Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Those Redwings Again.

The settled weather of late has meant a run of ringing sessions as opposed to the usual postponements due to wind, rain or very often both. I was on Granddad duties on Monday when Andy and Bryan caught another 50+ birds at Oakenclough. Their catch included another 20 Redwings, 7 “Continental” Blackbirds, 10 more Goldcrests and half a dozen Lesser Redpolls. They caught a Tree Sparrow too, a scarce species in the hills. 

Tree Sparrow

That bumped up the total of birds ringed here in the last two weeks to almost 300, and all with a low number of recaptures which typifies the large throughput of autumn migration. 

It looked like our good fortune was due to end but when the weather folk promised high pressure lingering into Tuesday morning I met up with Andy at 0700 for yet another ringing session. 

With a good degree of cloud and a nagging north-westerly we didn’t hit the high spots but were happy enough with another 26 birds - 15 Redwing, 2 Blackbird, 2 Great Tit, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Coal Tit and 2 Chaffinch. 

Redwing

Today we passed the 50 mark for autumn Redwings, a figure which included just a handful of adults, the majority being birds of the year. The adult below has tertial feathers with narrow creamy-white tips and broad tail feathers which are rounded at the end. 

Redwing from "Svensson"

Adult Redwing

Visible migration was rather thin and unspectacular this morning, perhaps due to the amount of cloud coupled with the less than ideal north-westerly wind.  Our 15 new Redwings came from approximately 200 that arrived in tiny groups of two or three birds or parties of 30/40 strong. Otherwise we saw no Fieldfares, a single Mistle Thrush and just a handful of Chaffinch. 

The forecast of more changeable weather suggests that we’ll now get a day or two off ringing. That’s not to say there won’t be news, views and pictures on Another Bird Blog so log in soon for the latest.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

10 comments:

  1. Tell you what I'll do an even trade with you - a couple of my redwings for a couple of yours.

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  2. I always love visiting your bird blog, Phil. Although I'm passionate about sighting and photographing birds, I've never been to a bird count or caught and ringed any. Great job! Greetings Jo

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  3. Lovely to see the Redwing, I saw 2 on Ialy along with 22,000 BArnacle geese etc but I might se another Redwing at the weekend on copelad island hopefully Phil.

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  4. So beautiful, Phil! I have only seen red wing blackbirds here in Montreal, and not often. :)

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  5. I'm fascinated that northwest winds are unfavourable for your bird migrations as that's just exactly what birders here north of Toronto look forward to. ;)

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  6. Hi Phil, great job on the ringing and wonderful shots of the Redwing. Happy birding.

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  7. Ringing the birds has to be wonderfully fascinating work! Thanks for a great post.

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  8. Great to see the Redwings back, although I've not seen any myself yet. Just need to get out and about more.

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  9. Your wee little Tree Sparrow looks a whole lot like ours. Are you sure that little one does not belong in my own big back yard? Migration numbers may have been thin, but it does sound like you are seeing a good variety of birds though. We are dealing still with home repairs following the tree falling as well as water damage. Did not get to take a vacay this season, with so much work to be done. Happy weekend~

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