Our Nuthatch Study

I have reported several times about  our Nuthatch colour ringing study in Jerry and  Barbara's garden at Silverdale. Since September 2015 we have caught a total of 21 Nuthatch coming to their well provisioned feeders. The most birds they see at once  on the feeders is usually two.
Numbers recorded each month have varied a little with 12 in December and January, 13 in February and a peak of 15 different birds in March. We rather expected numbers to decline  in April but13 were recorded in April and 11 in May. These are minimal numbers as un-ringed birds have  seen throughout.
The May figure of 11 included 8 which were regular visitors suggesting four pairs breeding in the surrounding woodland with  three others visiting very occasionally possibly birds from further  afield tempted by the abundant fare in the feeders.
John

An Excellent Breeding season

Judging by my nest boxes it has been an excellent breeding season. Tits have done well with  little predation and  only one  dead young in the 90 occupied boxes I have checked and brood size has been quite high.This week ends ringing produced 21 young Blue Tits  also the first young Reed Warbler and Willow Warblers, ten days earlier than last year. Of the 20 Pied Flycatcher nests two still have young to  ring and two were lost to predation. Of the others, brood size was good  averaging 6.8.
The other woods in our Pied Flycatcher RAS report similar findings although two have experienced heavy predation probably by weasels.

Over the next few months  will be working on our Bearded tit and Reed Warbler RAS. So far have caught 46 adult Reed Warbler and 16 adult Bearded Tits.
John

Sand Martin Ringing On The River Lune

The Sand Martin ringing season is about to get underway. I have prepared an account of our activities at the colonies on the River Lune to  to to provide information to those landowners and farmers  who have kindly given members of the North Lancashire Ringing Group access to their land to undertake our studies. I thought I would share this on the Blog.

We carry out a census each year of the breeding colonies from Skerton Lancaster  to Kirkby Lonsdale by counting occupied nest holes. Over the past five years the population has ranged between 3026 pairs (2011) and 1309 (2014). We have 40 years of counts and historically the population has varied between 370 (1984) and the recent high of 3026 in 2011. It is  thought that these fluctuations are mainly due to drought conditions in their African wintering areas causing high mortality, but river floods during the breeding season and lack of suitable nesting banks have also played their part.

Since 2001 we have caught nearly 27,000 Sand Martins mainly at the Lune colonies. The recovery locality of those reported away from the Lune is shown in the table below. Around 99% of these are birds caught be other bird ringers and released both in Britain and abroad.

Recovery  Localities of Sand Martins Ringed on the River Lune 

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Senegal	1		2									3
Spain			1	3			1	3	4	4
France					4		6	31	9
South Coast							16	112	28
East Anglia				3		5	28	14
Midlands				1		3	15	10	1
Yorkshire						7	13	7	3
Scotland					1	3	6	1

The late summer migration is well shown with  first brood juveniles already in East Anglia and the Midlands in late June and on into July many of these are caught on migration ,roosting in colonies on their way south, until the colonies are vacated in early August then they roost in reed-beds or maize fields  with Swallows.  The recoveries from Scotland are mainly .of juveniles  caught roosting in our colonies on their way south. The speed of departure was well shown this year by-one of the few birds we have ringed as a nestling. It probably left the nest about the 18^th of June but it was caught27 days later in Northern France a distance of 493 km SE, certainly a quick mover.  By . July many birds are along the south coast and into France, a movement that continues throughout July and reaches a peak in August then on to early September with adults and second brood youngsters joining in. August is the peak month for passage through western France and on into  Spain. Smaller numbers occur in France in September with none at all in October by which time they have moved in to Eastern Spain to eventually reach their wintering areas in West  Africa where we have six recoveries from Senegal.

Spring migration is not well documented as  little ringing takes place, also birds are moving through quickly and return to the  colonies where  ringing is not attempted to avoid disturbance at this critical time. Returns from Spain and France suggest a similar route to autumn.

John

Pied Flycatchers Do Well

Have 21 pairs of Pied Flycatchers spread over 3 woods in the Lune Valley. One pair down on 2015 but all are doing well with no losses to predation. Have ringed seven broods so far six had seven young and one six.
 Interesting behavior at two  nests while we were catching the males. At one two males were around the nest box and another there were three males. Quite a bit of chasing between the males. Never seen this behavior before.

Both tit species are down following last years poor productivity but they are also doing  well with little predation and reasonable brood size.
John