Bah Humbug

I had hoped to get a net up in the garden for a couple of hours this morning but the rain arrived earlier than forecast and continued throughout the day. Ringing a few birds on Christmas morning is part of my coping strategy for dealing with the festive hoo-ha and fills the gap between sticking the turkey in the oven and dealing with all the usual accompaniments and the arrival of relatives. After giving the turkey an initial blast on a high heat I turn the oven down and cook it slowly which usually gives me plenty of time to do some ringing.

I kept an eye on the garden hoping the rain would ease but it didn't slacken off sufficiently to even consider setting a net up. There was a reasonable amount of activity in the garden despite the wet and mild conditions with a small flock of Goldfinches coming and going and wasting sunflower hearts in ways only Goldfinches can. At one point a small flock of Starlings also dropped in but then, and out of nowhere, a cat appeared and caught one of the Starlings as it settled on one of the bird tables. I banged on the window to try and get the cat to release its grip but it ran off with its prize, clenched firmly in its jaws.

A few seconds later, and despite the commotion caused by the cat, I was surprised to see a juvenile male Sparrowhawk sat in a tree by some of the apples that I put. It sat there long enough for me to grab my camera and get a few ropy shots through the window before it moved further up the tree. It may have been eyeing up the Starlings or had been attracted by the commotion but there it was and on reviewing the photos on the back of the camera I could see that it was ringed!

Ringed juvenile male Sparrowhawk, what a teaser.

Where were you ringed???

Unfortunately the light levels were very low and the photos weren't good enough for me to get any of the numbers but I haven't ringed any Sparrowhawks in the garden this year so it must have come from elsewhere. It doesn't look like any of the juv male Sparrowhawks that I ringed at Billinge this autumn either as none of those had a plumage with so many pale spots. It has presumably come from further afield and wherever it has come from it would obviously be worth catching to find out.

If seeing this ringed Sparrowhawk wasn't frustrating enough I was part way through preparing all of the vegetables when I noticed there was a male Blackcap on one of the fat cakes. This was the first Blackcap of the winter and I had been wondering when and if any would turn up in the garden given the exceptionally mild conditions. Blackcaps are just about annual in the garden in winter with most sightings starting around the Christmas period and running into the first few months of the new year.

First Blackcap in the garden this winter.

Male Blackcap 25/12/2015, a nice Christmas present.

So I may not have been able to ring anything on Christmas Day 2015 but there were a couple of good sightings, although for a ringer it was a case of so near yet so far.

27/12/2015 update - I am still a miserable old sod but I caught and ringed the Blackcap this afternoon. It was surprisingly fat and weighed 20.1g mid afternoon.

A few more recoveries.

When I posted details of the Goldcrests that were controlled at Billinge this autumn (link here) I was still waiting for the ringing information of an individual with ring number HJV774. The recovery report for this bird finally came through yesterday and it had been ringed on the north east coast at Whitburn Country Park, Tyne & Wear on 14/10/2015 and was controlled at Billinge just six days later on 20/10/2015, a movement of 184 km SSW. This bird was part of the big influx of continental Goldcrests and it probably stayed in the vicinity of Whitburn for at least a day or two following its north sea crossing before moving on.

Goldcrest HJV774 photographed when controlled at Billinge on 20/10/2015.

Other recoveries received in recent weeks have also included a couple of the Lesser Redpolls ringed at Billinge this autumn.

Z854489 was ringed at Billinge on 29/09/2015 and was controlled at Hasfield Ham, Gloucestershire on 15/10/2015, 177 km S. Duration 16 days. 

Z019619 was ringed at Billinge on 06/10/2015 and was controlled at Whixall & Fenn's Mosses, Wrexham on 10/12/2015, 65 km S. Duration 4 days.

Mild and Miserable

The only slightly redeeming feature of the current run of mild and miserable weather is that my heating bills are much lower than usual as a result. Opportunities to get out have been limited and when I have been out the birding has been uninspiring to say the least. The feeders in the garden are not attracting much either so on the odd occasion I have been able to put a net up in the garden it has only resulted in a handful of birds being caught.

I went to the farmland site at Crawford yesterday to see if anything was around and to start putting out some seed. This was my first visit in a good while so I didn't know what to expect but I decided to put up a couple of nets as the wind was fairly light. There were no berries on the hedges but I managed to lure in a couple of Fieldfares and caught one of them. I didn't see or hear a single Redwing in the 3 hours I was there and only saw 12 Fieldfares in total with 10 of those flying over after I had packed up. Other birds caught were a new and a retrap Goldcrest, 2 new and a retrap Great Tit, 2 new and a control Blue Tit. There were a couple of nice if not unusual sightings with around 1500 Pink-footed Geese flying between the fields nearby and a party of 6 Corn Buntings doing likewise. I still haven't managed to attract Corn Buntings to the feeding site and thankfully they still don't seem to fall victim to the hunger gap in the latter part of the winter but better my loss than theirs.

Yesterday's female Fieldfare.

The wind was still relatively light this morning so I decided to check out a site close to home to see if it was holding any Goldcrests. A couple of hours with an 18ft net and audio lures produced 4 Goldcrest, a Robin, a Coal Tit and a Willow Tit. The number of Goldcrests was pretty much as expected given that we haven't experienced any hard weather yet. The influx of continental Goldcrest doesn't appear to have left many extra birds wintering in this area so most seem to have moved further south. The Coal Tit was interesting in that it had a bluer mantle than any other I have handled locally although I don't think it was a continental bird; as in most things intermediates do occur but it was interesting nevertheless. The Willow Tit was not unusual for the site but was the first I have caught for a while. Their success in these parts seems to owe much to past land reclamation schemes and associated tree planting along with some natural greening of brownfield sites. It will be interesting to see if their populations hold as the trees on these sites mature.

This morning's Willow Tit.

Small catches are the norm at the moment and seem likely to stay that way for the remainder of the year. Hopefully things will brighten up and pick up in the new year.

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 ??

Waiting for Waxwings

Autumn migration more or less fizzled out at Billinge in the last week with a diminishing number of birds seen and ringed on the 3 visits I manged to fit in. The weather was reasonable on the 23rd and produced 27 new birds and 4 retraps with Goldcrests, Redwings, and Lesser Redpolls accounting for all but 2 of the birds caught. The weather was much less favourable on the 26th and only 10 birds were ringed but another 3 Redwing, 2 Goldcrest and 2 Lesser Redpoll were added to the autumn's excellent totals for those species. A similar weather hampered and shortened session the following day only saw 2 new Goldcrests and 1 new Blackbird find their way into the nets. Combined totals (retraps in brackets) for the week were: Redwing 11; Goldcrest 9; Lesser Redpoll 15 (3), Blackbird 2; Dunnock 1; Bullfinch 1; Goldfinch 1; Blue Tit (1). Highlights from the sightings were a Green Woodpecker (26th) and Water Rail and Woodcock (27th).

The first Redwing out of the net on the 23rd had a deformed bill with the lower mandible being overgrown. It had also lost the tip of the upper mandible and the deformity is presumably the result of an injury rather than disease.

It looked even stranger when the bill was closed.

One of the other Redwings caught on the 23rd stood out as being darker with more extensive markings below and was considered to be an Icelandic bird although the picture doesn't quite do it justice.

A Lesser Redpoll with an amber coloured poll. It has been a great autumn for Redpolls at Billinge although October was not the peak month like it usually is. A total of 290 have been ringed as follows: August 1, September 159; October 82; November 48.

So what am I going to do now? Well as the post title suggests one of the things I will be doing is monitoring the reports of Waxwings to assess the likelihood of birds finding their way to this part of the country. It doesn't look like there will be a massive influx this winter but there are certainly going to be more than were recorded in the last two winters. There have already been a a good scattering of sightings along the east coast from the Northern Isles down to Suffolk and a few birds have penetrated further west to the Outer Hebrides, Northern Ireland and Cumbria. Birds could continue to arrive through December and into the new year and there have been some encouraging reports from the near continent in recent days including a flock of around 1,000 feeding in the botanical gardens in Oslo (Oslo Birder blog link here). Oslo is only a little over 650 miles away so it will be interesting to see what happens over the next few weeks. There seems to be the potential for a moderately good influx at least.

Many more Waxwings could arrive in the UK in the coming weeks and the patchy distribution of berries that are left could mean they move inland quite quickly.
Fingers crossed.

Billinge 20th & 22 November 2015

The 20th was quite windy with occasional light showers skirting past the site but it didn't deter birds from moving as might have been expected. Birds heading south included at least 70 Redwings, 90 Fieldfares and 180 Woodpigeons. It was harder to gauge what finches were doing but a few Lesser Redpolls seemed to be moving through the site and a flock of 70 Goldfinch, that paused for a short time, may well have been late migrants. It was far from good mist-netting weather but the lie of the land and the denser patches of the now largely leafless bushes provided just enough shelter for the nets. I didn't expect to catch much given the conditions so I was more than happy with the 25 new birds that were caught by mid-morning, when it became too windy and I packed up. Ringing totals were: Redwing 11; Goldcrest 2; Lesser Redpoll 11; Chaffinch 1.

In stark contrast the calm and overcast conditions of this morning were perfect for ringing but the first couple of net rounds didn't produce a single bird. Things picked up a bit as the morning progressed but it was slow going to say the least. There were very few thrushes around and hardly any moving overhead with only 15 Redwings, 4 Fieldfare and 5 Blackbirds seen all morning. In fact there was very little of anything moving overhead, with only a Snipe being of note, and really did feel as if autumn was finally over. I kept the nets open until lunchtime because the weather remained calm and largely overcast but the final total of 20 new birds and 1 control was less than expected and hoped for. Ringing totals were: Blackbird 1; Goldcrest 6; Wren 1; Lesser Redpoll 11; Goldfinch 1; Blue Tit (1 control). The control Blue Tit was probably ringed at Kings Moss, a couple of km away, as the ring number is similar to others that have come from that site.

Adult male Lesser Redpoll. It was interesting that there were no retraps from previous visits which suggests they are still moving through in small numbers.

A few Goldcrest continue to pass through the site but all of today's birds appeared to be of UK origin. The UK birds being a bit darker than their continental counterparts.

The calm between the storms.

The forecast for this morning was for a welcome, if brief, lull in the run of wet and windy weather so I decided to take advantage of it to see what, if anything, was still moving through the ringing site at Billinge. A Redwing called overhead while I was loading the car in the darkness and another called when I was opening the gate to the site giving some early promise that the morning would produce a few birds.

I had four nets set up at first light and started catching Redwings soon after with 7 being caught in the first round. It was a stop start sort of morning with long periods without any birds moving overhead but just every now and again a flock of 50 or so Redwings or Fieldfares would come through. There were hardly any finches moving and the few that were seen seemed to be commuting between feeding sites rather than being migrants. This was disappointing as I had been hoping for a movement of Lesser Redpolls given that a good number (56) had been recorded going south at Winter Hill (a site not that far away) the previous day (per Andy Makin). 

I didn't see or hear any Goldcrests on my last visit (12th) and I had speculated that their migration had come to an end but I am glad to say I was wrong as the morning produced 7 new birds. Slight variation in colour of their plumage indicated that 3 were continental migrants while the remainder were more likely to be of UK origin. It is interesting that birds of both populations are still on the move and perhaps there are a few more that have yet to filter through from further north or east in the UK, as and when the weather allows.

The ringing totals for the morning were: Redwing 18; Fieldfare 1; Song Thrush 1; Goldcrest 7; Chaffinch 1; Lesser Redpoll 1 (1). Total: 29 new birds and 1 retrap. The 18 Redwings ringed took this autumn's total just into four figures and it now stands at 1003, not bad for a period of around 7 weeks.

Continental Song Thrush.
I have a bit of a thing for Song Thrushes as they are an under-recorded migrant away from the some of the main coastal watch points. I have ringed 77 at Billinge so far this autumn with a large proportion being of the greyer continental race.

The weather looks set to turn much colder at the weekend and into the early part of next week, both here in the UK and in much of northwest Europe, so we could see an upsurge in movement (thrushes and Skylarks in particular) on the back of that.