Atlantic Trip

Postman Brian normally has a letter or two to force through the letterbox. Today he had no choice but looked perplexed as he walked from his van to hand me a huge and hefty parcel containing a book from Princeton. The Atlas of North American Migratory Birds had landed. On the kitchen scales the book weighed in over 9 pounds, 4.2 kilos in metric. Wow - that is some book! 

That number is not the only telling statistic because when I opened the package for an initial look I discovered therein 816 pages, 902 colour illustration and 1,092 maps. And excuse the unfunny pun, but as an extraordinarily serious and important bird book it is not one to be taken lightly, but simply a book for ornithologists, scientists, conservationists and birders alike. 

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton 

I use the word “important” because for the first time in a hundred and more years the understanding of where specific populations of birds move throughout the regions of the American continent is now brought together in this fantastic piece of work. Here is a century of banding/ringing, observational and scientific records from over a thousand contributors, linked with data from modern tracking technologies like light-level geo-locators and satellite tags, stable isotope analysis, genetic tools, and high-resolution eBird range maps. 

The Atlas of North American Migratory Birds was conceived in 2009 by Peter P Marra who co-led the project with Amy L Scarpignato. With the help of many others plus the Smithsonian Institute and Conoco/Phillips they brought the project to recent fruition. 

Marra and Scarpignato are named as the authors while modestly describing themselves in a full page of Acknowledgments as “compilers” of information from countless, perhaps thousands of dedicated people and organisations committed to the study and preservation of birds. Almost twenty years of dedication, perseverance and tenacity to produce this single book is no mean feat from many contributors at many levels. 

Upon opening, the pages follow a completely logical and expected sequence. Four pages of Contents followed by what are the essential aims and objectives of the book, Discovering Unknown Migrations, pp 1 to 7, A New Age of Animal Tracking pp 8 to 22, followed by Atlas Methods pp 23 to 32. The Species Accounts are at pages 33 to 731 where 700 pages indicate the phenomenal range and diverse scope of this book. 

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

A major contribution of the book is from artist John Anderton who manages to capture not only the bird(s) but also the relevant environments applicable to each. He nails behaviour and the nuances of the place and time of year. He pictures the journey, the band, the wing tag or the transmitter on individuals while showing readers the nuts and bolts of the close study of birds. 

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

This book will appeal to birders from many parts of the Globe, not least in the UK where birders will know that more than 70 percent of North American bird species are migratory. A number of those find their way to the UK in both spring or autumn, and times in between, but the timing is never totally predictable. Fortunate indeed is the UK birder who stumbles across a transatlantic vagrant whilst working their local UK patch, speculating the circumstances whilst worrying how their bird’s journey might end. 

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

My own luck occurred on three wader occasions over many years of birding via Pectoral Sandpiper, White-rumped Sandpiper and Short-billed Dowitcher. A glance at The Atlas proved that information around such species is now more comprehensive than ever. Likewise, I looked up pages of just some of the many species encountered during my two springtime stays at Long Point Observatory Canada. Warblers, flycatchers, buntings, kinglets, thrushes, orioles, catbirds and many another. 

Long Point, Canada

Short-billed Dowitcher

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

Times have moved on since the early eighties, a Peter Pyle Guide, slide transparencies from a Pentax ME Super where much was known but oceans of information to fill by those of an enquiring mind and a desire to learn about birds. 

Despite the fact that the dreaded apps seem to have replaced books as a source of birders’ knowledge I thoroughly recommend The Atlas of North American Migratory Birds as a precursory read to a birding visit to America and its regions. For a serious birder who likes seeing transatlantic species on this side of the pond I think it’s a “must buy” to understand how, why, when and how that day at the coast might turn up a precious jewel like a Hooded Warbler? 

Hooded Warbler

At £75 or $120 The Atlas of North American Migratory Birds is not pocket money. It’s an investment in education and knowledge. Buy it. 

The Atlas of North American Migratory  Birds - Princeton

 

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.

______________________________________________________________

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.