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

Three Gold Recoveries

Just had three recoveries back from the BTO of varying interest:

The first was an immature female Goldfinch L757075 which was ringed in my garden on 13th November 2010 and found dead 153 days later on 15th April 2011 just 2km away in Warnham (map below).

The next was an immature male Goldcrest DNK024 which was also ringed in my garden on the same day and was caught by ringers at the well known migration site Landguard Point, Felixstowe, Suffolk on 27th March 2011 - a distance of 149km (map below).  These dates would suggest that this was possibly a Scandinavian bird which had come to winter in Britain and was then caught whilst on spring migration going back, although the only way we will truly known would be if it was then caught in Norway or Sweden!  I can only hope.

The last recovery and by no means the least was another immature female Goldfinch, L132885, which I ringed at Chesworth Farm, Horsham on 15th March 2010 and was caught 654km away by a ringer on 24th April 2010 at Inch Island, Donegal, Ireland (map below)!  This is the fifth longest movement of a Goldfinch within Britain and Ireland, but by far the fastest of those five and the only one of those to have had to cross the sea.  Obviously must have been a spring migrant, but had it flown down from its birth place in Ireland to Sussex for the winter and was heading back or was it dispersing from birth place?  Difficult to know, but if it had flown any further it would have been heading out into the Atlantic - next stop Canada!

Another Busy Week

Two sessions on Leith Hill, two sessions at home, a morning doing the rounds of the Horsham Barn Owl boxes, another duck rescue at Horsham Hospital and a few more nests!  In total, 193 new birds ringed this week of 26 species.

Sunday at Leith Hill was ended early with only two hours of ringing due to the onset of rain and just four new Siskin were caught along with a handful of Great Tits and the first juvenile Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler of the year.  Whilst the session this morning had to close the nets early because of too many birds!  Siskins were everywhere, with 36 caught (22 new) along with three Blackcaps, two Whitethroat, a juvenile Treecreeper, a juvenile Goldcrest and two Willow Warbler being the highlights which mainly came in one check of the nets!

The two sessions at home were again dominated by tits, but a few highlights included my first juvenile Goldfinch (above) and Long-tailed Tit (below) of the year, another five juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (making 19 for the year so far) and a Jay.  The extra surprise was the pair of Spotted Flycatchers that had taken up residence this week, hopefully they will breed which will be a first for my garden.  Fingers crossed!

A trip round the remaining Horsham Barn Owl boxes was very successful.  Being joined by Barrie and Graham we visited four boxes of which one was empty, one held three chicks and two had four chicks (photos below).  Which were all ringed as well as an adult male, whilst an adult female was retrapped that was originally ringed as a chick in nearby Lambs Green in 2005. 

Graham with his first Barn Owl



Barn Owl chick being weighed

Adult male Barn Owl

Whilst doing the owls, one barn also had a pair of Stock Dove nesting on a ledge which had two perfect sized chicks.  Whilst other nests done this week were five Pied Wagtail chicks at my Leith Hill office and ten Swallow chicks (below) from three nests local to home.

The last ringing of the week was a return to Horsham Hospital where Linda and I rescued another family of five Mallard ducklings and rehomed them onto Horsham Park pond next door!

Birds ringed:
Great Tit - 57
Siskin - 26
Blue Tit - 24
Robin - 3
Chaffinch - 4
Blackcap - 3
Whitethroat - 2
Swallow - 10 nestlings
Pied Wagtail - 5 nestlings
Goldfinch - 5
Dunnock - 2
Wren - 1
Chiffchaff - 3
Willow Warbler - 3
Treecreeper - 3
Goldcrest - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 4
Greenfinch - 8
House Sparrow - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 5
Song Thrush - 1
Mallard - 5 ducklings
Stock Dove - 2 nestlings
Jay - 1
Barn Owl - 1 + 11 nestlings

19th June 2011 - More Youngsters and Two Recoveries

Rain restricted a lot of ringing this week, but the increase of juvenile birds on the scene kept numbers up.

A short session at Leith Hill on Sunday produced just 11 new birds including only four new Siskin, but I did find my first Whitethroat nest with five eggs (below).

A visit to a couple of neighbours houses on Monday produced two more ringed Swallow nests (chicks below).  Interestingly, one of these was a brand new nest and had been completely constructed of cow dung which must have been a substitute material for the lack of mud this spring.

I got a phone call from Linda Baker at Horsham Hospital this week asking for my help in relocating a family of Mallard that had bred in one of the courtyard gardens.  With no way out for the ducklings, Linda and her dad Eric have been providing a water feature and some extra food until big enough to fend for themselves.  So, the three of us caught up the seven ducklings which I then ringed and then Linda and Eric led the mother carrying the ducklings to Horsham Park pond which backs onto the hospital.

Linda with one of the ducklings

Before meeting Linda and Eric I had a quick stop at Coot Pond and very quickly managed to catch my first Canada Goose of the year (below).

Ringing at home over this week produced 111 new birds which were almost all juveniles and mainly consisted of Great Tits.  Highlights came in the form of a nest of Blackbird (2), a nest of Song Thrush (5) and from netting a juvenile Blackcap (below top), a juvenile and two adult male Whitethroat, two juvenile Treecreepers (below middle), four juvenile Great Spotted Woodpeckers, a Collared Dove and an adult Starling (below bottom).  This Starling is only the second that I have caught at home since I began ringing here in 2008!

A couple of recoveries have come through, as follows:

Lesser Redpoll L080774 ringed on 14th December 2009 at Chesworth Farm, Horsham as a first year bird was controlled at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire on 13th March 2011 as an adult male, probably on its way back to Scandinavia.

Grey Heron A47 ringed on 9th April 2011 at Warnham LNR as a nestling within the Heronry and was sighted at Thorpe Park near Chertsey, Surrey on 12th June 2011.  This bird was last seen at Warnham LNR on 30th May 2011.  A quick movement of 40km over 13 days NW.

Birds ringed:

Great Tit - 64

Siskin - 4

Swallow - 9 nestlings

Robin - 6

Blue Tit - 12

Chaffinch - 2

Blackcap - 2

Whitethroat - 3

Dunnock - 1

Treecreeper - 2

Willow Warbler - 1

Greenfinch - 5

Blackbird - 3 + 2 nestlings

Great Spotted Woodpecker - 4

Starling - 1

Song Thrush - 2 + 5 nestlings

Canada Goose - 1

Mallard - 7 ducklings

Jackdaw - 1

Collared Dove - 1

9th June 2011 - Jars and Lots of Different Youngsters

This week began with an evening on Leith Hill trying to catch Nightjars with the help of colleagues Catherine, Matt and Graham.  After 30 minutes two birds had just missed the net, so we moved the net to a new location and resulted in a catch within just two minutes (below).  It is always an experience catching a Nightjar, but this one turned out to be even better than normal as it was the juvenile bird that I had caught at this site last year!  This is a great event to know that this bird was almost certainly born at Leith Hill last year, migrated off to Africa for the winter months and then has come back to the same area for its first breeding season.  Hopefully he will find a mate!

This week has also been full of youngsters as the first birds start leaving their nests.  A couple of sessions at Leith Hill produced another 19 new juvenile Siskin and newly fledged Garden Warbler (below top), Great Tit and Whitethroat (below bottom).

Three newly fledged Wrens (below top), a juvenile Nuthatch (below middle), a juvenile Blackbird and a juvenile Great Spotted Woodpecker (below bottom) and the first large juvenile tit flock catch.

Also around home I made a visit to a few nesting possibilities including Stock Doves (two chicks ringed - below top) and the first Swallow nestlings.  And at Leith Hill I found my first Wood Warbler nest (below bottom) which the chicks were too big to attempt to ring to the point the first one fledged whilst I sat back and watched for 15 minutes!

Pam Mears joined me on Tuesday afternoon to go to Warnham LNR to ring the two pairs of Common Tern chicks that were nesting on the artificial rafts with only about five days difference between the two families (below).

And I just had to mention the very territorial male Pheasant that has been on Leith Hill for the last month.  Whenever I am doing a ringing session it follows be as I check the net rides, pecking at my shoes, jumping at my legs and clucking constantly with its colourful neck feathers raised.  I have finally managed to get a decent video below:

Birds ringed:
Siskin - 19
Great Tit - 21
Garden Warbler - 1 + 2 nestlings
Dunnock - 1
Swallow - 5 nestlings
Whitethroat - 1 nestling
Blue Tit - 1
Willow Warbler - 1
Wren - 3 nestlings
House Sparrow - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Blackbird - 4
Great Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Stock Dove  - 2 nestlings
Common Tern - 5 nestlings
Jackdaw - 1