Change of Schedule

Please note that the session due on Wed 31st July has been postponed and will now run on

THURSDAY 1st AUGUST--starting at 5 am at Belvide

Hope to see you there!

The 'sisters' are back!!

Several of my recent posts have bemoaned the lack of Sedge Warblers ( or 'sister sledges' as some of the team call them)--compared to Reed Warblers. We suspected that they had been washed out during their initial nesting attempts--but hoped they would bounce back with a second breeding attempt. This morning's session seemed to show that they have done just that.!

Some Sedge Warblers are early migrants so it is possible that the increased numbers were due to migration--but the presence of some young which had clearly only recently left the nest pointed to a more successful breeding attempt.
The picture below shows a rather dark plumaged, recently fledged sedge warbler with some very interesting marks on some of its feathers--most noticeable the tips of its primary flight feathers.

The most probable cause of such marks is a particular change/difference/deficit in the food provided by the parents as the nestling was growing its flight feathers. If the parents had say, been unable to provide sufficient good quality food, then this is reflected in the quality of the feathers and produces so called 'fault bars' such as in this bird. Generally the feather is weakened and it's not unusual to see feathers broken off at such weak points. This is of course not a good start if -as in this case- the bird is preparing for a long southward migration, with a sub-standard set of flight feathers.

So it was that we ringed 19 new sedge warblers which for the first time this season outnumbered reed warblers on 13. 10 blackcaps was more like the expected numbers with 9 chiffchaff completing the warbler contribution to an overall total of 59 new birds.
Migration is happening now--results from coastal ringing sites confirm this so over the coming weeks we should be catching an increasing number of passage birds using our site to re-fuel during their long migration effort. Watch this space.......

Rain stopped play

At midnight on Friday night we were prepared for a regular Saturday morning session at Belvide with the prospect of a shower or two to keep us on our toes. After waking at 3 am and checking my phone I noticed a couple of messages from team members wondering if we should continue. An arm out of the window proved that it was raining steadily and a check of the rain radar showed it was unlikely to stop in time. ( Actually it didn't stop until 16.00 !! ).
I hate calling sessions off but this time it was a no-brainer and the sooner I did it the more chance everyone-including those travelling--would have to snuggle up in bed. And so unfortunately there is nothing to report for today--we may try to squeeze a replacement session in on Monday......

No signs of migration yet

Our last two regular sessions at Belvide have resulted in exactly 100 birds of 15 different species. That's about par for this time of year except for the smaller numbers of sedge warblers as previously mentioned. Better news on this started appearing though in the form of recently fledged chicks of presumably adults which have had another go at breeding having probably had their first attempts washed out.
Reed warblers continue to show strongly with many fledged chicks in the reedbed--with 31 new birds ringed this week. By contrast sedge warblers totalled only 13. Blackcaps are starting to build with12 and most encouraging were the 5 garden warbler juveniles ringed this morning.
Combined warbler totals for the two sessions are:-
Reed warbler 31, sedge warbler 13,blackcap 12, garden warblers 5, whitethroat 1, lesser whitethroat 1, willow warbler 1, chiffchaff 9 and goldcrest 2.
Kingfishers are always a delight and this morning we had another, making 4 new birds so far this season--they have obviously bred successfully somewhere nearby.
As for the title of this post--it looks like we are catching only birds which have bred at or near the site, but as we move into August we are likely to see bigger numbers of some migrant species coming through the reserve as they stop en route to make the most of the very good feeding opportunities afforded by the habitat.

Eilean nan Ron revisited

During Thursday 11th July a few hardy members of the team travelled 525 miles north to meet at a tiny hamlet of Coldbackie on the Sutherland coat in Scotland. A very comfortable overnight stay in the Poor House led to the group mustering at Skerray harbour to meet our good friend Jean who was whisking us across the short sound to the magical ( well midge infested, totally lacking in facilities!!) island of Eilean nan Ron--or as we simply call it--Ron. For Pat and Kev this was their first visit. For me it was my 25th visit after first bringing a school group for a week back in 1990!! Thank goodness there were no risk assessment forms to fill in back in the day or else I would probably be still trying to complete them.......

You can make out the ruins of the old village--but the key task is to get all your kit up the cliff from the landing stage to set up camp near the old village. This used to be relatively easy until.....

The bottom row of steps were washed away in a winter storm a few years ago--so now it's a hefty lift up a sheer rock to the upper steps--but eventually we got things up and set up camp in decent weather. After setting up camp and a bite of food, Ben was eager to search out some of the Great Skua ( Bonxie) chicks which a previous group told us were ready for ringing.
Skuas are noted for attacking intruders to their nest area--as Pat quickly discovered!

You can just about make out the smug look on this adult Bonxie's face having seen off it's human intruders.

It's pretty unnerving when a bird as big as a goose flies straight at your head--so Pat was a brave soldier.....The chicks leave the rudimentary nest soon after hatching and can be found lying on the ground as you can see here...

How cute...not! There are several well used sites for catching Storm Petrels on the island so after a quick conflab we decided that Dave would take a team to 'The Slabs' and I would visit my favourite site-'The Gully'. Nets were set and furled during the afternoon, followed by rest, evening meal and a briefing before setting off at about 10.30. Birds started to appear about 11.30--just as a fine mist came in.

 Stormies are the most delightful little things--a tad bigger than a House Martin. And they often sit for a short while after ringing until they get their bearings before flying off...



During our three nights we ringed 572 new Stormies and caught 87 previously ringed at least one of which was originally caught over 20 years ago! We also caught one which had been ringed off the coast of Portugal.
There's not a great variety of species on this small island but we did ring 4 Twite--a northern finch species not unlike a Linnet. Here you can see on this adult male the characteristic pink rump.



On the last afternoon we made the customary annual visit to 'Shag Gully'. It's a safe place--once you get to it but it needs a bit of a scramble in the first few metres, as you can see ...

Once down to the main area we managed to find three nestling Shags ready to be ringed which gave Pat, Craig and Kev their first experience of ringing this tricky species with a very nasty beak which can damage eyes very easily if you're not careful.

 

A couple of the older members of the group found getting back out of the gully needed a staged approach--with plenty of stops to take in the fantastic view.....that was our excuse anyway!!

 



Birds apart the highlight of the trip was watching Minke whales feeding in the channel. We think there were probably three. This record shot doesn't do it justice but you can at least appreciate the bulk of the animal from such a distance.

And this closer view shows the typical character of  Minke with a small curved dorsal fin well back on the long body during a brief surface appearance.

 

We all agreed that it had been a success but as always these trips come to an end so we had to say farewell until next time.



 But it's not all bad news--clean bed, shower, proper food etc etc all take on a mythical quality and the long journey home leads us to our lovely comfortable homes--until the next time!

 

  

They just keep on coming

Wednesday morning and a good team out in perfect ringing conditions scored really well with 80 new birds ringed.
From the first net round until 08.30 plenty of new birds found the nets with 22 reed warblers topping the list. The pattern this year was repeated with only 10 sedge warblers yet again showing how this species has suffered from earlier poor weather. 19 blackcaps was typical for this time of year but only 4 chiffchaff and 2 willow warblers were disappointing.
4 bullfinches were probably all from the same brood and 2 juvenile tree sparrows were a welcome addition.

A flash of colour

Apologies for the delay in posting Saturday's results but I've been in northern Scotland on a ringing expedition --see later.
On Saturday the team decided to continue with the programmed session even though weather conditions were not ideal with a bit of wind moving the nets, and a lot of sun making the moving nets very visible.
However, 41 new birds was a good total in the event--although the members were a tad disappointed. The catch was in line with what we would expect in terms of species although a superb Kingfisher lifted spirits as they always do! This individual was typically feisty and did its best to inflict damage on the ringer holding the bird.

Mixed fortunes

Unfortunately I didn't get round to posting our Belvide results from last Saturday but in truth it wasn't that good with only 35 new birds ringed --although we did have a high spot when one of the adult reed warblers we caught was found to be wearing a French ring. It was probably ringed as part of the extensive estuarine ringing scheme mentioned in my last post. More details later.
Fast forward to this morning and perfect weather conditions for a ringing session. The first net round suggested we were in a for a session with more ringers than birds but things soon picked up and we ended the morning with a very respectable 59 new birds and a dozen or so retraps from previous years.
One of the benefits of a scheme like this is that with pretty consistent ringing effort year on year we can get a good idea of population dynamics from our results. Over recent years our most numerous ringed species has been sedge warbler with many juveniles indicating successful breeding and migrants regularly calling in to feed up. It's a little early for migration ( not too long to go though!!) but the ratio of adult birds to juveniles especially at this time of year, obviously gives us a good indication of breeding success. Of the 59 birds caught today 22 were reed warblers and only 9 were sedge warblers. Furthermore 16 of the reed warblers were juveniles indicating that they seem to have survived the cold wet spell better than the sedge warblers. This may be because the latter usually nest nearer the ground than reed warblers and may have been washed out by rising water levels. Fortunately there is still time ( with good weather and falling water levels) for these birds to nest again so we hope to see more juvenile sedge warblers in the coming months.
One particularly interesting feature of breeding birds at this time of year is the way female birds in particular develop what is called a 'brood patch'. This is an area on the belly where the feathers are shed to create a patch of bare skin which, when placed against the eggs or very young chicks keeps them warm. The bare skin also becomes engorged with a rich blood supply to increase its warming capacity. Once the eggs hatch and the chicks are growing the brood patch looses its rich blood supply but the skin is left wrinkled from the previous engorged stretching--as you can see quite clearly below on a bird from this morning:-

Up and running!!

As we get close to the beginning of July there is always a frisson of excitement ( even after all these years of ringing!!) as we are about to embark on the new post breeding season of ringing at Belvide. Things were looking good a few weeks go because the water levels were nice and low ( willies not waders needed), and the weather was pretty good signalling a good breeding season. THEN--the deluge occurred raising the water level almost to where it was at the end of winter. In turn we were aware of the potential knock-on effects of both the increased water levels and the persistent cold wet weather on the breeding success of the breeding birds on the reserve.

We spent a couple of hours preparing the net sites on Tuesday; and caught a few birds while doing so. Then the new season officially opened at 5 am on Wednesday morning--what would we find? In short, the better than expected news was that we caught a decent number of new birds (64), within which total were encouraging numbers of juvenile breeders -especially Reed and Sedge warblers. We are hoping that these two species are still breeding and on their second or replacement broods, making use of what looks like an extended period of good weather with plenty of insect food around.
We had expected more Chiffchaff and Blackcap juveniles, but let's see what happens over the coming weeks. Main totals of new birds were:- Sedge warbler 15, Reed warbler 9, Blackcap 7, Chiffchaff 4, and Garden warbler 3--the rest was made up of resident species such as Blue and Great tits, Dunnocks and Wrens. Of course these are still important and I will provide an analysis of their breeding success in future bulletins.

Its always good to come across birds we have ringed in previous years, especially migrants, because this means they have managed the perilous journeys to and from Africa to return to Belvide to breed. We caught 15 such migrants--Reed and Sedge warblers, almost all of which were young ( ie newly hatched ) birds from 2018--even more remarkable that they carry out such long migrations with no experience!!
The final icing on the cake was the Sedge warbler pictured below. You may be able to see the ring in the first picture--and with a bit of imagination you may be able to make out the words MUSEUM PARIS, on that ring in the second picture. It will be a little while until we get the info on this bird back to us but it's almost certainly one of the large number of birds ringed by several teams of French ringers trying to study Aquatic warbler migration through several of the big estuarine complexes in northern France. We will see and report as soon as we know.

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