Bearded Tits End of Term Report

It has been a very successful season for our Bearded Tit Study at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve.




Breeding Population and Survival
The breeding population increased from 18 pairs in 2008 to 26 pairs this year.In total we re-trapped or sighted 27 adult males and 18 adult females. Suggesting a small surplus of males. Females appear to be harder to catch than males. Survival of adults from 2008 was extremely good with a survival rate of at least 73% - one of the best rates to date. Survival of 2008 young was also good at 59%

Productivity
This was excellent with 103 fledged young ringed - the best number since the population crash in the 2000-2001 winter.One unusual feature was the catching of 2 birds still in juvenile plumage as late as October 17th. Suggesting a very protracted breeding season.

Re-traps and Grit Tray Sightings
We recorded a total of 323 re-traps and no less that 337 sightings of colour ringed birds. Previous postings have detailed the grit tray sightings. The only addition is that a few birds have continued to visit the grit trays in January, the first time we have recorded them so late in the season. The birds appear to have survived the cold spell well, there were 9 birds around the tray on Sunday.


John Wilson

Historic colour ring sightings

This appears to be turning into a colour ring sighting blog! Recently I have been asked to trace some old sightings of birds from Seaforth. One stands out as worth posting on a blog. A colour ringed Turnstone was seen at Seaforth on the 24th August 2001. After 3061 days of the record being unresolved the Turnstone history was resolved - it was ring just 24 days before in Alert, Canada (82 degrees North).

As always I'm always happy to try and sort out unresolved sight records of waders in the area.

Many thanks to Steve White and Guy Morrison for the details of this bird.

Richard

Colour ringed little egret

This summer and autumn 2 colour ringed Little Egrets were seen in the area. The first one was ringed in Kent in 2003 and not seen until it appeared in the North West. This equally the longevity for a British ringed Little Egret.

Shortly afterwards another bird (Green F, Yellow T) was seen at Leighton Moss between August and October 2009. This bird was ringed in Gwent in 2008 and represents the second colour ringed Little Egret for the area.

Slightly further south on the Ribble Estuary a 3rd colour ringed bird appeared in October which was ringed near Bangor in June 2009 as a chick.

All these sightings show a Northerly movement of Little Egret however interestingly these are of birds that are 6, 2 and 1 year old. For most species rapidly expanding their range it can be expected that the major movement is in the first year with them settling in an area within the first winter. As Leighton Moss is so well watched I very much doubt these birds have been around locally in any previous autumn/winter.

Many thanks to the Richard Hearn for the details of these birds.

Recent wader colour ring sightings

Over the last few weeks there have been several sightings of colour ringed birds. These include:

2 Knot ringed in Norway. Both had a yellow flag with 3 black letters. They were ringed in spring passage near Porsanger in Northern Norway
A total of 12 knot from the Waddensea have been seen at Heysham, Morecambe and Hest bank. Some have colourful life histories including one bird having been seen in the bay 3 years running with additional sightings in Norway.
1 Ringed Plover from Snettisham (Norfolk) which has been seen at Heysham for 3 winters running and also seen on its breeding ground every summer between.
1 Black tailed godwit is dominating the colour ring sightings in the area. Originally ringed in the UK at as yet unknown location was colour ringed in Iceland in May 2009. Since then it has been seen at Leighton Moss, on the Dee and various other sites in eastern side of Morecambe bay.

Many thanks to Tony Riden, John Wood and Pete Marsh for the sightings of Knot, Ringed plover and black tailed godwit. Also thanks to Jim Wilson for details of the Knot from Norway, NIOZ for the details of Dutch ringed birds and Pete Potts/Farlington Ringing Group for details of the Godwit.

As always sightings of colour ringed birds are hugely valuable for understanding the importance of the area for many species of birds.

Richard

Ground Breaking Recoveries

The recently published Ringing Report for 2008 contains five of the Groups recoveries as follows.
Knot
CK97769 5 27.1.2001 Heysham
Controlled 12.5.2008 Parque Natural Bahia (Cadiz) Spain1967 km S
Only the 5th British ringed Knot in Spain.

Swallow
P312986 3 13.8.2007 Gressingham
Long Dead 21.7.2008 Ihla de Deserta Grande Maderia 2641 km SSW
The first British ringed Swallow from Maderia, where Swallows are vagrants.

Twite
V465735 3F 23.12.2007 Walsberswick (Suffolk)
Controlled 5.11.2008 Heysham 360 km WNW
One of a very few records of a Twite to visit both the west and east coasts.

Reed Bunting
X227181 3F 8.10.2008 Leighton
Controlled 3.11.2008 Broxton (Cheshire) 123 km S
One of a very few Reed Buntings to move over 100km.

Bearded Tit
A new British longtevity record of seven years and 22 days. Now exceeded by a male this year of 7 years and 92 days.
John Wilson.

True Grit (3)

The Bearded Tit gritting season is just about over for another year. Thanks to all who sent in colour ring sightings especially Keith Kellet who spent many hours watching the trays.
In total 79 different birds were recorded between September 11th and December 19th. (Although this does not include at least 2 un-ringed birds.) The table below gives the number of days that birds were sighted. Of course these are minimum figures as the trays were not watched all the time. Although numbers only visited once or twice a lot paid multiple visits to the trays with an adult making the record 14 visits. Interestingly four of the birds which gritted early in September came back in December presumably to top up their grit supplies. The same pattern of previous years was repeated this year with adults coming early in the period and birds of the year somewhat later. Also very noticeable how pairs visited together. Bearded Tits form pairs shortly after fledging and seem to remain faithful through to the next breeding season if they both survive.

Number of Days Individual birds were Recorded on the Grit Trays 2009

No of Days Sighted Adult Juvenile
1 7 16
2 3 12
3 3 7
4 1 4
5 1 1
6 3 5
7 2 1
8 2 3
9 1 4
10 1
11 1
14 1
Total 24 55

North Harbour Wall Twite

The first autumn passage/wintering birds appeared quite early this year, on 15th October. Since then up to a maximum of c70 have been frequenting the feeding site interspersed with periods elsewhere, probably Ocean Edge foreshore, local salt marshes to the south and the Lune Estuary.

Catching them this year has seemed rather like planning a small war (although I have never actually planned a war, big or small). The feeding site is rather public and the birds cannot be relied upon to be there at specific times, although they do seem to be more reliable around high tide - presumably there is less salt marsh area to forage on at this time - although they can be around at any time of the day. The day also needs to be dry (wet whoosh nets and small birds do not go together well) and not too windy.

Unfortunately, high tide during the morning/midday plus decent weather also attracts other less welcome visitors such as unruly dogs being walked, noisy fishermen, ship watchers, birders, walkers and motor bikes etc. etc. Of course, all these people have just as much right to be there as me but it can make things frustrating!

However, 5 catches have been achieved to date, the first on 28th October. In all 89 new birds have been ringed and colour marked, approximately 40 different birds retrapped (5 from spring 2009, 14 from autumn 2008 & 21 from the current period) and 2 controls caught. These last were one bird ringed on the Duddon Estuary on 15/12/2008, and one possibly ringed on Birkdale Beach (this yet to be confirmed).

(ajd)