Another Morning Mix

This morning Will and I made it to the moss again with nets up in the dark and then time to spare before any thrush arrivals. Although there was no large scale appearance, we picked up a few more of the target species.

The first mixed flock of Redwings and Fieldfares arrived soon after 8am but between then and 0930 we saw less than 175 of both species, split 140/35 in favour of Fieldfares, with 6+ Song Thrush, a single Mistle Thrush and 4 Blackbirds only. The Chaffinch movement that started in late August continued through this morning with a total of 170+ heading south east into the 10mph light wind, the good number of birds not reflected in our catch of six. Reed Buntings continue to be obvious migrants through the site with 10+ over this morning in addition to the six caught, which pushes our autumn total for the species to 38 individuals.

Today’s total reached 24 birds, 21 new and 3 recaptures. New birds: 6 Chaffinch, 6 Reed Bunting, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Redwing, 1 Blackbird, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Wren and 1 Blackcap, the latter a first calendar year/juvenile female. Recaptures were 1 each of Robin, Goldfinch and Coal Tit.

Blackbird
Redwing
Reed Bunting
Song Thrush
Blackcap
Wren

Our birding was interesting, steady but unspectacular - in rough order of appearance dawn to 1130am: 1 Barn Owl, 2 Tawny Owl, 20+ Meadow Pipits and 2 Alba wagtails heading south, 5 Whooper Swan, 1 Raven, 19 Snipe, 1 Grey Heron and 1 Peregrine. During the morning there was a light overhead movement of small finches, mainly Siskin and Lesser Redpoll, less than 5 audible records of each call, but an additional and rare sighting here of 2 Bullfinch. Also uncommon here inland, 2 early morning overhead Greenfinch.

I hadn’t seen the Little Owls for weeks, but today one was back in the winter tree.

Little Owl

News And Twos

A quick run around the patch at Pilling this morning produced a few notables for a mini-posting of news.

Whooper Swans Cygnus cygnus are back from Iceland in some numbers with the now regular congregation building up on the Fluke Hall stubble fields to 115+ today, so densely packed, mobile and quite distant that it is difficult to obtain a precise count. The picture below shows one part of this morning’s flock.

Whooper Swan

The swans can be heard whooping it up from hundreds of yards away, even down in Pilling village half a mile from Fluke Hall, but there’s nothing quite like their calls to set you up with anticipation for a morning’s birding.

The North American counterpart of Whooper Swan is Cygnus buccinator, which goes by the very descriptive name of Trumpeter Swan, with a call quite different from the Whooper. Trumpeter Swans also have an all-black bill.

Trumpeter Swan

I managed a walk from Lane Ends to Pilling Water and bumped into a couple of twos, 2 Wheatear, 2 Buzzard and 2 Green Sandpipers, the latter disappearing as noisily as ever into the wildfowler’s pools. Now well into October Wheatears are getting a little late now, although I have seen them in November some years.

Wheatear

Other small stuff around: 26 Skylark, 2 Reed Bunting, 13 Meadow Pipit, 15 Snipe.

Meadow Pipit
The forecast for tomorrow looks slightly better, with more spaced-out isobars and chance of a ringing session – amazing!

A Different Circus

They say a change is as good as a rest so this afternoon I set off for Pilling Moss and a walk around a farm I wander over now and again. The spot has a few sheltered fields and woods and is a useful standby when everywhere else is a more than a bit breezy, as it was today.

This year I’ve seen plenty of Marsh Harriers, both spring and autumn, but one of the first birds I saw this afternoon was a Hen Harrier, Circus cyaneus, now probably the rarer of the two closely related harriers. Crows chased the harrier off towards Union Lane whereby it flew fast with the wind and I lost it against a background of trees.

Hen Harrier

The couple of hours turned into a raptor fest with 3 Kestrel, 1 Peregrine, 1 Merlin, 3 Buzzards and a Tawny Owl. I found the owl huddled up out of the wind in the densest part of an ivy covered tree, the greenery so impenetrable that I tried this way and that to get more than a half photo of the bird but couldn’t. So as they also say, “Here’s one I did earlier”.

Tawny Owl
Buzzard

There was lots of passerine food on offer for the raptors, 60+ Skylark, 70 Chaffinch, 130 Linnet, 5 Reed Bunting, 25 Goldfinch, 11 Pied Wagtail, 15 Snipe, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 20+ Tree Sparrow. I almost forgot, 1 Fieldfare and 2 Song Thrush, but a number of Blackbirds.

Peregrines count Columbidae into their food category and there were plenty of those today with 32 Stock Dove and 80+ Woodpigeon. Other “bits and bobs” seen, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Raven and 260 Pink-footed Geese trying to hide in a barley stubble field.

Woodpigeon
Stock Dove
Pink-footed Goose

Still Waiting

The early morning text exchanges made the decision. Yes, it was a bit breezy but Will and I could go to the moss for a “vis mig” count, top up the feeders, and then if anywhere was sheltered, try and catch a few more thrushes. Any day now there should be a wave of northern thrushes heading over the mosslands, all we have to do is hit the right morning.

Saturday Sunrise

We set nets in the only two rides undisturbed by the south-easterly breeze, then listened and watched out for Redwings and Fieldfares, but also Song Thrushes and Blackbirds, both very much migrant species here in October. There was an initial flurry of mainly Redwings, about 130, with smaller number of less than 30 Fieldfares, both species heading slow, low and south into the headwind, but in the less than ideal conditions the burst of activity stopped quite quickly. So we still await a large push of birds, hopefully we will be there when it eventually takes place.

The sheltered “Niger” net caught most of the 12 birds, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Redwing, 8 Goldfinch and 1 Chaffinch.

Song Thrush
Redwing
Goldfinch

Despite the stiff breeze a number of Chaffinches in ones and twos toiled steadily into it, with less than 100 overall, but the Chaffinch numbers have been dropping recently, a sign their autumnal dispersal may be nearing the end. As Will and I both ring birds on their right leg let’s hope we can catch this left-footer before the Chaffinch dry up completely.

Chaffinch

On last night’s BBC Autumn Watch there was a question from a viewer who recently saw lots of “black-billed Blackbirds”, but the query didn’t seem adequately answered by the programme. In October migrant Blackbirds, especially the first calendar year males have distinctly dull and dusky plumage which lacks the gloss of adult males. These young males also have dark brown to blackish bills, and often pale grey throats, so maybe the viewer had simply seen a number of immigrant Blackbirds? We saw a few “blackies” this morning, but didn’t catch any this time, just the brown thrushes above.

Blackbird

Birding wise we counted the following notables: 11 Grey Partridge, 4 Yellowhammer, 26 Corn Bunting, 75+ Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Barn Owl.

Corn Bunting

Where Were You?

Yes, the blog is back after several more days’ forced inactivity thanks to the good old British weather.

Will and I had high hopes this morning that the many birds held up in the past few days would head south over Rawcliffe Moss with some urgency this morning. With the first autumn frost crunching underfoot we erected nets in the dark, grabbed a quick coffee, and then waited for birds to arrive at first light. The anticipated flood of birds appeared to be less than a trickle of thrushes, with just 25 Redwing and 12 Fieldfare arriving soon after dawn before drying up completely, leaving us wondering where they are.

At times the session was slow, but we persevered and the 4 hour stint ended up with a good selection of 25 birds of 8 species, 23 new and 2 recaptures. New: 11 Chaffinch, 5 Reed Bunting and 3 Goldfinch, with 1 each of the target thrush species, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Redwing and Fieldfare.

Reed Bunting - male
Reed Bunting- female
Song Thrush
Fieldfare
Redwing

Compared to recent weeks even the movement of finches was lighter this morning, with less than 150 Chaffinches throughout the morning, approximately 10 Siskin, not a single Redpoll, but 2 or more Brambling. Reed Buntings were again conspicuous with 12 or more birds overhead or lingering on site, but the Meadow Pipit passage may be over with less than 20 birds over and south today. Eleven new Chaffinches pushed our site total for new captures of this species to 350 this autumn.

Chaffinch
Chaffinch

The other birding was pretty quiet too: A Barn Owl and 3 Tawny Owls at dawn, 13 Alba wagtail, 15 Tree Sparrow, 8 Linnet, 8 Snipe and 9 Whooper Swans, the latter our first ones of the beckoning winter.

Whooper Swan

Keen As Mustard

Last night’s weather forecast was highly marginal for ringing, but being full of enthusiasm for more migrant thrushes Will and I met up at 0645 on Rawcliffe Moss, taking a chance that any early rain would clear quickly. Our optimism was somewhat misplaced and we spent an hour or more waiting for the drizzle to clear, the clouds to lift and a chance to open nets.

The 360 degrees overcast sky kept the thrushes back, with just small parties of Redwings and Fieldfares finding their way through the murk as dawn broke. We quickly caught six thrushes but had to close nets as rain closed in. The initial thrush movement totalled only 50+ Redwing, 35 Fieldfare, 12+ Blackbird, 3 Song Thrush and 1 Mistle Thrush. We caught finches later as the cloud broke from the west or headed north, but the corresponding increase in wind speed probably put a block on more migration through our immediate location.

Today’s new birds: 7 Goldfinch, 7 Chaffinch, 3 Redwing, 2 Blackbird, 1 Song Thrush. We also recaptured 2 Goldfinches and a Robin.

Robin
Goldfinch

Redwing
Redwing
Blackbird
Song Thrush

“Birding” birds noted this morning in addition to the above mentioned thrushes: 20+ Siskin, 9 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Brambling, 80+ Chaffinch, 50+ Goldfinch, 10 Reed Bunting, 12 Alba wagtail, 20 Meadow Pipit, 8 Golden Plover, 8 Snipe, 800 Pink-footed Goose, 4 Magpie, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

The weather for the next three or four days doesn't look too good for either birding or ringing, but if there's half a chance watch this space for news and views.

Thrush Rush

The venue today was Rawcliffe Moss, where despite the slightly “iffy” wind direction that restricted net choice, Will and I hoped for a catch of early morning thrushes fresh in from Northern Europe. We set the nets in the dark and then waited for dawn and the arrival of Redwings, Fieldfares and perhaps a few Blackbirds and Song Thrushes.

There was just a short interval before the birds arrived in droves at 0715, mainly Redwings but with a good proportion of Fieldfares. Within the next hour we estimated the overhead passage at 800+ Redwings and 200+ Fieldfares, although we almost certainly missed many more whilst checking nets and ringing the ones we had. But the constant stream of birds stopped as suddenly as it started, and by 0830 all was quiet except for small parties of stragglers. After 0900 we switched our attention to Chaffinches and bumped up our numbers of that species together with a few other finches.

In all we captured 39 birds of 9 species, 36 new and 3 recaptures. New: 16 Chaffinch, 10 Redwing, 2 Fieldfare, 2 Blackbird, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Great Tit and 1 Goldfinch. Recaptures: 2 Chaffinch and 1 Robin

Redwing
Fieldfare
Coal Tit
Redwing
Lesser Redpoll

Visible migration was difficult to gauge in the bright,blue, morning sky but in addition to the northern thrushes we estimated 200+ Chaffinch, 20+ Siskin and 9+ Lesser Redpoll, circa 10 Reed Bunting, 5 Greenfinch, 1 Yellowhammer, 1 Swallow.

Other birds: 1 Barn Owl, 1 Tawny Owl, 1 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard, 750 Pink-footed Goose.

Redwing