Showing posts with label “Continental” Blackbird. Show all posts
Showing posts with label “Continental” Blackbird. Show all posts

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Picking The Best

Saturday morning was going to be the best of a bad bunch of yet another week of rain blown in from the Irish Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Off the south westerly sea currents, air temperatures have been unseasonably but not uniquely warm; but that’s no use if we’re unable to get out ringing. 

During the week Will volunteered for the supplementary feeding and had a good spot count of 70 or so Linnets, a couple of Reed Bunting, Chaffinch and Greenfinch. He saw again the Marsh Harrier that we think may have taken up temporary residence while the weather is so mild. He also saw a single Swallow, again, not unprecedented in wet and warm late autumns. 

With Andy in Pisa for Pizza the team today was me and Will for the 0630 meet at the farm. 

The breeze was too strong across the seed plot for catching Linnets so we stuck to a couple of nets in the sheltered spots. Although we knew we wouldn’t catch many birds it was just good to get out in the fresh air after being stuck indoors so much - 13 birds - 5 Reed Bunting, 2 Wren, 2 Great Tit, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Redwing and 1 Blackbird. 

The Redwing was caught early morning as was the Blackbird, the latter an example of a ‘continental’ first year male with streaky throat, scalloped breast & belly with all dark bill. Both species were in evidence for the first hour or so with maybe 15/20 Redwings and a dozen or so Blackbirds plus a single Song Thrush on the move. 

Redwing

Blackbird

Our supplementary seed drops are now definitely bringing more Chaffinches and Reed Buntings. Our count this morning being 15/20 Reef Buntings (5 new caught) and 15/20 Chaffinches (2 new caught). 

Chaffinch

Reed Bunting

A pair of Stonechats has been in residence for weeks now as they both range across a defined territory, all the while sticking like glue, one to the other. They might well stay throughout the winter but the more likely scenario is that after a couple of days of cold frosty weather they will disappear when their preferred insect food becomes hard to source. 
 
Stonechat

Other birds seen/heard - one large female Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 1 Cetti’s Warbler, 15/20 Meadow Pipit, 60 Linnet, 12 Skylark, 2 Greenfinch. 

The breeze picked up to turn our nets into wind socks. We called it a day at 1030 but we’ll be back. 

Linking today to Anni in Texas and Eileen's Saturday Blog.
                 

 

Friday, February 25, 2022

Show Stealer

I kept the ringing pliers oiled and now at last, three months later, we reached the end of the Avian Flu tunnel. DEFRA/APHA revoked the lockdown on 20 February, an overdue move that allowed a resumption of bird ringing in no-go areas introduced on 26 November 2021. 

The whole week we itched to go ringing but constant winds wouldn’t allow. And then today when I went to drop supplementary seed the wind in the hedgerow ride seemed bearable and workable. I phoned Andy who didn’t need much persuasion to head over to Cockerham. 

By 1030 we had nets up and for the next few hours began to catch birds. The wind at 10-12 mph was too strong for catching any of the 150+ Linnets in an open field but in the more sheltered ride we caught 20 birds of other species. These were species I’d been seeing but unable to catch for more than 3 months - 7 Chaffinch, 4 Reed Bunting, 3 Blackbird, 5 Blue Tit and 1 Brambling. 

The Brambling stole the show, a highly colourful and obvious second year male. 

Brambling 

Brambling 

Bramblings have been scarce in the North West this winter, this particular one my second only in what has been a mild if wet and windy time. During February, March and April any Bramblings we see are likely to have come from further south and now migrating to breeding areas in the forests of Northern Europe and further east into Russia. 

Chaffinch
 
Chaffinch

Two of the Blackbirds were of the “continental” type, second year males with typically pale scalloping on their breast feathers. 

Blackbird
 
Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

Other birds seen - Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, 4 Little Egret, 2 Skylark. 

It was good to get out today. Here’s hoping we have no more flockdowns that stop our vital work. 

More news, views and photos soon. 



Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Monday/Wednesday

Monday morning I devote to the school run, transporting two of the grandkids to their school a mile or two away while their mum heads off to work and a 0830 start. That’s not to say there’s no birding or ringing for me because I later caught up with Andy at our Pilling ringing site at 0900. 

He’d already had some success by catching a couple of Redwings, a few more Linnets and three “Continental” Blackbirds. 

Almost three-quarters of the Blackbirds breeding in this country may be resident but others winter in France and yet others (particularly from Scotland and northern England) head for Ireland. Their places here are occupied by migrants from Scandinavia, Denmark and Germany. Some of these Blackbirds, more noticeably the males, display “continental” like features of sooty colouration, entirely dark bills, scalloped breast feathers and finely speckled throats. 

Blackbird
 
A southerly breeze and blowy net hindered our Linnet catch but we still gathered another seven individuals and so reached a total of 204 for this autumn. This is a great result so far with more to come and thanks are due to Farmers R and H for their support & encouragement during this and other years.  

There’s no shortage of Greenfinch so far this autumn as testified by our catching of another nine that gave a total of 50 Greenfinch here during September, October and early November. 

After a number of years in the population doldrums there’s little doubt that “green linnets”, Greenfinches, made something of a comeback during 2021. 

Greenfinch
 
Total birds caught on Monday - 7 Linnet, 9 Greenfinch, 3 Blackbird, 2 Redwing, 1 Wren, 1 Blue Tit. 

On Tuesday the rain lasted all day long, not good for the already muddy paths we planned to tread on Wednesday morning. 

Wednesday seemed fine at 0630 until we started to erect the first net and then half way through came a few spots of rain that became even heavier when the heavens opened. There was no option but to carry on and then close the net until the rain stopped after about fifteen minutes. 

The sky remained grey and overcast, the morning quite unlike the one forecast except for a welcome wind of zero.  We caught 14 new birds - 6 Linnet, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Robin, 1 Wren and 1 Blackbird. 

Greenfinch 

Understandably the Linnets seemed reluctant to drop and feed in the saturated seed plot with the maximum seen about 60 birds milling around in contrast to the bigger flocks of late. It was as if by some unknown method of communication the Linnets knew to go elsewhere for a feed.  

Linnet
 
The second year male Blackbird was another “continental” type with an above average wing length of 133mm and a healthy weight of 101gm. 

Blackbird
 
At this time of year it’s not only thrushes that may come from further afield and it was striking this morning how all three Chaffinches were not only adults but also of slightly larger dimensions than typical UK Chaffinches. The males came in at wing lengths of 92mm and 90mm respectively while the female’s wing gave up a whopping measurement of 87mm. 

Chaffinch

In between birding was hindered by the weather but we noted good numbers of Lapwing, Curlew and Starling. 

We watched a Sparrowhawk very nearly take a Linnet in flight, a drama eclipsed by the sight of a Merlin in relentless, twisting, turning and stooping dive bombing pursuit of a single Linnet. After a few close shaves the Linnet finally evaded capture when after a minute or so the Merlin gave up the chase to rest on a fence post. 

Birding doesn't get much better than encounters like those two.

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday and Anni in Texas.



 

Friday, January 3, 2020

An Apple A Day

Here’s wishing every one my readers a Happy, Prosperous, Optimistic and Bird Filled New Year. 

The first post of 2020 concerns the common Blackbird Turdus merula. 

The Blackbird is ubiquitous in these parts, so common that it rarely makes the bird headlines. On a Rarity Scale of one to ten the mundane and seemingly uninteresting Blackbird scores a resounding zero to most birders. 

Since early December there have been lots of Blackbirds in my garden with an average count of 15 on any given day but now in the New Year down to a handful. But on dull, rainy days I’ve taken a closer look at the numbers together with their diverse appearance and behaviour. 

Blackbird 

Our Blackbird is also called Eurasian Blackbird, especially in North America. This is to distinguish it from unrelated New World icterids (e.g tanagers) and species that have “blackbird” in their title (e.g. Red-winged Blackbird, Melodious Blackbird), birds which have a superficial resemblance to the Blackbird even though they are unrelated by evolution. 

Blackbird

It may not be immediately apparent why the name "blackbird", first recorded in 1486, was applied to this species and not to one of the other common black English birds, such as the Carrion Crow, Raven, Rook, or Jackdaw.  In Old English, and in modern English up to about the 18th century, "bird" was used only for smaller or young birds, and larger ones such as crows were called "fowl". At that time, the Blackbird was the only widespread and conspicuous "black bird" in the British Isles. (Wiki).

Blackbird

Turdus merula breeds in Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has a number of subspecies across its large range; a few of the Asian subspecies are sometimes considered to be full species. The Blackbird is but one member of the genus Turdus, one of  about 65 species of medium to large thrushes dotted around the world.  Depending on latitude, the common Blackbird may be resident, partially migratory, or fully migratory. 

In the last four weeks Blackbirds, resident, migratory or maybe even fully migratory cleaned me out of apples, not a six-pack from Tesco, but dozens and dozens of windfalls left in the garden since September. 

During early September we, the family and neighbours took our fill of this year’s bumper crop of Granny Smiths until apple crumble, apple pie, apple charlotte, baked apple, apple cake and fried apples came out of our ears.  Just along Grange Lane our friend Stinky the Pig welcomed a few bags of slightly bruised apples and grunted in delight at our generosity. 

Stinky

Blackbirds eat apples and many types of soft fruit. I know from experience that they like blackberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, strawberries, cherries grapes, plums, damsons and even kiwi fruit. They don’t seem keen on pineapple - very wise; neither do I - more so when it defaces a crusty pizza. 

Blackbird

Blackbird

In Australia where the Blackbird was introduced in the 19th century it is now considered a pest because it damages a variety of soft fruits in orchards, parks and gardens including berries, cherries, stone fruit and grapes. 

Meanwhile and by the middle of September when we left for a Greek holiday all the fallen apples were deliberately left for the onset of cold weather and the annual arrival of thrushes. By early December it was good to see 15/20 Blackbirds on most days, the only member of the thrush tribe, with no garden sightings of Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Redwing or Fieldfare. We had few days of real frost, ice or snow during that period. 

Blackbird

And now in January 2020 as the apples have shrunk to morsels of apple skin and not much else, the Blackbirds have mostly left in search of other bounty. 

There’s been the full range of Blackbirds. Both male and female adults, first winters of both sexes, black ones, brown ones and grey toned ones. We’ve had males & females with yellow bills, and then dark-billed Blackbirds of both sexes. Size was apparent with both large and small Blackbirds, plus some of intermediate size. 

Blackbird

The large ones, especially the yellow-billed males, threw their weight around by way of chasing off the less dominant dark bills from an apple that they themselves took a liking to. I suspect these were local birds defending both an apple and their familiar winter territory. 

Females have seemed less aggressive, submissive even, in allowing themselves to be chased away from an apple and content to find an alternative. Meanwhile larger females would also chase away other females and even less dominant males. 

There’s no doubt that many, many dozens of Blackbirds took advantage of our apple bonanza and that a number of them were "Continental Blackbirds", winter immigrants escaping the colder temperatures of Europe. 

Blackbird

Blackbird

Blackbird 

Blackbird

Yep!  Blackbirds are definitely worth a second look.  A 1/10 if ever I saw one.

Linking today to Anni's Birding in Texas and also to Eileen's Saturday Blogging. Take a look and join in.



Saturday, October 10, 2015

More From The North

After a good catch of 42 birds on Thursday I was back at Oakenclough this morning but this time met up with Andy so we could share the tasks of ringing and migration watching. An onlooker today was surprised at how often we might visit the site but as we explained, during this period time of peak migration each day brings new birds in a steady stream and it is rare that we recapture birds which are on active migration. Even the commonplace and humble Robin is a very migratory species.

We were more than happy with today’s varied catch of 53 birds of 13 species; 12 Chaffinch, 9 Goldcrest, 6 Great Tit, 6 Blue Tit, 5 Goldfinch, 3 Coal Tit, 3 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Greenfinch,2 Dunnock, 2 Robin, 1 Blackbird, 1 Long-tailed Tit and 1 Chiffchaff. 

Robin

Lesser Redpoll

The single Blackbird caught was of the “continental” type. Almost three-quarters of the Blackbirds breeding in this country may be resident but others winter in France and yet others (particularly from Scotland and northern England) head for Ireland. Their places here are occupied by migrants from Scandinavia, Denmark and Germany. Some of these Blackbirds, more noticeably the males, display “continental” like features of sooty colouration, entirely dark bills, scalloped breast feathers and finely speckled throats. 

"Continental" Blackbird

The visible migration of Chaffinches was less marked this morning as reflected by catching just 12. The numbers flying over started quite well soon after dawn but quickly came to a standstill. We counted approximately 100 birds heading south in infrequent parties of mostly less than eight or ten individuals. 

Chaffinch

Highly obvious today was the number of Mistle Thrushes arriving from the north, the early ones in the half-light of dawn. By packing up time of midday we had counted 24+ as having passed over or through the site. 

One of today’s Goldcrests bore a ring beginning with letters EDX, so not one of our own. But as a first year bird it was ringed elsewhere this autumn, perhaps even in the last day or two. We will hear in due course once the record is computerised and sent to join the database of ringed birds held at the British Trust for Ornithology. 

Goldcrest EDX

Other visible migration came in the form of 1 Swallow, 8/10 Redwing, 18 Greenfinch. 

Today's Local birds - 1 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Nuthatch, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Raven, 1 Peregrine.

There are more migrant bird soon with Another Bird Blog. Don't miss them!



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