Doing Solitary

This morning there were spits of rain on the conservatory roof. But optimistic as ever I headed to Out Rawcliffe for another solitary ringing session and hopes of a decent catch. On the moss it wasn’t quite raining, just very cloudy, so I put up three nets and kept fingers crossed for early morning migrants.

Meanwhile just a mile or so away at Nateby a birder I know had found a longer distant migrant, a Solitary Sandpiper which had traveled a bit further than any Meadow Pipits I might catch. It’s not my photograph of Solitary Sandpiper, and it’s a number of years since I saw lots of them in pre-digital camera Canada. Thanks to Dario Sanches for the picture taken in Brazil, the country where the Solitary Sandpiper should be right now.

Solitary Sandpiper by Dario Sanches (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/(CC-BY-SA-2.0)

Drizzle came in fits and starts but within an hour I had to abandon ship having caught just 6 birds, 3 Meadow Pipit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Goldcrest. The pipits were on the move this morning, coming in from the west and north-west then heading off south and I counted 60+ in the hour. Meadow Pipits may have been still on the go from yesterday’s huge movement but Chaffinches were not, with less than 20 birds perhaps due to visible cloud cloud to the north that would impede their progress.

Goldcrest
Chaffinch

But now for a more disturbing topic about birds. I saw Colin the gamekeeper this morning who gave me yet another ring taken from a dead Greenfinch in his St Michael’s garden, the third casualty in recent weeks; this latest bird was picked up from directly under the garden feeder. I have emailed the BTO with the information as it is another ringer’s set of rings.

Greenfinch

It is sad to see our Greenfinches or indeed any wild bird dying in this way, but since summer 2005, trichomonosis, a disease caused by a microscopic parasite has been reported in finches in gardens. Since then, outbreaks have been seen every year during the late summer and autumn. Greenfinch populations have been recorded dropping by a third, and Chaffinch populations by a fifth in those parts of the country that suffer the most serious outbreaks, Because of the lack of Greenfinches locally it appears that the North West of the UK and the Fylde may be one of the seriously affected areas. Chaffinches appear to visit gardens less than Greenfinches around here, a fact which may have spared their local population from suffering the same fate as Greenfinches.

Chaffinch

The trichomonad parasite lives in the upper digestive tract of the bird, and its actions progressively block the bird’s throat, making it unable to swallow food and the bird dies from starvation. Also, birds with the disease show signs of general illness, for example lethargy and fluffed-up plumage, but affected birds may also drool saliva, regurgitate food, have difficulty in swallowing or show laboured breathing.

Transmission of infection between birds happens when they feed one another with regurgitated food during the breeding season, and through food or drinking water contaminated with recently regurgitated saliva. If trichomonosis is suspected, it is recommended to temporarily stop putting out food, and leave bird baths dry until sick or dead birds are no longer found in the garden. This discourages birds from congregating together, which although a natural enough phenomena may actually increase the potential for the disease to spread between individuals.

Greenfinch

Good hygiene practice, specifically the regular cleaning of all feeders, bird baths and feeding surfaces, is an essential part of looking after garden birds and will help to lower the risk to birds of diseases in general.

Going It Alone

With Will in Scotland I had to go it alone for this morning’s ringing session on the moss. So I dropped one of the net rides to save the leg work and as a safeguard against a rush of finches hitting the nets all at once as they sometimes do. It’s not necessarily the taking the birds out of nets that takes the time, but the processing and documentation of each bird’s age, sex, wing, weight and fat score.

It worked out fine as steady catching kept me busy but not rushed. My session lasted 5 hours by the end of which I had caught 39 birds of just 5 species, 38 new and 1 recapture. New birds: 25 Chaffinch, 10 Meadow Pipit, 2 Blackbird and 1 Chiffchaff with 1 Goldfinch recapture.

The overhead Chaffinch passage was quite strong this morning but the Meadow Pipit numbers less than earlier in the week, or the week before. There seemed to be banks of cloud to the west and north but the moss was bright and sunny if a bit breezy this morning, with wispy clouds early on which made it again difficult to see high-up birds. “Vis Mig” numbers 0645 to 1130: 400+ Chaffinch, 45 + Lesser Redpoll, 30 Siskin, 8 Greenfinch, 10 Reed Bunting, 200+ Meadow Pipit, 3 Swallow, 3 Song Thrush, 30+ Alba wagtail.

Chiffchaff
Meadow Pipit

The juvenile female Goldfinch below is now attaining colour and beginning to resemble an adult Goldfinch.

Goldfinch

Ringers tuning in to the blog will note the large proportion of juveniles (age code 3) today, not unusual of course in autumn. Also today, of the 25 Chaffinch ringed, 15 were juvenile females, another not uncommon occurrence in September/October a time when UK Chaffinches from northern regions head south and west.

Field Sheet - today
Chaffinch

Other birds today: 2 Tawny Owl calling from nearby woods at dawn, 10 Snipe, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Peregrine, 2 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Jay.

Tawny Owl

Haddock, Chips and Mushy Peas

Another bright and breezy birding morning started with a quick look at Knott End where I killed the 20 minutes or so before Damien’s fish shop opened with a spot of birding. In the car park I took a few pictures of a Pied Wagtail with a gammy leg whilst the other 12 wagtails flew off towards the golf club before I could grill them; they also took 2 Grey Wagtails along with them. On the shore were 35 Goldfinch and as I walked up river alongside the golf course, several Chaffinch and at least two Siskin called from high overhead.

It was a very bright sky so I decided to save the my “vis migging” for the next ringing session on the moss on Saturday, with today’s sun demanding instead a bit of “no excuses” camera work.

Pied Wagtail

I detoured home then chucked the fish in the fridge before setting off for the Pilling tide again.

And this is going to sound like a re-run of yesterday’s birds at Pilling, but the Fluke Hall count was much the same: 450 Lapwing, 55 Redshank, 12 Skylark, 15 Meadow Pipit, 17 Linnet and 6 Goldfinch, but several Chaffinch in the wood today and a party of 10 Swallows heading east. A gang of 17 Magpies heading off from Ridge Farm was rather scary as well as unexpected, given that much of the land around Ridge Farm is well shot.

Lapwing

My count of birds from the sea wall was similar to Wednesday, so I’ll ditch the latest list of more wildfowl and wader counts, the exception being today’s count of approximately 1200 Lapwing. But I found time for the few pictures below, and less words means there’s more time to get stuck into that Haddock, chips and mushy peas.

Linnet
Wheatear
Little Egret
Wigeon
Pink-footed Goose
Redshank
Lapwing
Very tasty, I enjoyed that.

The Other Patch

The bright and breezy morning dictated a birding morning on the other patch at Pilling, a spot neglected of late, when several decent, wind-free mornings meant we could catch finches and pipits out on Rawcliffe Moss. I began at Fluke Hall looking and listening out for overhead birds but where little was happening, perhaps odd Chaffinches, Meadow Pipits, and Skylarks, but no obvious or substantial movement. If there is a morning diurnal migration taking place at Fluke it is usually quickly apparent, and in a south-easterly like today can sometimes involves a heavy movement of birds flying west to east along the sea wall.

Out on the marsh I counted over 400 Lapwing, 40+ Linnet and a Little Egret but the woodland was pretty quiet apart from a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a party of titmice. The Carrion Crows found a couple of Buzzards in the tops of the trees and they proceeded to harry the raptors until they left the woodland to head off towards the sea wall but still pursued by the persistent crows.

Buzzard
Buzzard and Carrion Crow

The walk from Lane Ends then back towards Fluke Hall began quietly, picking up as I persevered and then improving as the tide ran in. From the stile I counted 11 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Kestrel, 140+ Linnet, 60 Goldfinch, c2500 Pink-footed Geese, 2 Wheatear, 1 Peregrine and 2 Sparrowhawks.

Sparrowhawk
Pink-footed Goose

The incoming tide shifted lots of pipits and Skylarks from the by now flooded marsh, and I ended up with counts of 70 Meadow Pipit and 32 Skylark, many finding their way onto the inland fields via the countless fence posts along here.

Meadow Pipit

High water revealed more waders and wildfowl: 900 Shelduck, 40 Redshank, 70 Pintail, 600+ Teal, 2 Snipe, 40 Golden Plover and 35 Dunlin, with 17 Swallows also arriving with the tide and then heading quickly south-east.

Swallow

On the subject of Swallows, we have only just heard of a Swallow recovered during the early part of 2010. Ring number V971589 was first captured on Rawcliffe Moss as a juvenile bird of the year on 8th August 2009. On April 27th 2010 the Swallow, now sexed as a female by the length of its tail streamers, was caught by other ringers in Canton Magistris, in the Alpine region of Italy; the young bird had managed to journey to Africa and was now on its way back to the UK.

While British Swallows migrate to and from Africa through the area of the Mediterranean Sea in both autumn and spring, many take a more easterly route for the April/May journey, a direction which can take some through the Alpine regions of Italy. The interval between ringing and finding in Italy was 262 days and the distance involved 1198 kms.

Out Rawcliffe to Italy

There looks to be more breezy days ahead but amazingly it’s almost a shirt sleeves Indian Summer for a few days more.

500 Up

After the busy days of the last two weeks, Monday was a bit of rest day, apart that is from inputting the many records from recent ringing into the Integrated Population Monitoring Reporter (IPMR) database. Will worked on Monday, but borrowed a few hours “flexi” this morning for another morning of ringing on Rawcliffe Moss before he heads off or a break in Scotland and a bit of lazy salmon fishing.

So after the IPMR task we began today with a running September total of 442 new birds of 22 species here, which included 135 Meadow Pipits, 188 Chaffinches and 39 Goldfinches. Our recent catches have been very consistent in terms of numbers and species, a trend which continued this morning with another 63 new birds, the majority of which proved to be even more of those diurnally migrating Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches.

New birds: 37 Chaffinch, 15 Meadow Pipit, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Dunnock and 2 Blue Tit with 1 each of Great Tit, Blackcap and Reed Bunting.

Blackcap
Dunnock
Blue Tit

One of the juvenile Lesser Redpoll looked particularly young and speckle faced, perhaps from a late nest, as a pair of adults can have three broods.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll

Although we counted 12 + Reed Buntings over today, it was slightly disappointing to catch just one. Reed Buntings are very much a bird of visible autumn migration, with the annual movement through Rawcliffe Moss probably related to their withdrawal from upland areas of the Pennines and Scotland as a preparation for the winter period.

The visible diurnal migration of Reed Buntings is less obvious than other species e.g. Chaffinches or Meadow Pipits, both of which use lots of contact calling to stay in touch with other individuals during their overhead flights. In contrast Reed Buntings call less and although they travel or join in with other species movements and feeding parties, often Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits, the less numerous buntings can easily be missed by observers not tuned into their calls.

Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting

Our visible migration counts today, all from the north but heading south from 0700 to 1145 came in at 160+ Meadow Pipit, 400+ Chaffinch, 70+ Lesser Redpoll, 30+ Siskin, 12+ Reed Bunting, 3 Yellowhammer, 25+ Alba wagtail, 2 Song Thrush and 1 Mistle Thrush.

Other birds this morning: 1 Barn Owl, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel, 4 Buzzard, 15 Snipe, 1 Corn Bunting and 2 Magpies. We rarely see Magpies out here, but for a week or two a couple of birds have escaped the attention of the gamekeepers. I can’t see them lasting through the winter shoots – the birds that is.

Magpie

Today cracked the 500 mark in September here but with a couple of “iffy” weather days remaining in the month, that could be it until October.

Double Dilemma

Late on Saturday Will and I had the same dilemma. On Sunday morning should we burn rubber up to Glasson Dock for sight of a Lesser Yellowlegs, or burn calories on Rawcliffe Moss trudging around the mist nets yet again for further Chaffinch and Meadow Pipits? After all, before any Sunday session we had caught 225 Chaffinch and 182 Meadow Pipits on site this year, so why bother with more?

Lesser Yellowlegs by USFWS

We both agreed, a “lesserlegs” is much like a Redshank and as we have seen them both, we really ought to continue with our recent ringing tasks. So we made another 0630 start and then set the usual nets.

Today's was another tiring effort but an excellent catch of 66 birds of 7 species, 64 new and 2 recaptures. New birds: 25 Chaffinch, 20 Meadow Pipit, 9 Reed Bunting, 4 Goldfinch, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackbird and 1 Blue Tit. Recaptures were 2 Chaffinch, one first ringed in February 2009, and a more recent bird ringed in August. The 3 new Chiffchaffs pushed our total for here to 22 birds for the year, high by local standards.

Chiffchaff
Chaffinch
Chaffinch
Goldfinch

This morning’s visible migration proved a very stop-start affair with an early push of both Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches followed by periods of quiet and little obvious movement of birds. The slow periods coincided with belts of cloud to the south that moved slowly north and east, and at 0915 a front of drizzle that threatened to put paid to the morning. Luckily the sprinkle of water did little in the way of even wetting the nets, just the ringing gear on Will’s truck. When we packed in at 1130 we had counted circa 250 Meadow Pipits heading south but a higher count of finches, with 350+ Chaffinch, c40 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Siskin and 3 Greenfinch.

Weighing a “mipit”
Meadow Pipit

The movement of Reed Buntings was very marked this morning, so to our catch of 9 we added another 25+ birds which moved south with pipits and finches. Other “vissers”, 2 Grey Wagtail, 5 Alba wagtails, 1 Mistle Thrush, 40+ Skylark, 40+ Swallow.

Local birds today: 2 Buzzard, 1 Raven, 2 Tawny Owl calling at dawn, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel, 5 Jay, 1 Snipe, 30 House Martin, 20 Swallow.

Another Good One

When we looked at last night’s charts both Will and I thought that Friday might offer a chance of another ringing session so as usual we met up on Rawcliffe Moss for 0630. The starts get later now, with 0630 almost a lie-in, but once the clocks go back so do the alarm settings.

Another rewarding morning saw us catch 59 birds of just 7 species, but 57 new and 2 recaptures. We continued the Chaffinch and Meadow Pipit theme of the last few weeks with the majority of our tally made up of those two species, but also found more Reed Buntings in among the arriving mipits. New birds, 25 Meadow Pipits, 23 Chaffinch, 5 Reed Bunting, and 1 each of Lesser Redpoll, Chiffchaff, Goldfinch and Great Tit. The recaptures were a Goldfinch and a Great Tit, both of them ringed quite recently.

Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting
Chaffinch

Although there was strong movement of Chaffinches today, particularly after first light, we didn’t see or hear the chattering of overhead Lesser Redpolls with the single bird caught the only one on the field sheet.

Lesser Redpoll

Following our recent mipit wing length of 90mm, a blog reader asked about wing length variation of Meadow Pipits, so I looked again in Birds of the Western Palearctic. From various sources the book gives wing length to be anything between 73mm for the smallest females and up to 86mm for males, with probably 80/81 mm being of indeterminate sex. In a typical autumn we catch a good number of birds above 85mm and I would guess that these individuals are of Icelandic origin. Click on the picture to see large text.

Meadow Pipit
Birds of the Western Palearctic – Meadow Pipit

Whilst steady, our morning wasn’t so busy that we couldn’t take note of the visible migration taking place, even in the 10/12mph south-westerly. From very soon after first light there was a strong movement of Chaffinches which although tailing off fairly quickly still left us with an estimate of up to 300 birds in the five hours on site. Meadow Pipits were rather less obvious, reflected in our catch of 25 birds, but we estimated them at 200 in the five hours. Our Reed Bunting “vis mig” count was 10 + birds in addition to the 5 caught. As mentioned above, no other finches overhead apart from 30+ Linnets and 100+ Goldfinch, but we are unable to separate out any migrants from the local birds that feed on the farm and roost nearby.

Linnet

During the morning we noted a fairly small number of Swallows and House Martins, an assembly which from about 1030am almost imperceptibly built up to a very large feeding flock of 400+ birds, 95% of them Swallows: we left about 1130 but the hirundines remained in the area. The first hour after dawn also saw a number of alba wagtails overhead, upwards of 20 birds through in the first two hours, then a later smattering of single birds. Other birds on the move south, a party of 8 Mistle Thrush, a gang of 60 + Skylark with additional singles throughout, 5 Corn Bunting, 1 Yellowhammer and 1 Golden Plover.

Raptors today: 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Tawny Owl and 1 Barn Owl which in the half-light of dawn floated silently between Will and myself and over our half erected mist net.

So, heaps of birds seen and bags of birds caught. What a great morning it was.