A Thermal Evening

We celebrated another successful year of our partnership with Tim the farm manager at Brewood Park Farm a couple of nights ago. Drinks, nibbles and plans for the future filled a very pleasant couple of hours--as you can see from the smiles on the faces of our team--with farmer Tim in the middle......

Not all of our team could make it but part of our planning discussions decided that this should be an annual event so maybe next year we will have a full turn out.

Tim loves to hear about the birds we catch during our thermal imaging sessions, and he was very pleased about the 10 Skylarks, 2 Grey Partridges, 2 Jack Snipe plus other species at our last session. But what really provides him with data to support his approach to farming ( see below) is when we provide him with a field by field analysis of the birds we see. So hearing about the 85 Skylarks, 30 Woodcock, 9 Grey Partridge and 3 Jack Snipe ( among others) we saw in his fields gave him a great deal of satisfaction.

Tim is gaining a national and indeed international profile, and his farming methods have been recognised by the RSPB, who are consulting with him about wildlife friendly farming for their farms. Probably the best way of helping you understand his passion is to have a look at the following video.

 

 

Two new species for the year!!

 It's great to catch large numbers of birds as it increases the chance of some of them being found again--but now and again ( just like in birding generally) it's exciting to ring unusual species or ones that although familiar, are rarely caught.

This week, two of our team, Gareth and Liz had the excitement of new species-which also happened to be new species for the group this year.

Over the last 20 or so years, Buzzards have become so much more common than previously. However, they are difficult to catch--especially in mist nets, because, they tend not to fly low enough, and also because of their size, they tend to flop out of nets in the unlikely event that they fly into one. Imagine the surprise then last Sunday when this fabulous bird was sitting in the bottom shelf of a mist net near one of our feeding sites....

Buzzards are very variable in plumage but this one is pretty typical--an absolute stunner.

Certainly not as stunning in the conventional way, or as big; Gareth's new species was equally exciting and quite unusual in our mist nets. Jackdaws are pretty common in towns and villages, but being members of the crow family they tend to be extremely wary and suspicious of mist nets or any other strange objects in their vicinity. 

Considering crows are regarded as simply fairly large black birds--the subtlety is stunning. The really bright silvery/white iris really stands out; and the grey hood gives the Jackdaw a really distinctive look.

And finally, a portrait of a much underrated bird. Buntings are generally little brown jobs--especially the females--and as such are often overlooked as sparrows in gardens. This is a female Reed Bunting, and as you an see the markings around the head are very distinctive....and not at all like a sparrow. It's worth looking carefully, especially during cold spells because this is when Reed Buntings often visit garden feeding stations.

The last blog of 2022 is coming soon, and will give a preliminary report on how well we have done during the year.

Sorry for the absence!!

 Apologies for the lack of posts for almost 2 months!! It's been pretty manic on several fronts--but that's quite a lame excuse considering all the excellent effort put in by the team. So here is an attempt to redress the balance.

The headline is that in November we ringed an astonishing 1400 new birds! The great majority were Redwings, which finally arrived a couple of weeks later than normal--and teams were out in force to ring them. Actually, the numbers about were unusually variable, but we have still ringed almost 1500 as of now.

Feeding stations and demonstrations have filled most of the rest of the time, and Gareth and Kevin started to get to know one of our sewerage treatment works ( never let anyone tell you ringers don't go to superb places for their hobby......) These first three pictures are from one of their visits to the works:-

This is a very familiar Pied Wagtail--lots of these find plenty of insects on the filter beds...

This very smart bird is a Grey Wagtail--easily identified by its grey back with prominent yellow under the tail.

This is a Meadow Pipit ( related to wagtails) which also find insects on the beds--and although it's cold as I write this, it was very mild when this was caught-meaning lots stayed around. I suspect this frosty weather will have pushed most of them south and west looking for milder conditions.

This is a male Blackcap--a warbler which is increasingly being found in the UK during winter. Milder weather, and lots of available food in gardens seems to be altering the migratory patterns of at least some of these birds--this one was at Patshull while Kev was catching Redwings.

Some people wonder if they have seen a female Blackbird-or a Song Thrush. This is a classic female Blackbird, with brown splodges on a brown background. Song Thrush has black spots on a white background. So what on earth is this............

This is actually a juvenile male Blackbird which has a type of genetic mutation causing some of the feathers to be light brown--a bit weird in the field.

This is a stunning adult male Kestrel. We catch very few of these so this bird was a real treat for the ringers involved--as it was for the audience at the demonstration. Another 'wow' bird turned up at another demo......

Jays are stunning birds--and always impress visitors. They are also very feisty, and the ringer involved always comes away from an interaction with a Jay--with several bloody scars on their hands.

The moon and weather conditions haven't been very good for our thermal imaging catches, but Jen managed to catch this Common Snipe--as can be seen by the very long straight bill. These are particularly difficult to catch so well done to the team.

Pat at his Siskin City garden has not been as active as he hoped after tearing a muscle in a sporting accident. However, he 's been soldiering on --even though Siskins are in short supply so far. This picture of a tiny Treecreeper shows the bill very well,

This illustrates brilliantly how evolution has resulted in this long curved bill--just the job for a bird which feeds on insects and spiders deep in bark crevices--perfect!!

We are nearing the end of the year and the annual report will need to be written soon. We are getting very close to a record catch for a year--but this very cold spell has cut down on our catching so that birds can feed--so we may not make it. I'll post the actual result in my next post--which I promise will be in good time!!

 

Bursting into action!!

 Apologies again for the lack of posts but in truth we have been struggling a little as we wait for the arrival of winter visitors such as Redwings and Fieldfares, which are a good week later this year than recent years.

However, three days ago--after a few false starts--they arrived in a big way and on that morning just two of our teams reported massive migration of Redwings in particular and we ringed over 150 birds. The nearest they have come from is central west Norway--and points north and east Just to remind you, this is the distinctive head pattern of a Redwing...

We are all looking forward to the next few weeks when we hope to be catching large numbers of Redwing--and the hope that one will be carrying a ring from an exotic place to give us a hint about where they come from.

This is a picture of a Lesser Redpoll, some of which have started moving around the country and dropping in to Belvide. Kevin and son Gareth are ringing in Shetland at the moment, and as well as a few great birds, they ringed an Arctic Redpoll.....

A tiny bill, all white breast, almost all white rump and one or two other features identify this as Arctic. One very familiar bird they caught was a young male Blackbird--but you would be forgiven for finding this bird a tad tricky to identify.....

It's very characteristic black bill, almost yellow eye ring and weird, blackish plumage points to a bird from Scandinavia.

Last but by no means least, our groups original founder, Pete, was sent a great letter and gold medal last week--having completed 50 years of membership/ringing for the BTO!! Well done Pete!

All good things come to an end!!

 Today was our last scheduled visit of the post breeding/migration ringing sessions at Belvide for 2022. We had a great turnout and 9 guests joined us to see some of the last catch. Everyone had a great time with plenty of regular species to show; with this little beauty as a bonus!!

This is a juvenile Stonechat, and it just happens to be the first of this species that we have ringed at Belvide--great stuff, yet another new species for the project.

In case you are under the impression that this means our activities will slow down.....they won't!! You will be hearing soon about other activities more related to Autumn and Winter birding. But for the next few days, most of the team will be taking part in our annual ringing amp in Vilamoura in the Algarve region of Portugal. It's a tough life ( Norway a couple of weeks ago--now Portugal)--but someone's got to do it......I'll try to get some blogs out to you showing some of the stunning species we will be ringing out there.......

Mainly about Mipits......

 Much action again this week, with over 250 new birds ringed. Most of these have been Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs, typical autumn migrants making their way to southern Europe for winter rather than southern Africa.

However, another intriguing species is starting to come through in good numbers-Meadow Pipits ( or mipits for short!!). Intriguing because we're not absolutely sure where they come from--or where they go. To add to the problem, they are quite a challenge to age ( we can't sex them as males and females look alike). I have tried below to show the key features of tail and wing feathers to help ageing--only up to one year old as is the case for most small birds.

First the wing.....here is an adult wing, where all the feathers have the adult feature of broad buff edges to most of the non-flight feathers.....

Compared to this juvenile wing where many of the feathers show juvenile much lighter coloured tips

This juvenile is quite easy to age, however, many show sometimes only a few juvenile feathers in amongst adult ones so you need to look very carefully.

Moving now to the tail, first an adult tail with all rounded broad feathers......

Again, this compares with a juvenile tail with mostly narrow, often pointed feathers.....

Finally, birds quite often show anomalies in their feathers and tis mipit had patches of white feathers in the head--quite confusing for the unsuspecting......

Back in the Groove

 Although it's always exciting to go abroad and sample new ringing experiences--it's always great to be back on home turf. And the hectic pace we have set continues with over 500 new birds ringed in the first 19 days of September! The numbers include a good catch by Gareth at his Dairy Farm, including 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 17 Blackcap and a Cetti's warbler.

The team has been active at Belvide with a couple of 100+ catches by the team even when stretched in numbers of personnel available-thanks to Kev, Glynn and Roy!! As usual there were a couple of slightly different species to increase interest and provide our trainees with new challenges,

New trainee Roy was very pleased and surprised to be able to get up close and personal with his first Kingfisher. This is a male as can be seen by the black lower mandible of the beak, which would have had  patch of red if it had been a female.

A less glamourous but very important new species for him was this Spotted Flycatcher...

As you can see--fairly nondescript--the light tips to some wing feathers show it's a juvenile--species. However, we always appreciate these because they have diminished in numbers by a massive percentage over recent years--at least some are successful thank goodness!!

Blackcaps, as expected continue to dominate in the catch as big numbers gather to gorge themselves on the abundant supply of Elderberry and Bramble fruits. They use these to build up their fat reserves in preparation for their southerly migration.

Paul has been active and had been concentrating on hirundines ( swallows and martins)--in two ways.

First he and Pete, have been experimenting with catching Barn Swallows as they go to roost. 

Here's an adult male with a red throat and long tail streamers...most of the birds we catch at this time of year are juveniles with no or short streamers, and light brown throat patches. 

Paul is now getting much success at sewage treatment works on cool damp mornings. He recently caught over 60 birds in a couple of hours--most of which were House Martins, ......

Teams will be out regularly over the coming week--so more news soon. But to round up this report we have had some great news about one of the Grey Heron chicks we colour ringed back in May. We have had very little information over many years about the movements of our young Herons, but AT LAST, one of the colour ringed birds has been seen in Lancashire at the Marin Mere reserve!. We await further details from the observer, but we didn't expect our birds to travel so far. More details when I get them.

 

Belvide Ringers on tour… Norway

Some of the Belvide Ringers team are currently in Arctic Norway on a ringing expedition. You can follow their trip on the following Blog:

Nesseby Ringmerken

Lots of action.

 As I mentioned in my last report, migration is really on at a pace and we are having lots of success. As well as our main site at Belvide, we put on an extra special session at Witches Oak to support our colleague Ben. Extra group members helped set more nets, some slept over for an early start next day--the result was that we ringed 201 new bird--mostly migrants--including 2 Grasshopper Warblers ( new for the site), 5 Cettis warblers, 54 Sedge Warblers, 23 Blackcap,19 Reed Warblers and plenty of other birds.

Overall the group has ringed well over 1000 birds during August and there's still more than a week to go.

I've just had a lovely picture sent from Jenni .....

It's our second Redstart of the year--I know I posted a picture of our first a couple of weeks ago---but I never tire of looking at these little stunners. In the field I love watching them land after a short flight because their tail wobbles as it it was connected by elastic. Fab!

This was a very exciting bird we caught a few days ago. It's called a Whinchat, and although in this juvenile plumage it's fairly drab, the excitement was because it's only the second of this species we've ringed at Belvide. The broad white supercilium ( stripe) over the eye is one of the main distinguishing features although in this shot the lighting doesn't really show it well.

At our Saturday session last week, the Sand and House Martins started to appear early morning and we managed to catch the first ones of the season.

This could almost be a 'mystery bird' photograph. It is in fact a juvenile Sand Martin. You can tell it's a Sand Martin because of the generally brown plumage with the soft brown bib. It's a juvenile because of the white edges to the wing feathers which you can see quite clearly.

I won't be posting for a couple of weeks because a team of us are headed for a ringing site 300 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. Lucky us!! We will hope to be sending daily blog posts from there and if we do I'll get some of the younger tech savvy members of the group to try and provide a link to this blog.

 

Migration is so exciting!!

 August is advancing and it's fascinating every time we set up at Belvide to realise the scale of the movement of migrants as they embark on their epic southward journey--what a priviledge!!

Our start times are early and to be honest the bright sunshine doesn't do us any favours as it shines on the nets making them visible to the birds. On the flipside however, it provides us with some wonderful sunrise views like this.....

Having said that the sun is no friend, we nevertheless have had some great catches and so far into August we have ringed over 700 birds from all our sites. Most of them have been migrant warblers so I thought I'd simply provide a gallery with notes of some of the birds we ring.

This is one of the small 'leaf warblers'--the commonest one of at Belvide is the Chiffchaff of which this is a nice example. They are difficult to distinguish from Willow Warblers but although there are some definitive pointers in the hand, 'Chiffies' are generally a bit smaller, duller and shorter winged that Willows.

Although this looks similar it's one of the bigger 'Sylvia' warblers--it's a Garden Warbler and is probably the least well marked of any warbler.

This is another of the Sylvia warblers and it's a Common Whitethroat. You can see the white throat but the most obvious ID feature is the chestnut areas on the wings,

This next bird is pretty nondescript but it's a real prize given we only catch a couple on average each year. This is the third one this year, and it's a Grasshopper Warbler

As you can see they are pretty sombre looking--but this next view really helps.....

The group of warblers they belong to all have rounded tails. The group are called 'Locustella' as they tend to have a song similar to grasshoppers/locusts, and are more often heard than seen.

Finally for now, there is a group of smallish brown birds called 'pipits' and one of them which is a long distance migrant is the Tree Pipit. We had heard a few calling as they do on migration and fortunately one popped into a net...

For now, I'll leave you with the picture because in a few weeks time a close relative-the Meadow Pipit will be passing through so I'll go over their ID features when I can compare them.

 

 

 

 

They are on the move already!!

 As I write this, July has not come to an end, but we are seeing lots of evidence of birds starting their southward migration. This is often preceded by a bit of general wandering --believed to be a means of searching for suitable nesting areas when they return next year.

Yesterday we were very pleasantly surprised to catch a very young juvenile Redstart:-

You can tell it's a REdstart by the superbly russet coloured tail--but the body has not yet developed any of the typical Redstart colours. This is because it is a recently fledged bird showing the speckled appearance just like the baby Robins I have shown you in previous notes. So, where did this bird originate--answer we don't know. Feasibly one could argue that it's probably from nearby breeding site--Cannock Chase or East Wales--but in truth we don't know. What is certain is that it's migration behaviour has started and it will be on it's way to sub Saharan Africa any day now.

We don't have Lesser Whitethroats breeding at Belvide, although they are in the lanes around the reserve. These are one of my favourite warblers and this picture shows off its pristine post fledging plumage....

When these birds leave the nest they have a rather poor quality plumage on the breast in particular. Shortly after fledging they replace these with the pure, dense, white plumage you see here. Fantastic little birds--and quite unusual in that rather than take a south/south west route to Africa; Lesser Whites, fly south east and cross the Med Sea towards Egypt.

Each month team member Sam trawls through the BTO records looking for records of birds that we have encountered. This month there was one in particular which was worthy of special mention--a bird  Reed Warblers originally ringed at Belvide....

Ring number Z203549 was ringed on 31st July 2015, and we recaught it on 2nd July this year--2527 days after originally being ringed. So this bird was at least 7 years old, meaning that it had successfully completed 7 migrations to and from Africa!! Just looking at the actual migration flights alone this would entail somewhere around 150,000 miles--assuming it flew in a straight line ( which they don't!!). When you add on the daily feeding , breeding, other flights this bird will have racked up an incredible mileage--even without an annual MOT test.......

Speaking of birds replacing their initial set of feathers after leaving the nest, Pat out at Siskin City, has been catching quite a few juvenile Siskins looking like this one....

You can quite clearly see the yellow chest feathers coming through to replace the fledgling white feathers, which will give these birds their characteristic bright yellow underside when they've completely grown through.

As I've said, migration is well under way, and we have ringed over 1,000 birds in July! Assuming things go according to plan, this should be at least repeated in August--more news soon.

Quality and Quantity

 This is the beginning of such an exciting time of year--and it comes round every year!! Breeding is coming to an end and migration is just getting started so anything can turn up amongst the big numbers of juvenile birds which are leaving the safety of their nests.

A couple of days ago Paul hit the jackpot with this little beauty......

This is a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker--just note how small it is--not much bigger than a sparrow! Next time anyone suggests they have seen a Lesser Spot, just ask them how big the bird was--most often they have seen a Great Spot. This is a juvenile bird as can be seen by the merest hint of pink on the forehead. Adult males have a red cap and females no red. Only a handful of these birds are ringed each year; not only are they quite rare, they tend to inhabit the tops of high trees. Fortunately this one found one of our nets--what a diamond bird!!

Now something less rare but quite interesting I hope....

These are both the same species!! They are both juvenile Willow Warblers. However, the bird on the left has gone through a post fledging moult and as a result the chest and belly are covered in these lemon yellow feathers. The other bird is a bit younger and is only just starting this moult. You can see some of the yellow feathers coming through to replace the rather drab grey fledging feathers. These are one of the first species to start migration so we are pretty sure when these appear--as tey did this week, tat things are on the move!!

How smart is this adult Moorhen!? Larger birds like this don't often stay in our nets--they flap and roll out very easily. However, we have a variety of walk-in traps which are much more effective, especially when they are baited with food the birds find irresistible.

I will try to keep up, but we are very busy trying to keep up with a large number of birds passing through, but I promise I'll try.......who knows what will turn up next?

Babies everywhere!!

 The start of July heralds the start of the main season at Belvide and other sites we operate at, such as Witches Oak near East Midlands Airport. Although some birds may still be breeding with second or thirds broods, the majority of breeding is finishing and migration is about to start.

The birders at Belvide reported seeing lots of family parties in the netting area so we were optimistic as we started our season. As it turns out we have had three very good sessions already and ringed over 200 new bird--over 90% of which have been juveniles pointing to an excellent breeding season. Ben has had two sessions at Witches and he also has had lots of juveniles in his 100+ total. More of this in the near future.

For now, I'll carry on the theme of the last blog and show some pictures which I hope are of interest by illustrating some of the things we get to see and use as clues to identity.

First a very familiar bird, the Barn Swallow. Two things about this bird....first it is an adult ( more than 1 year old) as seen by the deep red on the throat and forehead ( creamy buff in juveniles)--and the extra long tail streamers show this to be a male. The streamers are much shorter in females and hardly any length in juveniles.

Next another very familiar bird--a robin. This is a juvenile as you can see from the brown speckled throat and head, as we have mentioned in previous notes. However, this bird is now moulting out these juvenile feathers and replacing them with the much more familiar red breast feathers. As soon as these grow fully through the bird will be 'encouraged' by it's parents to move out and set up it's own territory.

Here is a Goldfinch which many of you will have on feeders at home. This is a male as shown by two features......most obvious is the fact that the red patch extends beyond the eye both above and below the eye. Second and a bit less obvious is the very thin hair like feathers at the point where the beak joins the skull. These so-called nasal hairs are black in a male and cream in a female.

Now on to a couple of problems that birds have.....

This Goldfinch clearly has some kind of bacterial, fungal or viral infection in the skin of it's feet--resulting in these enlarged growths. What is less familiar to us is the extra long growth of the claws as a result of the infection. Kevin reports the bird to be otherwise in good health. It's prudent after handling such individuals to thoroughly clean hands to avoid passing on the infection.

This young warbler shows very obvious growth or fault bars in it's tail. Lots of birds show these and they are as a result of changes in diet at particular points--poor food quality, shortage of food during adverse weather are two classic examples. In this particular case it enables us to tell that this is a juvenile ( newly fledged) bird--but how? You can clearly see that the lines are parallel which shows that the problems occurred while all the tail feathers were f growing at the same time--ie as the feathers do during time in the nest. If this occurs during tail moult in adult birds there would be a step between each pair of feathers, because usually the outer feather on each side moults first followed by the next inner then the next and so on.

More soon........