Thrushes Prevail

I stepped out of my back door at 6am to another clear, cold and star filled morning with my warm breath condensing in the close to zero air. I jumped into the Suzuki, switched the heater to the “toast” setting, stuffed a pair of gloves into a warm air vent, flicked on the heated seat so as to warm my essential bits, then set off for Rawcliffe Moss.

It was still black when I met Will at 0630 but we set to in getting the nets up in the frost before the thrushes dropped in. In fact we were early enough to catch a few roosting Redwings in the first net as we toured the plantation erecting the remainder.

I’d said to Will that the first migrant Redwings arrived at 0740 on Saturday, exactly as they did today, on the dot, when a party of about 30 birds came from the south east and dived into the plantation. They brought with them a few Fieldfares. That was the opening shot of today’s thrush movement which from 0740 until about 1030am consisted of approximately 300 Redwing, 120 Fieldfare, 9 Song Thrush and 5 Blackbirds. About 50% of the thrushes arrived from the south-east this morning, travelling with the prevailing wing, whilst most others came from the north and north-west.

Our catch this morning was made up of 35 birds of 11 species, 33 new and 2 recaptures. 14 Redwing, 2 Song Thrush, 3 Fieldfare, 3 Goldfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Great Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Yellowhammer and 4 Reed Bunting were new birds, while a Blackbird and a Coal Tit were ringed on site on previous occasions.

Fieldfare - juvenile male
Fieldfare - juvenile male
Redwing - juvenile
Song Thrush
Yellowhammer - adult male

We are keeping an eye on the biometrics and adult/juvenile ratio of the Redwings caught so far this autumn and at the moment they split very nearly 50/50 adult/juvenile with consistent weights that vary between 54 and 64 grams. One adult today had a wing length of 125mm which could place it into the Icelandic origin bracket.

Other birds on the move this morning, c50/60 Chaffinch, 4+ Brambling, 12+ Siskin which included a party of eight, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Stock Dove rapidly heading south, 1 Grey Wagtail, and 8+ alba Wagtails. Twice we noted groups of Jackdaws flying dead south both fast and low over the plantation and we totalled them to c80 birds. This was in total contrast to the hundreds of Jackdaws that at dawn noisily left the regular roost situated in a large wood on the next door farm and dispersed west to their daytime locations.

Waders this morning consisted of the usual several Snipe plus a lone Golden Plover fly over. Raptors noted this morning - a Sparrowhawk hunting through the plantation at dawn, a lone Kestrel, plus a dashing Merlin as we prepared to leave at 11am. But, where have all the Buzzards gone?

Sparrowhawk

At dawn this morning the sky was awesomely red. I have not changed the photograph in any way except for sharpening. But later in the day the clouds rolled in to a BBC promise of rain on the way - “Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, or should that be “ringer’s warning”?

Ringer’s Warning?

Bunting Bonanza

Will couldn’t make it to Rawcliffe Moss with me this morning; that ugly four letter word “work” put paid to his morning of ringing. So I went on my own and put up a couple of nets that targeted thrushes, Reed Bunting and Chaffinch.

It was a clear, another cloudless, frosty start again, and as I worked quietly in the dark erecting the nets several Redwings and Song Thrushes were leaving thick cover they roosted in overnight. This departure seemed to stimulate several Snipe to leave the adjacent soggy potato field where they roost, and I could hear their rasping calls flying off into the dark.

Migration slowed up during the week and I must admit I wasn’t too optimistic about catching thrushes, but as we ringers say, “You don’t know until you try”. It took until 0740 before the first Redwing came from the north, a party of about 40 dropping from the sky with a couple of Fieldfares, an arrival that led to my first catch. Ten or so minutes later another few small parties, but it soon dried up with just ones and twos throughout the rest of the morning until I had recorded about 80 Redwings and 11 Fieldfares from 0730 to 11am.

As in recent weeks it was Reed Buntings that proved to be the consistent element of the ringing and the visible migration. For the reason that they don’t move in huge parties, or maybe because they are not as conspicuous as some other species, it is possible to overlook or even disregard the almost constant calls of Reed Buntings passing nearby, overhead or landing in the plantation.

Anyway I caught another 15 new ones this morning to add to the 35 caught in the last three weeks or so which rounded the total up to 50 individuals. 14 of today’s Reed Buntings were birds of the year, juveniles, with just 1 adult male to break the spell. But if I caught 15 without too much effort, how many Reed Buntings were on the move on this and every morning of recent weeks?

So, birds caught totalled 26 new; 15 Reed Bunting, 7 Chaffinch, 2 Redwing, 1 Fieldfare and 1 Blue Tit.

Fieldfare

Redwing
Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting
Chaffinch
Blue Tit

In between the ringing, other visible migration and even the birding was on the thin side: 1 Sparrowhawk early doors, 18 Tree Sparrow over, 3 Siskin over, 6 redpoll sp over, 3 alba Wagtail.

On the way down the track I stopped to take a picture or two of another Pied Wagtail. Well it makes a change from birds in the hand.

Pied Wagtail

Wheeling Around

I couldn’t get out ringing again this morning, but it looks like Sunday may be a good morning for another try. In the meantime I thought that a walk along the coast checking out a few spots would be the best bet, even though the visible migration of earlier in the week may have begun easing off for now, particularly with the overnight increase to virtually full cloud cover and a strengthening north westerly predicted tomorrow.

I wondered if the decision was the right one when I stepped out of the back door to see a Redwing at the top of the sycamore in my neighbour’s garden. As it turned out, that was the only Redwing I would see in the whole morning.

First I stopped at Wheel Lane for the geese spectacular; who wouldn’t? The early Whooper Swans were back on the scene with 9 of them plus a Mute Swan. The swans were surrounded by Black-headed Gulls and Jackdaws, but encircled by mainly Pink-footed Geese, with good numbers of Greylag, all of them drawn in by the food put down by the wildfowlers. In the massive feeding flock and constant movement it’s pretty nigh impossible to count out the Greylags from the pinkies, but with the numbers here and out on the marsh today my estimate remains at 20,000 geese. That includes 9 Barnacle Geese that were out on the marsh with the majority of the pink-feet.

Whooper Swan
Whooper Swan, Greylag and Pink-footed Goose
Barnacle Goose

The Barnacle Goose picture is by John James Audubon the great American naturalist, author of his life's work The Birds of America. This book contained life-sized portraits of 1,065 individual birds, and was published in four volumes between 1827 and 1838. He was a self-taught artist and naturalist, who became a legend for his paintings, which for the first time depicted birds in natural habitats and poses. In 1886 a bird preservation organization took his name and the body later evolved into the National Audubon Society. Audubon also began the first known bird ringing on the American continent: he tied yarn to the legs of Eastern Phoebes and found that they returned to the same nesting spots year after year.

The resident Kestrel hung about at the vantage points near Wheel Lane where I guess all that ground food leads to a more than a few unwary mammals and birds fit for a hungry Kestrel.

Kestrel

I gave Lane Ends a bit of a bashing but all I could find was a couple of Blackbirds, 11 Goldfinch, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, 6 Chaffinch, 6 Robin and from the call, a probable Scandinavian Chiffchaff. There was a second Kestrel here, hunting and hovering around the car park.

Robin

I walked towards Pilling but the “vis” was pretty much non-existent, with just a couple of Meadow Pipits and 18 Skylarks overhead and a single Snipe which came off the inland field.

At Pilling Water I counted 7 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron with 15 Teal and a Greenshank in the outflow channel. But out here on the sea wall were geese in all directions, geese to the left of me, geese to the right of me and geese flying constantly back and forth. Suddenly I remembered the stranger I saw at Lane Ends a few days ago who earnestly asked me about the whereabouts of Lapland Buntings and told me that most of the birders he had met there recently were “only looking at the geese”.

Teal
”The Geese”

Ringer's Return

Will and I returned to Rawcliffe Moss this morning for another ringing session where we hoped to catch more Redwings and Reed Buntings. The weather wasn’t as good as yesterday; in fact it was more than a little misty from the start with the murk hanging around for most of our three hour session. We got the nets up in record time, then waited for dawn and the Redwing’s arrival with a cup of coffee, listening to two Tawny Owls and watching a Red Fox cross through a field of sheep and towards the netting area. We didn’t see the animal later and it is not often we do so out here on the moss, but we do find signs of their activity.

Dawn - Out Rawcliffe
Red Fox

We caught 26 new birds of 7 species, with no recaptures; 12 Reed Bunting, 7 Redwing, 2 Blackbird, 2 Goldfinch and 1 each of Lesser Redpoll, Dunnock and Blue Tit.

In the misty conditions visible migration was less obvious than recent days although Redwings were the most obvious and numerous once again, with a total count of approximately 300 birds in both quite small parties i.e. less than 10 birds, and somewhat larger groups of up to 60 birds. We saw small numbers of Fieldfares, often with the Redwings, but the larger thrushes numbered less than 20 in total. Other thrush migrants comprised several Blackbirds, 6 Song Thrush and 1 Mistle Thrush.

Reed Bunting - Adult Male
Redwing

The Lesser Redpoll we caught was an absolutely immaculate adult male specimen-note the red tinged flanks and broad, slightly rounded tail feathers.

Lesser Redpoll - Adult Male

Below I posted a couple of Redwing pictures that show the ageing criteria between adult and juvenile birds. With good views in the field it might be possible to see these points. Juvenile tertial feathers usually show conspicuously tipped triangular white or buff marks, whereas on an a adult the tertial tips are evenly coloured with just the outermost parts edged whitish. Adult tail feathers are more rounded and generally broader than a juvenile’s.

Redwing - Juvenile
Redwing - Adult

After 8 Reed Buntings yesterday, our catch this morning of 12 more new birds represented perhaps a third of birds seen and heard this morning, as once again they were both visibly and audibly conspicuous with many moving south throughout the morning. Meadow Pipit migration was much less obvious today with a total count of about thirty birds only, perhaps not surprising in the misty conditions. Finch movements consisted of approximately 60 Chaffinch, 6 Siskin, 2 Redpoll, several Linnet, plus 40 or more Goldfinch, the latter two almost certainly local feeding birds.

“Others” this morning – a fast moving Merlin heading south, 1 Kestrel, 12 Snipe. Another enjoyable, successful morning, long may they continue.

A Misty Moment

Autumn Stars

It was a touch breezy but clear and starry overhead last night as I stepped outside the back door at 8.30 and then 9.00pm pm listening for Redwings, because Will and I had arranged to try and catch a few at Rawcliffe Moss this morning. I didn’t hear the high pitched “seep, seep” of Redwings, but after the last few days of both Redwings and Fieldfares turning up in most places I wasn’t too worried there wouldn’t be at least a few around come 6.30am. The first birds we heard were in fact noisy Blackbirds and Song Thrushes arriving from the blackness, but within ten or fifteen minutes the Redwings appeared from the north, and we caught our first one of the autumn.

Redwing
Redwing

For any readers unfamiliar with the thrill of hearing the flight calls of these long distance migrants through the darkness of an October night or arriving overhead at dawn, here’s an example.

From 0630 to 1130am we enjoyed a totally absorbing morning of both birding and ringing and caught birds steadily. At the same time we witnessed a fairly continuous stream of visible migration, even if at times the clearness of the sky frustrated our attempts to actually see many of the birds that called overhead.

We caught 28 new birds of 11 species, recaptured a Robin from some weeks ago, but also controlled a Reed Bunting, i.e. not our ring - X982264 anyone?

New birds - 6 Redwing, 4 Chaffinch, 7 Reed Bunting, 2 Robin, 2 Great Tit, 2 Wren, and 1 each of Blackbird, Song Thrush, Lesser Redpoll, Jay and Dunnock.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
Jay
Reed Bunting

Redwing were the most numerous migrant this morning with a total of approximately 300 birds arriving from the north in mixed groups numbering from less than 4 birds, into tens and twenties and the highest number a flock of approximately 70 birds. Our Fieldfare count was 14 birds only, plus 7 Song Thrush and 10 Blackbird.

The other migration stars this morning were the finch family and Reed Buntings. While we caught 7 Reed Buntings we counted at least 20 birds overhead or close to us along the ditch, in the potato field or simply flying over calling. In addition there was a single Corn Bunting. Our visible migration of finches totalled 50 Chaffinch, 20 Siskin, 10 Redpoll, 8 Greenfinch and 1 Brambling, all these counts certainly underestimates in the clear conditions.

Unlike in past weeks we didn’t set out to catch Meadow Pipits today, our target species changed of necessity into Redwing, Fieldfare and Reed Bunting, so in that sense we partly succeeded. Had we sought Meadow Pipits we may have caught several since the overhead north to south count for this species was 70 birds.

Other birds seen this morning; 1 female Sparrowhawk, 175 Lapwing, 2 Golden Plover, 1 Kestrel, 2 Jay, 60+ Skylark.

Of course Will was in Scotland last week and I had said I would bag more birds while he was away than he would land salmon. He got lucky and I got seriously unlucky - fifty-three salmon caught between four of them! Now that is a proper catch. My excuse was the week of unfriendly ringing weather that let me out once whilst he and Sue obviously made the best of ideal salmon fishing weather. Anyway thanks for the piece of salmon Will and Sue, I left it to defrost and it will definitely taste better than humble pie.

Tonight’s Meal

The weather looks perfect for tomorrow too. We might just have to do it all over again.

Back To It

It was Lane Ends for me this morning, straight to the action with no messing about at Patch 2 Ridge Farm like yesterday. A good night’s kip and staying off the common cold medicines left me feeling a lot better.

It’s impossible to go down Wheel Lane at the moment and not take a peek at how the Pink-footed Geese are doing; the sheer noise from the throng draws you in, never mind the spectacle of 20,000 geese going about their early morning business of leaving the roost in search of daytime food then heading back out again en masse at the merest hint of trouble.

Pilling Marsh - Pink-footed Goose
Pink-footed Goose
Pink-footed Goose

On the way to Lane Ends I stopped along Backsands Lane and looked on the partly flooded field where I counted about 250 Lapwings and just 2 Golden Plover amongst them but no sign of the Ruff or Black-tailed Godwits from last week.

Lapwing

It was another clear morning, a touch of haze and a stiff wind again from east to west. So whilst easterlies are good for bringing the odd scarcity, the direction doesn’t necessarily bring huge numbers of birds. As I walked to Pilling Water so it was, with overhead a number of just visible but audible Chaffinch, a single Reed Bunting, 2 or more Siskin close to the plantation plus 3 alba Wagtail a little way out from the wall. Towards Pilling Water I pushed 8 Skylarks from the dense grass of the sea wall, with more Meadow Pipits than of late maybe 30 in total, together with 14 Goldfinch, 8 Linnets and the inevitable Wheatear, but only one today. Also inevitable were the 5 Little Egrets, but not the single Grey Heron a species which has been remarkably low in numbers around here lately.

Grey Heron

There was a little activity in area of the wildfowler’s pools as in turn 18 Teal and 15 Pintail flew off the shooter’s ditches and out to the marsh. I also watched a large female Sparrowhawk fly fast and low across the inland field, hugging the ground before it followed the contour of the sea wall up then over the other side where it no doubt surprised some hapless pipit or lark.

Back home I hoped I would be doing the last grass cut of the year, and as I took a breather in the afternoon sun I heard both Coal Tit and that rarity Goldcrest in next door’s garden. It was December 2008 that I last ringed a Goldcrest, so scarce have they become following two cold winters then a dearth even of spring and autumn migrants. So I finished the garden tidy-up and caught a couple of birds. Now I’m really in the mood for Tuesday when the wind will both drop and turn a touch more northerly allowing Redwings to arrive in force.

Goldcrest
Coal Tit

Battling

There’s not a lot to report from this morning but I either set to with blogging and get inventive or watch X Factor, or Dross Disaster as I call it. You see I knew last night a Common Cold was on the way with the tickly throat and the shivers. As my old ma would have said were she still alive, “That’s what you get for not wearing a vest” or ”I told you not to sit on the those cold, wet stones at Pilling”. So I emptied one of those bitter, powdery things into “hot but not boiling water”, which guarantee to fight a cold but also turn you into a just living zombie, and then set off to Pilling to sit on the stones again.

Ridge Farm seemed a good bet for migrants and vis, especially since someone had seen a Lapland Bunting there yesterday, but being a lazy dude I didn’t even make enquiries as to the who, when, where and how so couldn’t follow it up much. There was plenty of cloud cover and the wind blew easterly, a bit too strong maybe for much vis but a few finches and others battled east into the wind to land then disappear into the Fluke Hall trees or the nearby hedges, with little parties of Chaffinches totalling 45 birds, 2 x 2 Siskin, 2 Reed Buntings and 5 Greenfinch.

Along the hedgerow west the resident Tree Sparrows dominated my notebook with at least 30 of them, 4 Dunnocks, not unusual, 2 Pied Wagtails on the stubble and six or seven Meadow Pipits which probably weren’t migrants. I counted 7 Skylark, a few Linnets and Goldfinch, and found the lone Wheatear again sheltered in the boulders of the sea wall.

Over towards Hi-Fly’s hatchery I watched as a gang of 30 or more corvids gave stick to a Buzzard, gamely trying to hunt over the stubble, and it wasn’t until the Buzzard found cover in the trees at Fluke Hall that the corvids let up. Who’d be a No Mates Buzzard? I watched 2 Little Egrets feeding on a marshy pond then made a stab at the numbers of Pinkies, 5 or 6000 that I could see from here but lots more towards Lane Ends and/or flying onto the stubble of Fluke Hall Lane.

Tree Sparrow
Buzzard

I later learnt that there were “2+ Lapland Buntings” down near Pilling Water this morning, one of the few mornings in recent weeks I haven’t been there. That’s what you get for throwing a sicky.

And these strong easterlies might be good for turning up the odd “good” bird but it means my mist nets stay packed away, although there’s hope on Tuesday and Wednesday by which time infallible Famous Grouse medicine should have done the trick better than witches brew. So I didn’t get to sit on the stones after all, and anyway the birds don’t always perform as people might think. Sometimes they fly off or turn round at the vital moment. It’s often a battle of wits.

It Was There A Second Ago
Be Awkward Then
That’s More Like It