Chaffinches On The Move

Out on Rawcliffe Moss and after making the effort for a 0600 start the catching was initially slow whereby at 0740 we had caught just 4 birds. Will and I worried the session might end sooner than later, but just as the 100% cloud cover slowly opened out to patches of blue sky, birds appeared both in and over the plantation. The morning proved to be both interesting and fruitful, ending on a high with the sighting of a female Marsh Harrier hunting distant fields over towards St Michael’s. 

32 birds of 12 species caught, 31 new and 1 recapture, with highlights being the mix of warblers which included more Whitethroats and the beginnings of Chaffinch dispersal from further north of Lancashire. New birds: 14 Chaffinch, 5 Whitethroat, 3 Dunnock, plus one each of Tree Pipit, Goldfinch, Lesser Redpoll, Blackcap, Reed Warbler, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Greenfinch and Blue Tit. After a hint of Chaffinch beginning their autumn dispersal last week, today the movement was more definite with 14 new Chaffinch of which 13 were juveniles, an autumn ratio which does not surprise us. Soon after 0800 Chaffinches began to arrive in singles and small groups from the north, some diving into the plantation, others continuing south. We estimated 80+ by the time we left at 1115. 

Chaffinch

The Whitethroat recapture proved to be a male originally ringed here on 30th May 2012, the bird having by now undergone a complete moult and so in immaculate condition, ready to head back to Africa. The juveniles complete the same journey having undergone a partial moult only. Note the differing eye colours of adult and juvenile. 

Whitethroat - adult

Whitethroat - adult

Whitethroat - juvenile

 

Whitethroat- juvenile

We counted 3+ Tree Pipits over today, one of which we caught. 

 Tree Pipit

Just singles of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff today with perhaps one or two additional birds not finding the nets. 

Chiffchaff

Willow Warbler

We caught the Blackcap at first light, the Whitethroats later, all of which had been consuming Blackberries but perhaps not the Reed Warbler. 

Blackberry hands

Reed Warbler

Just like last week, the Lesser Redpoll proved to be a moulting adult, this one a male. 

Lesser Redpoll

We catch very few Greenfinch here but a singleton today plus a Goldfinch in the net next to Niger feeders which remain quite full with so much natural food still about. 

Greenfinch

There was a noticeable movement south of hirundines today, unusual in that the majority of the birds were c40+ high flying Sand Martins with lesser numbers of Swallows and House Martins. Other birds: 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Buzzard, 3 Golden Plover over, 2 Raven over, 150+ Teal, the latter possibly disturbed from their wildfowler fed pool by the quartering Marsh Harrier which came in from the west then disappeared from view during heavy rain with car windows up. Sorry, no pictures of the harrier it being too distant in the gloom of yet another downpour.

 All in all a very satisfying and productive day with the continuance of the Chaffinch passage and the prospect of many more Chaffinches to come in the weeks ahead. 

A Win For Willy

With the disastrous summer we’ve struggled for a decent catch of birds all year but our luck changed this morning with an excellent mixed catch of warblers at Out Rawcliffe. Will and I met at 6am and by 1030 we’d managed a catch of 28 new birds following what appeared to be an overnight arrival of mainly Willow Warblers, possibly birds from Scotland, especially since we were hearing and seeing Tree Pipits too. 

Species and numbers caught: 16 Willow Warbler (3 adult and 13 juvenile), 2 Whitethroat, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Tree Pipit, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff , 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Reed Bunting. Approximately 35/40 Willow Warblers were about the immediate area this morning, some of them visibly heading south when they left the plantation. 

Willow Warbler

With just a single Chiffchaff the morning clearly belonged to the Willys. 

Chiffchaff

We counted 6+ Tree Pipits over this morning, a figure which includes the two juveniles caught. 

Tree Pipit

Tree Pipit

The two Lesser Whitethroats were immaculate juveniles, the Common Whitethroat a juvenile in moult. 

Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat

Common Whitethroat

It’s always instructive to catch a Reed Warbler in the trees, so reminding ourselves that birds don’t necessarily do what it says on the label. 

Reed Warbler

As the species isn’t proven to breed too locally and also scarce in the summertime we normally catch Lesser Redpolls in just spring or fairly late autumn and so do not see their moult patterns. This year I suspect a pair or two have bred very locally indeed, therefore catching a female in heavy moult reinforced the notion. 

 Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

A juvenile Reed Bunting in post-juvenile moult. 

Reed Bunting

Other birds this morning: Evidence of migration with 24 Snipe and 14 Golden Plover, otherwise less than five each of Siskin, Lesser Redpoll and Chaffinch over, so no great finch movements as yet. Small number of Swallows in the area c40, but very little noticeable movement south. No raptors or owls this morning - most unusual, but then we were busy counting or watching Willys. 

Worth The Wait

Three days of grotty weather finally gave way to a decent wind and rain free morning so Will and I met up on the moss at 6am for yet another bash at catching some migrant birds. In the dawn light Will spotted a Roe Deer not too far away from our net rides so we deliberately made a bit of noise as we put the nets up, not wanting a repeat of the last visit when a deer ran through a net.

We caught steadily from the off, five or six birds on each round until we finished at 11am with a final tally of 41 birds of 11 species, 36 new and 5 recaptures. New birds: 11 Chaffinch, 11 Linnet, 3 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Goldfinch, and then one each of Blackbird, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Chiffchaff, Tree Pipit and Grasshopper Warbler. Recaptures: 3 Whitethroat, 1 Blackbird and 1 Blackcap, all five of them ringed quite recently.

Although we have seen and heard the occasional Grasshopper Warbler here, today’s juvenile was the first “gropper” ringed at the site since we began work here in 2003.

Grasshopper Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler

We didn’t catch a single Blackcap here in April or May but since mid-June we have ringed 32 individuals, with one of today’s birds a fine, recently moulted, glossy headed, adult male.

Blackcap

Today's Chiffchaff made just 8 for the year, but we didn’t catch a Willow Warbler to add to the current total of 118 for that species here in 2011.

Chiffchaff

Today’s Tree Pipit was in the “finch net”, with the Grasshopper Warbler in the “pipit net”. We had at least two other Tree Pipits close to the nets without catching them, and in all a minimum of 6 birds “over” and heading south.

Tree Pipit

We targeted Chaffinch and Linnet today, Linnet because of the 200+ birds feeding in nearby fields, and Chaffinch because of their now growing numbers taking part in visible migration. In our five hour session we counted a minimum of 100 Chaffinch overhead and headed south, together with just a few Greenfinch. Today also proved to be the first signs of Meadow Pipit migration here, with just tiny groups and single birds on the move but those numbers added up to c35 birds arriving from the north or north east before they continued south. Now that "mipits" are on the move they will be added to target species for the next and subsequent visits.

Linnet

Other birds seen today: 3 Raven, 1 Peregrine, 1 Kestrel, 3 Buzzard, c150 Swallows, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Alba wagtail.

Autumn Assortment

It’s almost September so at Out Rawcliffe today our recent strategy changed from that of catching summer warblers to more of an autumn targeted one, aiming firstly for a catch of finches, then secondly the notion that any warblers that come along are a bonus.

We started the morning on a double disaster when firstly Will discovered that he forgot to put coffee in his flask of hot water and milk! Worse was to come when putting nets up in the dawn light we disturbed a Roe Deer that promptly panicked in the direction of where we had just set Will’s almost new 60 foot net. When we checked the net the deer had indeed crashed right through, snapped the bottom strand and left netting all over the vegetation. Such a net costs almost £100 – an expensive morning out. We put the net incident behind us as Will persevered with his warm, milky water refreshment for the rest of the morning, I sipped my flawless coffee whilst steady catching kept us both occupied.

We totted up a good selection of 12 species with 36 new birds and a single recapture. Of the 36 new birds 18 were finches, 14 warblers and 4 miscellaneous. New birds: 9 Chaffinch, 8 Linnet, 1 Goldfinch, 5 Blackcap, 4 Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Robin, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Great Tit and 1 Tree Pipit, the latter one our fourth of the autumn here. The single recapture was a still moulting adult Whitethroat.

Robin
Willow Warbler
Tree Pipit
Linnet
Garden Warbler

One of the Chiffchaffs captured was a very smart, bright juvenile, very smart in fact because as I held the bird for a photograph it snapped at and caught a passing fly.

Chiffchaff
Chiffchaff

The bird watching was subdued this morning and the overall catch better than our simply birding observations might suggest, with 1 Grey Wagtail, 2 Tree Pipit and c40 Chaffinch overhead. Although welcome autumn additions, today’s Linnet and Goldfinch captures represent a small proportion of the two species on site with a sometimes mixed flock of 300+ birds. Otherwise we saw 80/100 Swallow, 2 House Martin, 2 Raven heading inland again, 1 Great=spotted Woodpecker, 1 Skylark, 1 Kestrel and 30+ Lapwing keeping company with a single Golden Plover.

Poles Apart

No two days are ever the same in ringing, a fact reinforced for Will and I this morning when we returned to Rawcliffe Moss secretly hoping for a repeat of Saturdays’ 50+ bird morning. However an overnight clear sky followed by a bright sunny morning didn’t bode well and at 6am as we fed out nets between our bamboo poles the plantation seemed lifeless.

Our fears proved justified when we packed up at 1015 with a catch of just 19 birds, 18 new and 1 recapture. Fortunately we continued with a catch of the same warbler species of past weeks but the individual totals dropped to single digits. New birds: 6 Chaffinch, 4 Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Linnet, 1 Tree Pipit, 1 Blackcap and 2 Wren. The single recapture was a Blackcap first ringed on Saturday, and seemingly the only leftover from our previous busy morning.

The Tree Pipit was the third caught here so far this autumn, today’s another handsome juvenile.

Tree Pipit
Chaffinch
Linnet
Linnet

There was a small Chaffinch north to south movement - maybe 30+ birds, the first 2 Snipe of the autumn, 2 Grey Wagtail and 2 Sand Martin. We numbered the local Linnet and Goldfinch flocks at about 50 each. “Otherwise birds” seen: 2 Raven heading inland, one harried by a Peregrine, 4 Buzzard, 1 Skylark, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 1 Little Owl in the habitual spot.

Little Owl

Well Sorted

Firstly my apologies to readers for the messy appearance of the blog for the last two days when the right hand column ended up below all the posts. This was caused by the simplest of problems, a stray piece of HTML overlooked in my last post Slightly Cuckoo. In the end the post title proved more accurate than envisaged. In due course and to compensate for this dreadful mistake, more new Cuckoo pictures will follow soon on Another Bird Blog.

I fixed the Blogger glitch this morning at 5am, just before I made tracks for Out Rawcliffe and a spot of ringing. On such a fine, wind free morning I suppose Will and I hoped for a big catch this morning, the first one for some time where we could use a full spread of nets. The overnight clear skies may have moved birds on ahead of us, our excuse for not catching enormous numbers. However we achieved a great variety of birds with yet more warblers plus witnessed clear signs of autumnal visible migration with our in-between net rounds birding.

We totalled 32 birds, 29 new, 2 recaptures and 1 “control”, an adult female Chaffinch ringed elsewhere – ring number R988282 other ringer bloggers out there? New birds: 9 Willow Warbler, 6 Chaffinch, 3 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Tree Pipit, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Robin, 1 Treecreeper and 1 Blackbird.

Tree Pipit
Tree Pipit
Treecreeper
Lesser Whitethroat
Blackcap
Garden Warbler

Our recaptures: 1 Willow Warbler and 1 Whitethroat. As we are now well into the month of August the Whitethroats moving through the site are almost exclusively juveniles, i.e. 63 of 68 Whitethroat captures in the last 30 days have been young birds of the year. That is because most of the adults migrate earlier than the juveniles, young of the year which in August can be correctly aged but not sexed. Adult Whitethroats can be difficult to accurately sex at most times, in fact it is probably impossible in the field in August when they undergo moult. We thought today’s moulting adult may have been a male, until at home a check on IPMR records from May and June showed it to be a breeding female.

Likewise, autumn Willow Warblers are difficult to age and it is only in the hand that anyone can say with certainty that an individual is an adult or a juvenile.

Whitethroat moult
Whitethroat adult
Willow Warbler

More signs of autumn appeared this morning with visible Chaffinch movement – circa 30 birds passing overhead, contact calling as they headed south, then of course the capture of another ringer’s Chaffinch. Tree Pipits also fell into the “vis mig” category with 2 caught and a minimum of 4 birds overhead. The morning also saw a marked passage of Alba wagtails with upwards of 18 individuals heading west, the appearance of more Sylvia warblers and the early morning sound of Robin sub-song, a species that proved to be first in the nets.

Other birds this morning: 80+ Swallow, 4 Corn Bunting, 4 Grey Partridge, 1 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard and 50+Goldfinch. I almost forgot – the female Sparrowhawk that flapped from the net before we could reach it. Oh well there’s always another day.

On the non-birding front, Will who is a bit of a wildlife sleuth found the footprints of a Stoat where we often see one running alongside our plot, but we didn’t see the animal today, just Brown Hares and Roe Deer.

Stoat tracks