Portland Bird Observatory Visit, 18-27 August

As part of broadening my ringing experience, I visited Portland Bird Observatory in Dorset for just
over a week this August, hoping to catch part of the autumn migration.

The Observatory is situated in the Old Lower Light near Portland Bill, providing accommodation for
up to 24 guests to monitor birds in the area. Since its inception in 1961, over 250,000 birds have
been ringed at Portland Bird Observatory.

My visit began at the tail end of a storm, limiting ringing opportunities for the first day. The
weather then settled down and warmed up for the rest of the week, bringing in some migrants.
The main species ringed were Goldfinch, Willow Warbler, and Sedge Warbler. I was introduced to
some new species for me to ring, such as Stonechat, Grey Wagtail, Grasshopper Warbler, Spotted
Flycatcher, and Wheatear. On the Monday, a Melodious Warbler was caught in the net, giving me a
great opportunity to ring this rare bird. It remained in the area, when it was later re-trapped on the
Tuesday and Saturday.

By setting various tapes, we managed to target Swallows, Sand Martins and Tree Pipits in the fields. Efforts were made to spring trap Rock Pipits as part of a colour ringing project, but with no success while I was there.

Moth-trapping is a daily occurrence at the Observatory. I had never engaged with it before, but was
helped by many knowledgeable people to get to grips with the common species. I have been
inspired to continue this activity and expand my knowledge in the future.

Many thanks to Martin, Jodie and Mark for being so welcoming and helpful throughout my stay.

Joshua

Stonechat

Melodious Warbler

Grey Wagtail

Wheatear

 

 

Skylarks NR – Monday 28 August

At last a day offering good mist-netting weather, unfortunately it proved to be of no help in producing a good catch. Last year at this site on this day, with the same nets, we caught 83 birds including 20 Blackcap, 20 Chiffchaff and 15 Reed Warblers along with 22 resident species. Can’t be sure about recent low catches here and elsewhere, but along with degrading habitat I think it has been a terrible breeding season, at least locally. Today we had a catch of just 22 birds including just 4 Blackcaps, 8 Chiffchaffs, 1 Reed Warbler and just 5 resident species. Based on recent catches the coming winter looks as though it may be difficult to catch many resident species at our sites.

Kev

Isle of May, 12-20 August

Myself and Kev B were lucky to have the opportunity to visit the Isle of May this year, alongside Frank and Shelagh from Watchtree Ringing Group, Mike from Carlisle and Bob from Durham.

The Isle of May is a National Nature Reserve and the UK’s second oldest Bird Observatory, situated in the mouth of the Firth of Forth, Scotland. Teams of up to six ringers, birdwatchers and other naturalists are able to stay at the ‘Low Light’ for week-long periods to monitor the flora and fauna. It’s perfectly situated to track Autumn migration from Scotland and Scandinavia.

The start of the week was mostly warm and sunny, and we caught a small but steady stream of Willow Warblers using mist nets and Heligoland traps. Juvenile Puffins and Lesser Black-Backed Gulls were caught by hand while still flightless. The previous group mentioned that there had been 3 Short-eared Owls, so we tried to catch these at dusk, succeeding on the third attempt. At night, we aimed to catch some of the island's newly discovered breeding Storm Petrels.

The second half of the week took a turn as Storm Betty hit the mainland with easterly winds gusting over 35mph, putting a stop to much of our ringing efforts. We received news that we’d be stuck on the island an extra day. As luck would have it, the easterlies had pushed early migrating birds out over the North Sea and on the morning of the final day the mainland was obscured by thick sea mist, making the Isle of May the first and only landfall for any birds caught by the wind. We had Pied Flycatchers with 18 ringed, mixed with Tree Pipit, Redstart, Red-Backed Strike, Icterine Warbler and Barred Warbler. Our extra day stuck on the island turned out to be the best!

Thanks to Mike for organising the trip, and the warden David Steele for bringing us tea and milk when we’d run out. 

Holly

 

Ramsdale Park Golf Club - Sunday 20 August

We have been trying to run a session here for a while but as access is difficult during the week and every weekend seems to have been breezy, we had not managed it. So with a potential gap in the wind and rain we got there on Sunday, the wind was stronger than forecast but we put up all the usual nets and had 5 mp3 lures playing: three playing warblers, one Linnet and one Tree Pipit (August being peak passage month for Tree Pipit). Overall the site was quiet and although we caught more warblers than other species the numbers were generally low with only 4 Blackcaps in the 44 birds we finished on. The same weekend last year we had 13 Blackcaps in the catch. The other mp3s were successful, one producing a single male Linnet in the middle of its main moult and the other 3 Tree Pipits. It is unusual to get a Tree Pipit in any year so to get 3 on one day was nice.

Kev

Linnet (KJH)

Tree Pipit (KJH)

 

Skylarks NR - Sunday 13 August

Hopeful of a better catch today with the forecast dry and not too breezy, but as usual these days the forecast was wrong. It rained twice during the morning, the worst just as we were going to take down, so the nets were quickly closed but still got soaked! The catch was marginally better at 48, but Blackcaps still seem to be lower in numbers than previous years, we caught 11 today. The only bird of note today was a Willow Warbler with a greyish tinge, particularly on it’s wings (see photo).

Kev

 

Skylarks NR - Saturday 6 August

A pretty slow day ringing at HPP, only 35 individuals caught during the session. A rare visitor to the nets, a Sparrowhawk, quickly ringed and released but not before he got last laugh by drawing blood with a well placed talon. The slow morning left lots of down time to eat this session's baked goods - pumpkin loaf.

Jake

 

Skylarks NR, Tuesday 1 August

Any break in the weather is worth an attempt to put a net up at the moment, so three of us had a
mid-week session at Skylarks this morning. We caught a total of 49 birds, with a nice mix of
warblers - Blackcap, Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler, Reed Warbler, Garden Warbler, Chiffchaff and
Willow Warbler.

We didn’t retrap any of the 150+ birds ringed on recent site visits, which just goes to show how
birds are constantly moving through the site.

Pictured is a Blackbird undergoing an irregular moult in the right wing. Primary 10 is old, it has replaced primaries 9-5 and started moulting its secondaries.

Holly