Wot! No Redwings.

It’s the start of a new month at Oakenclough following 237 birds caught here in what proved to be a rather quiet October. The most ringed bird was Redwing with 84, followed by Goldfinch and Lesser Redpoll almost tying on 24 and 23 respectively. Lots of twos and threes in that total of 237 but disappointingly, only 19 Chaffinch and 10 Goldcrest in what should be a peak month of migration for both species. 

I couldn’t make it on Thursday when Andy kicked off November with a very nice 30 birds that included 4 more Redwings, a single Fieldfare, 3 Lesser Redpoll, more Goldfinches, and a “cracking” Bullfinch. 

Fast forward to Friday as Andy and I met up for another 0630 start. The morning was slow and slightly disappointing in the way of both migration and the number of birds caught. We finished early at 1100 due to the slowness of the session with just 16 birds captured: 7 Goldfinch, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Goldcrest , 1 Dunnock, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Lesser Redpoll. 

Lesser Redpoll

We tried to catch thrushes this morning but the few that were around simply did not play ball. There was an early rush of c125 Fieldfare and 40 Redwing from the west but by 0900 even that spurt died out, after which we saw none. Similarly the visible migration of finches was pretty much non-existent and limited to handfuls of Chaffinches, one definite Brambling, and the arriving Goldfinch likely to be more local birds. 

During 2018 Goldfinches proved to be the staple ringer’s diet here and elsewhere with around 300 captured by group members at various locations, including members' gardens where the Goldfinch remains omnipresent and widespread.  A quick glance at our data shows that of the 300, only 50 were full adults and the remaining 250 sub-adult or juveniles, an indication of the runaway productivity and continued success of this species.     

Goldfinch 

I called in at Gulf Lane, Cockerham where has been an unavoidable delay in our ongoing project to ring wintering Linnets. After the two winters 2016/17 and 2017/18 when we caught over 400 Linnets through the winter months, the corresponding season of 2018/19 has seen very few Linnets return to this regular site. 

The lack of Linnets here on the west coast this autumn is something of a mystery as good numbers have been reported at observation watch points on the East Coast. The graph below shows counts of migrating Linnets for the autumn period 2018 from Spurn Bird Observatory, Yorkshire. While most of these Linnets are likely to be of Scottish origin, a proportion will originate from Scandinavia, with their overall route south taking them to the south of England, France & Spain.

Linnets at Spurn 2018 -  Trektellen   

Only in the last weeks of October did I notice that the field of bird seed mix at Gulf Lane was beginning to entice a few Linnets with irregular counts of up to 35. In addition there had been a Stonechat and a handful of Tree Sparrows. 

Linnet 

We are now hopeful that numbers of Linnets here will build as the winter grows colder, wider food availability recedes and greater numbers of Linnets discover the ready-made field of finch food.

Linking today with Anni's Birding and Eileen's Saturday Blog.