I'm Finnished again

Just got a Blackbird recovery through from one of my 'C' ringers [EDG] who now operates the main site I worked for over 20 years.

It was ringed by my trainee [DTH] as a 3M (1cy male) with 1 ogc, a wing of 135mm, a weight of 112g at 08:00 [GMT] on Wednesday 9th December 2009. This was the one of two birds out of four 'continental types' that we managed to extract and ring, two "doing a Houdini". See http://ivelringinggroup.blogspot.com/2009/12/rain-has-stopped.html for a read of the session. It was found dead 653 days later on 23rd September 2011, at a place called Vistarna, Soderudden, Korsholm, Finland, some 1775km NE of Priory Country Park, Bedford.


This is my furthest recovery for a Blackbird (although I have had a Kestrel from much further north in Finland). I had another Blackbird from the same site found freshly dead at Vaxjo, Kronoberg, Sweden in 1993, 1117km ENE with a duration of 566 days; this was ringed in January as a 5F and found 18 months later at the end of July.

Of general interest is the latest DEFRA publication on The wildbird population changes in Britain from 1970-2010.
See http://t.co/NeLHPMno

Might be able to put the nets up again on Tuesday next (according to the Met. Office)

Walking the dog

In a week's time, I will be leading my last guided walk for the Borough at the Country Park. Today, I took a shuffle round with the dog, to see what's changed of late.


'Cerise'
 
It was a 'grey day', somewhat overcast, but at least the gales had died down and it was not cold at 8C. The usual flotilla of Mallard had congregated along the path up to the Beefeater with a few Coot hangers-on. A plaintive Robin sang at the Sailing Club corner and a couple of skittish Blackbirds shot from one side of the path to the other, doubtless after Yew berries. No Greenfinch today; strange?

Further along at the SW corner, a flock of 16 Goldfinch emerged from the lakeside bushes and flew towards the river. Offshore, I spied 3 male Pochard heading towards the island. Pairs of Gadwall swam idly along, hither and thither. With the middle section closed to provide a winter wildfowl 'safe zone', the next stop was the hide. Pressmead produced nothing on the way there, not even a Chaffinch! A scruffy Tufted was hiding in the corner, more Mallard squawked their way out from the neighbouring reeds, more Gadwall idled 'offshore', a singleton male Pochard (not one of the three) hove into view and the masses of Coot "did Coot".

'Mallard', resting.

Walking on, I noticed the recent winds had brought a willow down across one of the swims. Approaching the 'beach', we encountered our first dog walkers. Glancing aside, I picked up a Little Grebe plunging into >10 feet of water as it spotted me. Crossing the cycle track to the lock, I checked out Fingers; not a lot - just two Cormorant fishing. Says it all - no wonder the anglers complain for ever and a day. Kramer hide - nil; well, one Heron.

Bumped into the lads, DK, Dave and John A, looking at a Magpie hanging (dead) in a tree on Kingsmead. On the intervening meadow there were 77 Wood Pigeons and a Jackdaw. Walking back to the 'rough', it was pretty dismal - the only consolation was one (or more) Siskin calling overhead. Flighty Shoveler on the Fingers (lilypads side), a desperate Cormorant, half a dozen Redwing and ... that's your lot.

I did get to hear a calling Chiff in the shelter belt that stretched from the 'rough' to the visitor centre, probably the best bird of the day.

Back home

With 100% humidity, clearing skies and waterlogged grass underfoot, it was with some trepidation I set out this morning with the intention of ringing. With it being so wet last night (>20mm rain), I swapped sub-sites and went back to the old faithful, "the rough", where I knew I could avoid the worst of the wet.

It took a while to get the nets up as the net loops on these latest ones are smaller and stick easily on wet bamboo. Once up, I erected the net by the feeders, now that the birds had had their dawn feed, the most important for many of them.

Early birds were three more Blackcaps, this time with two males, reversing the recent sex pattern. Plenty of Blue Tits in between and a few more retraps of pulli from our scattered boxes. Finally a burst of Chaffinches, well, just three actually, all birds of the year and one a female.

Scoreboard after roughly two hours:
Blue Tit 4 (10)
Great Tit (1)
Blackcap 3
Wren 1
Robin (2)
Dunnock 1
Chaffinch 3

 One of today's male Chaffinches

A 'long dead' bird was found on a fence post; the B ring was recovered and turned out to be from a House Sparrow that we ringed hereabouts in August 2008 as a juvenile.

Sightings this morning included a Jay, a male and a female Sparrowhawk, two high flying Song Thrushes, a Marsh Tit on the feeder, a Reed Warbler at the top of a tall Ash tree, a passing Goldcrest and a Chiff that refused to be coerced into any net by a tape lure!

Last of the summer

Went out ringing this morning, hoping that I might catch a few birds. To see how I got on, go to ...............

http://priorycountrypark.blogspot.com/2010/09/last-of-summer.html

Ladies' Day.

I call this "ladies' day" because of the number of female Blackcaps that I caught today at Priory. I didn't go early because of the dripping fog, but waited until 9 o'clock (BST). Most of the birds were caught during the next two hours whilst it was still rather "overcast". Thereafter, the sun appeared, albeit with fluffy, summer clouds.

Today's "bit of fluff".

A rather typical 'early autumn' day, with many of the migrants well on their way south, leaving just a few late broods to fatten up before taking off on their own migrations. There are other migrants from "up north" around but we don't get many of them here as they seem to prefer the Ivel valley (runs north-south) or the slopes of the Chilterns.

24 birds today wasn't a bad count - 50% Blackcaps was the main attraction. Put another way, six times more than were actually seen/recorded at the outset by my friend, DK.  Today's effort brought the total of new Blackcaps caught at this site this year to 71, just 17 short of last year's total, but a massive 36 short of the all-time winner, 107 in 1994!

Female Blackcap #415, wl 75.5mm, wt 21.8g, 1ogc, F3.5, M2. Today's fattest.

The full list for today comprised:
Chiffchaff - 2
Blackcap - 12, 10 of these were females!
C.Whitethroat - 1
Wren - 1
Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1, (1)
Robin - 1, (1)
Dunnock - 2
Greenfinch - 1


Many of the young birds, other than the Blackcaps, were in early PJ moult and some had still not started.

 3JM Blackbird #080 in full juvenile livery.

The only adult birds were two of the female Blackcaps and a male Chiffchaff (with an abietinus call). The Common Whitethroat looked as good as any adult of the species.

Whitethroat #414 with juvenile eye colour, weighed in at 17.0g (F3,M1)

Another handfull

Out with the ladder again, this time with Davy H.
(To read last weekend's - go HERE)

That's him being useful!. 79 tit pulli ringed today to add to the 74 we did at the weekend.

A box full of Great Tits. Not much of a nest - their bums were on the wooden base of the box!

Today, things were more even with 6 broods of Blue Tit and 6 of Great Tit. One brood of Great we left as they were too big and about to 'explode'. This was in the box where, last year, all the young died because of the very wet weather.

That's what is known as a handful; 13 Blue Tits just about ready for their baptismal jewellery. And a close up, showing the young feathers sprouting from their sheaths (FS).

So far we have ringed - 11 broods of Blue Tit, brood sizes from 5 to 13, average of 9.18; 8 broods of Great Tit, brood size from 3 to 9, average of 6.63 (excludes runts). There are 4 more BT broods to ring and 6 more GT ones. 

A full weekend coming up - CES one day and ten more boxes of pulli the next!

San Valentino's dagen

Up early for a guided walk at the Park (Priory). The weather was a bit 'iffy', with a cold, damp wind and just above freezing (2C). Bird wise it was a bit limited but the object was to see the wildfowl before they leave for their breeding grounds.

First of the day was a Greater Black-back Gull, a really scarce bird here. Then on to 6 Wigeon by the sailing club. They moved up onto the grass and the GBBG landed amongst them. There were 13 Cormorants lined up on the piling, keeping watch. After we moved off, we stopped at a mixed bunch of birds, feeding on the lake-side veg.

A family of 7 swans, several Pochard (both sexes), Mallard, ten or so Coot and two pairs of Gadwall. Three Black-headed Gulls surrounded a lone Common Gull. Turning round and looking at the meadow, we saw 5 Blackbirds and 7 Redwing - until a terrier frightened them into the Hawthorn bushes.

On Fingers we found 2 male Tufted, two pairs of Great Crested Grebes setting up territory and starting on their nesting platforms, 3 Cormorant and an adult male Shoveler, an immature trying to look like "his dad", and an accompanying female. It looked like a pair of Blue Tits had already found the new nest box that we put up yesterday. The rangers have been busy this week and cut a swathe through the Corn Bunting roost in the 'Crescent' reedbed. No sign of the resident Chiff.

We wandered past 'the beach', up along the canoe slalom and up the river. A large party of Long-tailed Tits favoured us and several Goldfinches twittered their presence. On was taking pollen from the new Alder catkins, something I've not seen them doing before. Round at the hide, we were able to get close views of the the Pochard and some more male Tufteds. The main flock (150+) was sheltering behind the island - until a wind surfer appeared past the southern tip and put the birds to flight. I savoured the moment as they flew a couple of circuits of the lake before landing in the middle of the "safe zone". For those who don't know, the western side of the 64ac (29ha) lake is a wildfowl sanctuary and closed to the sailing club from 1st November until the end of March, whereas they have a 25yr lease on the eastern half.

We then walked up the old tow-path, Cardington Walk, passed the ancient pollarded willows. We were out of the wind but there was little to see or hear. There was no sign of the hoped for Stonechats and we could only hear the piping of the Teal on the Fenlake pool, obscured by the bankside growth. A large flock of Canada Geese, with the Greylag x Canada taking up the head, drifted downstream passed an angler fishing for Pike.

Then it was pack to terra firma along 'Blackbird alley' behind the sailing club clubhouse and the remains of the Priory Wall. Mainly 'garden birds' here with a Greenfinch 'wheezing' from the top of the only large Sycamore in the park. Finally farewell to the regulars and to Faith, a newcomer and immigrant lady from Sydney. Then home for a bath; not that I'm dirty, just needed warming up!

A better day was had by all

The penicillin capsules are starting to have an effect. The cough is drying up and so is the mucus.
The weather has been "quiet", some would say, grey skies, light winds but low temps. This is ideal in some ways for catching birds.

Today, they took another catch at the Blunham trap and caught a lot of new Gadwall. Later in the day, I went over to Chris Z's and loaded IPMR on his computer and set it all up. We then put in the last two catches.

In the garden, it was painfully slow. A new female Great Tit, a species not seen for the best part of three months, a 5F Blackbird that sneaks in down the side passage but doesn't go beyond the Apple tree (i.e. as far as a net) and a 5M Goldfinch. However, a fresh party of Lottis, numbering six, appeared at the top of the garden, on their way to next door's feeders in a small but thickly branched Field Maple. Nine new birds for the day.

A call from the park to say that Danny had picked up a male Pochard with a ring on. It was a Blunham bird (can't tell you when it was ringed because we're only just inputting the records, backwards historically). It was a big bird (wing of 222) but was drastically underweight (at 690 gms) after the recent bad weather of prolonged ice-over and snow cover. While in the park, I made the bi-daily Bird Aid drop off in the Rough.

Yesterday, Lee Evans (UK400Club) read somecolour rings of the Barnacle Geese at Willington. These turned out to be birds that are faithful to this area and have not been seen "wandering around the countryside". LGRE manged to read 20 out of 33 he noticed. At the end of last October, another bird-watcher managed to read 13 c-r, none of which Lee recorded this week.Just two of these had been involved in a "local wander".

Changes expected

On the last day of September, myself and Davy Howes netted the 'rough'. The weather was fair but overcast. The forecast for the weekend was wind and rain, the latter having been absent for a month now. There are still several Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs passing through, so we thought we'd have a go. As a back-up, we also put a net across the feeders.

We managed a grand total of 38 birds, 14 of which were tits we caught by the feeders (8 Great & 6 Blue).
Highlights were:    3 immature Blackcaps on the move, a large male Chiffchaff and a couple of Treecreepers.
The Chiff was on the large size (64mm wing) but not grey enough for an abietinus and too big in the wing for one. In all we had 12 species.

Davy had just come back from a ringing course in the Isle of White. He brought back greetings from some of the trainers and trainees that I have known well in the past. They had also had a slow time of it during this year's migration and numbers caught were down considerably, mainly because a Swallow roost did not form.

Two days later:     I swapped the 30' net on the east side of the garden for a 40' on the west side (the other side of the feeders). My reward was 4 Goldfinch (the first for quite a while), a young Blackbird, a young Starling, a young House Sparrow and a couple of Blue Tits. The grass is very dry and the lawn has cracks in it; this didn't stop me putting the mower over it as they keep telling us that we're going to get some rain soon. I'll believe that when it happens!

The change in the weather should mean a change in the birds. The lack of rain has meant a lack of birds in the garden especially.

The Rough at Priory

Below is an aerial shot of the 'Rough' where we do most of our ringing in the park.

The main lake is bottom left, the Fingers lake bottom right & the 'new meadow' top left. The diagonal 'line' NE/SW is what we call the 'long hedge'. The mown 'patch' is where we set up the ringing table (often the back of my car) and where the young school kids do their 'bush bashing'.
The dark dog-leg line centre (from NW to S) indicates where the CES nets go, thereby bisecting the site.

Marathon?

Today I completed three days of ringing at the main site at the park. This small area of ca. 2 acres/1 h. is a hot-spot for migrant birds as they move SW down "the long hedge" which bisects the park. This hedge used to demarcate the change from arable fields to riverside pasture. The hedge can be seen on the right in the pic in my previous post.

Young male Goldfinch undergoing PJ moult

Day 1 - 18 new birds + 10 retraps; all were juveniles except 3. Nothing exceptional apart from 7 young Goldfinches and a couple of 'oldish' Dunnocks (born 2003 & 2004). The really important thing to occur was at 07:45. Coming out of the low sun was a warbler making this distinctive call; I knew it was a Yellow-browed Warbler, P. inornatus. The previous week, about 40 had been reported arriving in this country from Siberia. It was 12 years ago when I trapped one here, in the same spot that this bird flew over; this time I had not got that particular net up yet as I had intended to leave it until things settled down at the feeding station.

Female Goldcrest

 

Day 2 - 6 new birds + 6 retraps; 4 adults & 8 'birds of the year'. An interesting if very slow day with 3 new Chiffchaffs and 2 Reed Warblers. I also caught the first Goldcrest of the autumn.

Recently fledged female Reed Warbler

At the feeders, I recaught a Great Tit that was hatched in 2005 (and caught it again on Day 3). It's not very often we retrap Treecreepers, but I did so, even if it was only a young one from a month ago.

First year Treecreeper (indistinguishable from an adult?)

Day 3 - 19 new birds + 9 retraps; 7 adults (or 25%, the same as yesterday) with 21 classed as 1CY (first calendar year; we use calendar years in ringing, the same as in horses' ages). Started off with a bang, i.e. 3 Blackcaps. There was a fourth around and two more still late morning but not in a net!. Ther was a two hour lull between 10am and noon, when it all kicked off again; 7 birds in the last hour. One of these was a long-winged tLesser Whitethroat which may have come from somewhere over by the Caspian Sea. The weather patterns produced by the recent high pressure systems have favoured migration from the east. Many of these (young) birds are going in the reverse direction to the one they ought, "tranquillised" by the light and warming winds.

The bee's knees - 1CY Lesser Whitethroat

A761442, a male Blue Tit, was captured early on. This bird had originally been ringed in late June 2002, when it would have been about six weeks old. 7 years & 3 months have elapsed since then, making it the oldest Blue Tit in the group's records by far. (It already held the record last year!)

In all I caught - 1 Wood Pigeon (recently fledged), 3 Dunnocks, 5 Robins, 2 Blackbirds, 1 Song Thrush, 2 Reed Warblers (don't give much for their chances, low weights), 1 Lesser Whitethroat (only one later record, 29th Sept), 5 Blackcaps, 5 Chiffchaffs, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 10 Blue Tits, 17 Great Tits, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Chaffinches, 9 Goldfinches & 1 Bullfinch. 67 different birds spread over 17 species. Not bad.

Now I'm off to NW Norfolk to ring more birds (in the garden) and to finalise a trainee's application to become a licensed ringer, albeit "under distant supervision" (that means I still carry the can for his actions).

Walking the pooch.

Timmy needed his walk so we went to the park, this time to walk round and get an 'overview'.
Surprising how few Chiffs and Blackcaps there were (confirmed by DK who only had 10 Chiffs today). By the time we got there it was gone 10 am, not the best time for bird-watching - and the sun was streaming down, too.

Did have a flock of 13 LT Tits, a Little Grebe (winters on its way), 3 Kingfishers, 8 Grey Herns, 15 Cormorant, and, on the main lake, 32 Gt. Crested Grebe plus 59 Coot. This is a phenominal number of Coot for Priory - Warden Jonny B's had a bit of a problem with (water) weed this year and they have probably come to take advantage of this surfeit of greens! Also spooked 2 immature male Sparrowhawks down near the Sedgewick seat.

Entrance to 'the Rough'; the 'Long Hedge' is on the right and the Willows bordering the main lake in the distance.
 
Popped into the Rough to check the feeders; they were busy and the seed is going faster than the peanuts. The birds will take the nuts when there is nothing else left. I make up the seed myself from black and hulled sunflower with red and white millet. Above is the view looking over the gate, the 'Long Hedge' on the right.

Autumn migration

I have just spent two wonderful days catching and ringing birds at the country park. Most of the summer breeders have left, but a few are still at large while some are very noticeable. My friend, DK, had a Turtle Dove the other day and on Friday I had a Redstart. We both had Spotted Flycatcher on the Friday, 1 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. Here's where the two were 'fly-catching' from (bird 11 o'clock from dead centre).[My Fuji camera only does 10x zoom, but it suits most of the time]

However, there have been tens of Chiffchaffs collecting in loose groups around the park over the last week as the strong winds have prevented them from moving on. There was a record number seen in"one bush" of 14; the previous best was of 6. This weather has also stopped us from putting up nets, too; they blow and are visible in the wind and we don't like them getting caught "in the bushes" (it rips them, you see). Below is a Chiff being weighed in a soft plastic cone.

There were plenty of Chiffs about on both days, more so on the Saturday when I saw 5 unringed birds. By Sunday, the vast majority had moved out.
If I put the two days (Fri/Sat) together, we managed to ring the following:
Gt. Spot Woodpecker 1 (a young male just gaining its adult type plumage), Wren 3, Dunnock 8 (the oldest was x in '07), Robin 4 all on the 2nd day, Blackbird 6 (1 from '03, 1 from '05 & 1 from '07), Blackcap 7 (2 one day, 5 the next), Chiffchaff 16 (only one retrap, a female from April, the rest were 'birds of the year'), Long-tailed Tit 7 (with 2 from 2007), Blue Tit 18, Great Tit 20, Chaffinch 2, Greenfinch 2, Goldfinch 4, Bullfinch 4.

The Friday (day 1), I had a net by the new feeder site and caught 15 of the Great Tits; on day 2, when we didn't put a net by the feeders, we thought we'd caught more Blue Tits. But this was only in comparison to their larger cousins, as we'd ringed 8 plus had 2 retraps the day before.

There were quite a few female Chiffs in the catch on day 2. The wing lengths are different between the sexes which helps alot. It had turned cloudy again overnight Fri/Sat and several birds were obviously fresh in (i.e. had become 'grounded' due to the weather). We can tell this by looking at the fat levels and checking the weights.

As for the Blackcaps, 5 of the 7 were trapped on day 2. Again, I suspect that they had decided to 'drop in' as the skies clouded over and the stars/moon became invisible. So far, we are up on average numbers for this species, but 7 birds shy of the 86 we ringed here in 2007. The male bird above is still showing signs (feathers) of its youth in its crown. Likewise, Chiffies are well ahead of any previous total. They are, after all, one of my favourite birds.

One of the young Goldfinches, going through is post-juvenile moult - some red crown feathers peeking through!

More tits at last

Having felt a little better yesterday, I went down to the park with my nets. I set up as usual plus one in front of the single feeder. It was only to be a 'middle of the day' trip, from about 10 until 2-ish.

The net runs from the pole (centre) to the right (behind the Elder bush)

Anyway, it seems some of the local tits have found it already (2 days) but it's probably just as well, because all of them were not as fat as the ones at Jenny's garden, where there are feeders 365. Hopefully they will put on the extra 1-2 grams in the coming month and do some catching up.

The park holds a large number of breeding pairs of both Blue and Great. In winter (between the full moult and the pre-breeding moult) many of them skip the area and move into the local gardens where people put out food for the birds. I have even had them in my garden, which is about 3 km as the crow flies.

 A well grown but young Hedgehog 07-09-09

Also had a fairly rare sighting of a Hedgehog, even though we know that they live permanently in the park.

Easterly winds, our first of the autumn, are promised for the rest of the week and all next week, so I shall be out hoping for that "eastern vagrant" to fall into one of my nets. Perhaps another 'new for county' record?

Underwing under net

For a week or so, I have been finding lines of moth eggs cemented to patches of the garden net, which is up permanently, but furled most of the time.

So one night, about 11 o'clock, I went out with a bright torch and caught one in the act. A quick capture, indoors to look it up, easy-peasy, Large Yellow Underwing. In the morning, I took this photograph.


Other feats of endurance, especially as I've had a severe cold (man-flu) all week, were to put up the new peanut feeder and cut away the nettles and other nasty things growing where 10 months ago there was bare ground (we'd cut the trees/bushes down). Look how they've grown; the Elders are well over 2 metres.

Hot, hot, hot.

As today's temperature was expected to reach 27-28 degC, it was up early. I arrived at the park at 5:30 to find the barrier open and a couple of dog-walkers cars already there. The reason for this visit was to check on the Reed Warblers, because Mark & Ed had gone to a reed bed at Willington GP (about 3 miles east) on Monday evening without any luck at all during their two hours.

Dave had also remarked on the sudden drop here, at Priory. Anyhow, two nets up for three hours and only 3 fledged juvvy RWs caught - and those before 6:30! So it's true, the bulk of the breeding population has cleared off quite a bit earlier than usual. There was a pair busily feeding young by my parked car. I failed to catch much else, just a Dunnock and a Blackbird (both young 'uns).

The morning was not a wash-out as I witnessed around 5-600 Jackdaws leaving the roost; what a racket they kick up! Also had a Redstart (on passage) and 5 Gadwall.

On the way home, I called in to make a doctor's appointment, then put some washing on, entered today's data, re-erected the garden net, picked brother Bev up from Headway and took him grocery shopping, saw the quack and got my perscription. Busy day - next stop, evening meal.

Vis mig close-up

Juvenile Garden Warbler

Saturday was yet another early start, this time up at 4am and on site just after 5am to erect the nets before the trainees arrived. A really great day, with 42 birds (36 new ones), glorious sunshine and no wind to speak of. Of the total, 23 birds were warblers; 3 Reed, 1 Lesser, 5 Common, 5 Garden, 8 Blackcap & 1 Chiff. The young Garden Warblers (above) were all "full of fat", i.e. ready for a sizeable journey across the sea towards Africa.

Myvisiting cook, collecting "food for free", e.g. Blackberries
for my tea, beside nets 3 & 4

One of the reasons why we are able to catch good numbers of birds, which are about to migrate, is because of the good number of really 'plumptious' Blackberries here. The western side of the line of nets faces banks of Blackberries or Elders, whereas the other side is mainly Hawthorn and Dog Rose. As the public are excluded from the area, the birds only have to compete with rangers, ringers and ex-wardens - who know not to decimate the berried bushes , but only take enough for a pie or two! [In this case, also 12 lbs of Blackberry & Apple jam]

Note: Decimate in Roman times meant to kill every tenth man.