Going for Gold

The number of Goldfinches feeding in the garden has increased since last Saturday's successful catch and I have had to put out additional feeders as a result. I am now using 10 feeders: 2 with nyjer seed and 8 with sunflower hearts or a mixture of sunflower seeds and hearts. Even with the extra feeders most have still been getting emptied each day.



The forecast for this morning of calm and overcast conditions was perfect for a ringing session in the garden. I didn't manage to get up early as planned and only put up an 18ft net at about 8am. The first check of the net produced 9 birds including 5 new Goldfinches. The catching rate continued to be very good for the rest of the morning with Goldfinches dominating the catch as expected.

Many of the birds caught were still in full juvenile plumage like this bird.

I took the net down at lunchtime having caught 48 new Goldfinches (a new record catch) all of which were juveniles. Only 1 retrap was caught and that was an adult that I had originally ringed in the garden on 20th October last year. I had expected there to be a few retraps from the 36 Goldfinches ringed last Saturday but none of those birds were caught.

If today's catch of Goldfinches turns out to be the peak for the garden this autumn, as seems likely, it fits in well with previous years in terms of timing. On checking the data for the previous 2 years the peak catch was 18th September in 2011 and 22nd September in 2012. The fit is even tighter when you consider last year was a leap year. This is remarkably consistent given the very different weather and breeding seasons in each of those years and came as a bit of a surprise. The main variable between the years being the proportion of juveniles and adults in the catch.
 

The two photos above show birds in various stages of post juvenile moult.

I took a few photographs after taking the net down and only about half the Goldfinches visiting the feeders were ringed. The total number of birds visiting the garden is likely to be well over the 100 mark given that 84 new birds and 2 retraps have been caught in just over a week and many unringed birds were seen this afternoon. This is an exceptional number of Goldfinches for the garden and the high proportion in full juvenile indicates that later broods have been particularly successful.

 

Ringing totals for the garden with retraps in brackets:
Goldfinch 48 (1)
Greenfinch 5
Chaffinch 2
Robin 1
Dunnock 1
Great Ti 1
Coal Tit 1
Blue Tit 1
Total 60 (1)

This evening I went to the reed bed site with John G to see if there were any Swallows passing through or roosting. The MP3 lures attracted a flock of about 120 Swallows and we managed to catch and ring 57 of them. We also ringed a Sand Martin, 2 Reed Warblers, a Chiffchaff and a Wren.

Down but not out

I came back from Spurn feeling really good but was brought crashing down to earth earlier this week when we burgled. Arranging repairs and working out what had been stolen put paid to any thoughts of birding or ringing for much of the time, however, it didn't stop me filling up the feeders in the garden which have been getting emptied on a daily basis by a good numbers of Goldfinches and a few Greenfinches.

The forecast was good for ringing today ahead of a wet and very windy day tomorrow. I decided to put a 18ft net up in the garden rather than venture further afield as it would also allow me to do a few things around the house. Catching was steady and resulted in one of the best totals for the garden if not the best with a final tally of 53 birds. Goldfinches dominated the catch as expected with 36 new birds and 1 retrap. All but 4 of the Goldfinches were juveniles with the majority still in full juvenile plumage as per the photo below.

Juvenile Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis) 14/09/13

Ringing totals for 14/09/13 with retraps in brackets,
Goldfinch 36 (1)
Greenfinch 6
Blue Tit 4 (1)
Coal Tit 1
Great Tit 1
Dunnock 1
Goldcrest 1
Collared Dove 1
Total 51 (2)

Festival Weekend

I spent the weekend on the east coast helping out at the Spurn Migration Festival. There was a packed programme that included migration, sea and wader watching, various guided walks, illustrated talks, moth trap demonstrations and ringing demonstrations. In addition there were photography workshops, art exhibitions, optics trade stands and a hog roast.
 

It was a well attended event but unfortunately it was relatively quiet on the birding front for the time of year. On the plus side the weather was very pleasant being sunny and warm throughout with the generally southerly wind direction contributing to the lack of birds. Having said that Wryneck, Red-backed Shrike and Common Rosefinch were present and there was some southerly passage and movement over the sea.
 
My role was to provide the ringing demonstration at the Warren and I did manage to catch a few birds for very appreciative audiences. As the catching rate was fairly low I was able to allow quite a few people to hold and release birds, much to their delight. Hopefully everyone will have gained something from the experience and a few may have been encouraged or inspired to take up ringing.
 
I did manage to take a few photos around the ringing and those I have chosen to post are fairly random. They show there is always something to look at or that there is always a new way of looking at something you have seen before. It is a while since I have been to Spurn and it was great to catch up with friends that I haven't seen for some time. It was good to be back and made even better by great people.
 

Starlings are declining as resident and migrants birds and shouldn't be taken for granted.

No question which way the wind was blowing.

Gutter Pigeon at Warren Cottage

Migrant Hawker

Keeping Warm



My wire



Feather management



View from Spurn Lighthouse looking northeast



View from Spurn Lighthouse looking southwest

I don't usually play with the art modes on my cameras but here are a few in what are called dramatic mode.
 

 

 

 

 

 
And back to normal with a Comma.


Comma on a mist-net pole

26/08/13: the end of a busy bank holiday weekend

I went back to the reed bed site yesterday evening (25/08/13) with my son Jack and Bryn, the dog. The conditions were ideal with no wind to speak of and we soon had the nets up.  We were joined by John G and George P a little while later. I played a warbler/Long-tailed Tit mix on the MP3 lure at first and we soon caught a few Reed Warblers and Blackcaps along with a Chiffchaff. As soon as the first Swallows arrived we switched tracks on the MP3 players to Swallow and closed one of the nets.

The motley crew waiting for the Swallows 25/08/13

The number of Swallows built up as usual and by sunset there were at least 800 over the reed bed. The Hobby wasn't seen and the birds started to settle about half an hour sooner than they had the previous night. We controlled the catch by careful use of the MP3 lures and it wasn't long before we had caught 92 Swallows including a retrap from last year and another control.

I had set up an actinic moth trap in the reed bed which meant I had to go back this morning to check it. I was undecided as to whether I would go early and put some nets up but as it happened I did and it was well worth it. I had 4 nets up from just before sunrise and it soon became apparent that there were plenty of warblers about; the moth trap quickly becoming a secondary consideration. Most of the birds were caught in one of the nets with aid of the MP3 lures with warblers accounting for 51 of the 64 birds caught. A total of 21 Blackcaps were ringed which is an exceptional number for this site.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Buoyed up by the success of this morning I went back this evening to make the most of the fine weather and to try for a few more Swallows at the roost. This session produced another 79 new Swallows and 1 control. This brought the number of Swallows ringed this month and for the year to 1,061 and another 6 Swallows ringed elsewhere have been controlled.

Brown Hawker (Aeshna grandis).
These often get caught in mist-nets when ringing in reed beds at this time of year.

Ringing totals for 26/08/13

Morning session
Blackcap 21
Blue Tit 7
Bullfinch 1
Chiffchaff 5
Reed Bunting 1 (1)
Reed Warbler 12 (1)
Sedge Warbler 6
Swallow 3
Whitethroat 5
Willow Warbler 1
Total 62 (+2)

Evening session
Swallow 79 (+1 control)
Total 79 (+1 control)

and here are a couple of moths from the day:



The Chevron (Eulithis testate)



Blood-vein  (Timandra comae)

Old and young in the garden.

The garden moth trap hasn't produced much of interest this year and today was no exception. Two Old Lady and a Blood-vein were the pick of the routine fare. The Blood-vein didn't cooperate with my attempts to photograph it unlike the Old Lady moths. Old Lady is one of those stupid names that leaves you wondering why it was used to name a moth and what the correct plural form of the name should be. The moth was apparently given its common name in the 18th century when its drab appearance was likened to the attire of the old ladies of that time. As for the correct plural form I generally stick to Old Lady but adding the word moths after the name sometimes reads better.

Face of an Old Lady

Old Lady (Mormo Maura).
Both individuals were quite worn, living up to their name in more ways than one.

The garden feeders have been attracting an increasing number of juvenile Goldfinches recently so I decided to put a net up for a couple of hours while I did some chores around the house. This resulted in 25 birds being caught and ringed including 12 Goldfinches. Hopefully this flock of Goldfinches will continue to increase as it has done in previous autumns.

Juvenile Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Juvenile Greenfinch (Carduelis chloris)

Totals for the garden were:
Goldfinch 12
Blue Tit 4
Dunnock 3
Chaffinch 1
House Sparrow 1
Coal Tit 1
Collared Dove 1
Greenfinch 1
Great Tit 1
Total 25

I plan to go back to the Swallow roost site this evening but may go a couple hours earlier to try and try and catch a few warblers before the roost forms. Hopefully the attention of the Hobby won't have put the Swallows off but I will keep you posted in due course.

24/08/13 late night update

The wind dropped enough this evening to tempt me out to the Swallow roost. It was almost 8pm before the first birds started to arrive and they stayed much higher over the reed bed than normal. The reason for this soon became apparent when a Hobby appeared and put on quite a show as it chased them around. They eventually dropped in and another 83 new Swallows were caught making the ringing totals out of date already. A Swallow that had been ringed in the roost 2 weeks ago was retrapped showing that some birds hang around for a good while.

Ringing totals for 24/08/13
Swallow 83 (1)
Sand Martin 3
Reed Warbler 2
Total 88 (+1 retrap)

Ringing totals update

It has been months since I updated the ringing totals on the right but I have finally got round to doing it. We are making good progress with 2110 birds ringed to date and Swallows have really boosted the totals this month with 806 ringed in the last two and a half weeks. There have been more Sand Martins in the roost than we usually see on some nights and this has resulted in 71 being ringed so far. Reed Warbler totals have also picked up as the month has progressed after a slow start and a very disappointing June and July. We have ringed 176 Reed Warblers this year and 90 of those have been this month. The ringing total for August currently stands at 1056 which is just over half the total for the year and there is still a week of the month to go.

I hope to get out to the Swallow roost this evening but it is a little breezier than I would like at the moment. Hopefully the wind will drop but if it doesn't the forecast is looking good for the next couple of days.