Back In The Groove

Did you ever Dear Reader, take a few days out of normal routine to do a spot of DIY? Like painting a room or tidying the garden in readiness for the burgeoning Spring? And did it ever become more expensive, complicated and fraught than you imagined? I know the answer - “Yes”. 

That’s my excuse for not being around to post just lately. Our lounge needed a freshen up whereby the anticipated few days of splashing paint turned into a week or more of hard graft, not least in searching the Internet for rugs, pictures, a smaller TV plus other odds and ends that I didn’t know we needed. 

Now we are almost there, just waiting for an Amazon ceramic vase together with a rosewood display stand via LiChongShan. Then maybe Sue and I will finish the job. 

So on Thursday morning after a promise to check the parcel tracking and with a 9/10 for effort under my belt I motored up to Oakenclough. Here in the Great Outdoors I met up with Andy and Will at 0700 for the long awaited ringing session. It had been two weeks and more. 

The morning was cold with a slight frost and clear skies. Initially we noted a few Chaffinches on the move and a couple of small groups of Siskins. Will lives fairly close by where his regular top ups of the feeders have ensured that some birds, mostly Goldfinches, stayed around through the many wet and wild periods of October to February. 

It came as no surprise when today’s catch of 26 birds showed Goldfinches as the most numerous species of 15 Goldfinch, 5 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Wren, 1 Siskin, 1 Treecreeper. More surprising was just the single Chaffinch in the catch. 

 It was good to meet up with Siskins again, if only the one in the hand. The Siskin is a periodic irruptive species that has been rather scarce in our part of Lancashire this winter, with very few mentions on local forums. Sightings will surely increase very soon when the species migrates from its central and south easterly concentrations towards its Scottish breeding strongholds. The one below is an adult male. 

 

Siskin

  

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Goldfinch

Here’s a little joke that will ring a few bells for most birders! 

Back soon. I just need to keep watch for the delivery van. 

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

 

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Yay. We’ve gone beyond the shortest day with many reasons to be cheerful. From now on each and every morning and evening will see increased daylight as temperatures climb and winds subside. Birds will sing and flowers bloom. We will say goodbye to news & media doomsters and their visions of apocalypse around every corner. The viruses avian and human will fade into distant memory. My gold shares will rocket as crypto crashes, again.

Happy 2022 everyone. May all your days be bird filled.

Here’s a post I knocked up earlier while waiting for the rain to stop.

It was quite recently and not for the first time that a reader in the US thought that a UK Coal Tit was one and the same species as the North American Black-capped Chickadee. Their  respective scientific names are Periparus ater and Poecile atricapillus, two related species of the same bird family known in the US as "chickadees" and in the UK as "tits". The two species are remarkably similar but where similarities occur in other species of animal or bird, confusion is avoided by understanding and/or investigating the respective scientific or Latin names.

Black-capped Chickadee

Coal Tit

For many birdwatchers the use of scientific names is boring or inconsequential, at best a riddle and of interest only to ornithologists who speak Latin. But as well as a means of allowing people throughout the world to communicate unambiguously about birds, the name give an insight into the origins of the scientific nomenclature and hence the bird itself. Here are some examples and a few pictures from Another Bird Blog archives.

There’s a question that often crops up on TV quizzes, one designed to trap the unwary. Which bird has the Latin name Puffinus puffinus? The correct but perhaps perplexing answer is of course Manx Shearwater. In days gone by the word “puffin” was a synonym for a shearwater and not the unrelated seabird Atlantic Puffin, hence it was the shearwater and not the puffin which earned the Latin title of Puffinus puffinus. 

The “manx” refers to the species’ former abundance on the Calf of Man a small island lying to the south of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, while "shearwater” describes the birds’ mode of flight which skims or shears the water. 

Manx Shearwater - Puffinus puffinus

The scientific/Latin name for Wigeon is Anas penelope. I’m somewhat disappointed that the Anas part of the name for such a creature should simply mean duck-duck. It’s from the Latin anas and the Greek respectively, a duck that in Greek mythology was reputed to have rescued Penelope when she was thrown into the sea. 

Eurasian Wigeon - Anas penelope

Would anyone who has slept under a duck down duvet that contains feathers plucked from an Eider duck Somateria mollissima disagree with the Latin meaning “very soft woolly body”? 

Eider -  Somateria mollissima

Now for an easy one, Barn Owl. Tyto alba simply means white owl. I think we can all agree on that one for the often ghostly apparition that will sometimes allow a photograph or two.

Barn Owl - Tyto alba

One might think that the rustica element of the Latin name Hirundo rustica refers to the reddish forehead, throat or the often pink underparts of our common Swallow. In fact it means a rural or rustic swallow. The Swallow is a bird which graces our countryside for a few short months of the year. Long may it continue to do so until the politicians succeed in concreting over the entire landscape of England. 

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica

I’ve not heard of any Bohemian Waxwings Bombycilla garrulus finding their way to the UK this autumn and winter but if they are around soon I’ll be looking out for the “chattering silk-tails” that their Latin name describes. The Bohemian part of their common name tells us the species’ wandering habits were reminiscent of tribes of gypsies or Bohemians. The silk tail is self explanatory when an observer or lucky bird ringer receives close views of this beautiful species. 

Bohemian Waxwing -  Bombycilla garrulus

The Phylloscopus collybita of Chiffchaff translates as Phylloscopus a leaf-watcher, and collybita originating from a word meaning money-changer. The clicking, repetitive sound of the Chiffchaff’s song "chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff" was thought to resemble the sound of coins being clinked together. 

That’s a really interesting if somewhat esoteric explanation which may or may not be the truth. Readers should think about that one in the Springtime while watching and listening to a Chiffchaff in the tree canopy.

Chiffchaff -  Phylloscopus collybita

There was a Jay Garrulus glandarius in my garden just this this week, taking a break from raiding the young oak tree in a neighbours garden. Jays are often silent but “acorn-eating chatterer” would apply on many occasions. 

Jay - Garrulus glandarius 

Please excuse my bout of name dropping today. It's not something I normally do or even like to hear from others, but hopefully there will be more posts and news soon. 

In the meantime here's wishing readers, new or old a very Happy Christmas.

Another Day, Another Drama

There was patchy rain around at early doors. When at 0630 the three of us arrived from our respective but different journeys, Andy said he drove through a few showers, Bryan experienced the same, but my journey had been rain free. At Oakenclough all was dry and bright with just a slight breeze for another ringing session. 

It’s fair to say the morning was slow but steady with 23 birds caught. More Willow Warblers, another Tree Pipit and a good show of Goldfinches. Total - 8 Goldfinch, 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Tree Pipit, 1 House Sparrow, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Wren. 

The House Sparrow was a real rarity, the first one ever caught here at 700ft above sea level. 

We kicked off with 2 new Coal Tits, a species usually greatly outnumbered in birding and ringing references and reports by its more abundant cousin the Blue Tit. But up here at Oakenclough the Blue Tit doesn’t have it all to itself. Since 2014 we have 365 captures of Coal Tit compared to 489 captures of Blue Tit, a ratio that many ringers would prefer. 

Coal Tit

The Treecreeper capture was rather unusual. As we checked birds at the feeder of the nearby house we noticed a Treecreeper sat immobile on a window sill. Because it wasn’t moving we wondered if it had stunned itself against the window glass, a not unknown phenomenon for all sorts of birds. Andy went to investigate and the bird allowed itself to be picked up. We put the Treecreeper in a bird bag and hung the bag in a warm car for twenty minutes or so before taking a look inside. The bird was full of beans, seemingly none the worse for its attempt to fly through glass so we ringed and processed it as normal and then watched it fly off to the top of the nearest tree. 

Treecreeper

While we caught one Tree Pipit, at least 5 others escaped our attempts to catch them. The one caught was a juvenile/first summer. 

 

Tree Pipit

Five more Willow Warblers gave us 70 captures of this species here from April to date. 

 

Willow Warbler

Other birds seen - 15 Chaffinch, 8 Swallow, 5 Grey Wagtail, 2 Greenfinch, 4 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel. 

We received news of a Lesser Redpoll ringed here on 28 October 2019, an adult male ring number AKE3853. This same bird was recaptured by other ringers at the RSPB Reserve Geltsdale, Cumbria on 3 August 2020. 

This was possibly a Lakeland bird that by October was on its way south, only to return to Cumbria in 2020. 

Lesser Redpoll - Oakenclough and Geltsdale, Cumbria 

Back soon. Don’t go away. 

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Birding and Anni's birding.

 

Too Good To Be True

After another week of rain and rubbish weather we hoped that today’s forecast of a decent morning would be accurate. 

On the drive towards Oakenclough a hint of sun broke the early clouds. At 0630 roadside trees hardly stirred. This was all too good to be true. And so it proved.  For the next four hours Andy and I dodged periodic drizzle and showers that blew in from the west until we packed in at 1030 when light rain turned to a heavy wetting shower. 

Had the sun stayed around longer we felt sure that our catch would have been higher as despite the cool showers and grey skies, there seemed to be good numbers of birds moving through the area. Between the drizzly showers came post-fledging parties of Nuthatch, Chaffinches, titmice and Swallows. One of these moments brought in a Hobby that gave a rapid fly past before heading south east and out of sight. A birder who lives not far away reports seeing a Hobby every day of the week. 

Given the stop-start nature of proceedings we were quite pleased to finish with 28 birds of 13 species – 24 juvenile birds of the year and 4 adults - 8 Willow Warbler, 3 Chaffinch, 3 Coal Tit, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, 2 Treecreeper, 2 Great Tit and singles of Goldfinch, Robin, Wren, Blue Tit, Goldcrest and Garden Warbler. 

Pictures below - all taken at ISO800/1600 in poor light yet again. Whatever happened to summer? 

Treecreeper 

Coal Tit 

Goldfinch 

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

Note how the outline shape of the Chiffchaff wing differs from the Willow Warbler. The Chiffchaff wing is shorter and rounder with primaries 3,4 and 5 of similar length. Primaries 3 and 4 of a Willow Warbler wing are longer than primary number 5.

The sixth primary feather of the Chiffchaff is partially emarginated whereas the equivalent feather of the Willow Warbler is not emarginated. 

Wing of Chiffchaff

 Wing of Willow Warbler

The differences are easier to see from the drawings in my 1984 dog-eared edition of "Svensson". But the facts remain the same in 2020.

Chiffchaff 

Willow Warbler

 More news and views soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Eileen's Blog and Anni's Blogspot.

Rant And Ring

There’s still no ringing allowed near home. DEFRA are taking no chances on the possibility that Avian Flu might still spread, but there’s no information about when the saga might end. 

Avian Flu Zones

What a shame that DEFRA’s inspectors weren’t on the ball in the first place when they would have seen that in this part of Lancashire gamebird rearing operations are environmental disasters waiting to happen. 

It gets worse. Each autumn in the UK many millions of cage reared pheasant, partridge and duck are released into the wild for the purposes of then shooting them. Pre or post, there is little or no qualified assessment as to the impact of the releases upon wild bird populations or the environment.

So called “game shooting” is big business in providing jobs and revenue for those involved whereby there is zero likelihood of anyone tackling the subject in favour of the environment or the landscape at large. In that word “anyone” I include politicians or political parties of any and every persuasion, pressure groups, wildlife charities, wildlife trusts, clubs, organisations and the various hangers-on who claim concern for the countryside. There are some like the BTO who must remain impartial to promote their scientific heartbeat, but there are other individuals and organisations that show little desire to stir the murky pot and we all know the reason why. 

Game bird rearing pens

Rant over. What happened today? 

Luckily Andy and I have a standby site outside the avian flu 10kms zone in the hills at Oakenclough but where the grey, wet and windy weather of late has kept us from going; until today that is when clear skies and a rising sun met us at 0645. That entailed an alarm clock call at 0530. Being a bird ringer is neither for the faint-hearted nor for those who have difficulty getting out of bed on a cold March morning. 

We had a quietish few hours with just 17 birds and finches once again in top spot: 4 Siskin, 3 Goldfinch, 3 Coal Tit, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Lesser Redpoll and 1 Bullfinch. 

The first winter female Bullfinch was only the third Bullfinch we have caught here. We see or more likely hear the species quite regularly but they don’t often come near our net rides. Their short, stubby beak is specially adapted for feeding on buds and they are particularly enthusiastic eaters of the buds of certain fruit trees. Due to their bud-eating habits, many thousands used to be legally trapped and killed each year in English orchards.

Bullfinch - First winter female

 

Bullfinch- First winter female

Bullfinch - First winter female

In all we saw and heard 12+ Siskins but Lesser Redpolls were decidedly scarce by way of the single one caught. 

Lesser Redpoll

Siskin

Siskin

Below is an adult male Chaffinch coming into full and colourful spring plumage. 

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Other birds seen today: 50+ Curlew, 18 Oystercatcher, 3 Pied Wagtail, 2 Goldeneye, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Grey Heron.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Trickle Time

There were small numbers of Siskins, Lesser Redpolls and Goldfinches on the move north this week. It was on Monday at Oakenclough that Andy caught handfuls of all three species. 

We both returned today hoping to witness further evidence of spring migration and catch more of our target species for the site. The forecast wind speed of 5mph was some way off the mark as we arrived to see swaying tree tops and ripples across the surface of the nearby reservoir caused by a 15mph chilly northerly breeze. Fortunately the wind dropped somewhat, the sun came out and we managed to catch 15 birds in a slow trickle of activity but during a morning when the temperature never rose above 8°C. 

We didn’t catch a single Goldfinch today and we both scratched our heads trying to remember the last time Goldfinch failed to appear on a field sheet from this site. Coal Tits are also regular here, mainly as recaptures from previous ringing sessions so we were surprised to catch three new ones today in our total of just 15 - 4 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Siskin, 2 Chaffinch, 3 Blue Tit, 3 Coal Tit and 1 Dunnock. 

Coal Tit

The four Lesser Repolls consisted of three new ones and a recapture from Monday. Both Siskins were new birds and both adult males. 

Lesser Redpoll

 Lesser Redpoll

Siskin

Siskin

We saw a number of raptors this morning with circling and calling Buzzards much in evidence and a count of between four and eight individuals, all of them harried by crows or gulls in the course of their soaring. We also saw at least two Sparrowhawks plus one or more Peregrine. On Monday Andy had also clocked up a ringtail Hen Harrier over nearby farmland. 

Carrion Crows and Buzzard

Other birds today - 4 Mistle Thrush, 2 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Pied Wagtail, 8+ Oystercatcher, 12+ Curlew and the rather unusual sight of a Dipper feeding alongside the water’s edge of the nearby reservoir.

The normal habitat of the dipper is fast flowing streams, and although there are some nearby, to see a dipper along the reservoir’s margins made us look twice.

White-throated Dipper - R. Knight. East Sussex, UK [CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons)

More birds next time from Another Bird Blog. Log in soon.

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

Taking A Chance

This hobby of mine is about taking every available opportunity to grab the camera, head off birding or plan a ringing session, especially so during the historic wet and windy winter of 2015/16. Yet again Sunday’s weather forecast looked likely to sabotage any chance of a birding or ringing session in the week ahead as tightly packed isobars drew ever decreasing circles on the charts. 

Then late on Sunday afternoon a window of light winds and zero rain opened up in the centre of the low pressure system sitting directly over Oakenclough. I sent a text to Andy - Ringing 0800? A message came right back. Andy was game. 

It proved to be a good decision when our four hour session produced a respectable total of 66 birds, but for us, an unusually high number of recaptures. We had 28 new birds comprising 9 Chaffinch, 7 Goldfinch, 1 Siskin, 7 Blue Tit and 4 Coal Tit. The single Siskin caught was an adult female in fine condition. 

Siskin

Goldfinch

The remaining 38 recaptures were made up of 3 Goldfinch, 2 Chaffinch, 10 Coal Tit, 11 Blue Tit, 10 Great Tit and 2 Dunnock. 

Chaffinch

The unusually high numbers of recaptures of the tit family in the last two visits here suggest that the mild winter of zero frosts and nil snowfall has allowed many birds to survive, individuals which might otherwise have perished. Additionally today we noted that a nearby house which normally has full bird feeders had allowed the said feeders to become empty and to lead more birds to visit our own feeding station where we prefer that the Nyger feeders catch finches only.  Our objectives of ringing at Oakenclough include catching good numbers of finches and if possible to avoid catching large numbers of the titmice family, an aim realised to good effect since recommencing ringing at the site in late 2104. 

Hopefully the tits will leave the immediate area soon and allow us to concentrate on catching migrant Siskins and Lesser Redpolls, not to mention the newly arrived warblers of the burgeoning Spring. 

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

Dunnock

Back home I noted an increase in garden Goldfinches, Blackbirds on territory and Great Tits taking an interest in a nest box. Things are looking up.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday in Australia.