The Plans Of Mice And Men

This morning’s 0630 start for Will and I was similar to Saturday whereby from the off another cold easterly breeze looked likely to frustrate our hopes and schemes, despite the preparation of setting nets in the most sheltered westerly parts of the plantation.

We took another bash at catching finches and early season migrants but as we suspected the grey, overcast sky didn’t produce much in the way of new birds and a very slow session saw us catch 9 only, the saving grace being that all were target species: 3 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Lesser Redpoll and 2 Chiffchaff, both of the latter birds males as might be expected on this still fairly early arrival date.

Chiffchaff

The Niger feeders put up here just a couple of weeks ago have now been responsible for a catch so far of 37 Goldfinch and 16 Lesser Redpoll, so that little strategy did the trick so far.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch

Visible migration of passerines was almost non-existent this morning, with counts of approximately 30 Meadow Pipits, 1 Siskin and 2 Lesser Redpoll, a few of which may have been birds we caught.

“Other” birds consisted of 150+ Curlew on nearby fields, several probably local Linnets, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers drumming and 1 Fieldfare overhead.

At 10am we packed up the ringing gear and there followed the usual tortuous, bouncy drive off the rough farm track of the moss, avoiding the tractor made holes in the peaty soil. Fortunately the leisurely journey gave both time and opportunity to watch the 11+ Buzzards spiralling over nearby woods into the warming air: also 2 pairs of Grey Partridge, and several pairs of displaying Lapwings in residence, and yet again 2 pairs of Little Owl. Hopefully we’ll soon get to ring some little Little Owls and pint-sized peewits.

Grey Partridge
Lapwing

More dry days look possible for Monday and Tuesday before rain arrives later in the week. Let’s hope our next visit coincides with a change in wind direction to warm southerly winds carrying migrant birds from Africa, and then we’ll see what happens.

Blown Off Course

The forecast for ringing was “iffy” – a 9mph easterly that would potentially blow down from the fells, across the open mossland of Out Rawcliffe and then into our ringing spot, currently bare of leaf cover. But flushed with our recent successes Will and I decided to give it a start, and if all else failed, move to Plan B - management work in the plantation, topping up Niger feeders and erecting a nest box.

We started well enough with a number of Meadow Pipits dropping into the netting zone, Siskins and Lesser Redpolls flying over and a couple of birds, “mipit” and redpoll in the nets. More Meadow Pipits arrived, 40 or so, all from the south, as did a single high calling Fieldfare, but the wind quickly increased to a steady 20mph and billowed the nets too much for safety.

Meadow Pipit
Lesser Redpoll

We packed up, filled the Niger feeders that have caught us 35 Goldfinches so far this spring, spruced up a few netting locations and made a new net ride through a glade of silver birch.

Goldfinch

We then turned our attention to a second box for the first of the two pairs of nearby Little Owls. There is a box that we think they roost in, a nest box also used one year by Great Tits who made hundred trips to fill the cavernous hole with nesting material. But the owls have not used the box for nesting, so we put up a second and hopefully more suitable box on another tree, close to where we see the Little Owls.

Little Owl Nest Box
Will and Little Owl Nest Box

As we hauled the box up to the tree and fixed it in place we speculated where the owls were, all the time with the feeling that maybe they sat just out of sight but watched us with great interest.

Little Owl

Back home a Lesser Redpoll sat on my garden feeder for a second day, a new addition to my garden list yesterday. I wonder when Lesser Redpolls began to use garden feeders in the UK? The closely related Siskin is reported to have used garden feeders since the early 1970s but I suspect Lesser Redpolls are much later. Answers please to Another Bird Blog.

Lesser Redpoll

It’s The Unexpected

Another dawn, another morning’s ringing with Will at the farm site at Out Rawcliffe. It was also another misty, murky and slow start but as so often happens with birding, ringing or taking photographs, a couple of unforeseen or unanticipated birds turn a regular event into something a little more interesting, exciting and involving than the norm.

After the 6am start our total at 0830 was a dozen birds only, whereupon we hoped that with luck we might manage twenty by packing up time. But just like two days ago, as the sun rose and burnt off the haze, so birds arrived in more numbers with better variety.

By midday our total improved to 39 birds, 35 new and 4 recaptures, enlivened by a couple of surprises in the net. New birds: 13 Meadow Pipit, 11 Lesser Redpoll, 5 Goldfinch, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Wren, 1 female Yellowhammer, 1 Chiffchaff the first of the year, and 1 Kestrel. Recaptures; 2 Goldfinch, 1 Chaffinch and 1 male Yellowhammer, previously ringed on the farm on 23 October 2010. The Yellowhammers turned up in the net side by side.

Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer

There were more Meadow Pipits around this morning, both moving North and West, but also grounded in the farm fields, approximately 150 in total. Likewise Lesser Redpoll, with a minimum of 50 birds over between the first one at 0615 and the last at midday.

Lesser Redpoll

Other birds seen this morning: 3 Raven croaking together overhead, 13 Fieldfare heading west, a single Golden Plover heading west, 4 Siskin overhead and 4 Buzzard.

The lightning fast Kestrel drew blood from unwary fingers.

Kestrel
Kestrel

We watched a Chiffchaff arrive from the south east whereupon it found the net almost immediately. The bird showed signs of nectar feeding from wherever it had been in recent days.

Chiffchaff - signs of nectar at the base of the bill
Chiffchaff

We looked hard at the Meadow Pipits today, and whilst we found most were second calendar year (2CY)/juveniles, two at least were definitely adults. The adults still showed the uniform olive median and greater coverts typical of an autumn bird, whilst the 2CYs have contrast between last year’s pale median coverts with centre “teeth” that contrast with new adult type olive feathers gained from a partial moult.

Meadow Pipit - adult
Meadow Pipit - 2CY

I almost forgot to mention the Little Owls at dawn, posing in the half-light but not wanting to face me together. Like I said, it’s the unexpected!

Little Owl

A Misty March Morn

It was a bit of a pea-souper this morning, quite a thick mist and in fact more like a fog at 6am, but on the strength of the forecast for any poor visibility to improve early, Will and I went to Out Rawcliffe for a netting session. The murkiness took a while to clear with our normal optimism for catching or even seeing birds decidedly poor at even 0630, but as the sun rose so did our spirits, and gradually the bird numbers.

In fact we caught 21 birds, not bad for a ringing session in the middle of nowhere on a misty March morning. New birds, 7 Meadow Pipit, 7 Goldfinch, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Siskin, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Long-tailed Tit and 1 Blue Tit. The single recapture was a Long-tailed Tit.

Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch
Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipits arrived slowly this morning, all from the south east and heading north and west, in small parties of up to 8 individuals; our 4 hours gave a total of c80.

Other “vis” came in the form of 6 Lesser Redpoll, 8 Siskin, 3 Fieldfare, 4 Alba Wagtail and 30 Curlew, with the normal residents of 2 Corn Bunting, 6 Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting, 4 Buzzard, 5 Roe Deer and good numbers of Brown Hare.

A visit to the farm really wouldn’t be complete without checking on the Little Owls at last year’s Kestrel nest where I thought the owls had possession of the hole, but today I found both a prospecting Kestrel and a loitering Stock Dove. A little more negotiation to take place I think.

Little Owl
Kestrel

Never Say Die

It was meant to be a day off birding with bits of both dog and child minding, but as very birder knows, bird watching never really stops. In between pottering about, mainly sorting the lawnmower out after a winter’s torpor, I noticed several things happening in the garden; or as is more often the case, in next door’s garden, full of old apple and pear trees and untidy corners, a plot mostly neglected and annoyingly bigger than our postage stamp of green. Unlike us, our neighbour always gets a spring Chiffchaff, chiff-chaffing away for a day or two until the bird re-orientates and heads off again, so it was not a surprise to look over the fence and see one today; it even visited our budding damson trees for a minute or two.

Chiffchaff

The Greenfinches are back, the male singing away above to last year’s nest site, and the female close by, but I’ve yet to find the latest nest in the row of conifers.

Greenfinch

At weekend I even had a Siskin or two on my home made Niger feeder, but then who hasn’t had garden Siskins this winter? But I must say the Goldfinches don’t seem to have reappeared in any numbers yet with just 2 or 3 beating of them off the occasional Siskin, unlike the Garstang Siskins that monopolised the feeders there.

Siskin

None of that bothers the Blue or Coal Tits that come and go in an instant before scooting off to the fence with a beakful of best mixed seed.

Coal Tit
Blue Tit

It’s a great weather forecast for the remainder of the week and hopefully I’m back to normal tomorrow with both birding and ringing to look forward to.

Change Of Scene

After catching 150 birds in our two ringing sessions at Garstang prior to this morning’s foray, Will and I could be forgiven for thinking we deserved a rest, or at least a slower morning, but we decided on a change of scene, a variation to the target species and a visit to our farmland site.

Out on the moss this morning our efforts yielded just 13 birds, 12 new and one recapture; fairly predictable for a March morning when targeting Meadow Pipits and finches. But we always take the view, repeated here and elsewhere many times, “If you don’t go, you don’t know”, and anyway we are quite fortunate in knowing both how and when to catch Meadow Pipits. The trouble is the pipits themselves don’t always comply with our aspirations for them and climb out of the net, as a few did today.

We caught 6 Meadow Pipits, 5 Goldfinch and 1 Chaffinch, with the single recapture a recent Goldfinch.

Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Chaffinch

Although an apparently perfect morning for migration with just a light south easterly breeze and hardly any initial cloud cover, the visible migration was very slight. Meadow Pipits came over quite high in groups of less than six individuals with a maximum of 60 birds in four hours. We saw and heard up to 8 Siskins overhead, whilst the 25 Goldfinch, 8 Linnet and 15 Chaffinches we noted were almost certainly local birds only. With hindsight, and in view of the height of the overhead pipits and Siskins, maybe the morning was just a bit too clear and many birds were higher than we could see or hear.

Otherwise the birding was local fare in and about our plantation, 1 pair of Reed Bunting, 4 Blackbird, plus Long-tailed, Great and Blue Tit and 1 pair of Corn Bunting close by. On the fields; 4 tumbling, displaying Lapwings, 3 singing Skylark and the 90 or so Woodpigeon of late. After a cold start 3 Buzzards took to the air in the by now warming sun, as did one of the local Kestrels.

On the way home I checked the potential breeding owls and found both Tawny and Little Owls in their expected slots, and then near the River Wyre I slowed down to watch to watch yet another Buzzard as it soared over the road ahead then climbed unhurriedly into the morning blue.

Buzzard
They do say that a change is as good as a rest so maybe we achieved both today.

Brambling And Barm Cake

A busy couple of hours in Will’s Garstang garden gave us a catch of over 50 birds again, fifty-one in fact. 41 new birds were: 33 Siskin, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Great Tit, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Wren and 1 Brambling. Recaptures: 6 Siskin with 1 each of Tree Sparrow, Nuthatch, Great Tit and Wren – an interesting and worthwhile selection of species.

As normal the Siskins arrived early and noisily from the nearby roost, perhaps 125 individuals this morning, coming for a feed on the plentiful Niger. The 33 new ones trapped lifted our total of Siskin in the garden to 258 birds ringed this year, and we are fairly sure there are more to come, for a week or so at least. After our success here with Bramblings in December and January, the single juvenile male today was the first caught here since 16th February, and whilst there have been low numbers about, including 3 or 4 today, the one we caught may well be the last until autumn.

Brambling
Brambling
Siskin

So while the Siskins kept us busy, huge entertainment ensued for Will and Peter when the male Great-spotted Woodpecker gouged lumps from my finger and drew blood as I took a portrait of it; whoever said ringing birds was for softies? The recaptured Nuthatch was a male, probably the one that may stay to breed in the garden.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
Great-spotted Woodpecker
”peckered”
Nuthatch

Peter joined us today and enjoyed his encounter with lots of Siskins but found time to share in a compulsory Ringer’s Breakfast - bacon butties with tomato or HP.

Barm Cakes

For whatever reason, probably entirely accidental by mistakenly clicking incorrect buttons on their computers, this blog has a number of readers from the US who struggle somewhat with the strange colonial terminology occasionally found herein. So for their benefit I can translate the previous references to bacon butties as – “bacon sandwiches with ketchup or brown sauce”. The bread in question is often a barm cake as seen in the photograph.

“Barm cake is an unusual term with a surprising amount of meanings. In England, it is a term for a bread roll similar to a hamburger bun, often filled with French fries, sausage or more usually, crispy fried bacon. Barm cake has also come to use in slang, to refer to a stupid or idiotic person, as in “I’m such a barm cake when it comes to maths.” The slang use of barm cake is of uncertain origin, but likely is a reference to the blandness of the British roll. The simple plainness of barm cakes may relate to other British slang terms for stupidity, such as simpleton. In any case, this term is an excellent piece of obscure slang for those who enjoy insulting others in a way they likely will not understand”

Siskin

By 10am the scene quietened a little as the feasting Siskins moved on, so the breakfasting ringers packed their gear into the car boot for another day. "Don't you mean 'trunk'? you barm cake!”