25th May 2011 - More Siskins, Tits, Jackdaws and a new Warbler

This week started with a trip up to Leith Hill in the evening to try to catch Nightjars, but the weather became a lot windy than forecast, although at least two males were seen and heard.  Before going for the Nightjars, I went up a few hours early to see if an evening session would be any different from my normal mornings here.  Happily, this produced another seven new birds including four Siskin, a Garden Warbler, a Song Thrush and a Great Spotted Woodpecker (latter two being new species caught on the heath).

The following day, a late afternoon visit to Warnham LNR to ring the last two boxes of the nest box scheme which were both Blue Tits and interestingly had two of the smallest broods of just five and six!  Whilst here a quick view of the Common Terns showed two pairs on eggs which the first pair had hatched at least two chicks by the time of writing.

Saturday morning at home produced the first two juvenile Robins of the year (above), and the last nest boxes of Blue Tit (again just five chicks) and Great Tit.  But the best catch was my first Lesser Whitethroat for the garden (below) and surprisingly it had a fairly well developed brood patch!  Because both sexes incubate the eggs (so both get brood patches) it wasn't possible to sex it but shortly afterwards a pair were seen in another part of the garden and a male was heard singing!  Why haven't I seen or heard them prior to this?

Back to Leith Hill on Tuesday morning and nine new Siskin (including many juveniles) and a new Goldcrest were highlights and with thanks to Stephen Menzie for the link to a paper about sexing juvenile Siskins that I will try on my next visit.  The following day I went to do the last two nests of Jackdaws on Leith Hill helped by colleague Ruby (above with one of the chicks).  One of the nests was in a beech tree and was quite interesting as the nest hole had no bottom, but had been filled with stick to make it so (below top) and a lower whole had had two eggs laid in it (below bottom).  I have presumed that as there were just two nestlings these two eggs had been laid by the same female and she had chosen to just incubate the top nest!

Birds ringed:
Siskin - 13
Garden Warbler - 1
Blue Tit - 16 nestlings
Robin - 2
Goldfinch - 1
Lesser Whitethroat - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Blackbird - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Great Tit - 8 nestlings
Goldcrest - 1
Jackdaw - 5 nestlings

18th May 2011 - First Juvs and More Nests

Yes, more nests!  Starting this week with a Pied Wagtail nest under the eaves of the house next to my Leith Hill office, then a further trip to Warnham LNR to do more Blue Tit nestboxes.

I have been watching a nest of Chiffchaff at Village Greens Farm Shop in Ockley and they were finally ready for ringing.  So, on Sunday (15th) met up with Louise and Gary to ring these and a quick trip around the Jackdaw boxes on Etherley Farm, where four nests were now also ready for ringing.  Another box containing three chicks were still too small and will need a later visit.

For the rest of the day, Gary and Louise were trying to develop their nest finding skills in the woodland and around Leith Hill Tower.  Finds included a Great Tit nest in a tree tube, a Treecreeper nest, two Blue Tit nests (including one by one of the top windows of the Tower), two seperate female Chaffinch carrying food, a pair of Whitethroat carrying food and a female Firecrest carrying food!  Unfortunately, none of these were ringable until right at the end of the day another Chiffchaff nest was located and were perfect size for ringing!  I was on car park duty and whilst visiting the car park in Forest Green I stumbled upon a beautiful Greater Butterfly orchid (above and below).

Another two hour Monday morning netting session on Duke's Warren was rewarded with a catch of 15 new birds which included 11 Siskin of which six were my first juveniles of the year.  Although Siskin cannot be sexed at this age there certainly seemed to be two plumage differences, the first pale and more grey (below top) and the other bright and yellow (below bottom).  If anyone knows different please let me know!

The only addition to my garden ringing this week was a new Collared Dove that I caught in a potter trap on Saturday.

Birds ringed:
Pied Wagtail - 4 nestlings
Blue Tit - 59 nestlings
Dunnock - 1
Siskin - 11
Chaffinch - 1
Whitethroat - 1
Chiffchaff - 10 nestlings
Willow Warbler - 1
Collared Dove - 1
Jackdaw - 12 nestlings

A Batch of Recoveries

After ringing nearly 5000 birds last year I had hoped for more recoveries than I have currently received, but got a recent batch of 13 recoveries that has redressed the balance somewhat.

The first four were all Mallards - three of which were all juveniles which had been ringed on 6th June 2010 at Warnham LNR, two of them were shot just 3km away in Warnham on 31st December 2010, whilst the third was shot 18km away in Pulborough (furthest movement so far).  The fourth was an adult male that was ringed at Coot Pond, Horsham on 28th November 2010 and was shot at Warnham again just 2km away on 21st January 2011.  These are the 2nd - 5th recoveries of this species; with the first in 2009 also being a juvenile shot in Warnham.

The next two were Grey Herons from the Warnham LNR colour ring project as follows:

1504256 (A04) ringed in nest CP15 (one of four chicks) on 28th March 2010 found freshly dead 'Taken by Animal' in Westbury, Wiltshire 129km W on 4th Oct 2010 (map below).

1505253 (A35) ringed in nest MP5 (one of three chicks) on 28th May 2010 found freshly dead 'caught up in fishing line and weights' at Burton Millpond, West Sussex 24km WSW on 30th October 2010.

These are the 4th and 5th recoveries of the Grey Heron project and so far gives absolutely no trend for dispersal from the colony as one moved close E to Weir Wood Reservoir, West Sussex, one moved far NE to Rainham Marshes, Essex, one moved close N to Capel, Surrey, then the other two as above!  The only direction not taken is South.

The next was a nestling Woodpigeon ringed at Horsham Hospital on 14th July 2010 was found in Horsham on 30th July 2010 with a broken femur and taken to a local vets where it was looked after.  Although not a great story, this is actually the first recovery for one of my Woodpigeons.

An exceptional juvenile Great-spotted Woodpecker ringed at Chesworth Farm on 14th June 2010 was found freshly dead 'Taken by Animal', possibly a cat, on 2nd November 2010 86km E in Ivychurch on the edge of Romney Marsh, Kent!  This is a huge dispersal for this species which generally doesn't move any further than a couple of kilometres and makes you wonder whether it would have eventually migrated across the Channel if it hadn't died (map below)!  This is just the third recovery of this species for me for which the other two also died and moved no distance at all.

A Long-tailed Tit ringed on 22nd December 2011 at Warnham LNR was found dead having hit a window 2km away on the edge of Horsham on 12th February 2011.  Again, this is my first recovery of this species.

Two Blue Tit recoveries show different movements - a juvenile ringed at Chesworth Farm on 28th June 2010 found freshly dead in Horsham just under a month later on 23rd July 2010 having gone less than a kilometre whilst another juvenile ringed at Warnham LNR on 3rd September 2010 was caught and released by another ringer 10km away in Slaugham, West Sussex on 4th March 2011.  This again being my furthest movement of this species.

A first year female Great Tit ringed in my Warnham garden on 21st March 2010 was caught and released by another ringer 15km away in Gomshall, Surrey on 8th February 2011, again the furthest movement of this species for me.

The last was yet another first recovery for a species being a Goldfinch that was ringed as a breeding first year male on 14th June 2010 at Chesworth Farm and found freshly dead 'Taken by cat' just 2km away in Horsham on 22nd December 2010.

What will come next?

11th May 2011 - A Nesting Week

This was a full on week of ringing with the grateful help of Gary, Louise, Kevin, Eddie and Jake.  The week was mainly focused on going around nests and nestboxes that have been under observation over the last few weeks, but also a couple of netting sessions and a few surprises.

The week started with the first surprise being a Tawny Owl that was reported to us at Leith Hill dazed on the side of the road.  Went to inspect and indeed a beautiful female (above) was sat on the side of the road.  She was showing a developed brood patch, so obviously had a brood of young nearby and after about five minutes she had recovered, so quickly ringed and released her so that she could get back to her young.

Two netting sessions were had on Leith Hill catching a total of 18 new birds which included three Garden Warbler, four Whitethroat, five Willow Warbler and three Siskin and finally the first two Blackcaps for this site which involved one bird with a high fat score suggesting that this was a newly arrived migrant.

The only other netting session was in my garden at home where I have reduced to just a single net, but caught three new birds - a Blackcap and surprisingly a new pair of Long-tailed Tit (where have they been hiding?).

On Friday morning (9th) Gary, Louise and I went round all the Jackdaw boxes at Leith Hill and although the majority were still either on eggs or too young chicks we did ring an adult female and a brood of five.  We were also very surprised to find two Barn Owls in a box which I had been watching Jackdaws use over the last few weeks, one of which we caught and ringed (above).  Whilst going round we also managed to find a Chaffinch nest and a Treecreeper nest that were able to be ringed.  Generally Treecreeper nests aren't possible to be ringed, but occasionally they are and much caution should be taken.  A section of the loose bark had fallen off making them far more accessible than they should have been.

Afterwards a trip to one of my near neighbours, Bob Day, who wanted me to check two boxes at his house that he had seen activity at produced a female Mandarin (above) sat on eggs in one and then two Tawny Owl chicks (below with Bob) in the other.

This also saw the first visit to Warnham LNR for the Nestbox Scheme here of which there are 53 boxes at present managed by Friends of Warnham LNR!  Although a number were unused we still managed to ring 18 nests of Blue Tit and Great Tit as well as a couple of adults.

The last ringing this week involved a couple of Blue Tit boxes at my home and a nest of Pied Wagtails at the National Trust Surrey Hills head office in Mickleham.

A very fulfilling week!!

Birds ringed:
Garden Warbler - 3
Whitethroat - 4
Siskin - 3
Blue Tit - 2 + 108 nestlings
Blackcap - 3
Chaffinch - 4 nestlings
Pied Wagtail - 4 nestlings
Willow Warbler - 5
Treecreeper - 5 nestlings
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Great Tit - 70 nestlings
Blackbird - 1
Tawny Owl - 1 + 2 nestlings
Barn Owl - 1
Jackdaw - 1 + 5 nestlings
Mandarin - 1

4th May 2011 - Just a Few Nests

This last week has seen no new netting sessions, partly due to the high wind conditions, but also due to me spending the long weekend staying at Dungeness Bird Observatory!  But, I did manage to do a couple of Blackbird nests this week, one on Duke's Warren (Leith Hill) and another at home, with three (below) and four chicks respectively.

Whilst ringing the nest at Duke's Warren I heard rustling in nearby fallen leaves and on inspection found a Grass Snake had just caught a Frog and was dragging it into the undergrowth whilst trying to swallow it alive!  This was the first time that I had seen a snake kill and luckily had my camera with me to video some of it, but didn't want to disturb it for fear that it would abandon its meal:

I also did another visit to the Heronry at Warnham LNR which proved rather disappointing as only a single Grey Heron chick was ringable and no new nests were found!  This has meant a huge reduction in the population here this year from 26+ nests last year to just ten this.  Don't know any real reason for this, but a couple of possibilities could be increased pressure from the ever more present Buzzards or that there was a high mortality over this harsh winter.

My weekend at Dungeness was planned to have an amount of ringing, birding and time out with friends, this didn't quite pan out.  Although the latter was achieved, ringing was impossible as the wind was so strong, but the wind did make for a fantastic display of spring passage offshore with over 120 Pomarine Skuas, 14,000 Bar-tailed Godwits and lots of Black Terns over the weekend.  Whilst rarity interest came in the form of a Bee-eater which I missed by about five seconds, a Purple Heron which showed well and a Red-rumped Swallow which was found just an hour after I left!!  One of the best sightings though was a young female Badger that was a regular visitor to the back door of the Observatory on most evenings, completely unphased by the over excited people staying:

Birds ringed:
Blackbird - 7 nestlings
Grey Heron - 1 nestling

26th April 2011 - Bulls and Gardens

Numbers are still low with just 29 new birds ringed on another beautifully sunny week from two sessions at Leith Hill and two sessions at my Warnham home.

Friday and Sunday mornings were on Duke's Warren again with the help of Ray and Derrick and delivered not only the first Garden Warblers (above) of the year, but also the first Bullfinchs (below).  Other highlights included another breeding female Siskin and Goldcrest.  Also one of the three new Willow Warblers (bottom) caught had a much greyer colouring akin to the northern acredula subspecies, although not able to be verified.

Whilst at home on Saturday and Monday, a whole two days of netting produced just five new birds in the form of three Blackcaps and two Robins, although the four retraps included an incubating Treecreeper and Nuthatch.

Other sightings included at least four Cuckoo, 2 Red Kite and a lingering Brambling at Leith Hill, whilst a single Cuckoo, a Lesser Whitethroat and a Hobby were recorded from my garden.  But the highlight of the week was this morning (Tuesday) when an early morning visit to Leith Hill to show Matt Farmer the Wood Warblers was interrupted when on his route up to the hill he flushed a HOOPOE from the middle of the road!  Although much searching at the time and during the rest of the day failed to relocate it - lucky Matt!

Also below is a very poor video of one of the male Wood Warblers singing at Leith Hill, apologies for the quality, gaps and a wailing child in the background! The second half is the best bit:

Birds ringed:

Garden Warbler - 4

Siskin - 1

Great Tit - 3

Bullfinch - 2

Chaffinch - 2

Whitethroat - 3

Dunnock - 1

Blue Tit - 2

Willow Warbler - 5

Goldcrest - 1
Blackcap - 3
Robin - 2

19th April 2011 - Nesting Season Begins

Just a single ringing session this week at Leith Hill on Monday (18th) and although only ten birds were caught they involved my first two Whitethroat of the year (below).  Also a breeding pair of Siskin with the female sporting a full brood patch and a retrap adult from earlier in the month.  The most frustrating was one of the three Cuckoos that were present bouncing out of one of the nets!!

Although, I have spent quite a bit of time nest hunting and have managed to ring a nest of Blackbird and a nest of Song Thrush at Leith Hill and two more nests of Song Thrush at home.  Other active nests located included singles of Tawny Owl, Mandarin, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Chiffchaff and Blackbird.

Birds ringed:
Siskin - 2
Long-tailed Tit - 2
Goldcrest - 1
Willow Warbler - 2
Whitethroat - 2
Blackbird - 4 nestlings
Song Thrush - 11 nestlings

11th April 2011 - Start of Heron Season

Quite a variation of ringing this week with two mornings at Leith Hill, two mornings at home and the start of the Heronry ringing at Warnham LNR.

On Monday (4th), a couple of hours in the morning at Leith Hill proved very poor compared to recent visits with just three new birds caught - two Lesser Redpoll and a Willow Warbler.  There were very few Redpolls around on this morning and by the end of the week they seem to have nearly all gone, departing to their more northerly breeding grounds.

Wednesday (6th) and Sunday (10th) mornings were spent doing some ringing at home in the garden which produced just 37 new birds of 13 species including the first Collared Dove (above), Jackdaw (below) and Blackcaps of the year.  I catch very few warblers at home even in the autumn and never in spring, so to catch 11 of three species here in two sessions was outstanding and all very fatty migrants.  Also managed to find a few nests of Song Thrush (2), Blackbird (1), Blue Tit (4), Great Tit (2), Jackdaw (3), Long-taled Tit (1), Magpie (1), Greenfinch (1), Chaffinch (1).

Phil (aka 'Ice') with chick

Saturday (9th) was the start of the Grey Heron ringing at Warnham LNR, with great thanks to tree climbers Gary and Phil (pictured above with chick) who volunteered their time climbing the 40ft trees to access the nests. The timings of when these birds breed can be very dependant on the weather at the beginning of the year as well as during the nesting time. After the cold, snowy weather in January, they seemed to start nesting quite late, so planned to visit the colony a couple of weeks later than last year, but the unseasonal hot weather of the last two weeks meant that the chicks have grown very quickly. This meant that we were unable to ring four nests as the birds were too far advanced. A week earlier would have caught up with three of these, but I was on my brother's stag do in Bristol - so enough said! 

Chick showing defensive crest

We still managed to ring 15 birds from five nests, with orange colour rings with black digits added to above the left knee for easier identification in the field. The only other nests were one with three eggs and another still being built, totalling just 11 nests. This is a huge decline compared to last year where 26 nests were recorded making this the biggest Heronry in Sussex. In fact, a whole area of Corsican Pine seems to have been abandoned where there were 16 nests last year! I am hoping that these might just be late starting, but the regular presence of Buzzards throughout the morning, seemingly coming out of this area, may give a clue to its abandonment! Maybe they will set up shop instead!

Chick being weighed

As I got to Leith Hill this morning for another session before work I was greeted by a huge flock of at least 100 Brambling flying around the heathland and I thought that I had hit the jackpot, so called Wes who joined me soon after.  After two hours of watching the spectacle we only managed to catch one, but what a pretty bird he was in almost full breeding plumage (below with Wes).  Only six other birds were caught including a female Coal Tit with a fully developed brood patch, meaning this bird is already sitting on eggs.  Also present were still a few Redpoll and Siskin, a late Redwing, the first Tree Pipits and at least three pairs of Woodlark.

 

Wes with Brambling

Birds ringed:
Blackcap - 8
Goldfinch - 7
Blue Tit - 7
Chaffinch - 3
Great Tit - 3
Lesser Redpoll - 2
Brambling - 1
Coal Tit - 1
Willow Warbler - 4
Chiffchaff - 3
Wren - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Collared Dove - 1
Grey Heron - 15 nestlings
Jay - 1
Jackdaw - 1

4th April 2011 - First Warblers

A session at home on Friday (1st) morning gave the real feel that spring is here and that birds were far more focused on breeding territory than coming to feeders as just two new birds were caught - a Song Thrush and a Blue Tit!

Whilst today up on Leith Hill, Duke's Warren was alive with Redpolls again with at least 100 in a mobile flock joined by about 40 Siskin and a few Chaffinch and Crossbill.  The catch of 56 new birds included 46 Redpoll of which two were Common Redpoll (making these the 6th and 7th caught on the hill this year).  Also my first warblers of the year were caught being two Willow Warbler (above) and a Chiffchaff (below) which had clumps of olive pollen stuck to its face from its feeding activities in southern Europe whilst migrating.

Other sightings here included a pair of Mandarin, a Tree Pipit and a singing Woodlark.

Birds ringed:
Song Thrush - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Robin - 1
Chaffinch - 2
Siskin - 4
Lesser Redpoll - 44
Common Redpoll - 2
Willow Warbler - 2
Chiffchaff - 1

29th March 2011 - Willow Feeding and Another Control

A session at home on Saturday (26th), showed that the birds are starting to move off and claim territories with just 42 birds ringed of seven species.  Highlights included a few Chaffinch and Goldfinch that were probably migrants with notable fat scores (which I am hoping will be recaught in Sweden!!), a Goldcrest which had been singing all morning and another Great Spotted Woodpecker.  Also a number of the Blue Tits had obviously been feeding in willows and were facial covered with pollen (below).

Yesterday (28th), another trip onto Duke's Warren at Leith Hill was very fruitful catching 43 new birds which was mainly all Lesser Redpoll, but also included a Siskin and a stunning male Brambling (below).

Two retraps were of Lesser Redpoll ringed here last week and one ringed at Broadmoor on 1st February, but another control Lesser Redpoll was also caught, X689677, making that six controls since New Years Eve!  Other sightings included two roding Woodcock as I was putting up the net and a pair of Woodlark displaying over my car!

Birds ringed:
Chaffinch - 7
Blue Tit - 19
Goldfinch - 6
Great Tit - 5
Greenfinch - 4
Goldcrest - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Lesser Redpoll - 39
Brambling - 1
Dunnock - 1
Siskin - 1