Mips, Wags And Weather

Wednesday evening’s forecast looked hot to go for a Thursday ringing session so I met up with Will and Andy at 0630 out Pilling way, a week after our last get together since when it has barely stopped raining. 

“In July 2023 some parts of England set new rainfall records, with Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside all recording their wettest July since records began some 150 years ago. The succession of low pressure systems resulting in long periods of damp and windy weather in much of the country was in sharp contrast to July 2022, when there were heatwaves and temperatures as high as 40.3C.” 

Weather

Although hopes were high we didn’t do at all well with just 5 birds caught - 4 Reed Warblers and a Sedge Warbler. Always looking for an excuse we blamed the weather for the lack of birds and the rubbish catch.

Plan B came into play and I set off to another site a car ride away and our brilliant idea for Friday morning. Here are heaps of waste material from a bio plant where the rain of recent days has created muddy pools that hold thousands if not millions of tiny flies and other food items of the right size for pipits and wagtails. 

The sun was out, the gate posts and fences proving to be ideal places for the birds to pose. I grabbed a few photos of Meadow Pipits, Pied Wagtails and Yellow Wagtails and it seemed a shame that there were no Grey Wagtails around for the full set of common wags. 

Yellow Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

It’s arranged. Friday morning is a meet up with Andy and an attempt to ring a few of the species above. 

Look in again on Friday evening folks to see how we did. 

UPDATE. Friday morning was windy, breezier than the forecasted 6-8mph and although we turned out in hope, the wind proved too troublesome to continue. This frustration was intensified by the sight of 100 + Swallows, 25+ Pied Wagtails, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 3 Reed Buntings, 8 Goldfinch and a Great-spotted Woodpecker, none of which we could catch.

Reed Bunting

 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Mixi Maxi

What a mixed up week! Two days of wind and rain, a one day window for a ringing session followed by even more rain. And then for Friday the Met Office promised another cloudy, showery, and unsummery day. They were wrong (again) of course as I sat outside in 22°C at 1430 while Julie the mobile hairdresser trimmed what’s left of my thinning hair. 

It was Tuesday when Will and I met up for the single ringing session of the week, hoping mainly for juvenile warblers. The catch of 15 proved slightly disappointing through the lack of variety that the 15 birds gave us -  6 Reed Warbler, 5 Sedge Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler and 3 Blue Tit. 

Sedge Warbler

Reed Warbler

Three of the Reed Warbler were recaptures, two from this year and one from 2022. Reed Warblers are perhaps on of the most site faithful bird species, whereby individual birds will return to the same patch of reedy habitat year after year after spending their winter in middle Africa. 

Our single Willow Warbler was a very welcome bright and lemony individual after a poor spring of catching this species. 

Willow Warbler

It seems that many other ringers are reporting the dearth of Willow Warblers this autumn with little in the way of theories or evidence as to the reasons of the species’ scarcity. It is perhaps related to the very dry spring of April/May followed by the sun-baked month of June, all of which resulted in an apparent lack of insects. But now the month of July has been intensely wet, following the weather pattern of recent years, four weeks good followed by four weeks of bad and masses of insects. 

Disappointment arose because of the lack of other species around - no Whitethroats, Blackcaps or Garden Warblers when we might have expected at least a single representative of each of their species. Instead, 15 Pied Wagtail, 1 Meadow Pipit, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Little Egret, 1 Buzzard, 4 Goldfinch and 15-20 Swallows. 

Grey Heron

Little Egret

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

 

Compensation for the slow ringing came by way of sight of a young Yellow Wagtail mixed in with the pied variety, this an early date for a now uncommon species’ autumn dispersal. 

The three species of UK wagtails, Yellow, Grey and Pied can cause intense discussion amongst less experienced bird watchers, mainly because all three of the youngsters of each are “grey”. Below is the Yellow Wagtail subject of this post, quite grey above but with a pale yellow wash to the underparts. 

Yellow Wagtail

While the Pied Wagtail is fairly easily sorted, and leaving aside for now the pitfalls of spring and autumn White Wagtails and Pied Wagtails respectively, the ID differences between Grey Wagtails and Yellow Wagtails causes discussion, not least amongst followers of Another Bird Blog. 

In August 2016 and again in July 2021 I decided to remedy this with the post “Yellow Or Grey”, a posting that has since proved to be the most read post in 15 years blogging.  Yellow or Grey

Enjoy the weekend everyone, be it grey, yellow, pied, or better still, sunny,

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Sticky Times

The forecasts for Wednesday proved to be on the wrong side of marginal. Luckily I’d already decided to drive and top up the feeding station without taking the ringing gear. The Fiat splashed through deep puddles of the days and weeks before as I looked for a less sticky spot to park up and disembark. 

I’d made a good decision as the wind was a tad strong for any netting and this would be a day for dropping a bucketful of supplementary seed and a quick look around. 

A Cetti’s Warbler greeted me with a burst of rapid-fire song as if it was trying to attract attention but I didn’t even look from where the song came because I knew the chances of seeing the bird were close to zero. And anyway, a few seconds later it would be gone and singing fifty yards away. 

Fifteen and more visits to Spain’s Balearic Islands where the Cetti’s is both common and widespread taught me not to waste time in trying to actually see a Cetti’s but to instead enjoy its song and eccentric behaviour. While morning and evening can be best, the colour, size and the habitat a Cetti’s chooses makes for challenging birding. 

Cetti's Warbler

 

It’s no different here in the UK where hardly anyone sees the skulking, evasive Cetti’s Warbler, a little bird with one of the UK’s loudest and most distinctive songs. It’s thought that by hiding away and singing loudly and forcefully from different parts of its territory, a Cetti's can fool rivals into thinking there are several males present, making the interlopers less likely to stick around. This behaviour allows a male to then have two or three females in his territory and thereby increase the success of his own lineage. 

Chaffinches, Reed Buntings, Long-tailed Tits and Greenfinches criss-crossed the net ride in search of the scattered seed. I watched for a while and then dropped seed on the whoosh netting square where the cleared and flattened ground held puddles formed by the days and weeks of rain.  A couple of days of wind and sun would dry the square - if only. 

Long-tailed Tit

Reed Bunting 

Chaffinch

It was Saturday before the wind and rain presented a real window of opportunity by way of a 5mph wind or less across a number of forecasts. It was time to have another go. I met up with Andy and Will at 0700 where the partly flooded farm track glinted in our combined headlights. There was mist which hung around until the sun burnt it off around 10am.

With a little drainage work we made the whoosh net area usable if a little muddy, dropped more seed, set the single panel net to one side of the flooded walkway and erected three nets in the woodland edge.

The morning began, the mist refused to clear, but eventually it did and the catch improved a little. We finished at 1130 with a nice and varied catch of 25 birds -  7 Chaffinch, 5 Linnet, 4 Meadow Pipit, 3 Redwing, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Wren, 1 Robin, 1 Blackbird.

Meadow Pipit

Reed Bunting

Greenfinch

Linnet

Redwing

Redwing

Today was one of the better Chaffinch days, yet another farmland species that is seeing a serious decline in its population. One of the males today, with a wing length of 95mm, was possibly of Northern European origin, a type we are seeing less of in recent years. Our UK Chaffinches are generally smaller, both males and females.  

Chaffinch

A good morning was had by all and we'll be back another day on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas

Another Week Goes By

The week ahead didn’t promise much in the way of weather suitable for ringing birds. Tuesday looked the best possibility, a brief lull in the showery westerlies at best. Once again the Internet and TV weather forecasts became compulsive viewing, and far better than the BBC's "News". 

It was touch and go until 0700 when I met up with Will and Andy at the ringing site to zero rain and a touch of breeze that spelt "just about". 

It quickly became apparent that the plan to catch more Linnets would be thwarted by the now stiff breeze that scurried across the seed plot. However, other slightly sheltered nets, plus the standalone whoosh net might produce a bird or two. 

Early sounds of Redwings and Blackbirds were followed by a good mix of 24 birds caught - 12 Greenfinch, 6 Meadow Pipit, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Blackbird, 1 Redwing, 1 Wren, 1 Dunnock, 1 Goldfinch. 

Greenfinch

Meadow Pipit

Goldfinch

Just yesterday we received news of Meadow Pipit ALP8836 ringed here on 9 September 2022. Sixteen days later on 25 September the same bird was caught by another ringer at Buckfastleigh, Devon. 

A glance at the map below will show that the pipit had travelled virtually due south (190 degrees) and was probably on its way across the English Channel, on to France and eventual destination North Africa, the wintering haunt of many British Meadow Pipits. 

Pilling to Buckfastleigh, Devon

Birding provided more interest in the shapes and sounds of 70 or more Linnets that we couldn't catch, more Greenfinches, Meadow Pipits, Skylarks and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. Two Stonechats played hide and seek in amongst the seed plot while the now resident Cetti's Warbler seems to have regular spots where it breaks into song.

It may have been the Marsh Harrier we saw or more likely, a dashing and unseen Peregrine that set many hundreds of Lapwing, Golden Plovers, Starlings and Black-headed Gulls into a melee of wings and sounds overhead and looking for safety to the west.       

Nothing much bothers the Little Egrets or the lonesome Grey Herons, they seem to have all the time in the world to continue their stalking through the water courses in search of a meal.  

Grey Heron

Well, what do you know? The weather forecasts say nothing until weekend at least. Another week goes by but we don't give in that easily.

Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog for news, views and photos, local or otherwise.

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

A Whopper Morning

Tuesday had been pencilled in for days. 

This time the forecasts didn’t let us down. There was zero wind and clear dark skies when I met up with Will and Andy at 0700 hours. The starts get later and the mornings darker as we approach the Autumn Equinox and its ritual of changing the clocks. 

As the sky lightened we put mist nets up and saw a Barn Owl hunting the scrubby grass where we parked our three cars. Was this a good omen? Time would tell. 

Barn Owl 

 

Almost six hour later the tired gang of three counted up the catch - 78 birds of 10 species, for us, a whopper of a catch that far exceeded recent efforts. 

The mix of species was good with 35 Greenfinch, 23 Linnet, 5 Long-tailed Tit, 7 Meadow Pipit, 4 Reed Bunting, 2 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush. 1 Wren, 1 Great Tit. 

Two of the Greenfinch bore almost consecutive rings beginning ‘ZY’ that were not our own. Previous experience has shown that our autumn and spring Greenfinch don’t travel far, and that the origins of these two will likely prove to be the top of Morecambe Bay. It is interesting that the two were almost certainly ringed and now recaptured on the same dates, i.e. still travelling together. 

At this time of year it's not unusual to see a steady stream of Greenfinches on the move if you know where to look and how to catch them. Fortunately the species seems to have now recovered from its drastic fall in numbers during the 1970s and 1980s due to trichomonosis. 

Greenfinch

Greenfinch

Long-tailed Tit

Linnet

Meadow Pipit

Reed Bunting

With the ringing being fairly busy our sighting were restricted to mainly overhead Skylarks and Meadow Pipits - 75 and 30 respectively, a chasing Merlin, and the now seemingly resident Cetti’s Warbler in random snatches of song. 

After our session today it looks as if the weather will turn against us now. Make hay while the sun shines everyone. 

Linking at the weekend to Anni in Texas and Viewing Nature with Eileen.

 

Balmy Army

The week has been warm but breezy and showery with few chances for meaningful birding so there isn’t a lot of bird news. A couple of visits out Pilling Way produced poor catches with just eight to show for several hours in the field. 

After a very cold dry spring and a dry, warm, occasionally hot summer, there's a dearth of small birds this year which seems especially so here in our little corner of North West England. Only now in September am I beginning to see more normal numbers of insects. It could be that the unusual but not unknown weather and food availability factors, coupled with the ongoing decline of a number of especially farmland bird species is more evident this year to those who spend time outdoors with eyes and ears open. 

Citizen Scientists and bird ringers in particular have a vital part to play in feeding their thoughts and observations into systems of data collection. Incomplete and short-timescale data sets are increasingly being used to fit the false narrative of anthropogenic climate change. 

With Will unavailable and Andy packing for his holiday the Friday Barmy Army was me alone. The early morning arrival disturbed the local Buzzard that promptly flew down the field to continue its ground hog watch a safe distance from me, the potential predator. Sometimes I just want to shout out to Buzzards and many other species - “Hey, don’t worry. I mean no harm I just want a photo”. But of course their experience and inbuilt suspicion of the human race tells them otherwise. 

Buzzard

 

The week produced two birds new to the site,  Treecreeper and a Spotted Flycatcher, the first we captured, the second admired from a distance when it stayed out of net range. 

Treecreeper

 

Spotted Flycatcher

 

Meadow Pipits are now on their way south after what appeared to be a reasonable breeding season; when I journeyed into the Bowland Hills during the summer I saw good numbers of roadside pipits scatter ahead of oncoming vehicles. We are still a week away from Meadow Pipit peak migration but I will not be here to see the numbers passing through. I will be in Greece where I may see Red-throated Pipits or the occasional Richard's Pipit. 

Meadow Pipit

 

Red-throated Pipit

And of course September mornings of half-light inevitably start with the plaintive song of autumn Robins, a species which is highly migratory across Europe and into Africa. How often do we hear our neighbours say that “their” Robin is “back in the garden”? In fact a Robin, or more correctly a European Robin,  has a very short life span of two or three years so the Robin in an average suburban garden is most likely to change on a regular basis. 

 

European Robin - Erithacus rubecula

No visit would be a complete without a couple of Linnets. And although the post breeding dispersal seems over for now the regular 30/40 continue to give us new birds and zero recaptures. Once again, if only more ringers south of Lancashire would catch Linnets we might be able to add to existing knowledge. 

Linnet

That’s me done for a day or two. Back soon with news, views and photos from here, there and everywhere. 

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