Siskins, Sun and Sarnies

That was the order of appearance this morning when we returned to Will’s for a ringing session.

The roads were a little dicey this morning with poor visibility and freezing fog of -3C. Ian was a minute behind witnessing a tanker crashing through a dry stone wall on the A6 at Catterall. But we all arrived safe and sound at Will’s, if a little cold but to a welcoming cup of coffee.

The Siskins were there in numbers in the tree tops, we could hear them in the half light and mist, twittering away and waiting for a breakfast of energy giving nyger. Our first round of just the two nets caught 21 Siskins and 2 Goldfinch, tremendous!

Siskin

Siskin

The sun eventually cleared a path through the mist as the Siskin kept arriving; At times they made a tremendous din moving about the garden or simply calling from the single pine and the several alders.

Sunny Morning

By 1145 we had caught 61 birds:

Siskin 34, which included 2 retraps from previous occasions.
Chaffinch 8
Goldfinch 10
Dunnock 1
Robin 1
Great Tit 3
Coal Tit 1
Blackbird 2

And, wait for it you ringers out there, 1 Blue Tit, a retrap! On a frosty February morning there is a Fairy Godmother after all.

There’s always a question about what percentage of birds present or passing through a locality are actually caught at a ringing session. On this occasion, and after a little discussion, we agreed that to double our actual catch would be a conservative estimate of the Siskin seen and heard, so we assumed that upwards of 70 Siskin must have been around the area of the neighbourhood this morning. A few of the Siskin showed evidence of peanuts around their bills (photograph) but our ones this morning stuck to the nyger feeders throughout. Some of Will’s neighbours do feed peanuts only.

The birds kept us fairly busy but naturally we found time to fit in our own energy giving breakfast of bacon sarnie liberally basted with HP of the brown variety.

Siskin

Siskin

Coal Tit

Blue Tit
Other birds we saw this morning; Wood Pigeon 14, Collared Dove 4, Pied Wagtail, Nuthatch 2, Treecreeper 2, Kestrel. Jackdaw 20, House Sparrow 10.

Pied Wagtail

Short But Sweet?

I did get out for a few hours this afternoon, but apologies for the short summary as I have to go a meeting in the Black Bull later.

Over at Pilling before I turned off Wheel Lane to Fluke, there was Great-spotted Woodpecker activity when one perched in a roadside tree followed a second one that flew across in front me from the direction of Fluke Hall itself. I notice how this species has become extremely noticeable and vocal over the last week or so as they sort themselves out for the breeding season.

Along Fluke Hall Lane there were plenty of Lapwings, as in 235 of them, 15 Golden Plover, 40 Redshank, 2 Dunlin, the single Ruff from the previous week or so, 2 Stock Dove and 10/12 Skylarks.

Lapwing

Ruff
At the entrance to Lane Ends I saw a single Fieldfare still working the buckthorn berries above the road, then from the top car park I quickly counted 44 Whooper Swan on the distant marsh, 195 Shelduck with 2 Little Egret closer in.

Fieldfare
I decided to check out Braides, partly as a preliminary to the wader survey work I have permission to do on there. It was fairly productive with counts of 210 Lapwing, 95 Curlew 12 Golden Plover, 9 Skylark, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Short-eared Owl and a high count of 11 Little Egrets. I will have to do a lot of my work from the gate, because although I have full access, by walking along the very open track I was extremely visible to all the birds, most of which gradually moved elsewhere.

Little Egret

I met a farmer up at Cockerham who gave me a ring GC75867 he found about a month ago on a dead roadside owl which he said was a Tawny Owl. I’ll do the business on the BTO website and see what transpires.

Conder Green was well, Conder Green. Greenshank 1, Spotted Redshank 1, Snipe 2, Teal 40 (are numbers going down a little?), Grey Plover 1, Wigeon 7, Tufted Duck 8, and Grey Heron 1. Just as I was about to leave 6 Black-tailed Godwit flew in calling but landed on the far side of the pool and didn’t approach the road side screen – pity.

Ducking Out

Nothing to report today. After cloud, rain and cold most of the day – all at the same time! I ducked out of doing much but I caught up on a lot of paperwork.

Maybe I should take a holiday to South East Asia as it is nice and warm there, where a Coot as a rare vagrant species is causing a stir in Sabah, Borneo. http://horukuru.blogspot.com/

But to keep the blog going here are a few more recent wildfowl pictures including a common or garden UK Coot.

Coot

Pintail

Pintail

Female Pintail


Shelduck

Wigeon

Let's hope for birding weather tomorrow.

Puzzle Time

Out of the house in darkness my first bird this morning was a Tawny Owl that hooted from tall trees a few gardens away. I know they nest nearby every year but it’s a bit problematical looking up trees in other folk’s gardens in the morning, early evening or during the night. There was no need to defrost the car, and although it was cold and the gauge read 0 degrees C, it felt much colder in the trickle of a northerly.

I just hate driving in the half morning light when Blackbirds insist on crossing the road ahead, playing chicken in my headlights; too many near misses for comfort. But I arrived without mishap at Will’s before dawn in time for us to put up a few nets in the hope of repeating the catches of recent weeks.

It wasn’t quite to be, less finches this week, but an agreeable session nonetheless with birds totalling:

Chaffinch 11
Siskin1
Goldfinch 2
Great Tit 2
Blue Tit 4
Dunnock 2
Robin 3
Coal Tit 2
Treecreeper 1
Nuthatch 1
Blackbird 7
House Sparrow 1

After so many Siskin in evidence last week to catch just a single bird today when lots were about midweek was a little mysterious, but this morning the birds simply weren’t there, with just a single first winter male caught. Likewise the Chaffinch, with their numbers similarly lower, with perhaps less than 50 using the garden this morning. Elaborating on the blog’s Goldfinch theme of recent days I can say with certainty that the two caught today were both females.

If only catching birds were as simple or predictable as our supposed human superiority tells us it should be! These birds certainly keep us on our metaphorical toes whilst we put on imaginary thinking caps, devising new net places, keeping out of sight and staying quiet, whilst they outwit us more than we like to admit.

Against the odds and up against the cleverness of the local House Sparrows we did catch a single bird that seemingly blundered into the net in the half light, no doubt to the merriment of wiser fellow spadgers that watched from the feeders next to us. It gave a ringing tick to Ian, as did the Treecreeper we caught.

Six new Blackbirds, 5 of them males, was a little surprising given the intensity of the feeding in the recent weeks of cold weather and the likelihood of experienced local Blackbirds remaining more or less in situ; just another little difficulty that birds like to pose. No doubts however over an adult male with a carrot coloured bill.

Adult Male Blackbird

1st Winter Male Siskin

Adult Female Goldfinch

House Sparrow

Other birds seen this morning included Kestrel, several Greenfinch, 3 Collared Dove, 2 Nuthatch (we caught the male this week), 7 Wood Pigeon, 1 Grey Wagtail and a Sparrowhawk that flies through and hunts in the garden most days but defied the well set nets yet again.

Oh Dear

Over on Rawcliffe Moss I saw quite a few different species this afternoon, some I hadn't seen for a week or two, but I didn’t get many bird photographs because either the little critters weren’t playing ball or I just wasn’t doing the right thing.

I did get fairly close to a couple of groups of Roe Deer, a party of five then a separate group of four in a different location. I don’t know anything about Roe Deer except that they are incredibly difficult to approach, but I found some information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roe_Deer

"The Roe Deer is primarily crepuscular, or primarily active during the twilight, very quick and graceful, lives in woods although it may venture into grasslands and sparse forests. It feeds mainly on grass, leaves, berries and young shoots. It particularly likes very young, tender grass with a high moisture content, i.e., grass that has received rain the day before. Roe deer will not generally venture into a field that has had or has livestock (sheep, cattle) in it because the livestock make the grass unclean.

The Roe Deer attains a maximum life span (in the wild) of ten years. When alarmed, it will bark a sound much like a dog and flash out its white rump patch. Rump patches differ between the sexes, with the white rump patches heart-shaped on females and kidney-shaped on males. Males may also bark, make a low grunting noise or make a high pitched wolf-like whine when attracting mates during the breeding season, often luring multiple does into their territory. The Roe Deer spends most of its life alone, preferring to live solitary except when mating during the breeding season".


Roe Deer

Roe Deer

I checked out the feeding spot for Tree Sparrows and counted 120, with upwards of 15 Yellowhammer and 18 Chaffinch. In another part of the farm, and alternating between a dense hedge and the edge of a stubbly field I found 30 more Chaffinch, 4 Yellowhammer, 34 Corn Buntings, 2 Reed Buntings and a single male Brambling. So a good count of these species but as noted before, some seem to prefer natural food to ringer’s largesse, or maybe there is a constant changeover with them all taking both types of food during a feeding day.

Corn Bunting

Chaffinch

Yellowhammer

Reed Bunting

There were 6 Blackbirds along the hedge but I must say that the cold weather and frozen ground of the last few months does appear to have thinned out the population here and elsewhere, unless many return from further south and west soon to replenish numbers.

The feeding station had proved attractive to a Jay that flew back across to the wood when it clocked me approaching, then soon after a female Sparrowhawk silenced the feeding birds before it too sought to watch proceedings from the wood. From the trees I heard the familiar “chick” call of a Great-spotted Woodpecker but no afternoon drumming call.

Up the footpath a pair of Kestrels hunted and hovered the stubble; and I say a pair because they were a male and female that at one point sat close together on a barbed wire boundary fence. Near the plantation I disturbed two pairs of Grey Partridge from cover but within the confines of the trees all I could find were 3 Goldfinch in the alders, a Moorhen near the pool, couple of chattering Wrens and a Reed Bunting along the close by ditch.

Kestrel

I finished off my walk with 2 Buzzards spiralling into the afternoon air and out of reach of my lens. Oh dear, not many new pics today apart from the deer but at least the weather looks dry for the next few days with the promise of low wind speeds and still nets for ringing.

Blue Sky Thinking

To use the phrase that seems to be fashionable at the moment with politicians, civil servants, trendy business types and teachers. It aptly described both the weather and my mood today because not only was it a really brilliant blue sky as I set off, but I hoped I my birding would be free of any preconceptions about what I might see and even better, without limits as to what I might encounter. The only limit was the time I set myself of being home for lunch in time to indulge in some grandparenting.

Although the air was clear it was also still frosty, enough for another layer of ice on the Fluke Hall Lane puddles and shallow floods where I struggled to see much at all. A party of 28 Whooper Swans stood in much the same spot as weekend, with about 30 Shelduck, and 120 Pink-footed Geese for company. Further along the lane the sun definitely stimulated spring in the air this morning with a couple of Lapwings tumbling around, and when a flock of them spooked, I watched a few males chase others off, and then stand defending their patch of ground. A male Starling posed against the blue for me in a roadside tree, and I took a photograph of a Greylag, that unexciting, unphotographed relative of Pink-footed Goose.

Lapwing

Starling

Greylag

I looked from Lane Ends car park where miles out, more large white swans 50+ ducked up and down from the skyline, and from the distant calls were probably all Whoopers. The fields normally dotted with waders were very quiet, even deserted, but at the entrance to Lane Ends 2 Fieldfares hopped over the frozen ground, before as my car passed, flying into the buckthorn where the berries still cluster.

Fieldfare

There was nothing for it really but to head up to CG where my forward scout from Tuesday reported a quiet period, but that would never deter either of us from revisiting this place. Even Braides held zero, just an open gate that hinted of recent vehicles on the birding fields.

At Conder Pool I counted 2 Coot, 2 Shoveler, 80 Teal, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Lapwing, 3 Snipe,18 Wigeon and 12 Shelduck that chose that moment to disappear into the blue. But as they say “here’s one I did earlier” and also a head shot of a fabulous Wigeon.

Shelduck

Shelduck

Wigeon

Scores on the board at Glasson Dock: Tufted Duck 56, Pochard 8 and Coot 104, with an image from a couple of weeks ago when the heavens were equally cold and bright.

Coot

At Cockersands, Crook Farm end I noted a Kestrel at the junction then 8 Linnet and 2 Song Thrush below the road that quickly flew into the walled garden. Along the shore and in the shallows were a selection of slightly distant, common but simply still stunning waders, brightly lit in the clear sunshine: Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Redshank, Dunlin, Turnstone, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover. Off the scar I quickly noted 5 Eider and several hundred Wigeon but after the waders, didn’t have more time for lingering.

A quick tour round to the caravan park confirmed the presence of the “tidechat”, Saxicola torquata that always sits on the wrong side of the light, 2 Meadow Pipits, a smart male Reed Bunting, 4 Greenfinch and a single Rock Pipit.

Stonechat

Tempus fugit or some similar words, then home.

King Harrys

The Goldfinch rejoices in a number of old rural names including goldie, gold linnet, redcap and King Harry.

Errol knows a thing or two about Goldfinch. He lives in the south of England and he sees and catches plenty of them because it’s warmer down there than in the north west of England where I live. He probably also sees a lots more on migration than I do here in Lancashire because many Goldfinches migrate south in the autumn.

After my recent October 2009 retrapping of a Goldfinch that had been ringed down in sunny Surrey in January 2009 Errol told me about some of his own experiences with ringing Goldfinches in the last six or seven years where he lives in Bedfordshire.

Surrey to Lancashire 341 kms





Below I quote Errol’s work on the subject.

“During the last six or seven years, the number of Goldfinches using garden feeders has increased. This is partly due to the presence of Nyjer feeders but, more lately, the addition of sunflower hearts to the garden bird-table menu. As a consequence, numbers have also increased “in the field” throughout the year, allowing the species to be caught away from garden sites".

Goldfinch x Month 2007



"There is a distinct pattern to the numbers of birds caught in any month. The above graph shows quite clearly the better numbers caught from August to December, with a distinct peak in September and October. This coincides with the main passage movement southwards of the species, together with the presence of many young of the year. Garden feeders are an easy source of protein shortly after first-light, especially after a ‘cold’ night, and again in the afternoon if foraging for natural foods has not been very successful for the birds. A second noticeable feature of trapping Goldfinches is the variance between the sexes at different times of the year. An analysis of our data (for 2007) shows that males in the population seemingly outnumber the females by ~5:4. More importantly, the percentage of females caught during the year varies quite a lot. This may be an artefact of catching at feeding stations or differential feeding strategies between the sexes. However, it is more likely defined by the differential abmigration between the sexes (females moving further south in winter – possibly to Europe). Female numbers are at their lowest in January at less than 20%, as in the graph below".

% of Female Goldfinch



It is reasonably easy to distinguish male and female Goldfinch in the hand, less so in the field, but of course it is only by ringing them that individual males and females may be recognised. The page reproduced from “Svensonn” shows the differences.

Page 295, Identification Guide to European Passerines





Thanks for the gen Errol.

Read more from Errol and the local ringing group exploits at http://ivelringinggroup.blogspot.com/