Sunday's Birds

Sunday morning began with an early drive to the edge of The Forest of Bowland at Oakenclough where the ringing site is topped up with bird food twice a week, even when the weather prevents any ringing there. In addition to enabling a study of birds on site the supplementary feeding station adds to natural foods available to birds in the leaner winter months. Studies have shown that giving wild birds’ additional food on a regular basis can assist their survival and enhance breeding success in the following spring. 

All seemed quiet around the feeding spot with no sign of the 40+ Goldfinch from earlier in the week and just two or three hanging about near the Nyger seeds. Goldfinch flocks are highly mobile so I hope the birds weren't too far away, especially as it was last November and into December which produced very good catches of the species.

With the preponderance of conifer trees here Coal Tits are ever present as their small bills allow them direct access to the tiny holes of the Nyger feeders. Meanwhile the Great Tit, Blue Tits and Chaffinches stay around so as to take food from the ground. We avoid the use of peanuts or mixed seed feeders and instead use Nyger feeders and ground feeding as a means of targeting the several species of finches which occur in this area. 

Coal Tit

Great Tit

Additional birds seen this morning included 8 Blackbird, 2 Mistle Thrush, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Nuthatch, 2 Raven and 2 Pied Wagtail. 

Meanwhile there was notification of the recovery of a Lesser Redpoll ringed here on 19th October 2015. A first year male ring number Z652570 was recaptured by other ringers some 16 days later on 4th November 2015 at Woolston Eyes, Warrington, a distance of 61kms from Oakenclough. While the distance involved isn’t tremendous the recovery does once again demonstrate the southerly autumn dispersal of this species, and because the bird is still in circulation it could provide more life history information at a later date. It is probably in France or Belgium right now until the early spring when Lesser Redpolls begin their return migration. 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll - Oakenclough to Woolston Eyes 

From the A6 at Garstang I took a leisurely drive home via the mosslands of Rawcliffe, Pilling and Stalmine where I counted at least 11 Buzzards spiralling over the fields, with at one point six quite close together in a single kettle of air. I suspect that this morning was one of the few in the last four weeks where the sky was both clear and calm enough for Buzzards to soar. 

Buzzard

The fields alongside Lancaster Road are well flooded and it was on just a couple of fields here that I counted 1500+ Lapwing, 30 Golden Plover, 260 Black-headed Gull, 45 Common Gull, 40 Curlew and 6 Skylark. 

Nearer to Stalmine was a roadside Kestrel as well as a feeding party of half-a-dozen Redwings and 50+ Fieldfares. The autumn berries are disappearing quickly leaving the Fieldfares to live up to their name and search for animal food in the soft ground rather than concentrate on a dwindling supply of berries in the hedgerows. 

Kestrel

Redwing

Fieldfare

Log in next week for more news, views and bird photos on Another Bird Blog.

In the meantime take a look at more birds Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Good Garden Stuff

The fog didn’t clear until about 1pm. That would leave about three hours birding before the light failed and the return of the evening mist; not ideal. Meanwhile the garden held a few birds by way of mainly Goldfinches, a species which has been unusually scarce here all autumn. 

When I saw a Nuthatch on the feeders and a Mistle Thrush in the apple tree I decided to do a spot of garden ringing. I didn’t catch the thrush or the Nuthatch but 17 new birds was pretty good for a few hours work - 7 Goldfinch, 5 Coal Tit, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Great Tit and 1 Blue Tit. 

Goldcrest

Great Tit

Goldfinch

This autumn has seen good numbers of both Goldcrests and Coal Tits, two species chiefly associated with conifer forest. Although not strictly migratory the Coal Tit is known to experience irregular irruptions caused by food shortages in their preferred woodland habitats. It is during such times that Coal Tits move into gardens and other habitats and when bird ringers catch more Coal Tits than they normally would. The majority of birds are found to be first years and out of an catch of say 15 or 20 Coal Tits it is normal that 99% are birds of the year and that an adult is the exception to the rule. 

“Coal” in the bird’s English name may simply refer to the mainly black and grey colour compared to the more colourful and common British tits, the Great Tit and the Blue Tit. A German name for the Coal Tit is "Tannenmeise" which translates as "fir tit", perhaps a more suitable descriptive name for a species able to exploit an otherwise birdless coniferous forest? 

Coal Tit

The Coal Tit has a huge distribution range occurring from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from boreal forests north of the Arctic Circle to the montane forests of the Himalayas, China and Taiwan. It’s a species to benefit from extensive planting of conifers in Ireland and Scotland by extending its UK range into the Western Isles of Scotland and the Atlantic coast of Ireland and so increase its overall population. 

Range and Distribution of Coal Tit

From Wiki and for my North American readers who will note that the Coal Tit is almost identical to one or more of their chickadees - "Most authorities still treat the Coal Tit Periparus ater in the subgenus Periparus, but the American Ornithologists' Union considers Periparus a distinct genus. This is supported by mtDNA cytochrome b sequence analysis; Periparus seems to be closer to the Poecile tits and chickadees than to the Great Tit and its relatives."

The fog returned for overnight and tomorrow morning but be sure that there are more birds, photos and news soon.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Good Birding But A Pitiful Pom

It’s been a meagre sort of week for birding with lots of cloud and grey skies and the mid-February doldrums giving limited opportunities for finding new birds. A Wednesday ringing session proved quite productive and enjoyable, followed by a couple of duff days and then Saturday morning the first opportunity to try my luck birding. But I’m really looking forward to the migrants of Spring and there we go again - bird watchers wishing their lives away in seasonal yearnings. 

Some of the earliest singers Great Tit, Song Thrush, Dunnock and Robin are in full voice in the garden although a return to cold weather will surely make them place their refrains on hold. A pair of Buzzards is on territory down the lane towards the river and on my travels I’ve heard more than a few Great-spotted Woodpeckers beating out the rhythm on a drum. 

Great Tit

Just lately there’s been a juvenile Pomarine Skua along Pilling Way, an injured bird which although able to fly, had a droopy wing. The skua created a stir amongst birders for a week or two then disappeared off the radar after it was seen feeding mostly on carrion Pink-footed Geese. I found the skua again this morning at Fluke Hall but this time it wasn’t going anywhere as it was dead, probably as a result of its rather restricted diet and its injury. 

I brought it home, let it dry off and then cleaned it up for a picture or two. It’s not often one finds a Pomarine Skua, even less a tideline corpse. 

Pomarine Skua

Pomarine Skua

Fron Wiki. The word pomarine is from the French pomarin, a shortening of the scientific Latin pomatorhinus, ultimately from Greek, meaning "having a covered nose". This refers to the cere which the Pomarine Skua shares with the other skuas. 

Bill of Pomarine Skua

On the marsh I also found 33 Whooper Swan, 2 Little Egret, 60 Lapwing, 25 Redshank, 20 Shelduck and 2 Teal. In the stubble field and along the hedgerows were singing Greenfinch and Goldfinch plus a couple of Skylark and a single Stock Dove. Highlights of the woodland were Nuthatch and Tree Sparrows active around the nest boxes. 

At Braides Farm were 2 Buzzards, spaced out as it were, one along a fence line the other on a pile of farm debris 100 yards away from the first. Our local Buzzards aren’t ones that like posing for photographs and keep a good distance from man. Who can blame them? 

Buzzard

The usual species were at Conder Green, including the Spotted Redshank and Common Sandpiper, two normally migrant waders which have wintered here in the saline creeks. I noted a decrease in Teal numbers down to circa 50 but an increase in Oystercatchers to 16, with a few of them becoming rather noisy in anticipation of Spring. A few Shelduck have reappeared in the creeks after being mostly absent during recent months. 

On and around the pool an eclectic mix of 70 Curlew, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Snipe, 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Goldenye, 2 Cormorant and just 2 Little Grebe. 

Curlew

At Glasson Dock there was a Song Thrush in full voice and as I watched the thrush at the very top of a bare tree, a Raven flew over. The Raven was silent and flying strongly in a northerly direction over the river and towards Lancaster but it looked somehow odd. When I looked through binoculars the Raven's bill was stuffed with soft, nest lining material. As I watched the first Raven a second one came into sight, it too with a beak overflowing with nest lining material and this bird carried on in the same flight line as the first one.  Nest building fairly locally.

On the yacht basin I counted 22 Goldeneye and then 34 Tufted Duck. There’s a pair of Till Death Us Do Part Goldeneye sailing around the yacht basin, seemingly joined together by an invisible piece of string. The female is less wary than the male and she takes the lead in cruising to the favoured feeding spot before diving for food, quickly followed a few seconds later by the faithful male. 

Goldeneye

The Goldeneye breeding habitat is the boreal forest. They are found in the lakes and rivers of the taiga across Canada and the northern United States, Scandinavia and northern Russia. Goldeneyes are migratory with most wintering in sheltered coastal or open inland waters at more temperate latitudes. Goldeneyes nest in cavities in large trees and will readily use nest boxes, and this has enabled a healthy breeding population to establish in Scotland where they are slowly increasing and spreading, possibly into Ireland. 

This beautiful and harmless species makes a wonderful addition to the list of breeding British Birds but it is to our national shame that such a bird is on the list of allowed “quarry” for shooting. 

Goldeneye

Goldeneye

It was time to head home after an enjoyable morning’s birding that was rather spoiled by finding the dead “Pom”. Let's hope I can put the corpse to good use or quickly find someone who can. Sue isn't  too happy about it living in the freezer. 

There’s more birding another day with Another Bird Blog. Log in soon.

Linking this post to Anni's Birding Blog.

Do Birds Smell?

It’s a question I asked myself a number of years ago when noting how long it took for birds to discover new sources of food, in particular the introduction of bird feeders where none had been used previously. 

Birds were always thought to have a very poor sense of smell. But most vultures and many scavenging seabirds locate their food by smell. Any birder who has been on a pelagic trip to see seabirds up close will be familiar with the practice of chucking overboard buckets of “chum” or “rubby dubby”, to lure shearwaters and petrels close to the boat. Scientists believe that other birds, e.g. homing pigeons, may use familiar odours in finding their way home or use their sense of smell during migratory journeys. Think about the various odours given off to overflying birds by different places, e.g. pine forest or ancient deciduous woodland, saline or fresh water, the urban jungle or the countryside. 

Egyptian Vulture

Manx Shearwater

A recent Dutch study determined that Great Tits found and located apple trees with winter moth infestations and big concentrations of caterpillars larvae by smell rather than sight. Tit species eat large numbers of insect larvae particularly during their breeding seasons when they feed them to their young, timing their breeding to do so. Trees benefit from the protection offered by birds removing larvae that would otherwise go on to eat the leaves and perhaps impact on tree growth and productivity. 

Great Tit

The Dutch experiments were designed to remove other possible ways in which the Great Tits might detect the winter moth larvae. The researchers removed the caterpillars, removed leaves with holes and even took away signs of ‘caterpillar poo’, ensuring no visual clues were left for the birds to locate the infested trees. Despite these measures the Great Tits repeatedly found the trees with larvae infestations. The results were clear, even when they couldn’t see the trees, the Great Tits homed in on trees with winter moth infestations when they could smell them. 

The researchers believe the trees gave off chemicals which birds can detect by smell to alert them to infestation. It has long been known that many plants attract insects using smells and benefit from the relationships as a result, but this is the first time they have been shown to attract birds in the same way. More research is needed to determine which chemicals are involved but infested trees were found to release more of a chemical responsible for the “green” smell of apples. 

Most bird feeders use metal/plastic tubes or wire mesh to make the food highly visible to birds and we naturally assume that birds start to use our bird feeders because they locate food via their keen eyesight. My new niger seed feeders arrived today, replacements for ones recently stolen from a ringing site. At first glance the design looks improbable and unlikely to work as the feeding holes are tiny. When the stainless steel cylinder is filled with niger, the seed is virtually invisible with just the tiniest point of an individual seed poking through odd holes. 

Niger feeders

Nevertheless I experimented with this design of feeder a number of years ago and found them to be highly successful in attracting Goldfinches very quickly and I attributed this to the birds’ ability to smell the niger. 

At lunchtime I took the new feeders to Oakenclough with fingers crossed that Scrooge doesn’t sniff them out before our ringing session which may well be tomorrow.

Goldfinch

Here’s an experiment anyone can try at home. Buy a sealed bag of niger seed, Guizotia abyssinica, open the bag and stick your nose in it. Then inhale and enjoy the sweet, oily, nutty fragrance which brings in those Goldfinches. 

No, there’s is no doubt in my mind that birds and in particular Goldfinches have well developed olfactory senses, probably as good as our own. 

Now you must excuse me. I’m sure that from the kitchen I can detect the unmistakable aroma of a curry cooking in the oven and I'm ready for a bite to eat. 

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Home Again

There’s a mound of letters on the kitchen table, a string of messages on the answerphone, two suitcases stuffed full of clothes to be washed, and a camera bursting with memories of Skiathos. 

Outside, and after two weeks of unremitting Greek sunshine there’s the forgotten sound of rain and the unwelcome sight of grey British skies. Looking to the bottom of the garden I can see the barbecue cover plastered over the berberis - no need to enquire of recent weather then? So instead I’ll spend an hour or two updating the blog and then worry about other normalities of life. 

There was WiFi at The Ostria but with a wedding to attend, and a burning desire to explore beautiful Skiathos once more after a visit in 2007, the best I could manage on the Internet was a couple of sessions with clumsy big fingers over a tiny Asus netbook. So apologies to message leavers and blog followers, I will catch up with you all as soon as poss. 

Hotel Ostria is tucked away in a secluded spot some 50 yards from the main coastal road which runs through Agia Paraskevi, a little tourist spot some five miles from the hustle and bustle of Skiathos Town. The resort has a fine beach, lovely surrounding countryside and most importantly, more than enough tavernas to satisfy a 14 night stay. Skiathos Town is a Euro 1.60 bus ride away for the obligatory shopping trips or to board a ferry or tourist boat to neighbouring islands. Angela Merkel is not popular in Skiathos where tee shirts or advertising boards bearing legends deride the German Chancellor. 

 Skiathos Town

Skiathos Town

 Boat Trip Skiathos 

At this point I give an unashamed plug to The Hotel Ostria run by the wonderful Matthinou family, together with my recommendation that should anyone wish to visit Skiathos there cannot be a finer, more welcoming and peaceful place to stay. “Arrive as a guest, leave as a friend” seems to be the family’s working mantra. In a lovely hillside setting and with less than 30 rooms this small hotel has beautifully spacious grounds with vegetable plots, varied fruit trees and vines, the origin of much of the food which is served. Makis is justly proud of his fine Aubergines. 

Hotel Ostria, Skiathos 

 

 Hotel Ostria, Skiathos

 

Makis at Hotel Ostria

Hotel Ostria, Skiathos 

 

Apart from the resident Hooded Crows and House Sparrows the first bird I saw here was a juvenile Red-backed Shrike which frequented the hedgerow leading down to Makis’ vegetable plot. There was an eclectic mix of species in the grounds of the hotel or along the nearby lanes, both Red-rumped Swallows and Barn Swallows hawked the swimming pool and on cooler mornings, Common Swifts or Alpine Swifts above plus regular parties of Bee Eaters. Spotted Flycatchers were daily inhabitants of the hotel's grounds.

The commonest small bird around the hotel, and possibly the island was the humble Great Tit, perhaps due to the species ability to exploit the countless nesting cavities in the millions of olive trees which cover the island. 

Red-backed Shrike

Bee Eaters

Spotted Flycatcher

 House Sparrow

Great Tit

Red-rumped Swallow - Photo credit: Perry van Munster • Photography / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA 

Back to normal soon for Another Bird Blog with more Skiathos pictures, new book reviews and local news.

So don't forget to ‘click the pics’ and remember, you read it here first. And I'm linking today to Stewart's Gallery .

Eat Your Heart Out

Here on the west coast of Lancashire we set our sights a little lower than Spurn Point, where fresh in off the North Sea, 21,000 Redwings and 9,500 Fieldfares were logged on Monday, and then another 2,000 or so of each on Tuesday. It’s all relative of course, and my counts of Lesser Redpoll this week together with 27 caught already would appear to surpass figures for the world famous bird observatory! 

I was on Rawcliffe Moss again this morning where I counted 190 Redwings and 45 Fieldfares between 0730 and 1000, when at the ten o’clock point what little passage there had been just petered out. The Redwing count is made up of 5 or 6 groups of birds, the biggest counted being 80 and 50 individuals. Just a couple of Fieldfare gangs appeared soon after dawn to make up their total. Many of the Redwings appeared to come from the east this morning although it is not always easy to say from which direction as they suddenly and almost literally fall from high in the clouds. Maybe they had crossed The Pennines, that immovable object in the centre of the UK which makes over and above travel more problematical for a bird looking for the bright lights of Lancashire?

The finch passage was very slow this morning, and after a zero catch of Chaffinch their inland passage may well be over, particularly so when for weeks now their numbers have been low in comparison to the previous two autumns here. Lesser Redpolls were less conspicuous too with just 8 logged. 

Birds ringed: 10 Redwing, 3 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Blackbird, 1 Great Tit, 1 Tree Sparrow. So apologies, there are more pictures of Lesser Redpoll and Redwing today, plus pictures of those rare catches here, Tree Sparrow and Great Tit. 

Lesser Redpoll - adult female

Great Tit

Tree Sparrow

Most of today’s Redwings were juveniles, birds born this year, aged by the white notch on tertial feathers and their pointed tail feathers. No prizes for spotting a regrowing “adult” type feather in the juvenile tail below. 

Redwing tail - juvenile

Redwing tail - adult

In October it’s exciting to catch a number of Redwings Turdus iliacus, knowing they probably just arrived from Northern Europe, even though the few handled are a tiny, miniscule part of the European breeding population. This population is estimated at 16,000,000 - 21,000,000 breeding pairs, equating to 48,000,000 - 63,000,000 individuals (BirdLife International 2004). Europe forms 50-74% of the global range, so a very preliminary estimate of the global population size is 65,000,000-130,000,000 individuals. Maybe I should go out tomorrow morning too and see if I can catch up those Spurn numbers? 

Redwing - Turdus iliacus

Other birds today: 3 Tawny Owl, 2 Jay, 2 Raven, 3 Snipe, 1 Kestrel, 8 Blackbird, 3 Siskin, 6 Meadow Pipit, 4 Reed Bunting. 

Kestrel 

Sticking It Out

The morning began dank and cold with a touch of mist, but the closer I got to Rawcliffe Moss about 8 miles away, the thicker the mist became. Out on the ringing site at 0645 the mist had turned almost to fog, the sort where birds don’t move around much and so not the ideal weather to try and catch birds for ringing. 

A very slow start ensued and by 0930 when I’d caught 6 birds, and with the obstinate mist still in place, I almost gave up. Then Colin the gamekeeper turned up to feed his pheasants and told me all was clear and bright just a few miles away in St Michael’s village, so with a hint of blue sky above I decided to wait for a while. Just as well I did as the next few hours produced a rush of birds until I packed in at 1130 having caught 41 birds of 11 species, 39 new and 2 recaptures. 

New birds: 16 Goldfinch, 10 Chaffinch, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Siskin, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Blackbird, 1 Dunnock and 1 Great Tit. The two recaptures were Goldfinches from recent weeks. The first few birds were Goldfinches and a Lesser Redpoll feeding on Niger seed, closely followed by a Chiffchaff heard “pheweeing” nearby. 

Chiffchaff

Sun And Mist

 Wet Web

At this time the camera was set at ISO800 to cope with the poor light. At least the Lesser Redpoll was bright, a juvenile male. 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

The single male Goldcrest showed some of its hidden gold. 

Goldcrest

Goldcrest

Goldcrest

All but one of today’s Goldfinch turned out to be juveniles, the exception an adult female. 

Goldfinch

There were Siskins going over as soon as the sky cleared. I didn’t expect to catch any because around these parts the Siskin is something of a late winter speciality for ringers. Upon examination the bird proved to be an adult female. 

Siskin

A couple of “others” photographs. 

Great Tit

Reed Bunting

The heavy mist made sure I saw nothing between 0700 and 0930, with just the sounds of local Goldfinches and cups of coffee to keep me company. After 0930 I was almost too busy with the ringing to make much sense of the visible migration with probably. 50+ Meadow Pipit, 35+ Chaffinch, 6 Siskin, 5 Reed Bunting and 12 Alba wagtail. 

Otherwise: Huge numbers of noisy Pink-footed Geese flying around to the distant north and west somewhere over Pilling Moss, luckily none came down to the decoy but not-quite-perfect-calls of nearby shooters. Also, 8 Snipe, 1 Peregrine, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker. I had a stroke of good fortune when from a party of 5 Jays, one found itself in a mist net but managed to jump out and fly off in pursuit of the others just as I reached the ride. 

The morning turned out to be very productive after all. Glad I persevered with it. 

This week Another Bird Blog is linking up with  Anni at id-rather-b-birdin and Stewart's Photo Gallery