Autumn Stars

It was a touch breezy but clear and starry overhead last night as I stepped outside the back door at 8.30 and then 9.00pm pm listening for Redwings, because Will and I had arranged to try and catch a few at Rawcliffe Moss this morning. I didn’t hear the high pitched “seep, seep” of Redwings, but after the last few days of both Redwings and Fieldfares turning up in most places I wasn’t too worried there wouldn’t be at least a few around come 6.30am. The first birds we heard were in fact noisy Blackbirds and Song Thrushes arriving from the blackness, but within ten or fifteen minutes the Redwings appeared from the north, and we caught our first one of the autumn.

Redwing
Redwing

For any readers unfamiliar with the thrill of hearing the flight calls of these long distance migrants through the darkness of an October night or arriving overhead at dawn, here’s an example.

From 0630 to 1130am we enjoyed a totally absorbing morning of both birding and ringing and caught birds steadily. At the same time we witnessed a fairly continuous stream of visible migration, even if at times the clearness of the sky frustrated our attempts to actually see many of the birds that called overhead.

We caught 28 new birds of 11 species, recaptured a Robin from some weeks ago, but also controlled a Reed Bunting, i.e. not our ring - X982264 anyone?

New birds - 6 Redwing, 4 Chaffinch, 7 Reed Bunting, 2 Robin, 2 Great Tit, 2 Wren, and 1 each of Blackbird, Song Thrush, Lesser Redpoll, Jay and Dunnock.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
Jay
Reed Bunting

Redwing were the most numerous migrant this morning with a total of approximately 300 birds arriving from the north in mixed groups numbering from less than 4 birds, into tens and twenties and the highest number a flock of approximately 70 birds. Our Fieldfare count was 14 birds only, plus 7 Song Thrush and 10 Blackbird.

The other migration stars this morning were the finch family and Reed Buntings. While we caught 7 Reed Buntings we counted at least 20 birds overhead or close to us along the ditch, in the potato field or simply flying over calling. In addition there was a single Corn Bunting. Our visible migration of finches totalled 50 Chaffinch, 20 Siskin, 10 Redpoll, 8 Greenfinch and 1 Brambling, all these counts certainly underestimates in the clear conditions.

Unlike in past weeks we didn’t set out to catch Meadow Pipits today, our target species changed of necessity into Redwing, Fieldfare and Reed Bunting, so in that sense we partly succeeded. Had we sought Meadow Pipits we may have caught several since the overhead north to south count for this species was 70 birds.

Other birds seen this morning; 1 female Sparrowhawk, 175 Lapwing, 2 Golden Plover, 1 Kestrel, 2 Jay, 60+ Skylark.

Of course Will was in Scotland last week and I had said I would bag more birds while he was away than he would land salmon. He got lucky and I got seriously unlucky - fifty-three salmon caught between four of them! Now that is a proper catch. My excuse was the week of unfriendly ringing weather that let me out once whilst he and Sue obviously made the best of ideal salmon fishing weather. Anyway thanks for the piece of salmon Will and Sue, I left it to defrost and it will definitely taste better than humble pie.

Tonight’s Meal

The weather looks perfect for tomorrow too. We might just have to do it all over again.

A Corker

My prediction of yesterday that today’s planned ringing might see a recurrence of Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits turned out to be fairly accurate. But I didn’t quite envisage what a true corker of a morning it would turn into with both an excellent, busy ringing session but also a good birding morning packed with variety and interest.

Our first birds of the morning turned out to be owls, with Will hearing the resident Tawny Owl at first light and myself seeing a Little Owl fly from a roadside fence as I approached the Out Rawcliffe farm.

We set our usual quota of nets with the first round timed at 0715 and the last midday. That’s an awful lot of walking when each tour of the nets probably equates to about a half mile trek through rough, long grass. And to think I postponed a gentle swim this morning in favour of a ringing session!

We caught 84 birds, 83 new and 1 recapture as follows; 60 Chaffinch, 14 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldfinch - both juveniles, 2 Robin, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Dunnock, 1 Jay, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Blue Tit. The recapture was a Dunnock. The Jay, although a bonny bird, turned out to be an argumentative sort, worth donning a set of gloves to avoid a painful nip or two.

Reed Bunting
Goldfinch - Juvenile
Jay
Jay

We pushed our total of Chaffinch ringed here in the last 30 day period to 151 individuals, without a single recapture. Clearly, large numbers of Chaffinch have passed this way recently with the autumn migration starting a little early but yet to peak in mid to late October. Their migration became particularly obvious this morning when we estimated the visible passage as about 90 to 100 birds per hour = approximately 600 birds, with the proportion of those birds caught by us at about 10% of all those visibly heading south in small groups. Of the 60 birds caught 51 were juvenile birds of the year, 13 males and 38 females with the 9 remaining adults split 6/3 in favour of males.

Interestingly the Latin or scientific name for Chaffinch is Fringilla coelebs, which means “bachelor finch”. It received this name about the year 1750 from Linnaeus, the Swedish zoologist who saw that autumn flocks of Chaffinches were often composed of either males or females but that as the winter progressed the small numbers of Chaffinches that remained during the Swedish winter were male birds.

Adult Male Chaffinch

After ringing many thousands of Chaffinch over several years we find that ageing them is reasonably easy by a combination of general features, tail shape and the colour of tertial feathers. A glance at the tertial feathers will show whether they are markedly edged bright chestnut in an adult or display more diffuse and paler, even straw or yellowish edges in a younger bird. Females are less obvious than the male shown below, with a duller chestnut colour but the principle still applies. In the picture below the male Chaffinch has both types of tertials and in the second picture below, the tail of a young bird of this year shows how juvenile feathers can wear by September.

Tertial Feathers - Chaffinch
Tail Feathers, September - Juvenile Chaffinch

Other migration and bird movements were very noticeable this morning with approximately 150 Meadow Pipit heading into the warm southerly wind, 3 Grey Wagtail, 10 “alba” wagtails, 1 Siskin, 5 Corn Bunting, 60+ Goldfinch, 15 Linnet and 45 Skylark. Waders noted were 26 Snipe and 3 Curlew with a single Grey Heron. By 1130 am the continuous movement of Swallows, House Martins and Sand Martins from dawn had built to such an extent that approximately 2000 hirundines, mainly Swallows fed low over the immediate fields and many were still in the area when we left at 1230.

Raptors put in appearances in the form of 1 Sparrowhawk, 3 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel and 1 large Peregrine almost overhead that later came back over us again before diving in pursuit of something behind the birch wood, and whilst I had the wrong lens on for a decent picture, we got some corking views of it.

Peregrine

Short Saturday

I woke at 3am due again to Ringer’s Sleep Syndrome, the unconscious fear of missing or being late for a ringing session that causes a person to wake long before the alarm clock but unable to go back to sleep. So not long after I got up, made a cup of tea then blogged yesterday’s late news before I headed off to meet Will at Rawcliffe Moss again for a 6am start.

Although the wind blew at less than 5mph we knew the forecast promised it would increase quite quickly, so we set nets accordingly and hoped for an hour or two to catch early movers. Our nets went up in the more sheltered western side of the plantation, away from the east wind. It was just as well we did because by 9am the wind blew quite stiffly, enough to make the nets very visible so we took them down.

In the continued clear conditions visible migration was quiet and birds high overhead. Early moving wagtails numbered one or two albas and 3 Grey Wagtails, and by now the 4th of September, a very thin movement of Meadow Pipits numbering less than 10. Tree Pipits featured again in what is proving a mega autumn for the species. We saw and heard at least 5 birds and caught another two. Similar to the past ten days or so Chaffinches proved the most numerous migrant/local dispersal with more than 40 individuals passing south overhead, sometimes unseen because of the height they flew at. We noted our first autumnal Woodpigeon movement as a tight flock of c30 birds sped west.

We caught 15 birds today, 12 new consisting of 2 Tree Pipit, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat and 8 Chaffinch plus recaptures of 2 Long-tailed Tit and 1 Blue Tit.

Tree Pipit
Tree Pipit
Chiffchaff
Whitethroat

Other birds seen this morning: 4 Grey Partridge, 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Golden Plover, 10 Linnet, 15 Goldfinch and 1 Jay

Jay
Rawcliffe Moss Morning

Windless Wednesday

Since the weekend Will and I did our homework via the regular crowd, The Met Office, XC Weather, Wind Guru and the BBC. You name it, we’ve looked at it, so we pencilled in a hopeful Wednesday window for a ringing session. They were all correct as the wind dropped from a raging westerly at 9pm last night to a big fat zero at 6am this morning when we landed at Out Rawcliffe.

The morning was fairly slow as we expected now that many warblers have gone, but we hoped to pick up the stragglers plus anything else that came along. We certainly found some variety with 17 birds but of 14 species, 12 “new” birds and 5 recaptures. Of the first timers we caught one each of the following: Tree Pipit, Yellowhammer, Jay, Sedge Warbler, Whitethroat, Reed Bunting, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Robin and Wren, with 2 Chaffinch.

Recapture were made by 2 Willow Warblers and 1 each of Chiffchaff, Wren and Great Tit. The Willow Warblers and Chiffchaff were adults with almost completed moult so will very soon be on their way south.

The quiet ringing left time to survey the scene without the need to shelter from wind or rain but simply to sit in the sun, that strange yellow thing in the sky that we see occasionally.

Jay - juvenile
Tree Pipit - juvenile
Yellowhammer - juvenile
Reed Bunting – juvenile male, partial moult
Sedge Warbler - juvenile
Chaffinch
Blue Tit

Following the overnight clear sky the morning’s visual migration was very thin, the highlight probably a single Swift heading south west in a light movement of Swallows and House Martins. We did notice a number of Chaffinches about this morning, “pinking” and contact calling as they flew over or dropped into the plantation. They are a sure sign of the real autumn to begin soon.

Chaffinch

The inevitable Marsh Harrier put in a showing as it patrolled the set aside but at one point had to fend off the attentions of a Buzzard that spotted the harrier taking a rest in a recently cropped field. Two other Buzzards today plus a single Kestrel completed the raptor scene.

Buzzard

The Spice Of Life

There were one or two tasks to complete on the Integrated Population Management and Reporting (IPMR) database at Will’s house near Garstang, so because last night’s forecast was so poor we arranged to sit down at the laptop this morning, always keeping one eye on the weather of course in case a net or two might be in order. As it turned out the morning was cloudy with rain threatening but the drops never arrived so we updated IPMR and fitted in a spot of ringing.

If there’s one thing guaranteed in Will’s garden it’s variety, which turned out very true this morning when we caught an assortment of 34 birds of 12 species:

There were 30 new birds as follows:
8 House Sparrow
1 Jackdaw
4 Greenfinch
9 Chaffinch
2 Great Tit
1 Woodpigeon
1 Nuthatch
1 Dunnock
1 Robin
1 Blue Tit
1 Jay

With 4 recaptures: 2 House Sparrow, 1 Swallow and 1 Chaffinch.

The young Jay proved as feisty as an adult – beware fingers.

Jay - Juvenile
Woodpigeons are a much underrated bird. How beautiful is this?

Woodpigeon
A young Robin yet to moult into a “Robin Redbreast”.

Robin - Juvenile
I must admit that a Jackdaw isn’t quite the prettiest bird.

Jackdaw

The adult female Swallow was a recapture as it breeds in Will’s shed and regularly flies through the garden.

Swallow

A juvenile Greenfinch still showing streaky underparts, but already a large male with a wing length of 90mm.

Greenfinch - Juvenile

A juvenile Nuthatch probably from the natural nest site in the garden where the young fledged in late May.

Nuthatch - Juvenile
We completed a very successful morning, a two in one as it were.

Blowing In The Wind

Every birder should have a Plan B. I turned to my alternative this morning when the cold north easterly again frustrated my early morning migration search. I started at Ridge Farm where I met JJ hurrying along the sea wall who like me complained about the un-April like temperature and piercing wind; at least I had hat and gloves to ward off the nip in the air. I saw a couple of now local Swallows, Meadow Pipits and Linnets before calling a halt to a fruitless walk.

A quick visit to Lane Ends revealed 2 Jays that seemingly visit here every now and then, and I watched them searching for Woodpigeon and Blackbird nests amongst the middle and lower storeys of the trees. A single Redpoll flew calling over the plantation and to the west over in the area of the pool I could hear the Little Grebes, but up on the sea wall it was too bitingly cold to expect much in the way of warblers from warmer climes. A local Kestrel hung about for a while, circling the mound, hanging in the blustery chill, on the look out for breakfast. This at least gave me the opportunity for a photograph or two and to confirm that “Windhover” is a pretty accurate name for the Kestrel. But the Jay was pretty adept at putting a branch between me and it.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Kestrel
Jay
So I headed inland to Rawcliffe where although it would be equally blowy, there is shelter in the few woods where I might find summery birds.

I drove up the track where at each side there are at least 4 pairs of Lapwing in residence now, forever fighting off the attentions of Carrion Crows. Brown Hares do very well out here and whilst I didn’t attempt to count any it seemed that most fields had a couple of them sat around or running off at the sound and sight of my vehicle. And the Roe Deer also ran from the plantation as I approached, heading off quickly to the next farm. It’s good to see Roe Deer but deer and early morning mist nets are just accidents waiting to happen, so when we put nets up early we just chatter a lot to let the deer know we are around so they can slope off quietly.

Brown Hare
Roe Deer
On the way from the barn I had seen the lingering flock of 20 or more Corn Buntings, but up here on the farm proper there were four or five Corn Buntings singing, so inconspicuous on a distant post or bush until they let forth with that jangling song. Near the “horsey houses” the Swallows are back to occupy the stables for another year if allowed and I counted 6 of them surveying the scene, in and out of last year’s doors. As I looked towards Pilling I expected to see the Buzzards soaring over the usual wood, thinking that the breeze would help them too. They were there, the pair of them forever too distant for the perfect photo but I’m sure that later in the year the young ones won’t be so circumspect.

Corn Bunting
Buzzard
Through the plantation I counted 6 singing Willow Warblers, but I think there are a few females now as when I stopped in a warm glade there were several flitting about. I also caught sight of a larger warbler moving through the willows and when I managed to home in on the creature it turned out to be a Whitethroat, just about due on 14th April. I watched it for a few minutes thinking that maybe it would treat me to a burst of loud scratchy warble but it didn’t, just a barely audible but unmistakeable sub song as it continued looking for insects. Heading back I disturbed a couple of pairs of Grey Partridge then watched a Kestrel swaying atop a spindly willow as it fought the breeze that threatened to dislodge it from the viewpoint. But I think the Kestrel mastered the situation and flew off only when it was ready despite the wind.

Kestrel
So Plan B worked, a successful morning's birding that's what I like.

A Quick Ring

After a few hurried phone calls it was a last minute decision to try a bit of ringing in Will’s garden near Garstang. “Stay in second gear over the hill” said Will, “Four cars went off the road and through the fence yesterday”. With some trepidation I reached then negotiated the said spot where a blue Police “Accident Here” sign stood and a team of chaps and gritting wagons worked belatedly to provide grip for passing vehicles.

When I reached Will’s place to a rising, bright, warming sunshine and a welcoming hot coffee it seemed like a good decision to try a couple of nets in a small part of the garden for an hour or two.

View from Will's garden

We caught steadily for a couple of hours helped by bacon butties and more coffee until a slightly strengthening breeze, sudden cold and numbing fingers about 1430 brought an end to our session.

Chaffinch

Greenfinch

Greenfinch

Brambling

Brambling

Jay

Goldfinch

Birds caught totalled 40 new and 1 retrap.

Chaffinch 16
Dunnock 1
Great Tit 8
Robin 4
Blue Tit 5
Goldfinch 2
Greenfinch 1
Blackbird 2
Jay 1
Brambling 1

We caught a very fat adult male Blackbird; in fact when I took it out of the net I remarked on its bulging fat reserves and that in my hand it felt more like a Fieldfare, Mistle Thrush or Collared Dove. When we weighed the Blackbird the Pesola balance hit 149 grams! Later IPMR told me it was 9 grams over the maximum expected weight for an adult Blackbird. The second Blackbird we caught was a more normal 96 grams, but when we later weighed the Jay we caught, it too was 149 grams, equal to the weight of supersize Blackbird.

Other birds seen this morning included a couple of Sparrowhawks, 1 Mistle Thrush, 2 Nuthatch, several House Sparrow, 3 Redwing, 2 Fieldfare and 3 Collared Dove.

Collared Dove

Fieldfare