Nectarivory

During the recent holiday to Egypt I saw many, many Chiffchaffs. This was not entirely surprising as unlike the closely related Willow Warbler which winters mainly in West Africa south of the Sahara, many Chiffchaffs also cross the Sahara and concentrate in Senegal, while many others remain in Mediterranean North Africa; also at least 3 often inseparable races breed in the Middle East, collybita (includes brevirostris), menzbieri and probably abietinus and at least two others visit. So at any time, and especially during winter, spring and autumn the origins of Chiffchaffs and race of each individual in Egypt is hard to determine. There is no doubt I heard and saw our familiar collybita, with both the typical “hweet” call and occasional snatches of “chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff”. I also heard the “squeaky chicken” call frequently and on a couple of occasions, snatches of the fast, melodious song of Siberian Chiffchaff tristis, totally unlike the Chiffchaff song I know and more like a demented Dunnock.

Chiffchaff

Any day soon spring Chiffchaffs arrive in the UK and ringers know that in spring they may catch recently arrived Chiffchaffs carrying pollen residues on their bills. This pollen was deposited by the feeding strategy known as nectarivory, or birds indulging in sipping nectar from flowering plants during which flowering pollen is left on the bird itself, mainly around the base of the bill, the part of the bird most closely in contact with the flower. Nectarivory is also known to occur in some species of bats.

Chiffchaff

In Hurghada I witnessed many Chiffchaffs taking nectar, at times the liquid being visibly sipped as birds stuck their heads deep into the flowers, and upon the bird withdrawing from the flower, drops of the nectar spilling from their bill. A particular favourite plant of the Chiffchaffs was a flowering Mexican Saguara cactus shown in the photographs below. In a few of the pictures, by zooming up it is possible to see the nectar drops around the bill.

Chiffchaff on Cactus
Saguara catus
Chiffchaff on Cactus flower
Chiffchaff
Chiffchaff
Chiffchaff
Chiffchaff

In the two week trip I had one sighting only of Nile Valley Sunbird, another bird that takes nectar. In view of the tremendous number of flowering plants in Makadi Bay my single sighting was a little disappointing. The biggest numbers of Nile Valley Sunbirds do occur much further south than Hurghada, but in the last 100 years, and almost certainly helped by the building of tourist resorts, the species has spread from the southernmost parts of the Red Sea and up to the Cairo area where it breeds. I didn’t get to Cairo to look for more sunbirds so settled for my one brief encounter and a couple of distant shots.

Nile Valley Sunbird

Dry Spot

It was raining pretty hard this morning at home here near the coast when I contacted Will to see how the rain was 13 miles away near near Garstang, a town overlooked by the Bowland fells where rain is a way of life. “Dry” he promised, so 30 minutes later a single net was set for the finches, near the 14 nyjer feeders but away from the few titmice that linger around the peanuts near the kitchen window.

We are sure the Siskins roost nearby as they arrive in the tree tops in half-light with a great deal of noise then wait there until it is bright enough to attack the feeders; this morning about 60/70 Siskin arrived together with a much smaller number of Chaffinch, maybe 30, plus one or two Brambling.

Our totals today were 31 new birds and 13 recaptures, the majority of which were again finches. New birds, 23 Siskin, 4 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Greenfinch and 1 Blue Tit. Recaptures, 10 Siskin, 2 Chaffinch and 1 Lesser Redpoll.

That brings our total of Siskin ringed here in 2011 to 105 new birds with 1 recapture from February 2010, but 21 recaptures already from this year’s birds. This suggests a large turnover of Siskins with a core of birds returning to the feeders regularly, so we take care not to overwork the site, allowing the Siskins plenty of time to feed. We await details of 2 Siskins caught here but ringed by other ringers, T879956 and X343298.

In January Chaffinch were the most numerous species here, replaced in February by Siskins, so it will be interesting to watch when both Goldfinch and Lesser Redpoll begin to return in numbers, with today only one of each to trouble the mainly Siskin field sheet.

Siskin- adult male
Siskin- adult male
Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch
Chaffinch

Other birds seen today, the Sparrowhawk that targets Blackbirds, chasing a Blackbird, 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Nuthatch, 8 Jackdaws, one of which escaped from the net, and several wary Woodpigeons, far too clever to go into the net.

Woodpigeon

Slender-billed Gull

I am not the greatest gull enthusiast, but I came back from Egypt with a few pictures of Slender-billed Gull Chroicocephalus genei, as attractive as ever a gull can be, but the identity of which initially puzzled me until I consulted Birds of The Middle East back in the hotel room, after I had taken a few pictures of Makadi Bay.

Slender-billed Gull
Makadi Bay

Unlike our everyday UK gulls Slender-billed Gull is not numerous wherever it breeds and in consequence, very uncommon even in its winter quarters which includes Egypt. This is one of the few gulls I saw in the Hurghada area on the recent holiday, the other being Baltic Gull, which I was never able to photograph. The bird is a juvenile/first winter as shown by the black terminal tail band, and dark areas in the wings. Unfortunately my attempts at a BIF were not too good, but captured a few features of the creature.

Slender-billed Gull
Slender-billed Gull

Slender-billed Gulls are a mid-sized gull, slightly larger than a Black-headed Gull, and they breed locally and patchily around the Mediterranean and the north of the western Indian Ocean (e.g. Pakistan) on islands and coastal lagoons and in the Black Sea regions of Russia, Turkey and Iraq. Most of the population is somewhat migratory, wintering further south to North Africa and India, and a few birds have wandered to Western Europe, but with luck it is possible to see them all year round in the Middle East.

Slender-billed Gull

Slender-billed Gulls breed in colonies, nesting on the ground and laying up to three eggs. Like most gulls, they are gregarious in winter, both when feeding or in evening roosts, but It is not a pelagic species, and rarely seen at sea far from coasts. Lets face it, it beats a Herring Gull every time.

Low Key

With a touch of south easterly breeze promised Will and I decided to ring at our somewhat sheltered, part woodland Lancaster site and save the anticipated session in his garden and the guaranteed Siskins of late for another, calmer day.

In contrast with our catch of Siskins on Wednesday, today’s was a slow session with just 18 birds caught, 11 new and 7 recaptures. New: 5 Chaffinch, 4 Blackbird, 1 Brambling and 1 Wren. Recaptures; 4 Blackbird and 1 each of Goldcrest, Dunnock and Chaffinch.

Brambling
Brambling

Most of today’s Blackbirds still carry a certain amount of fat with one large male tipping the scale at 130 grams, but two birds had zero fat scores. Bramblings remain in the area with 4 or 5 birds this morning, but low numbers also of Chaffinch. Other birds seen this morning: Sparrowhawk, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Bullfinch, Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit.

Long-tailed Tit
Great-spotted Woodpecker

Coming soon, Kingfishers and the promised nectar sippers – watch this space.

Red, White, and Blue

Red for Red-throated Pipit, White for White Wagtail and Blue for Bluethroat, a trio from the Egypt holiday. If I had to say which was the most abundant in the area of Makadi Bay, Hurghada it would be a close run thing between White Wagtail and Bluethroat whereby on a walk of a couple of hours I could tot up 40 of each, but maybe only ten or so red-throats. Whilst I took lots of pictures of Bluethroat and Red-throated Pipit, the much more familiar to me White Wagtail obviously induced a touch of commonbirditis, an affliction I criticise in others.

Red-throated Pipit
White Wagtail
White Wagtail
Bluethroat

If we were to believe some field guides Red-throated Pipit is potentially difficult to separate from Meadow Pipit, but the jizz of the birds is completely different. In 2 weeks of watching Red-throated Pipits I hardly saw one lift its searching, feeding, crouching, slightly tail wagging body a few centimetres above the grassy spots they always fed on. Never did one perch at anything above a blade of grass height and the only sound emitted was a single or double short, thin note as they flew quickly away from whatever disturbed them. But of course the “tramline” plumage of red-throats gives them away every time.

Red-throated Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Red-throated Pipit
Red-throated Pipit

There are possibly 4 races of Bluethroat that occur in the Middle East, suffice to say I was happy to see and photograph plenty of them without worrying too much about their origins. Of course any birds that lack colour on the throat and chest are more likely to be juveniles and females. I witnessed a few territorial squabbles when birds made lots of threatening noises to each other and also employed their colourful tails in both sideways and upwards movements.

Bluethroat
Bluethroat
Bluethroat
Bluethroat
Bluethroat

As we’re doing a walk around Makadi Bay I might as well chuck in a couple more common birds of the area, Laughing Dove which really does have a laughing call, and Kestrel, a species that blends in so easily with the local palm trees where they sit waiting for innocents below.

Kestrel
Laughing Dove

A good place to find Bluethroats was the grounds of a hotel half a mile from our own. The Head Gardener there described himself in broken English as a “Garden Chef”, and his creations were superb garden artistry where Bluethroats made full use of his designs. The gardens held lots of Sardinian Warblers and Lesser Whitethroats, both very unaccommodating to photographers, with my one photo of Sardinian Warbler a not very good one.

Scary Topiary
Funny Topiary
Bluethroat
Sardinian Warbler

Do You Like Kestrels?

Below are photographs of Kestrels I took recently around the area of the Red Sea in Makadi Bay, Hurghada, Egypt. Here in the UK Kestrels are pretty hard to photograph on a casual basis but at our hotel 2 pairs that nest on the tall buildings and hunt in the hotel grounds were very tolerant of my camera. They were indifferent to passers-by probably because they were used to people working in the extensive gardens on a daily basis.

Here are a few Kestrels Will and I ringed at Out Rawcliffe last year.

And a Kestrel at Cockerham, also last year.


Do you like Kestrels?