Pictures from the archive prove illustrative

A few weeks ago I responded to a Facebook request for anyone with experience of ringing Jack Snipe to provide any advice on ageing the birds--from a ringing group who had caught their first ever Jack Snipe.
Regular readers will know that we have been catching quite a lot of this species due to a combination of a great site for the species plus the development of using the thermal imager to find them especially during the day.
When I responded I did so in writing which is often not too helpful--but by a weird co-incidence ( I had a message telling me I had too many photos on my phone)--when clearing out my photos on my phone I came across some  pictures we took to illustrate some of the key points. I'm in the process of posting these on Facebook--but thought I would also put them on here for readers to see--and for our trainees to refer to.
The conventional guide is not terribly helpful--and it has led to the majority of Jack Snipe ringed in recent years, being aged as adults. It's unlikely that this is the case, so we started looking for other clues based on a guide produced by a Spanish ringer called Xavier Blasco. He and we tend to look at 4 features which I hope show pretty well in the following pictures:-

1) HEAD STRIPES

The bird on the right shows two adult features on the head--the colours of both the light and dark stripes are deeper, and the stripes are more clear-cut and less diffuse than those on the juvenile bird on the left. ( Bear in mind the leg colour of the adult bird too)

 

2) BACK STRIPES



The well known stripes on the back of Jack Snipe are more golden coloured in the adult bottom bird) than the paler ones on the juvenile

 

3) LEG COLOUR

Although this doesn't show the legs of both birds--those of the adult are clearly a blue colour--check back to the first picture--juvenile legs are predominantly green

 

4) OUTER PRIMARY SHAPE

The breadth of the outer primary and shape of the tip is also useful. The right hand bird is an adult with broader rounder tipped outer primary. You can just about make out the green legs on the juvenile.

We knew that the adult in these pictures was an adult because it was a bird which we had originally ringed just over a year before these pictures were taken

 

 

 

Apologies for the break

Really sorry that there have been no posts recently--I have had a smashing holiday with my wife cruising around South America and the Antarctic Peninsula-absolutely brilliant.

Got back on Monday morning and, still slightly jet-lagged, on Tuesday we had an appointment with Heather--a reporter from the Radio 4 Farming programme. A crack team turned out to meet at 19.00 and produce a recording of us catching birds using a thermal imager and discussing how the No Till strategy ( ie he does not plough the land in order to maintain the structural integrity of the soil) of the farm manager Tim, is providing a wildlife friendly environment.
Heather was able to see how many birds there were in the fields and we managed a good catch to show her what we do and what species are involved.
We ended up catching 19 birds of which 9 ( +2 retraps) were Skylark; 2 (+2 retraps) were Grey Partridge; Fieldfare 3 and Redwing 1.
When the programme is due for broadcast I will advertise it on this blog.

A brilliant morning!!

Last week I met up with an old mucker; Graham, who I hadn't seen to really have a good natter with for a very long time. We quickly got to talking about birds--and our excellent Snipe ringing session reported here last week. He mentioned a nearby site he monitored regularly where he has seen both species of snipe so we decided to get together and see how many we could count using our thermal imager--especially for Jack Snipe.
We met at 9 am with superb conditions--dull--and had a mooch around the site. He was disappointed at the small number of Common Snipe we saw--as we had been last week--but we did see 10 Jack Snipe--more than he has ever seen there before. We also managed to ring two. The thermal imager really does help us break new ground in our ability to find this incredibly elusive species. With more time, effort and imagers around the country we could make a significant input to what we know about the Jack Snipe wintering population and distribution.
There was some time left before we had to be home, so we decided to have a look at my prime site to see if there had been any adverse effect on the number of birds at the site as a result of our netting activity last week. Some people do get worried about this so it's useful to gather data to support or refute this issue.
It was obvious as soon as we entered the site that there was nothing to worry about. Again a disappointing number of Common Snipe were seen ( wonder where they have gone??), but we counted 35 Jack Snipe, 6 of which we ringed.
Regular readers will know that in our last three visits, we have ringed 32 Jack Snipe at this site. To put this into a national context, each year the total number ringed in the whole of  Britain and Ireland is only around 2-300.

COME AND MEET US !!

Free Bird Ringing Demonstration !!

 Saturday 8th February  

 

 

Hollybush Garden Centre and Aquaria

 

Warstone Road, Shareshill, Wolverhampton, WV10 7LX

 

 

Belvide Ringers will be holding our first bird ringing demonstration of 2020, courtesy of Hollybush Garden Centre.

 

Come along any time between 09:00 and 11:00 for a chance to get up close to some familiar garden birds. There will be opportunities for photography and you'll be able to learn plenty of interesting information about birds and bird ringing. Children are more than welcome!

 

 

 

 

There is also the chance to win a hamper of Peckish bird food in a raffle on the day, kindly sponsored by Westland Horticulture.

Birds will be ringed in the Show Garden area at the rear of the garden centre.

PLEASE NOTE :-Weather permitting - Please note that this event cannot take place in heavy rain or high winds due to the safety of the birds.

 

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Twitter: @gardenhealth1

10 out of 10 for effort!!

We had teams out for the last two nights on our favourite farm using the thermal imager. On Tuesday, Kev and Jen saw quite a lot of birds but the ambient light meant their catch rate was relatively low. However, they did catch 4 more birds that if they had stayed at home (!!)--and they were, Partridge, Woodcock, Skylark and Common Snipe--all quality birds and as far as the Snipe is concerned one of the most difficult to catch--well done Jen!.
Much scanning of weather forecasting websites during yesterday morning resulted in us venturing out a bit earlier than normal, with the expectation of an earlier finish--we knew rain was coming but forecasts varied as to exactly when. The indefatigable Kev and Jen were out again, joined by Liz and me.
We were struck by how few birds there were to be honest, and although the cloud was thick, the ambient light caused by an almost full moon and the lights of Wolverhampton reflecting down from the clouds meant you could almost read the paper without a torch. We ringed 2 Skylarks, a Meadow Pipit, a Stock Dove and a Grey Partridge.
Although a bit disappointing in this respect, we have added to the database of birds found in the various fields of the farm which is building an interesting and we hope long-term study to help the farm manager continue to develop his wildlife friendly approach to farming

On the nightshift

I have posted several times about a very important site of ours which is being managed to attract Common and Jack Snipe as a safe roosting place during the day after they have been out in the fields at night feeding on soil invertebrates.
To date we have been using ( with varying degrees of success) thermal imaging equipment to find and ring Jack Snipe during the day. Unfortunately this doesn't work for Common Snipe which adopt the usual avian defence tactic--of flying away, as soon as we get anywhere near. So for some time I have been planning a trip to target Common Snipe by trying to catch them during the hours of darkness when they are returning to the site after feeding in the fields. Finally last night the weather conditions coincided with the availability of sufficient team members daft enough to join me.......
It was a bit of an experiment because we weren't quite sure what time the birds would return. So we set the nets on Saturday evening and a relay of members checked them every half hour right through the night. As things turned out we have learned a lot from the exercise--the main lesson being that we might just as well have had a decent night's sleep, turned up at about 5 am to set the nets and not be so tired for the rest of Sunday!! What we found was that the birds returned in the 2 hour period before sunrise.
So, lesson learned but what a splendid time we had--with trainees Jen and Kev W, getting some great experience on a range of issues. OK--so what about the birds I hear you asking in frustration......
We ringed 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Barn Owl, 6 Common Snipe and an incredible 15 Jack Snipe ( plus we caught 3 re-trapped Jack Snipe)

Here's the Barn Owl--what a splendid bird, with the almost unspotted breast and belly showing it to be a male.

 

 

This is a Common Snipe wihich is about three times the size of a Jack Snipe with a proportionately longer bill as you can see form the picture of a Jack Snipe below

We all returned home tired but excited and pleased with the result. A big thanks to Ben, Kev C and Paul for their help. It will be interesting to see if I can persuade enough of the team to try again in a month or so, and to see if our birds stick around at the site of if there is a general movement of birds through it.

Back to feeding station ringing next week...........

 

 

2020 up and running!!

January 1st and our new regime of sessions specially for our great group of trainees got underway at the main Belvide feeding station. Paul and Kev were on hand with me to help and we had a good number of birds for trainee Jen to practice extraction ( lots of difficult Blue tits), ringing, ageing and sexing.
We catch a lot of Great tits at these sessions because they are regular visitors to feeders--the pictures below show how relatively easy it is to sex this species. By using the photos below you can even sex them as they perch on the feeder at your home--if you get a decent view of the belly:-

You can clearly see that the black on the belly is extensive and gets wider towards the rear end of the bird--this is a MALE, which when compared to:-

a FEMALE where the black is much weaker and fades out towards the tail.

Great Spotted Woodpeckers are always exciting to catch, and once they have moulted out their juvenile red cap, they are very easy to sex. Basically, if there is no red at the back of the head/neck then the bird is a FEMALE--as this one we caught this morning shows:-

Sexing Robins is (arguably) impossible in the hand--some research papers suggest it may be possible, but we've never found it so. Ageing is quite subtle, but once you get your eye in it's relatively easy. There area a few things to look for but the most straightforward clue is in the greater coverts:-

This is a row of feathers stretching across the middle of the wing--half way between my thumbs in the picture. You can see three of these feathers have light brown patches on them--these are un-moulted juvenile feathers which this bird has had since it left the nest last year (2019). There are other feathers in this tract closer to the body which have no light tips--these are adult type feathers which the bird has moulted in to replace juvenile pale tipped feathers. So the light tips enable us to be sure this bird was born last calendar year