Up The Wenning

Today I had the pleasure of working on a farm that borders the River Wenning in the area of the beautiful Lune valley. The weather was perhaps what you would say a little mixed; sunshine and showers.

The River Wenning

As I walked down towards the river I noticed a few Swifts feeding above the yard buildings and then when I got down to the river there was a good 20 hawking insects above the woodland. Presumably the damp low cloud conditions had brought some aerial insects down to low levels. Further downstream I had another eleven Swifts brinigng my total for the farm to 35.

The large barn in this particular yard is full of holes and crevices in the walls and under the eaves and consequently full of House Sparrows. I don't know how many pairs nest in this barn, but there is a fair few. Walking around the fields and heading towards the river I noticed at least three pairs of Lapwings and two pairs of Oystercatchers on territory, with the Lapwings favouring the bare re-seeded fields. However, when walking back across a field with good grass cover, longer than I expected a Lapwing would choose, I came across the nest with four eggs below. All were warm and obviously being successfully brooded by the female. When the pair of Lapwings selected this nest site the sward height would of course been a lot less.

 Lapwing nest and eggs

Along the river were Sand Martins, Dippers and Reed Bunting. In a re-seeded field next to the river I noticed four small waders running around and displaying to one another next to a small flood. I lifted my bins and could see they were four Little Ringed Plovers. What took me by surpsise was the fact that they were in a re-seeded field, although it was fairly bare with just the first signs of grass growth. The water levels on the river were quite high and this may have pushed them off their more favoured shingle beds.

Heading back to the yard a flock of 18 Linnets lifted from the newly re-seeded field, presumably feeding on seeds that had yet to germinate. On my way back I called for a coffee in the cafe/post office at Dunsop Bridge (the exact geographic centre of Great Britain) and noticed at least 10-15 Swifts feeding above the buildings adjacent to the River Hodder. 

Reed Bunting To South Wales

Amongst another bunch of recoveries from the BTO were details of one our Reed Buntings that I ringed at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park (reedbed site) on 14th July 2012 that was controlled (caught by another ringer) at Kenfig Pool, Bridgend, South Wales on 2nd March 2013. See Google Earth image below.

On the morning in question we trapped and ringed four juvenile Reed Buntings together that I assumed were all from the same brood. And as luck would have it I have a picture of this bird, or it's brother/sister, as I ringed two out of the four birds. See below.

This bird travelled a distance of 270 km SSW to presumably spend the winter in South Wales. Of course it could have gone further and been trapped on it's way back north again. However, it is likely to have wintered at Kenfig as it is classic Reed Bunting habitat. In fact we have had a number of our birds controlled at Kenfig in the past, primarily Reed Warblers. 

The Migration Atlas states that an analysis of movement distances between summer and winter was carried out by Prys-Jones (1977, 1984) and that 53% of movements between the breeding season and winter were of more than 20 km and 32% were greater than 50 km. The relatively small numbers of movements exceeding 50 km predominantly resulted in birds wintering in a southerly or southwesterly direction from their breeding grounds (Wernham 2002). This fits in exactly with our bird as well.

Kestrel To Somerset

Amongst the batch of recoveries we received from the BTO recently was details of a Kestrel that we had ringed at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire as part of a brood of four on 7th June 2012. This bird had then travelled 281 km south to Felton in North Somerset and had unfortunately got itself tangled by it's wing in a building and very sadly starved to death. See Google Earth image below.

The Migration Atlas states that young Kestrels disperse from the nest from July onwards. Although most recoveries at this stage are within a few tens of kilometres of the birthplace (70% within 75 km), some are from much further afield. This movement away from the nest seems to be in random directions and some birds move very quickly (Wernham 2002).

This Kestrel certainly dispersed quite a distance and what we can't tell from the recovery details was whether it had travelled further and was it heading north again to Lancashire when it sadly died. From our own experience of ringing Kestrel chicks I can agree with the statement that they disperse in random directions as we have had birds dispersing north across Morecambe Bay as well. 

Below is a picture of Ian ringing one of this brood of four and this could well be the bird that had a short but adventurous life!

Empty Boxes

Yesterday Gail and I made the first visit to my Pied Flycatcher boxes in the Hodder Valley and the outcome was somewhat interesting!

There were two factors that were very obvious and a little alarming and these were the number of empty boxes, 16 out of 39, and the number of incomplete Tit nests. Out of 39 boxes this is what we found:

- Empty - 16
- Incomplete Tit nest - 6
- Great Tit; clutch incomplete - 3
- Pied Flycatcher; clutch incomplete - 6
- Great Tit; female incubating - 3
- Incomplete Pied Flycatcher nest - 3
- Blue Tit; clutch incomplete - 1
- Nuthatch; female incubating - 1

This is what we found on the 12th May last year; the exact same date:

- Empty - 8 (out of 38 boxes)
- Incomplete Tit nest - 6
- Great Tit; clutch incomplete - 2
- Pied Flycatcher; clutch incomplete - 3
- Great Tit; female incubating - 4
- Incomplete Pied Flycatcher nest - 5
- Pied Flycatcher; female incubating - 1
- Blue Tit; clutch incomplete - 2
- Blue Tit; female sitting - 6
- Nuthatch - 8 small young

Although this is just a comparison between the last two years it is nevertheless interesting to look at the details. Pied Flycatchers are occupying the boxes at the same number but at a different stage to last year. At this time last year based on the above I would say that there were 4 definite pairs of Pied Flycatchers (incomplete clutches + female incubating) and this year 6 (incomplete clutches). This could be a case of a slight increase in Pied Flycatcher numbers taking advantage of the increase in empty boxes this year; 16 this year, compared to 8 last year.

So why all the empty boxes this year and which species hasn't taken them up. Looking again at the above there is a distinct lack of Blue Tits. If we total up the boxes where there was some type of Blue Tit activity in a box this year and last year this equates to 8 in 2012 and just 1 this year. However, there are 6 boxes with incomplete Tit nests in this year and these may turn out to be Blue Tits, in which case numbers would be very similar to last year, but just a little later. Great Tit activity is similar to last year, so it will be interesting to see how the Blue Tits get on. It might be that they have started later to time the hatching of their young with those of canopy feeding moth caterpillars, so crucial for a number of woodland bird species survival. All interesting stuff!

 Above & below - this box obviously started out being used by 

Nuthatches (mud inside box & below lid) before being taken over by 

Pied Flycatchers

 

 The actual box the Nuthatches were using

Female Great Tit incubating

Walking through the woodland checking the boxes we had several singing Warbler species including two Goldcrests, three Blackcaps, three Willow Warblers and a Garden Warbler. Other species recorded included a female Goosander on the river, 20 Siskins, a Jay and a Treecreeper.

Belated April Rinigng Totals

As per usual over on the right I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group and up until the end of April we have ringed 902 birds of 44 species. In fact April was a good month and our total was 408 birds which is very respectable.

New species ringed for the year during April were a Sparrowhawk, four Tree Pipits, six Wheatears, a Cetti's Warbler, two Sedge Warblers, a Reed Warbler, three Lesser Whitethroats, five Whitethroats, a Garden Warbler, nine Blackcaps, 34 Chiffchaffs, 105 Willow Warblers and 36 Lesser Redpolls.

The top five species ringed during April were:

1. Willow Warbler - 105
2. Meadow Pipit - 56
3. Goldcrest - 45
4. Goldfinch - 38
5. Lesser Redpoll - 36

The top ten 'movers and shakers' for the month were as follows:

1. Chaffinch - 34 (same position)
2. Goldfinch - 111 (same position)
3. Willow Warbler - 105 (straight in)
4. Meadow Pipit - 56 (straight in)
5. Brambling - 55 (down from 3rd)
    Reed Bunting - 55 (down from 4th)
7. Goldcrest - 48 (straight in)
8. Great Tit - 37 (down from 5th)
9. Lesser Redpoll - 36 (straight in)
10. Chiffchaff - 34 (straight in)
      Blue Tit - 37 (down from 6th)

It's nice to see five species coming straight in to the year's top ten ringed so far. As we're nearly half way through May I can tell you that May started off okay, but it has quietened down a bit now because of the weather. Let's hope the weather picks up whilst there's still time to catch and ring migrating Acro's.

'Long-tailed' Lightning Doesn't Strike Twice

As I was heading up the Lune Valley yesterday morning to measure some hedges Ian phoned me to say he had had a Long-tailed Skua, three Poms and eight Arctics off the obs! I gave Ian an expletive laden congratulations and cursed the fact that I had to work this morning during classic conditions for Skua movement!

This morning at 0530 saw Ian and I sat on the beach with our backs against the sea wall, eyes glued to telescope eye-pieces staring out to sea. Unfortunately 'Long-tailed' lightning didn't strike twice and during the three hours that I slowly lost the feeling in my legs from my backside down, we didn't have a great deal. Sea passage included a dark morph Arctic Skua, 65 Common Scoters, 22 Gannets, a Bonxie, 42 Sandwich Terns, four Red-throated Divers, 15 Manx Shearwaters, a Kittiwake and two Auk sp.

There was some vis with Swallows moving west at first and then later northeast. The vis totals were 62 Swallows, two Meadow Pipits and three Swifts.

The highlight of morning, for sheer spectacle, was a stonking male Peregrine gave a fantastic display as it unsuccessfully chased and tried to catch a wader.

No seawatching for me tomorrow, in fact no birding at the obs, as Gail and I are checking my Pied Fly and Tree Sparrow boxes. What a treat for her!

The Wrong Decision?

We had two choices this morning; ring at the obs on the coast or head a little inland (half a mile) and try and catch some Acro's in the reedbed. We went for the latter, but regretted it after catching very little, but that's the beauty of hind sight I guess!

Huw, Ian and I met at 0445 but noted that it should have been 0430, ouch! We had 6 oktas high cloud with a 5-10 mph SSE wind. We put three nets in the willow scrub and reeds and waited expectantly. I must admit it 'felt' quiet as we were putting the nets up, but often it has felt quiet and we have caught well.

All we ringed were two Blackbirds and we recaptured two Reed Warblers from this site in 2011 and 2012. Interestingly the bird originally ringed in 2011 as a breeding male was not subsequently recaptured in 2012.

 Reed Warbler

It was very quiet on the birding front with the only vis being a single Redpoll, four Swallows and two Sand Martins. A good selection of warblers were singing including single Grasshopper Warbler, single Whitethroat and approximately four each of Reed and Sedge Warbler.

After our early finish I had a quick look in the cemetery and had a grounded Chiffchaff, two Willow Warblers and eight Lesser Redpolls. Eighteen Lesser Redpolls headed north in the short time I was there as well as six Swallows, a Swift, a Linnet and four Carrion Crows.

Back home I checked my moth trap and all I had were two Hebrew Characters, a Herald and a Common Quaker. The forecast is looking okay for some birding before work so I'll have my usual stagger around the obs.

Hebrew Character

 Herald