Miscellaneous And A Plug

Details came from the BTO of a Lesser Redpoll Y310191 which I caught on Rawcliffe Moss on 19th October 2012. It had been first ringed at Alfrick Pound, near Great Malvern, Worcestershire, 225 days earlier on 8th March 2012. The dates involved point to a spring migration to a spot somewhere north of Rawcliffe Moss and an autumn return to a location south of Worcestershire. 

Lesser Redpoll - Gt Malvern to Out Rawcliffe

The repoll was one of 28 caught at Out Rawcliffe in October, a classic month of Lesser Redpoll migration south. 

On October 20th a day after Y310191, I caught a Belgian ringed Lesser Redpoll, details of which are yet to be notified to me. 

Lesser Redpoll

Talking of the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology), I was reading my BTO News just the other day and I see they are offering the opportunity to become a member until June 2013 for the princely sum of £1 by direct debit just here.

Please think about joining the BTO. It is not necessary to participate in the many voluntary activities as anyone can simply join the BTO and support its work through the annual subscription fee. Considering all the good work the BTO does it is both amazing and mystifying to know there are bird watchers out there in the UK who are not members - so come on guys and gals, join today for only £1 - less than a cup of Starbucks. Plug over.

Rawcliffe was the destination this morning, with no time for ringing, just a wander around and a top up the feeders for another day. When I arrived the Little Owl was out in the morning sun, warming itself after the overnight frost. It wasn’t interested in turning round for a photo, just content with a sideways glance. Hopefully I’d have it on the way back. 

Little Owl

On an expanse of stubble fields there’s a large and mobile flock of mainly finches, the numbers of birds building over the last few weeks culminating today in a count of 700/800 Chaffinch, 3+ Brambling, 70+ Skylark and 2 Meadow Pipit. From a hedgerow nearby I disturbed 3 Roe Deer which shot across the stubble, pausing only to look back briefly at me. The same hedgerow held 25+ Reed Bunting, 3 Yellowhammer and 45+ Tree Sparrow, 2 Redwing and a single Fieldfare. To the east I watched as c3000 Woodpigeons took flight, leaving in parties to make their way west and out to Pilling Moss. 

Brambling

Roe Deer

There were more Reed Buntings and Chaffinches near the plantation, with 10/12 Goldfinch too, so I topped the feeders vowing to return another day. My walk back to the car added 2 Snipe, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 1 Kestrel. The owl was still there in the sunshine, all puffed up to retain heat, but this time a little more obliging to the camera. 

Little Owl

Little Owl

I drove back home alongside the river and via Lancaster Road where I added 50+ Fieldfare and similar numbers of Redwing. From the roadside I could see the elusive Hen Harrier of local fame patrolling the many fields on offer, and a mile or two towards Pilling a gang of people with cameras hoping for a glimpse. 

An excellent morning of bird watching. More news and views soon on Another Bird Blog, so stay in touch.

A Day Too Late?

Time just flies for us retired folk. Believe it or not, there just aren’t enough days in the week to do the domestic essentials, fit in a spot of bird watching, bird ringing or photography, never mind to then blog the blog. So that’s the excuse for Sunday’s news appearing today, plus the fact that today is rain and yesterday was fine. Confused? Wait until you’re my age. 

Sunday was a mossy day, Stalmine, Pilling, Winmarleigh and then Rawcliffe mosses where many times the four do meet, especially when multitudes of Woodpigeons blacken the combined skies of all. After a couple of hours surveying the moss roads and taking in the spectacular, roaming flocks I revised Thursday’s count upwards to one of 18,000/20,000 Woodpigeons. I realise that is one hell of a tally so welcome comparison counts from the many bird watchers currently travelling along or standing about the same moss roads. 

At Union/Lancaster Lane junction was a Barn Owl, sitting, watching but also hunting while keeping a distance from prying eyes, as overhead small gangs of Whooper Swans fresh from their night time roost flew back and forth in search of spots to feed. 

Barn Owl

Whooper Swan

Along Lancaster Road were 3 Kestrels, one pair together in a single hawthorn tree, so obviously the closely bonded pair of recent days. Also, 30+ Fieldfare, 3 Redwing, 20+ Blackbird, 20 Chaffinch, 2 Yellowhammer, 14 Tree Sparrow, and 185 Lapwing. A Brown Rat crossed the road ahead of the car - maybe there’s a plague of rats, voles and mice this year in the unkempt fields of the wet summer which might explain the number of raptors making late hay out here? 

I spent so much time watching the owl and the hordes of Woodpigeons that it was almost 1030 when I arrived on Rawcliffe Moss. So followed a quick scoot around with 1 Kestrel, 2 Redwing, 1 Tawny Owl, 6 Goldfinch, 1 Siskin, 15 Corn Bunting, 40+ Chaffinch, 4 Reed Bunting and 15 Tree Sparrows, one of the latter rapidly departing a nest box as the car approached. To the east 3 Roe Deer waded shoulder deep through the abandoned wheat crop, the animal's heads just visible. 

Roe Deer

The Corn Buntings were the first seen for a while. It begs the question: where do the Corn Buntings that winter very locally actually originate from, when following the breeding season the few pairs which raise families then disappear into thin air until the winter? No one seems qualified to provide an answer about such a difficult species to monitor through the normal methods of survey or ringing. It’s a gap in knowledge which leaves yet another unsolved mystery about a threatened species. The iconic but shy Corn Bunting may have passed the point of no return, with the result that we are too late to save it from local if not national extinction. Let’s hope not. 

Corn Bunting

Corn Bunting

P.S. There’s an interesting comment from Chris in Tuscon, Arizona on Saturday's post about  Waxwings “You are not the only one: They're here as well and I can't seem to find the darn Waxwings. BUT that will all change once our palm trees start producing fruit. Then they get drunk and fly all over the place. It's funny and dangerous at the same time.” To a Waxwing all that fermenting red fruit must combine the taste and effect of a glass or two of red wine. I’ll drink to that. 

More from Another Bird Blog soon. In the meantime keep blogging and birding. This week I'm linking to I'd Rather be Birding and to Paying Ready Attention Gallery. 

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.

The Lone Ringer And A Kite

No trusty companion for me today when the four letter word beginning “W” reared its ugly head for the other lads. Alone I went to Rawcliffe Moss hoping to find out more about the substantial Lesser Repoll passage which started last week and continues unabated. 

Another successful session saw a catch of 29 birds of just two species, 27 Lesser Redpoll and 2 Goldfinch, with once again nil recaptures. Today’s catch brings the total number of Lesser Redpoll ringed here to 81 individuals since 24th March, a tiny proportion of the several hundred which have passed over or through the site in the morning hours. 

A change today saw the redpolls arriving from a westerly, even north westerly direction, with a number of them leaving the site on the same axis by heading into the very slight south easterly breeze. In all I estimated 100+ redpolls this morning between 0700 and 1030 when I had to leave early for an appointment. Noticeable again today was the lack of males in the catch, just a single adult male from the 27, the remaining 26 either adult female or juvenile. Of these 81 Lesser Redpoll caught in less than a week, only 11 can definitely be allocated as males. 

The above makes me wonder if Lesser Redpolls adopt a similar wintering/migration strategy as other species and some finches in particular, i.e. young birds and especially young females migrate further south than adult males, and we are catching a number of birds leaving the south of England, France or Belgium and heading up to Scotland or Northern Ireland? None of the Lesser Redpoll caught this spring have carried noticeable fat deposits, and as diurnal migrants, even if travelling good distances, they are able to stop off and feed up quickly if required. 

Lesser Redpoll

Processing birds alone kept me pretty busy and so limiting any bird watching, but of note were 6 Yellowhammer, 2 Buzzard, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Grey Partridge, 4 Linnet, 1 Corn Bunting, 2 Reed Bunting.

Chiffchaff 

 I was fairly well occupied with ringing so couldn’t find much time to take photographs today, and in any case they would only be more Lesser Redpolls wouldn’t they? The Roe Deer appeared in the half light of dawn when I switched to ISO3200. 

Roe Deer

Will tells me that after he got back home from ringing yesterday he watched a Red Kite over his house battling with both a Kestrel and a Buzzard. 

Red Kite

Woody Morning

The icy morning both began and then ended with a Sparrowhawk, but not the same one. The first, a female, flew across the road in front of the car just yards from home as I made for a few hours birding at Out Rawcliffe. On the way home through Hambleton village about 11am it was a male that sailed across my path via a garden wall to the right.

Sparrowhawk

Between those sightings proved fairly quiet, with one or two specialities plus a spectacular count of woodies to spice up the morning.

The noise from the Tree Sparrows indicated the numbers to be good, over 200 in fact and hard to pick out the Chaffinch when all the birds fly off to the far hedgerow together, but up to 20 finches. A walk up to the top field gave 20+ Reed Bunting, 8 Yellowhammer, 4 Corn Bunting, 2 Song Thrush, 6 Blackbird, 40+ Skylark, a Kestrel and a single Roe Deer.

Roe Deer
Yellowhammer

When I got to where the deer previously stood, the animal had vanished into the far distance, nowhere to be seen; such shy but knowing animals. As I looked north along the hedgerow I saw another crafty but less popular animal than a deer, this one a large dog Red Fox. It had clearly seen me because it sloped off down into the tree roots and the rabbit burrows in the soft, black, mossy soil. Last year we heard the dog barking from this likely spot for a den, where a pair will probably make home and then mate in January/February.

Red Fox - Vulpes vulpes
I hung around for a while but the fox didn’t reappear, not that I expected it to, but it gave me chance to scan the landscape where to the north and west I saw over 700 Woodpigeons in one large flock. There’s not been many around on the moss of late but almost certainly the cold and snow of recent days brought many more of them from elsewhere.

Over the woods today just 2 Buzzards in the cool of the morning and before the sun reached any height to produce decent thermals. A walk through woodland and back to the car produced the expected post-frost Woodcock, another Song Thrush and several Chaffinch.

From the track off the moss the Little Owl has been hard to find of late, but a frosty morning is often the best time to look for them, just as today when one sat partly hidden by the ivy, out in the warming sun but not so conspicuous as to be obvious to any passing prey or careless birder.

Little Owl

When Will It End?

Before I could set off this morning I had to clear the windscreen of a little frost, the first real bite of the winter. Then as Will and I met up at 0630 on Rawcliffe Moss we saw the ground was white and crunchy underfoot.

It’s been a busy and successful year in the plantation, with over 1550 new birds ringed since 8th March, together with 230 recaptures, but in the last week or so migration has slowed to a virtual halt, with no second wave of thrushes to occupy our mornings. We thought today’s session might be the last of the year before we move to winter ringing sites, but we added another 49 birds, 40 new and 9 recaptures, including favoured target species. So we may just have another crack in a day or two before moving on to pastures old.

Today’s new birds: 15 Goldfinch, 10 Chaffinch, 8 Reed Bunting, 3 Blackbird, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Dunnock, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Wren. Recaptures: 6 Goldfinch and 1 each of Great Tit, Dunnock and Reed Bunting.

The main features of the morning were the number of Goldfinch coming to Nyger feeders, plus the continued passage through the site of Reed Buntings. The sudden cold snap may have induced the local Goldfinches to visit our feeders and/or there are other Goldfinches moving through the area as they head south. Our Reed Bunting count for the morning was 20 individuals, a figure which includes the nine captures.

Once again thrushes were noticeable by their absence with just a dozen or so each of the two main culprits Redwing and Fieldfare in the hour after dawn. The three Blackbirds caught were quite large, long-winged individuals so we mentally assigned them to migratory status rather than back garden dwellers.

The juvenile Goldfinch shown immediately below was an early 0730 catch, momentarily reluctant to leave the relative comfort of our ringing station to head back into the cold morning air, the other a fine adult male.

Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Reed Bunting – first calendar year male
Reed Bunting – adult male
Fieldfare

Other sightings 0630 to 1130: 1 Barn Owl, 2 Tawny Owl, 2 Kestrel, 8 Whooper Swan, 7000+ Pink- footed Goose, 80+ Skylark, 8 Snipe, 2 Siskin and 4 Lesser Redpoll. The sight of 5 Roe Deer running across the pastures added to a fine morning's work and pleasure.

Roe Deer

Early Doors And Late Gropper

We spotted a break in the wet weather for this morning so Will and I met up at 0600 hours for another crack at Out Rawcliffe. Maybe it was too much to hope for another big push of finches and Meadow Pipits and another “mega” catch as no two days are ever alike, but we didn’t do too badly. Our interesting and absorbing five hour session reached a total of 39 birds, 38 new and 1 recaptured Dunnock.

The 38 new birds were 19 Chaffinch, 9 Meadow Pipits, 4 Reed Bunting and 1 each of Dunnock, Blue Tit, Robin, Great Tit, Lesser Redpoll and Grasshopper Warbler. By 20th September it’s quite late to find skulking Grasshopper Warblers up here in the north west of the UK, as in most years “groppers” are not seen beyond mid-August. For readers not familiar with Grasshopper Warbler the name refers to their reeling, insect-like song and not any part of the species’ appearance.

Grasshopper Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler
Meadow Pipit

Unlike the past week the visible migration of most species during the 5 hours was down on the past week’s high numbers but still evident from north to south: Meadow Pipit 120, Chaffinch up to 170, Lesser Redpoll 40+, Siskin 10+. Our catch of 4 Reed Buntings indicates the beginning of their movement south, always apparent here during September but more so in October. The sight of two early morning Song Thrushes departing the planation and then heading strongly south may also herald the beginning of the thrush season.

Reed Bunting
Lesser Redpoll

More in evidence today were Skylarks, with upwards of 60 birds flying from east to west, particularly noticeable as a bank of cloud spread to the south about mid-morning. The fields on the moss are pretty wet by now, a fact which led to us seeing about 45 Snipe this morning as they were disturbed off their puddles and then flew off and around in various directions, at one point pushed off a wet patch by a wandering Roe Deer.

Snipe
Roe Deer

Other birds and “locals” seen this morning included 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Peregrine, 2 Kestrel, 5 Buzzard, 1 Tawny Owl, 2 Golden Plover, 60+ Goldfinch and 60+ Linnet.

At dawn we had seen a Wheatear perched on one of the hay bales after which it disappeared from view. It was only as we drove off site hours later that I saw it again some fifty yards away from our ringing station.

Wheatear

Taking Stock

It’s a short update today after Will and I went to Out Rawcliffe to check out a few Stock Dove nest boxes. In the first box where we expected to find young doves a week or more old, the box was now empty, predated of the small young by an unknown bird or animal. In a nearby natural tree cavity a second Stock Dove nest held broken, probably predated eggs. Of two other boxes, one had evidence of fledged Tree Sparrows and the other a Great Tit nest tucked neatly in the corner of the large box. Oh well we drew a blank, but as we like to say, “If you don’t try you don’t get!”

Will - “Boxing”

As we drove past a nearby wood we both heard alarm calling Tree Sparrows and Chaffinches, so went to investigate the possibility of young Tawny Owls. We didn’t find any owlets, just an adult Tawny that watched us from high in the dappled shade of the canopy.

Tawny Owl
Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch

In the wood Will pointed out a couple of deer sleeping “beds”, flattened vegetation in the woodland floor, then close by we found the carcass of a long dead Roe Deer where it probably lay down one night and inexplicably died.

Roe Deer
Roe Deer

In contrast to many of our local birds Brown Hares seem to be doing rather well at the moment, and whilst I haven’t made any counts, suffice to say they are plentiful and now is a good time to get a few pictures. And although the countryside is devoid of Grey Partridge, there’s plenty of the red-legged variety happy to pose for a picture.

Brown Hare
Red-legged Partridge

Other birds seen on our little foray: 2 Yellowhammer, 3 Buzzard, 2 Oystercatcher, 30 Lapwing, a Blackbird on 5 eggs high in the barn, and 1 Kestrel. Will remarked that he hadn’t seen many Kestrels about this spring. After a little recollection of birds I’d seen in recent months I had to agree, Kestrels are rather scarce this year so maybe it’s another species which suffered from last winter’s long frozen periods; just as well I archived a few pictures when more Kestrels were about.

Kestrel