A tale of tails

I've mentioned several times in these posts how important tail feathers are to ringers in ageing birds. This is particularly important in finches at this time of year; and here are a couple of pictures which I hope illustrate the point.

Juvenile tail feathers have been 'on' the birds since they left the nest in Summer 2021. As a result they are usually more worn and tatty ( technical word...) that those of adults which grew new tail feathers in their late summer annual moult. In addition juvenile tail feathers are usually pointed and less robust than adult feathers.

Here are two tails of Linnets we caught yesterday.....

The tail on the left is an adult and you can clearly see they are more rounded than those of the juvenile on the right

Here is the tail of a juvenile Goldfinch--two things to note here. First most of the tail feathers have become worn into points. Secondly, you can see the central two feathers are different. In many finches and buntings, the central tail feathers are sometimes moulted and adult feathers grow in their place. In this case you can see these feathers are less worn and pointed at the tip than the rest of the juvenile tail feathers--but also how much darker and less transparent they are--ie more robust.

 

Winter meets Summer

 Activity and most of our feeding stations is strangely inconsistent and unpredictable. This time last year we were catching big numbers of Siskin, Linnet and Yellowhammer but this year at the same sites numbers are well down. It's both worrying and puzzling.

However, persistence pays off ( mostly!!), and so it was that Jenni had a very interesting time at one of our Patshull feeders a couple of days ago. In amongst all the tits and finches such as this super winter visitor-a male Brambling, was the first of our Summer visitors.......a Chiffchaff. The Brambling will shortly be leaving us to go north to breed in Scandinavia, and the Chiffchaff will probably be staying with us to breed in the UK.

 

 

Some points of interest

 Team members have been out over the last few days, and although the catches have been modest, within them there have been some interesting points-I hope you agree.....

First, it's great that Greenfinches seem to be getting back to something like their previous numbers after a dreadful lung disease wiped out so many. This birds is a cracking adult male:-

The overall brightness and the amounts of yellow on the tail and wing tells you this is a male ( along with other features)--and the broad round tips to the tail feathers suggests this is an adult. A close inspection of the wing shows that it has three other features also confirming it as an adult:-

The greater covert feathers (1) are all the same age and colour with no suggestion of some of the outer ones being fawn; the primary coverts (2)all have a green outer edge and tipped in grey paint; and finally the large alula feather (3) is very yellow. Keep a look out for these features if you have any on your garden feeders.

I hope we will be seeing a lot more of Siskins over the coming weeks, here's the head of a smart male:-

But here's a shot of the bill of this bird from an unusual angle.......

You can clearly see the shape of the bill starts quite broad as it leaves the skull but then rapidly narrows from either side to form a sharp point. One of the favourite natural foods of Siskin is the seeds of the Alder tree, which are held in small cones. This shape of bill is ideal to be able to get into the cone and winkle out the seeds--brilliant!.

Another bird I hope we will see more of is the Brambling, a cousin of our Chaffinch which nests at much higher latitudes on the continent. Males like this one are coming into breeding condition now, so that when they arrive back on their breeding grounds they can get on with things quickly. You can see that the head feathers are showing through black as the pale tips wear off. The pale tips hid the black to reduce the aggression between males during winter when they feed in flocks-brilliant again.

Any time we catch a bird of prey such as this Sparrowhawk, is an exciting event. This is a young male. The small size of the bird is the clue to it's sex, and the yellow eye ( orange in adults) and the heart shaped markings on the breast ( horizontal bars in adults)-both point to a bird hatched last calendar year:-

More excitement to come soon--I hope!!

 

A decent start to March

 Looking back at last year, we find that March was a very good month when our feeding stations started to attract more finches than during the previous months of winter--undoubtedly because their natural food sources were becoming depleted. Will this happen again this year? Well the signs are positive. A message from Pat at Siskin City in mid Wales showed a video of a very active bird table with lots of Siskin, Greenfinch, Chaffinch and the prize species--Brambling. So we are all hoping that Pat will enjoy number to match his catch of over 600 Siskin last year--more of this in future blogs.

The first 5 days of March have been quite productive on several fronts. Interest in and activity by our team members remains high; more farmers are asking us about surveying their land; and we are still getting requests for  help and advice about thermal imaging and Jack Snipe from as far away as Lancashire and Israel. We are also hopeful of resurrecting our ringing scheme in the very north of arctic Norway--fingers very much crossed on that one.

Ringing around here has taken a notch up also. Teams have been out most days and so far we've ringed a decent number of birds -150-given that the weather is still not brilliant. In short:-

Only small numbers of Jack Snipe are at my prime site-worrying-, but a couple of nights ago we managed to catch two birds at our BPF site in a wet field. There were more than a dozen Common Snipe in the same field but as soon as one flies off calling that tends to spook the rest so we rarely manage to catch any of this species. We manged to ring a Grey Partridge and 6 Skylarks--but this is probably going to be our last thermal imaging session of the winter as birds are beginning to pair up now so we leave them to get on with breeding.

I'm a sucker for these gorgeous Jack Snipe-so here's another picture of one.

Paul reports a gradual increase in the number of birds- especially Yellowhammer, feeding at our spinner feeder. In the last couple of days he's caught 11 Yellowhammer, of which 6 were birds he had ringed previously. This pleases especially Tim the farmer to know that the birds are staying around--and we hope will breed.

A stonking male Yellowhammer!

Meanwhile Jenni visited a new friend's garden after a discussion with with said friend suggested she may have as many as FIVE Blackcaps wintering in her garden. Slightly sceptical, Jen put a net up a couple of days ago in the garden. As well as 11 Greenfinch, and 3 Goldfinch, Hey Presto!! she caught 3 Blackcaps and saw another 2 unringed in the garden. 

Here's one of the birds--clearly a male. I think she will be trying for the other two next week.......

Jen and Sam had a mega-bash at various sites around Patshull on Friday culminating with a thermal session in the evening--they had a modest catch but the main thing was they had a great time--that's what a hobby should be.

Yesterday we had two teams out. Paul ran onother great session at his BPF feeder for Tom who is making great progress towards his licence as a result of such opportunities.

Another team of six turned out for another super ringing demonstration for our good friends Keri and Annette who do so much for the community in running the Jubilee Wood project. There was a great turnout of people, and fortunately we managed to ring 44 new birds of a splendid range of species to keep everyone happy and interested. A couple of male Siskins wee the stars of the show--but they also served to show how male Siskins can be aged.

This first bird shows that all the greater covert feathers ( above the white mark) are edged green-showing this to be an adult bird....

By contrast this second bird is a juvenile as shown by the outer few greater coverts--again above the white line--are thinly edged white....

With a decent view it is possible to see this on birds feeding in your garden--giving you a chance to impress your friends and family with you knowledge!!!

 

 

  

End of month update

 There's only one word to sum up this month-frustrating!! The weather hasn't been kind to us with long periods of strong winds and rain as a series of storms passed over us; added to that bird numbers at our feeding stations has been generally inconsistent and to top things off the birds during our nocturnal thermal sessions have been ultra jumpy.

However our intrepid team members have again shown their determination and resourcefulness and grabbed any opportunity presented to them to push on with our activities-- here are but a few of their exploits.......

Some of the feeders at Brewood Park Farm have attracted the local pheasants which are growing fat on our seed meant for other wild birds--which arrive to find the seed has already been hoovered up by the pheasants. Our catch has been reduced but nevertheless, Paul has managed a few Yellowhammer, Starling, and Reed Buntings. One of the Reed Buntings was carrying a ring-

As you can see from the head and throat pattern, this is a male because of all the black feathers. Although the head looks partly brown, this is because the black feathers have brown tips to reduce aggression between males in winter. The brown tips wear off ready for the black to show through for the breeding season. This particular bird was an adult male, and when we checked the ring we had ringed it on 14th September 2020 at our site at Belvide as a juvenile. Paul retrapped it at BPF on 23rd February 2022. Has it been touring the area for a couple of years--or has it been breeding at a distant site and spending the winter here?

Jenni has been working very hard at feeders and at thermal sessions and has had a good selection of species while also keeping a range of interested friends happy by ringing at their garden feeders. Her first visit of the season to Abi's garden produced a good selection of birds ( although not the big numbers of Siskin as last year)--with one of the first birds caught being this smart Redpoll

At another friends house ( Murray and Dawn), she has caught lots of tits--but also a couple of smart Brambling like this young male.....

Like the rest of us she has been frustrated by the jumpiness of birds during thermal sessions, but she has still had a decent number of Woodcock and Fieldfare....

Fieldfare are superb looking birds-what a lot of people don't see well is the white 'armpit' which is quite distinctive....

Trainee Shaun had a good night with us thermalling,and got two new ringing ticks for his efforts. Here are pics of one of the Meadow Pipits, and a smart adult male Yellowhammer....

Meadow Pipit

Yellowhammer.

He also had a couple of Woodcock and Grey Partridge. The following pic of a Grey Partridge shows the chestnut markings on the breast making it a male...

And the pic of the Woodcock wing shows the tips of the primary coverts ( marked in white)--showing wide brown tips to the feathers--showing it to be a juvenile; adults have thin white tips to these feathers....

Meanwhile at 'Powell Towers', Pat has had inconsistent catches/visits from his speciality species Siskin--but as I write I've just had word from him that he's had a good Siskin day today with over thirty ringed including this smart male. The white mark shows that the tips of some of the greater coverts are white, showing this to be a juvenile male born last year...

Finally, several of our group managed to persuade us old timers to run a couple of roost netting sessions in Rhododendron patches -thereby re-creating the old days when this was the main method of catching Redwing ( before the introduction of the sound lure we now use).

Pete and Paul took Sam out last week, and I took a small group out last night. The result was 1 Redwing and a selection of other birds including this ( one of 5) Goldcrest last night.

The main thing was that the younger team members enjoyed themselves and they now know what is involved so I'm pretty sure that they will give it another try earlier next winter.

I'll provide some more details soon when I've got all the data in as to how we are doing compared to this time last year. 

It looks a bit cross!

 Birds sometimes show a variety of abnormalities--beak shape being one of the commoner issues we see. Top Belvide birder, Steve Nuttall, sent me a picture yesterday of a Great Tit on one of the feeders we have set up at the reserve.

As you can clearly see both the upper and lower mandibles have grown extra long and are curling very much in the manner of a Crossbill. Steve reports that the bird was feeding well on fat balls which it broke bits off before swallowing. It's remarkable how adaptable birds are in this way. We checked the number on the ring and this bird was ringed as a juvenile in autumn 2019-showing that it seems to be doing ok despite the deformity--let's hope it continues.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to ring at some of the many feeding stations we have access to. We visited our friends Dawn and Murray's feeder a couple of times in the last few days as they reported lots of feeding activity with at least two very interesting birds coming in regularly. Brambling are always a great birds to ring because apart from the fact they are beautiful, we also know that the nearest place they have come from is central northern Norway. Here is a juvenile male showing black areas on the head where the brown feather tips are wearing off to allow the black lower parts of the feathers to show through ready for the breeding season:-

The other bird was a canary yellow bird which had us a bit puzzled until we got a really good look at it. We didn't catch it so can't give you a better look-here it is on the feeder-

So we have identified it as a partially leucistic ( yellow) Greenfinch. You can also see a female Brambling on the other side of the feeder.

A bit of a Ticking off ??!!

 I'm using this title as a bit of a play on words.....

First of all-apologies for the lack of posts recently. It's a pathetic excuse but it has been a very busy period trying to get our annual report, our AGM, and a couple of scientific papers I'm working on--all sorted out. But most are done now so I hope blogs will follow more frequently. I must try harder so I don't get another 'ticking off' from a reader..........

Teams have been out quite regularly during January, and we have ringed over 500 new birds as a result. It's been hard going though with feeders being occupied inconsistently and those finches that are present being even more difficult than usual to catch. A similar story is coming from thermal imaging teams who are finding plenty of birds but equally are finding it difficult to catch them.

Here's a a picture which could be from the latest 'Alien' movie.....

It's a blood sucking tick which we took off a bird last week ( ticking off......). It;s only a few millimetres in length but by the size of this one's abdomen it's just had a good feed..

We've been asked to do some surveying work on a couple of new farms in the last week, and these are looking good with plenty of Skylarks and Woodcock in particular to ring. I've collected a few pictures of some of the species we've been ringing to get the blog rolling again:-

This is a Grey Partridge which are always a good sign for the farmer that good wildlife things are happening on the farm

This is a Brambling- a finch which breeds in northern latitudes visiting southern Europe during the winter months. Reporst from around the UK suggest that this year there are lots of Brambling around--and that is supported by the fact that we are catching a few much earlier than normal

This is a Lesser Redpoll--these are beginning to venture to feeding stations as their natural food runs out so we are hoping for more of these. They seem to wander far and wide in search of food so we can get some good recoveries

Here's a classic collection of birds from a garden feeder at this time of year. From the top

House Sparrow. Goldfinch and Nuthatch.

I hope to have more for you soon--must avoid another ticking off..........