With the weather set in an anti-ringing mood, it was great to get an interesting batch of recoveries, most of them from ringing earlier in the year.
Two juvenile Sedge Warblers retrapped in Wiltshire and Rutland both just nine days after ringing in August, re-enforces many other similar recoveries in past years, suggesting that the Sedge Warblers we ring are mainly passage birds moving through our area quite quickly.
A juvenile Whitethroat was caught on the same day and at the same locality in Wiltshire as one of the Sedge Warblers. It was caught 23 days after ringing in early August. This is only our fourth Whitethroat from the south of England. Single Willow Warbler and two Chiffchaff were also intercepted in the south of England. The Chiffchaffs were consecutive ring numbers both were ringed on 2nd October one was caught 5 days later 304 km south in Berkshire and the other 10 days later in Dorset
Two juvenile Reed Warblers from July ringing were caught at the same locality in thePyrenees-Altantiques department right in the south west corner of France. One was 25 and the other 37 days after ringing. These two brings our total of Reed Warblers from France to 27.
Reed Bunting have been present in good numbers this autumn. One ringed on 3rd September was caught 27 days later in Dorset. It is our third Reed Bunting from the south coast.
A Bearded Tit ringed as a nestling in April and retrapped in June and August and sighted on the grit trays on 28the September was sighted 12 days later in a very small reedbed at South Walney NR. This is only our third recorded movement away from Leighton Moss RSPB since 1980 despite ringing 2100. Eruptive behavior has been recorded on three occasions this autumn, but on all occasions the birds were seen to drop back into the reedbeds. But at least one moved out.
Finally a colour ringed Greenshank sighted on the wader pools on 26th to 29th June had been ringed as an adult 22 days previously at Tongue in the Highlands. this is our second colour ringed Greenshank from this area.
John
NLRG was formed in 1957 to help in the study of birds in the Lancaster and District Birdwatching Society area. There are currently 12 active ringers. Species currently being studied include: Pied Flycatcher, Bearded Tit, Sand Martin, Twite, Goosander, Oystercatcher and Grey Wagtail. Migration has been studied for 28 years at Heysham. We welcome anyone who wants to observe, help or perhaps wish to become a ringer. Photo: A Heysham-ringed Twite on the Mull of Kintyre (thanks to Eddie Maguire)
Sunday 21 December 2014
Thursday 4 December 2014
More Recoveries & Bearded Tit Update
A new batch of recoveries confirming known movements but with a few surprises. A Sedge Warbler to Devon 15 days after ringing brought our total from Devon to six. Another from Dorset was our 21st from this county. The surprise was our first Sedge Warbler from Durham ringed on13th September 15 days later it was 88 km to the NE and going in the wrong direction! A case of reverse migration? We have had at least five other similar northerly movements in times past.
Juvenile Reed Warblers were reported from Dorset, Hampshire and Sussex. This makes 6 from Dorset, 8
from Hampshire and 47 from Sussex from past ringing. A juvenile Sand Martin from Dumfries ringed in a colony on June 16th and caught at one of our colonies on the River Lune 15 days later, showing how early they move and join other colonies probably for roosting on their way south. Another early mover was a Willow Warbler ringed on 23rd June and caught 214 kms south on 28th July. A Lesser Redpoll ringed on April 6th was caught in Dumfries 12 days later.
This week we have caught six new Bearded Tits at Leighton Moss RSPB to bring our total of new ringed birds for the year to 69 compared to 48 in 2013 and just 17 in 2012. Judging from the undeveloped colours of their iris four at least were from late broods. Activity on the gritting trays is running down as usual by early December but a pair seen there this week had been ringed together in June and have been recorded together on six occasions since, confirming the early pair formation of juvenile Bearded Tits.
John
John
Friday 21 November 2014
A Bumper Year
With some submissions yet to come in the group has just passed 15,000 new birds ringed which is almost 4000 more that the average for the last five years. With ringing effort being roughly the same this suggests excellent productivity for both residents and migrants. The table below compares the 2014 catch with the five year average for species ringed regularly in good numbers.
Species 5 Year Average 2014 catch
Chiffchaff 185 462
Willow Warbler 434 585
Whitethroat 116 257
Lesser Whitethroat 46 71
Blackcap 109 300
Reed Warbler 1010 1300
Sedge Warbler 416 410
Goldcrest 129 211
Robin 132 326
Grey Wagtail 49 162
Wren 134 258
Reed Bunting 196 364
Of these 13 species only Sedge Warbler has not shown any increase. The fact that both migrants and residents have increased suggests excellent productivity and survival no doubt due to the good warm weather especially later in the breeding season. In the case of residents last winters mild weather also helped.
John
Species 5 Year Average 2014 catch
Chiffchaff 185 462
Willow Warbler 434 585
Whitethroat 116 257
Lesser Whitethroat 46 71
Blackcap 109 300
Reed Warbler 1010 1300
Sedge Warbler 416 410
Goldcrest 129 211
Robin 132 326
Grey Wagtail 49 162
Wren 134 258
Reed Bunting 196 364
Of these 13 species only Sedge Warbler has not shown any increase. The fact that both migrants and residents have increased suggests excellent productivity and survival no doubt due to the good warm weather especially later in the breeding season. In the case of residents last winters mild weather also helped.
John
Thursday 13 November 2014
Bearded Tit Gritting Season Interim Report
Its been an interesting season this year to date . With 269 sightings of colour ringed birds logged so far which is 78 up on the whole 2013 season. A total of 36 adults (21 males and 15 females) and 43 juveniles (21 and 22 females) have been recorded to date. There are also a number of unringed birds around with a maximum of 5 being seen at any one time. These are almost certainly all juveniles.
The birds this year have used the path for gritting much more than in recent years. Possibly because it was very dry when they started gritting in late September and also because some new filling was put down to repair holes in the track. However most sightings have been on the grit trays. Another reason for some birds switching to the path was that Chris Packham in Autumn Watch tried an experiment with different sizes of grit in three bowls. The birds certainly didn't like this until they replaced the bowls with a partitioned grit tray. However most of the birds using the path are juveniles.
Birds usually visit the grit trays on 3-5 days but as usual some birds visit more often. The record this year is a young female D752024 which has been recorded on the trays on 15 different days. Birds regularly visit in presumed pairs as is shown in the photo. This year we have a young male and a female which we ringed in the same nest box on May 2nd . They appear to be a pair as they have been seen together on the trays nine times. This is the first time we have recorded brother and sister remaining together into autumn, they were still together today.will be interesting to watch developments.
Many thanks to Keith Kellet and the Gallagher Family for logging most of the sightings.
John
The birds this year have used the path for gritting much more than in recent years. Possibly because it was very dry when they started gritting in late September and also because some new filling was put down to repair holes in the track. However most sightings have been on the grit trays. Another reason for some birds switching to the path was that Chris Packham in Autumn Watch tried an experiment with different sizes of grit in three bowls. The birds certainly didn't like this until they replaced the bowls with a partitioned grit tray. However most of the birds using the path are juveniles.
Birds usually visit the grit trays on 3-5 days but as usual some birds visit more often. The record this year is a young female D752024 which has been recorded on the trays on 15 different days. Birds regularly visit in presumed pairs as is shown in the photo. This year we have a young male and a female which we ringed in the same nest box on May 2nd . They appear to be a pair as they have been seen together on the trays nine times. This is the first time we have recorded brother and sister remaining together into autumn, they were still together today.will be interesting to watch developments.
Many thanks to Keith Kellet and the Gallagher Family for logging most of the sightings.
John
Monday 10 November 2014
Chiffchaff and Cetti's Warbler Make a Late Appearence
To date the group has ringed an unprecedented 8 Chiffchaff in November(4 each at Heysham and Leighton). The most we have ever ringed in November before was 3 in 2010. The occasional bird winters in our area , so it will be interesting to see if more stop this coming winter. Judging by our ringing Chiffchaff have had excellent productivity this year. Our average catch over the past five years was 185. This year we have caught 462 so possibly the record numbers to date in November are a spill over from this excellent productivity.
This weekend we caught a further three Cetti's Warblers bringing our Leighton total to 13, the highest yet recorded. The fascinating thing is that although at least 6 pairs were located in the breeding season we only caught one during our spring and summer ringing which produced a total of 1240 Reed warblers so the effort was there. The others were caught in October and November. Historically this has been the pattern; of 40 ringed in previous years only four were caught in summer.
A Cetti's controlled at Heysham on 28/9 was not ringed by any of our local ringing groups. So we await with interest full details from the BTO.
John
This weekend we caught a further three Cetti's Warblers bringing our Leighton total to 13, the highest yet recorded. The fascinating thing is that although at least 6 pairs were located in the breeding season we only caught one during our spring and summer ringing which produced a total of 1240 Reed warblers so the effort was there. The others were caught in October and November. Historically this has been the pattern; of 40 ringed in previous years only four were caught in summer.
A Cetti's controlled at Heysham on 28/9 was not ringed by any of our local ringing groups. So we await with interest full details from the BTO.
John
Thursday 30 October 2014
Reed Buntings, Cetti's Warbler & Bearded Tits
A rare still day allowed us to get out at Leighton Moss . We were hoping to catch some of up to 5 unringed Bearded Tits which are visiting the grit trays but we only caught ringed birds. Reed Buntings though were good with a catch of 22 bringing our total for 2014 to 193 almost 100 up on 2013 and still time for more. Like many other species they seem to have had a very good breeding season.
Our ninth Cetti's Warbler for the year was interesting. It was a retrap from November 2010 but it had not been retrapped in the intervening 4 years.Singing males in spring have built up over the past 3 years. There was certainly at least five at Leighton and 2-3 in other parts of the reserve and many suitable but difficult areas not checked, but we still catch only small numbers although the nine this year is the most ever. But they certainly are worth ringing one ringed at Leighton on 13/03/2010 was caught at Farlington Marsh Hampshire on 25/04/11and on 4 other occasions into 2012 a distance of 389 kms south.
The Bearded Tit gritting season continues apace up to yesterday we had logged 227 sightings of colour ringed birds. At total of 75 different birds were involved. Of these 36 were adults and 39 birds of the year.
John
Our ninth Cetti's Warbler for the year was interesting. It was a retrap from November 2010 but it had not been retrapped in the intervening 4 years.Singing males in spring have built up over the past 3 years. There was certainly at least five at Leighton and 2-3 in other parts of the reserve and many suitable but difficult areas not checked, but we still catch only small numbers although the nine this year is the most ever. But they certainly are worth ringing one ringed at Leighton on 13/03/2010 was caught at Farlington Marsh Hampshire on 25/04/11and on 4 other occasions into 2012 a distance of 389 kms south.
The Bearded Tit gritting season continues apace up to yesterday we had logged 227 sightings of colour ringed birds. At total of 75 different birds were involved. Of these 36 were adults and 39 birds of the year.
John
Tuesday 21 October 2014
Bearded Tit Gritting Season Update
The gritting season is certainly in full swing. To date we have got 160 sightings of our colour ringed birds involving 68 different birds. Of these 35 are adult birds and 33 are birds hatched this year and ringed as juveniles. To date we have identified 40 adults in our population from sightings and retraps so 35 of them seen gritting represents a high proportion of the adult population. Two of the adults are in their sixth year.
We have ringed 61 juveniles this year of these 33 have been seen gritting. Of these 29 are from first brood youngsters. This pattern follows observations of previous years that the adults come first to the trays , then the first brood youngsters and finally birds from later broods.
I reported before that birds were using both the trays and also new areas of gravel on the path. This use of two sites has continued but the ones using the path are almost exclusively young birds and there is a mixture of both age classes on the trays. The use of the path has diminished over the past week as the path becomes solidified by the rain. We know from past experience that there is little gritting activity during wet and windy weather so this week looks poor but the first day of reasonable weather should see a marked upturn in activity.
Paul Brewster's fine photo shows a young bird identified by its red colour ring on the path.
While Alan Gallagher's photo shows the female in its sixth year on the grit trays. Many thanks to both.
John
We have ringed 61 juveniles this year of these 33 have been seen gritting. Of these 29 are from first brood youngsters. This pattern follows observations of previous years that the adults come first to the trays , then the first brood youngsters and finally birds from later broods.
I reported before that birds were using both the trays and also new areas of gravel on the path. This use of two sites has continued but the ones using the path are almost exclusively young birds and there is a mixture of both age classes on the trays. The use of the path has diminished over the past week as the path becomes solidified by the rain. We know from past experience that there is little gritting activity during wet and windy weather so this week looks poor but the first day of reasonable weather should see a marked upturn in activity.
Paul Brewster's fine photo shows a young bird identified by its red colour ring on the path.
While Alan Gallagher's photo shows the female in its sixth year on the grit trays. Many thanks to both.
John
Thursday 16 October 2014
Recoveries Catch Up
With the BTO's new database now functioning we have just received a batch of 8 recoveries and 19 controls. Sand Martins top the list with four from Sussex and one from Norfolk. This brings the total of our Sand Martins reported from Sussex to an amazing 129 (almost all from Icklesham) and 33 from Norfolk almost all of them on return migration. We still await details of six French ringed Sand Martins.
A Sedge Warbler from Sussex brought our total on passage there to 36. Lesser Redpolls have a marked passage through our area in spring. The wintering areas of these passage birds is further confirmed by reports from Suffolk and Herts. While a spring recovery in Dumfries just 14 days after spring ringing points to the breeding area.
Many of our nestling Pied Flycatchers ringed in our nest box schemes return to nest in our area of the Lune Valley although they usually move woods. But nestlings from other areas also move into our nest boxes and this batch of recoveries featured nestlings from Durham (2) and one from Cheshire all caught while breeding in our nest boxes.
All but two of this batch were details of birds caught and released by other ringers. A Robin ringed as nestling was killed by a cat just two days after fledging , probably an all to often occurance.
On a brighter note Reed Buntings can be added to those species which appear from our ringing to have had good productivity this year. To date we have ringed 246 compared with just 126 in 2013 and 100 the previous year. This week we have caught 5 Cetti's Warblers at Leighton Moss including one ringed as a juvenile in 2011. It was retrapped in the same area it was ringed.
John
A Sedge Warbler from Sussex brought our total on passage there to 36. Lesser Redpolls have a marked passage through our area in spring. The wintering areas of these passage birds is further confirmed by reports from Suffolk and Herts. While a spring recovery in Dumfries just 14 days after spring ringing points to the breeding area.
Many of our nestling Pied Flycatchers ringed in our nest box schemes return to nest in our area of the Lune Valley although they usually move woods. But nestlings from other areas also move into our nest boxes and this batch of recoveries featured nestlings from Durham (2) and one from Cheshire all caught while breeding in our nest boxes.
All but two of this batch were details of birds caught and released by other ringers. A Robin ringed as nestling was killed by a cat just two days after fledging , probably an all to often occurance.
On a brighter note Reed Buntings can be added to those species which appear from our ringing to have had good productivity this year. To date we have ringed 246 compared with just 126 in 2013 and 100 the previous year. This week we have caught 5 Cetti's Warblers at Leighton Moss including one ringed as a juvenile in 2011. It was retrapped in the same area it was ringed.
John
Wednesday 1 October 2014
Bearded Tit Gritting Season in Full Swing
Taking in grit is essential to Bearded Tits at this time of year as they change their diet from the soft insect food of summer to the much harder reed seed diet of winter Over the past few days they have been taking grit but with a difference this year. Although numbers are using the specially provided grit trays good numbers have also been gritting on the limestone path that runs across the centre of Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve.
Before the grit trays were provided in 1996 they used the paths exclusively but over the past 15 years use of the paths has been minimal as they have become solidified. But after this years unusually dry weather the paths have a fine layer of grit in some areas and this is obviously attractive to the birds. This morning after a good rain shower they deserted the areas of path they had used for the past week and moved to a patch of new limestone gravel that had been put down to repair a hole. The problem with path gritting is that although most visitors to the reserve are delighted to see these attractive birds so close it only takes one person to walk along the track and disturb them.
To date thanks to the dedication of Keith Kellet we have got sightings of 55 birds. Of these 49 are colour ringed. These show clearly that it is almost exclusively adult birds which are using the grit trays and birds of the year the paths. Obviously the adults have used the trays in previous seasons and know of their location. Will be interesting to see if they desert the paths when the weather changes as it is forecast to this weekend.
To date on our Bearded Tit RAS we have identified 18 adult males and 16 adult females. Five of these were identified for the first time on the grit trays and we hope for more. To date we have caught 60 juveniles.
John
Before the grit trays were provided in 1996 they used the paths exclusively but over the past 15 years use of the paths has been minimal as they have become solidified. But after this years unusually dry weather the paths have a fine layer of grit in some areas and this is obviously attractive to the birds. This morning after a good rain shower they deserted the areas of path they had used for the past week and moved to a patch of new limestone gravel that had been put down to repair a hole. The problem with path gritting is that although most visitors to the reserve are delighted to see these attractive birds so close it only takes one person to walk along the track and disturb them.
To date thanks to the dedication of Keith Kellet we have got sightings of 55 birds. Of these 49 are colour ringed. These show clearly that it is almost exclusively adult birds which are using the grit trays and birds of the year the paths. Obviously the adults have used the trays in previous seasons and know of their location. Will be interesting to see if they desert the paths when the weather changes as it is forecast to this weekend.
To date on our Bearded Tit RAS we have identified 18 adult males and 16 adult females. Five of these were identified for the first time on the grit trays and we hope for more. To date we have caught 60 juveniles.
John
Thursday 25 September 2014
Our Ringing Suggests Excellent Productivity
2014 is turning out to be a record year for the group. Although helped by the excellent ringing weather in September our ringing totals so far this year for warblers especially, are the highest on record . The table below compares our catch this late summer/autumn with the averages for the past 10 years from three of our regularly ringed sites where effort has been similar over the years
Average Catch 2014 Catch
Chiffchaff 132 409
Willow Warbler 280 541
Blackcap 65 244
Whitethroat 77 243
Reed Warbler 602 916
Goldcrest 87 139
Robin 96 255
For the last two residents the average catch extends to December so the 2014 figure should rise. The only warbler that we ring in significant numbers not to show an increase was Sedge Warbler . Here the catch at 438 was around average.
John
Average Catch 2014 Catch
Chiffchaff 132 409
Willow Warbler 280 541
Blackcap 65 244
Whitethroat 77 243
Reed Warbler 602 916
Goldcrest 87 139
Robin 96 255
For the last two residents the average catch extends to December so the 2014 figure should rise. The only warbler that we ring in significant numbers not to show an increase was Sedge Warbler . Here the catch at 438 was around average.
John
Saturday 20 September 2014
Reed Warbler RAS End of Term Report
With Reed Warbler captures almost at an end for the year time to look at the results of this the 18th year of our RAS study at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve. This is a spin off from our main study at Leighton which is our isolated population of Bearded Tits
After a slow start adults eventually picked up and we ended with a total of 174 (112 new birds and 62 retraps from previous years). This is 16 birds short of the average catch of 190 over the last 17 years and a similar proportion of new birds to retraps. Our oldest bird was just 6 years and we had two at five years.
With the mainly good spring and summer weather productivity has been good with a record total of 910 juveniles ringed. The average for the past 17 years has been 601. The excellent ringing weather in September really helped. Bearded Tits have also had a good year with 60 juveniles ringed to date.
We look forward to hearing of a few of our birds caught by other ringers as they migrate south. From past ringing we have had 55 from Southern England, 3 in Belgium, 15 in France, 5 in Portugal 4 in Spain and 2 in Morroco.
John
After a slow start adults eventually picked up and we ended with a total of 174 (112 new birds and 62 retraps from previous years). This is 16 birds short of the average catch of 190 over the last 17 years and a similar proportion of new birds to retraps. Our oldest bird was just 6 years and we had two at five years.
With the mainly good spring and summer weather productivity has been good with a record total of 910 juveniles ringed. The average for the past 17 years has been 601. The excellent ringing weather in September really helped. Bearded Tits have also had a good year with 60 juveniles ringed to date.
We look forward to hearing of a few of our birds caught by other ringers as they migrate south. From past ringing we have had 55 from Southern England, 3 in Belgium, 15 in France, 5 in Portugal 4 in Spain and 2 in Morroco.
John
Thursday 11 September 2014
Colour Ringed Curlew Sandpiper & Little Stint
Small movement into our area of both these species so far this autumn but one of each is colour ringed. The juvenile Curlew Sandpiper with red on the left and Yellow on the right leg with letters ECC was sighted on the Allen Pool Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve on September 6th it had been ringed just four days previously at Revtangen Norway having been caught in a walk in trap. It had moved a distance of 720 km SW in the four days. Rather like the Norwegian name Tundrasnip!
The Little Stint was at Leighton Moss on September 9th and is still there today(11th) it also has a red colour ring on the left and yellow on the right with letters engraved but to date we have been unable to read these. However we do know that this juvenile has also been ringed at Revtangen obviously this autumn.
Thanks to Keith Kellet for the sightings and to Kjell Mork Soot for the ringing information.
John
The Little Stint was at Leighton Moss on September 9th and is still there today(11th) it also has a red colour ring on the left and yellow on the right with letters engraved but to date we have been unable to read these. However we do know that this juvenile has also been ringed at Revtangen obviously this autumn.
Thanks to Keith Kellet for the sightings and to Kjell Mork Soot for the ringing information.
John
Monday 8 September 2014
Sedge Warblers Make a Late Surge
After a period of lower numbers than usual there was a sudden upturn this weekend with 35 Sedge Warblers caught compared with 26 Reed Warblers, the first time this year that Sedge Warblers have been the most abundant. Even so total numbers for the year at 225 are down by just a hundred on 2013 where as Reed Warblers at 960 are 80 up on 2013.
This weekend saw two Bearded Tit catches including two new birds one of which was in juvenile plumage and had only just started to moult so it must have fledged in early August. To date we have ringed 58 juveniles compared to 48 in 2013 and just17 in 2012.
I always find it interesting to compare the numbers we catch with previous years given that our ringing effort is similar each year. Certainly for most species that we handle in sufficient numbers to give a meaningful comparison, this year looks like a very productive one for both residents and migrants. To quote a few figures- Blue Tit 327 against 212 in the whole of 2012, Willow Warbler an increase from 173 to 349, Goldcrest 33 this year only 23 last year , Robin 32 compared with just 11 last year and autumn is usually best for these last two.
John
This weekend saw two Bearded Tit catches including two new birds one of which was in juvenile plumage and had only just started to moult so it must have fledged in early August. To date we have ringed 58 juveniles compared to 48 in 2013 and just17 in 2012.
I always find it interesting to compare the numbers we catch with previous years given that our ringing effort is similar each year. Certainly for most species that we handle in sufficient numbers to give a meaningful comparison, this year looks like a very productive one for both residents and migrants. To quote a few figures- Blue Tit 327 against 212 in the whole of 2012, Willow Warbler an increase from 173 to 349, Goldcrest 33 this year only 23 last year , Robin 32 compared with just 11 last year and autumn is usually best for these last two.
John
Monday 25 August 2014
Warbler Miscellany
With decent weather we caught 333 birds in three visits to our reed bed sites at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve. Bearded Tits our main study species started to feature again as the first brood complete their moult. Bearded Tits are one of those species where the juveniles moult their flight feathers and they become almost flightless during the moult but all 5 that we caught had all but completed their moult. Two had been ringed as first brood nestlings giving us precise data as to their age in relation to completion of the moult.
Warblers though proved the most interesting. Our catches of Sedge Warbler have been low this year, on Saturday it looked as though they were picking up with a catch of 25 compared to 39 Reed Warblers, but Sundays catch produced only 2 compared with 35 Reed Warblers. One feature of Saturdays catch was the low weights with many under 10 grams suggesting they had migrated over night, probably from Scotland.
Reed Warblers appear to be having a bumper season, we are just short of the 1000 mark for the year. Despite ringing 450 juvs in July all but one of the 28 retraps we had this weekend were from August ringing, the exception was a bird ringed as a short tailed IJ on 21/7. this strongly suggests that all the first brood Reed Warblers along with most of the adults have moved out. We have caught only 14 adults in August.
But the star of the show was Willow Warbler. If our catches are any thing to go by they also have had a bumper season. In the whole of the 2013 season we caught only 183 but to date this year we have already caught 307. Many of this weekends catch were long winged birds suggesting a northern origin
John.
Warblers though proved the most interesting. Our catches of Sedge Warbler have been low this year, on Saturday it looked as though they were picking up with a catch of 25 compared to 39 Reed Warblers, but Sundays catch produced only 2 compared with 35 Reed Warblers. One feature of Saturdays catch was the low weights with many under 10 grams suggesting they had migrated over night, probably from Scotland.
Reed Warblers appear to be having a bumper season, we are just short of the 1000 mark for the year. Despite ringing 450 juvs in July all but one of the 28 retraps we had this weekend were from August ringing, the exception was a bird ringed as a short tailed IJ on 21/7. this strongly suggests that all the first brood Reed Warblers along with most of the adults have moved out. We have caught only 14 adults in August.
But the star of the show was Willow Warbler. If our catches are any thing to go by they also have had a bumper season. In the whole of the 2013 season we caught only 183 but to date this year we have already caught 307. Many of this weekends catch were long winged birds suggesting a northern origin
John.
Wednesday 20 August 2014
A tail of two Knot
On a recent trip to the Wash as part of the Wash Wader Ringing Group's summer fieldwork activity a catch of Knot was made in Lincolnshire. While the number of Knot retraps is always low due to the large numbers around and relatively small numbers ringed each year we did have around 1% of the catch as previously ringed on the Wash. We also retrapped a bird originally ringed on the 14th February 1998 at Heysham, Lancashire.
This kind of movement is exactly what we would expect from a wintering Knot at Heysham. In autumn flocks of many 10s of thousand or even 100,000 form on the Wash where many moult before dispersing to estuaries around the UK and Northern Europe.
While looking at the excellent BTO online recoveries page to see how many have been recorded making this movement before (90), I noticed a rather surprising movement to the Canary Islands. On further investigation I found this blog which even has photographic evidence of this unusual movement. Interestingly this bird to the Canary Islands was caught in the same catch at Heysham back in 1998.
The Canary Islands, although a long way away, is not a surprising location for Knot to winter. What is surprising is that all knot in Morecambe Bay in winter are of the Islandica race which breed in Greenland and Canada then winter in Northern Europe with a few reaching as far south as Portugal. Normally I would have expected a Knot on the Canary Islands to be from the nominate Canutus race however mid August is awfully early for them to arrive on their wintering grounds, particularly as this was still in summer plumage. How this bird reached the Canaries is a mystery however as they are long distance migrants that do cross large expanses of ocean it is possible a storm picked it up somewhere further north, alternatively it became horribly lost.
This kind of movement is exactly what we would expect from a wintering Knot at Heysham. In autumn flocks of many 10s of thousand or even 100,000 form on the Wash where many moult before dispersing to estuaries around the UK and Northern Europe.
While looking at the excellent BTO online recoveries page to see how many have been recorded making this movement before (90), I noticed a rather surprising movement to the Canary Islands. On further investigation I found this blog which even has photographic evidence of this unusual movement. Interestingly this bird to the Canary Islands was caught in the same catch at Heysham back in 1998.
The Canary Islands, although a long way away, is not a surprising location for Knot to winter. What is surprising is that all knot in Morecambe Bay in winter are of the Islandica race which breed in Greenland and Canada then winter in Northern Europe with a few reaching as far south as Portugal. Normally I would have expected a Knot on the Canary Islands to be from the nominate Canutus race however mid August is awfully early for them to arrive on their wintering grounds, particularly as this was still in summer plumage. How this bird reached the Canaries is a mystery however as they are long distance migrants that do cross large expanses of ocean it is possible a storm picked it up somewhere further north, alternatively it became horribly lost.
Sunday 17 August 2014
Sedge Warblers Remain Scarce
I blogged before about the small numbers of Sedge Warbles we are catching this year. August is usually the best month for both Sedge and Reed Warblers but this August the weather has done us no favors. However on the six mornings of suitable weather this month we have only caught 33 Sedge Warblers compared to 160 Reed Warblers. Usually we would expect to catch in a ratio of 2 to 1 in favour of Reed Warblers.
In our cath on Augut 15h at Leighton Moss RSPB we caught a female and a juvenile from a small party of Bearded Tits- the others went past the end of the nets. The Juvenile had a dark iris suggesting that it was recently fledged and was still in juvenile plumage with no sign of moult. The adult female had just started to moult with 8 old feathers suggesting that it had a brood that had fledged probably in early August. Bearded Tits can have three broods per season and on occasions we have caught birds still in juvenile plumage as late as Oct 6th.
John
In our cath on Augut 15h at Leighton Moss RSPB we caught a female and a juvenile from a small party of Bearded Tits- the others went past the end of the nets. The Juvenile had a dark iris suggesting that it was recently fledged and was still in juvenile plumage with no sign of moult. The adult female had just started to moult with 8 old feathers suggesting that it had a brood that had fledged probably in early August. Bearded Tits can have three broods per season and on occasions we have caught birds still in juvenile plumage as late as Oct 6th.
John
Saturday 2 August 2014
Pied Flycatchers Have a Succesful Season
We run a RAS scheme on Pied Flycatchers in 15 woods in the upper Lune valley and its tributaries. Yesterday we had a group get together to talk over our study. This year we have had 83 occupied nest boxes well up on the 59 in 2013 and a return to the levels of previous years. We also monitor another population in Bowland of 8 pairs this year.They have all bred very successfully and we ringed 536 nestlings in total and caught or retrapped 111 adults.
In recent years there has been a marked change in distribution with a decline in the lower altitude woods with three woods losing their birds completely but there has been a corresponding increase in the higher woods with the medium altitude woods retaining their populations.
There is the possibility that the provision of more nest boxes in the upper woods that they have drawn birds away from the lower woods, but there is no support for this view from our ringing retraps. Another possibility we considered was an increase in competition from other hole nesting species such as tits but all our woods have plenty of unoccupied boxes. So the main conclusion was that the distribution changes related to ecological and possibly climatic change in the woods and we hope to set up a sampling program to compare occupied and un-occupied woods.
In recent years there has been a marked change in distribution with a decline in the lower altitude woods with three woods losing their birds completely but there has been a corresponding increase in the higher woods with the medium altitude woods retaining their populations.
There is the possibility that the provision of more nest boxes in the upper woods that they have drawn birds away from the lower woods, but there is no support for this view from our ringing retraps. Another possibility we considered was an increase in competition from other hole nesting species such as tits but all our woods have plenty of unoccupied boxes. So the main conclusion was that the distribution changes related to ecological and possibly climatic change in the woods and we hope to set up a sampling program to compare occupied and un-occupied woods.
Our ringing over the years has shown that just 3.9% of the nestlings are recorded again. Of those that return to breed 34 % return to their natal wood-50% move to other woods within the Lune Valley and 16% move further afield Most of these are found in Northern England with
smaller numbers from Wales and South West Scotland. Some though are more
adventuress. Nestling ringed in our boxes have been found breeding in Germany and Denmark. It all helps to spread the gene pool.
By contrast adults mainly return in successive years to their native wood with just 15% moving woods within the Lune valley. A few do move further afield. One female ringed while nesting in Galloway moved to our area to breed next year, then north again to Cumbria the following year.
John
Thursday 31 July 2014
Reed Bed Species do Well
One of the fascinations of ringing the same site over the years is the ability to compare years to get an idea of the population trends and productivity of the species you study. At Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve our main study is the isolated population of Bearded Tits. This year has been good, for so far we have ringed 54 juveniles compared to 48 in the whole of 2013 and just 11 in 2012 and there is quite a time to go yet.
The main spin off of this study is the RAS we run on Reed Warblers. Our initial feeling was that the breeding population was down somewhat but this month they have bounced back with a total of 517 handling's compared with just 281 in July 2013 and an average of 380 over the past three Julys. This suggests excellent productivity. To date we have caught 153 adult Reed Warblers, this compares to an average of 190 over the 17 years of our study. We usually catch fewer in August as adults start to leave early in the month. The only two adults that we caught this morning were obviously preparing to leave for they had fat scores of 2 and 4 and were well above average weight, don't think they will be going anywhere over the next two days if the weather forecast is anything to go by!
By contrast Sedge Warblers are well down with only 79 ringed compared to 182 in the same period last year. There is only a comparatively small breeding population of Sedge Warblers at Leighton. Recoveries suggest that most of the birds we catch are migrants from further north. Perhaps they are later this year or possibly weather for migration has been so good they have not had to stop off at our site. Willow Warblers fall into the same category being mostly migrants . This July we have ringed 114 compared to 85 last year.
In case you are thinking that some of the recorded changes from year to year are due to varying effort-we ringed on 18 mornings in 2013 and 17 this year.
John
The main spin off of this study is the RAS we run on Reed Warblers. Our initial feeling was that the breeding population was down somewhat but this month they have bounced back with a total of 517 handling's compared with just 281 in July 2013 and an average of 380 over the past three Julys. This suggests excellent productivity. To date we have caught 153 adult Reed Warblers, this compares to an average of 190 over the 17 years of our study. We usually catch fewer in August as adults start to leave early in the month. The only two adults that we caught this morning were obviously preparing to leave for they had fat scores of 2 and 4 and were well above average weight, don't think they will be going anywhere over the next two days if the weather forecast is anything to go by!
By contrast Sedge Warblers are well down with only 79 ringed compared to 182 in the same period last year. There is only a comparatively small breeding population of Sedge Warblers at Leighton. Recoveries suggest that most of the birds we catch are migrants from further north. Perhaps they are later this year or possibly weather for migration has been so good they have not had to stop off at our site. Willow Warblers fall into the same category being mostly migrants . This July we have ringed 114 compared to 85 last year.
In case you are thinking that some of the recorded changes from year to year are due to varying effort-we ringed on 18 mornings in 2013 and 17 this year.
John
Sunday 20 July 2014
Reed Warblers Prepare to Leave
Highlight of a catch of 64 Reed Warblers today was Y332103. Originally ringed as a juvenile on 25/08/2011. It was caught on 18th of June this year when it weighed 11.8 grams. Today it weighed 14.5 grams and had a fat score of 5 and was obviously preparing to leave. The average weight of 5 other adults caught today was 11.1 grams.
Numbers of adults caught start to drop in late July and early August and most have left before the end of August. We have 6 controls of adult Reed warblers on the south coast in the second half of July, 11 in August and 3 in the first few days of September. By contrast juveniles don't occur there until the middle of August and reach a peak in the last days of August and early September and continue into September. Almost all the juvs caught today were in post juvenile body moult and had normal weights.
The other amazing thing about todays catch was the complete absence of Sedge warblers on the same date last year at this site we caught 8.
John
Numbers of adults caught start to drop in late July and early August and most have left before the end of August. We have 6 controls of adult Reed warblers on the south coast in the second half of July, 11 in August and 3 in the first few days of September. By contrast juveniles don't occur there until the middle of August and reach a peak in the last days of August and early September and continue into September. Almost all the juvs caught today were in post juvenile body moult and had normal weights.
The other amazing thing about todays catch was the complete absence of Sedge warblers on the same date last year at this site we caught 8.
John
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