Recent Wader Movements and Greenfinch Populations

 Three recent colour ringed sightings show unexpected movements. 

An adult Dunlin ringed in North Wales at 23.40 on August 11 was sighted on the RSPB Eric Morecambe Complex of wader pools on the edge of Morecambe Bay. It had travelled ca 200 kms north in ca 40 hours. It remains there at present.

A recently fledged Lapwing ringed in May 2020 was sighted on the southern edge of Morecambe Bay in mid August this year  a movement of 385 km NW.

An Avocet colour ringed before fledging on  June 1 as part of Ian Hartley's study on the south of Morecambe Bay moved  ca 25 km north along the Bay edge on 14th Julyto the Eric Morecambe pools. Seventeen days later it  was sighted in Lincolnshire then seven days later at Stockton-on Tees. So quite a mobile youngster.

Greenfinch  used to be one of the commonest birds caught at feeding stations, but numbers have declined over the last two decades due to the disease trichomonosis. Recent catches  though suggest something of a recovery. Typical was a catch of 16 in two  hours with a small net making it the commenest bird caught compared with just 11 Blue Tits. Increasing number have been reported from several local garden feeders. One reported that there had been no sightings of Greenfinch over the last two years, but this year they  are"eating him out of house and home"!

John

Our Pied Flycather RAS and Recent Recoveries

 Because of corvid restrictions it was another  difficult year for our monitoring of our Pied Flycatcher RAS in the Lune valley, but the good news is that  the total occupied  boxes increased from 120 last year  to 130 this year with much of the increase being in the larger woods. However predation, probably by Stoats or Weasels was severe in  two of our larger woods. One with 20 occupied boxes successfuly fledged only two nests the other also wih 20 occupied boxes had only eight nests succesful. By contrast  10 smaller woods had 44 occupied boxes of which 41 successfully produced young.

We caught fewer adult birds this year but those we did showed the usual pattern with more males  returning to the same wood than females which regularly moved to other woods in our study area. Nestlings ringed outside our area  and found breeding in the Lune valley came from North Wales (2), Staffordshire and Cumbria.

 Over the years we have  records of 540 birds ringed as adults in our area and caught the next season. Of these only eight, all females, have moved outside our area. This year we had  a female ringed as adult in one of our woods being found breeding at Conway in North Wales the longest  shift of breeding area we have recorded. Birds ringed as nestlings outside our area  but found breeding here this  year were from Staffordshire and Conway. 

Each year we have to replace old or damaged boxes. This year we replaced around 60 boxes, but ran out of time to do one site. On our first visit there we found a box which had been woodpeckered the previous year   with  the brood of Blue Tits being taken by  a Great Spotted Woodpecker by breaking through the box below the metal plate as the photo shows. We were surprised to find a pair of Pied Flycatchers nesting there and the good news is that they successfully reared a brood despite the two entrances.

 

We have had many sightings  of colour ringed Black-tailed Godwits in our area, but one of this years sightings was excepional. Since it was ringed in Iceland on the breeding grounds in April 2003 it has been reported 44 times in seven countries. It passed through France, Belguim and The Netherlands in spring from its wintering area  in Spain to the breeding in Iceland and through Ireland and England in late summer on its return. A migratory pattern shown by the many other sightings and  shows the value of colour ringing.

Other recent recoveries included a Siskin in late June ringed in Dumfries & Galloway as a juvenile the previous June showing early movement. Goldfinch  from  wintering areas in Shropshire and Buckingham. Lesser Repolls from Northumberland, North Yorkshire and Warwickshire.  A Little Ringed Plover ringed as a nestling and found in late May in Staffordshire.

John