Have Another Go

After yesterday’s slightly underwhelming and fairly unproductive ringing session Andy and I decided we would have another go today. We met up at 0700 for the last time before the clocks revert to winter time settings, and for ringers, a return to earlier alarm bells for a week or two. 

With clear skies and a promise of sunshine the weather this morning was decidedly better in terms of comfort for us ringers if not necessarily more suited to visible migration. We were correct. After a very early thrush rush the little migration there was came to a complete halt. 

We caught 22 birds, thrushes named first to illustrate how the morning changed from a promising thrush rush to a titfest - 6 Redwing, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Blackbird, 1 Robin, 1 Goldfinch, 6 Coal Tit, 4 Blue Tit, 1 Wren, 1 Dunnock. 

The post-dawn arrival of thrushes comprised of about 45 Redwings, 15 Fieldfare, 4 Mistle Thrush, 4 Blackbirds and the single Song Thrush above. Otherwise, and in the clear skies, 100+ Woodpigeon flew south west and 15/20 Chaffinch flew directly over without stopping off. A couple of Sparrowhawks, male and female, targeting thrushes enlivened proceedings but we caught none today.

Once again we failed to catch any Lesser Redpolls or Chaffinches, the single Goldfinch a recapture from recent days and again a complete absence of Siskins. We discussed whether Storm Ophelia and Hurricane Brian which hit the North West in quick succession had caused finches to head south and west somewhat earlier than normal. We then then countered that argument with the fact that during the storms the overall day and night temperatures remained balmy. Time will tell whether the fall in finch captures remains low or recovers to our usual levels when colder weather arrives. 

Dunnock

Redwing

Song Thrush

 

Like many ringers we no longer catch Song Thrushes in good numbers since the species’ decline during the last 30/40 years. 

Song Thrush - Turdus philomelos - British Trust for Ornithology

For many people the shy but once familiar Song Thrush is regarded as a garden bird only, and not one associated with migration. In actual fact the partially migratory Song Thrush breeds in most of Europe and across the Ukraine and Russia almost to Lake Baikal, cold regions which must be abandoned in winter. The species extends to 75°N in Norway and about 60°N in Siberia, and Song Thrushes from those regions winter around the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East. 

Some British Song Thrushes leave their breeding areas for Ireland, France or Iberia for the winter, although many undertake little seasonal movement unless prompted by severe weather. The migration of birds from Europe can sometimes be evident across Britain in autumn, and is known to involve birds from as far east as Finland. However it is rarely possible to distinguish this from movements of local birds. Occasional continental individuals are reported in the UK in winter but it is clear that a high proportion of them continue further south, to at least France or Iberia. Vagrant Song Thrushes have been recorded far from their normal ranges, in places such as Greenland, West Africa and various Atlantic islands. 

Meanwhile, the Lesser Redpolls we caught here this year continue on their journeys south as shown below by the unremarkable but instructive information. 

Lesser Redpoll

A juvenile Lesser Redpoll S800301 ringed here at Oakenclough on 25th August 2017. Biometrics: Wing: 72.0 mm. Weight: 9.6 g. Time: 08:00:00hrs, was recaptured 181 degrees due south on 26th October 2017 at Billinge Hill, near Billinge, Merseyside. Biometrics: Wing: 71.0 mm. Weight: 10.5 g. Time: 09:00:00hrs. Duration: 62 days Distance: 47 km Direction: 181deg (S) 

Lesser Redpoll - Oakenclough to Billinge

Stand by for more birds soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

 

Goodbye Ophelia. Hello Birds.

Thank goodness. Hurricane Ophelia passed over us without doing too much damage apart from destroying any chance of birding or ringing. Hopefully, and as the wind subsided throughout Tuesday night, it opened up a window of opportunity for migration to take place. 

I met with Andy at 0645 on Wednesday morning at Oakenclough where the trees barely moved in the still of post-dawn. We set up shop and hoped for a good catch of birds to ring and where with a little time between the processing of birds we might observe “vis-mig”, visible migration.

 

The Ringing Point

It’s in the half-light that we mostly catch Redwings but we caught just the one this morning. And then within an hour of dawn that small arrival of Redwings stopped completely and we caught no more. Of the forty or so Redwings that arrived in fives and tens most did so from the east and then left very quickly and headed off west towards the coast.

Redwing

Redwing

The hoped for vis-mig continued to be very slow with movement comprised of the early Redwings and groups of Woodpigeons totalling 90+ flying strongly south and quite high in the clear skies. It was almost 10am before finches appeared in the shape and sounds of Lesser Redpolls, Chaffinches and Goldfinches. Even then the large number of 120+ Goldfinches comprised of probably local feeding flocks as distinct from true migrants. Small numbers of Lesser Redpoll arrived and also Chaffinches but not in the numbers we hoped for. And where are the Siskins this year? 

Mostly our birds arrived unseen in the form of Goldcrests, an unexpected Reed Bunting and a rather nice first year Blackcap. We made up our total of 38 birds with the usual Blue Tits, Great Tits and local Goldfinch.

Total - 38 new birds of 9 species with nil recaptures from previous occasions. 11 Goldcrest, 7 Lesser Redpoll, 8 Goldfinch, 4 Great Tit, 4 Blue Tit, singles of Blackcap, Reed Bunting, Dunnock and Redwing. 

Dunnock

Blackcap

Lesser Redpoll

 

Goldfinch

Other birds seen this morning 2 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 4+ Pied Wagtail, 4+ Bullfinch, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Stay tuned. We may try again tomorrow if the weather holds.

Out For The Count

Sunday morning and there was time for a gentle run around the block before rain arrived about 10 o’clock. 

I was early enough to check Lane Ends where Little Egrets were beginning to leave their tree roost. Second one out was a Great White Egret, followed by 32 Little Egrets and then four or more Little Egrets still sat in the trees when I left 20 minutes later. Scattered across the marsh was a count of several thousand Pink-footed Goose, perhaps up to 9/10,000 and 29 Whooper Swans. Also, two male Sparrowhawks flew in and out of the trees in a rather strange way and I got the impression that they were not adversaries but perhaps siblings of the family that bred here this year. 

Just up the road at Gulf Lane I dropped seed at the Linnet project. There have been 100+ Linnets for a couple of weeks now but we’ve not been able to ring there due to constant wind across the open field. Patience is the name of the game and we know we will get a go eventually, preferably when numbers have built to 200+. 

There was a Barn Owl this morning on the distant fence and also a Kestrel, both birds showing a particular interest in one patch of ground. Three Swallows flew quickly through heading south-east. 

Barn Owl

Conder Pool was rather quiet again with few birds to set the pulse racing. A Common Sandpiper is still around, perhaps destined to be this year’s wintering one. Also, 40 Lapwing and 8 Snipe but a handful only of both Curlew and Redshank.  Apologies for the poor shots, the light was poor. 

Curlew

Redshank

In the wildfowl stakes - 84 Teal, 12 Little Grebe, 2 Wigeon, 1 Cormorant and 1 Goosander. 

It was spitting with rain when I checked the flood at Pilling/Rawcliffe where I found 40 grounded Meadow Pipit, 18 Pied Wagtail, 40 Linnet, a Grey Heron and a single Buzzard. 

The rain didn’t last long and by now and back home I found more to do. All week there’s been waves of Goldfinch coming through so I set a single net in the garden for a few hours. 

I ended up with a catch of 2 Robin, 1 Blackbird, 1 Dunnock and 16 Goldfinch, a bonus for the day’s birding. All but one of the Goldfinches proved to be juvenile/first autumn birds. I could not sex a couple of them as even now in early October they had yet to attain sufficient head colour to determine male or female.  Is breeding well into September part of the secret of the Goldfinch’s success of recent tears? 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Dunnock

And now own up, who thought that the Robin in their back garden was always the same one? 

Robin

 

More birds soon with Another Bird Blog.

Goldfinch Day

What a frustrating week! Here in North West England we’ve had at least three and a half days of windy and rain-filled days. Now on Friday and with the promise of better weather for weekend, the morning was still cloudy, grey and breezy from the north - not the best for birding or photos. 

All week I watched the garden fill with Goldfinches, and where like many British gardens, the highly successful Goldfinch is a common and often numerous visitor. Other species qwe see are typical suburban companions - Blackbird, Dunnock, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Robin, House Sparrow, Greenfinch, Starling, Magpie and Wren. This week we’ve had a couple of visits from a Great-spotted Woodpecker, but mainly it’s Goldfinch galore. 

So this morning and with our south facing garden sheltered from the breeze I decided to do some garden ringing and see just how many Goldfinch are around. I did rather well by way of 33 birds - 23 Goldfinch, 4 Blackbird, 2 House Sparrow, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Dunnock and 1 Woodpigeon. 

As one might expect at this time of year there are lots of juvenile Goldfinches about with my catch split 14/9 in favour of newly fledged birds. All of the adult Goldfinch were in various stages of their main post breeding moult. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

A juvenile Blackbird showed serious faults at the tip of the tail suggesting a food shortage immediately prior to its fledging. 

Blackbird

Blue Tit

Dunnock

Woodpigeon

There’s ringing and/or birding tomorrow with more news and views from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

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.

More On Migration

Thursday morning brought early frost and mist but nothing like the freezing fog of the day before. So I set off for the hills and Oakenclough to catch up with the ringing I’d missed on Wednesday when Andy clocked up another 27 birds. 

There’s a good throughput of birds at the moment and it’s pretty apparent that we are witnessing the beginnings of Spring migration for a number of species, especially of Lesser Redpoll and Chaffinch. Bird migration takes place on a broad front, including inland sites like ours, whereby the previous year’s breeding haunts often receive the earliest migrants keen to grab the best nesting sites. Although migration at coastal sites can be obvious, sometimes dramatic or even spectacular, at inland sites it is generally much less evident. 

Today we caught 24 new birds and 5 recaptures. New: 8 Chaffinch, 7 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Dunnock, 2 Great Tit, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Coal Tit and 1 Goldcrest. 

Recaptures: 3 Great Tit, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Dunnock. 

Missing today were Goldfinches around the feeders which resulted in their first blank on the winter field sheets. Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Great Tit numbers are much reduced as most have moved off site to nest. The resident Dunnocks are sorting out their domestic arrangements with much chasing around hence our catch of 4 individuals today - 2 males and 2 females. I posted portraits from the morning, birds only - click the pics to see the close-ups. 

 

Dunnock

Chaffinch

Lesser Redpoll

Goldcrest

After each ringing session there’s the data input so the work is far from over. 

Ringer's Field Sheet

Birding wise proved pretty quiet with pairs of Mistle Thrush, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Pied Wagtails and Song Thrush much in evidence plus a Jay raiding the bird seed. 

Log in soon for more birding, ringing and photography.

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

Left Or Right?

Don’t worry it’s not politics, just birds, so read on. At the top of Smithy Lane it was difficult to decide which way to turn, left for birding at Pilling or right for ringing on Rawcliffe Moss. Dawn was imminent and I could just make out a little movement in the trees, hopefully less than the BBC’s 10mph forecast, so as the steering wheel turned clockwise towards the moss I hoped the last minute decision was a good one. 

Everything started well with a hunting Barn Owl on the farm track and when I stopped to watch the Barn Owl heading off into the distance, 2 Tawny Owls called from the block of trees nearby.

With just a couple of nets up I caught quite well until 1030 when a strengthening breeze dictated taking the nets down again. 27 new birds of 6 species caught: 20 Chaffinch, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Dunnock, 1 Blackcap, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Goldcrest. Visible migration was fairly light this morning, with c60 Chaffinches and 15/20 Siskins to the fore, followed by a thin passage of approximately 30 Meadow Pipit and ones and twos of wagtails, “albas” and Grey Wagtail. The pipit passage consisted of mainly single birds which hardly warranted an attempt to catch any. 

Including today, an examination of the Chaffinches caught here in September shows 67 new birds, only two of which have been adults (both females) with 65 juveniles. The 65 juvenile birds have been made up of 43 females and 22 males. These ratios correspond with figures from the autumns of 2010 and 2011, although this year the proportion of juveniles so far is significantly higher. 

Chaffinch- juvenile female

Chaffinch - juvenile male

One of today’s Chiffchaffs and almost certainly a female, was barely bigger than the Goldcrest.

Goldcrest

Chiffchaff

At the end of the season it’s always good to mop up any remaining summer visitors. 

Blackcap

Whitethroat

Although mostly busy with the ringing, in between times I managed to see more than a few other birds: 24 Snipe, 1 Jay, 50+ Swallow, 1 Raven, 3 Skylark, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3 Buzzard and 2 Kestrel. Coming from the farm track I disturbed 4 Roe Deer feeding just inside the wood. 

Roe Deer

So, a successful and rewarding morning when turning right turned out right after all. If only it was always that simple. 

And now for readers interested in bird migration and from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, there is a fascinating account of visible migration during the 9/11 Tribute in Light held in New York, but please come back to Another Bird Blog soon.

Slowly Does It With A Sad Song

Here in coastal Lancashire we are fortunate to have so many good birding spots, the estuarine coast and marshes bordering internationally important Morecambe Bay, the hills just inland which encompass Bowland where Hen Harriers occasionally breed, or the extensive pastures of the Fylde plain where farmland birds like Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers might still be found.

This morning I felt torn between coastal birding or checking out our ringing site at Rawcliffe Moss for new arrivals; as the car made its way from home to the end of the avenue the steering wheel spun left towards Hambleton and the inland mosses; it’s so good to have the many options for a spot of birding.

Spring has been slow to arrive this year but on 20th April I hoped for the odd Whitethroat or Blackcap to add to the few Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff caught so far. It didn’t happen again with just 12 captures from my session, 2 Willow Warbler, 7 Goldfinch, 2 Chaffinch and 1 Dunnock, without sight or sound of other warblers.

At least 6 Willow Warblers were in song, my two birds a recapture from 2011 plus a newly arrived female. While other species seem in short supply the tiny Willow Warblers seem to have grabbed any opportunity to head north.

 Willow Warbler

 Dunnock

Goldfinch

 

There was very little on the move this morning, a handful of Meadow Pipits, a single Lesser Redpoll and a single Swallow heading north. Other birds were the usual locals of 1 Little Owl, 3 Skylark, 12 Goldfinch, 8 Chaffinch, 2 Reed Bunting, 4 Linnet, 2 Corn Bunting, 2 Fieldfare still, 2 Kestrel and 2 Buzzard. I took some time out to take pictures of a Corn Bunting singing its unhurried, melancholy “bunch of keys” song. Take a listen because the sound is becoming rather scarce in the UK.

 Corn Bunting

 Corn Bunting

 Corn Bunting

The Corn Bunting is a UK Biodiversity Action Plan priority species. It is a farmland specialist, and has suffered one of the steepest population declines in recent decades – c. 90 % since 1970. Although the precise factors are unclear, the loss of extensive mixed farming appears key to the decline with loss of winter food a probable cause of the population decline. The BTO`s winter Corn Bunting survey as long ago as 1992/93 showed that weedy stubble fields were by far the most important feeding habitat during the winter. The area of winter stubbles is greatly reduced in recent decades due to the switch from spring-sown to autumn-sown cereals, the decline in mixed farming and the disappearance of undersowing. In addition, increased herbicide and fertiliser use has reduced the abundance of wildflower seeds and intensification of farming practices with increased use of pesticides and fertilisers has reduced the availability of insects for any chicks the Corn Buntings can produce. 

Out Rawcliffe is now one of the few local areas where Corn Buntings still occur, but even here their numbers are quite low with just 2 or 3 pairs on “our” farm.