Yellow And Red

Following a couple of enforced bird-free days I got to Out Rawcliffe where I topped up the Niger feeders and took a wander around. With the wind finally relenting I put up a couple of nets for a while in hoping for a catch of Goldfinches. I caught just 10 birds and it wasn’t the yellow and red of Goldfinches in the net, but the red of Robins and the yellow of Yellowhammers, with 3 Robins, 4 Yellowhammers, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Blackbird and 1 Chaffinch.

Goldfinches were strangely absent this morning with just 4 knocking about the feeders with a number of Chaffinch for company. The Yellowhammers I caught were some of the 15 or so arriving to mop up the wheat falling from the shooter’s game feeders.

Yellowhammer – adult male
Yellowhammer – adult female
Robin
Reed Bunting

The single Blackbird caught, a large first winter male, looked very much like a “continental” type, especially with a wing length of 141mm and a weight of 113 grams.

Blackbird

A good wander round the immediate area revealed not much about: 70 Lapwing, 50 Chaffinch, 2 Kestrel, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3 Skylark, 2 Corn Bunting, 4 Linnet and 4 Reed Bunting. The mild sort of morning induced a few species into brief song, with new ones for my year of Chaffinch, Skylark and Corn Bunting.

I had a glimpse of a Tawny Owl this morning and found four fresh and still damp pellets from where it took off. An owl pellet is the portion of an owl’s prey that has not been digested. Owls swallow their prey whole (they don’t have teeth to chew) and the feathers, fur, bones and other indigestible parts are regurgitated by the owl some hours after a meal in the form of a compressed pellet of matter.

In my picture (double click to enlarge) it is possible to see the remains of a small bird the owl had eaten - bits of feather and the feather sheaths themselves.

Tawny Owl
Tawny Owl Pellet

Early Owl But No Lottis

Out Rawcliffe 0645 - as usual Will and I had set nets before first light to await the thrushes, but we soon found something other than early Redwings.

The Tawny Owls have been calling to each other for a week or two, usually further away from our nets, but one got a surprise this morning when in the almost total darkness the bird’s flight path was interrupted by a 60ft net. There is an overlap of Tawny Owl measurements, and although from its plumage characteristics we could tell it was an adult, the weight and wing length meant it could be a male or a female. Whichever sex the bird was it proved pretty feisty with the talons, so we took a leg out of the bird bag for ringing before looking more closely at the bird itself.

Tawny Owl
Tawny Owl

We had a quite productive morning of ringing with 29 birds caught, 28 new and one recapture, a recent Goldfinch. New birds: 10 Chaffinch, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Redwing, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Goldfinch and one each of Tawny Owl, Dunnock and Great Tit.

Redwing

The early thrush movement was probably the quietest of the autumn so far, with seemingly no more than 50 Redwing, 12 Fieldfare, 5 Song Thrush and a couple only of Blackbirds on the move soon after dawn, then virtually none during the remainder of the morning. The Chaffinch passage was similarly down with our estimate of c80 only during four hours. The trapped Chaffinches included a couple of larger males, perhaps a sign that more northerly individuals are beginning to spread from the south and east of the UK.

We noted an increase in both Siskins and Lesser Redpolls this morning, with small parties and numerous calls of both species, at times intermixed or accompanying Goldfinches. Our estimate came to 40 Siskin and 35 Lesser Redpoll, but the Lesser Redpolls are more easily caught than the Siskins. We added 5 more Reed Buntings to our autumn total and estimated the species throughput this morning at 10 or 12 in addition to the 5 caught.

Lesser Redpoll

Apart from the endless flights inland of approximately 2000 Pink-footed Geese, this morning’s birding was quiet: 1 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard, 11 Snipe, 1 Corn Bunting, 12 Whooper Swans and an uncounted number of Grey Partridge calling invisibly before dawn. Thankfully a roving flock of 26 Long-tailed Tits did not find one of our mist nets.

Long-tailed Tit

A Different Circus

They say a change is as good as a rest so this afternoon I set off for Pilling Moss and a walk around a farm I wander over now and again. The spot has a few sheltered fields and woods and is a useful standby when everywhere else is a more than a bit breezy, as it was today.

This year I’ve seen plenty of Marsh Harriers, both spring and autumn, but one of the first birds I saw this afternoon was a Hen Harrier, Circus cyaneus, now probably the rarer of the two closely related harriers. Crows chased the harrier off towards Union Lane whereby it flew fast with the wind and I lost it against a background of trees.

Hen Harrier

The couple of hours turned into a raptor fest with 3 Kestrel, 1 Peregrine, 1 Merlin, 3 Buzzards and a Tawny Owl. I found the owl huddled up out of the wind in the densest part of an ivy covered tree, the greenery so impenetrable that I tried this way and that to get more than a half photo of the bird but couldn’t. So as they also say, “Here’s one I did earlier”.

Tawny Owl
Buzzard

There was lots of passerine food on offer for the raptors, 60+ Skylark, 70 Chaffinch, 130 Linnet, 5 Reed Bunting, 25 Goldfinch, 11 Pied Wagtail, 15 Snipe, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 20+ Tree Sparrow. I almost forgot, 1 Fieldfare and 2 Song Thrush, but a number of Blackbirds.

Peregrines count Columbidae into their food category and there were plenty of those today with 32 Stock Dove and 80+ Woodpigeon. Other “bits and bobs” seen, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Raven and 260 Pink-footed Geese trying to hide in a barley stubble field.

Woodpigeon
Stock Dove
Pink-footed Goose

Going It Alone

With Will in Scotland I had to go it alone for this morning’s ringing session on the moss. So I dropped one of the net rides to save the leg work and as a safeguard against a rush of finches hitting the nets all at once as they sometimes do. It’s not necessarily the taking the birds out of nets that takes the time, but the processing and documentation of each bird’s age, sex, wing, weight and fat score.

It worked out fine as steady catching kept me busy but not rushed. My session lasted 5 hours by the end of which I had caught 39 birds of just 5 species, 38 new and 1 recapture. New birds: 25 Chaffinch, 10 Meadow Pipit, 2 Blackbird and 1 Chiffchaff with 1 Goldfinch recapture.

The overhead Chaffinch passage was quite strong this morning but the Meadow Pipit numbers less than earlier in the week, or the week before. There seemed to be banks of cloud to the west and north but the moss was bright and sunny if a bit breezy this morning, with wispy clouds early on which made it again difficult to see high-up birds. “Vis Mig” numbers 0645 to 1130: 400+ Chaffinch, 45 + Lesser Redpoll, 30 Siskin, 8 Greenfinch, 10 Reed Bunting, 200+ Meadow Pipit, 3 Swallow, 3 Song Thrush, 30+ Alba wagtail.

Chiffchaff
Meadow Pipit

The juvenile female Goldfinch below is now attaining colour and beginning to resemble an adult Goldfinch.

Goldfinch

Ringers tuning in to the blog will note the large proportion of juveniles (age code 3) today, not unusual of course in autumn. Also today, of the 25 Chaffinch ringed, 15 were juvenile females, another not uncommon occurrence in September/October a time when UK Chaffinches from northern regions head south and west.

Field Sheet - today
Chaffinch

Other birds today: 2 Tawny Owl calling from nearby woods at dawn, 10 Snipe, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Peregrine, 2 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Jay.

Tawny Owl

A Hectic Morning

Will and I met up at Rawcliffe Moss at 6am for another of our regular warbler sessions. It didn’t take too long to realise that the overnight patchy rain had not only interrupted some migration but left plenty of birds in the immediate location. We started catching even as we finalised the half erected nets, and then didn’t have much of a break until we packed up at 11am. In fact we were so busy there is something a shortage of images from the session and we may have missed some of the visible migration, although most of the movement seemed to be taking place in front of our eyes in the mist nets.

Features of the morning were yet more Whitethroats and Willow Warblers plus the continuation of the Chaffinch migration first noted on Thursday. In all we caught 52 birds, 51 new and a single recapture. New birds: 18 Whitethroat, 12 Willow Warbler, 5 Blackcap, 2 Reed Warbler, 9 Chaffinch, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Dunnock, 1 Great Tit and 1 Blackbird. The single recapture was a Dunnock from recent weeks.

Eighteen Whitethroats is a good score for such a tiny spot on a map, but this takes our tally of Whitethroats here to 132 for the year. Of the 18 today there was but a single immaculate adult with just completed moult. Note the strong eye colour.

Whitethroat adult

Today's far from unlucky 13 Willow Warblers took our year on the moss to 114 individuals.

Willow Warbler - juvenile

The Blackcap below is a juvenile male, the cap just abrading from the juvenile brown to the winter black.

Blackcap- juvenile male

The single Sedge Warbler caught displayed very prominent fault bars across its tail, an obvious juvenile feature.

Sedge Warbler - juvenile

With many ringing sessions there is an element of just ringed birds finding a net again soon after release, either almost immediately, within a few minutes, or up to an hour or two later. This morning it became noticeable how this simply didn’t happen when almost all of the newly ringed birds didn’t reappear, but very quickly continued their onward migration. We can often see this happen due to the site’s open geographical location that gives clear views to most compass points.

Our busy ringing meant less time devoted to birding but we noted c150 Swallows heading south, 1 Tree Pipit over, c40 Chaffinch heading south and several Greenfinch and Linnet. The Goldfinch roost here is still active with c120 birds leaving the roost at the relatively late time we arrived. The departing Goldfinches attracted in a marauding Sparrowhawk, with a second high flying Sparrowhawk seemingly headed south round about 9am.

Otherwise, 4 Buzzard, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Alba wagtails, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Tawny Owl tucked in close to the tree trunk today.

Tawny Owl

The White Morning

Monday night’s forecast wasn’t too promising. When I woke up and looked out the weather didn’t seem so bad, so I made a journey to Out Rawcliffe where I could have a wander about and maybe find a sheltered spot for a few nets. First off I saw the young Tawny Owl in the exact same spot of a couple of weeks ago: so was the side branch, partly obscuring the bird.

Tawny Owl

The stiff north-west breeze left a couple of spots unaffected on the east side of the plantation, so within 20 minutes of my arrival the nets were up and were operational. I stayed busy the next three hours with a good catch of mainly warblers, many of them newly arrived Whitethroats, so I reckon I hit upon the right morning. The overall catch was 29 new birds but no recaptures: 17 Whitethroat - all juveniles, 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Swallow, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Blackbird and 1 Tawny Owl.

If rough calculations are correct there are now exactly 100 new Whitethroat captures on site this year with an overall total of 128 if all the recaptures are added.

Whitethroat
Whitethroat
17 “Whites”

The two Swallows caught were an adult and a juvenile.

Swallow - adult
Swallow - juvenile

Migrating Reed Warblers turn up in young woodland growth occasionally.

Reed Warbler

The second Garden Warbler here in a week.

Garden Warbler

The second juvenile Tawny Owl of the day turned up, but this time in the bottom panel of a mist net, just a foot or two from where it flapped out of the net on two previous occasions. As I processed the downy owl, Rachel came walking by and offered to take a photograph of the still sleepy, docile creature. Thanks Rachel.

Tawny Owl
Tawny Owl

Other birds this morning: 2 Jay, 18 Tree Sparrow, 4 Greenfinch, 3 Skylark and approximately 80 Swallows. Swallow numbers seem definitely lower following the clear out of last week, and they were noticeably absent from the nearby fields and farms on such a bright, sunny morning.

Reconnaissance Trip

Sunday evening Will and I met out on the moss to look for roosts, or at least birds heading to roosts, finches and Swallows. As were going to be there for a while we decided to put up a couple of nets in the hope of intercepting some evening movement.

There seemed plenty of Willow Warblers flitting around in the warm, muggy conditions. It didn’t take long to catch 7 new ones to add to the 12 caught there yesterday and the 3 on Wednesday. We also caught a couple of extra Whitethroat.

Willow Warbler
Willow Warbler

About 7pm we noticed good numbers of Goldfinches heading in smallish groups towards the plantation, plus twos and threes of Linnets and even a party of 5 Yellowhammers. By 2030 the Goldfinches were more or less all in, roosting in the densest area of trees towards the north end of the planation. By this time we had counted 300+ Goldfinches from a south and east direction going into the roost, but from our position couldn’t see arrivals from the north or the west. We caught 5 new Goldfinch, all juveniles, but now we have sussed out the Goldfinches preferred roosting spots we may well have a go at a more serious catch on another evening.

Goldfinch
Goldfinch

Swallows spent the evening feeding over the barley and silage fields until about 9pm the largest numbers swarmed over fields to the south east of us in the direction of St Michaels village. How does one count a dark mass of evening Swallows? But we finally estimated in excess of 4,000 birds which could well have been double the amount. We saw 20+ House Martins during the early evening and then a single Swift heading south.

It was a fascinating evening, one that ended on more highs with sight of the resident Little Owl then 2 Tawny Owls in the spot where I photographed a young bird just a couple of weeks ago.

Tawny Owl

It’s Now Or Never

With the weather synopsis showing rain for Ringer’s Saturday, Friday morning became the now or never day. So off I went to Rawcliffe Moss hoping to finish about 1030 before the horse flies warm up and become hungry for blood.

Notable happenings this morning - the number of Goldfinches about, the continuing lack of juvenile Willow Warblers, recaptures dwindling as the breeding population thins out, and a Tawny Owl escaping from a mist net for the second time in as many weeks. The owl landed in the far end of a 60ft net as I was taking a Whitethroat from the opposite end. It looked towards me then flapped out and away before I could get anywhere near it. The nets aren’t really designed to hold large owls, but the day was early and I saw a second Tawny Owl later – read on!

The few nets kept me occupied with a decent catch of 29 birds, 27 new and just 2 recaptures, a Goldfinch and a moulting Willow Warbler. New birds: 17 Goldfinch, 5 Whitethroat 2 Willow Warblers – both moulting adults, and 1 each of Sedge Warbler, Dunnock and Chaffinch.

Sedge Warbler
Dunnock - juvenile
Chaffinch

Although moulting Willow Warblers look a bit messy this time of year with a mix of feathers old, new, worn, or missing, it is instructive to look closely at any emerging feathers. The adult below is in the process of renewing all flight feathers, with the tail colouration and shape a useful diagnostic feature with which to separate adults from juveniles later in the season when both newly moulted adults and fresh juveniles look very similar.

Willow Warbler – adult tail

The Goldfinch bills now betray the fact they extract seed from plants, but whether the black deposit is from our Niger seed I don’t know.

Goldfinch

Other birds seen this morning: 15 Tree Sparrow, 2 Yellowhammer, 2 Corn Bunting, 4 Skylark, 2 Buzzard, 45 Goldfinch, 120+ Lapwings on newly cut fields, and 2 Tawny Owls. Yes, the other Tawny I found on my way home, and that leaf just wouldn’t blow out of the way, but it rather made up for the earlier miss. Maybe I'll do a bit of gardening, prune that little branch and remove the overhead leaves just in case it decides to sit there another day?

Tawny Owl