Waxwing lyrical

OK, a crap title but I was watching Siskins on the feeders out of the window this morning when I suddenly realised there was a flock of Waxwings in the trees across the road. I shouted around the house to let everyone know and ran upstairs with the camera to try and get a shot. Before the camera was out of the bag several flew across the road and into the front garden and eyed up the apples that I put out for the Fieldfare.

I didn't dare open the window to take a photo as I didn't want to disturb them and a couple dropped down for a closer look at the apples. Unfortunately they all flushed before eating as the road in front of the house was quite busy with both traffic and people. A short time later they came back but flushed again before eating. There were 22 in the flock so I put more apples out should they come back again. A flock that size would need more than 4 apple halves and they had clearly seen them so they could come back (he hopes).

I had to call in at a couple of work sites in the afternoon so I decided to look out for some berries or hips on route that I could prune and bring back to supplement the apples. One of the sites I called in at was Pennington Flash. Work done I checked out the Black-headed Gulls by the car park. I only noticed one ringed bird but managed to photograph the full ring number. It was a Lithuanian ringed bird that I had previously photographed on 1st January. Yes a big jump from Waxwings to Black-headed Gulls but that is just how this story goes.

One view of the Lithuanian ring photographed today.

This bird was ringed as a chick near Kalviai, Lithuania in 2008 and was first recorded at Pennington Flash in January 2009 and has probably wintered there or in that general area every year since.


View Black-headed Gull HA06.762 in a larger map

On my way home I called in a supermarket and bought three bags of apples which is very optimistic for me and I also had a passenger foot well full of berries that I had pruned en route. On getting home there was no sign of any Waxwings but I put more apples out and also tied the berries in the trees in the front garden. While I was doing this a Waxwing suddenly appeared in the trees across the road so at least one was hanging about. Hopefully it was a scout and will be back tomorrow. So we have finally got back to Waxwings via a Lithuanian ringed Black-headed Gull and hopefully there will be more Waxwing lyrical to come. At least the Fieldfare, with its shiny new ring, will have more apples to choose from and was already taking advantage this afternoon.

Spinus a yarn

Overnight rain gave way to a dreary damp morning but with no wind or rain to speak of the conditions were ideal for a garden ringing session. I put up one 18ft net and was quickly rewarded with 5 Siskins and a Goldfinch in the first catch. One of the female Siskins had a very slightly crossed bill.

female Siskin (Carduelis spinus) with slightly crossed bill.



adult male Siskin (Carduelis spinus)


Siskins numbers have built up over the last week and around 20 came down to the feeders along with a similar number of Goldfinches. Sunflower hearts are their preferred food at the moment but it is amazing how much they waste. They seem to pick through the sunflower hearts discarding the ones they don't want and only eating part of the others.

Goldfinches (Carduelis carduelis).
Male left and female right. The male generally has a longer bill, more extensive and richer coloured red mask and black nasal hairs. The nasal hairs of the female are greyish white but are sometimes stained darker.
 

 A Fieldfare, which has been visiting the garden for almost three weeks now, blundered into the net when I went to extract a Greenfinch. This adult female has been getting through a daily ration of two apples. It has become a family favourite with everyone looking out for her each day.

adult female Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

I packed up after a couple of hours having caught 24 new birds and 1 retrap.

Ringing totals for 09/02/13 with retraps in brackets:
Siskin 16
Goldfinch 5 (1)
Greenfinch 1
Fieldfare 1
Long-tailed Tit 1

Just mooching

I got up this morning to find the Fieldfare was still visiting the garden. It has been coming to feed on apples every day even though the last of the snow melted at the beginning of the week. It has been semi resident for almost two weeks now and has been getting through at least two apples each day. I thought it would have moved on by now and it will be interesting to see how long it stays for.

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

A bit of wing and leg stretching

After taking an excessive number of photos of the Fieldfare I went for a mooch on Orrell Water Park. It was very sunny but there was a significant wind chill making it feel quite cold. I had literally just entered the park when I noticed a Collared Dove collecting nesting material. It was collecting fine birch twigs from the same area but its efforts were interrupted by dog walkers. This is the first nest building I have recorded this year.

Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto)

I wandered up to the reserve area where a Kingfisher showed quite well for a while. Not well enough to get photos of the quality I would have liked but much better than I have managed previously. The sunlight was quite harsh and twigs often partially obscured the view or cast a shadow on the bird. The sun being harsh is my excuse for getting the exposure wrong and it doesn't help that I don't shoot in RAW.

Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

A helicopter disturbed proceedings on one occasion but at least it was rather colourful whirlybird.

Recent recoveries

A batch of recoveries has just arrived with the pick of the bunch being a Reed Warbler (yellow line), Swallow (blue line) and Goldfinch (red line).
X924093 Reed Warbler was ringed as an adult at Scotmans Flash, Wigan on 22/08/11 and controlled at Portland Bill, Dorset 12/05/12.
X926229 Goldfinch was ringed as a first year male at Longshaw near Orrell on 20/10/11 and taken by a cat in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire 01/12/12.
Y462733 Swallow was ringed as a juvenile at Weather Hills Pond, North Yorkshire on 26/07/12 and controlled at a roost at Scotman's Flash, Wigan on 30/08/12.


View Recent recoveries received Jan 2013 in a larger map

Gardenfare to start with ......

This could have been three posts rather than one but this is my attempt at stringing them together. A real dump of snow closed the M6 overnight and brought overall snow levels to around a foot deep. A Fieldfare which took up residence in the garden on Tuesday continued to eat and guard all the apples I have been putting out on a daily basis. It drives all the Blackbirds out of the garden as soon as they appear and won't tolerate them anywhere near the apples. There had been up to 8 Blackbirds feeding in the garden on a daily basis prior to the Fieldfare moving in but they don't get much of a look in now.




Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)



Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

I started taking photos of the Fieldfare from an upstairs window at first but it allowed me to go into the garden and approach it to within 4 metres; a stunning bird. The garden was quite busy with other birds coming to the feeders and I also  managed to get a good photo of Siskin and Pied Wagtail in the process but my focus was really on the Fieldfare.



Siskin, (Carduelis spinus)

Pied Wagtail (Motacilla alba yarrellii)

Satisfied I had some good shots of the Fieldfare I walked over to Orrell Water Park. The German ringed Black-headed Gull was still present on the lower lake and was the only ringed bird out of about 110 Black-headed Gulls present. A group of 9 Moorhens were stood on the ice and looked rather forlorn. There were 12 Coot present and I watched one dive down and lift a cluster of muscles on to the ice (presumably zebra muscles) and eat each muscle whole.



Moorhens (Gallinula chloropus)



Coot (Fulica atra)

Coot (Fulica atra)

After lunch I went up to my baited site at Haigh to top up the feeders. I put up one 60ft net while I was there and caught 44 birds over the next couple of hours or so. All of the birds caught were in good condition and some were carrying good fat deposits. Only 8 birds were ringed with the other 36 being retraps. A new Redwing was the first for they year as were a retrap Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker.


Redwing (Turdus ilicacus)

Nuthatch (Sitta europea)

Great Spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus major)

Ringing totals 26/01/12 with retraps in brackets.
Redwing 1
Blackbird 1
Brambling 2 (4)
Chaffinch 3 (2)
Robin 1 (1)
Blue Tit - (10)
Greenfinch - (6)
Great Tit - (3)
Coal Tit - (4)
Nuthatch - (1)
Long-tailed Tit - (3)
Great-spotted Woodpecker - (1)
Goldfinch - (1)
Totals 8 new and 36 retraps.

And it snowed and snowed

More snow arrived overnight as it did for large parts of the country and it continued on and off for much of the day. I took the day off work rather than travel although I still ended up doing some work to stay on top of my emails. What did we do before emails? I think it was something called talking.

Anyway the garden provided plenty of distraction as 5 Siskins joined the Goldfinches and other garden regulars. A male Blackcap also put in a few appearances and is at least the fourth Blackcap seen in the garden so far this winter. I will let the pictures speak for themselves from here but all were taken in the garden today.
 

The scene that greeted me this morning.

male Siskin (Carduelis spinus). All 5 Siskins visiting the garden today were males.



male Siskin (Carduelis spinus).

male Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)




Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Long-tailed Tits (Aegithalos caudatus)

adult female Blackbird (Turdus merula). There is quite a variation in the plumages of female Blackbirds with this being one of the more well marked birds.



adult female Blackbird (Turdus merula).

adult male Blackbird (Turdus merula)

Morning ends with a quick Dip...

I went up to Haigh this morning and was joined by John G. There was more of a breeze than we would have liked as the baited site isn’t sheltered from the wind when there is any easterly component to it. However it was very overcast so we decided to give it a go and put up three nets.

The first net round only produced 8 birds which was less than expected given the snow cover and cold conditions of the past few days. In fact there was a surprising lack of birds in general, especially tits, with only 1 Great Tit and 1 Coal Tit caught or seen! Goldfinches were largely conspicuous by their absence with none coming to the feeders and only a couple being heard flying overhead.

The catching rate didn’t improve and the easterly breeze started to pick up so we packed up at 10am.

Given the time we decided to go to another site a short drive away to look for Dippers. We put a 30ft net across the river and then checked the area out, flushing 2 Woodcock in the process but seeing little else. A little while later a Dipper was in the net and quickly extracted. It was a new bird and not one of the pair I had ringed at this same location last spring. A nice end to an otherwise lacklustre morning.

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

Ringing totals for 20/01/13 with retraps in brackets.
Blackbird 1 (7)
Blue Tit 1 (7)
Brambling 2 (1)
Chaffinch 3
Coal tit - (1)
Dipper 1
Great Tit – (1)
Greenfinch 1 (1)
Robin 3 (3)
Total 33 (12 new and 21 retraps)