere in between. The Tree Pipit floodgates didn't open as I had hoped they would and there was little in the way of visible migration despite the seemingly good conditions. Two Grey Wagtails went south but other than that it was just the occasional Tree Pipit and I mean occasional. A total of 8 Tree Pipits were logged up to 11am, when I packed up, and 5 of those were caught and ringed which is good but just not as good as I had hoped given the conditions.

A stunning adult Tree Pipit.

The only juvenile Tree Pipit caught today. The median coverts on this individual are old juvenile feathers having paler fringes with no olive tones.

It has only taken me a little under 3 weeks to go from being delighted with 1 Tree Pipit to expecting to catch them in double figures but that is how things have gone. I have now ringed 40 Tree Pipits since 4th August which is a phenomenal number all things considered and there could still be some good catches to come. Surprisingly 4 of the 5 Tree Pipits caught today were adults and it will be interesting to see what the proportion of adults to juvs looks like at the end of the autumn.

Most of the adult Tree Pipits were only just finishing their moult and had some remnants of feather sheath at the base of the 2nd primary.

And another stunning adult Tree Pipit.

The morning ended with 24 birds ringed as follows: Tree Pipit 5, Meadow Pipit 1, Willow Warbler 5, Chiffchaff 5, Whitethroat 1, Blackcap 1, Chaffinch 3, Coal Tit 1, Reed Bunting 1 and Nuthatch 1.

Juvenile Meadow Pipit

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

Female Nuthatch and the first I have ringed at this site although they are common in mature woods nearby.

Forecast failure

The forecast for this morning was perfect - calm at dawn followed by a very light west to northwesterly breeze, decreasing cloud cover and no rain. When I got it up it was certainly calm but the leaden skies suggested some rain was possible. I decided to get ready anyway and just hoped the cloud would thin and break up. I headed off to Billinge and soon had a couple of nets up but I hadn't been there long before I felt the first few drops of rain. It didn't amount to much and soon stopped but the sky remained threatening. I carried on ringing, keeping a wary eye on the sky, knowing I could close the nets and pack up quickly should I need to.

The catching rate was slow in the dreary conditions but a trickle of Willow Warblers found their way into the nets and it was clear there were a few more around than there had been on my last visit but very little else. Odd spots of rain and brief light showers continued on and off  but a Tree Pipit arrived and was caught despite the unpromising conditions for such diurnal migrants. I decided to pack up early when more prolonged showers threatened but not before a Lesser Whitethroat was caught, my first of the autumn, and a stunner to boot. The forecast may have let me down but the birds didn't.

A freshly moulted adult Willow Warbler.

The second Tree Pipit for the site and hot on the heels of the first. I didn't notice with the first but Tree Pipits have really big eyes relative to the size of their head.

Lesser Whitethroat.
A scarce breeder and passage migrant in this area. This is the first I have ringed this year and is potentially a new species for the site.

Lesser Whitethroat, so good looking I had to show it twice.

Ringing Totals for 07/08/14 with retraps in brackets
Willow Warbler 10 (1)
Chiffchaff 1
Blackcap 1
Lesser Whitethroat 1
Linnet 3
Great Tit 2
Coal Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 1
Robin 1
Tree Pipit 1
Total 22 (1)

Rain rain go away...............

I am getting really hacked off with all the rain now. I haven’t been flooded like some unfortunate folk so I shouldn’t complain but enough is enough. I seem to have spent more time drying my gear out rather than being out in the field over the last couple of weeks.

I managed to get out ringing yesterday afternoon and again this morning but both sessions were curtailed by the wet stuff. If I ever win the lottery I will move or build a covered ringing site or both. Well there is always dreaming but an open sided barn type construction with clear polycarbonate roof sheeting should work or is that the rain fever starting to manifest itself.

Mobile phone weather apps are really useful and the nets are furled in good time but I have got wet packing up and walking home or loading the car on the last two outings.

I had to top up the feeders at Haigh yesterday and decided to put up a two nets for a couple of hours or so. Totals of 26 new birds and 21 retraps were recorded before the rain intervened and included 5 new Bramblings with Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Blackbird and Goldfinch making up much of the remainder of new birds.

This morning I went to the baited site at Longshaw and put up a 60ft and 40ft net. Plenty of birds arrived shortly after first light but many are ringed and clearly know how to avoid the nets. However, I still caught 23 new birds and 10 retraps along with 2 controls before the forecast rain arrived. This included another 7 new Bramblings and brought the total ringed since early November to 175. The two controls were a Greenfinch and a Long-tailed Tit that, judging by their ring numbers, will have been ringed 3 kilometres away at Kings Moss on the other side of Billinge Hill.

 

Adult male Brambling caught today. How far has this one travelled?

There may be some sunshine Saturday afternoon but otherwise the weather looks fairly grim; time to get out the multivitamins, hit the sunbeds or leave the country.

Home grown Willow Tit retrapped today but still a cracker.

Ringing totals for 26^th and 27^th December (retraps in brackets)
 

Blackbird 4
Blue Tit 1 (6)
Brambling 12 (3)
Chaffinch 14 (1)
Bullfinch – (1)
Coal Tit 1
Goldfinch 2
Great Tit 2 (6)
Greenfinch 10 (7 +1 control)
Willow Tit - (1)
Great-spotted Woodpecker – (1)
Robin 2 (2)
Long-tailed Tit 1 (3 + 1 control)
Totals: 49 new birds, 31 retraps and 2 controls

Spot on weather forecast

This post could have had various titles -. ‘More of the same’, ‘Bramblings feature again’, or ‘Told you I would bore you with Bramblings’ but the spot on weather forecast won it by a mile. Tomorrow is the better day of the weekend but I have to work so I wanted to fit in a session at Haigh this morning if possible.
 
The forecast was for a band of rain coming through overnight and clearing early morning. I have been let down by forecasts on many an occasion so I wasn’t overly optimistic. I got up at 6am and it was raining quite hard. A check of the rainfall radar via the internet showed a band of rain straddling the area with a clearance coming in from the northwest. I set off for Haigh at 6:40am while it was still raining. The rain stopped as I arrived but there were some ominous clouds about as the sky brightened. I put up 2 nets by 7:30 by which time there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The sky remained crystal clear as forecast for the remainder of the day so the forecast was spot on after all.

I was keen to fit in a ringing session at Haigh because Brambling invasions don’t come around that often and the cost of baiting sites is not insignificant. When I started ringing many years ago my trainer used all manner of waste grain and some of it was very rough by today’s standards to say the least; black sunflower was not in our vocabulary back then. These days you seem to have to use high quality feed to get any results. This seems to be a bit of a contradiction with a more sterile agriculture and declining bird populations but is certainly my experience. Even peanuts are not the Greenfinch magnet they once were.

What does this tell us; well bird populations have certainly declined but the remainder will always aggregate around the best food available so it is easy to be deluded to thinking everything is ok. If you are feeding the best, and that is what we tend to do these days, you may not notice fewer birds at your feeders even though many populations are declining. We use constant effort sites to help monitor bird population trends in summer but I am not aware of anyone who has done any constant feeding experiments to measure change in feeding habits and preferences. Sales of niger seed, sunflower hearts, and black sunflower seed have never been higher and were unheard of not that many years ago or am I that old.

At the end of the day a sack of waste grain will not produce the same results as it did as little as 30 years ago and mainly because bird populations have declined that much. Peanuts are not the Greenfinch magnet they once were because Greenfinches have declined significantly whilst artificial food availability has increased so the remainder can afford to be more choosey or that is my theory.

Today’s ringing totals at Haigh were (retraps in brackets):
Blackbird 3
Blue 6 (2)
Brambling 15 (3)
Chaffinch 10 (2)
Coal Tit 0 (2)
Dunnock 1
Goldcrest 1
Greenfinch 14 (3)
Great Tit 5 (2)
Great-spotted Woodpecker 1
Robin 2 (1)
Totals 58 (+15)

Bramblings topped the totals again which indicates there are a lot in the country along with a shortage of natural food sources such as beech mast. We ringed none with a similar feeding regime in the previous winter period which says a lot.