Success and Failure

I went to check some outstanding Swallow nests at Hambleton and a single unfinished one at Out Rawcliffe. The weather has been so good that I am hoping for a bumper breeding season of Swallows.

Swallow
Swallow chicks

At Hambleton the earliest nest of the season was well on with a few of the biggest of the brood exercising their wings on the edge of the muddy construction as the parents busied themselves with bringing in food. A second pair had tiny young whereby I will go back in a day or two. A further nest I had doubts about has definitely been deserted at the egg stage and others are still at a similar phase, including one that was only lined with feathers last week. So in the overall total that latter nest will counts as a gain, at least at this stage.

Swallow chicks
Swallow chicks
Swallows
Swallows
Swallow

I checked a nest in an open fronted old garage and found it predated where a week ago there were five warm eggs indicating incubation. I suspect it was our old pal the Magpie as they do hang around the buildings to grab a meal from the chickens, the horses or the dogs. Of course I have no proof but I am afraid the Magpie’s reputation as a nest thief precedes it. When I checked the chicken shed where the door is left open all day, I was most upset to find another nest devoid of the young I was expecting to ring; there was no point in looking for the nest contents on the wooden floor already covered in chicken feathers from the shed dwellers. As one might expect it appears that the Swallows which nest in buildings where they gain access through a door or window ajar, or a hole in the building’s fabric or construction fare better than those that choose a more open location potentially open to predators.

I motored on to Out Rawcliffe where I checked in a secure building, one nest from 10 days ago to see the young large and ready to go, an obvious success again. At a second nest from where once again I expected to ring chicks from the 4 eggs of 10 days ago, the evidence of more predation lay on the floor, scattered feathers, nest contents and a single dead chick some three or four days old. A mammalian predator could not reach this nest, in the centre of a beam close up to a corrugated roof, but an avian one could as the tumbledown building has no doors or windows to keep them out. In this case I suspect a Little Owl, resident locally and a species known to take Swallow nestlings.

Naturally I will continue checking and monitoring these nests, the information gained for the BTO Nest Record Scheme is invaluable to the overall picture of what happens to our Swallows, the successful or the not so lucky. I wish more people would do nest records, not just for Swallows, but for any nesting species they come across during the course of their birding. And anyway my nest recording also helps me to get a few photographs.

Swallow

Pick 'N Mix

Will and I bagged a good selection of birds at Rawcliffe Moss this morning in a six hour ringing session from 0500 to 1100, with warblers, finches and thrushes caught. We also ringed a brood of young Swallows hatched in a shed near the barn.

Our total caught was 37 birds of 13 mixed species, 30 new birds and 7 recaptures from previous occasions:
New birds:
4 Whitethroat
1 Blue Tit
10 Willow Warbler
3 Sedge Warbler
1 Reed Warbler
1 Dunnock
2 Coal Tit
1 Great Tit
1 Goldfinch
3 Blackbird
3 Swallow (nestlings)

Recaptures:
1 Chaffinch
1 Wren
3 Willow Warbler
2 Whitethroat.

Of the ten new Willow Warblers, five were recently fledged juvenile birds, i.e. 3J in ringer’s parlance with the five adults representing birds on territory but missed in ringing sessions earlier in the season. Likewise the 3 Sedge Warblers we caught, all in breeding condition and staying quiet this morning when we wondered whether they were still in the plantation so quietly did they go about their business. But there is nothing quite like a mist net for finding otherwise secretive birds.

A slight oddity in June but not totally without precedent here was an adult Reed Warbler which could be a refugee from dried out reed fringed ditches and ponds of the local mossland.

We found a further Whitethroat nest with tiny young and whilst all the resident Whitethroats were busy feeding young and moving about the ringing site, we didn’t catch any fresh juveniles.

Sedge Warbler
Willow Warbler “3J”
Reed Warbler
Coal Tit “3J”
Whitethroat
Whitethroat Nest
Other birds seen this morning included 3 Buzzard over the birch wood, 4 Corn Bunting, 1 Kestrel, 4 Reed Bunting, 4 Skylark, circa 20 Goldfinch in small groups and also parties of both Swallows and House Martins feeding over newly cut fields.

Where There’s A Will

When I looked out of the window this morning I thought I had made the wrong decision in deciding the morning ringing was off. There were rain drops still on my car suggesting a recent shower, the ground looked decidedly damp but it wasn’t raining anymore, the sky was quite bright and the wind was zero.

I went to the moss anyway to check out a few nests and generally weigh up the situation for a ringing session for the revised day of Tuesday. As I walked through the plantation in the shin high grass to my ever dampening trousers I realised I'd made the right decision. There’s nothing worse than an early morning ringing session traipsing through wet vegetation and the inevitable outcome that as soon as it’s time to pack up, the grass is just drying out but your wet feet and trousers aren’t.

The Whitethroats were busy feeding young this morning. The ones we ringed in the week were obviously still in the nest as the adults scolded me when I went close. A bit further away, a brood we just missed in the week when they were fledglings hiding away from us, no longer crouched motionless in the deep grass, but now called for food from the parents nearby, although from their size they were probably well able to fend for themselves.

Whitethroat
Whitethroats leave the nest very early, sometimes in as little as nine or ten days, and up along the track I found a very recently fledged short winged, short tailed youngster moving between a ditch and the adjacent peaty field, where it looked totally out of place on the dark soil rather than the thick vegetation where it should have stayed.

Whitethroat
In the plantation a Willow Warbler nest had tiny young, hatched in the last day only, so they will be ready for ringing next weekend.

A party of 7 Mistle Thrush on the peaty field made their way through the plantation where the nets would have been, but it’s no good complaining after the event. In any case I really wasn’t too concerned about missing the ringing when a party of 22 Long-tailed Tits passed me heading for the net rides! A ringer’s worst nightmare in the making.

As the breeding season progresses I have seen a good number of Goldfinch around lately, and this continued today with parties of fours and fives on the farm plus a few more Linnets, but nowhere near the numbers of the Goldfinch. On the fields and hedgerows I counted 35 Lapwings, 4 Corn Bunting, 6 Reed Bunting, 2 Yellowhammer, 3 Buzzards and 8/10 pairs of Whitethroat.

On the way home I checked out some Kestrels in a natural tree cavity, where from the adult’s behaviour they have small young. Looks like a ladder job in a week or two.

Kestrel
Back home the clouds rolled in, so with chores to do we decided to stay put for the afternoon and watch the finches that included lots of youngsters from our own and everyone else’s garden head for the feeders. I also put a net up and caught 7 Goldfinches and a House Sparrow before the rain came again.

Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
Goldfinch
House Sparrow
So it wasn’t a bad day after all. You see, where there’s a will there’s usually a way.

Green Theme

The BBC changed the weather forecast for Sunday morning to rain which meant the original plan for a ringing session on Sunday might now involve a bit of Saturday birding as compensation followed by a Sunday lie in. So the “green” in question was my old favourite of Conder Green where on a bright sunny morning I promised myself an hour or two of birding in those magic hours before most people are up and about, when everywhere is quiet and birds are undisturbed by the comings and goings of us humans.

I looked from the inadequate screen, still without I note the necessary improvement to qualify as a “hide”, and counted the usual 7 Tufted Duck scattered across the water with the single drake Wigeon still unaccompanied by a pal or a mate. The female Oystercatcher sat on eggs on the island whilst around her, several more birds persisted in their chasing and display flights and a lone bird walked through the shallows in front of me, as did an obliging but slightly wary Lapwing that saw me but kept a safe distance away. In some field guides Lapwings are described as “black and white” and are often put in a category with black and white birds, but I always think of them as being various shades of iridescent green that can look black in flight or at a distance. There’s even a hint of purple at times. Regular readers of this blog will know of my enthusiasm for the Lapwing in all its glory, green, black, white or whatever colour.

Lapwing
Lapwing
Lapwing

Oystercatcher
The Grey Heron was around as usual, appearing from the direction of the canal, as did the Kestrel that hovered distant over the marsh for a while causing more Lapwings to gang up on it, when I counted 14 of them in the air together. In the creek I counted more than 30 Redshank, an increase on recent times which must be due to a post breeding influx, but 4 Curlew and 7 Shelduck was more consistent with recent numbers. Also feeding in the creek and squabbling with a Shelduck briefly was a single Little Egret, a bird I haven’t seen for a while but this bird is I guess from the ones breeding locally.

Grey Heron

Kestrel
Little Egret
I saw several groups of Goldfinch that added up to at least 20 individuals, adults plus I noted, recently fledged browner birds that lacked the colourful heads. Some of these young birds were still begging food, a sure sign of recent nestlings. Singing along the immediate hedgerow, on the marsh and towards the junction were Whitethroat, Reed Bunting and 2 Meadow Pipit, one of which posed on the roadside barrier for me.

Meadow Pipit
I should add the unfamiliar species, 4 Swift hawking insects over the hawthorns, and to emphasise the green topic, 4 Greenfinch along the roadside hedge but still as a whole this species is not visible in any numbers anywhere as far as I can see.

Now please excuse me while I check the latest forecast with finger crossed.

Barn Swallows

Barn Swallow is the correct name of course but here in the UK everyone still uses the everyday word of “Swallow” because we only have one really native swallow species, unlike the rest of the world e.g. North America where they need to distinguish between for instance Tree Swallow, Cliff Swallow and Rough-winged Swallow or Africa where there are several species of closely related swallows.

Barn Swallow
So I went to the smallholding at Hambleton where the Swallows use what aren’t exactly barns but simply untidy outbuildings that house chickens, horses, dogs, aviary birds and a collection of motorcycle bits and pieces in various states of disrepair.

The nest where I ringed six young on the 5th June still had the same six, but now well developed and ready to fledge in a few days more.

Swallow Chicks
Checking all the nests I found three of them with young at various stages of development, the just mentioned well grown brood, a nest with newly hatched, and a nest with 5 young about 5 or 6 days old that were large enough for ringing with their unique identifiers, X515384 to X515388. Of the remaining nests, five had complete clutches of eggs with a newly lined nest still awaiting eggs.

Swallow Chick
With the adults returning frequently to the nests I took the opportunity for more photographs. But with all the nests at various stages I will make many more visits before the end of the season when I guess I will not resist the temptation of taking yet more Barn Swallow pictures.

Swallow
Swallow

What A Lark

Lots of the UK bird blogs bemoan the fact that it’s now summer and birds are hard to find. I know some birders even hang up their bins for a while and go into a mid summer torpor waiting for migration to start up again. I’m fortunate in that if birding is quiet I can do a bit of ringing even though that is quiet too, or a bit of photography if the inactive or hiding away birds allow me.

So I set off on the well worn path Lane Ends to Pilling Water with a set of pliers and rings, “A” for Meadow Pipits, “B” for Skylarks, and “D2” for Redshank and Lapwing in the side pocket of my camera bag. Bins at the ready I ditched my ‘scope for the morning, already weighed down with equipment enough, the heavy thought that I might not see or do a lot, plus the burden of a jacket worn against the cool northerly.

Lane Ends had the usual mix of stuff, a couple of singing Chaffinch with singles of Blackcap, Reed Warbler and a Whitethroat alongside the west fence. I didn’t hear any Willow Warblers, even the contact calls of adults feeding young, so maybe they have been unsuccessful here this year.

Chaffinch
Blackcap
Reed Warbler
On the pools I counted 6 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe and the resident Grey Heron. Things were so quiet I even took time out to take a picture of a clump of an orchid in the plantation. I think its Early Purple Orchid but I’m not really a plant man so I dedicate this picture to my friends from Menorca – Jane and Alan, together with Nigel and Elizabeth who all tried to educate me recently and who would easily confirm my Internet assisted identification.

Early Purple Orchid
There was a similar amount of bird inactivity towards Pilling Water, where out on the marsh several Redshank and Lapwing warned their young of my presence but they were safe enough from me if they stuck to the distant ditches. I counted several hirundines feeding along the sheltered back of the wall, and also 8 Swift, notable this year, which seemed to move quickly west in the direction of Fluke Hall.

I took time out to try and photograph a Skylark or two in less than ideal conditions of the wind and a sometimes bright but not blue sky. The Skylarks should have young by now but I couldn’t see any evidence with the half a dozen birds I found still engrossed in displaying, singing and courtship rather than collecting food.

Skylark
Skylark
Skylark
Skylark
In recent times the Skylark population plummeted so that today the population is about one-third of the numbers 30 years ago. The decline is most likely caused by the move to winter sowing of cereals, which deters late-season nesting attempts and may reduce winter survival because there is less stubble, such as barley and wheat, and also the use of pesticides, which kills the insects needed to feed the young. Consequently, it is on the Red List as a bird of high conservation concern.

The Skylark is the subject of much poetry, "To a Skylark" by William Wordsworth is perhaps one of the better known:
Up with me! up with me into the clouds!
For thy song, Lark, is strong;
Up with me, up with me into the clouds!
Singing, singing,
With clouds and sky about thee ringing,
Lift me, guide me till I find
That spot which seems so to thy mind!

Well the weather forecast looks much better for weekend so my prediction is for a ringing session or two and a catch of recently fledged youngsters and moulting adult birds.

Head for The Hills

After a full day of rain yesterday I just had to get out somewhere today. Because Will lives up near the hills we decided a run around in a vehicle looking over walls and hedgerows into wader fields might be fruitful. Most of the upland Lapwings have large chicks now but we hoped that the slightly later Oystercatchers and Curlews could have ringable chicks as long as they weren’t too big and able to run faster than our two pairs of much older, slightly dodgy legs.

Up beyond Calder Vale and towards the Bleasdale fells we found a couple of suitable fields where Curlew normally breed; where the ever watchful adults give the game away by flying around excitedly overhead and giving out warning calls to the young at the approach of predators like gulls, crows or humans.

Curlew
Curlew
Curlew Country
We found two broods of young, each of four, and managed to find 7 out of 8 as the young scattered and ran. Some had to wait their turn for ringing or to be reunited with parents and siblings, out of harms way from inquisitive dairy cows. It’s hard to believe that these little bundles grow into large Curlews, but then looking at those gigantic feet, maybe not.

Curlew Chick
Curlew Chick
One of the broods had one chick distinctly paler than its siblings, and also it didn’t seem quite as strong or healthy so we chose not to ring this bird before we released them all.

Curlew Chicks
I had checked my nest records on IPMR last night to see that the Whitethroat nest at Rawcliffe Moss should be ready, so we called at the farm to hopefully ring the five young. There were five chicks with wing feathers just poking from the sheaths with their legs nicely developed to adult dimensions, an ideal size at which to ring chicks. The photograph shows just three of them.

Whitethroat Chicks
A Willow Warbler nest last checked on 3rd June still contained warm eggs and a Swallow nest had 5 naked and blind young about 2 days old, so a double visit in 5 days time sounds about right.

Looking west, rain threatened for the afternoon as a flock of about 70 Lapwings took to the air: at this rate it will soon be autumn.

Lapwing
I changed the last header photo of the blog from Scops Owl to a Sparrowhawk portrait, hope you like it.