And they're off!!---well not quite..........

 Last evening we set up the nets at Belvide for one of the highlights of our ringing year--the post breeding/migration period. A beautifully put together team got things sorted pretty quickly so we decided to leave the nets open until home time to see what was about.

We caught 30 birds of which 12 were birds we had ringed in previous years--all interesting if not earth shattering stuff. Most were either from last year or withing 3 years of ringing. This kind of data is the bread and butter of our ringing and feeds into the long term appreciation of breeding at Belvide.

However, we didn't catch any juvenile warblers which suggested that ( as we suspected) the breeding season is a bit late this year due to the very cold conditions in April. It may be something worse--but we will only know as the season progresses. 

Fo now though we have decided to postpone our first ringing session so for any visitors intending to join us there will be NO SESSIONS THIS WEEK:-

Our first session ( weather dependent) will be on the morning of WEDNESDAY 7th JULY

A tale of two Blackcaps......

 For the last 15 or so years we have visited southern Portugal to develop a ringing camp at a well known tourist area. Vilamoura is a resort in the Algarve noted for its superb marina, and its many top class golf courses--it's well known to British tourists. However, what many of them probably don't know is that there is a very good birding area very close to the resort called the Parque Ambientale.

Having built up a good relationship with the Parque manager and the Portuguese ringing scheme we have been generating a lot of useful data on the birds which use the area.These data are increasingly useful as pressures to develop the area are always present. The reedbeds, lakes and marshes provide three main things for birds--many birds use the area to breed, lots visit to feed up en route to Africa on migration, and lots of northern European birds spend the winter at the site. We have been collecting data on the migrants and winter visitors.

Within all of our findings there are some intriguing tales to tell--and having just had some feedback from Portugal this week, I thought it timely to tell this simple but important tale of two Blackcaps:-

A few years ago we caught a male Blackcap in Vilamoura in late September. It was carrying a British ring--and when we checked we found that it had been ringed a few weeks earlier on its breeding grounds near Blithfield Reservoir in Staffordshire--Dave, who was checking the ring in Vilamoura had ringed that very same bird!! The chances of that are minute but it created a buzz and even got coverage in the national press.

Last week we heard of another Blackcap--but this time we had ringed it on a recent trip in Vilamoura--and this bird had been recaught last year by some ringers we know in Leicestershire!!

So this is building up a picture of the value of the site in Portugal as a wintering ground for Blackcaps--it certainly is used by Blackcaps breeding in the Midlands--and probably elsewhere. 

Over the years we have caught a range of warblers which have been ringed in France, Belgium, Holland and Sweden--all of which is helping us to show the authorities in Portugal just how valuable the area is. Time will tell if the reports we produce will have any impact on developments.....

Covid regulations permitting we hope to continue our data collection in late September this year--I will of course report on that if we get there.

 

Babies!!

 I've already talked about ringing in nest boxes of various kinds--but we also ring chicks in natural nests when they are at the right age. 'Right' means a variety of things but essentially--are their legs developed enough to take the ring and it not slip off ?, are the chicks going to stay in the nest and not leave it too early?, will disturbing the nest affect the parent birds?

One of the species using natural nests from which we have ringed many chicks over the years are those of Barn Swallows. This morning we ringed 9 chicks in two nests and these were near perfect for ringing as shown by the quick picture we took of one of them:-

The chicks were well grown with the eyes recently opened; and you can see the tail and some of the wing feathers are just emerging from what we call 'pin'. This is when the feather part breaks out through the waxy sheath which protects the growing feather. These little beauties settled straight back into the nest after ringing and should be on the wing in a couple of weeks.

Some weird and possibly not such good news from the second Kestrel box on the farm. Last week I reported 4 warm eggs laid by what we think is a first time breeding pair. I went to check to estimate when the chicks would be ready to ring and was puzzled and alarmed to find only 1 chick in the nest--with the female parent in attendance. We can only speculate that a corvid ( member of the crow family) must have stolen either 3 eggs or chicks? But the strange thing is why one was left--corvids usually repeatedly visit a nest once found until everything has been plundered. Fingers crossed that the remaining chick will be protected by its parents.

Better news from Pat who has been catching good numbers of quite recently fledged baby finches which appear to be breeding well this year.

Very young finches are quite distinctive from their parents as these pictures show:-

The speckled breast gives this bird away as a juvenile Greenfinch. It's probably a male judging by the amount of yellow on the primary wing featheres and the grey tips to the primary coverts. Like all recently fledged songbirds, this individual will gradually moult out these juvenile feathers and replace them with more adult types over the coming year. As I have pointed out previously ( many times!!) we look for evidence of any of these unmoulted juvenile feathers as a clue to ageing birds in their first year.

Here's a juvenile Goldfinch--as the bright yellow and black wings suggest. But where is the red, black and white head?. Another feature of juvenile plumage is that in some species the bright patterns which can distinguish males from females can result in aggression outside the breeding season. This can be a problem for birds which generally feed in flocks--like finches--so often young birds don't show these features until they are a bit older and more able to look after themselves.

Lastly, I've posted some lovely pictures of adult male and female Siskins from Pat's garden--so I thought I'd show some pictures of a recently fledged juvenile--which continues the same story as above:-

As you can see--speckled, less colourful generally, and buff tips on many feathers. The next close up picture of the wing and tail points some of these out a bit better:-

1= the patches at the base of the primaries are white--yellow as the bird ages

2= the tail and main wing feathers are very pointed

3= the tips of the greater coverts are buff not yellow/green

4= the edges to the tertial feathers are buff rather than green and white 

Very few of these feathers have been moulted out and we reckon this bird has left the nest very recently--it hasn't taken it long to find a rich food source in Pat's garden!!--probably led to it by the parents.

 

 

What a beauty!!

 I've posted a few times recently from 'Siskin City'--this is our member Pat's garden a few miles west of Welshpool. His house is in a small hamlet with superb upland habitat pretty well all around. He has been catching a few recently fledged Siskins over the last couple of weeks--proving what we thought was the case--that the surrounding conifer woodlands are a strong breeding site for Siskin.

Last week however, as he went to the net he had a wonderful ( if not totally unexpected) surprise in the form of this absolute stunner......

This is a male Common Redstart. He has glimpsed birds around his garden all summer so the signs are there for a nestbox ready for next year.

Redstarts are a member of what are known as 'chats'--which is a group of smashing, often colourful birds such as Wheatears, Whinchat, Stonechat and Black Redstart. They are mostly highly migratory, spending our winter in Africa, but coming north to breed in our summer. They occupy an evolutionary niche between thrushes and warblers/flycatchers.

But why is it called a Redstart? Well it isn't because of the lovely rufous breast--but it is a derivation from an old  English nickname, where 'start' meant either tail or bum!! Here is a picture of the bird's tail--

Colourful enough as you can see--but what you can't see from this image is what the bird does with its tail. Every time it lands, its tail, for want of a better term, wobbles, in a very characteristic and obvious way. Even folks back in the day without binoculars would have been attracted by this and that's how the name was derived. The bird is a classic in these wooded upland habitats, and it would be great if Pat could get them breeding in his garden......is that the sound of saw, screwdriver and hammer I can already hear???

Episode 3--reflections, results and a short sea trip.....

What an excellent trip-- Gareth rounds things up and reports on a final birding trip on the sea...

 Saturday 5th June

Our final morning before we left Bressay was a shame, as birds were around, but we caught single Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Starling and Pied Flycatcher.

Female Pied Flycatcher 

Summary of daily totals:-

A happy band!

Gorie is run by Mr Jonathon Wills

https://www.facebook.com/Bressay-Birders-Bothy-338327103749951/

The site has no neighbours, electric power comes from wind and solar power, and water from a nearby spring, but it does have a telephone line! See photo below of Jonathan with my girls putting up the wind turbine. He has done extremely well in renovating this building and I for one love it and cannot wait to return in October. Here are some photos below off Gorie. 

The girls joining in with the green energy generator

 

The 'simmer dim'--still quite light at midnight

On our final day on Shetland we took a boat trip to Noss Seabird colony with Phil Harris - http://www.shetlandsebirdtours.com

You get a boat that is also very safe for litttle ones and get to experience a seabird colony from the sea. It is incredible and beautiful. The leader is full of bird and local knowledge and its a worthwhile experience 

Up close and personal with massive Gannet......

....and the much smaller but totally gorgeous Black Guillemot.

What a stunning end to a fabulous trip--well done to the Clements family and thanks for the text and images--wish we'd been there!!

Episode 2--A complete purple patch!!

Here is the next installment from Gareth which describes the next few days which will live forever in their memories for the superb list of birds they ringed. Not many in number but complete quality due to the South Easterly which drifted migrants bound for Scandinavia to Bressay........

Gareth continues....

 Then all my dreams came true when I went to do a net round and an ADULT MALE RED-BACKED SHRIKE was in the spring trap! Now I've heard many stories of shrikes slicing your hands,  so I carefully took it out and returned,  to process the information from this truly stunning bird. The beautiful, blue grey head with a black mask, powerful black bill, red back pale breast, black and white tail. truly a beautiful bird. We also caught and ringed an adult Starling.

What a magnificent bird the Red Backed Shrike is!!

Thursday 3rd June 

Started with a new Spotted Flycatcher. I love these birds, as back home you just can't catch them as they like to feed high in the trees, so I knew it was going to be a good day as there seemed to be a few birds fllitting about. As the day went on we were catching birds, when Dad returns and says, "Well boys, we've caught something rare." When he took it out I was happpy to see it was a RED-FLANKED BLUETAIL! Wow! I was a bit down it wasn't an adult male,  but then that's just being greedy.

The bird is similar to a Robin in build and size, with a blue tail and orange flanks. This individual was a first-summer female due to no blue on its shoulders or back and pointed tail feathers. 

To put this into context, although the species' range is spreading through Scandinavia and sightings are increasing in Britain, there have only been 62 birds ringed here up to 2019. Less than ten birds have ever been recorded in Britain in spring, and this was the first sighting this year, the first June record for Shetland and the second for Bressay after one was seen nearby on 6th October 2020. 

An almost mythical bird-especially in Spring

Shortly afterwards, an Acrocephalus (Reed type) warbler landed by me before going into cover. As the afternoon wore on, we caught and ringed 2 MARSH WARBLERS. Now these are difficult birds, but in the shade the differences become more apparent: pale claws and pale tips to the tertials. 

The rare birds just kept coming--very pale claws a big clue to Marsh Warbler

Mr Phil Harris of the Shetland Ringing Group came down to liaise with us in ringing a brood of HOODED CROW young. There were four in total and I will be honest, they are truly ugly and smelly!

It's mum loves it.......

So a little summary of Thursday: we caught 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Marsh Warbler, 1 Spotted Fycatcher, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Garden Warbler, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Blackbird and 4 Hooded Crow pulli. What a day. 

Friday 4th June 

After the previous day I was up at 2am full of spirit of what today would bring, but the wind shifted slightly and we only caught one bird ALL day. The bird we caught was a beautiful Icterine Warbler. Man, in the net all I could see was yellow!

Icterine ( yellow) warbler

What an absolutely stunning run of good fortune. Back home we all rejoiced for the team--they have put in so much effort over recent years for sometimes quite modest returns--but they had really hit the jackpot this year

Final episode next......

The Belvide Boys ( and girls!!) on Tour--Episode 1

 The following report(s) have been written by Gareth after a superb trip to a small island called Bressay, which is one of the Shetland Isles. Here is Episode 1-- further episodes will follow in quick succession!! :--

Here we GO!!

On Saturday 29th May we started our journey to Shetland on our third ringing session on the island of Bressay. The previous two visits were in autumn 2019 and 2020, and this was our first attempt in spring, albeit a year later due to Covid restrictions. The team this year was a full on family affair consisting of three generations: Kevin Clements, his two sons Gareth and Nathan, and Kevin's grandaughters ( Gareth's girls),  Milania and Aseya.

Gareth is taking the picture of the excited family team

We had to travel from Wolverhampton to Aberdeen to get on the overnight ferry to Shetland. The ferry left at 5pm went to Orkney and onto Lerwick, and arrived there at 7am on Sunday 30th May.

Not far --really....

Sunday 30th May - After getting food shopping, we had to go across to Bressay. On Shetland there are inter-island boats to take people, goods, etc between the islands.

Arriving on Bressay

We met Mr Jonathon Wills who took us to where we would call home for the next six nights. The track into Gorie is undriveable unless you have a 4x4 - I was so excited I walked in and straightaway Snipe were drumming, Arctic Skuas were flying within few feet and every direction I looked there was a Bonxie,  and there you have it my view of home.

Easy to see where birds will end up

Gorie is situated on the east side of Bressay and the first cover looking eastwards till you hit Scandinavia. In my opinion a monster rare bird will be found here eg Blue-cheeked Bee-eater or Black-throated Accentor. 

 

After settling in we put up a few nets, although late in the day we didn't expect much. Well, a Chiffchaff was a nice start and then a bird flew in and landed by the nets - I called it out to Dad and said that it looked like a COMMON ROSEFINCH in flight. It began feeding on dandelion seeds and about half an hour later was found in the net. What a subtle, beautiful bird. This bird is pretty nondescript, but the obvious black beady eye and double wingbar are how we know its a COMMON ROSEFINCH, and we know it was a first-summer bird due to its pointed tail feathers.

Not a stunner to look at but a belting first rarity for them

Monday 31st May - We caught and ringed 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Common Whitethroat, a recaptured Shetland Wren that we'd caught last autumn and 14 Shetland Starling pulli (young birds in the nest). Wow, these latter birds have a beautiful super bright yellow gape, which they open wide for mom or dad to pass them the food. Some people might think they are ugly; I think they are actually beautiful.  

Lovely!!

Tuesday 1st June - was too windy to do ringing so we had a trip to Fetlar to watch the Red-necked Phaloropes. We were lucky and saw three birds.  

That really IS lovely!

Wednesday 2nd June - What a day, which started with a Common Redpoll, followed by a Spotted Flycatcher.

Understated but a superb Spotted Flycatcher

Next episode of the saga will follow soon.........

More chicks.....and site preparation

 I've reported already that at this time of year our main activities revolve around checking nest and ringing chicks--and preparing for the start of the main ringing period from July onwards.

We recently gained the permission to take on a well established Pied Flycatcher nestbox scheme south west of Ludlow. Kev and Gareth have visited the site to check on where the boxes are, and I dropped in last week to see how chick development was going.

After a very disappointing visit to Lundy for Kevin--missing the mega-Suphur Bellied Warbler there, he and  Gareth were undaunted and very hopeful as they set off for the nestboxes yesterday. They weren't disappointed......They ringed a total of 50 Pied Flycatcher chicks from 8 broods--here's a well developed chick..

Unfortunately a couple of boxes had been predated--and in one box we think the culprit may have been a Wood Mouse which jumped out of the box leaving a few eggshells behind. They also found a healthy brood of 6 Nuthatches in another one of the boxes too. This site is very exciting and we think there is potential for more boxes and more species when we get to know the site better.

After a quick bite the intrepid pair set off to a nearby wood for a liaison with our good pal Paul and a couple of his colleagues from the Shropshire Ringing Group. We have a great relationship with the group and this was just one example of sharing--to enable in this case Kev and Gareth to get experience ringing chicks of Goshawk. This is a large bird of prey and in many ways it's almost a large version of the much more common Sparrowhawk. They got to ring the three chicks from the nest...

These healthy brutes are just right for ringing--the two on the left are females, the other is a male--size differences especially in leg thickness is a good clue to gender in this species. You can also see that they have been fitted with Darvic plastic rings with clear markings which can be read using a telescope

 on birds in the field.

Continuing the raptor ( bird of prey) theme, Friday morning saw us visit our old favourite Kestrel nest box at BP farm. There were 4 very healthy chicks so in the last few years this pair have raised 14 youngsters!! One of the previous year's chicks ( we think), has also managed to establish itself in the other nestbox at a different part of the farm. We knew that the bird has been hanging around the box, but we hadn't had any evidence of a mate. However, when we climbed up the ladder we were met with a clutch of 4 warm eggs, and a calling bird in the nearby trees. So a quick descent and quit the area to let them get back to business--another cracking success story.

This morning Pete and I popped to the end of my road where there is a lovely little nature reserve run by local volunteers. They had asked us to check on a Barn Owl box which we knew had Stock Doves nesting in it having seen the adults visiting on several occasions. So it was that we ringed 2 healthy Stock Dove chicks with bulging crops showing that they are being really well fed by their parents. Not the most beautiful of chicks I admit--but knowing they are doing quite well in our area is good news for an amber listed species.

On a less exciting but absolutely necessary front, Pete and I spent last Sunday afternoon putting up all of my Belvide nets (22 in all) to check their state ready for the new season at the start of July. The good news was that all the nets were in good condition although a few needed some attention to the loops--a job which took me a couple of hours next day. The site at Belvide is looking good, and the water levels seem low enough for us to be able to access all sites without needing to don waders--never a pleasant experience at 4 am!!

Yesterday morning a small but beautifully put together team Glynn, Pat, Tom and daughter Holly and yours truly spent a couple of hours at our Jack snipe site trying to hold back the incursion of willow scrub. It's a thankless task but absolutely necessary if we are to keep the site suitable for Jacks.  

News from Gareth about a recent expedition coming soon--with some pictures of stunning birds..... 

A Flying Success!!

 In my last blog I mentioned that Kevin and Gareth Clements had some great news for us. Gareth will report soon via this blog; but here's Kevin's message.....

Last year we completed a comprehensive habitat assessment and breeding bird survey of farmland at Patshull. A detailed report, with a number of recommendations and action plans for key species we thought could be attracted to the site, was submitted to the new estate owners.

One target species that breeds not to far away and we hoped could be encouraged to nest in the substantial tracts of broadleaved woodland across the site was the Pied Flycatcher.

With permission from the owner, Kevin, Gareth and family erected some 25 nestboxes in three locations during the spring.

Here's the happy band getting youngsters involved at an early age, with a wheelbarrow full of boxes.

The first check of the boxes was only a couple of weeks later revealed only Blue Tits showing any interest. Undaunted, Kev checked again a couple of weeks later in  May to ring the nestlings. 36 Blue Tit chicks were ringed and unusually a brood of 9 Coal Tits. While Kevin was ringing one of these broods, he became aware of a bird visiting another box, out of the corner of his eye. Finishing off the brood, he paid a bit more attention to the other box and was ecstatic to see a male PIED FLYCATCHER enter the box.

Although they are only black and white, males Pied Flycatchers are stunning birds.

Here is a link to a short video of the bird returning to the box:-

https://twitter.com/i/status/1397591001460625411

Was he a lone male though, or was there a female or even young? Once the male had flown off a quick check of the box revealed six young--fantastic!! Our efforts had paid off in the very first year. The young were too small to ring at that visit.

These are the six chicks from Kevin's first visit--too small to ring--but they grew quickly in the good weather and he ringed them a few days later.  A further check in early June found that the chicks had all successfully fledged, and as they usually do, they had moved away from the area.

Pied Flycatchers are one of the most studied species in Britain, partly because they readily take to nest boxes. On average about 13,000 Pied Flycatchers are ringed each year, about 90% of which are chicks. They are summer visitors to us, wintering in Central Africa. Studies have shown that about one third of the chicks survive their first year and they usually return to their natal area to breed.

To have successfully encouraged this species to breed at Patshull in the first year of the nest box scheme is tremendously encouraging and bodes well for the future. We shall be putting up many more boxes over the coming year and we are already looking forward with anticipation to some of this year's chicks returning to set up home next year!

Well done Kev and Gareth say all of us in the group.

Back with a Bang!!

 Sorry for the absence of almost a month. There's a couple of reasons for this, first I've been busy with a holiday and a big birthday, but just as important is that this is generally the time of year that we do very little actual catching because we like to leave the birds to get on with their breeding season.

However, this doesn't mean we have been completely inactive. The ''bang'' referred to in the title relates to two activities of the 'Clements Boys' ( Kevin and son Gareth) who have two bits of stunning news to give you. As I write they are on their way back from a fantastic trip to Shetland which they will be reporting on when they get back-with some stunning photographs of rare and unusual birds they encountered. Kevin also has some brilliant news from our Patshull farm project about a key species we are trying to attract to the site.

In the meantime, a few bits of news from the team:-

- Jennie isn't around at the moment because she got an invite to be a long term volunteer on the Welsh island of Skokholm which houses a Bird Observatory.  Internet connection isn't great but she's having a great time with some great birds over recent weeks such as an adult male Common Rosefinch, a Bonelli's Warbler and a Subalpine Warbler ringed.

- Pat over a 'Siskin City' has been hard at it working on his house but has done a couple of sessions and has started to catch some juvenile Siskins from the population breeding in the Welsh forests--more on that soon. He's also been getting news of some controls which I will report when we get the data.

-On a similar theme, the birders at Belvide noticed that one of the Little Ringed Plovers at the site was ringed and they managed to read the ring with a telescope--and patience!! We are waiting for this data at the moment.

- Speaking with the manager, Tim at another of our sites yesterday revealed that he thinks that 7 pairs of Lapwings have managed to raise chicks--the best season for many years on the farm so we hope we can maintain this improvement. We also hope to bring you some news about owl and Kestrel nestboxes very soon........

-Finally, I've recently reported on the satisfaction it gives us to see our recently qualified ringers getting themselves established and using their licences to continue to develop their skills. So it's been for our newest qualified ringer Sam--who's been getting to grips with the birds in his garden. He sent me a report a couple of days ago saying he had reached 100 birds in the last month--made up of the typical garden species --Blue, Great and Coal tits, with others such as Dunnock, Blackbird and Great Spotted Woodpecker thrown in. Included have been some healthy numbers of juvenile birds suggesting breeding around his area has been good. By far his most numerous catch has been of Starlings. Their fortunes have been of some concern nationally so it's good to see them doing well on his patch. He's taken a few photos which I hope will be helpful :-

Sexing Starlings in the breeding season is quite easy with a good view of the bill:-

This is the head of a female Starling --showing the PINK base to the bill. This is only relevant during the breeding season-but pink for a girl is easy to remember ( if just a tad sexist!?) The other female feature which you can see is the fact that the iris is brown on the outside but black towards the middle. This remains so all year--but is a bit more difficult to see in the field!!

This is the head of a male Starling showing the two features again--but this time the base of the bill has a BLUE tinge ( for a boy...). This photo unfortunately hasn't picked up the blue as well as it looks in real life. And the iris is a consistent black colour with no lighter outer ring. There is another feature which is helpful but not diagnostic because it varies quite a bit--but you can see that in this male the feathers around the head and neck have either no, or very small white tips. In the female above these tips are much more prominent.

At this time of year, many of you will also have juvenile ( newly fledged) Starlings in the garden too. These are totally brown at this time of year:-

Here's a juvenile Starling--but if you do get them in your garden keep an eye out as the years moves on, because during late summer/autumn you'll start to see quite weired looking juvenile Starlings with varying amounts of brown and speckled black as the birds gradually moult out their juvenile feathers and grow in their post juvenile set. 

Please look out for some exciting news in the next few days--and some stunning pictures.........