The Usual Suspects

No chance of catching and ringing more Bramblings today as the wind sprung up overnight to make netting impossible. Thankfully the north westerly didn’t bring any snow, but the Fylde does seem to be surrounded by it again with several inches in Scotland, Ireland, North Wales and even the Isle of Man. They can keep it.

So I went birding to Out Rawcliffe expecting, in fact hoping to see the usual fare of finches, thrushes and hopefully a raptor and an owl or two. Along the river past Town End several hundred thrushes were very mobile, taking flight at the constant passing of vehicles before soon returning to the hawthorn trees. The relentless back and forth made counting difficult but I settled on 450 Fieldfare and 300 Redwing. With all the thrushes about I was not surprised to see a Sparrowhawk create quite a melee as it almost caught a Redwing from a feeding group. In the ensuing pandemonium most of the thrushes cleared off as the Sparrowhawk stayed put in a nearby tree, before it too cleared off over the other side of the river to try its luck. As I watched the hawk fly off a Goosander flew down river and in the direction of distant Great Eccleston, a Buzzard soared.

Redwing
Fieldfare
Redwing and Fieldfare
Sparrowhawk

I made for the moss and first checked a couple of Little Owl spots, where at one of them a morning bird usually sits partly hidden by branches but lit by the warming sun, just as one did today.

Little Owl
Little Owl

At the farm on the feed I counted 110 Tree Sparrows, 15 Starlings, 1 Yellowhammer and 18 Woodpigeons but I didn’t linger in the cold and instead set off for a walk. Walking the hedgerows I counted more thrushes, 8 Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 18 Redwings and 15 Fieldfares, with yet more Woodpigeon and this time 2 Stock Dove. Up at the “big field” many Skylarks alternated between feeding in the stubble or when spooked, flying around virtually en masse, which once again made counting difficult. I estimated somewhere between 300 and 400 birds, sometimes the flock joined by about 120 flighty Chaffinches, 12 Linnet, a handful of Goldfinches and 18 Corn Buntings. The probable cause of the occasional panic could have been the regular Merlin that on this occasion flew across towards Pilling Moss without troubling the flock. The resident Kestrel was also about, and although less likely to take a Skylark or finch they are enough of a threat to cause small birds an anxious time.

Kestrel

Reed Buntings were very noticeable today with a minimum 15 birds across the farm, but after catching 125 there in the summer and autumn, today I still didn’t see one bearing a ring.

Reed Bunting
I called at the river on the way back where at 1430 all was quiet and most of the thrushes had probably gone to roost. In less than a week it's the shortest day, then more birding time - Hooray.

Beech Birds

The autumn migration of Brambling was very noticeable this year. Winter now, and although it is clear many of these beautiful finches continued to France and Spain, it also seems that a large number stayed in the UK to make 2010/2011 a “Brambling Winter”. Bramblings are almost entirely migratory. In Europe, they form large flocks in the winter, sometimes with thousands or even millions of birds in a single flock. Such large gatherings occur especially if the seed of the beech tree, beech mast is abundant, when flocks will move in search of it. It’s thought that this could be an adaptation to avoid competition with the closely related Chaffinch.

We knew there were quite a few Bramblings in the extensive beech woods near to Will’s Garstang garden. Will had done his usual job of garden feeding hoping to attract extra Brambling in addition to the Chaffinch we always catch there.

When Will, Craig and I started erecting a couple of nets this morning we thought there were about 70 Brambling and 20+ Chaffinch in the tops of the trees and hedge that form the garden’s boundary, as calling continuously, the birds waited to drop onto the food. After 4 hours of ringing we revised our estimate to 200+ Bramblings and 90 Chaffinch. No apologies then for a few pictures of Bramblings, it’s not often we catch so many.

Brambling
Brambling
Brambling

We enjoyed a very busy and productive ringing session with 81 birds caught, 70 new, 10 recaptures and 1 Chaffinch control, i.e. a bird ringed elsewhere by other ringers - T205319 anyone? New birds, 28 Brambling, 20 Chaffinch, 7 Blue Tit, 5 Greenfinch, 4 Coal Tit, 3 Goldfinch and 1 each of Dunnock, Great Tit and Treecreeper. Recaptures, 5 Chaffinch, 2 Robin, 2 Dunnock and 1 Coal Tit.

Brambling – adult male
Brambling – Tail, adult male
Brambling – adult male
Brambling – juvenile male
Brambling – adult female
Brambling – adult female

The picture below shows juvenile male tail on the left, and adult male on the right. The adult tail is noticeably blacker, broader and less pointed than the juvenile tail. Note also the central tail feathers of the adult are much blacker, with strongly marked, demarcated pale edging. Adult and juvenile female tails show similar shape characteristics but less obvious colour differences.

Brambling tails - juvenile male left, adult male right

Other birds seen this morning: Buzzard, Grey Wagtail, 20+ Redwing, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, Raven, 4+ Siskin, 2 Nuthatch.

Today the Brambling also used the porthole feeders. I wonder where and when they learnt that trick?

Brambling

Chimney Owl

Will had a phone call to help out with a Tawny Owl that had fallen down a chimney. Luckily for the birds there was an open fireplace at the bottom of the shaft, so the only apparent damage was sooty plumage, a covering of cobwebs, a dishevelled look and maybe a loss of pride. Will scooped the bird up then took it along to John’s Raptor rescue at Knott End for a check over. John kept it for a day or three for rest and recuperation, then said it was fine and eating well. In these cases the bird must be returned to where it came from. Will collected it and took it back to garden of the house near Garstang where it had the mishap. When I took the photo the bird was a bit lethargic; that’s what comes of living at sleepy old Knott End, even for a few days.

Tawny Owl

On release it seems the Tawny was 10 times sprightlier than it looked. When Will opened the box in its home territory it jumped straight out and flew to a yew tree at the back of the garden. Immediately Blackbirds mobbed it, until it was joined by another Tawny, probably the mate it had been continually calling to, prior to the chimney incident. Two Tawny Owls in the half-light then proved too much for the Blackbirds and they very quickly quietened down and cleared off.

I do so like a happy ending.

Late news. Last evening Will had another knock at the door and a different neighbour, this time with yet another Tawny Owl. This one was a road casualty, so we’ll see how it does but it might mean another call to John at Knott End.

Nimble Fingers

I drove through Out Rawcliffe as dawn broke, heading for our farmland site and a 9 a.m. start to the ringing session with Will, our first so far during this winter. On the way there alongside the River Wyre I noted single Kestrel and Buzzard sat on roadside telephone poles and also a couple of parties of Fieldfares in the hawthorns at Rawcliffe Hall, the tall bushes there being a guaranteed haunt of this species.

It was a glove and hat morning for sure as we worked fast to put nets up in thick frost and minus 5 degrees temperatures. We caught steadily for the next three hours, mainly Chaffinch and Tree Sparrow, our target species for this site.

We processed 43 birds, 34 new ones together with 9 recaptures from last winter. New birds: 21 Chaffinch, 3 Tree Sparrow, 4 Blue Tit, 2 Great Tit, 2 Dunnock, and singles of Blackbird and Jay. Recaptures: 2 Chaffinch, 1 Blackbird, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit and 4 Robin. After the hard winter of 2009/2010 and the very severe November and December of this latest winter we were somewhat surprised that the 4 Robins we caught today had all survived through to adulthood. Also noticeable today were several largish adult male Chaffinch, with 4 birds coming in at 90mm and above wing length. In all this morning we estimated about 80 Chaffinch in the area with at least one Brambling amongst them.

Tree Sparrow
Chaffinch
Robin

The Dunnock blow was made easier to age by the fact it was replacing one set of outer tail feathers - pointed, worn juvenile versus more rounded, fresher adult.

Dunnock
Dunnock

Catching a Jay is fun, mainly for the strong billed Jay itself by nipping unwary and already cold fingers. Our technique is to leave the bird in the bag while fitting the ring and weighing, and only afterwards take the bird out for closer inspection and ageing/sexing

Jay
Jay
Jay

Other birds seen this morning: an additional Kestrel, Grey Heron, 2 Siskin, 70 + Fieldfare, 28+ Redwing, 90+ Woodpigeon.

Stranger and Stranger!

It was pretty cold early doors with a biting northerly that nibbled at ear lobes protruding from the woolly hat. Undeterred and with an exit pass from the boss valid for a couple of hours I hit the Pilling patch on the customary Fluke Hall, Lane Ends and Pilling Water route.

I always stop by the roadside trees at Fluke Hall where I let other cars speed by then listen and look, always in that order. It’s amazing how many birders don’t use their ears; to me it’s at least 50/50 eyes or ears, even erring in favour of the old lugs. Actually, and on further reflection, it’s amazing how many birders don’t use their eyes.

There were plenty of Chaffinches “pinking” and titmice hanging about the wire fence because some fool had again put seed next to the roadside - more squashed tits soon (please excuse the phrase). Also a couple of Blackbirds diced with death by crossing the road in front of oncoming cars as only Blackbirds do. I walked up and down through the wood and then back towards Wheel Lane looking in the trees above where on the bank the ramshackle shooting hut used to overlook the since reclaimed marsh. I counted upwards of 20 Chaffinch with 2 Brambling amongst them but staying quiet apart from just the occasional nasal “wheeze” that singled them out. Also in the wood were 3 Tree Sparrows,1 Great Spotted Woodpecker and 20 or so Woodpigeon with a circling Kestrel on the outskirts of the wood. The light was poor but I managed a couple of photographs before the light worsened in the already dark trees when I decided I should bird instead of wasting my time taking pictures of common stuff.

Chaffinch
Great Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Blue Tit

Here is a small digression. A day or two ago I walked into Lane Ends car park after a very cold and consequently demanding, but ultimately interesting part of my walk that contained several Snipe, a Peregrine and lots of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits, when a camera toting stranger in a car momentarily stopped puffing at a cigarette and asked me, “Anything special about?” I was rather non-committal as is my usual response to such stupidity but with hindsight what I should have said was “Why don’t you get off your arse, out of your car then go and look you lazy tosser, what do you think I am, some sort of walking bird information service? And anyway even if I were to tell you, by your question it’s obvious that you would have no interest in the birds I have just seen”.

Outburst over I continued up towards Ridge Farm where 6 Meadow Pipits flew off the area of the roadside midden - how many times have I looked at that sometimes steaming but wholesome detritus and seen bugger all apart from Meadow Pipits, Skylarks, Wagtails and an occasional Stonechat atop the pile of poo? Behind the hedge in the now thawed field 30 Lapwing and 11 Redshank searched for food, whilst further into the farm fields, out of harm’s way, 600 Pink-footed Geese fed warily even as they inched further away from my prying eyes.

Lapwing

Out on the marsh I could see 2 Little Egret and also hear the distant Whooper Swans, small numbers of which flew inland. It was later at Lane Ends that I counted the visible Whoopers, 120+ today and guesstimated the overall “pinkies” at 1700 highly mobile birds as here and there, gunshot rang out and the birds flew, and flew again.

Pink-footed Goose

Lane Ends was quiet, enlivened by 2 Black-tailed Godwit that fed amongst the 30 or so Curlew opposite the car park entrance until they all flew off, because rather surreally, a pink-suited jogger pounded noisily along the road then past their chosen spot in the quiet field. From the top car park I watched another Kestrel hunt the mound and sea wall as a Great Spotted Woodpecker called from the wood and a Reed Bunting from the vegetation below.

I walked uneventfully to Pilling Water with the highlight being a gang of Skylarks. Well I say a gang, and there were 24 of them, but the collective name for a lot of Skylarks is supposedly “exaltation”. Think I’ll stick to “gang”, it’s a bit more manly.

Skylark

It wasn’t the most productive few hours I ever had, but boy it was fun. And with the number of tits on this post I should get lots of Internet hits for a few days – won’t they be disappointed?

Going East

A dull day with no birding or ringing for me today, so I sat down to do a little work.

For our recent holiday to Cyprus it became a problem deciding which field guide to pack in the suitcase. Although our Cyprus break wasn’t simply a birding trip, no dedicated birder ever goes on holiday without doing a bit of preliminary research on the destination or thinking about unfamiliar birds encountered when exploring the destination. Then a day or two before the holiday I was sent a copy of the new and very recent second edition of Birds of the Middle East, authored by Richard Porter and Simon Aspinall. This good fortune allowed me to actually road test the guide on holiday.

Birds Of The Middle East

For anyone with the first edition of this book it is well worth pointing out that the second edition is completely revised. For the first time, the text and maps appear opposite the plates, and importantly there are more than 100 new species. It is a very detailed field guide covering all species found in the Arabian Peninsula including Jordan, Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Cyprus and the Yemeni Socotra.

The guide covers over 700 species, both indigenous and migrants, with a concise text describing plumage and voice. The descriptions are easy to follow whereby salient features and differences to similar or closely related species are picked out in bold print for quick reference. There are 112 colour illustrations of all the species described with distribution maps opposite, complete with notes on status and preferred habitat. As you might expect from a guide of this quality the maps are well colour coded allowing easy interpretation of resident, summer, winter or migrant status for each species

The plates by artists John Gale, Mike Langman and Brian Small are of a high standard, and my only quibble is that the printing and production has made some plumages appear rather dark, plus brown and red tones are too intense. Having said that, any birder keen enough to buy this book or travel to some of the destinations mentioned above will make mental adjustments to any sketches that appear highly coloured; as a positive the sketches are very precise and stand out clearly against the very white background of the page. My particular favourite pages are those depicting wildfowl and shearwaters, with the warblers especially appealing. I must say that when faced with a “new to me” Cyprus Warble on a hillside in Cyprus I found the description and sketch of the bird absolutely spot on.

There are many good features about this guide. I particularly like the coloured page headers that denote the category of birds depicted on the page below, a very quick and easy way to thumb through the book when faced with an unfamiliar species. E.g. Smaller Falcons, Smaller Gulls, Larger Terns.

Other useful and innovative pages for gull enthusiasts are the two devoted to ”Large White Headed Gulls” where extra sketches are faced on the opposite page by a colour-coded chart that itemises identification, status and even moult sequences into an understandable, easy reference.

Strictly speaking this guide doesn’t cover Egypt which comes into the separate geographical category of Africa, but both sides of the Red Sea including the increasingly popular tourist hot spots of Luxor and Aswan plus Red Sea resorts like Sharm el-Sheikh and Hurghada share the birds described in this guide. Therefore this book is the one to carry for anyone visiting those increasingly popular places and the Middle East holiday or birding destinations like Dubai or Qatar. As I am due to go to Egypt in 2011 I have decided that this portable well written guide is the one I will take with me. For anyone travelling to the Middle East, whether on business or pleasure but with an interest or a passion for birds, this second edition of Birds of the Middle East sets the standard again, and I highly recommend it to readers of Another Bird Blog.

The book is available from Princeton University Press in the UK for £27.95 or in the US for $39.50 from

http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9291.html

Ready, Willing And Able

The temperatures relented a little this morning and after being on standby for several days, the sight of a frost free car and zero wind led to a quick 9am decision then off to Will’s garden for an “at last” ringing session. There had been a number of finches in the garden for a couple of weeks but only now could we have a crack at them.

In the 3 hour session we caught precisely 50 birds, 41 new and 9 recaptures: New birds, 21 Chaffinch, 7 Goldfinch, 6 Coal Tit, 2 Robin, 2 House Sparrow, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Greenfinch and 1 Brambling. Recaptures, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Coal Tit, 2 House Sparrow and 1 Dunnock. There were several Brambling in the area of the garden plus approximately 90 Chaffinch, 20 Goldfinch and 6 Greenfinch, although we didn’t catch any of the 8 Siskin we saw and heard in the top of the alders.

Brambling
Brambling
Greenfinch
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Coal Tit

We caught a very heavy Song Thrush with fat bulging from the furculum, and at 97 grams the bird’s weight was more equivalent to that of the bigger Blackbird.

Song Thrush

The catching kept us pretty busy but other birds seen this morning included single Jay and Kestrel and a fly through of 6 Redwings, a species that has all but disappeared to warmer climes in the last two weeks. Normally we might expect to catch a Blackbird or two in Will’s garden, but none this morning, with just one or two about – maybe they all went off with the Redwings and Fieldfares?