A Fieldfare Find

The weather is pretty dire again with strong westerlies combined with frequent heavy showers of rain and hail, or snow on higher ground. There’s little point in going out birding and no chance of ringing today, but instead news and pictures of Fieldfares. 

Fieldfare

We’re having a good run of information from our ringing efforts at Oakenclough on the edge of the Pennine Hills and the Bowland Forest. Since starting this project a couple years ago Andy and I have where possible focused on catching species and bird families that are migratory rather than resident. 

We have been targeting finches and thrushes in particular, a strategy which has paid off with some very interesting recoveries of Goldfinch, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll. There was an unexpected but fascinating Goldcrest caught too, one that seemed to be heading for a winter in France. 

The latest communiqué from the BTO involves a first year Fieldfare ring number LC51848 caught on the morning of 31st October 2015. We caught just four Fieldfares that morning but LC51848 was later recaptured by another ringer - on 31st October 2016, exactly 12 months later, this time in Gwynedd, North Wales. 

Fieldfare - Oakenclough to Gwynedd, Wales

Fieldfare

On initial inspection the detail of elapsed time and distance travelled may not seem too fascinating but the Fieldfare’s probable lifestyle in the intervening period makes for interesting thoughts and speculation. 

The Fieldfares that arrive in the UK in October and November originate from Scandinavia and are migrants whose departure date is dependent upon the timing and abundance of the northern berry crop. As a highly gregarious species whole flocks fly off south and west on a broad front during October/November and within a day or two the same birds arrive across Britain in sometimes huge numbers. They then begin a roaming lifestyle in search of wild fruit crops. They visit hedgerows until the berry crop is exhausted after which they feed upon invertebrates taken from open fields or visit orchards to feed on fallen fruit, especially during cold and icy spells.

Fieldfare

Some wintering Fieldfares travel as far as northwest France and northwest Iberia where they come under pressure from hunters who can take a heavy toll on thrush species as a whole. 

Fieldfare

The wintering population of Fieldfares in Britain is thought to number about a million individuals. During March and April Fieldfares begin their journey back north but this time with a greater urgency. They continue their gregarious lifestyle and upon arrival in their breeding grounds where they occasionally nest in colonies of 40-50 pairs. In certain situations and free from hunting and disturbance Fieldfares have taken to nesting in town parks, orchards and gardens, as well as tree-lined streets, especially in Norway. 

Fieldfare

So after spending its first winter in Britain our Fieldfare LC51848 found its way back to Sweden or Norway during 2016 where hopefully it bred and raised a whole new family. In mild winters some Fieldfares are able to stay in Scandinavia and dispense with the need to leave the northern cold.

But in the autumn of  2016 our Fieldfare chose to migrate south and west again on very much the same trajectory as it did in 2015. Luckily another ringer was around to provide us with yet more data on Fieldfares.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday.

Linnet Result

What a great outcome from Linnet ring number Z722984. It was aged and sexed as a first year male and caught at our set-aside plot near Pilling on 24th October 2016. Even better news was the fact that Z722984 was ringed as a nestling, one of a brood of six, but many miles from Pilling. 

Linnet

We found out via the BTO that the young Linnet was ringed by members of Shetland Ringing Group at Scousburgh, Shetland 674 kms from Pilling on 14th June 2016. Shetland, also known as the Shetland Islands, is a subarctic archipelago that lies about 150 miles northeast of Great Britain and approximately 200 miles west of Norway. 

Linnet, Shetland to Pilling

The BTO Breeding Atlas for 1989-1991 suggests that Linnets do not breed in Shetland, a landscape where Linnets are often replaced by the closely related Twite, a species known colloquially as the “mountain linnet.” However from the 1990s the Linnet made a small comeback on Shetland with the BTO Bird Atlas for 2007-2011 showing extra dots on the map where Linnets now breed on the mainland but where overall they are still hugely outnumbered by Twite. 

Linnet

Ringing birds in the nest provides information not generally obtained from ringing fully grown birds. Many ringers participate in the Nest Record Scheme (NRS) to provide data on nesting success and the ringing of nestlings. The data gathered shows trends on both nesting success and breeding failure when a nest fails at egg or fledging stage and the reason, e.g. predation, desertion, weather, etc. 

Where a nest is successful ringing chicks in the nest goes on to provide a life history through the exact age of the bird, the place of birth and the number of siblings. Any subsequent recovery of ringed nestling, as in the case of Z722984 gives an ever more complete picture of an individual’s life. And of course Linnet Z722984 remains in circulation to potentially provide another piece in the jigsaw. 

Linnet nest- via Wiki

The most recent summary of BTO ringing totals for UK and Ireland in 2015 show that of 8,722 Linnets ringed during that year, just 556 were nestlings. This equates to approximately 100 nests only. 

We will continue our visits with aim of collecting more information as current data from BTO ringing of Linnets mainly reflect lowland English populations between April and October. Populations in Ireland, Wales, south west and north west England, and south west Scotland are underrepresented with 14% only ringed as nestlings and just 11% ringed during the winter months. 

Linnet

The weather this week has been poor for both ringing and birding with a couple of visits to the set aside suggesting that our Linnet flock is much reduced. A couple of counts have seen as few as a dozen Linnets or up to forty five in attendance, and nowhere near the 200/300 of October. As a partial migrant it could be that many Linnets present in recent weeks have moved on, but a spell of cold weather might bring an influx of birds from elsewhere.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog.

The Right Decision

At last a morning without wind and rain so I decided to try my luck not far away. A bright, frosty start saw me head east and over Stalmine Moss towards Pilling. 

Pilling Moss

In the half-light I saw a Sparrowhawk glide slowly along the road ahead of me two before it turned a sharp right through farm buildings. Near the next farm two Buzzards flew from roadside telegraph poles and then landed on different ones further along. Leaning out of the car window and at ISO3200 there was no way a photo would turn out well. 

Buzzard

Luckily the camera was still on the passenger seat as I rounded the next corner where a Barn Owl had interrupted its hunting for a look around. I grabbed a few pictures before the owl continued on its path across the fields and then out of sight. Again the picture is at ISO3200 and far from ideal. 

Barn Owl

I stopped at Gulf Lane where I found just 25 or so Linnets on the set-aside. It’s a count well down on recent ones and it could be that the hundreds of Linnets of recent weeks have moved on. Andy is back from Spain today to be greeted by the news of reduced numbers plus a not so good weather forecast of rain and wind to frustrate our plans to catch more Linnets. 

At Sand Villa and Braides Farm I combined counts to give approximates of 800 Lapwing, 700 Golden Plover and 170 Curlew but 12 Whooper Swan, 4 Teal, 2 Buzzard and 1 Merlin were accurate enough. I make it 34 Golden Plover in the picture below but it is very difficult counting a fast flying flock twenty or thirty times that size, especially when they finish off by landing in a distant rough grass field where they mix with several hundred Lapwings. 

 Golden Plover

The tide was in at Conder Green but it didn’t matter too much as bird numbers there are much reduced now that autumn is gone. Highlight was a good count of 190 + Teal in perhaps one of the best local areas to study our smallest UK duck. Otherwise - 22 Redshank, 15 Snipe, 10 Little Grebe, 4 Goosander, 2 Shelduck and 2 Little Egret. 

Alongside the farm buildings the warm sunshine encouraged a few Starlings into winter warbling as half a dozen Goldfinch fed on seed heads and the usual Pied Wagtail searched the tideline. 

Starling

A mooch around Moss Lane and Jeremy Lane revealed a mixed flock of circa 100 Fieldfare and 30 Redwing plus several Blackbirds which may or may not be migrants. As might be expected, the thrushes were concentrated in roadside hawthorn bushes, from where they scattered far and wide as cars rushed past but soon returned to gorge on the bright red berries. I found a little spot to wait for them to return but couldn’t get a Redwing to pose, especially as their number was quite low. 

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

It’s not looking good for weekend birding or ringing. But you know what? Weather forecasters are just like pollsters and very often get their predictions totally wrong. 

In that case, log in soon for more news and views from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday, Anni's birding and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Remember, Remember. The Fifth Of November.

After an uncommonly warm October the weather is back with a November vengeance. The cold northerly wind dictated no ringing at exposed sites so I opted for a spot of early birding over Pilling and Cockerham way. 

The moss road was quiet in the half-light where the Barn Owls of late summer are but a distant memory. I’ve not seen a Barn Owl for a number of weeks except for a single one flying over my headlights during a pitch black journey towards the hills and an early morning ringing session at Oakenclough. 

Viewing Rawcliffe Moss from the roadside I discovered where the Whooper Swans fly to in the morning from their roost on Pilling Sands. I counted 200 or more partly hidden by a fence with mainly their heads poking above the margins of marshy hollow. A couple of farming types had crossed the field on heavy machinery and caused the swans to break off from their feeding to look around for an escape route. Some swans flew off to east and above my head but mostly they stayed put when the vehicles approached no further. 

Whooper Swans

At Braides Farm I just scratched the surface of birds on the small flood and the rough grass fields with minima of 250 Golden Plover, 200 Lapwing, 60 Curlew, 40 Wigeon, 4 Black-tailed Godwit and 6 Redshank. I‘ve had two recent and reliable reports of a Hen Harrier in this area but seeing it for myself is proving difficult and potentially very time consuming. This really is a problematic spot to view via the distant gateway but clearly much safer than stopping on the fast and twisting road where another fatal accident took place just weeks ago when a car drove into the rear of a large farm vehicle. 

Hen Harrier courtesy of USFWS

An hour at the pool and creeks of Conder Green produced a selection of wildfowl but not so many passerines; 139 Teal, 26 Wigeon, 10 Little Grebe, 4 Goosander, 1 Shelduck, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Wagtail, 4 Goldfinch. Waders: 28 Redshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 10 Snipe, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 34 Curlew. 

A lot of the Curlews that inhabit our fields and shores at the moment are immigrants from other parts of Europe, spending the winter in temperate Britain to escape the extreme cold of the far north and east. In turn many of our UK Curlews fly south and west to Ireland or the coasts of France and Spain and return here in the spring. 

Curlew

Curlew distribution

Curlews use their extraordinary long bills to the full by feeding deep into mud or very soft ground, searching for worms and other invertebrates. They also take crabs and similar items in shore and estuary environments. 

 

That’s all for now folks. It’s Bonfire Night and I need to go and light my sparklers. Either that or blow up the Houses of Parliament. See you soon.

Linking today to Anni's Birding.

Set-Aside Again

The weather has been kind to our recent ringing plans by way of minimal winds and little in the way of rain. It was the same this morning with a forecast of clear skies overnight followed by a light frost and virtually no wind. Andy and I met next to the set-aside plot at Cockerham where Linnets home in each morning to what seems to be a mix well suited to their needs. The forecast proved spot on with a dusting of frost on the crop together with a pretty cold start in the half-light of dawn. 

We caught Linnets steadily to the accompaniment of geese calling overhead interspersed with the occasional gunshot. We saw two pinkies drop from the sky this morning. The shooting group along this stretch of Pilling and Cockerham Marsh is Morecambe Bay Wildfowlers. They have a membership of approximately 150 participants whose limit each is shooting on three days a week throughout the winter season. Apparently the club has a waiting list of potential members who might wait four or five years to be accepted, such is the demand for places caused by the vast concentrations of numbers of wildfowl quarry in the winter months. 

A typical mid-winter count of the most common wildfowl along this single stretch of coast and dependent on the weather and other factors might be: 8/10,000 Pink-footed Goose, 2,000 Shelduck, 5,000 Wigeon, 1800 Teal, 300 Mallard and 200 Pintail. No wonder the shooters love the place as much as the birders. 

Teal

Wigeon

Once again this morning Pink-footed Geese flew off the marsh in almost continuous skeins for at least four hours and a guesstimate of 20,000/30,000 individuals. Many pinkies still arrive from Iceland and the recent mild weather seems to be delaying their onward migration to both Norfolk and south Lancashire. 

We heard lots of distant Whooper Swans but less than twenty flew above us with most heading off towards Fluke Hall where more than a hundred have been noted in recent days. As the morning warmed up a good number of waders appeared to feed on the fields nearest the sea wall. We approximated counts of 1000+ Lapwings, 700 Golden Plover, 100 + Curlew and 20+ Redshank. 

In the picture below Andy checks the nets in the set-aside crop for Linnets. In the background the bund of the sea wall is visible together with the distant Lakeland fells on the far side of Morecambe Bay and the tall white buildings of Heysham Nuclear Power Station some 15 miles away as the crow flies. Click the pic for a view across Morecambe Bay.

Ringing in the set-aside

We had a pretty good catch of Linnets with another 25 to add to our autumn total plus a new bird for the site in the form of 2 Wrens. In all we saw about 200 Linnets in our stay but we have yet to recapture one out of the 100+ caught in the last 3 weeks. This of course suggests a high turnover of mainly different birds birds rather than the same birds returning each day.

Linnet Ringing Station

Linnet

 Wren

Andy seems to have timed his six days in Spain to coincide with a change of weather here in Lancashire as a low pressure system brings winds and more changeable weather. We’ll see. 

Log in soon and find out what is happening on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today with http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.co.uk/.

Listless Birding

I’m a little demotivated today. I hate birding on a Sunday morning when Uncle Tom Cobley and all head away from their TV screens to discover life in the big wide world and take their bikes, noisy dogs, scruffy kids and bored old aunties to normally quiet birding spots. Not to worry. I went to feed the Linnets and then found a birdy story on the Internet that might interest readers. 

The Daily Mail 30th October 2016 by Environmental Correspondent - Chloris Cliff 

“The normally sedate world of bird watching was thrown into turmoil and controversy this week over accusations about bird watchers, or ‘birders’ as they are known in the trade, cheating on their bird lists. 

Serious birders compile lists of birds. Being serious implies knowing about look-alike species and subspecies, the various plumages, and having a systematic-enough mind to not be slapdash when assembling the lists. Bird lists are not meant to be fun. Each entry evokes memories of sometimes expensive, lengthy and difficult journeys to exotic or sometimes dull and dreary places to see a bird. The bird becomes a "trophy" testifying to bird-spotting prowess and a willingness to invest time and boundless competitive energy to see more species than the next birder. 

Any hint that a serious birder might deliberately deceive fellow birders by inflating or inventing part of a list is viewed as a serious matter whereby the culprit is a scallywag at best or in the worst case, someone to be pitied. 

But now one birder at least has been found out, “spotted” as it were, in different locations when he claimed to be in the queue of several thousand dedicated birders waiting patiently to view a Siberian Accentor through a chain-link fence. The rare sparrow lookalike unexpectedly appeared at Easington in East Yorkshire in late October many thousands of miles from its home. The birder concerned later confessed to a birding acquaintance that on that very day he was actually near his home conducting a bird survey on behalf of his local bird watching club and then took a stroll around his local birding patch. He finished his day by ticking the Siberian Accentor via the Internet and a high quality video of the actual bird which had already been posted on You Tube.

Needless to say this particular trusting birder’s confidence was betrayed, and within a day or so he was publicly outed as a fraud and his previously admired list of bird ticks labelled as a work of fiction. 

I tracked “Robin” down but he asked me not to identify him by his real name or birding “handle”, the latter the nickname used by his regular circle of birding friends. If I disclosed his identity he would be subject to an even greater amount of disdain and ridicule than that recently suffered. 

Robin told me; 'I twitched rare birds all the time until recently. I’ve spent years and large amounts of cash travelling the UK to see the latest rarity to appear on my pager, often skipping work and sleep to be amongst the first to arrive at the location. I’m in the Top Ten of birders in the Britain Year List for 2016 and over the 500 mark in the Britain Life List. Recently my marriage broke up when my wife left me for a nine-to-five office worker who is a part time body-builder. And then I lost my job in the PPI call centre because of my poor time keeping and attendance record. I’m trying to pull my life together and get back to normal.'

'And then one at home one day I was idly looking at bird videos on You Tube and the latest rarity pictures on Bird Forum, and I realised that digital and virtual reality, was the way to go. You see, in recent years there are some seriously good photographs and videos of all the latest rarities on the Internet. All you have to do is a Google search and you can be there in good quality video or see whole pages and pages of pictures of most rarities that turn up. It’s as good as the real thing without the financial cost and the mental trauma and anxiety involved in travelling hundreds of miles. And it allows me to get in some real birding in my local area, something I neglected in recent years. It’s Carbon Friendly and my lists are as good and lengthy as ever, up there with the best UK birders. I’m not bothered by what others think. These birds are on my various lists and staying there. Lots of people I know are doing their birding this way now.'

I asked Robin if I could see his bird lists; he told me they are: 

1. Garden list - all the birds seen on his property 

2. Year list 

3. County list 

4. Life list - all the birds since he started bird watching some 35 years ago 

5. Big day list – the maximum number of species he’s seen in 24 hours 

6. The Big Sit - a list of species seen from within a 12 foot radius circle in a 24 hour period 

7. Photo list – the number of bird species he has photographed 

8. Zoo list - all the birds seen in zoos 

9. Television and cinema list - all the bird species seen or heard on TV or cinema
“ Check out Sky Sports – it’s good for Australian gulls” he advised. 

10. Street names that are bird names. Quite by coincidence, Robin lives in Lapwing Close, Warrington.

I contacted the Bird Listing Organisation for Birders (BLOB) for their thoughts on this latest trend in seeing and listing birds. 

A spokesman who did not wish to be named told me 'We do not condone ticking birds seen via the Internet, TV, cinema, books or other publications. Birding is a serious pastime and should always be undertaken in that spirit.'"

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Linnet Lite

At 0700 I heard a steady drizzle on the conservatory roof. The arrangement was to meet Andy at 0730 for a ringing session at Cockerham where a Linnet flock home in each day to a tiny set-aside crop. A look at the online forecasts, a quick exchange of texts and we were on our separate ways if a little later than planned. 

The weather played ball and quickly brightened up but the Linnets didn’t. Although we counted up to 300 Linnets in at least 4 separate flocks the birds seemed a little “net-shy” and we caught just eight to add to the 73 caught so far this autumn. 

Linnet

Linnet

On the Internet of late I have not read of any other local Linnet flocks and suspect that the concentration at Cockerham may be the only one for several miles. There is the danger that the Linnet is still seen as a relatively common bird and as such remains unreported by many bird watchers. 

A quick look at several online snippets of information reminds us that the Linnet is not as common or widespread as it used to be. Via the BTO - “The breeding population of Linnets declined steeply between 1965 and 1985, before the last breeding and winter atlases, and there has been less change in recent years. Numbers nationally then rose slightly in the ten years after 1985, possibly associated with the increased cultivation of oilseed rape. Since 1994, when the BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) started, we have been able to detect regionally-different trajectories, with English and Welsh populations exhibiting a decline of slightly more than 30%. Looking at the demographic reasons for change in the Linnet, there is clear evidence that this is one of the species for which we have seen a reduction in breeding success, with higher rates of nest failure at the egg-stage during the period of greatest decline (1965-1985).“ 

Most of the UK Linnet population stay all year round although those from upland areas probably undertake an altitudinal migration to lower and warmer areas. Two previous recoveries from our own ringing group records point to the fact that a number of our Linnets, as winterers or passage migrants, originate from the Isle of Man, some 150kms west of here and out in the Irish Sea. 

Some UK Linnets migrate to Spain and western France for the winter. At the same time some Scandinavian Linnets are thought to come to Britain for the winter which might account for larger than average numbers of the species in North East England and South East Scotland. Here on the west coast the Linnet is now much less common than 20, 30 or 40 years ago, hence the need to monitor the population and if possible record their movements. 

This morning we saw 30+ Whooper Swans flying off Pilling Marsh and heading inland. Ditto the Pink-footed Geese but we made no effort to count their numbers except to possibly agree with a shooter returning to his car with an estimate of 30,000. 

Pink-footed Geese

Whooper Swans

When the rushhour traffic abated along the main road we were able to hear and see a steady passage of Skylarks flying over and also heading south. 

There's more news soon. Be sure to take another look at Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and  http://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.co.uk/.