Another flood over

I meant to say " another week over", so there.

1CY controlled Coal Tit

The flooding that occurred in the early hours of Sunday has subsided and those affected in the village have finished mopping up but are a long way from getting back to normal. The worst affected had three feet of flood water in their downstairs accommodation. However, I know of one family that has had to move out altogether in the interim; there may be more. Our plasterer could be in for a hectic period once the dehumidifiers are out.

Part of Robert Street, post flooding

This week has been characterised by cloud, 56 mm of rain and a stiff breeze for the first half, and then frost, sunny mornings and light winds for the remainder. Both these conditions have rendered bird ringing a little on the adventitious side, grabbing a few hours when the weather and temperature allowed. Nevertheless, I have managed to ring 30 new birds, including two chance Blackcaps, and recapture a further 20 birds of just 12 species.

The two first year female Blackcaps [30-11-12]

We have had two flocks, totalling at least 20 birds, of different Long-tailed Tits through the orchard. They were on the same day, about three hours apart. The unfortunate few were 'low fliers'. Two of the re-traps were first ringed here in mid March and early June last year. But, two other birds were first ringed by neighbouring ringer, John, at the end of January 2011. Both these birds, accompanied by two of mine, have a long re-trap history of passing between our two sites, which are approx. 2-3 km apart at opposite ends of the parish.

The orchard list (Sat - Fri; 5 sessions)

Collared Dove 1 - an immature from this spring

Goldcrest (2) - includes the adult female

Blue Tit 6 (2) - 4 of the new birds were adults, the rest 1CYs

Coal Tit (1 control) - 1CY bird - Y0874nn - ex Quantocks?

Long-tailed Tit 7 (5 + 2 controls)

Blackcap 2 - both weighty imm. females

Blackbird 3 (2) - all young birds

Redwing 1 - a lone adult, 1st this autumn

Robin (4) - there are at least 8 birds about

Dunnock 2 (1) - 

Greenfinch 3 - all females

Goldfinch 5 (1) - 4 new adult males and 2 juv males

Male Greenfinch (Nov)

As a matter of interest, over the last month (November), there have been at least 38 different Goldfinch in the garden, 35 different Blue Tits, 19 Blackbirds and 15 Greenfinch, as these are the numbers that I have trapped. We never see that number of birds, of course.

The met. people are forecasting more heavy rain for the beginning of next week. Hey ho!

Bramble Finch

What a week it has been. The weather has been awful, with houses, roads and fields flooded, cars and people stranded, and at least one person dead as a direct result. Over the last seven days it has rained on four days, resulting in 76 mm of rainfall, two-thirds of that on one day, Wednesday. All this accompanied by gale force winds, as signified by our neighbours fence blowing down yesterday. We have had no workmen all week until the sun shone, today.

It was a pleasant surprise to find a spanking juvenile male Brambling in the bottom of the net first thing this morning, only the third time I've been able to open in the last seven days. This breaks another duck for 2012, bringing the species caught by me this year in ST04 to 42, one more than last year.

First winter male Brambling

Later this morning, I retrapped a male Blackbird, ringed as a 1CY in mid-November 2011, that I subsequently re-caught another eight times up to 1st May this year, but not since. As can be seen from the photographs, it has a noticeable brown bar across the median & greater coverts and an admixture of grey/brown feathers on its belly (and a few elsewhere). Has this happened as a consequence of moulting during periods of heavy rain when its diet may have been severely restricted?

Second winter male Blackbird - "stressed" plumage

Half of all the birds this week we managed to catch on Sunday, when the weather behaved itself momentarily. Lizzie's verdict on the morning's ringing in the orchard here was "lovely to be able to come inside and warm up". She's not one for cold weather ringing, but, there again, she had just returned from tramping up and down the mountains in Brescia (Italy) looking for illegal nets, traps and bird-trappers. See here for more on that.

Gt. Spotted Woodpecker (1) - a 4M from mid-Sept. down on the meadows

Goldcrest 2 (2) - 3 young males & an adult female

Blue Tit 8 (4) - 3:1, 1st years: older

Great Tit 2 - 1CY birds

Coal Tit 3 - 2 of which were adults

Wren 1 (1) - a new adult

Blackbird 3 (1) - (see above)

Robin (1) - a 'juvenile' from June still here (female?)

Dunnock (1) - from 11/11, last 'seen' end of March this year

Brambling 1 - first of the year!

Goldfinch 5 (1) - the r/t was a young bird from Sept. on the meadows

A total of 11 species, 25 new birds plus 12 re-traps.

The weather ahead looks like more storms with high winds and heavy rainfall with alternate days of slightly calmer conditions. Not a lot of hope for much bird ringing there, then. Until next weekend, cheerio and take care.

Williton Station - pm Wed 21 Nov 2012

Some improvement

Some say. I say. 68 birds caught this week even though the weather was up and down. Around half of all birds were from the finch family and possibly represents the end of their 'migration' through the area. On Friday, we had the first Redwings on the Holly trees, albeit just two. One or two Fieldfares are around the village and one of the Mistle Thrushes has reappeared. The wagtails, Pied and Grey, now flit back and forth daily over the garden, to what purpose I have no idea. 

The Crow family down the lane have become more obvious too, with several irritable (if you can apply that to a bird) inter-changes, presumably between the parents and their dilatory offspring. A question of "big enough and old enough" springs to mind. The Chiff at the back of the garden, and the other one down the lane, have been silent this week; most likely this is because I've not ventured out early enough, given the rather dank weather.

Now for the list covering last Saturday (10th) to Friday:

Collared Dove 1 - a fully fledged youngster

Goldcrest 2         

Blue Tit 8 (1)

Great Tit 2 (2)

Coal Tit 1 (1)

Blackbird 5 (1)

Robin (1)

Dunnock (1)

House Sparrow 7 (1) - just 2 were female

Chaffinch 3 - all adult

Greenfinch 9 (2) - females outnumbered males 2:1

Goldfinch 15 (2) - 50:50 split on age; 60:40 M:F

Siskin 1

Total = 54 (14 retraps), 13 species.

On three consecutive days, I controlled another ringer's bird. It so happens that it was one each from the other local ringers, situate 2, 8 & 15 km in more or less a westerly direction. They were all adult birds, caught during the spring of this year, the nearest one a male Goldfinch, the other two were Greenfinches, one of each sex.

I've been looking at my tit catches over the previous 90 days. It shows how bad a breeding season the Blue and Great Tits have had when compared to Coal Tit. The "Age Specific" analysis, which covers the breeding season itself, shows little or no change from last year's figures for the "big boys". The current catches contain 38% adults for Blue Tit and almost the same, at 39%, for Great Tit. The much smaller Coal Tit, meanwhile, only has 11% adult 'content', a much more realistic figure. It can be partially explained by the fact that Coal Tits nest in the coniferous plantations, which are much drier, least ways beneath the canopy, and that must have been an advantage this year.

Top ten (so far)

Just a quick look at how things are going to date on the ringing front. It's always good to know what has been caught and compare this with other years.

The top ten are, with last year's position in brackets:

1 (1) - Goldfinch 233 (22.7%)

2 (2) - Blue Tit 86 (8.4%)

3 (4) - Blackcap 77 (7.5%)

4 (6) - Greenfinch 65 (6.3%)

5 (3) - Chiffchaff 62 (6.0%)

6 (11=) - House Sparrow 49 (4.8%)

7 (5)- Blackbird 45 (4.4%)       

8 (8=) - Great Tit 41 (4.0%)

9= (13) - Chaffinch 37 (3.6%)

9= (11=) - Robin 37 (3.6%)

These ten represent 71.2% of the total; the remaining 31 occupy the rest of the list.

Last year, in 7th place was Long-tailed Tit, currently in 15th place, in 8th= with Gt. Tit was Dunnock, now relegated to 11th= with Willow Warbler, and 10th, Brambling, with 52 birds, but none as yet, along with ten other species with 'zilch' this year! 

I don't expect a lot of change - unless we have some unprecedented weather here in the south-west. Waxwing and thrush invasion?

TW3

Migration has certainly slowed down now. There are two reasons for thinking this. One, is the daily passage westwards of a flock of up to 100 Starlings shortly after dawn from their roost on The Levels to their daytime feeding areas, somewhere Minehead way. Two, there was a flurry of Redwings and Fieldfares on Monday, that built up to more impressive flocks on Tuesday and then waned on Wednesday. These latter birds were all moving north-east over the Quantocks in groups varying around the twenty mark, sometimes coalescing into flocks of c. 100. Up the lane, the owner has planted many berried trees and shrubs that attract them; it was quite impressive in the mornings, but tailing off before noon. Several thousand must have passed through.

John, who lives "the other side of the pylons", managed to catch a few of these thrushes recently, namely 12 Redwing and a single Fieldfare - plus loads of Blackbirds. I should add that the pylons skirt the north of the village and John lives in an area detached from the main village by an area known as 'Danesfield' where there was a battle with the Viking invaders, many, many, many moons ago. That also makes us twice as far from the coast as he is.

This week, I have again managed to catch 48 birds, as last week, but only 36 of them were new, all requiring BTO bling. As last week, the species tally was also 14. At long last, the painters have left and the scaffold has been taken away. Just leaves another week for the jobbing builders to come and do the 'snagging' and the unfinished jobs. Peace and quiet will then reign and perhaps the birds will deem to grace the feeders, etc. in the usual manner.

Top dog, sorry - bird, was the Tom Tit, followed by King Harrys, much the same as last week, with Blackie replacing the Golden-crested Wren. [These are the country-side names]. New Coal Tits are still coming through as are Blackcaps. Just the other day, I noticed a singing Chiffchaff that had taken up residence where there were two breeding territories in the summer.

The all important list:
Gt. Spot. Woodpecker (1) - ad. male first caught this Sept.
Goldcrest 1 (1)
Blue Tit 9 (3) - 5 of the new ones were 'adult'
Gt. Tit 1 (1)
Coal Tit 2 (1) - 
Long-tailed Tit (1) - from early Jan this year
Blackcap 1 - a female this time
Blackbird 6 (1) - more females than males
Robin 1 (1) - the new bird was still in PJ moult
Dunnock (1)
House Sparrow 2 (1) - all males
Chaffinch 3 - all females, 2 adult
Greenfinch 1 - a 3F
Goldfinch 8 (1) - no adult females

Male House Sparrow (1CY) November

Male Gt. Spotted Woodpecker (2CY) November

Female Blue Tit (adult) November

Female Blackbird (1CY - 4ogc) November; immigrant?

Male Blackbird (1CY - 4ogc) November; immigrant?

Female Goldcrest

  

For those of you young ones, TW3 (TWTWTW) was a satirical TV programme called "That was the week that was" with David Frost, John Cleese and many others of that genre .