Back to normal?

After such a long time with night-time frosts and glorious, sunny days that were very warm for the time of year, we are now back to more normal weather. The temperatures are down to seasonal norms and there are clouds - or a blanket of cloud - in the sky. This should bode better for our hobby of bird-catching and bird-ringing. However, there are not many early migrants coming through as most have 'zipped' past at high altitude while the weather was in their favour.

Soon, the bulk of the warblers will be coming to us, most probably around or a little after Easter. Hopefully, the herb layer will be growing 'like mad' and the trees will be in full leave, enabling us to get some camouflage for the nets. We need some rain to liven things up.

Back to the recent past. My hand is healing (stitches out), if a little sore, and weeping slightly. Have, therefore, been confined to the garden - but it's all "regulars", as the totals will show. Many of the "locals" are also well aware of where I put the nets, even when I shift them about to try and improve the situation.

Since the one and only Willow Warbler that turned out to be a Norfolk bred bird (just like 'her indoors'), there has been little in the way of "new arrivals", just 9, in fact. This compares with 14 re-traps, which helped to bulk up the species total for the last few days to 13. This represents half of the weekly species that we are able to submit to the BTO's Garden Bird Watch.

(Unseasonal) male Blackbird (per Dave B)

Goldcrest (1) - the female of the pair
Blue Tit (1)
Great Tit 1 (1) - the garden pair, she with a good BP
Blackcap 2 (1) - all males
Wren 1
Blackbird (1)
Song Thrush (1)
Robin (1) - an eggy female
Dunnock (4) - that's 2 of the 3+ pairs!
House Sparrow (1) - a 2cY female without BP
Chaffinch (1) - 2CY female in egg
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 4 (1) - all pretty lean

Decided, unwisely as it happens, to see if there were any migrants grounded by the overnight, cloudy, conditions. Turned out to be a big NO. [Portland BO hogged them all - they ringed over 600 birds today. ] We did see 3 Swallows and 3 Smarties flying towards the Bristol Channel at full pelt around 8.30 and 3 Siskins passed through around 11.00. No Dippers, Kingfishers, Little Egberts, a Chiff singing in the tree-top above us, one Moorhen and two drake Mallard were our lot.

We caught a mere 7 birds for our pains:
Wren 1 (1)
Blackbird 1 (1)
Chaffinch 1
Bullfinch (2) - the pair originally caught in the garden.

Just to rub it in, I had a flat battery; fortunately it recovered with a quick trickle charge.

Now the good news

After 3 disasters in as many days, now some better news. I put a 6m net up ready for the morning and caught my first Willow Warbler of the year this evening.


It was a male on size with a very broad tail, indicating that it could probably be in its 3rd calendar year or even more. However, it was already bearing a ring - BXL944. Any takers out there?

Ouch!

Taken up self-harming in a big way. [Even the professionals do it!] No ringing for a while - out of action due to 5 stitches in my left hand. Early morning trip to Minehead Hospital, driven by trainee (they do have their uses. LoL) Took the nets down later. Whose a stupid bugger? Roll on next weekend.

Down on the meadows - at last!

Today we managed a session with 4 nets down at the meadows, staying within the home 1km square. We will move into the next 1km square (north) after we have had a session on the other side of the stream in the orchard and by the ruined mill. As yet, it is too early to catch much since the trees are only just beginning to flush green, the nettles are a mere 8-10cm high and the "policemans helmet" has also just germinated, showing its first pair of leaves.

The 9m net over the stream produced a new, 3CY or older, male Kingfisher at first light.

Full adult male Kingfisher

The 18m net further downstream (but not over water) caught a pair of 2CY birds later, the male of which was first caught last August, but was trapped alongside a different 2CY female just 10 days ago - a bit of a flirt or rejected in favour of another?

Another new 2CY female Kingfisher - note the amount of red on the lower mandible.
Compare the browny-green tinge to the head feathers with the bright blue of a full adult.

It wasn't a day for numbers as the season is only just beginning. One bird that did fall prey to our nets was an male Chiffchaff that had been ringed last July as an adult. It was one of 13 Chiffies that day and was caught 2 hours before the 3JF (juvenile female) that was controlled at Icklesham (E. Sussex) in mid September.

The returning adult male Chiffchaff - with 'pollen horn'

Including a short, unproductive "go" in the garden yesterday, we added the following to the year's total:
Kingfisher 2 (1)
Long-tailed Tit 1 (1)
Chiffchaff (1)
Wren 1 (3)
Dunnock 1 (1)

At the moment, we are catching more Wrens and Long-tailed Tits that we have done for a while now, just as they are getting down to choosing potential nest sites.

One of 3 2CY Wrens caught this week. Note abraded tail and contrasting flight feathers

The only other things of note were 3 Redpoll spp. in the Alders that moved off north and the finding of quite fresh Otter spraint in one of the more secluded net rides.

Supplementary: I went back and took a picture of the Otter poo the following day; it had dried out quite a bit in 24 hours. Here it is.

. . . but not gone yet!

A ringed male and a ringed female Blackcap are still feeding at the bird table; presumed to be the same two birds that have wintered with us since they are approaching and leaving to a familiar pattern (both different).

Little Egret - surveying one of its favourite fishing spots
[This is the closest I've got to it - some 30metres - before it lifts off]

Things are still very slow, mainly due to the inclement weather we're having - nothing but heavy showers, especially in the mornings when the birds are about foraging, thereby putting the kybosh on ringing just a tad.

Walking down to and around the meadows has not produced much either. Territorial Blue and Great Tits, an absence of female Blackbirds suggesting nesting has stated [this will be in the thick 'Devon' hedges], singing Greenfinches and Chaffinches, a singing Chiff, a nosy Magpie, a pair of Crows and a Pied Wagtail. The Little Egret (above) mooches back and forth along the stream from the bridge to the sea all day long. The only other occupants of this stretch of water seem to be a pair of Mallard and a couple of prospecting Moorhen.

It's not all doom and gloom as I have managed to ring 11 new birds and re-trap 7 others since the last blog, using just the 60' (18m) garden net.
Goldcrest 1 (1) - a local pair
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Chiffchaff 1 - another male on the move
Wren (2) - a pair?
Blackbird (1)
Dunnock (2)
Greenfinch 2 - both females
Goldfinch 3 - all males; on migration?
Siskin 2 - a pair?
Lesser Redpoll 1 - another one!

Lesser Redpoll - adult male (March)

I suspect it will be Wednesday before it's any good trying to ring down at the stream sites; the forecast is for wind and sunshine - funny combination?

Chiffin'

After having seen a Chiffchaff looking for insects/spiders on the side walls of the 'river' bridge on Sunday, and then hearing it or another in full song 100m further up the lane yesterday, it was my pleasure to ring one in the garden today.


As expected, it was a male (with a wing of 62mm) and it was carrying little fat at 8.0 grams. It had obviously been feeding up fairly recently as it had what we call "pollen horns" (see photo). Some of the nectar that the bird has been collecting from the flowering trees and shrubs sticks to the minute feathers around its upper and lower mandibles, producing this effect. Nectar is a good and quick source of sugars which the birds convert to fat to power their migration flight. It would, most likely, have obtained this 'horn' in northern Spain or south-west France before making a concerted push to arrive here in England yesterday or today.

Many ringers have reported catching their first Chiffchaffs in the last two/three days.

A cabaret at last.

Despite the light fog and gloomy outlook, I opened the garden nets once more, sometime about when the sun should have appeared over the horizon.

It turned out to be quite a nice 'tickle', with 11 birds caught and just 3 of them re-traps. First was the female Blackcap (see previous post), and the second was a 3CY male Blackbird that is dominating the front garden and its bird table (this also has sultanas provided!). A male Blackcap made up the third bird with a ring on.

Best bird was a Carduelis cabaret, only the second to have been noticed in the garden during the 18 months we've been here.

2CY Lesser Redpoll (C.cabaret)

All up, it came to the following numbers:
Blue Tit 1
Blackcap (2)
Wren 1
Blackbird (1)
Song Thrush 1
Chaffinch 2
Greenfinch 1
Goldfinch 1
Lesser Redpoll 1

That brings this year's total for the garden to 161 new plus 100 re-traps of 23 species, and an all-up total of species ringed so far to 43.

Going, going, . . . .!

Library picture of female Blackcap (51)

Today I recaught the female Blackcap (51) that has been with us since the New Year. She is now starting to lay down fat and was fat score ESF30 and 24.5 grams early on. She's obviously looking to move on.

I have just re-caught the male Blackcap (53) that also had a fat score of ESF30, two weeks ago. His weight (early doors) was 20.1 grams and he has stayed around, although avoiding capture. Today his fat level was down to ESF10, but his weight remains fairly stable at 20.5 grams. There is a lot of 'in-fighting' with the second male over who should feed first at the Camellia bird table.

The other male Blackcap (77) continues to evade capture; on the last day of February he weighed just 16.5 grams, first thing in the morning. I'll have to put a net up in a new position if I want to trap him before he, too, leaves. I wonder how much weight he's put on?

Library picture of male Blackcap (77)

How much longer will these birds stay around and feed off the soaked sultanas on the bird table? Days, I should imagine. I doubt if they will attempt to migrate all the while we are more or less fog-bound.

Good things come in twos.

It's been much of a muchness since my last blog. Somethings are moving, some others have gone and yet more are to arrive.

I have managed to ring in our small orchard on the even days of the week from sunrise 'til 10-ish, by which time the sun has risen quite a way and spotlighted the net(s). It has been steady and pretty reasonable for a small set-up like we have here. Things will improve as soon as we are able to return to the meadows, once the willows and alders sprout their leaves. But I'll probably catch a Chiffchaff in the garden before that happens.

2CY female Siskin

Noticeable was the pairs of Greenfinch that I caught every day. One day I was blessed with a male and female Siskin in the net inches apart, only the third and fourth of the year so far. Another day, three Goldfinches - although we had just had a cold, cloudless night. Not the local birds, since they all know the way to approach the feeders containing sunflower hearts and seldom make a mistake.

2CY male Siskin

Another duo, this time of female Blackbirds, found the short net across our small shrubbery. So far this winter I have ringed or retrapped 25 male Blackbirds, but, with these two, just 13 female birds. There's something going on here but, as yet, I have not fathomed it out. There are also twice as many 2CY birds as full adults (Euring class 6) of both sexes, which is about par for this time of year - if the previous breeding season was a good one.

So, this week's tally comes to 18 new (&9 r/t) of 11 spp.:
Woodpigeon (1) - a very fat male!
Great Tit 2
Blackcap (1) - the long-staying female from the New Year
Blackbird 2 (3)
Robin (2)
Dunnock 1 (1)
House Sparrow 1
Chaffinch 1
Greenfinch 6 (1) - r/t was originally caught in mid-Jan 2011 as a 6M
Goldfinch 3
Siskin 2

However, the week didn't end there.
My new trainee was back from Cuba and wanted to brave the colder air. So, in order to get a feel for the impending spring, I set four nets in one of the meadows the night before. We didn't bargain for the weather, though! Fog had been forecast most mornings but there had been no signs of it in the village, but we could see it capping the top of the Quantocks. Today proved otherwise; dense, wet FOG, hanging on the nets that I had put up the night before. We were right cheesed off but stuck it out. Just as well we did, because our first "hit" was a pair of 2CY Kingfishers, the male being one I ringed here last August when it still had 'brown legs'. They were busy all morning defending their territory downstream of the bridge, once released.

2CY Kingfishers - male above, female below

The rest of the session was rather rubbish, as one would expect in the circumstances but it did give us a chance to have a 'recce' prior to the season kicking off. 8 VTOL Redwing departed at first light, a Song Thrush sang non-stop for 4 hours and a Dipper 'buzzed' through. As I was packing up, a hungry Chiff was hunting spiders in the cracks of the stone walls beside the bridge.

GT = 5 new (&5 r/t)
Kingfisher 1 (1) - new female
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Great Tit 1 (2)
Wren 1
Dunnock 1 (1)
... and the nets are in the airing cupboard - along with my boots!

Here's to Spring! [summer-time starts in a fortnight!!!] I expect it will arrive with gales and rain! [I'm usually an optimist] We'll see!

Is it a Control?

With hazy sunshine and a very light easterly breeze, it would have been a sin not to have opened the nets!

A steady trickle of birds, a mix of new and old, from forty minutes after sunrise kept me going until noon.
All in all, I had 6 new and 3 re-traps, including a Siski with an unfamiliar ringno. Would this be control or a re-trap? It wasn't John's on the far side of the village, so it might be a technical control if it was one of Denise's.

It turned out to have been ringed by her new C permit holder, Karen, in her home village, which is 7km West from my homestead. The other thing was that it had been ringed just 6 days ago. Was it moving out for the summer to God knows where?

A fine adult male (6M) SISKIN from this morning

Day's total:
Blue Tit (1) - a male from "day 1" last year when it was aged 6
Blackbird 1
House Sparrow 2 - several males have been chasing through the garden today
Chaffinch 1
Greenfinch 1 (1)
Goldfinch 1
Siskin (1)