Firepoll

What a difference a week makes!  Three short pre-work sessions at Leith Hill proved very productive with 165 new birds caught.  The 28th September visit produced the first ten Lesser Redpoll of the autumn, along with two Siskin, a male Nuthatch and large counts of nine Goldcrest and 14 Chiffchaff.  The Nuthatch which was caught had a very interesting head colouring that comprised a lot of white/creamy plumage along and behind the eye, which I had never seen before (below).

Two days later I caught six more Goldcrest, eight Siskin and 57 Lesser Redpoll and was highlighted by a control Lesser Redpoll L852356, while session three on 3rd October caught another 51 Lesser Redpoll.  Both of these sessions had to finish early as there were at least another 100 Lesser Redpoll were circling about the nets and would have been too much to handle.  In total 118 new Lesser Redpoll were ringed and there was a huge variety in the plumage, but there was also an interesting variation in the colour of the 'poll' (the forehead). All but three had a red poll  of variable shades from blood red to soft red (below top).  Two birds had what I and others refer to as a golden poll (below middle) which I have seen a number of times before, but another had what I could only describe as a 'firepoll' which was half and half (below bottom).  I can't think of how this has been caused or whether this has been seen before!

Adult male Lesser Redpoll

A day at home on 2nd October produced 28 new birds which included another Coal Tit, Goldcrest, Chiffchaff, two Nuthatch, eight Greenfinch, three Wren and a Blackcap.  Also caught a control adult female Goldfinch L614106.

Interestingly, over the last 6 or 7 weeks there has been a huge decrease of birds coming to feeders at home and at a number of gardens up on Leith Hill, especially tits and finches.  Where have they all gone, are they making the most of the availability of natural food, have they moved further afield or have they suffered the worst?

Birds ringed:
Lesser Redpoll - 118
Siskin - 10
Blue Tit - 3
Coal Tit - 1
Robin - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Blackcap - 1
Great Tit - 2
Goldfinch - 3
Dunnock - 1
Chiffchaff - 18
Goldcrest - 16
Wren - 4
Nuthatch - 3
Greenfinch - 8
Song Thrush - 1
Blackbird - 1

128 Birds Later

The last two weeks has gone by so fast and with a hectic work load of late have not kept up with the blog!  But I have still managed to do some ringing with four sessions at home and three sessions at Leith Hill which totalled 128 birds.

The sessions at home produced mainly Blue Tits and Great Tits, but a few highlights included the first Coal Tit here for the autumn (above), nine Goldfinch, six Long-tailed Tits, a Blackcap, a Goldcrest and two Chiffchaff.  Meadow Pipit migration is is full swing, but although I attempted to catch some of these on each session unfortunately came up with a big fat zero!  Will keep trying.  An interesting catch was a juvenile Greenfinch which had a partial amount of wing moult, having moulted primary feathers 5 and 6 with primary 4 just coming through (below)

At Leith Hill, I continued to try to catch some of the migrant Siskin that are coming through, but as with the Meadow Pipits, this proved far harder than expected as after three sessions only managed to catch eight!  One of these juveniles (below) looked as though it could have been a bird of northern origin as it had a darker plumage than the local birds and was further behind in its moult. Considering there were large numbers around including a flock of over 300, this was really poor, but they all seemed to be focusing on eating natural food instead of coming to feeders.  Although the Siskins weren't present in numbers ringing included 17 Chiffchaff and 7 Goldcrest.  Other migrants over Leith Hill included a few Woodlark, Yellow Wagtail, Tree Pipit, lots of Swallow and House Martin, but highlights were a Marsh Harrier and a Honey Buzzard.

Birds ringed:
Blue Tit - 40
Great Tit - 14
Coal Tit - 3
Dunnock - 4
Siskin - 8
Chaffinch - 2
Robin - 3
Goldfinch - 9
Blackcap - 1
Goldcrest - 8
Wren - 4
Long-tailed Tit - 6
Chiffchaff - 19
Greenfinch - 5
Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1

Chiffs and Hawk

This week I spent a morning ringing at home and a morning at Leith Hill.  Highlights from the garden included two Goldfinch, a Chiffchaff, a migrant Blackcap with a huge fat score and my first Sparrowhawk of the year (below - a second-year male).

Whilst at Leith Hill there was a big movement of Chiffchaffs through the site with 20 new birds caught in two hours from two nets as well as a Long-tailed Tit and another four immature Siskin.  There are large movements of Siskin coming out of Scotland at the moment which we will hopefully be seeing them down south soon.

Birds ringed:
Robin - 1
Blue Tit - 20
Blackcap - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Great Tit - 2
Siskin - 4
Chaffinch - 2
Coal Tit - 1
Chiffchaff - 21
Willow Warbler - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 1
Sparrowhawk - 1

August Catch Up

During the remainder of August three visits to the heathland at Leith Hill, a visit to Warnham LNR and a bit of nest ringing produced 163 new birds of 23 species.

A continued study of the Siskins at Leith Hill has slowed dramatically with just 12 new birds, whilst another six were retraps from previous weeks and a single juvenile male Siskin bearing another ringers ring - L867948 (above top).  Other species caught included two Coal Tit, three Blackcaps, two Whitethroats, nine Willow Warbler (including a northern 'acredula'-type above middle and bottom) and 15 Chiffchaff.  Although the highlight was a migrant immature Tree Pipit (below) which happened to be the last bird I caught on 22nd Aug as I was taking the last net down.

A last trip to my regular Swallow nests produced three more to be ringed which resulted in 12 nestlings, which brings my years total to 65.  Whilst Ruby managed to find a Bullfinch nest in the Rhododendron Wood which had four chicks ready for ringing.

The session at Warnham LNR on 27th Aug produced a Sedge Warbler, four Reed Warbler, a Reed Bunting, five Chiffchaff, three Willow Warbler and an amazing 32 Blackcap!  This is the largest count of Blackcap I have ever caught in one session and seems to match the high migration levels of this species that are being caught elsewhere.

Birds ringed:
Blackcap - 35
Dunnock - 2
Blue Tit - 22
Sedge Warbler - 1
Reed Bunting - 1
Bullfinch - 2 + 4 nestlings
Great Tit - 13
Robin - 4
Siskin - 12
Chaffinch - 2
Tree Pipit - 1
Whitethroat - 2
Coal Tit - 2
Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Willow Warbler - 12
Chiffchaff - 21
Goldcrest - 2
Wren - 5

Wader Trip

Having had very little experience with waders, I have over the years tried to go on a few trips to increase my ability, but to date I have only experienced 1 Redshank, 1 Curlew, 2 Snipe and a Common Sandpiper!  The last two species of which I actually ringed locally by chance and the first two where the result of a long weekend targeting waders in the Wash.

So when Gary asked if I wanted to join him on Friday going wader ringing with the Swale Ringing Group on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent I jumped at the chance, although wasn't expecting much after my last few experiences!  So Gary, Helen and myself drove over to north Kent to meet up with the other eight people who were taking part and then split into three groups to man the different pools that were being worked on the marsh.

The wind was stronger than had been predicted and looking at the billowing nets I feared another negative evening.  Although the setting was great as we waited for high tide, lying on the edge of the marsh waiting to see movement in the net under a balmy, partly moonlit night with the only noises being the various groups of waders and the faint sound of music from a wedding reception nearby! 

At about 11.30pm (an hour and a half before high tide), we caught our first bird - a Grey Plover (below top - in amazing summer plumage), which was shortly followed by two more and a retrap Greenshank (below bottom).

definitely 'Black-bellied Plover'

By just before 1am we had caught 11 birds which included three more Grey Plover, three Bar-tailed Godwit (below top and middle) and two Whimbrel (below bottom)! What a fantastic hour and a half.

standing before take-off

When we got back together with the two other groups we had caught nearly half the birds, but the other groups had caught a couple of other species in the form of a retrap Redshank and four Dunlin (below).

So, in total 24 birds were caught of which two were retraps and I got to ring and experience five new species.  A big thank you to Gary for inviting me and to Rod and the rest of the Swale Ringing Group for providing such a great evening.  I did not mind at all that I had done a full days work and then didn't get home until just after 4 in the morning!!  Well worth it!

My First Lot of 'A' Permit Ringing

Realistically no different to 'C' permit ringing with the exception that I am responsible for all my own ringing data and submissions to BTO and am solely responsible for all birds and ringers that ring with me.  I also have to purchase my own rings of which my first installment has just cost me just over £600!  Hopefully this will last me at least six months, but I doubt it!!!

In just over a week I have made two visits to Warnham LNR and a single visit to Leith Hill with a bit of Swallow ringing in the middle.

Warnham reedbed produced 67 new birds of 15 species including ten Willow Warbler, six Long-tailed Tit (first I have caught since June!), a Treecreeper, nine Reed Warbler, two Bullfinch, six Blackcap, a Whitethroat and the highlight being a Lesser Whitethroat (below - only the third caught here since 2005).  Just a single retrap from both days which was the seven year old Reed Warbler again.

Not generally thought of as a reedbed species, but the six Greenfinch (juvenile below) which were also caught that are part of a group which has started using a group of willows as a post-breeding roost.

At Leith Hill, the heathland is still producing large numbers of new Siskins, with another 20 new from this weeks session along with three Chaffinch, a Nuthatch (first for site), two Coal Tit, four Chiffchaff and seven Goldcrest as highlights.  All of the sexable Siskins fell in line with the dark spot on the tail measurements as well as the six retraps which were previously unsexable, so looking good so far!

Two Swallow nests were ringed at one of my neighbours stables which held four and two chicks.

Birds ringed:

Reed Warbler - 9
Blackcap - 7
Blue Tit - 12
Robin - 7
Bullfinch - 2
Whitethroat - 1
Dunnock - 3
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Great Tit - 8
Siskin - 20
Chaffinch - 3
Coal Tit - 2
Swallow - 6 nestlings
Wren - 3
Willow Warbler - 11
Chiffchaff - 7
Treecreeper - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 6
Goldcrest - 7
Greenfinch - 6
Nuthatch - 2
Blackbird - 1

Two Ringing Demos and Five New Species

A really busy fortnight of ringing which started with an early morning and late afternoon session at home on 22nd which although totalled 52 new birds only involved six species.  Although the vast majority was Blue Tits and Great Tits, the highlights were two Treecreepers and an adult male Spotted Flycatcher (below top)! After having not seen them in my garden for a couple of weeks I thought that they had gone, but was I wrong!  This then tempted me to make a renewed effort to search for a nest and stepping into the adjacent tree line was all it took as the female then started to scold me and I quickly found the nest in a seven foot high fork in a Field Maple with three ringable chicks (below bottom).  Later in this week I also ringed a new nest of Song Thrush with three chicks.

The 24th was the first ringing demonstration of the fortnight which was for the Friends of Warnham LNR and was very successful catching 19 different species.  This began with a Grasshopper Warbler (below top and with Jake) which was only the second record for the reserve after one was caught here in July 2008.  Other highlights included two Garden Warbler, two Bullfinch, two Willow Warbler, a Goldcrest, a Nuthatch, three juvenile Magpies (below middle with Gary) and a juvenile Moorhen that I managed to catch by hand right at the very end (below bottom).  Another session here this week was fairly quiet, but I did manage to catch four Willow Warblers, seven Reed Warblers, a very newly fledged family of Chiffchaff and a Sedge Warbler.

A big thank you to ringers Gary and Jake who assisted me with the demo and afterwards Gary and I visited one of my regular Swallow nesting sites and ringed nine chicks from two nests.

Leith Hill on the other hand, also had two sessions up on the heath and included another 27 new Siskin, four Willow Warbler, three Coal Tit, two Great Spotted Woodpecker and two Goldcrest.  The second of which was yesterday and was a ringing demonstration for the National Trust volunteers here which was very well received, especially the bacon butty after the early start!  Whilst at my office up here the late arriving Swallows were finally ready to ring and had five chicks.

And to top it all off I made one of my fairly regular visits to Cheshire to see family and stopped in for a bit of ringing with Dave Riley at Woolston Eyes in Warrington and finally managed to ring my first Willow Tit (below) for which they are doing a colour ringing scheme.

So five new species for the Horsham/Dorking ringing year - Spotted Flycatcher, Grasshopper Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Moorhen and Magpie. And a new bird for me - Willow Tit.

Birds ringed:
Blue Tit - 43
Great Tit - 36
Spotted Flycatcher - 1 + 3 nestlings
Blackcap - 12
Robin - 9
Garden Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 13
Grasshopper Warbler - 1
Chaffinch - 2
Bullfinch - 2
Dunnock - 2
Sedge Warbler - 1
Swallow - 14 nestlings
Siskin - 27
Coal Tit - 3
Whitethroat - 1
Treecreeper - 2
Wren - 8
Chiffchaff - 10 + 4 nestlings
Willow Warbler - 10
Goldcrest - 3
Greenfinch - 7
Nuthatch - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 2
Song Thrush - 2 + 3 nestlings
Magpie - 3
Moorhen - 1 nestling

'A' Permit and Retrap Reed Bonanza

Its official, I have just qualified and received my bird ringing 'A' permit after just over six years of training!

A pretty quiet week, mainly due to lots of wind and rain, but did manage to do a couple more Swallow nests close to home, a quick visit to Coot Pond and a session at Warnham LNR reedbed on Wednesday morning which was turned out to be a cracking session for retrap Reed Warblers.

The first two sessions at Warnham LNR produced only one retrap Reed Warbler (X638196) which had originally ringed on 19th May 2009, whilst this last session produced seven retraps which had been ringed as follows:

P905721 ringed as an adult female on 9th June 2005
X846178 ringed as a juvenile on 18th July 2009
L238147 ringed as an adult male on 24th May 2010
L238376 ringed as an adult male on 3rd June 2010
L238408 ringed as an adult female on 6th June 2010
L424079 ringed as a juvenile on 14th July 2010
L424605 ringed as a juvenile on 10th September 2010

The last six haven't been caught since they were originally ringed, but the first was recaught here on 25th June 2006 and 24th May 2010.  This bird is now at least seven years old and has endured the journey to and from Africa each year.  I thought that this was a lot until I checked the Euring database and the oldest known Reed Warbler was over 14 years old!  Also caught an adult male Bullfinch that was originally ringed as a juvenile on 26th September 2009.

New birds included a juvenile and adult male Reed Bunting, 11 Reed Warbler, a Bullfinch, two adult Willow Warbler and four Blackcap. Sightings this morning included at least three Kingfishers, a Common Sandpiper and a calling juvenile Sparrowhawk.

Whilst a quick visit to Coot Pond after this produced two new juvenile Mallard.

Birds ringed:
Swallow - 9 nestlings
Reed Bunting - 2
Reed Warbler - 11
Blue Tit - 2
Blackcap - 4
Robin - 1
Bullfinch - 1
Willow Warbler - 2
Wren - 2
Chiffchaff - 2
Blackbird - 1
Mallard - 2

Two More Sessions

Just two ringing sessions this week with the second reedbed visit on Saturday followed by a couple of hours at Leith Hill on Monday morning.

The visit to Warnham LNR reedbed on Saturday produced 41 new birds including eight Reed Warbler, eight Blackcap, four Bullfinch (above), a newly fledged Willow Warbler, a Goldcrest and only the second Whitethroat caught here since 1998 (below).

Highlights of the retraps included the same control Reed Warbler as last week (L400228) and an adult male Reed Warbler ringed as a breeding adult in May 2009 and caught again breeding in 2010.

In the afternoon, I had a visit from my cousin Charlie, his wife Jess and son Michael.  Charlie had never seen an owl or a badger before so took them to see my last Barn Owl nest box at Leith Hill which needed ringing.  I visited this box three weeks ago and found two newly hatched chicks and four unhatched eggs but on this visit the box contained the adult female, two 3 week old chicks and just two eggs.  This possibly suggests that these two had eaten their two siblings that hatched later (above and below)!  This was then followed by a successful visit to a local badger sett seeing two adults and a juvenile.

Whilst on Monday, Leith Hill produced another 40 new birds including a Garden Warbler, three Blackcap, three juvenile Chaffinch, two Whitethroat and 15 juvenile Siskin.  Also, the Pheasant nest from last week had hatched and fledged the nest revealing seven hatched out of ten eggs (below).

Birds ringed:
Reed Warbler - 8
Dunnock - 2
Bullfinch - 4
Blackcap - 11
Blue Tit - 5
Great Tit - 14
Whitethroat - 3
Robin - 3
Garden Warbler - 1
Siskin - 15
Chaffinch - 3
Coal Tit - 1
Wren - 2
Goldcrest - 1
Willow Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 6
Blackbird - 1
Barn Owl - 2 nestlings

The First Session in the Reedbed for the Year

The two sessions at Leith Hill (one morning and one evening) produced another 37 new Siskin including just two adults.  I have been measuring every juvenile Siskin I have caught (103) and there has been a real variation in the blotch size of between 18mm and completely dark tails.  Going on the paper by 'Marine and Copete' 53 would be male (below 28mm), 47 female (above 29mm) and three intermediates at 28mm or 29mm.  There are also definite peaks around 21/24mm (32), 32/33mm (21) and completely dark tails account for 12 individuals.  Also, a few of the juveniles are starting to moult and five were clearly males (below) which helped to see how reliable measuring the tail blotches are for sexing.  These five birds had blotches of 18, 19, 20, 22 and 25mm - all within the male range.

Nests this week have involved two Pied Wagtails (five chicks in each), the Whitethroat nest from a few weeks ago was ready (three chicks and two eggs - below top), one Robin (three chicks) and one Wren (five chicks).  Whilst a visit to another Barn Owl box at Leith Hill produced a new adult male and a Pheasant was found sat on eggs (below bottom).

This week also included my first visit to the reedbed at Warnham LNR where in three hours I managed to catch 60 new birds of ten species including six Robin, seven Chiffchaff, 14 Blackcap, 15 Reed Warbler (below top), a Reed Bunting and a real surprise was a Greenfinch!  Whilst the highlights of the already ringed included an adult male Great Tit ringed here on 18th Oct 2006 as an immature, a control 2nd year female Reed Bunting (below bottom) which was ringed 8km away in Capel, Surrey on 30th December 2010 and a control Reed Warbler (L400228) which I am yet to get details of.  Amazingly these are only the second and third controls caught at this well worked site since at least 2000!  The other one being an immature Blue Tit (V945935) caught on 23rd November 2009 which I have yet to find its origin!  Does anyone recognise these two?

Birds ringed:
Pied Wagtail - 10 nestlings
Robin - 7 + 3 nestlings
Siskin - 37
Whitethroat - 1 + 3 nestlings
Coal Tit - 1
Great Tit - 16
Blackcap - 15
Dunnock - 3
Reed Warbler - 15
Blue Tit - 7
Reed Bunting - 1
Chaffinch - 2
Wren - 5 + 5 nestlings
Chiffchaff - 7
Greenfinch - 1
Blackbird - 1
Barn Owl - 1