An Interesting Redpoll - Well Aren’t They All?

There’s no birding or bird ringing for a day or two with both rain and wind preventing activities. 

However, there came an interesting if slightly puzzling recovery of Lesser Redpoll AJD6136. 

Lesser Redpoll

 

We caught and ringed redpoll AJD6136 at Oakenclough on the morning of 1st October 2018. The  morning produced a catch of 6 Lesser Redpolls, 4 Goldfinch, singles of Chaffinch and Meadow Pipit, plus a couple of Great and Blue titmice; a typical if not over large mix of early October local and migrant species. 

At this time of year many Lesser Redpolls from Northern England and Scotland are on their way south to winter in France and the hotspot of Belgium, the latter a country with a special attraction to the species. A Belgian winter landscape holds a redpoll's preferred seeds in abundance and the ambient temperatures are certainly preferable to those of Scotland.

Lesser Redpoll from BTO Migration Atlas

“Most recovery data of Lesser Redpolls comes via North and North West European ringing regions. Most populations follow on average a North to South or North West to West/South East axis, with recoveries as far as N Kazakhstan, up to China. There are two recoveries at more than 4000 km, mostly less than 2000 km.”  BTO.

Only this week did we learn that the same Lesser Redpoll AJD6136 was recaptured by Belgian ringers 44 days later at Maubray, Hainaut, Belgium on 18th October 2018. Yes, that’s right; it took four years for the information to reach us that AJD6136 was recaptured in the centre of the Belgium hotspot pictured above. 

Lesser Redpoll AJD6136 - Lancashire to Belgium

 

A likely but only partial explanation for the four year delay is that the Belgian end of the recovery noted the ring as AJO6136 rather than AJD6136, transposing the letter “D” as “O”. 

This simple error would cause confusion plus double checking and detective work in both the BTO UK and Bruxelles, Belgium end of operations with an exchange of emails and phone calls until the true number could be confirmed. The number AJO6136, if it existed and in circulation, would probably refer to a different species, perhaps one that was highly unlikely to be found in Belgium in the month of November. 

All’s well that ends well but the lesson is that once a ringed migratory bird is released it is unlikely to be caught again so the utmost care should be taken with ring numbers and sequences that are not recognised. 

Our own procedure, after first identifying the species and realising that the bird has an unfamiliar ring, is that the ring number, letters, plus country code if applicable, are read and double checked by two people.  One can never be quite sure where that bird was ringed!

European Bee-eater

I just double checked the weather forecasts for the week ahead again. It’s not good news for anyone who likes to be out and about. 

Keep watching for a window of opportunity and news, views and photographs here on Another Bird Blog. 

 

Mainly Men

With so much wind and rain in recent weeks there’s been little chance of getting to Gulf Lane. This is highly frustrating, even embarrassing, when a recent count realised 280+ Linnets on site compared to our miserly catch of just 30 birds for the whole of this autumn/winter. 

Monday promised better things so I met up with Andy at 0815 to a clear if cold and frosty start of Minus 2°C. We were joined today by Bryan. 

Linnets appeared soon after dawn and continued to arrive in small parties until at the peak of activity at about 10 am when we estimated 300 birds. 

Our catch was much better today with 20 Linnets. The catch included a first winter male already bearing a ring (AYD5167) but not one of our own. We hope that when details of its original ringing emerge it will prove to be another bird from Scotland, especially since its biometrics came in at 83 mm wing length and a weight of 20.3 gms. Three of the other males today had wing lengths of 86, 84, and 84 mms respectively. 

The 20 Linnets caught comprised 11 first winter males, 5 adult males, 3 first winter females and 1 adult female - so this was something of male morning. Pure chance or perhaps other factors; who’s to know? Ideas on a postcard to …… 

Below is AYD5167, a first winter male. We named him Jimmy and sent him on his way. 

Linnet AYD5167 

Today's Linnets 

The flock today appeared to be wholly Linnets apart from one or two Tree Sparrows. Otherwise we noted several thousand Pink-footed Geese leaving the nearby marsh. We saw 3 Buzzards in the vicinity of our plot but all in flight. 

I believe there’s something planned for tomorrow; someone just mentioned peeling spuds, carrots and parsnips. So that's me signing off for a few days. Hopefully back on Thursday. 

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.