Israel, Part 5 - peckers, mines & kites

A few more pics from the Israel trip - 4 Syrian Woodpeckers, an interesting welcome sign at one of the ringing sites and a small section of an enormous Black Kite roost.
Gary

Ringing Demo at Attenborough Migration Day

Notts Wildlife Trust put on a migration day once a year at Attenborough and various activities are on offer including us doing a ringing demonstration.

Well, we did our bit, though not sure the birds did. More of a Waiting Demo really. We put up a single 40' net a little way beyond the feeders behind the Visitors' Centre and quickly caught a handful of Tree Sparrows and the people present at the time were very appreciative. However, it kept trying to rain, the wind got steadily stronger and the net caught an increasing number of leaves and a decreasing number of birds.

You can imagine how we felt when the inevitable text came through from Kev in Spain, listing some of the things they were catching... Bluethroats, Zitting Cisticolas, Penduline Tits, Subalpine Warblers...

Anyway, by 3pm the wind was just too strong and we threw in the towel. The first Redwings are in though and Gary reported very strong passage throughout the night last night. I had both Redwing and House Martin in the sky simultaneously at breakfast this morning which was an unusual sight.

Pete

Israel, Part 4 - Where's Wally?

Quite a few Grey Herons here. But can you find the Little Egret? Or the Spur-winged Plovers, Garganey or even terrapins? (Click to enlarge pic)
Gary

Israel, Part 3 - shrikes

Here are three species of shrike we caught in Israel - all juveniles, starting with Red-backed, then Lesser Grey and lastly Masked.
Gary

Strange Goldfinch

This bird was a normal Goldfinch in many respects (size, song and markings) but it was an extremely dull bird, the yellow on the primaries was washed out and hardly discernable as yellow and on the greater coverts it was more of a dull orange/buff. Where the crown should be red this was showing greenish-yellow. I released it without ringing it.
Mick

Looks like it is perhaps slightly leucistic or there is some similar sort of problem with the pigment cells. Could be a natural defect or possibly due to breeding and thus would imply bird is of captive origin. Anyone else care to comment?
Pete

Israel, Part 2 - Kingfishers

Some kingfishers from our trip to Israel - White-breasted or Smyrna first, then Pied and a pair of Commons helping with data entry at the bottom.
Gary

Hucknall's hundredth!

Today, 5/10/09, I ringed the 100th in my small garden. The lucky bird, wearing ring X717871, was a 3J (F) T Goldfinch. I provisionally sexed it as a female on its wing length of 76mm and the brown edges to its lesser coverts. There was not enough red on its head yet to use as an indication of its sex. It was moulting its tertials and had 2 OGCs (see photo).Goldfinches have been the predominant bird in the garden. Since 23/8/09 I have ringed 51. Of these:
- 39 were juveniles, 10 undergoing tertial moult
- 12 were adults, 9 undergoing primary moult
Of the ones I have sexed, including provisionally, 9 were males and 8 females.

Suprisingly (to me anyway) I have not retrapped any of them. The only birds I have caught more than once have been a Robin, a Dunnock and a Coal Tit.

Other birds caught today were 6 more Goldfinches, 2 Blue Tits, 2 House Sparrows, 1 Greenfinch and another new bird for the garden, a Chaffinch.

Mick

Holme Pierrepont - Sun 4 Oct

It was with a little trepidation that we ventured out this morning after yesterday's howling gales, but the clouds had cleared overnight and the wind was not much more than a gentle breeze. What's more, it was a bit parky.

We put up only 12 nets but caught better than predicted with 38 birds in about 4 hours before the wind got up, the sun warmed up and the birds dried up. 3 Chiffchaffs, 2 Reed Warblers and a single Blackcap were the only warblers and Reed Buntings were most numerous with 7. For anyone following the recent discussions on the ringers' forum, this was quite timely and it gave us a chance to scrutinise the various aging criteria for this tricky species.

Amongst the things we've looked at are:
- tail shape (usually narrower, more pointed and more abraded in young birds - though beware young birds that have moulted some or all of their tail)
- primary covert colour and shape (see below)
- primary tips (young birds more abraded and slightly paler)
- moult limits in young birds in tertials and alula
- eye colour (seemingly richer more orangey brown in adults and slightly colder brown in young birds - this is the most difficult though and we need to try using hand lenses and practise a lot!)

Below are some pictures of primary coverts which are perhaps one of the easier things to see. Adults (first two pics) have crisper, cleaner edges to the feathers with more rounded tips. The fringe is brown, but greyer at the tip. Note these were taken in rather different light conditions.
Then those of young birds are more pointed with looser edges and there is little or no grey in the fringe.
To make this difference even easier to see, I've zoomed in even closer for the next two pics so you can appreciate the individual barbs! Again, adult first, youngster second.
Having said all that, we still caught a bird that was somewhere in between and we ended up aging it as a 2. As Richard de Feu said to me the other day - it's better to be accurately imprecise than precisely inaccurate.

Insect numbers are dwindling, with the exception of hornets. We know it's a good site for these impressive beasts as we occasionally catch one or two in the nets. However, we caught 12 of the blighters today and it was as if there was some sort of convention. Fortunately for (some of) the hornets, we managed to remove about half of them safely. Fortunately for us we all remained unstung.

A single Red Admiral was the only butterfly noted. The water levels continue to plummet and we haven't had decent rain for weeks now.

Back from Israel

Just back from a great trip with nearly 500 birds ringed of 50 species. More to follow, but here are some pics as a taster.
Gary

Juv Little Bittern

Wryneck

Pygmy Cormorant

Bumper net round!

I suppose that's a bit of an overstatement, but 5 birds in one net round in my garden is my best yet. I guess calling it a net "round" is also a bit of an overstatement as I seem to be watching the net constantly, have to resist the urge to dash out as soon as a bird goes in it and then have to walk about 20 feet to get to the net. Anyway, 5 birds, all goldfinches and a couple of photos showing different age tails, some OGCs and of course 5 birdbags in a row. Keep 'em coming!!

Mick

Holme Pierrepont - Sat 26 Sept

It was a good start to the day - a young male Sparrowhawk was one of the first birds in the nets and as usual it was a great crowd-pleaser. The weather was pretty kind to us again today. Despite forecasts of blazing sun it remained overcast and with only the lightest breath of wind. As seems to have been the pattern over the last few years it has been a gorgeous September but there's no escaping the fact that the migrants are dwindling. Of our total of 64 birds, just under half were migrant warblers, all except two were Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs. Single late Reed and Willow Warblers were nice and you can test your Phylloscopus ID skills on the pic below. Answer further down...
Of course there's no need to guess in the hand, particularly once you've inspected the wing formulae and these two were fairly typical individuals, even if the photo doesn't make it particularly easy to appreciate the overall shapes of the wings. Willows have longer, more pointed wings for migrating further (many reach South Africa) and Chiffs have shorter, rounder wings (don't cross the equator and often don't even leave Europe). Click on the picture to see a larger version.
Despite the attention to detail, once you've handled a few you can tell the difference fairly easily from an overall impression that seems to take into account a large number of different subtle features. On the pic below, look on the left at the Chiffchaff's slightly smaller, darker bill, more rounded head and less distinct supercilium which turns buff behind the eye and compare with the Willow on the right. On the first photo these features are not quite so obvious - and the birds are the other way round!
A few more Long-tailed Tits appeared today in amongst the resident birds that are making up an increasing proportion of the catch. Wildfowl and Meadow Pipits were obvious again, the former being flushed by a hot air balloon. The only hirundines today were 4 Swallows. The odd butterfly appeared (mostly Speckled Wood) and both Common Darter and Migrant Hawker emerged with the sun around midday. This is a Migrant Hawker - a female I think.
Lastly, as we made our way out we came across this beauty:
It's a Shaggy Ink Cap Coprinus comatus. So called because there is a smooth common species and as it releases its spores, the gills rapidly deliquesce into black fluid. Eventually the whole cap melts away, leaving just a spindly white stem. If you're feeling adventurous, it is edible.

Pete

Parky learns about SNRG!

The other day, Nottingham Trent Chancellor - Sir Michael Parky - visited the Brackenhurst campus and was given a quick introduction to bird ringing by our very own Andrew Whitelee. Unfortunately Andrew was too busy with his duties to get any pics, so I took the liberty of mocking one up to give a flavour of the occasion...

P.S.

A quick addition to last week's sightings at Holme Pierrepont - Michael was lucky enough to see a large Grass Snake on the path when he walked back!

Shiants 2010

There can't be many readers of this blog who are still unaware of the record-breaking Puffins found on the Shiants Isles this summer. Jim will be running a trip again next year and SNRG members are welcome to join up. Dates will be 19 June to 3 July. If you are interested or want to know more, contact Jim.

Mick's garden

Pete asked me the other day what bird I would like to catch next in my garden. Because bird numbers had dropped off and it had been pretty quiet I said that I would be happy with anything.
Later, after giving it more thought I decided that of the regular birds a starling would be good. We occasionally get flocks of about 20 rampaging through.
Imagine my suprise when on Sunday morning I found this in my net. Yes, a starling! (And a nice easy one to age with plenty of brown juvenile plumage left!)
Mick