Improving the lamping technique...

This winter I've been out lamping on several occasions, with a few changes to techniques and equipment, only one bird has been 'missed' when lowering the net.

So far 3 Jack snipe have been ringed at a couple of sites near Poole Harbour, a Common Snipe and 6 Woodcock.

Sometimes on release, the birds can sit still long enough for a quick photo before taking off.

Mike G

Waders and chips

A good turn out of SRG members was needed at the site near the edge of Poole Harbour.
20 birds were ringed in total:

Jack Snipe 6

Woodcock 1

Snipe 6

Lapwing 4

Green Sand 1

Teal 2

A mid evening meal of fish and chips was required to warm everyone up, although we're not sure if it helped Shaun much!

This site is certainly an important wintering area for Jack Snipe, with 7 already ringed here this winter. 

Jack Snipe

Common Snipe and Jack Snipe comparison, although size difference isn't clear in this picture

Lapwing

Woodcock, which was lamped later on during the evening

Blog entry courtesy of Ian Lewis at - http://gryllosblog.wordpress.com/

We were invited to do a ringing demonstration for the Forage Festival at Arne RSPB on the 26th October. Paul and I prepared a 180 ft net ride for the occasion but bad weather reduced us to ringing with a 30ft net in the lee of the visitor centre. With still and sunny conditions today we obtained permission to return and investigate the practicality of ringing at our original site.
As expected most of the birds ringed were tits, Robins, Dunnocks and Blackbirds. However a couple of larger birds provided a big surprise!

This first year Magpie was caught at dawn

Later Shaun returned from a net round with this Buzzard ! I have only seen an adult Buzzard in the hand once before, in Israel in 1986 and this was a first for the others.

There was no sign of immaturity what so ever and the bird was given an age code of 8 meaning it was hatched in 2010 or before.

The chance of a standard mist net holding as big a bird as a Buzzard is rather slim. No wonder Shaun looks so smug.

This penetrating stare was probably the last thing that many a rabbit saw.

Yellow and Fire

A slow morning pleasantly ticked over with guest ringer Mick Netherwood joining us for a session at Durlston.
Mick N is no stranger to the area as he Mick C used to visit regularly throughout the 1980's and 90's - ringing with the group further up the coast at the renowned Chapman's Pool.

This morning he seemed to serve as a lucky charm as although we didn't catch a great deal on quantity we more than made up for this with superb quality.

First to come out of the new picnic ride was a fantastic Firecrest. First of the autumn for Durlston, so always nice to see.

The pointed, tipped outer tail feathers and deep orange feathers within the crest identified this Firecrest as a 1st calender year male

This was shortly followed by Gryllo popping back from the same net ride half and hour later and calling us all over to make wild guesses for what he had in his bag.
To our delight i safely pulled a Yellow-browed Warbler out of the bag!
Although this species is a fairly regular visitor to Durlston, this was the first one ringed and not before time judging by the number seen throughout the country this autumn.

The long awaited Yellow-browed Warbler

The rest of the morning's totals were made up of Goldfinch, Robin, Dunnock and Wren.
Whilst general birding included Goldcrest, Firecrest, Redwing, Starling, Redpoll, Goldfinch, Brambling, Siskin, Linnet, Meadow Pipit, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel.


Throughout the later part of October the group continued to ring at Durlston, catching the usual fare of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Swallow and Goldfinch that made up the majority of mornings - the later two species have been particularly numerous, such as on on 15th October when a day total of 227 was reached.

Posted by Simon Breeze

A brief analysis of Grasshopper Warblers ringed at Lytchett Bay 2004 - 2013

Ringing has occurred every summer in the reed beds around the north-west shore of Lytchett Bay since 2004.

Grasshopper Warbler is an uncommon migrant and rare summer visitor to Dorset. However its perceived occurrence on autumn migration is strongly influenced by a combination of its habitat choice and unobtrusive behaviour. It is generally silent and remains hidden in dense vegetation or long grass.

126 Grasshopper Warblers were ringed between 20^th July and 2^nd October during the ten year period. In the same period there have only been 5 field sightings.

The annual distribution is shown in Fig 1

 Over the period the ringing method has remained largely unchanged, though the number and location of nets have varied to a small degree. The song of Grasshopper Warbler is played via a cassette and speakers, on a mixed tape with Aquatic Warbler song, from 45 minutes before dawn until 08:00.

Ringing was undertaken on 134 dates between 20^th July and 31^st August over 10 years, the peak migration period for Grasshopper Warblers. At least one bird this species was ringed on 54 dates (40.3%). In addition ringing occurred on 33 occasions in September. At least one bird was ringed on 7 dates (21.2%). 1 Grasshopper Warbler was caught in Oct, on the 2^nd in 2010.

The pattern of occurrence between the 20^th July and 4^th October is shown in Fig 2

Only one of the Grasshopper Warblers ringed at Lytchett Bay has been recovered. A first year bird ringed on 29^th Aug 2007 was taken by a cat 47 days later in Staplehurst, Kent on 15^th October. A surprisingly late date for a bird of this species to be in Britain.

Typical of migrant passerines ringed in autumn, the majority of birds trapped were first years. Only 7 (5.5%) were adults.

Birds move on from the area quickly. Only 2 birds have been recaptured on a subsequent date following ringing.

Shaun Robson

October 2013

A week of autumnal change

Four ringing sessions took place this week at Durlston NNR with a distinct change noted, not only in the weather but in the switch to late autumn birds.
The week began with fairly mild conditions and the recent trend continued of  ringing totals of around 100 birds -  mainly made up of Chiffchaff and Blackcap with the former making up the majority.
Then a session on Thursday saw a drop in numbers with only 23 new birds ringed.
Fast forward to Sunday and a weekend of unsettled weather, fall in temperature and the skies saw a increase in finches and thrushes.
This mornings total bumped up to 54 with the finch arrival noteworthy including 4 species of finch with Lesser Redpoll and Linnet both new for the year.

A warm and glowing sunrise greeted us on Wednesday morning

A lesser Redpoll is new for the year and attractive bird that we are always pleased to see

Several flocks of Goldfinches passed over this morning with 25 lured down 25 ringed

 

 Over at Lytchett bay Sean undertook a quiet ringing session with 8 new birds ringed with Cetti's Warbler being the highlight.

Posted By Simon Breeze

Larking around at the Dortset Bird Fair ringing demo

The weekend started with a ringing demonstration which attracted over 30 people all curious to come and look at how migrant birds are ringed, aged, weighed and measured and safely released to continue their journey on to their winter residence. Whenever we hold a ringing demonstration we always remind visitors that the welfare of the birds is of paramount importance and without the data gathered from this scientific and enjoyable pastime we would literally reduce our detailed knowledge of birds and their movements and behaviour by a considerable amount.



The usual flow of October migrants continued throughout the morning with Chiff and Blackcap being the most common. 145 and 31 respectively.

Highlight of the morning came just before the group packed away with 2 Woodlark.

Swallows on the move

Mick, Ian and Simon had another busy morning at Durlston, although not for the first three hours when we just ticked over.

 

There was a huge passage of Swallows and a substantial one of Meadow Pipits which were mainly all passing through fairly fast and staying high.

Sample counts of 50 - 100 per minute just over the ringing station. Extrapolate this over the three hours from 7 - 10am when the passage was strongest and you get between  9 and 18,000 birds just over the highest part of Durlston alone.

The Swallows weren't interested in stopping around our nets but we still managed to ring 42.

 

Other than that between 500 and 1000 Meadow Pipits flew east along with a few Goldfinch.

Ringing highlights included a Grasshopper Warbler and a Reed Warbler and there was a notable influx of Blackcaps

 

Total ringed - 125

Chiff fall

Busy morning for Mick and myself at Durlston NNR
103 new birds with no retraps from just 3 nets caught within a fairly short time frame of 6.30-9.00

Conditions became fairly windy so we shut up the nets as soon as we emptied them. The wind didn't seem to affect the birds as they were heard and seen all around the surrounding vegetation for some time.
Loads of Meadow Pipits also passing over but as we needed to shut the nets to process what we had we didn't get the opportunity to catch and ring any

Totals included

Chiffchaff 79
Willow Warbler 3
Blackcap 18
Whitethroat 1
Robin 1
Wren 1

To date the annual race between newly ringed Chiffs and Willows stands in favour of the later with 622 Willows compared to 175 Chiffs. However as we can see from this mornings total Chiffs are now starting to dominate, so who knows what is yet to come.

Posted by Simon Breeze

A Bat, a Beetle and a Goatsucker

Last night (Tuesday) saw Terry and Catherine make yet another visit to Canford Heath where 2 more juveniles Nightjars were caught.



A classic Age 3 wing (a bird of this year)
The plumage being all fresh and the secondaries showing the lovely orange arrowheads at the tips.

A visit on Sunday 1st September also resulted in 1 juvenile, this is 6 juveniles in the last week, with much of the heath not having been covered, suggesting that Nightjars have fledged a good number of young and therefore 2013 being a pretty successful year. This is great news since the last two summers have been so dire, horrendous weather and major lack of insects would have certainly taken its toll on these mystical birds. A proper summer was certainly well and truly called for this year and a tonic for all I think.



A cracking Sunset over the heath

The night of the 1st also produced a Bat, which looked interesting as was not one of the commoner Bats, a look at the photos the next day identified it as a Bechsteins, a rare Bat indeed and a great record. In addition to this a Beetle was also discovered, that was obviously a Longhorn but was very large and not something we were familiar with. This too was not common, though not rare either, it is called a Tanner Beetle and from literature read, it suggests its confined to the southern part of the UK where it is local, it is the largest of the UK native Longhorn and also one of Europe's stoutest, great stuff and another good record for the heath.



Tanner Beetle (male) one of Europe's stoutest longhorns.

From the Wilds of the Heath to the bustle of a retail park.

Last Wednesday eve, saw one member venture up onto Canford heath in the hope of trapping some more Nightjars before their fast approaching departure. This turned out to be highly productive with three caught, with all being birds of the year and proving at least some breeding success on Canford, with the suggestion that the season has been a good one.



Nightjar - Age 3

This morning the group split with 4 members ringing at Durlston, where 33 birds were caught, the highlight being Grasshopper Warbler and Green Woodpecker.
Two others members went to the delightful site of Fleets Lane Corner (NOT), though this is proving to be quite a  interesting site with the migration corridor here being quite unexpected, though study of the surrounding landscape does shed some light as to why this site is so productive and the ringing here also shows the value of such green corridors.
This morning did not prove to be buzzing, though with just two of us present we scaled down activities. There was a nice spread of species caught though, 11 in total, this consisting of 7 species of Warbler, Willow Warbler being the most common.



Willow Warbler - Age 3
Showing the strong yellow on the face and breast of a young bird.

There was much to look at, with a few adult birds in full moult and young birds in post juvenile moult, such as the Blackcap below, which shows the brown cap of a juvenile being moulted and revealing the bird is going to be a male, since the new feathers coming through are clearly black in colour.

The morning finshed with a non-migrant being ringed and this one was always going to inflict a little pain, since they live their lives giving out stick.....it was a Magpie.


Magpie - Age 3
Aged as a 3 due to the extent of black on the tips of P1 & P2,
though the bird had an overall juv appearance, being dull and tatty as it was going through its post juvenile body moult.

A welcome arrival

Four of the crew ran another session at Lytchett Bay today, the winds had swung back round to the north west and so hopes of an Aquatic Warbler were somewhat lowered, however the arrival of the autumns first Grasshopper Warbler was a most welcome sight, since there had been a noticeable absence so far this season. So it was even more pleasing that the morning not only turned up a 2nd but also a 3rd.
With September just days away, this year is not looking likely to be a great one for this species, since in 2011 the first bird of the autumn arrived on the 27th July, this did prove to be a record autumn passage however, with 35 being recorded, the last being trapped on the 28th September.
All today's birds were aged 3 (born this year), all having fresh warm olive brown upper parts and throats tinged yellow, adult plumage in the autumn would be heavily worn and washed out.

The morning ended with 61 new birds of 9 species, with the expected Sedge and Reed Warblers being the most numerous but 2 Kingfishers (what stunning birds), 5 Willow Warblers, Blackcap, Whitethroat and Robin giving a nice little bit of variety.

Grasshopper Warblers - Age 3

Kingfisher - Age 3

Yesterday also saw a number of the group at Lycthett and there was great hope of an Aquatic Warbler with the winds and date being favourable for this species arriving on British shores. Although it was a good Morning with 72 ringed, mainly Reed warbler and Sedge warbler, there was no sign of any Aquatics. So it looks like last years tally of two, will not be repeated, since the winds have swung again and look likely to stay with a degree of westerly in them, beyond the main dates of passage for this species. The value of the mornings session was also lifted by two Sedge Warbler Controls, (controls being birds rung elsewhere) as it is this information that can add to knowledge already gained from the ringing scheme/tell us more about the movements of individual birds and their species, of which can also contribute to their conservation.

During the ringing session there were also some good birds to be seen with Osprey and Peregrine overhead.

Durlston yesterday

Mick, Mike and Gryllo put up five nets in the garden, plus later tried for Swallows with a 60ft next to the pond.

 

About 55 ringed between 0630 and 0945. A noticeable movement of Robins.

 

Redstart 2

Tree Pipit 2

Lesser Whitethroat 1

Common Whitethroat 10

Blackcap 3

Garden W 2

Willow W 12

Chiff 1

Swallow 9

Yellowhammer 1

Song Thrush 1

Robin 8

 

Plus a few tits, Blackbird, Wren, Dunnock etc

Age 3 Yellowhammer

Age 3 Redstart

Nightjar migration motorway

Simon and Mike ventured out to Woolgarston, near Corfe Castle last night for the first major attempt this year at ringing Nightjars at this site.

It still seems that the Chalk ridge could be a Nightjar migration motorway with four birds ringed and another perching on the pole. This brings the site total to 38 Nightjar.

Two of the evening's four Nightjar. All were Age 3 - hatched this year.

SRG out in full force

Today saw the three main ringing sites being manned by a collective of group members.
Although fairly quite it was great to see the group out in full force and catching a nice variety of birds.

Brief summaries of the mornings events are as follows:

Lytchett Bay

49 new birds inc 2 Kingfishers. 

Grasshopper Warblers are avoiding us this year. Still not a sniff of an easterly.

Birding was better with the fields looking in the best condition for birds that I have ever seen. Wood Sand was strutting around in the open, at least 4 Common Sand, 1 Whimbrel, 8 Green Sand, 5 Greenshank and 17 Little Egrets plus Snipe and Lapwings.

Durlston NNR

51 new birds with impressive numbers of Garden Warblers continuing (12).

2 Tree Pipit, 1 Redstart and 1 Lesser Whitethroat provided nice variety.

Others included:
Wren 1
Robin 1
Robin 1
Sedge Warbler 1
Whitethroat 5
Blackcap 2
Willow Warbler 24
Greenfinch 1

Well over 20 Tree Pipits passing through, with near misses of Sparrowhawk and Green Woodpecker

Fleets Corner

Update to follow

The vast majority of Garden Warblers seen at Durlston in autumn are 1st year birds, so it is always nice to see adults with their clearly defined worn and slightly bleached tertiaries and primary wing tips.

2 of the several Tree Pipits seen and heard at Durlston today. Note the buff, tipped edge to the coverts and tertiaries and overall fresh appearance.

Whilst doing a net round a flash of orange streaked in front of me and landed in the net pocket. No mistaking this beautiful Redstart.

A common breeding migrant to Durlston, Lesser Whitethroat usually hold onto a handful of territories across the reserve, with this year being a particularly good year. The dull olive, grey iris and lack of white on the tips of the 5th tail feather identified this as a young bird.

Wader surprise

Bob and Mike had a decent morning at Lytchett Bay last Saturday with over 70 birds ringed. These were mainly Sedge Warblers. The surprise of the morning came shortly after dawn when a Common Sandpiper was flushed into a small wader net that was erected in the slim hope of catching a Green sandpiper or two. Not complaining though, a lovely little wader!



 

Hopefully, there will be even more waders ringed at Lytchett this autumn/winter.

The fog succumbs all

Thick fog and strong winds hampered our efforts at Durlston NNR this morning.
Still lots of birds around up until yesterday with this mornings weather keeping wise wanderers hunkered down and away from the elements.

Things did however tick over throughout the morning with 27 new birds ringed.

Garden Warbler for most of the morning was the most dominant bird, until Willow Warbler eventually took over. Other birds included Goldfinch, Bullfinch, Blue Tit, Robin, Reed Warbler and , Whitethroat.

Interesting to see one Whitethroat showing true site fidelity. First retrapped on 2nd May this bird has now been retrapped 5 times - including this morning

Highlight of the morning however included a man calling for our attention , saying that he had found a 'Swallow' on the downland.
He then returned to his car and brought back a young Swift.

Presumably brought down by the change in weather, the bird returned home with me to recuperate along with several helpings of meal worms.
Seemingly stronger and brighter i released the bird this afternoon over the green in front of the house. It took to the air a little wonky but soon cruised off around the corner and wasn't seen again. Fingers crossed for its safe return to Africa.




Posted by Simon Breeze

Autumn migration is a GO melo GO

Blog courtesy of Gryllos blog
http://gryllosblog.wordpress.com/

Shaun and I met at 0600 at Durlston and as there were only two of us we only erected three nets. As on Saturday we were very busy from 0630 to 0730, then it tailed off quickly. Apart from the 76 Willow Warblers that we ringed, the most notable feature early on were the number of Garden Warblers (22 were in total, a new record for the site) and two Common Redstarts. By midday when I packed in we had ringed 117 birds
At 1030 I extracted a Melodious Warbler, this is a scarce but annual migrant in Dorset mainly in August, breeding as close as northern France. However nearly all Dorset records come from Portland and although I have seen several in the field I have never seen one in the hand. Unfortunately Shaun had to depart for work at 0930, so I was alone when it was trapped, but Hamish Murray was still in his office nearby and was able to get to see the bird.
Melodious Warblers belong to the genus Hippolais, members of which have typically wide based bills, square ended tails and short undertail coverts. Melodious is best told from its closest relative, Icterine Warbler, by the short primary projection, i.e the degree to which the primaries extend beyond the exposed tertials. Compared to the Willow Warbler that was trapped at the same time, it had a similar wing length of 66mm but was a larger, stockier bird with a much heavier bill.
This was certainly the highlight of my ringing this year, I just wish there had been another ringer present to enjoy it.

The plain face caused by the weak supercillium and pale lores, along with the stout, broad-based bill indicates a Hippolais warbler. The visible primary projection is only about half the length of the exposed tertials (equal in Icterine), with 7 primary tips showing. The tail projection beyond the tip of the primaries is at least twice the length of the exposed primaries (equal or less in Icterine) and the 1st primary extends well beyond the primary coverts (equal in length in Icterine).

Autumn migration is GO

Gryllo, Mick and Shaun made 4 trips to Durlston over the last week with the peak of birds quite bizarrely coinciding with a Bioblitz on Saturday 10th Aug - A total of 246 birds caught that day.

Heres what Gryllo had to say about the morning:

What an excellent morning.

 

Started well when Shaun and I saw a young Badger at the entrance to the park at 0530.

 

Fairly quiet for birds 0630 - 0730 when a massive wave of Willow Warblers meant we had to furl some nets. Managed to ring and release all by 0745 just in time for the public demo when numbers trapped returned to normal. Some 15 birds in the hand, of 7 species, were shown to the assembled group of about 20 visitors.

 

Also a good array of butterflies on the buddlia in the garden included many Painted Ladys and a Dark-green Fritillary.

 

The moth traps were interesting too, examined at 1000 when the ringing was quiet.

 

Totals

 

Tree Pipit 1

Swallow 3

Blue Tit 1

Great Tit 1

Dunnock 2

Wren 1

Common Redstart 1

Garden Warbler 1

Blackcap 1

Common Whitethroat 5

Sedge Warbler 10

Chiffchaff 2

Willow Warbler 211

Chaffinch 1

Greenfinch 2

 

Total 243 birds ringed of 15 species plus 1 retrap Willow Warbler from a couple of weeks ago.

Spring / Summer Roundup

With this spring/summer being rather quite for bird migration the groups numbers were down of previous years.
Members other commitments also reduced the totals but a brief summary of what SRG have been up to over the summer includes:

- Several Nightjar sessions around Wareham Forset, Canford Heath and Lytchett Bay.
 - A few more attempts to catch Whitethroats at Durlston NNR for a possibly RAS.
- Paul and Simon joined Jason Fathers for a few Pulli sessions including Kestrels, Little Owls and      Barn Owls.
- A few sessions at Lytcett Bay reed beds to catch Beared Tit, Reed Bunting etc
- A few very quiite sessions at Durlston catching residents
- plus several members garden sessions catching common garden birds.

Now that Autumn (well in the birding world anyway) is here things are really starting to pick up - watch this space...




 

Duck rescue...

Ian and Mike recently had fun rounding up a brood of Mallards. The adult female had decided to nest in the completely surrounded and safe courtyard at a school in Wimborne. The well developed ducklings were soon caught, ringed and released. Hopefully, they might end up somewhere interesting!

 

 

The Whitethroat trials

With a good number of territories of Whitethroats held across Durlston NNR we have decided to undergo trial ringing sessions to see if a Ringing Adults for Survival (RAS) project is feasible. 
This study looks at the longevity of targeted breeding birds and tells us whether numbers are stable, decreasing or increasing. If there is a change in numbers, particularly a decrease, then conservation action can then be targeted appropriately.

With 50 birds (new birds and retraps) needed to satisfy the BTO's scheme requirements, this morning we added to the years totals making it 5 new and 2 retrapped bird so. A bit further to go, but plenty more territories to work through...

Working away from our normal sites we ringed ringed 3 Whitethroats, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Song Thrush and re-trapped a Blue Tit.

Common Whitethroat 

Second Calender Year Song thrush showing nice backward pointing thorns on its greater coverts

Not birds but fantastic to discover this Eyed Hawkmoth back in the centres moth trap.

   Posted by: Simon Breeze

Fleets Corner - spring migration corridor

More ringing at Fleets Corner (AKA PC World Drain) has shown it to be an interesting spring migration route for passerines such as Common and Lesser Whitethroats, Garden ,Willow and Sedge Warblers and Chiff Chaffs among others.

Here are a few pictures of recently ringed birds from the past few weeks. Thank you to Paul M for these.

Lesser Whitethroats 

 

Garden Warbler

And the age of this bird is....?