Patch Birding and Ringing - February 2015

I haven't had much spare time since my last post, but have managed to squeeze in one visit to Curbridge, on 9th Feb, and also one ringing session in my garden. My visit to Curbridge was another lunchtime dash and as usual I only had my Panasonic FZ200 bridge camera, just in case. The tide was rising fast and as such there was very little exposed mud left. A Greenshank was making the most of the last opportunity to feed in shallow creek water as I pulled up into the Horse and Jockey car park. I grabbed a couple of photos making use of the digital zoom, so not the best quality but a good record shot.

Greenshank - Curbridge

My regular visits to Curbridge of late have not produced any new species recently but there have been some good records. This week there was a peak count of six Greenshank, a good count for this time of year and the second time I have recorded six birds this winter, and a Common Snipe was only the second one this year. The usual fare included one Common Sandpiper, five Redshank, three Teal and a Little Egret.

Six Greenshanks - Curbridge

Common Snipe - Curbridge. A record shot on full digital zoom

There were only a handful of gulls around due to the state of the tide, which included 10 Black-headed and one adult Mediterranean Gull. It is interesting to see Mediterranean Gulls making regular appearances this year after so many years without recording them at Curbridge.

On Sunday 8th in the morning I opened a net in the garden. I only had a couple of hours before going out, but that was enough time to catch 21 birds. The majority were as expected, Blue Tits, with 10 birds trapped, the next most numerous species was Long-tailed Tit, with six birds ringed. The highlights were single Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Robin, Chaffinch and Coal Tit.

Male Chaffinch 

Tail of Male Chaffinch showing pointed tail feathers suggesting 2cy bird. 
This bird also had two retained greater coverts in the wing.

Coal Tit 

Birding in the West of Hampshire

Over the last few weeks bird ringing activity has been non-existent, mainly due to the waves of torrential rain and high winds that have been sweeping the country. Even just getting out to do a spot of birding has been difficult, unless, that is, you are covered from head to toe with waterproofs. However, over the weekend of 8/9th December I did manage to get in a spot of birding in the west of County.

Wetland Area with Lapwing, Wigeon, Black-tailed Godwit and Glossy Ibis (the small black dot in the middle)

I had not recently been birding in this area and with the arrival of a few unusual birds it seemed like a good place to go on the one day it wasn't raining, although it looked like it was going to at any minute. My first port of call was Bickerley Common, a flooded meadow to the south of Ringwood. Most of the river valleys in Hampshire are swollen at the moment, and the River Avon is no exception. Water has spilled from the main river channel into the adjacent floodplain creating some interesting wetland habitat for birds. On the plus side this has created sanctuary areas that have become inaccessible to humans thereby limiting disturbance, but on the negative side, there are so many of these flooded areas that birds are widely spread and often difficult to find. But this is not the case at Bickerley Common, where the flooded meadow has become a haven for wetland birds, with the two most noteworthy species being glossy ibis and great white egret.

Great White Egret

Arriving at the site the closest bird was the great white egret, this species has become semi-resident in the area over the last few years, with a colour-ringed bird, originally of French origin, spending most winters at the nearby Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust (HIWWT), Blashford Lakes reserve. Unfortunately this bird spent all of its time feeding in thigh deep water and so it was not possible to see if it was the colour-ringed individual.

Great White Egret

In contrast the glossy ibis was happily feeding right at the back and was virtually the furthest bird, giving acceptable scope views but useless for photography (as can be seen in the first picture). There was also a good mix of other wetland species including black-tailed godwit, snipe, green sandpiper, lapwing, kingfisher, Canada and greylag goose, teal, wigeon, gadwall, shoveler and tufted duck. So a good variety of species to start the day. I next headed up to the Avon causeway and Harbridge in search of a Bewick's swan, a species which used to winter in large numbers in the Avon Valley, but those days are long gone. With no sign of the Bewick's and not much else to see in the area I headed back to the HIWWT's Blashford Lakes reserve.

Little Grebe

I started at Ibsley Water and more wetland birds. The middle of the day is not the best time to visit since all of the goosanders will have dispersed across the valley, but nonetheless there were still birds to see, pochard, tufted duck, goldeneye, pintail and good numbers of shoveler. Another noteworthy species for its scarcity these days was ruddy duck, an introduced species  from North America into the UK, that has recently undergone a massive decline due to a licenced cull. The species' fate was sealed due to its interbreeding with the closely related and much rarer white-headed duck in Spain. Ruddy ducks are the more dominant species, as with many North America species, and have been identified as one of the causes of the decline of the now endangered white-headed duck. The licenced cull has been very effective and now only very small numbers of this species exist in the UK.

Wigeon, Gadwall, Coot and Red-crested Pochard

My next stop was Ivy Lake, and the usual location for a very obliging bittern, but not this day. A drake red-crested pochard was causing some interest among the local birders but otherwise the species present were much the same as seen on Ibsley Water. One of the highlights of visiting Blashford Lakes is the excellent views of lesser redpolls and other finches and woodland birds drawn in by the abundance of food provided by the Trust. Identification of the different redpoll types can be very tricky when they are feeding at the top of an alder tree, but here the birds are drawn down low to the feeders.

Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea cabaret

Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea cabaret

Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea cabaret

The redpoll sub-species cabaret, which is the common race in the UK, is generally smaller and darker than the flammea race, which occurs in Fenno-Scandia. Occasional birds of the race rostrata have been recorded at Blashford lakes in recent years, these birds generally larger, darker and more heavily streaked than the race cabaret.

Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea cabaret

Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea cabaret

Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea cabaret

The variation in colour and size of individual birds can make identification of the different races very subjective, and things are not helped by variations in lighting conditions. I did not see any birds that even vaguely resembled a common (mealy) redpoll, maybe one will turn up later in the winter.

Brambling Fringilla montifringilla

Of course redpolls are not the only species visiting the feeders bramblings, chaffinch's, siskins and nuthatch's are all attracted in and give excellent views.

Female Chaffinch Fringilla coelebs

Eurasian Nuthatch Sitta europaea caesia

So if you are visiting Hampshire and want to get to grips with identifying lesser redpolls, there are not many better places to visit than Blashford Lakes in the winter.

Very frustrating......

It has been a very frustrating week this week which started on Monday evening with a visit to Manor Farm for a bit of Woodcock spotlighting. We trudged around the fields and eventually managed to flush 11 birds without catching one!!! We also nearly caught two Fieldfares, which bizarrely were roosting in the middle of a field....very frustrating!!

Wednesday night followed a similar pattern, in that we trudged around the same fields, this time flushing nine woodcocks and not catching one.....equally frustrating!! Hopefully better luck next week!

Adult Male Chaffinch

To try a salvage something from the week I put a net up in the garden yesterday evening, making use of the last couple of hours of daylight, and was rewarded with four retrap Blue Tits, a new Long-tailed Tit, two new Greenfinch's, a Goldfinch and a cracking adult male Chaffinch.

Adult Chaffinch

I never really spend much time looking at Chaffinch's in the field, but in the hand this bird was stunning. It was in full breeding plumage, with a rich chestnut back and mantle and a green rump, and the flight feathers were all fringed yellow.

Adult Chaffinch Wing

All of the flight feathers were extremely fresh, with no evidence of a moult limit in the coverts, and the tail feathers were very broad and rounded, showing little evidence of wear.

Adult Chaffinch Tail

When ageing Chaffinch's the tail is a crucial feature, with the central tail feathers being more rounded and sometimes having a black centre towards the tip, the 3rd tail feather (from the centre) is rounded, as is the 5th, which also has a well defined white patch and the dark parts are jet black.

Juvenile Chaffinch Tail

For comparison, it is possible to see the shape of the central tail feathers in a juvenile bird (pic above), note that one of the central tail feathers has been replaced, the juvenile feather is very pointed. Also the shape of the feathers in general is more pointed, and they are showing a fair amount of abrasion at the tips.

Manor Farm Country Park - 9th April

Things have been a little hectic of late which has meant me not having the time to update my blog, but with a couple of hours to spare today, I thought it would be the ideal time to post last weekends activities.

Bird ringing was limited to Saturday and a measly total of only 20 birds were captured, of which six were recaptures. After the previous weekends migrants, there was an immediate return to resident species, but despite this there were some cracking birds captured. The pick of them included a pair of adult chaffinch's and a stunning male greenfinch.

Adult male chaffinch Manor Farm Country Park 9th April ©T.D.Codlin

I aged both the chaffinch's by the shape and pattern of the tail feathers, in fact the tail of the male exhibited all of the features that would expected on an adult bird.

Tail of male chaffinch showing well defined pattern and obtuse tip of 5th tail
feather and black centre to central tail feathers ©T.D.Codlin

I also managed to catch a few more house sparrows and add to my totals for my RAS project. Although the retrap numbers were low, only two birds recaptured, I was able to fit another six colour rings.

Male house sparrow wearing his lovely new colour ring ©T.D.Codlin

With the warm sunny days that we have been having recently there has been a dramatic increase in insect activity, some species having emerged from hibernation, such as small tortoiseshell, red admiral, peacock and comma butterflies...

Comma butterfly recently emerged from its winter hibernation ©T.D.Codlin 

...whereas many moth species, such as frosted green and streamer, have a flight season of April - May and have emerged after spending the winter months overwintering as a pupa.

Frosted green moth 9th April 2011  ©T.D.Codlin

Streamer moth 9th April 2011  ©T.D.Codlin

The other species captured over the weekend were hebrew character, common quaker, small quaker, blosom underwing and lunar marbled brown.