Keep ‘Em Guessing

It was a good few weeks since the last full netting session at Out Rawcliffe so Will and I didn’t know quite what to expect. In the event our morning turned out to be both interesting and productive, with our first fledged juvenile (3J) caught. Most surprising were several more adult Whitethroats, newly arrived in the plantation since the previous 16 Whitethroats caught here during fairly intensive ringing during April and early May.

Our total came to 24 birds, 10 new and 14 recaptures which included a large proportion of warblers. New: 7 Whitethroat (6 adults and 1 newly fledged juvenile), 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Blackbird and 1 Goldfinch, also a newly fledged bird.

Recaptures: 9 Whitethroat, 4 Sedge Warbler and 1 Willow Warbler. It was a little curious that we caught one Willow Warbler today, and whilst there may be females still sat on eggs or small young, we know of at least one completed nest with mobile young, plus we would usually expect to catch a few food gathering adults; we wondered if the cold, strong and persistent winds of the last three weeks have affected Willow Warbler productivity through the lack of suitable insect food? The next session or two should tell us.

The one Whitethroat nest we checked contained young too small to ring, but catching one newly emerged juvenile Whitethroat and watching other adults carrying food to hidden nests suggests that most Whitethroat nests have more days to go. There’s no sign of 3J Sedge Warblers yet.

Sedge Warbler
Whitethroat
"3J" Goldfinch
Whitethroat nest

So, all in all it was a stimulating session, and once again those mysterious birds simply keep us guessing most of the time.

Other birds seen today: 1 Little Owl, 2 Buzzard, a displaying Curlew, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Stock Dove, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Blackcap, 40 House Sparrow, 20 Swallow, 8 House Martin.

A Flap And A Glide

A dawn downpour hit the bedroom window and a strengthening wind put paid to any elaborate ringing plans, but determined to get out somewhere, I did the local patch Out Rawcliffe then flew across the fast moss road to check out Pilling.

It was when I got to the moss and waded through saturated long grass that I realised the early downpour had actually been a hail storm. In sheltered, cold spots I negotiated patches of still frozen, crunching hail stones underfoot but I found that more than a couple of Whitethroat nests had now hatched. I watched adults carrying bright green caterpillars near likely looking nesting spots close to abundant Willowherb, where the nests I know of had tiny young, one with eggs not hatched and chicks just a day or two old. The Whitethroats couldn’t rely on me to find the caterpillars hidden in the vegetation, but the adult birds feed the young every few minutes with a seemingly endless supply of the bugs, and have to do the same for 7 days a week and 10-12 days.

Whitethroat nest
Whitethroat

On my circuit of part of the farm I counted lots of singing birds, 17 Whitethroat, 1 Blackcap, 2 Yellowhammer, 4 Sedge Warbler, 6 Skylark, 1 Corn Bunting and 6 Willow Warblers, but the recent Garden Warblers may have departed. Some Willow Warblers have already finished nesting, and I saw my first family party today keeping together with the “hooeet” calls, but it won’t be long at all before the young birds have to make their own way in life. A displaying Curlew represented the waders, with a single Lapwing calling worriedly and acting as if it had chicks in the rough grass field. May 31st and I saw the first signs of Lapwing flocks today, a couple of small parties of less than 10 birds, both here and later at Pilling. These summer groups can hold the now flying young of the season, but more often they are gangs of failed breeding adults.

Lapwing

Overhead today were the resident Buzzards effortlessly gliding around the warming sky, plus 2 Ravens croaking loudly as they headed inland towards the hills and Garstang.

Buzzard

Lane Ends to Fluke was quiet, with Reed Bunting still hanging on in the plantation and a surprise bird here for 31st May, a Lesser Redpoll that flew off calling towards Fluke until lost out of sight. Waders have been scarce along here this dry spring, with today a couple of Lapwings telling their by now enormous chicks to crouch at my passing. I reckon just three pairs of Oystercatcher here, but there is a shortage of Redshank this year, both inland and on the seaward side of the wall – two cold winters? In fact I could find only one pair of Redshanks, when normally there might be five or six pairs along this stretch of coast.

Redshank

The wildfowler’s pools held little but Mallards and Shelduck with a highlight of my walk a large female Peregrine that tore through the sky above Fluke Hall in pursuit of a feral pigeon. The pigeon evaded capture and the falcon took off towards the shore down Preesall way. It was probably the female from the pair breeding at Fleetwood, a mile or two away as the Peregrine flies; just a flap and a glide back home for it and for me.

Some You Win

I’m afraid this will be my only post for a while since my PC expired and I struggle to do this on a tiny unfamiliar mouseless laptop to which I have just loaded Word, Photoshop, my EOS software and a few photos from today.

We checked out some nests today at Rawcliffe, namely Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Kestrel. The Kestrel were fine, too fine in fact as when Will climbed up to the nest three of the five young promptly disappeared to the back of the tree hole and out of arms reach. From the outside the hole looked quite small but once inside the cavity was enormous allowing the young to back off into the dark corners and out of harm’s way. I think we got the two extremes of sizes with a runt bird which was still big and healthy enough to ring, but also a quite large youngster which although still downy, at least resembled a Kestrel.

The Tree Minus One
Kestrel
I think we will go back soon and climb the tree as quietly as possible in an attempt to ring the other chicks before they retreat into the tree recesses again.

The Whitethroat nest from last week was still active just 18” from our path through the plantation, and we ringed 5 tightly packed young which were at an ideal age.

Whitethroat Nest
Whitethroat
Just yards away also next to our path, the Willow Warblers weren’t so lucky with only two young and two unhatched eggs in the nest. I’d seen a pair of Sedge Warblers moving about near a small hawthorn so we went to check it out, and after a minute or two found the tightly woven empty nest. The young had fledged quite recently and both adults still fed the young close to the nest.

Things didn’t improve much when by watching their comings and goings we found a Goldfinch nest in a hawthorn just yards from our car parking spot along a path well trodden by ourselves in recent weeks. All the activity was due again to the adults feeding recently fledged nestlings. As birders we really must try to be more observant!

Goldfinch
I must get my PC sorted asap. Wish me luck, I’ll need it, as this post took me at least two hours and I'm ready to throw the laptop through the window.

Pick 'N Mix

Will and I bagged a good selection of birds at Rawcliffe Moss this morning in a six hour ringing session from 0500 to 1100, with warblers, finches and thrushes caught. We also ringed a brood of young Swallows hatched in a shed near the barn.

Our total caught was 37 birds of 13 mixed species, 30 new birds and 7 recaptures from previous occasions:
New birds:
4 Whitethroat
1 Blue Tit
10 Willow Warbler
3 Sedge Warbler
1 Reed Warbler
1 Dunnock
2 Coal Tit
1 Great Tit
1 Goldfinch
3 Blackbird
3 Swallow (nestlings)

Recaptures:
1 Chaffinch
1 Wren
3 Willow Warbler
2 Whitethroat.

Of the ten new Willow Warblers, five were recently fledged juvenile birds, i.e. 3J in ringer’s parlance with the five adults representing birds on territory but missed in ringing sessions earlier in the season. Likewise the 3 Sedge Warblers we caught, all in breeding condition and staying quiet this morning when we wondered whether they were still in the plantation so quietly did they go about their business. But there is nothing quite like a mist net for finding otherwise secretive birds.

A slight oddity in June but not totally without precedent here was an adult Reed Warbler which could be a refugee from dried out reed fringed ditches and ponds of the local mossland.

We found a further Whitethroat nest with tiny young and whilst all the resident Whitethroats were busy feeding young and moving about the ringing site, we didn’t catch any fresh juveniles.

Sedge Warbler
Willow Warbler “3J”
Reed Warbler
Coal Tit “3J”
Whitethroat
Whitethroat Nest
Other birds seen this morning included 3 Buzzard over the birch wood, 4 Corn Bunting, 1 Kestrel, 4 Reed Bunting, 4 Skylark, circa 20 Goldfinch in small groups and also parties of both Swallows and House Martins feeding over newly cut fields.