Plucking Post

There's a Sparrowhawk plucking post in a quiet corner of our garden. I realised that earlier in the week when tidying around the edges of the grass. 

Ten or more days ago I watched a Sparrowhawk carry its snatched-nearby Collared Dove into our garden and follow up on the strike. The hawk landed immediately behind the apple tree yards from a bedroom window, perhaps too close to the house for the hawk’s comfort. The hawk quickly despatched the meal, and once the dove stopped struggling the Sparrowhawk flew low across the garden to a quiet secluded corner where it could dismember its prey. 

 

Sparrowhawk

 

The hawk finished its meal and left the garden after 30 minutes or so. It was when tidying the garden this week that I noticed the left over feathers from the earlier meal contained darker and fresher ones that I recognised as those of a Blackbird. So either the same or a different Sparrowhawk had returned to the exact same spot with its latest meal. 

 

A Quiet Corner

Plucking Post 

A “plucking post” is not necessarily a post, wooden or metal, but more simply a raised piece of ground or a tree stump used regularly by a bird of prey to dismember its prey, removing feathers and other inedible parts before eating it. The sometimes elevated nature of a post allows for a safer landing with the heavy load of the prey, as well as being a good vantage point to scan for other predators while the bird is vulnerable and involved in the relatively complex process of plucking and feeding upon its prey. 

Pellets composed of the indigestible items of the prey are often found on or around plucking posts. Plucking posts surrounded by feathers and fur may indicate that a raptor nesting site is nearby and may be mainly used during the breeding season. 

It has been suggested that faeces marks and plucking may represent a widespread method for communicating current reproduction and territory to other raptors in the same area. I do know that Sparrowhawks regularly nest a quarter of a mile away from home and that the species is frequently seen by me at least. 

I will leave the plucking post undisturbed, continue to watch for Sparrowhawks and whether one finds the quiet little corner of the garden again.  

Sparrowhawk

 

The weather is a little windy today, as it has been most of the week. 

With luck there may be a ringing session soon. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni In Texas.

Three in One

There are three updates in one here. Never let it be said that Another Bird Blog doesn’t give regular readers value for money. 

On Monday we had two trainee ringers/helpers. M & S are on school holidays so Granddad took them out Pilling way to join up with Andy & Will for a ringing session. Sue said, “Take as long as you like”. 

It was a 0630 start for Andy and Will and then 0800 for the three stragglers who saw that the nets were already set with a few birds ready for ringing. The morning was pretty quiet although M & S enjoyed seeing the ringing and then handled a number of species while learning about how to age and sex the birds we processed. 

Birds caught - 7 Linnet, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler and 1 Great Tit. 

Linnet

Greenfinch

The weather continued in good spirits on Tuesday when Andy and Bryan met up and travelled to Oakenclough. I couldn’t make it because of more school holiday duties but the guys ringed another 15 birds – 5 Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 3 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Great Tit and 1 Grey Wagtail. 

My chance arrived on Wednesday when another fine morning and no disrupting breeze allowed another visit over Pilling way. We ringed 10 more new birds – 5 Linnet, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Sedge Warbler and 1 Common Whitethroat. 

Meadow Pipit

Common Whitethroat

All ten birds proved to be juveniles/first summer birds. There was something of a passage of Meadow Pipits on Wednesday morning when about 15/20 of them lined up along a stretch of fence together with 2 Grey Wagtails and 4 Pied Wagtails. We caught two of the pipits but none of the wagtails. 

Linnets continued their build in numbers and flock formation whereby we estimated 120/150 throughout the morning in flocks/groups of anything between 5 and 50 individuals. 

A juvenile Peregrine entertained us twice with dashing pursuits and at one point flew directly over our vantage point. 

Peregrine

Otherwise our birding was quiet in the blue sky morning with visible migration at nil. Friday looks another “likely” and the very uncommon possibility of four ringing sessions in one week. Bring it on.  

 

Cool, Calm and Collected

Visits to the Sand Martin colony must coincide with zero or gentle winds from the east or south east. Anything else is a no-no when a billowing mist net becomes visible to keen eyed Sand Martins able to pick out an insect from many yards away and then unerringly catch the insect in flight. Our visits must also be in the cool of early morning and before the sun travels west and makes a mist net visible. 

Our third visit of the season and a perfect forecast made us pencil in Tuesday. I met Andy at 0615 to a temperature of 20°, pretty normal for a real British summer rather than the wet and windy ones of recent years. 

Two earlier visits on 4 June and then 30 June saw 119 Sand Martins caught-103 adults and 16 juveniles of the year. We still await details of one of the adults caught on 4 June that bore “Paris Museum” 8911708. 

Before today

 

It’s never easy to come up with a Sand Martin count when so many are in the air, a good number feeding over the nearby water and others toing and froing at the nest tunnels where poking out heads add to the counting difficulties. Our best guesstimate was 180/200 individuals throughout two hours of watching while working at ringing. 

The count was probably fairly accurate with a catch of 65 Sand Martins being a healthy proportion of those around. The 65 comprised 37 juveniles of the year, 17 new adults and 11 adult recaptures, the eleven recaptures all from 2021 or 2022. 

Today’s figures, especially of juveniles, suggest that the Sand Martins here are having a pretty good year following a couple of poor years caused by wet summers, failed broods and the birds’ early departure for Africa. 

Sand Martin

Field Sheet 19 July

 

Sand Martin - juvenile/first summer

 

As an afterthought, here in the UK the two day heatwave green hysteria doom and gloom is out of control. It has become comical and ridiculous by confusing climate with patterns of meteorological conditions that have been with us for the last 15 billion years. 

In the 14th and 15th centuries ‘unnatural climatic phenomena’ were often blamed on ‘a great conspiracy of witches’. During the Little Ice Age in particular, when crops failed in many parts of Europe, there was a frenzy of witch-hunting. Some in society held witches directly responsible for the high frequency of climatic anomalies. 

This sounds all too familiar, like current attempts to pin the blame for weird weather of any sort on today’s witches - coal-mining, cows or motorists. 

Everyone needs to calm down and cool off. We’re safer from weather than we have ever been. It’s the ever increasing numbers of “experts” we should be afraid of. 

Other birds this morning comprised 1 Swallow, 4 Common Tern, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Oystercatcher, 2 Pied Wagtail 

I worked hard this morning doing real Citizen Science. Now it’s sunny and warm. I’m off to sit in the garden with an ice-cream and dream of holidays in Hot and Sunny Skiathos - nine weeks and counting. 

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday and Anni in Texas.

Staying Grounded

Saturday 26 March. There was a cold start at 0600. The temperature gauge displayed 2°C as I erected nets alone while musing over what the next four or five hours might bring. 

During the week bird news from Merseyside, North Morecambe Bay and North Wales confirmed my observations of the early week - low-key migration with small arrivals of Chiffchaffs, Lesser Redpolls, Goldcrests and Wheatears, together with unusually low numbers of Meadow Pipits in the run of clear-cold mornings. 

In North Wales there was an early Willow Warbler on Thursday 24 March together with nine Black Redstarts! I was expecting most of the above but definitely not a Black Redstart, although it was almost 12 months ago to the day of April 1st 2021 that I unexpectedly saw a Common Redstart perched at the gateposts. 

Common Redstart

By 0630 I was up and running with a cup of steaming coffee, the car ticking over and the heater turned to “Hi”. 

This site at Pilling is certainly good for Reed Buntings, already the most ringed bird here for 2022 with another three on the books today. 

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

In the furthest mist net lay yet another Brambling, one that at first glance looked identical to the Brambling caught on Thursday. When I turned the bird over to begin extracting there was no ring on either leg and I could see that this was also a second year female, marginally paler than the one of Thursday. 

Unlike us in the grey winter of Northern England the Bramblings may have faded in their winter sun destinations of France, Iberia or The Cornish Riviera. 

Brambling

Brambling

From here on the west coast Bramblings have a long journey yet before they reach their eventual destinations of Scandinavia and further east, into that presently troubled part of Northern Europe. Bramblings breed in coniferous and birch woodlands in much of Scandinavia, a large part of Russia, and northern Kazakhstan and Mongolia. 

Brambling Range in Europe

 

I gradually shed layers of clothes as the sun rose higher and grew increasingly warm. Unfortunately the clear blue skies and zero wind probably helped birds to move off site very quickly. A couple of Lesser Redpolls, 2 Pied Wagtails, Blackbirds and a singing Chiffchaff all evaded the nets and I was left to birdwatch rather than ring birds. 

Chiffchaff

 

There were lots of “pinkies”, Pink-footed Geese, around this morning, with perhaps an influx of those that wintered in Norfolk and South Lancashire, birds now ready to set off for Iceland. There seemed to be many hundreds, even thousands, over 3,000 of them when they panicked from their feeding in the Cockerham meadows when the regular aircraft climbed off from Black Knights Parachute Centre loaded with thrill seekers. 

Pink-footed Geese

 

For adrenalin junkies there’s the opportunity to throw your body out of a light aeroplane for as little as £199 with a “One Jump Taster”.  With luck you will land in Cockerham and not in Morecambe Bay.

Black Knights Parachute Centre - Cockerham Marsh

  

I think I will give that a miss, stick to solid ground and watch from below rather than have the ground rush up to meet me. 

Other birds seen today – 3 Little Egret, 2 Skylark, 1 Buzzard, 8 Linnet, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Meadow Pipit. 

Andy is back from Egypt this weekend, keen to show off his sun tan and eager to get out ringing again, if slightly miffed to miss two Bramblings. Let’s hope bird numbers improve soon for his ringing fix. 

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

Better Luck Next Time

Friday was on flat coastal fields at Cockerham, just south of Lancaster. Saturday a change of scene in the hills at Oakencolugh on the edge of Bowland Forest, the two places 15 miles apart and a good way from each other in their respective landscapes and the species they support. 

We have a number of ringing sites from which to choose and to juggle for maximum effort and a concentrated catch but it’s far from an exact science where birds and the weather pool their resources and frustrate our best. The forecast for Saturday was reasonable enough at 8 mph and dry until early afternoon when rain would move in from the west. 

The journey across the early morning moss roads was enlivened by a Tawny Owl that flew across the road ahead and then not 200 yards more, a Barn Owl alongside the road. As a strictly nocturnal animal local Tawny Owls are rarely seen in comparison to the Barn Owls that frequent. 

Barn Owl

 

This was a good start to anyone’s day and heightened expectations when Andy and I met at dawn in in readiness for the arrival of early October Redwings. To catch the first ones of the autumn always brings a thrill. 

The potential problem was that even at this time of the morning the breeze was close to 15 mph and as soon as it became light we could see from our elevation that a good deal of cloud sat over the Fylde coast to the west and into Morecambe Bay to the north. The rain was on the way three or four hours before the expert predictions of Friday evening and even Saturday morning.  

West Lancashire

We caught the "first" Redwing at about 0745 and then no more, even though in the next three hours we saw approximately 90 Redwings in small groups, most of them arriving from east or south east and then flying west without stopping. 

Redwing

Redwing

 

A niggling wind and increasing cloud to 100% did little to help our cause as small flocks of finches, mainly Chaffinches and Goldfinches flew from north to south in opposite conduits to Redwings. The light was so poor that many a finch could be positively identified by close call only. We settled on roundish figures of 100 Chaffinch, 35 Goldfinch, one or two each of Siskin & Lesser Redpoll and 3 Pied Wagtail. 

Lesser Redpoll

 

The Redpoll and the Redwing were just reward for our efforts, the remaining Wren, Blue Tit and Great Tit (2) a somewhat embarrassing result. 

Drizzle rolled in slowly at first until 0945 when it became persistent. The wind dropped to near zero but too late and it was time to pack in and hope for better luck next time. 

 

Yellow Or Grey

Here’s a new header, the one that caused all the Blogger problems.  This new header will provoke comments and questions to rival why Blogger once again changed things that work to something that doesn't make sense.

How do I know there will be comments? The answer is that a post on Another Bird Blog entitled “Grey Or Yellow” of August 21 2016 has to date gathered an amazing 10,095 views, easily the most viewed post.

The search terms “grey wagtail” or “yellow wagtail” crop up on a very regular basis whereby Google directs the user to a number of sites, web places that include Another Bird Blog.      

So for today, and while I try to resolve the header problem, I hope to answer again the question “When is a grey wagtail not a Grey Wagtail but a Yellow Wagtail”?

It’s a subject that cropped up at Another Bird Blog when a reader suggested via a comment that my image of a Yellow Wagtail was in fact a Grey Wagtail.  The photograph is the one below. 

Yellow Wagtail

The species under discussion are two closely related ones, Yellow Wagtail Motacilla flava and Grey Wagtail Motacilla cinerea. 

The images below are pages from the The Crossley Guide that show not only the plumage differences between the two wagtails but also the different habitats and situations in which each is usually found. I’m sure that at most times of the year almost everyone can identify the adults of both species as they are really quite different in appearance.

Grey Wagtail - Richard Crossley (The Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland) [CC BY-SA 3.0 a/3.0)] via Wikimedia Commons 

 Yellow Wagtail Yellow Wagtail - Richard Crossley (The Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland) [CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The Yellow Wagtail, male or female, is an overall shade of yellow, whereas the Grey Wagtail while having parts of striking yellow plumage in both male and female, is an overall grey colour above.  No problem there then. 

 Yellow Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Less practiced bird watchers may experience confusion and misperception when dealing with autumnal “grey” Yellow Wagtails such as the one in my picture at the top of this post, a very pale and quite fresh Yellow Wagtail in its first autumn plumage during September. At this time of year juvenile Yellow Wagtails are greyish/brown/olive above and buff whitish below, with a partly yellow belly and yellow under tail. Rather than the bright yellow and immaculate males of some field guides, autumn encounters of both species usually involve less bright and slightly worn plumaged adults of either sex, or duller juveniles. 

My pictures below show the typical dark, almost black legs of a Yellow Wagtail and not the flesh coloured legs of a Grey Wagtail. The Yellow Wagtail has clearly defined wing bars as formed by the pale covert feathers. By comparison a Grey Wagtail of any age always displays slate grey wing feathers together with narrowly edged greyish coverts rather than the much whiter ones in the wing of a Yellow Wagtail.

Grey Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

 

Grey Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

A feature that is less obvious unless the two species are side by side is that the Grey Wagtail has a very long white edged tail whereas a Yellow Wagtail has a shorter tail. This is a useful separation tool in the field when the long tail of a Grey Wagtail “bobs” and “pumps” almost incessantly as opposed to the less mobile and much shorter tail of the Yellow Wagtail. A Yellow Wagtail has a demeanour rather like a pipit, often standing taller than the similarly sized Grey Wagtail that can appear quite "crouching". 

Another separation in the field is the differing calls of the two species. The Yellow Wagtail has a sweet “tsee” or “schlee” or a louder “suree”. The call of Grey Wagtail is totally different with an explosive, metallic “zi-zi” or “tsvit”

Below is a great video from the BTO which not only sets out the difference between Yellow and Grey Wagtails, but for good measure also includes the Pied Wagtail Motacilla alba, yet another “grey” wagtail.

I hope this post has been helpful to anyone unsure about separating Yellow Wagtails and Grey Wagtails, or even grey wagtails.

And for anyone looking for a top quality field guide to the birds of Great Britain and Ireland I recommend the following three books:

• The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland   
• Britain's Birds  
• The Collins Guide 

That's all for now. Back soon with Another Bird Blog.  I hope to fix the half a header problem soon, perhaps via Blogger or through a helpful and HTML knowledgeable reader.

Linking today to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.