It's warm for the end of September

Too right - and it's been going on a while now. Home here, we shall be in an 'official drought' situation if there is no measurable rainfall before Saturday morning! This (American) Indian summer has kept the birds away from the feeders for much of the time, thereby stringing out the catching rate. However, we seem to be recording a good proportion of new birds.

Last weekend I took Ed 'soon to become a C ringer' Green to Norfolk for a garden session. He did manage to handle two new species and even got to ring one of them. These were Marsh Tit (r/t) and Coal Tit.

Ed looking pleased with his 'ringing tick' [North Wootton]

Over three sessions (Sat pm, Sun & Mon am) we caught just 30 birds. 11 were retraps and just the one was of significant interest, a Great Tit C595264, originally caught back on 23rd December 2005 as a 4F.

Dunnock 1, Blackbird 1 (1), Marsh Tit (1), Coal Tit 2 (2), Blue Tit 6 (3), Gt. Tit 3 (3) & Chaffinch 6 (1).

On most of the Chaffinches, we noticed a white patch on R4 that we don't get down in Bedfordshire. It was particularly striking on the adult male below.

Adult male Chaffinch retrices [Sept 09]

On the way home over the Fens, we were fortunate to see a wonderful sunset that could have been painted for us by Van Gogh. We should really have stopped and captured it for posterity.

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!