Really glad we went for it.

It's always tricky when the weather forecast is a bit dodgy--do we postpone or run the session. Much scanning of a range of forecasts--looking at the strength and direction of the wind--when will the rain come through etc etc. So it was yesterday when all forecasts were predicting quite strong winds for this morning--with lighter winds on Sunday. What to do--postponing often risks some team members not being able to come. However, the direction was due to be SSW--whereas for Sunday it was NW. The layout of our site and especially the arrangement of the thick hedgerows means that most of the nets are sheltered from south-westerlies but not from north westerlies--so we decided to go.

First net rounds suggested that we had made the wrong decision, with only a few birds caught. But things gradually improved and in the end we ringed a very respectable 115 new birds. The drop off in reedbed warblers is significant with only 8 sedge and 7 reed warblers. However, blackcaps are still piling through with 51 new birds ringed. 10 chiffchaffs is about standard for late August but 1 each of garden and willow warblers was disappointing.

However, some of the resident breeding birds provided interest for both visitors and trainees:-

Blue tits are obviously very common garden birds and are strangely easy to catch. These two show one of the more obvious differences between adult ( ie birds hatched before this calendar year) and juveniles ( hatched this year). The bird on the left is the adult with a completely blue cap and white cheeks. The bird on the right is a juvenile with the brown nestling feathers on the cap gradually being replaced by blue feathers--and the face and cheeks still have some of the yellow nestling feathers not yet replaced.

Many of you will have had robins breeding in your gardens--probably from early April ( or March in warm spring years). The juveniles from those broods will by now look just like their parents in the field although there are subtle differences in the hand. However, this young robin has only recently left the nest, so its parents must have nested a second or more probably a third time this year. You can see that it has started to moult out its nestling speckled breast feathers and replace them with red ones. You can also see the yellow flanges at the base of the beak--called a 'gape' which is used by the parents to target food into the mouth. It gradually disappears after a few weeks of leaving the nest.

We don't catch many nuthatches other than at the feeding station during winter so it was interesting to catch one at this time of year. They are smart birds as you can see:-

I just thought I'd show you an aspect of nuthatch plumage which isn't often seen in the field; the beautiful white spotted brown undertail coverts

 

 

The forecast looks a bit dodgy for next Wednesday so we may be dancing around again--I will post on here if we need to postpone...........

 

 

A touch of quality!

This morning we had our third session in 6 days--so a big thanks to team members for their efforts! They were rewarded by another good catch--not quite as numerous as of late but exactly 100 new birds is pretty good by any standards.
This time we had a bigger range of species than recently with 16 species demonstrating how migration patterns change through the season.
Blackcap was still the most numerous with 39 ringed, but Sedge and Reed warblers were much fewer, with 10 and 2 respectively. We also had small numbers of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Goldcrest, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat and Garden Warbler.
However, we also had a juvenile female Redstart--always a class bird to catch in an area where they are not breeding:-

And rather more expected at this time of year, a Spotted Flycatcher

We get fewer than one Redstart per year, and between one and five Spotted Flycatcher--so we were very happy to have both species this morning.
The temperature dropped soon after sunrise and this made the flies drop nearer the water. There were lots of San and House Martins catching the flies and we managed to catch 6 Sand Martins--although they proved very difficult to catch with full sun on the nets.
Something a bit different cropped up on the path by one of the nets in the form of this Common Shrew which was so intent on chomping away at a beetle it actually allowed me to pick it up for a photo:-

Amazingly, two minutes after the shrew scurried off a wood mouse appeared on the track--just like London buses.......

 

We are hoping to have another session on Saturday, but it looks like it could be quite windy--watch this blog to see if the session has been changed--I will make a decision late tomorrow.

And Again!!

First let me clarify that the next ringing session at Belvide will be on THURSDAY 29th AUGUST.
We don't like changing dates but there are so many birds around at the moment, and the forecast for Wednesday isn't too good--that we decided to add an extra session today and move the next session to Thursday.
So far the plan seems to be working because we had another superb catch. Pete and I set and checked the site last evening so we opened the nets for a couple of hours and caught 35 birds including a Lesser Whitethroat--always a special bird as I've said in previous posts. However the most unexpected birds of the session were two juvenile Linnets --see pic--making this species the latest new ringed species for the site.

Juvenile Linnet

This morning was clear and still but as often is the case at this time of year, a mist descended shortly after sunrise. This seems to suppress bird movements and the first net round was a little disappointing. However, as the mist burned off and the temperature rose, so the birds started to move and the nets started to catch. 119 new birds gave a combined total with last night of 152--very respectable. As for our last session Blackcaps were most numerous with 61 ringed; but Reed and Sedge warblers showed that they aren't yet all gone with 24 and 27 respectively.18 Chiffchaff, 5 Willow warbler, 4 Whitethroat, and one Lesser White throat made up the supporting cast.

There was unfortunately no response yet again to the Tree Pipit sound--here's to Thursday! 



 

Blackcap City !!

What a stunning morning--in every sense. A very gentle south-east airflow, with clear skies and warm temperatures, meant was a pleasure to get up in the early hours to open the nets.

It's mornings like these that make you realise why you do this hobby. Shortly after we set the nets the birds started moving around and we started catching. We had a steady flow of birds till we finished at 09.00, and ended up with a superb ( probably record breaking) total of 147 new birds.!!

What was particularly interesting was how the spread of species has changed abruptly since the last session. The reedbed species were significantly down--but were more than replaced by blackcaps. We have been wondering where they had got to but today showed that they are now moving--just a little later than in previous years.

Of the 147 birds 108 were migrant warblers with 61 Blackcaps, 15 Reed warblers, 9 Chiffchaff, 8 Sedge warblers,3 each of Garden and Willow warblers, 4 each of Whitethroat and Lesser Whitethroat , and 1 Goldcrest.

Of the remaining birds the most numerous were-as always, Blue tits--but 4 juvenile Tree sparrows were very nice and a bit of a Belvide speciality.

This juvenile Tree sparrow shows the three main characteristics defining as a Tree sparrow--brown cap, white collar and black ear patch. However all three features are quite poorly defined because juvenile feathers generally are not a colourful or robust as those which grow later in the bird's life.

We also had a new species for the reserve I the form of a Magpie. Mixed feelings about this--but useful for trainees to handle. It looks a bit tatty in the picture because it's undergoing it's post juvenile moult.

Wonder what Wednesday will bring.?

If anyone is at a loose end tomorrow we are doing a bird ringing demonstration at Ashwoods Nursery starting at 9 am, free entry!!

Colin

 

It was a GRAND session this morning!!

Indeed it was! A few much better days of clear weather promoting migration, and a perfect morning for ringing resulted in a total of 97 new birds ringed with the vast majority being migrant warblers. Migration is well under way now and it really showed in the catch.
Sedge warblers again dominated with 37,followed by reed warblers 17, blackcaps 14, chiffchaffs 8, willow warblers 7, garden warbler and lesser whitethroat 2 each and 1 common whitethroat. We also ringed our first Marsh tit of the season. I've called it a GRAND session because today we passed the 1000 birds ringed at Belvide since 1st July this year!!
There were some quite interesting birds for our trainees to learn from this morning:-
When blackcaps leave the nest they all have brown caps. Over the following weeks, they moult out those 'baby' feathers and grow in black feathers if male and subtly different coloured brown feathers if female.

 The bird on the left is a newly fledged bird with 'fluffy' cap feathers and the bird on the right is a slightly older female which has moulted its fluffy feathers and grown in the better quality slightly browner feathers which it will carry for the whole of next year.
People often ask how you tell a lesser whitethroat from a common whitethroat. I think the following picture says it all. The lesser is on the left and is essentially a grey and white bird while the chestnut feathers on the wing of the bird on the left makes it a common whitethroat.

One of the things ringers need to get their eye in for is spotting the difference between old, worn adult feathers which birds typically have at this time of year ( having had these feathers for almost a year including the rigours of breeding), and the fresh new feathers of newly fledged juvenile birds. These are often also of slightly different colour shades.
This is shown in the next two pictures of  adult and a juvenile reed warblers. In the first picture the adult is on the left.

You can see how the juveniles colour is richer brown and the feathers are smooth and in good condition. The adult feathers are greyer, washed out and much tattier looking. This is even more evident on their tails:-

The adult tail is the upper one--no comments needed really.
Finally, willow warblers at this time of year can be tricky to age--but this bird showed two features which made it relatively easy to age as an adult:-

First, the belly feathers are almost completely white--in a juvenile this area is almost completely yellow:-

Second, the tail feathers are broad without sharp points and with no chips out of the tips which often happens with young birds in the nest.
Finally Marsh and Willow tits are always a challenge in the hand--probably more so than in the field where the call is diagnostic.

This bird looks a bit scruffy because it's a juvenile in post fledging moult, but the important features can be seen. It does not show a pale panel on the secondary feathers in the middle of the wing; the cap is more restricted at the rear of the head than in willow, and the cutting edge to the upper mandible is white expanding to a broader patch where the bill meets the feathers. It's also overall a tad greyer and colder coloured overall than a willow

Unexpectedly good catch!!

This morning the team appeared ( after an extra lie in) at 05.15, with no great hopes of a good catch. The previous day had been atrocious with rain lashing down until after dark. However, the sky cleared by about 22.30, and it seems as though birds took the chance to get going.
So it was that we caught 87 new birds, of which the migrant warblers were:- Sedge 18, Reed 12, Chiffchaff 13, Blackcap 8, Whitethroat 2, Garden 1 and Lesser Whitethroat 1. This latter species are always very welcome in the catch and maintain a bit of a mysterious aura amongst birders. They look very smart in their generally grey and white plumage, with a bit of a highwayman's mask setting everything off--as you can see in the pic.....

One of the things that makes them a bit special is their migration strategy which is different to most other British breeding warblers. They set off in a generally south eastern direction to spend the winter in east Africa and the Middle East. So when they appear in a mist net on returning in Spring there is always a chance that an eastern warbler may have travelled with it... we are mostly disappointed!!

We have a good group of trainees with us at the moment and it's always good when an opportunity arises for some learning. Willow warblers and Chiffchaffs cause a lot of problems to birders in the field, but in the hand they are relatively easy to separate due to different emarginations on the primary flight feathers. However-as the following picture shows their overall appearances are actually quite different.

The bird on the right as viewed is overall brighter, much more yellow on the underside, with a much more prominent supercilium ( eye stripe)--it's a willow warbler. The bird on the left is a Chiffchaff with a much more subdued head pattern. You can also see the flight feathers of this bird arenot very long and form a wedge shape. Due to the fabulous quality of my photographic skills, you can't see the flight feathers of the willow warbler--but they are much longer and form more of a point than a wedge. I'll see if I can get a better pic of that for next time.

WEDNESDAY 21st

 

Back on the patch!

I've been away for a few days ringing at my friend's awesome 'back garden' in western Poland. It's a 10 acre plot that goes down to a willow carr/phragmites reedbed on the edge of a large lake. 1270 birds in 6 days including only ONE blue tit-heaven.

However, back at Belvide for a session today ( Thursday) after a poor-weather postponement from yesterday. We had a pretty good session in the circumstances with 73 new birds with highlights comprising 34 Sedge warblers, 14, Reed warblers, 9 Chiffchaffs, and a few other warblers.

We ringed our first juvenile Blackbirds but didn't intercept the very large tit flock doing the rounds at the reserve. Although catching a net full of Blue and Great tits can be (literally) a bit of a pain--there are usually a good number of 'camp followers' in these flocks -such as Chiffchaff, Willow warbler and Blackcaps. Speaking of which, we haven't seen any evidence yet of Blackcap and other Sylvia warbler passage in any numbers yet. They are typically a bit later than other warblers but I have noticed that observatories have been getting good numbers--wonder why?
Colin

Cracking day!!

This morning was nigh on perfect for ringing and given there had been an influx of birds onto the reserve, we had a superb morning's ringing.

We caught 121 new birds of which we had a species record of 52 Sedge warblers. There were also 28 reed warblers but disappointingly single figure numbers of blackcap, whitethroat, chiffchaff and willow warbler.

Of the non warbler species we had yet another kingfisher; but the star bird of the day was a juvenile Water Rail--proving that this species had ( as we suspected) bred on the reserve this year. I hoped we would catch this species since the bait in the walk-in traps had been eaten regularly over recent days.

The only real disappointment was that we didn't see, hear nor catch a tree pipit since other places have been recording them as present and ringed at several sites--next time perhaps ??

Trainee Sam looking pretty happy holding a juvenile Water Rail

Sunday is the new Saturday

Sorry for the late news--I'm getting old and forgot......

Because we had our last session on Thursday I have decided to postpone Saturday's Belvide ringing session until:-
SUNDAY--same time same place
Colin