Nest boxes - start of the season

Early indications are that this is a good season for birds using boxes in some of our schemes. Boxes in Roeburndale already have more nesting attempts than they had last year with increased numbers of Blue Tits despite the harsh winter weather. Pied Flycatcher numbers already appear to be at the same level as last year but it is early and there may be more to come.

Paul Cammack

Quartet of radio-tracked Ospreys

Four out of the five radio-tracked adult Ospreys have passed over our area this spring - the other one, Beatrice, flew north just east of Settle.

Morven (female) and Talisman (male) are a breeding pair. Morven roosted at Kirkby Lonsdale on the night of 6/7th. Talisman was recorded either over or just to the west or east of Morecambe/Heysham at c1400hrs on 7th, whilst Red 8T went over upper Roeburndale (Wolfhole Crag) the previous weekend. Nimrod was later on and roosted near Garstang before passing over the Bowland Fells and then Kirkby Lonsdale

Check out the Highland Foundation for Wildlife site for more detail

Pete Marsh

Variation on the two bird theme

The two bird theory was turned on its head with the following Great White Egret which was recorded in Lancashire and South Wales at the same time, as well as an apparitional lengthy stay at a site which is covered 24/7! These have been excluded/resolved and here is the amended account of its travels with the first of April final date having no ulterior significance! Thanks to Chris Batty for sorting most of this out.

Metal CA 69229 & CRs
Ringed: Pullus: Besné (in Brière, Loire Atlantique, France) 06/05/2009

Seen at the following sites:
Banks Marsh, Lancashire 24/09/2009
Brockholes Wetland, Lancashire 25/09/2009
Hesketh Out Marsh, Lancashire 26/09/2009
Crossens Marsh, Lancashire 26/09/2009
Banks Marsh, Lancashire 27/09/2009
Leighton Moss, Lancashire 30/09/2009 until 07/11/2009, then 10/11/2009 until 04/12/2009
Crossens Outer Marsh, Lancashire 08/11/2009 (location unknown on 09/11/09)
Bolton-le-Sands, Lancashire 12/12/2009
Crossens Outer Marsh, Lancashire 13/12/2009 until 28/12/2009
Churchtown Moss, Lancashire 29/12/2009
Marshside, Lancashire 01/01/2010
Churchtown Moss, Lancashire 08/01/2010
Hendre Lake, St Mellons, Cardiff, Glamorgan 19/01/2010 until
10/03/2010
Peterstone Wentlooge, Gwent 21/02/2010
Peterstone Wentlooge, Gwent 26/02/2010 until 27/02/2010
Peterstone Wentlooge, Gwent 11/03/2010
Ashleworth Ham, Gloucestershire 17/03/2010 until 27/03/2010
Frampton-on-Severn, Gloucestershire 28/03/2010
Slimbridge, Gloucestershire 28/03/2010 until 31/03/2010
Ashleworth Ham, Gloucestershire 01/04/2010

Record Breaking Reed Bunting

An adult female Reed Bunting ringed by Paul Robinson at Helton Tarn on 11 May 2009 was caught by Bill Jones at Kingsnorth Power Station, Hoo St Wexburgh in Kent 0n 2 February 2010. This is a movement of 392 km and the longest movement recorded for a Reed Bunting within our area. We have one other similar movement to Dorchester in Dorset a movement of 386 km. It also was a female but was found in early October.

We have seven recoveries in winter within the Merseyside/Cheshire area suggesting this is the more usual wintering area for our birds also one a little further afield near Nottingham.
Possibly the severe winter had forced this bird to move further south than usual, although it would find much more snow in Kent this past winter than at Helton Tarn, although there was less on the Grain Peninsula than even the only slightly upland downland nearby!

John Wilson

On the same species, here is a slightly more informative pic of the peculiar ?female Reed Bunting recently trapped at Heysham - see previous posting

Scrabbling through obscure buntings

Hello
Didnt want to make a complete fool of myself this morning with the attached so checked all the various eastern buntings as much as possible & came to the obvious conclusion that it was a Reed Bunting with later thought & digestion sending it in the direction of a female with the darker ear coverts & surrounds being replaced by black (see 'normal' pic for comparison - hoicked off the LDBWS site and credited to "peter"). Any comments or similar birds would be very welcome. The wing length was 73mm & there are various other shots of wing formulae etc just to be on the safe side.

It was the ONLY bird caught during a very short pre-work session at Heysham Obs to try and catch Meadow Pipits which were either stratospheric or absent this morning

Pete Marsh

End of the Twite in Sight

The Twite population at the Heysham feeding area had been reasonably stable all winter, the feeding group mostly wearing this season's colours. Things are now changing and recently ringed birds are disappearing (not being retrapped or sighted) and there is an increasing proportion of unringed birds. Both of these observations indicate that movement north to their breeding grounds is in progress. Their behaviour is also noticeably altering - they are more "skittish", there is some squabbling and singing as opposed to the winter feeding calls we are used to. They are also being joined by increasing numbers of Linnets. This seems to occur at the early autumn southward passage and during the current northward movement. The Linnets do not remain with the North Harbour Wall Twite during the winter period.

These birds are clearly becoming unsettled and will surely be leaving us in the next week or so until their return next autumn.

An intesting control was caught at Heysham on 28/10/2009. This individual had been ringed at Southport as a young female on 16/11/2008 and retrapped on Sanda Island (a breeding area) on 01/07/2009.

3 previous birds ringed on Sanda have been controlled at Heysham, and 2 Heysham ringed birds have also been controlled there.

Sanda Island is clearly one of the favoured breeding areas for Twite that winter in our area.

ajd

Migrating Reed Warblers

May seem a bit early to be thinking about Reed Warblers But a recent batch of recoveries included five Reed Warblers controlled at Icklesham in East Sussex. The group has ringed almost 14,000 Reed Warblers over the years, of these 55 have been caught by other ringers on their onward migration in southern England with Icklesham reporting the largest numbers.

Juveniles obviously migrate fairly soon after moulting their juvenile body feathers. The earliest reported in the south of England was on July 30th and the latest on the 26th of September. The quickest movement was just four days after ringing and the longest gap between ringing and recapture was just 35 days.

Adults also move early, the earliest in the South of England was on August 2nd and the last on September 8th.

Onward movement is shown by eleven recoveries along the French coast, five in Portugal, two in Spain and four in Morocco.

On first sight one assumes that the birds we are ringing are either bred in our area or possibly in Cumbria where there is about 200 pairs, or Dumfries where there is about 25 pairs. However there are always surprises thrown up by ringing. A juvenile ringed near Hammarsjon in Sweden on 2/08/97 was caught 22 days later at Leighton Moss. So one has always to be careful in making assumptions

John Wilson