Santa special

Christmas Robin

A Happy Christmas to all my readers and may 2015 treat you well when it arrives.

Since my last posting on the 14th, there has been a steady trickle of birds through the garden. However, it has not been really wintery, just a tad miserable with grey skies and plenty of westerly winds that have now turned northerly. Right now, the sun is out and the temperature is low. During that time, ninety different birds have passed through the "ringing room", with by far and away the most being 45 Goldfinches (50%).

There have been a few "oddities" that I don't normally catch and that always engenders a warm feeling. In a different part of the country I might look upon them as a more regular occurence at this time of year. There was a Song Thrush (only the 4th of the year), another Blackcap making 20 in the last two months, the other half (female) of the Starling pair and, lastly, a Black Redstart a couple of days ago.

1CY female Black Redstart

A full list of captures is as follows:

Blue Tit 3 (2) - 1 new adult male

Great Tit 1 - adult male

Long-tailed Tit 3 (4) - all this years young (the local adults are all ringed)

Blackcap 1 - immature male

Starling 1 - adult female

Blackbird 1 (1) - immature birds

Song Thrush 1 - 1CY

Robin 2 (4) - 1 new adult, the rest this year's offspring

Black Redstart 1 - a large 1CY female with a wing of 87 mm. [Garden tick]

Dunnock 4 (4) - 2 new adults, 1 a male on CP

House Sparrow 2 (4)

Chaffinch 1 - 1CY female

Greenfinch 3 (2) - new = youngsters; the other 2 were "controls" from nearest ringer, John, one originally ringed not quite 6 years ago, as a 2CY male, in January 2009 - and not seen since.

Goldfinch 29 (16) - made up of 10 adult males, 6 adult females, 13 immature males, 12 immature females and 4 unsexed juvenile birds.

Plans for the next week or so include having a look at a flock of Meadow Pipits on a neighbours field, provided his daughter's horse is elsewhere. Au revoir.

Summer sunshine

The weather has been good to us; just one morning when we had a heavy shower that brought 11mm in one hour before breakfast. Our garden thermometer has measured a max of 23C to 29C in the shade before 2pm every day since last time.

Following on from the sad tale of the other two Herring Gull chicks, I can report that the third one managed to fledge successfully last week - not before I was able to ring it when it was in the throws of mastering flight. They normally spend two/three days practising when it is possible to throw a towel over them and pick them up.

42 day old Herring Gull chick

The garden nets have been moved around a couple of times, with one always in the bottom of the orchard. The sun has meant an early start and an equally early finish by ringers' standards. With more racks cut out down the meadows by yours truly between garden chores (sweaty work), we were able to give that a couple of goes, too. The net runs have never exceeded 180' at either site so far, giving a max. of four nets operated.

A problem at this time of year, especially if ringing very early or very late in the day, is the possibility of catching, inadvertently, a bat. I did just that and, after disentangling it from the net, I left it to come to its senses on the potting shed door.

Small bat (Pipistrelle?)

I was lucky enough to re-catch the juvenile woodpecker in the garden again. As you can see from the photograph below, "it" (still unable to sex the bird) had just begun its post-juvenile moult. The photo shows the contrast between a new, red, adult under-tail covert and the pink juvenile ones.

Juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker

 "Fairmead" - 113 birds of 17 species, 72 new, 41 retraps (+10 re-handlings): the vast majority were young birds. I haven't caught any Jackdaws this year (yet), but there were >105 sitting on the roof the other night.

Herring Gull - 1, 41 day old chick about to fledge (see above)

Gt. Spotted Woodpecker - (1), the previous juvenile, just starting its first partial moult

Magpie - 1, first juv we've ever caught here

Blue Tit - 9 (4), juvs plus one r/t 2CY moulting female, r/t adult male in heavy moult

Great Tit - 5 (2), juvs

Long-tailed Tit - 1 (5), juvs & 1 r/t adult female

Wren - 2 (1), juvs, probably males (on size)

Blackbird - 10 (1), 8 male & 2 female juvs plus a new 3CY+ male

Robin - 3 (4), 4 juvs, 2 r/t females, 1 r/t male

Dunnock - 3 (3), 2 r/t females, 1 r/t male

House Sparrow - 10 (9), 6 males (1 new), 4 females, the rest = juvs

Pied Wagtail - (3), adults

Chaffinch - 1, a lone 3CY+ male

Bullfinch - 6 (2), 2 new females, 2 new males, 2 old males, 2 juvs

Greenfinch - 4, all males, 1 male 2CY

Goldfinch - 7 (3), 1 r/t male, 1 new male, the rest were unsexed juvs

Siskin - (2), a possible pair

Meanwhile, down the road, our species make-up is profoundly different at this time of year. I got the most enjoyment from re-catching the adult Dipper (below) that was ringed as an adult in May last year. This time it was actively moulting, as can be seen if you study the picture closely. Visible are the contrast between old and new primaries, a row of, as yet, unmoulted median coverts and some new, black feathers appearing in the crown. 

3CY+ Dipper in active moult (mid July)

"Egrove" - 50 birds of 14 species, 42 of which were new birds; all juveniles except where indicated.

Kingfisher - (2),

Blue Tit - 1,

Long-tailed Tit - 4 (1), r/t adult female

Chiffchaff - 4,

Blackcap - 18,

Adult female Blackcap in active moult

Garden Warbler - 1, a sign that they breed 'on site'

Garden Warbler in wholly juvenile plumage
(note the pale grey collar present in the species)

C. Whitethroat - 1, a 3CY+ female with a good brood patch

Wren - 3 (1), inc. a 2CY r/t male

Dipper 1 (1), a 'this year's' young bird and territorial male in full moult (above)

Blackbird - 2 (1), a new 3CY+ female

Song Thrush - 1, the first for the year

Robin - 2, 

Dunnock - 3 (1), only 1 juv, the rest adult males with pronounced cloacal protuberances

Goldfinch - 1 (1), the r/t was an adult male

I don't split the ages of adult Goldfinches into 2CY and 3CY+ at this time of year (May - August) as differentiation in feather age is nigh on impossible. All adults revert to Euring age class 4 anyway after the moult is complete since they all have new flight feathers.

Well, that's that. The contractors are coming in to mow the rest of the hay crop this coming week which should enable us to visit more of this longitudinal site. I will report back when we have some more news to share with you.

Sixteen days of dark

Hi again. We are nearly at the point when the evenings (theoretically) start to get lighter! I'm a SAD old git! and won't be waking up properly until mid Feb. Such is life.

A bit low on pics but I either forget to take one that will illustrate a point I want to pass on, or forget to get the camera out. [It's only a Fuji compact]. Ringing, or, more correctly, id in the hand is not always as straight forward as some will have us believe - nor as difficult as a few sceptics would either. The exchange of photos of "good" and "bad" birds can but help the less experienced to learn a bit more and avoid pitfalls.

Male Goldcrest - orange crown just visible

Ringing at home was a bit hit and miss, partly because of the weather and also because I was away 'up country', delivering Xmas presents, seeing old pals elsewhere and attending the 80th BTO Conference in north Derbyshire (mainly ringing, of course!) BUT, it's been good when I tried with just the two (semi-permanent) nets. I cleared the leaves twice and talked to the trees - but they didn't listen.

Immature female Goldfinch
with retained median/greater coverts

The biggest hit were the King Harrys (Goldfinches) which have only just started coming to the feeders in any number. 

Immature female Goldfinch
that has moulted all its coverts

They brought a few Siskins with them, too. The Redwings and Fieldfares are still taking berries but the occasional one sits in an apple tree, picking at the apples that are still left hanging on, up there where I can't get them. 

Redwing

My efforts up to the 11th succeeded in catching:

Collared Dove 1 - f.g. female

Goldcrest 1 (3) - 3 males

Blue Tit 5 (6) - birds of the year, except for 2 first-time breeders

Great Tit 1

Coal Tit 1 (2) - 1CY's

Long-tailed Tit 19 (5) - 16 together in one net!

Blackcap 7 (1) - the re-trap was feeding up for 'the off' (F1>F4)

Wren (2)

Blackbird 10 (1) - 4 adult females, 5 imm. females, 2 imm. males.

Fieldfare 2 - ad. male & 1CY female

Song Thrush 1 - adult

Redwing 1 - immature bird (123 wing)

Robin (3)

Dunnock 1 (1)

House Sparrow 2 (2) - caught during a chase (3 males!)

Chaffinch 3 - females, 2 adult

Goldfinch 59 (16) - 75 different birds, oldest from March 2011 and its first recapture; of the rest - 21 adults, (10 males, 8 females, 2 unsexed), 54 immatures, (25 males, 25 females, 4 unsexed); the females were prevalent in the earlier catches.

Siskin 3 - all adults

NB. I've taken out all the same period re-traps from the figures to give some idea of the number of birds present/ passing through. I always do this and put the recapture totals in brackets after the newly ringed birds.

Adult male Fieldfare 

Stop-start

Torrential rain forecast for the next 48 hours. What will the birds make of that? It's not spring, but it's not winter either. But it is the coldest March for 15 or so years.

It has been a "grab it while you can" sort of week. As it turned out, the species list was one of the longest for some time, meaning summer is on its way, no matter how slowly. We have gone from Brambling to Chiffchaff, coupled with a vis-mig of Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails.

Now some pics of the common birds caught lately -

Male Great Tit

Male Chaffinch (3CY+, March)

Male Dunnock

Male Siskin (March)

What's been going on since last week's blog?

Woodpigeon - 1; quite a heavy bird
Collared Dove - 1; number 19 (in 2 years)
Blue Tit - (1); young female starting to get her first brood patch
Great Tit - 1; a new male muscling in?
Coal Tit - 1; new 2CY female
Chiffchaff - 2; both males on wing length (62 & 66 mm)
Blackcap - (1); one of the males now weighing 23 g (fat 40)
Wren - 2 (2); 3 (noisy) males and a new '3CY+ lady'
Blackbird - (3); inc. 3CY female with a good brood patch
Song Thrush - 1 (1); new young male and an experienced female
Robin - (2); the 3CY female (hatched here) had a well developed BP
Dunnock - 2 (3); lost count of how many are around the garden hedges
House Sparrow - 1; male
Chaffinch - 3; 2 ad. females & ad. male - all UK on wing length
Brambling - 2; both females, both fat 20
Greenfinch - 1; opposite sex attracted by the displaying male?
Goldfinch - 1 (1); probably not locals (they know the routine!)
Siskin - 24 (2) +2C; 'prolific' - following the current, national trend.
Total captures = 61 of 18 spp. = 43 new + 18 re-traps/controls

Season's first Chiff; heavily abraded male

2CY Siskin; old secondaries, 1 old tertial, old outer tail

Female Brambling - mid March

Although we are having heavy rain with little let up, the weather is far worse further north, in Wales and north-west England. Perhaps their snow will drive the birds south briefly towards us. Perhaps it won't. We will have to see. Find out next week.