Team effort is ramping up

 Yesterday, was a sad day for the group, as we finally said goodbye to Glynn at his funeral. There was a great turnout reflecting how well his friends thought of him.

The day before, saw our first Belvide session of the season, sadly without Glynn; but I'm sure he would have been delighted with our total of 48 new birds, mostly migrant warblers. As is usual at this time of year the most numerous birds were Sedge and Reed Warblers--including many juveniles giving us a good idea of the success of the breeding season. Here is a picture of the throat of a fledgling Sedge Warbler showing how birders in the field can tell if they are looking at a juvenile of this species.....

On this bird you can clearly see the 'necklace' of brown spots--which in Sedgies is a clear sign of having recently left the nest. Not every bird has this so well developed. but most do have at least some speckles.

It's exciting when as well as birds you know will be around, something unusual turns up. We hope this juvenile Redstart sets the scene for other unusual birds this season.

We can tell it's a Redstart from the tail obviously, and it is too pale overall to be a Black Redstart. The pale buff edges and blotches over the back and wing feathers is a juvenile feature which are gradually replaced, The extent of these feathers leads us to believe that this bird has recently left the nest--but where from? The nearest breeding Redstarts that we are aware of are on Cannock Chase; but are there some nearer?

Away from Belvide, group members have been very active and as the season moves on I will try to keep up with their activities.......

Paul and Roy have been helping licenced Barn Owl ringer Roger, to check the boxes on two of our farms and they have had some great success, with 10 baby Barn Owls ringed between the two farms. They are pretty cool birds....

Together with Pete, they have also been having some good success with over 70 Sand Martins ringed at a new colony

Meanwhile, Gareth has had more success at his new site including a juvenile Reed Warbler--significant because this species doesn't breed at the site so this is a bird already wandering from it's breeding site.

Dad, Kev has enjoyed the frustration of watching lots of birds on his garden feeders before and after he set his nets......and Pat reports exactly the same situation from his garden in mid Wales. Keep on trying chaps......

Finally for now, Jenni caught a couple og Great Spotted Woodpeckers at her Kingswood site, and two of our new trainees report that they managed to catch and ring their first ever Storm Petrels on an expedition they have joined up in Scotland--I hope to have some pics when they return.

 

 

Hopes beginning to be fulfilled !

 On 30th April, I posted about a new site that one of our team, Gareth, was taking on--and at that time we had high hopes for this new site.

After a bit of a false start last week, when Gareth turned up very early in the morning to find that the site had been vandalised. He acted quickly and reported the incident, the owners were really grateful for the tip off, and have introduced more security.

Early this morning Gareth turned up to try again with some help from Dad, Kevin and friend Paul. The great news is that it looks like our hopes for the site are being realised. With only 3 net sites open, they ringed a smashing total of 55 new birds and a couple of retraps. The new birds included some top quality birds, including 2 Kingfishers, a juvenile Common Redstart, 10 Common Whitethroat, 13 Chiffchaff and 5 Blackcap!!

Here is a picture of one of the Kingfishers..

As you can clearly see, both upper and lower mandibles of the beak are black--meaning this is a male bird ( females have an orange lower mandible)

This is a recently fledged Common Redstart. We can tell it's a Redstart by the orange tail, And that it's a recently fledged bird because of the buff tips to many of the feathers on the head, breast and upper back. The bird will quite quickly replace most of these over the coming weeks, then it will begin to look much more like a Redstart should.

So, great news for Gareth and the group--he is already looking forward to visiting again soon, when he hopes to be able to set a few more nets to see what else he can ring.

A sad goodbye to a close friend

 We recently had the really sad news that our great friend Glynn had suddenly and unexpectedly died at home. Many of you who visited our ringing demonstrations, especially at Belvide will recognise Glynn from the picture.

This is a very familiar sight from our trips to Portugal--on this pic he has not 1 but 2 of his carefully whittled walking sticks at hand!

I first met Glynn about 25 years ago, and after a quick chat he signed up to a Storm Petrel ringing trip to Eilean nan Ron off the Sutherland coast. It's safe to say that life for him--and us--would never be the same again! He became a regular on those trips, as well as to Lundy Island, Long Point in Canada, and Portugal. 

Things were never quiet when Glynn was around, and his sense of fun was infectious. Judging by the many heart-felt tributes from team members, it's clear that our ringing sessions won't be the same again. We all wish his family well, and of course RIP Glynn.

A New Site; New Hope

 After a while of positive negotiations, Gareth spent a few hours this morning at a new site. In fact this disused sand quarry was one of our sites when it was active, and it had an active Sand Martin colony. Once the quarry was de-commissioned, plans have been put in place to convert to site into a nature reserve--and Gareth is in at the start to see how this develops.

With any new site it takes time to find out the best places for birds--and of course these will change as the vegetation develops. So this morning's modest but varied catch was encouraging. This Chiffchaff was one of the birds he caught:-

The cool damp conditions were conducive to hirundines ( Swallows and Martins) flying low, and he caught a couple of House Martins and this Sand Martin:-

ID features of Sand Martins are the brown and white, with a brown breast band which shows well in this picture. What doesn't show is the fact that the bird was already ringed--and when the ring was checked we found it was one we ringed at the same site as a recently hatched bird at the colony there 5 years ago! 

We all wish Gareth good luck at the site and look forward to reports from the site in future.

Ageing birds

 We are still increasing the number of birds ringed this year, with feeding stations still continuing to attract a few birds, with some Summer visiting warblers beginning to show up. 

Last week we also paid a first visit of the year to our Grey Heron colony to ring the chicks with normal metal rings and larger more easily read in the field plastic rings. We were a body short on the team which meant we had no-one to take photographs--but we hope there will be some form what we hope will be a second visit soon.

Meanwhile, here's a reminder of some of the feathers we examine in order to age a bird as 'juvenile'-ie hatched sometime in 2022, and 'adult' ie hatched sometime before 2022.

These two Greenfinch illustrate the point very well:-

This is the tail of an adult -the feathers are rounded and the ends are black with grey edgings. Compare this to a juvenile tail:-

The feathers arenot as black, and the tips are pointed with only a narrow grey edge.

The wings of the same two birds-first the adult:-

The greater coverts (1) are all the same generation, as are the primary coverts (2) which are rounded, green outer edged and tipped with grey. The alula, (3), is bright yeallow.

Now the juvenile wing:-

The outer4 greater coverts (1) are a different shape and colour ( juvenile) from the inner ones. The primary coverts (2)don't have a green outer web or tipped grey; and the alula (3) is mainly grey rather than yellow.

If you look carefully you can pick out most of these features with careful study.

 

Siskin City Update

 Team member Pat lives in mid Wales, and over recent years he has found that his garden feeding station is incredibly popular with birds--especially small finches called Siskins. They breed in the surrounding conifer woodlands--but during winter their numbers are swelled by influxes from elsewhere in the UK and almost certainly from Europe.

Pat is getting to know when birds are likely to appear in big numbers--generally after wet weather. We assume that wet conditions somehow prevent the birds from getting at their natural food--seeds of Alder and Birch trees.

Pat sent us a note today to say that he was catching well, and I just happened to ask what his numbers were since the start of 2023. When he downloaded the data even he was surprised--in a good way!

He has ringed ( using only 1 net in his garden) 642 new birds of 18 species!! To give you an idea about the importance of Siskin--they accounted for 564 of the total--incredible!

What's also very interesting is that of the 564 Siskin, 526 of them were juvenile birds. The next picture shows how we can tell juvenile Siskins from Adults......

There are several clues in this picture but perhaps the two most obvious have been labelled. Label 1 shows 2 white tipped ( ie juvenile feathers) within the median/lesser coverts. These have not yet been replaced by greeny/yellow tipped adult feathers like the others.

Similarly, label 2shows 4 greater coverts again white tipped and therefore juvenile unlike the green tipped inner greater coverts which are adult type.

Within the Siskin are small numbers ( but increasing according to Pat) of another small finch- Lesser Redpoll. These finches get their name from the old English for ''red head''. However, over the years we have noticed that within the population there are individuals with a mutation of the red colouring mechanism--instead it produces a yellow gold colour; like this one...

We call these '' gold tops'' which will only mean anything but the obvious to readers over a certain age--this was the name we as kids used for the full cream milk which had gold tops on the bottles.

Well done Pat--I'm sure there are plenty more out there just waiting for a ring...... 

 

HOW A WINTER FEED PROGRAMME CAN HELP FARMLAND BIRDS

 

Many of us help birds through the lean winter months by putting out food in our gardens, but the farmland finches and buntings rarely visit garden feeders unless they are in very rural areas. As the winter merges into spring, many birds find it difficult to get enough food. Perhaps strangely, finches and buntings have a particularly difficult time. There are a few reasons. Most significant is the fact that their prime natural food source—ie seeds are in short supply. Lots of birds have been feeding on those plants that still have seeds on them, and most seeds left over in the fields  after harvesting have been eaten. During spring at places at latitudes such as the UK experience mass movements of birds including finches making their way north and east to breed. This put even more strain on scarce supplies of seed. Furthermore, during early spring although the weather is warming, there are often extreme fluctuations and regular frosts; again increasing the demand for food to enable the birds to maintain their body heat and hence their wellbeing. Partly as a result of these factors, and others, many of these species are declining in large enough numbers to be classified as Red Data species, which are deemed to be particularly vulnerable and in need of help. With this very much in mind, Tim at Brewood Park Farm signed up to the Winter Supplementary Feed Programme to see what he could do to provide some help for some of these Red Data, and other species.

 

So which species are we talking about? Here are some of them.

 

 

 

This is a male Linnet

	This is a male Brambling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      This is a female Yellowhammer

 

                                                                                                            

   This is a female Reed Bunting

 

Two years ago, Tim purchased a mechanical seed feeder ( see below) which proved to be successful, so ahead of winter 22/23 he bought two more. All 3 are placed at various areas around the farm-near hedgerows so the birds can fly to and from the feeding area from safe cover.

 

 

The three main benefits of these seed feeders are:-

-- they only need to be topped up with seed once a week so easy to maintain,

-- the timer can be set to replenish seed whenever needed,

-- the spin mechanism spreads the seed out over a large area.

It’s fascinating watching birds gather on the nearby hedges and telegraph wires ahead of the time the spinner is due to spread seed!! 

How successful have these spinners been? We have a lot of data on this but perhaps focussing on data from March 2023 will illustrate the benefit.

We ran 6 ringing sessions at the feeding stations during March. Unfortunately we weren’t able to run any more sessions because of unsuitable weather. Nevertheless, we managed to ring...

177 Linnets (red data)

12 Brambling

44 Reed Buntings

25 Yellowhammer (red data)

14 Chaffinch

Although these are impressive totals, they represent only a fraction of the total numbers of each of these species actually SEEN at the feeding stations. We believe that the Yellowhammers are probably resident birds either nesting on the farm or in the near vicinity. The other species are probably passage migrants since few are seen on the farm during the breeding season. Daily counts show that for Linnet in most days the flock was in the hundreds, Chaffinches and Reed Buntings up to a hundred, and Brambling 20+. Of course, it is impossible to know from day to day how many of these are the same birds as they are actively moving through, as shown by the very small number of birds recaptured This suggests that the total number of birds benefitting from the supplementary feed is likely to be in the thousands.

Having seen such success at his farm, Tim is now wanting to persuade other farmers to get involved in this Winter Feed Programme. He gives regular talks to farmers and agricultural specialists at home and abroad on "no till" farm management and its benefits to wildlife and birds in particular. He will be using the results from his winter feeding success to show others what can be achieved.

From our perspective as birders and ringers, as always it is and big ‘thank you’ to the land owners at Brewood Park Farm and Tim for the interest and enthusiasm and it particular the provision of the mechanical seed feeders.