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 .

Rainshine

That just about sums up the week just gone, week 44. We've had an inch of rain (25 mm), heavy at times, with several rainbows visible. The low sunshine, when it's been there, has been very brilliant. So, all in all, a scourge as regards the nets, which have alternated in their usefulness by being highly visible, blowing like mad or full of autumn leaves versus hanging limp and full (I use that word loosely) of birds. I haven't reached 1,000 new birds for the year yet and the meadows have become 'out of action', now that the horses are back in for the winter. Their persistent inquisitiveness puts the nets and themselves in danger.

As it happens, the week wasn't a complete disaster. Birds were on the move as the temperatures dropped close to freezing. There wasn't an evident overnight passage at all that I could determine, just a steady trickle some mornings as the skies brightened up.  The Robins sang to greet the day. Another week like this one and I will just surpass the 'magic' 1,000 new birds for the year.

Eurasian Robin

The species tally was a pleasant spread of 14, contributing to 41 new and 7 re-captured birds over five of the seven days. Nothing out of the ordinary but nice to see the LTTs making an appearance. There are still some "summer migrants" about, but these could well be the "wintering type" from across the continent.

Male Blackcap - winter

Goldcrest 4 - all males, 2 of which were adult (age class 4)

Blue Tit 6 (3)

Great Tit 1 - adult female

Coal Tit 2 - 1 adult bird, probably male

Long-tailed Tit 5 (1) - r/t was one of the 1st birds caught on the site

Chiffchaff 1 - long-winged adult male (4M)

Blackcap 2 - both 1CY males

Wren 1 (1)

Robin 1 (1)

Dunnock 1

House Sparrow 3

Chaffinch 1 - adult female

Greenfinch 1 - adult male

Goldfinch 12 (1) - 7 new birds were adults

Overhead, we find the early morning Starlings travelling off west to some unknown feeding ground or other, shortly followed by a squad of Black-headed Gulls in from the coast. Neither of these species are common during the breeding season. The Herring Gulls have found reinforcements to fill the gap left by the Lesser Black-backs that have long since moved to warmer winter quarters. The Mistle Thrushes have taken up sentry duty on the two berry laden Holly trees and a Nuthatch is calling from the lane.

November Goldfinch - completing moult, carrying a tick

Domestically, we have been 'off-line' for much of the week (half-term) and without a land-line all week. The telephone company (BT) came yesterday and spent all morning renewing the line (which was broken in two places) into our property and, subsequently, our broadband speed has jumped twofold now that the hub also has a direct connection.