Goldfinch in Belgium and Seagull Contraceptives

Goldfinches give us a decent number of recoveries, a fact confirmed recently by ACV6977 one of last year’s young that set off last autumn in search of eternal summer and finished up in Belgium. 

ACV697 was caught and ringed at our Oakenclough site on 12 October 2023, a time of year when common or garden Goldfinches occasionally go on to prove to us they can fly further than a neighbour’s garden. 

The morning was a busy one of 61 captures, 30 of which were Goldfinches plus 15 Chaffinches and clearly a typical October morning of finch migration. The Goldfinch was recaptured by other ringers on 12 February 2024 in Roeselare, a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders.  By mid February the Goldfinch could be sexed as a male and then released. 

And by now in mid October of 2024 it may be back in the fields of Flanders Belgium rather than spend the coming winter in wet and windy Lancashire. 

Goldfinch ACV6977

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Update - ACV6977 was captured again by the same Belgian ringers on 20 March 2024. We don't know for sure but it may be that the location was a feeding station to which the Goldfinch returned on a regular basis.

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And now I feel a rant coming on about yet more lunacy of the world in 2024. The gulls get it again, the much maligned creatures make an easy target for the thickos who increasingly seem to run Great Britain. And no, it is not The First of April, just yet another tale of how our elected representatives waste taxpayer’s money. 

Common Gull

Lesser Black-backed Gull

A desperate council aims to cut numbers of marauding seagulls – by putting the birds on The Pill. Officials in Worcester are considering doping food with birth-control drugs as part of a “safe sex” drive for randy gulls. Council chiefs have tried for years to reduce the gull population in the city, including hiring hawks to scare them away and taking eggs from nests. 

If the birth-control plan is approved, the council hopes it will lead to fewer attacks on people, particularly in the Blackpole area of the city. 

Councillor Jill Desayrah, a Labour city councillor described the contraceptive option as “safe sex for seagulls”. She said: “I am concerned that the increasing numbers of seagulls are getting out of hand. Many people contact me about the issues caused by having such a high concentration of seagulls around Blackpole.” 

Councillor Desayrah said she wanted to “humanely reduce the number of gulls” by exploring methods used in other countries. "The Pill is already used to control pigeons in Barcelona and Venice." 

She added: “I passed the idea onto Worcestershire Regulatory Services and they are following up on it, seeking permission from the relevant authority. I hope that one or a combination of these solutions will reduce the problem because I do feel it’s necessary to do something as soon as possible.” 

Herring Gull

Black-headed Gull

The city’s annual Gull Population Survey revealed that 376 pairs live in the Blackpole retail parks and industrial estates. This accounts for more than 50 percent of the city’s entire gull population and an increase of three percent in the past year. The majority are Lesser Black-Backed Gulls, which, along with all the other types, is a protected species. 

They are attracted to the area by the many flat-roofed buildings and the waste from food outlets. (My bold PS)

Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) receives complaints from residents about noise, faeces and aggressive behaviour during the nesting season. Earlier this year an order banning people from feeding seagulls in the city centre was scrapped. 

Councillor Alan Amos blasted the decision to axe the feeding ban, saying it would lead to an explosion in the numbers of the “vicious flying rats”. He said: “As a councillor and former mayor of Worcester – where the vicious and brassy flying rats have waged war on residents in recent years, I have witnessed first-hand the problems the UK-wide epidemic is causing. One shop owner told me he’d seen a gull ferociously attack a young child in a pushchair, while a constituent emailed to say her dog had been attacked.” 

A Worcester City Council spokesperson said: “An Annual Gull Report will be presented to the City Council’s Environment Committee on November 5. This will provide councillors with an opportunity to consider a gull management program for 2025.” 

Reading this pile of poo while picturing the posturing and cognitive dissonance displayed by elected representatives at all levels I immediately relapsed into full birder/taxpayer mode.

For instance, gulls must be called gulls, not seagulls, there is no such thing as a "seagull".  And preferably any discussions, proposals and policies should be based upon sound scientific research by understanding and using the correct species name together with the scientific equivalent. Joe Public is entitled to know that elected representatives are fully up to speed with subjects under discussion while being reassured that due diligence has been carried out before ever larger amounts of public money is spent on nonsense vanity projects.

Fish and Chips - Enjoy

Those squawking gulls dive bombing for chips at the beach may seem like nothing more than feathered delinquents but research has revealed that gulls are remarkably intelligent. There's much more to these birds than meets the eye. It turns out that those "criminal acts" and the ability to find new sources of food are in fact signs of incredible intelligence and adaptability, just as Charles Darwin indicated. 

Well I don't know about you Dear Reader but I would suggest that it is the said councillors who need contraceptives so as to reduce their capacity to breed more of the same. 

 

Shopping Or Birding?

Sue took the 5C bus to go shopping. I grabbed the car and went birding. Read on to discover who got the best deal. 

The 0630 start saw me driving along a bumpy farm track at an easy going 10mph where I met up with Andy for our planned ringing session. Zero wind and a slightly misty start suggested sun, warmth and clear skies ahead. 

Birds were on the move from the off with Meadow Pipits in abundance and one or two fellow travellers. Out of the first net round we picked 3 Meadow Pipits, a Sedge Warbler and a Reed Bunting 

Sedge Warbler

Meadow Pipit

Reed Bunting

 

We had more Meadow Pipits but the initial surge of post-dawn birds did not continue in any huge way. We ended with a slightly disappointing 14 new birds – 12 Meadow Pipits, 1, Sedge Warbler and 1 Reed Bunting. 

Major disappointment came when we saw a female Sparrowhawk heading for and then landing in a mist net 30 yards away from where we sat drinking coffee while putting the world to rights. A few flaps of those wide wings together a little panic and the hawk freed itself, gone before we could get a hand on her.  

A bad-tempered Sparrowhawk out to dig its talons into your fingers always livens up a slow ringing session. 

Sparrowhawk

 

We didn’t see the hawk again and settled for views of other raptors, a Marsh Harrier and a Kestrel. The Marsh Harrier was the fifth or sixth sighting of this autumn when it arrived from an easterly direction and then continued in deep V profile as it flew purposefully west and out of sight. 

The Kestrel crossed our line of sight rapidly with typically strong and consistent wing beats, quite unlike the pumping wings and flat glides of a Sparrowhawk. 

Kestrel

Andy had an appointment and left at 1030. I sat in the car hide for a while and grabbed a few pictures in the morning light. Along came a few Linnets, Pied Wagtails and a single Yellow Wagtail – nice! 

Yellow Wagtail

Linnet

Pied Wagtail

Back home I had a short nap until woken by the Happy Shopper returning home home and handing me a dog-eared debit card.  Today's financial advice - buy shares in Marks & Spencer. 

Back soon folks. Enjoy your days whatever you do. 

Autumn Arrives

Friday produced my first autumnal Kingfisher of 2024, whizzing back and forth across farmland drainage ditches, enough stimulus to inspire another visit on Sunday morning where I hoped for more pictures. At the same place, and if the wind speed stayed low as predicted, maybe catch and ring a few other species. 

Kingfisher

 

As an early season  breeding species of inland waters the Kingfisher is a surprisingly early returnee to coastal Fylde where the tiny and seemingly fragile fisherman is able to make a winter living wherever there’s a spot to watch, wait and then plunge. 

August and September can be an ideal time to look out for their arrival. Warmed by The Irish Sea our coastal waters here remain ice and snow free during most winters when just 15/20 miles away near Preston or Garstang the reverse can be true. 

Almost four hours later there was neither sight nor sound of a Kingfisher; such are the vagaries of trying to predict migration or to second guess a species like Kingfisher, its habits or whereabouts. 

At first, and for an hour or so, the wind was non-existent. A single net in the open except for the minimal background of vegetated fence posts remained unwavering and strangely still, quite unlike our frequently blown away ringing sessions. It wasn’t to last but in the meantime I caught in double figures, 9 Meadow Pipits and a single Willow Warbler. 

Meadow Pipit - first summer

Willow Warbler - first summer

As the wind speed increased so did the birds with a rather sudden but splendid arrival of dozens of Meadow Pipit, Linnet and wagtails, as if they had all waited for a breeze to give them lift off from the runway. Bright morning sunlight gave photo opportunities whereby the strengthening breeze mattered not. 

By now Meadow Pipits poured through with a rough count of 100+, joined in their arrival with mainly Pied Wagtails (30+), Linnets (45+) and even a couple each of Great-spotted Woodpecker and Sedge Warbler. 

Click the pics for close-ups.

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Stock Dove

Linnet

Linnet

 

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Linnet

Meadow Pipit

Sedge Warbler

Back soon folks. Take care out there, it's a funny old world at the moment.

Another Bird Blog.

 

 

It Only Takes One

ALZ8035, the single Sedge Warbler we caught on 3 August 2024 at Cockerham had been ringed elsewhere. The morning was one of excruciating slowness with just 3 birds trapped. Fortunately ALZ8035 now reminds us that catching even low numbers of birds can produce interesting results. 

Birds are such creatures of habit that ALZ8035 was first ringed at Icklesham, Sussex on 1 August 2023, a juvenile of that year, and then recaptured by us almost exactly a year to the day and now an adult. 

Sedge Warbler - Icklesham and Cockerham

 

Sedge Warbler

Icklesham is a coastal migration hot spot where many species migrate from and to France in autumn and spring with April, May and then August/September the peak times when migratory birds cross the English Channel to winter further south. 

Sedge Warbler

The Sedge Warbler is a summer visitor to Britain and spends winters in Africa, south of the Sahara Desert, a long journey in both directions. We are pretty sure that ALZ8035 had not bred at our Cockerham ringing site but almost certainly travelled there from north Morecambe Bay or further afield. 

We did not catch this individual either before or after 3 August, nor would we expect to do so, such is the rapid onward migration of Sedge Warblers. 

There has been a considerable amount of work done on the feeding ecology of the Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus as well as on the related Reed Warbler Acrocephalus scirpaceus. Bibby et al (1976) studied the feeding behaviour of Sedge Warblers in Dorset UK prior to migration. 

Available food in the places frequented by the birds consisted almost entirely of the reed aphid Hyalopterus pruni, also known as the mealy plum aphid, or plum-reed aphid which frequently occurred in hundreds per leaf or per flower. 

Mealy plum aphid on phragmites reed

The weight gains of birds feeding on these aphids varied greatly, both amongst individuals and between years. Many of the birds stayed for very short periods. Most left after just two days. 

Bibby & Green (1981) went on to compare the patterns of migration of Reed and Sedge Warblers, both of which migrate between Britain and Africa, to see how food supply distribution might influence migration. Most Sedge Warblers fattened in southern England or northern France, and overflew Iberia, while Reed Warblers paused and fattened in Portugal. The occurrence, duration of stay and rate of weight gain of Sedge Warblers depended on the abundance of Hyalopterus pruni whose seasonality and distribution was broadly sufficient to predict the migration pattern. 

Reed Warbler

Reed Warblers showed no similar restrictions of diet, did not respond to aphid abundance and were able to achieve a similar rate of weight gain any time in September or October in Portugal. 

Back soon folks. Take care, it's a dangerous world out there.

There's rain for a day or two but Saturday is pencilled in for being outdoors.

 

Making Hay

Our nearby fields are awash with cut grass drying out in readiness for winter storage. Summer finally arrived for now. Hay and silage are two common methods of preserving grass for livestock feed. Hay is made by cutting and drying grass while silage is made by fermenting the gather cuttings in an airtight container. 

Tractors fly across local fields as local farmers enjoy a long spell of warm sunny weather after the tortuous winter and equally wet spring that stopped their work for days at a time and caused a redrawing of plans. At last, fields of stunted maize gain height towards their 8/10 feet goal. Temperature is paramount for maize where the seed needs soil temperatures above 10°C to grow, temperatures that we rarely reached throughout a long, cold spring. 

Silage field

 

Maize

This is a quiet time for ringing but since my last post I too have been out and about in the sunshine, camera, long lens and bins at the ready. 

Ready Steady, Go!

 

Another Marsh Harrier came along, a silent dip and dive across the fields, looking for that elusive prize, a mammal scurrying through layered green. On its way it went, almost reluctantly in a south westerly direction as if drawn by some unknown force of nature. 

Marsh Harrier

 

Mid week saw the first of the returning Yellow Wagtails, a single juvenile amongst the dozens of Pied Wagtails. 

Yellow Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

And now I wait for comments about the grey wagtail, a Yellow Wagtail that is quite grey but assuredly a Western Yellow Wagtail, Motacilla flava, a scarce breeding species of the Fylde area that is so scarce it cannot decline further but simply disappear into the annals of history. But, always good to see, hear and recall that soft “seep seep”.  

Water at the feeding station attracted Starlings in their juvenile variations, a mixed coat of pinky grey softness with a layer of spotted insulation that for all the world looked as if it had been stuck on a belly as an afterthought.  For students of bird moult a Starling is one to tax a ringer’s entry of “age” on the BTO's DemOn database. Good subjects for a camera lens but thank goodness we don’t catch any of the noisy, forever squawking things. 

Starling

Starling

Little Egrets begin to build in autumn numbers while Grey Herons subside into single sightings, two species which one might think can sustain their respective populations but seemingly not when the heron is now “scarce” and the egret “common”. 

Grey Heron 

The feeding station is well situated to exploit the bokeh of the telephoto lens, where shades of vegetation green, brown and ochre compete with a spot of blue sky for an out of focus backdrop. 

Meadow Pipit

Linnet

That’s me for a day or two. Thursday Friday we have Brett in to paint our kitchen diner - spend some dosh before our new Government,  “party of the workers” take it all from us. 

Politicians tell lies to win over gullible fools so as to win elections. Who Knew? 

See you soon folks. 

 

Olympics Free Zone

The forecasts didn’t agree; now there’s a surprise, not. Maybe rain, maybe dry. So we decided to give it a go and I met up with Andy at 0700, far from the crack of dawn but best we could manage. 

Earlier in the week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had seen small arrivals of the usual early birds, the species that breed fairly early and now more or less finished - Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits, plus small parties of Linnets numbering 10-20 individuals. Goldfinches at the feeders too, where many in their gingery brown plumage lacked the outnumbered colourful adults. Around the feeding station there is water that attracts the pipits and wagtails in their ever interesting autumnal plumage variations. Even hares stop by for a piece of the action.  

Click the pics for TV size views.

Pied Wagtail

Linnet

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Brown Hare

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Goldfinch

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Woodpigeon

Pied Wagtail

In the week I saw the first autumnal returning Marsh Harrier, a male arriving from the east - dipping and diving, disappearing from view and then reappearing, eyes fixed on the ground in case of a slow moving target below. 

Marsh Harrier

 

He carried on flying west giving just a couple of chances for a picture before he was gone. 

The route is one that the Marsh Harriers always take. We spot them with increasing regularity from July and into November, as they meet the sea wall and the ditches, dykes and farmland of North Fylde after their journey from north and/or east of Morecambe bay. The harriers proceed mainly west , sometimes directly south before taking an inland scenic mostly farmland route south so as to avoid flying over the conurbations of Fleetwood, Poulton le Fylde or Blackpool. 

They are not looking for Big Macs, fish & chips or discarded sarnies, just fresh meat, a variety of prey including birds like Coot or Moorhen, frogs and mammals, especially rabbits. 

Eventually the harriers will meet the coast again around the River Ribble, all the while avoiding Preston City. 

Saturday morning ringing was uneventful, cool with spits & spots of rain and just 15 birds caught - 7 Goldfinch, 5 Reed Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler and 1 Sedge Warbler. 

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

The end of an absorbing week. And, dare I say, the weather forecast for the week ahead and into August looks very promising with warm, windless days to spend outdoors. 

Irritable Owl Syndrome

Back soon folks. I'd rather be birding than watching the telly.