Another cracking morning!!

 We had a very good morning on Wednesday, ringing over 100 new birds, and we followed it up this morning with another 70 new birds- most of which were again migrants.

However, it's always superb to catch one of our most colourful resident birds-the Kingfisher. We normally catch a few each year but this is our first so far this year:-

 This is a male bird as can be seen by the black lower mandible of the beak. Females have more or less orange on their lower bill. This bird is in adult plumage as can be seen by the 'blueness' of the plumage-in juvenile birds there is a distinct tinge of green in the head, wings and back. Actually it's a tad disappointing that we haven't yet caught a juvenile bird this year--does it mean they haven't bred this year? Only time will tell......

It's the end of July and we see the first hints of migration happening. Willow warblers are one of the first species to start moving south this early and we have been catching small numbers suggesting birds are indeed on the move. This morning we caught only two--and both of them were juvenile birds--having fledged in the last few weeks.

Apart from the pristine plumage, the thing which gives it away as a juvenile is the amount and intensity of the yellow on the underparts, from the chin to the base of the undertail. Adult birds at this time are either in moult and can look a bit 'tatty'--or if they have completed their moult the chin and throat are yellow but the breast and belly get progressively white towards the rear. 

We have ringed about 100 new reed warblers this season at Belvide, and 30+ retraps which we have ringed in previous years. Most of these are a couple of years old but this morning we re-caught a Reed warbler carrying ring number Z201275. A quick check on the national database shows that we initially ringed this bird as an adult female in July 2014. This means that she was at least one year old at that time so had completed at least one return trip to southern Africa on migration. She is now at least eight years old, which is the oldest Reed warbler we have recorded at Belvide--and she must have clocked up in excess of 150,000 miles in migration flights alone--incredible!!

Pete and Paul have been re-establishing our ringing effort in the Chillington reedbed. Back in the day we used to ring there often but not for many years. So it's great to be back and after only a few visits we have had an interesting 'control'--ie a bird ringed elsewhere, by someone else and recaptured by us.

Reed warbler AYD9213 was ringed in north Staffs at Betley Mere on 10th August 2018--as a juvenile bird-- probably having bred there or nearby.

The bird was re-caught by Pete on 24th July this year at Chillington--probably having bred there since it's a bit early for this species to be migrating. It's a good idea for individuals to set up breeding areas away from where they were raised themselves because this ensures mixing of their genes.

Hirundine study.

 What are 'hirundines'? Well they are members of the Swallow and Martin family--but NOT Swifts which come from a completely different genetic stock.

For the first time this season, we caught a decent number of hirundines this morning and I'd like to show you some pictures to point out some features:-

First here is a Swallow:-

This is s juvenile bird--fledged a few weeks ago. You can tell by two key features. First the tail has very short ( almost non-existent) streamers on the outside feathers. And second the forehead and throat are buffy orange--if it had been adult these areas would have been deep red in colour.

Now a couple of pictures of the smaller Sand Martin:-

Considering they are basically brown and white, these really are delightful creatures. This is a juvenile bird and it can easily be aged as such by the buffy brown edges to quite a few wing and back feathers as shown clearly here.

The wing shown below is on an adult Sand Martin and you can see there are no buff edges to any of the feathers:-

Now three House Martin pictures.....

Here again it's a juvenile. One obvious feature is the rather matt appearance of the feathers ( especially the head) as opposed to the shiny blue feathers of the adult. However, there is another even more obvious feather on the inner feathers of the wing ( the tertials):-

These are the three overlapping feathers which if on a juvenile bird like this are all edged with a white crescent.

Just out of interest, House Martin legs are covered in downy feathers!!

None of the other hirundines have this feature and although there are some theories around I'm not convinced that anyone has proved why House Martins do. Ideas on a postcard please.

The build up of birds at Belvide continues and today we ringed 106 new birds--96 of which were migrants--some of which may already have dropped in on their way south because reports are coming in that migration has started even though it's still only July.

Even though we will be concentrating mostly on southward migration over the coming months, team member Pat has just had a couple of intriguing reports of birds he's ringed. Pat lives just west of Welshpool in Wales, and regular readers will have heard me talk about his garden as 'Siskin City'. Over recent months he has ringed 616 using one net in his garden--phenominal!! 

The map shows the recovery details of just two of these......

Incredibly, one bird which was ringed in Pat's garden on 8th March was re-caught by a ringer in west central Scotland on 1st July.

The second was ringed on 11th May in his garden and caught by the same ringer at the same place in Scotland on 23rd July. The movement of the first bird is probably of a bird moving north to breeding grounds--but the much later date of original capture of the second bird is a tad more difficult to explain. Answers on a postcard please...

 

Things are improving!

 I've posted already about our concerns over the lack of young birds in our recent moderate catch totals. Over the last week things have changed as both the catch size, and the proportion of juvenile birds has begun to increase. It really does look like the very cold northerly winds during April have had a marked effect on the timing of breeding. It will be interesting to read the BTO report on breeding which will come out next year with an analysis across the whole of the UK--and see where our little patch fits with the rest of the country.

The team set out early again yesterday and although the sun rose with no cloud, by about 8am, a cover of cloud brought a welcome cooling and shade for the nets. The total catch was 62 new birds--improving-- of which 47 were warblers--improving and of the total catch, 90% were juveniles--improving again!

The ratio of species was about as normal, but Reed Warblers in particular are now fledging and 19 new Reed Warblers in the catch reflected this. However, within the catch of Reed Warblers there was, as always, a number of old favourites!! One in particular- turned out to be a bird we originally ringed at the reserve as a juvenile bird in 2014. Just considering this for a moment... it means that this little bird weighing around 15 grams has flown to the south of Africa and back 7 times. Setting aside flying time at both ends of these migration flights, we reckon it must have clocked up the best part of 150,000 miles on migration trips alone!! Stunning!!.

A couple of pictures help tell some more stories from yesterday:-

The site has been a hot spot for the very localised Tree Sparrow population--but in recent years the numbers have been very variable and sometimes absent. So it was great to see that at least one of the nestboxes has been used by this species and a very healthy brood of 3 youngsters was present and ready for ringing. Here is one of them showing the wing and tail feathers just starting to protrude from their growing sheath or 'pin'. 

Ringing nestlings is particularly useful in that we know exactly where they come from and pretty well exactly how old they are.

The next picture is a classic from this time of year and illustrates a feature I've spoken about before.

It's of course a recently fledged Robin--showing all the features of many juvenile birds--but in this case the lack of a red breast. Received wisdom is that this means the adult males don't see their chicks as a threat because of the lack of a red breast, so continue to feed and nurture them. In a few weeks the chick will grown in the red feathers and the parents will eventually chase them off their territory as potential rivals.

 Lastly -not a picture of a bird but of a ringers finger!!

This is the result of trying to hold a Great Spotted Woodpecker in order to ( unsuccessfully) get a picture of it. Each spot of blood is a puncture wound. Now I'm not showing this to elicit sympathy but to demonstrate how powerful the hammering of a Great Spot can be--and how easy it is for them to break into wooden nestboxes and steal the chicks inside!

Tea Clipper conditions!!

 The team turned out this morning to be met by a cloudless sky and a fresh north westerly wind--not far off the worst possible conditions for ringing!! The wind from this direction makes the nets billow out just like the old tea clippers' sails in a fresh wind. The bright sun rounds things off by making the billowing nets shine like a set of curtains--it's a wonder we caught anything at all.

However, it wasn't all bad news because out of the 25 new birds we ringed, all but two were juveniles-adding to the feeling that the products of the breeding season are at last coming on the scene. Chiffchaffs again were most numerous with 7 followed by 5 Reed Warbler, 4 Sedge and one juvenile Garden Warbler.

We have been waiting for this latter as there are several pairs in the area so we hope the other juveniles will be ringed in the next week or so. Garden Warblers are one of the least colourful of our birds as you can see--but nevertheless they have a certain style!

Garden Warbler-- a subtle beauty!

Two other highlights were a juvenile Song Thrush and a juvenile Tree Sparrow. The first picture below is of the head of the juvenile Tree Sparrow--showing the juvenile features in contrast to the adult features shown in my last post-copied again here.

This juvenile has a small grey ear spot and a somewhat paler grey brown rather than chocolate brown cap. I've copied the adult Tree Sparrow head below for easier comparison:-

Let's hope we have better luck at the weekend.......

Belvide Ringers on Tour--Again!!

 Thirty years ago I took a school expedition to a remote, uninhabited island off the north coast of Southerland in Scotland. It's called Eilean nan Ron in Gaelic--or Ron--to us. The main reason for going was to catch Storm Petrels which breed on the island--and with only a couple of breaks, we have visited the island every year since--ringing in excess of 20,000 Storm Petrels over the years!!

Unfortunately I wasn't able to join the team this year, so 13 folk made their way up the 550 miles to eventually meet at the Kyle of Tongue hostel on Thursday 8th July and to be ferried across by the ever reliable local-Jean-on the Friday morning from the tiny harbour at Skerray. Several trips are needed because of the number of people and the amount of kit needed even for just a three night visit:-

It's really helpful when the sea is as calm as this--the boat is only small-but the distance as you can see isn't too far.

Stormies really are the most delightful little birds as you can see from these two pics..

As you can see they are essentially black, with a white rump and to get an idea of their size here's one in the hand

As you can see, they're not much bigger than a sparrow!! There are so many things I could talk about these wonderful little birds --but here's just a few things:-

--they nest in rock crevices, one bird sits on the single egg for a few days while the other feeds miles out to sea

--the returning bird only comes back under cover of darkness to avoid being predated by gulls

--many of the birds we catch are 2-3 year olds which have spent their early years off the coast of South Africa; they are prospecting remote islands looking for mates and nest sites

--over the 30 years we have NEVER seen a Storm Petrel at sea around the island during the day; but from around midnight they pour onto the island in their hundreds

This year the team ringed just short of 700 new birds in three nights!! In addition they caught about 150 already ringed birds, including 2 which were carrying rings from Norwegian ringers. It'll take some time to analyse all these ringed birds but if there are any particularly interesting ones I'll report later.

Ron also has a good population of about 20 pairs of Great Skuas or Bonxies as they are known. These are big, fearless piratical birds who will attack and eat pretty much whatever they like--even birds up to the size of a Gannet. They construct a very simple grass cup for a nest and usually lay two eggs...

One has hatched here and quite cute it looks.....

This phase doesn't last long and it soon turns into a bit of a beast--eventually about 60cm long with a 1.5m wingspan.

The range and number of other species on the small island isn't great because there are few habitats. But some of the old houses ( derelict now) provide nesting sites for several species including Wheatear

Newly fledged Wheatear

And the cliffs provide good nesting sites for the Rock Dove. This is one the team caught this year which we had ringed in 2015!

Just look at those bright red legs on this Rock Dove.

Team members are making their way home as I write, I hope to give you any more stories when I de-breif them later in the week.

 

More juveniles now

 It was our second Belvide visit of the season on Saturday, and because of the small number of juvenile warblers we caught on the previous Wednesday, I almost called the visit off.

I'm really glad I didn't because although the catch was a relatively modest one of 48 birds, the balance towards juvenile warblers has shifted markedly, with 8 Chiffchaff, 7 Sedge warbler, 6 Reed warbler, 2 each of Blackcap and Whitethroat--and a single (adult) Willow warbler.

Perhaps the stand-out bird of the trip however, was an adult Tree Sparrow. Their numbers have fluctuated markedly over recent years --before this period they were rather common at the feeding stations with 50+ at a time not uncommon.

The head of this bird shows the key pointers of this being an adult. First the depth of colour of the head ( difficult to assess without a comparator) -- and the ear spot is black ( in juveniles it's grey)

The next pics show ageing criteria for two of our very common warblers.....

This is an adult Sedge Warbler as can be seen by the generally worn plumage and the thin almost white edges to some of the wing feathers--as opposed to:-

The wing of this juvenile Sedge is in immaculate condition with broad buff fringes to many of the feathers. Most juvenile Sedge warblers also have a 'necklace' of spots:-

Finally, one common feature of juveniles is that the feathers-especially under the tail and belly are lacking in strength and often look 'fluffy' for want of a better word

You can see how fluffy the feathers are on the underside of the juvenile Chiffchaff 

Hello old friends!

 This morning we finally got the Belvide season off to a start. Weather was pretty well perfect but we were worried during recent birding visits at the lack of activity at the site.

We did get off to a slow start but catching was steady till we finished with a respectable total of 65 new birds and 24 retraps ( birds we had ringed at the site in previous years).

The 'old friends' actually were not that old but we did catch a Garden Warble we ringed in 2019, and a Sedge Warbler in 2018. Most of the others were birds ringed during 2020--but it does provide useful data about survival and return to natal areas.

Of the new birds, only half were warblers--a much lower proportion than normal; and of these there was a smaller number of juveniles. We are hoping that the breeding season is just a bit later than recent years due to the cold May we had but time will tell.The most numerous warbler was Chiffchaff with 15, then Blackcap with 8, but Sedge and Reed Warblers only scored 4 each.

I've included a couple of pictures of juvenile resident birds:-

This is a juvenile Robin--all brown and buff speckles--which cause some confusion for the unwary. It's thought the lack of red cuts down any aggression from the adults--until the red feathers grow through by about September--then they are on their own!

This second picture is of a Great Tit known to his mates as 'Whiteclaw' for obvious reasons.....

This afternoon we looked at the Kestrel box which last week had only one of the chicks surviving for a young pair of adults. Fortunately the chick is doing really well ( only one for the parents to feed!!) and was nicely ready to be ringed. Young falcons are particularly feisty and if given half a chance will give as good as they get with their needle sharp talons....

It'll be a while yet until it fledges but we'll keep everything crossed that the parents will be attentive and provide sufficient for items for it to develop properly

 

'' Which way is Africa?''

Is that what these young Swallows are thinking? We ringed them at one of our farms a week or so ago, when they were just the right age--but we've been keeping an eye on them since then. They are in a well used out building but the regular appearance of people hasn't troubled them at all. As you can see they are regularly seen standing on the edge of the nest making many test flights before they actually leave it for good.

Over the coming weeks they will stay around the farm with their parents ( but the parents will be more than occupied looking after a second brood--we hope). Gradually the youngsters will gain more confidence and withing a couple of months they will set off without a SATNAV and make their way to southern Africa--marvellous!!