Feeding Station Ringing

Our two woodland edge feeding stations have seen  some interesting changes this season. The most unexpected is the appearance of Tree Sparrows at the Challan site. In five years of ringing we have not caught a Tree Sparrow but this season so far we have caught four. House Sparrows are rare at both sites with only 11 caught over the past five years.

 So far it has been a rather poor season for Coal Tits at both sites.The average autumn catch at the Teddy Heights site over 12 years has been 85 but this year it is only 40. Challan has also seen a decline but not quite as  bad. The retrap of a Coal Tit in its sixth year shows site faithfulness. Both Blue Tits and Great Tits are slightly down. Marsh Tits are a speciality of this area, last year we caught 29 different birds at Challan. To date they are slightly below average at both sites. Judging by the amazing number of berries there are this autumn there is probably a good supply of natural foods available.

Long-tailed Tits though are doing well with 31 so far this season at Teddy Heights compared to an average of 12. On our last visit we caught  13, of these two had been ringed together four years previously.

Our colour ringed study of Nuthatch at  Challan  shows there are eight birds visiting the feeders. But it is the usual pattern of  about half visiting regularly which probably have local territories and usually come in   pairs. While others visit much less frequently and have their territory further away. There are also unringed birds visiting.

Starling have become regular feeder visitors  at Challan over the past two years. In a catch of seven this week we had a Stavanger (Norway) ringed bird.

John

Bearded Tit Update

 

The gritting  season is now almost over . To date we have recorded 153 sghtings of colour ringed birds mostly on the grit trays  In total we have identified 27 adult males(five more than in 2018) and 14 adult females. We have two males which are in their 6th year. 

 

I have been able to work out crudesurvival rates, and both adults and juveniles from last year had a survival rate of 60%. One of the best rates since our study started 27 years ago.

Really pleased that the high water levels of early October when all the visitor paths were under water are now back to normal. In the winter of 2000 we had really high water levels from October through to mid December followed by a cold spell. The Bearded Tit population went from ca 65 pairs to just seven in the spring of 2001. In 2000 we identified 119 adults and ringed 275 young. Next year we found only 9 adults and ringed only 18 young. They recovered quickly but have never reached the 2000 population.

I have published four papers on the results of our study. There is still plenty to write up yet, but need someone good at statistics to help out. Not my strong point! I just enjoy studying these wonderful birds!

On another subject Stuarts colour ringed study of Dippers in the  upper catchment of the River Lune has shown a strong attachment to this area. However one bird colour ringed as a nestling on April 7th this year moved 34 km north to the River  Eden catchment. Unfortunatly it was killed flying into a window.
John

Bearded Tit RAS Update

Its been a rather difficult season for our study. Late season ringing has been impossible because of high water levels which flooded all the access paths at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve making out  boardwalks dangerous  to use. However the high water levels meant that the Bearded Tits had to get their grit,(which they need at this time of year as they move from  insects  to a rmainly reed seed diet) from our  specially prepared grit trays. So far we have  had 113 sightings of colour  ringed birds mainly on the trays and almost all of them were adults  from previous  years.

In total we have identified 24 adult males and 13 adult females. This compares with 23 males and 14 females in 2018.  We invariably get more males than females,partly because males are easier to mist net and also  males have a somewhat better survival rate than females.

Of the 37 adults, the oldest was  five years, one was four years, three  were three years old, 12 two years and 20, one year after ringing as juveniles. This gives a crude survival rate of 46%. But we may yet identify one or two more . We have a motion activated video of one set of trays yet to check through.

Since the water levels have dropped, exposing the visitor paths the reserve staff have topped up  some of the paths with fine limestone and some birds have been gritting here . This means that colour rings are more difficult to  record.
John

A Chaffinch in Sweden and a Sedge Warbler in France

 Although we have ringed 9620 Chaffinch up to the end of 2018 we have just  had our first recovery in southern Sweden. It was caught by a ringer on 4th April this year and was originally ringed  at a garden feeder on 26th November 2016. It had travelled 1129 kms ENE. Our only other foreign recoveries of Chaffinch have been singles in Norway and The Netherlands.
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By contrast we have ringed 14,117 Sedge Warblers and the latest recovery in SW France in August is our 55th Sedge Warbler from France, of these 39 have been in August, almost all caught by ringers. We have had three from Spain,one from Portugal, seven in Belgium and one in Luxembourg all on migration usually in late summer/autumn. Our only recovery in winter is one from Senegal West Africa in December.
John

Garden Ringing update

Paid our third visit this summer to Jerry and Barbara's woodland edge garden in Silverdale. With only one 40 ft net we caught 80 birds. Our main interest in this garden is a colour ring study of Nuthatch, so we were pleased to catch two unringed young birds which brings the total so far seen in the garden since the end of June to twelve.Since we started this study in 2015 we have amassed 2402 sightings.

Blue and Great Tits seem to have done well with 56 and 23 respectively, almost all juveniles. Coal tits though at only four are low. This species breeds locally in only small numbers and our ringing has shown that many of our birds come from Lakeland so will be interesting to see if numbers pick up at our next visits.

The most surprising species was Bullfinch with 22 caught so far this summer. This compares with just 21 in the period July to March last year. Even more interesting is that we have caught only four juveniles. On this last visit we caught six adult males all just starting to moult. Perhaps the juveniles have not discovered this easy source of food yet.

John

Reed Warbler & Bearded Tit RAS Update

The last two days has seen two good catches to bolster our returns for our Bearded Tit and Reed Warbler RAS at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve.

A male Bearded Tit first ringed as a juvenile  in 2014 was retrapped five years and 50 days after ringing. This is our second oldest Bearded Tit ,(the oldest was seven years and 93 days). Interestingly this bird had been sighted ten times on the grit tray between 2014 and 2016. It was retrapped in 2017 but not recorded at all in 2018 so it was  great to catch up with it again. To date we have identified 10 adults but it is early days as we get most sightings from the grit trays late September to December.

In the two sessions we caught 55 Reed Warblers, mainly juveniles suggesting a good breeding season. But the most interesting was an adult male first ringed as a juvenile in June 2011 , eight years and 43 days ago. Interestingly it has been retrapped most years since in the same area of the reed bed but on 28th July 2018 it was caught on the south coast at Titchfield Haven Hampshire on its way to the African wintering grounds. It was a bit late setting off this year, but it was getting ready  for it had a fat score of two.
John

Another Record Pied Flycatcher Season

Now got all the results in for our Pied Flycatcher  RAS based in 20 upland woods in the Lune Valley. We had 104 occupied nest boxes four  down on 2018 but success rate was better  with 79 producing young compared to 68 last year. Predation was as usual patchy with one wood losing all its young probably to a weasel while other woods  had a 90%+ success rate

The Group also has other boxes in the Bowland area and in total we recorded 1020 handling made up of 821 nestlings 82 new adults and 117 retraps. This is 195 up on 2018.

Retraps followed the usual pattern with a few ringed as nestlings returning to their native wood ,  but most moving to other woods within the  Lune valley or Bowland. While adults generally stayed faithful to the same wood each year.

We do though get birds ringed as nestlings  elsewhere breeding in our area with  two from North Yorkshire and one from Durham this year. But most surprising was one ringed as a  nestling near Swansea South Wales in 2016. It was  found as a breeding female in the Lune valley  this year ,a movement of 275 km

John