The Final Curtain?

After the last couple of sessions Rawcliffe Moss is definitely running short of autumn birds, but after the overnight rain cleared and with a half decent forecast, Will and I decided to have another go this morning, mainly in the hope of connecting with the elusive thrushes of 2011.

There was a suggestion of a few or more at dawn, perhaps even locally roosting ones, but no true visible migration which could increase a pathetic count of 12 Fieldfare, 8 Redwing, 2 Song Thrush and 8 Blackbirds. Chaffinch numbers were similarly low with less than 50, coupled with 3 Lesser Redpoll and 40+ Goldfinch, the latter all local feeding birds.

We finished a short session with just 11 new birds, 3 Redwing, 3 Blackbird, 4 Chaffinch and a Wren. No recaptures today.

Redwing
Wren

Other birds and animals today: 1 Tawny Owl, 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 6 Snipe, 50+ Skylark, 5 Meadow Pipit, 10 Reed Bunting, 4 Corn Bunting, 9 Roe Deer.

Looking west towards Pilling Moss this morning we saw the most enormous, dense flock of Starlings which when they took to the air, we estimated at up to 20,000 birds wheeling around, but there may have been many more.

Starling

Will has been putting feed out at a site near Myerscough in readiness for a switch to winter ringing. He reports over 50 Chaffinch and several Tree Sparrows already coming to the seed, so we may switch allegiance soon and return to the moss next spring.

Chaffinch

Another Morning Mix

This morning Will and I made it to the moss again with nets up in the dark and then time to spare before any thrush arrivals. Although there was no large scale appearance, we picked up a few more of the target species.

The first mixed flock of Redwings and Fieldfares arrived soon after 8am but between then and 0930 we saw less than 175 of both species, split 140/35 in favour of Fieldfares, with 6+ Song Thrush, a single Mistle Thrush and 4 Blackbirds only. The Chaffinch movement that started in late August continued through this morning with a total of 170+ heading south east into the 10mph light wind, the good number of birds not reflected in our catch of six. Reed Buntings continue to be obvious migrants through the site with 10+ over this morning in addition to the six caught, which pushes our autumn total for the species to 38 individuals.

Today’s total reached 24 birds, 21 new and 3 recaptures. New birds: 6 Chaffinch, 6 Reed Bunting, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Redwing, 1 Blackbird, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Wren and 1 Blackcap, the latter a first calendar year/juvenile female. Recaptures were 1 each of Robin, Goldfinch and Coal Tit.

Blackbird
Redwing
Reed Bunting
Song Thrush
Blackcap
Wren

Our birding was interesting, steady but unspectacular - in rough order of appearance dawn to 1130am: 1 Barn Owl, 2 Tawny Owl, 20+ Meadow Pipits and 2 Alba wagtails heading south, 5 Whooper Swan, 1 Raven, 19 Snipe, 1 Grey Heron and 1 Peregrine. During the morning there was a light overhead movement of small finches, mainly Siskin and Lesser Redpoll, less than 5 audible records of each call, but an additional and rare sighting here of 2 Bullfinch. Also uncommon here inland, 2 early morning overhead Greenfinch.

I hadn’t seen the Little Owls for weeks, but today one was back in the winter tree.

Little Owl

More Willies and Whites

At 6am the air on Rawcliffe Moss felt cool and autumnal but thankfully it was windless. Will and I quickly set to and erected our nets in double quick time then grabbed a coffee each before the real work/fun began.

Continuing the theme of last weekend and my solo mid-week session, the highlights of today were an influx of yet more Whitethroats and Willow Warblers together with a suggestion of the beginnings of Chaffinch and perhaps other migration amongst the 12 species handled.

In total we processed 45 birds, 39 new and 6 recaptures. New: 14 Whitethroat, 12 Willow Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Swallow and 1 each of Blackcap, Lesser Redpoll, Song Thrush, Robin and Wren. Recaptures: 2 Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Great Tit.

Both Whitethroats and Willow Warblers were in noticeably good numbers this morning, not only in the plantation where the nets are, but also along the feeding corridor of the well vegetated track margins, a route which runs exactly in a north/south direction. Our 12 new Willow Warblers split 7/5 in favour of adults to juveniles this morning which continues the suggestion of poor breeding success proposed on this blog in recent weeks: the ratio of our new Whitethroats today was the more respectable and expected 3 adults to 11 juveniles.

Sedge Warbler
Wren or Wriggle Arse – Troglodyes troglodytes
Blackcap

The 2 Swallows caught were feeding on a low path through the plantation when intercepted by our nets.

Swallow

Lacking today were any number of Goldfinches feeding on the Niger seed, with one recapture only. When we topped up the feeding devices we noted that they were still more than half full after a previous mid-week fill. However, today’s single Lesser Redpoll capture, a non-resident species, was caught alongside a Niger feeder. We are always amazed by how quickly birds home-in on feed of any sort but in particular the aromatic, shiny, oily black Niger.

Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch on Niger

Chaffinches have been noticeable by their absence here in June and July, but although we caught only 3 today we detected a slight movement, in fact less than 15 birds overhead, but all contact calling and heading from north to south.

Chaffinch

Birding today was uneventful, but with counts of 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 70 Swallow, 25 House Martin, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 5 Skylark and 5 Linnet.

A Tale Of Two Halves

Another shower-dodging, breezy morning saw me try my luck at Conder Green where I bumped into PW on the windswept viaduct. We chatted briefly whilst both looking west at the incoming clouds and bemoaning the summer, watched the local House Martins battling over the salt marsh, then went our separate ways with better luck we hoped.

On the pool and creek I counted 1 Grey Heron, 9 Common Sandpiper, 2 Spotted Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 2 Black-tailed Godwits, 55 Redshank, 12 Oystercatcher and 5 Curlew before I headed south to more familiar territory of Pilling. If only our locally occurring Greenshanks were as accommodating as the few I saw in Egypt.

Greenshank
Oystercatcher

At Lane Ends the sky to the west looked dark to say the least as I set off to Pilling Water thinking the rain had moved around and north out over the bay; no such luck as I got the tail end of a heavy shower and a good soaking in exchange for 1 Reed Warbler, 40 Linnets, 1 Greenfinch, 2 Kestrel, 5 Pied Wagtail, 3 Common Sandpipers, 1 Grey Heron, 28 Curlew, 18 Redshank and 80 Lapwings.

A Pilling Sky

I called it a morning, drying out at home then did a little garden ringing pm when the wind dropped and the showers died out. Goldfinches are back in numbers for the irresistible Niger feed and I also caught 3 Blackbirds – adult female and 2 juveniles, one of them in the stages of growing its blacker male tail feathers. Also 2 Wrens and a juvenile Robin – the fault bar mid-way through the tail tells a tale of changeable food availability of late.

Goldfinch - adult
Goldfinch- juvenile
Blackbird - juvenile
Blackbird - juvenile male
Wren
Robin - juvenile
Robin- juvenile

Early Doors

This morning was the first for more than a week without rain and/or wind, so a spot of mist netting beckoned. I went to Rawcliffe alone this morning because Will has gone fishing to Scotland for a week and as punishment for being unavailable for ringing, has strict orders to bring back a large salmon.

At the beginning of the farm track a number of birds mobbed a Tawny Owl then further down near the barn my car disturbed two early rising Kestrels which took off over the fields. As the days shorten the start time remains dawn, the hour a bit more civilised, but early enough to see Roe Deer searching through the crop fields of the moss.

Roe Deer

The chore is putting up nets alone so I made do with a little less, catching reasonably well if only in a couple of bursts. I caught a total of 17 birds, 16 new with only one recapture, a Whitethroat. New birds were 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 5 Whitethroat, 1 Dunnock, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Wren and 1 Robin.

Chiffchaff
Wren in post breeding juvenile moult
Robin
Sedge Warbler
Willow Warbler
Reed Bunting

The morning sky was completely clear with a touch of haze and no cloud, hardly the best for visible migration and I wasn’t surprised when I recorded nil movement apart from a dawn Golden Plover and a dozen or two Swallows.

I was finishing off the last bird a Wren, definitely time to finish then, ready to take down the nets when in the distance I spotted a large raptor heading north. The Buzzards have been pretty secretive around here so I took a look through my bins to see a Marsh Harrier flying fairly purposefully, pausing briefly to hover legs dangling, over a large, isolated, distant hawthorn. I changed from my short lens and grabbed a few hazy shots, the story of my life, as the bird motored on over towards Pilling Moss.

Marsh Harrier
Marsh Harrier
A good morning and maybe it wasn't the end of the summer after all?

Knowing The Score

I’m sure the car was on autopilot this morning, instinctively heading east towards Out Rawcliffe and the moss lands where Will and I met up again on a fairly calm morning but with a BBC prognosis of worse to come. But as ever optimism is the key, and if we believed everything the experts said about the weather and waited each time for the perfect forecast we would hardly ever get out. Besides which our other philosophy and guiding principle is, “If you don’t go, you don’t know”.

We certainly knew today that it was going to be a quiet session with “phyllloscs” calling at first light but not much else. The Sedge Warblers that until two days ago had sung their hearts out in mimicking Goldfinch, Whitethroat and sundry others, were now silent with not a one caught. Even the Whitethroats dried up this morning. In fact, let’s not prolong the agony; we caught 12 birds only, 7 new and 5 recaptures. Although to be fair to ourselves we did put up two less nets as a safeguard against the likely increase in wind strength, then soon after incoming rain forced an early termination of our efforts.

Consolation for the lack of numbers came in the form of two birds always sought after when we captured a juvenile each of Garden Warbler and Lesser Whitethroat. Other new birds were singles of Robin and Whitethroat. 3 fresh Willow Warblers completed the “new” and 5 other Willow Warblers were recaptures. One of these, an adult male AVC159 had avoided us on our visits since 23 April the previous date of capture – unless of course it had been elsewhere throughout May, June, July and the first few days of August? But on the other hand we first ringed it as a juvenile on 11th July 2009, so we could reasonably expect it to be active around the plantation and find our nets during these summer months. Oh what mysteries these birds provide.

Lesser Whitethroat - juvenile
Garden Warbler - juvenile
Robin
Here Comes That Rain Again

“Others” seen today before the rains came; 100+ Swallow, 6 Stock Dove, 2 Buzzard, Great-spotted Woodpecker and a Snipe.

Finally I must mention the positive feedback from readers of the blog a few days ago when I posted a picture of a Wren. So for those troubled souls, Wren Groupies, who have probably never had to extract one from a mist net, here is another picture of the infamous Wren.

Wren

Top O' The Morning

I opened the back door at 0430 to check the cloud cover and wind. It was a nicely calm, warm but moist morning after yesterday’s rain. As bats hawked around the sycamores I could hear not far away two hungry Tawny Owls calling for breakfast.

We’d arranged to kick start the month with a ringing session at Out Rawcliffe, and out there on the raised moss, about 7 miles further inland from where I live, as we erected mist nets to the sound of a barking deer, the wind speed was zero.

On the way up the farm track Will saw a Grey Partridge with 4 half-grown chicks, just a day or two after I bemoaned the lack of Grey Partridge this year. At the same time I’d also mentioned the recent lack of “The Ringers Nemesis” the Wren, Troglodytes troglodytes or “Wrigglearse” as it is affectionately known; we both hoped that the mention of that species wouldn’t have a similar effect as talking of partridges with the result that Wrens filled the nets.

Maybe the rain of Saturday, that poured down all afternoon and evening until 9 or 10pm didn’t help our cause of targeting night flying migrant warblers in the early hours, but the August 1st arrival of new birds was subdued. In all we caught 25 birds, 22 new and 3 recaptures, whereby all the new birds of recent days and weeks had now departed.

New birds: 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 6 Whitethroat, 4 Sedge Warbler, 3 Swallow, 1 Blue Tit, and 1 Wren. Other than a recapture in June, this is the only Wren caught in the plantation since the middle of October 2009.

Recaptures: 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Dunnock, 1 Song Thrush.

Song Thrush
Whitethroat - juvenile
Chiffchaff

In addition to the silky Sylvias, the juvenile Whitethroats above, we also caught a couple of amazingly bright yellow Willow Warblers. But Pride of Place, Top of the Heap today must go to the Wren.

Willow Warbler - juvenile
Willow Warbler - juvenile
Wren

Other birds seen this morning. 3 Buzzard, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 13 Swift flying west, 70+ Swallows south, 5 Stock Dove and 4 Reed Buntings with an overflying Nuthatch heading to the conifer wood and a probable second bird calling from the birch wood.

Fixed

The Oystercatcher photograph helped me fix my computer problem. I fretted for a half a day over why I couldn’t print Word documents, multitasking between fiddling with various settings and looking through my latest photographs from Conder Green, Lane Ends and the moss. Then while doctoring the Oystercatcher picture on Photoshop I thought I would try to print a photograph; when the black of the oycs came out mottled and runny it finally dawned on me where the problem lay. So I fitted a new black ink cartridge that replaced a dodgy one and hey presto problem solved.

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
The Oystercatchers were in good voice, displaying over Conder Pool whilst they sorted out who would get the prime spot on the rocky little island. There was an Oystercatcher with a badly deformed bill that I guess won’t be a prime partner but through Photoshop I fixed it for the bird to have a smarter bill.

Oystercatcher
"Fixed" Oystercatcher
The rest of the birds came mainly in singles, Coot, Little Grebe, Snipe, Goldeneye and Canada Goose but 8 Wigeon, 6 Tufted Duck, 14 Teal in the shallows and 6 of the aforesaid Oystercatchers.

Canada Goose
Wigeon
Teal
I stopped off at Lane Ends where I caught up with the Fieldfare again, and where the buckthorn berries look less colourful and appetising everyday. A Kestrel perched out in the sun for about two seconds before it took to hiding. It’s difficult to fix photographs where branches make up most of the frame; the story of my life this last week. But then a Pied Wagtail in the car park compensated me a little.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Fieldfare
Pied Wagtail
Later on I went to Rawcliffe Moss to meet the other lads and cut some rides in readiness for the spring mist netting.So first I stopped off early to get pictures again and hopefully not many Photoshop fixes would be required on a bright blue afternoon with no branches to get in the way.

Chaffinch
Wren
Blackbird
Robin
Corn Bunting