Colour Ring Sightings Update

You can tell from my lack of posting this week that I have not been out in the field, although I did manage a couple of 30 minute ringing sessions in the garden at work. The result was four birds, a Blue Tit, retrap Nuthatch and Robin on Wednesday 3rd and a Firecrest on Friday 5th December. The Firecrest is the 5th I have ringed so far this year, hopefully there will be a few more yet.

I did hear back from Pete Potts regarding the colour ringed Grey Plovers and Turnstone that I had seen at Bunny Meadows on 28th November. As suspected all of the birds were ringed by Pete, and one of them, DD51882, I had seen back on 22nd August, also at Bunny Meadows. The details of each bird are provided below.

 

Bunny Meadows Revisited...Again - November 2014

Having been confined to the office for most of the week, it was nice to be out in the fresh air again today. I must apologise if there is a feeling of deja vu with this post, but as the tide was rising when I ventured out, I headed down to Bunny Meadows again. It was about two hours off high tide when I arrived so there was still some intertidal visible, and wading birds were starting to accumulate on and around the small islands. However, it was not a wader that first caught my eye but a tern, a Sandwich Tern. Occasionally this species does winter in Hampshire, particularly in Langstone Harbour and around Hayling Island. Time will tell whether this bird stays for the winter, or was just a late migrant.

Sandwich Tern - Bunny Meadows

With the tide pushing up I was able to get some nice views of the hundreds of birds present and continue to test out my new camera. Dunlin was by far the most numerous species with over 600 birds present, Grey Plover next with 35. Four of the Grey Plovers were colour-ringed, probably by Pete Potts, so will hopefully be able to let you know the details soon. It was interesting to note that all four of the colour-ringed birds used the same staging point, before moving onto the main roost; presumably they feel like they all have something in common.

Grey Plovers - Bunny Meadows

The other wader species present were Eurasian Curlew (5), Common Ringed Plover (3), Oystercatcher (3), Common Redshank (9) and one Red Knot. 

Common Redshank - Bunny Meadows

The Eurasian Wigeon has to be amongst my favourite ducks and there were just shy of 50 birds on the marsh. Disturbance levels were much lower at Bunny Meadows during this visit and the wigeon were much more chilled out. As well as the wigeon, around 30 each, Eurasian Teal and Dark-bellied Brent Geese were also present.

Eurasian Wigeon - Bunny Meadows

Eurasian Wigeon - Bunny Meadows

Several Ruddy Turnstones were doing what they do, turning stones and chattering away to each other. One of these birds was also colour-ringed, again probably a bird ringed by Pete Potts. I have recorded a colour-ringed turnstone here before, but this bird was not that bird, so once again will let you know the info when I find out.

Ruddy Turnstone - Bunny Meadows

As the tide continued to rise the Dunlin started to move around in tight flocks seeking out the last remaining patches of mud. Although there were only 600 birds it is always a pretty spectacular sight to see flocks of waders wheeling around.

Dunlin - Bunny Meadows

Dunlin - Bunny Meadows

Dunlin - Bunny Meadows

Once the waders had settled down to roost I started to head back to the car. A Great Cormorant had settled on one of the rails, using the late afternoon sun to dry its wings, and I took advantage of the the tame Black-headed Gulls to further test out my new camera.

Cormorant - Bunny Meadows

Black-headed Gull - Bunny Meadows

Farlington Marshes - 5th September 2014

It was a bit of  dreary start to the day this morning but I had the day booked off and so headed down to Farlington Marshes for a spot of birding. There have been occasional reports of Curlew Sandpipers on the marsh and yesterday an Osprey was seen, so I was quietly optimistic. I arrived just as the tide was falling and headed straight to the main lake to check on the high tide wader roost. The islands just off the car park were my first stop as there was a flock of 45 roosting Grey Plovers and three Black-tailed Godwits. All of the plovers were greys, but it was worth the look at many were still in summer plumage.

Grey Plovers

The last few times I have visited Farlington the water level on the main lagoon had been high, and today was no exception. A couple of Little Egrets and a roost of 24 Common Redshank were the only birds of note, although a Whinchat and three Common Whitethroats were flitting around the scrub. A quick scan of the horizon picked up the Osprey, but it was a long way off, roosting on trees on North Binness Island.

The quickest route to get a better view of North Binness was along the stream, and as this was also the most likely place for Curlew Sandpipers, I headed that way. There was a good sized flock of Black-tailed Godwits roosting and feeding along the stream, with around 50 Common Redshank and five Curlew Sandpipers. At least 10 of the godwits were colour-ringed but I was on a mission to get better views of the Osprey, so decided to come back this way later in the hope that they were still there.

Black-tailed Godwits

I did linger long enough to scope the Curlew Sandpipers and take a couple of pictures. All of the birds were juveniles with their neatly fringed upper parts.

Black-tailed Godwits and Curlew Sandpipers

Black-tailed Godwits and Curlew Sandpipers

Roosting Black-tailed Godwit and Curlew Sandpipers

I headed along the track, but was slightly stumped by the fence being across and cattle being moved. Fortunately the farmer had not really started herding the cattle and so I was able to get past. There were at least 100 Yellow Wagtails feeding around the cattle, but again I did not linger too long.

As I got up onto the sea wall the Osprey was still sat there and now the views through the scope were much better, but it was really to far for photos. I took a couple with my trusty old SLR before reverting to a bit of digiscoping with my very old Sony. 

Osprey on Tree on North Binness Island

The combination of poor light and a crap camera did not do the bird any justice, but at least it was a record shot.

Digiscoped Osprey on North Binness Island

I headed back along the stream and through the bushes, the Curlew Sands were still their but unfortunately all the godwits had gone. I watched the Curlew Sands again for a while until they took flight and headed over the scrape and out of sight. 

The bushes were bursting with birds with the majority being a flock of at least 1000 Starlings, but also good numbers of Blackcaps and Common Whitethroats.

Bunny Meadows and Curbridge - August 2014

The autumn migration is in full swing now and as I had a day off I decided to spend at least parts of the day birding a few local sites in the hope of finding some migrants. I started at Bunny Meadows around mid morning to coincide with the high tide, as this is usually a good site for waders. As I arrived it was just off high tide and a few waders and gulls were taking advantage of the last remaining areas of intertidal, whereas others were already roosting on the vegetated Islands.

Black-headed Gull - Bunny Meadows

Black-headed Gulls were the most numerous gull species with 104 present, Great Black-backed (3) and Herring (7) were also present but only in small numbers. At this time of year the islands are well vegetated and some waders were making the most of this cover, whilst others roosted on patches of bare mud. Black-tailed Godwits were the most numerous wader species present with at least 148 birds present.

Black-tailed Godwits - Bunny Meadows

Most of the godwits present were adults and moulting into their winter plumage but there were also a few juveniles present too. 

Black-tailed Godwits - Juvenile in middle and adults

As well as the godwits there was also a good selection of other waders present. Curlew (2), Redshank (5), Dunlin (1), Turnstone (1), Ringed Plover (24) and a Whimbrel were the species that I found, but some were difficult to identify in the tall vegetation.

Two Ringed Plover and Dunlin - Bunny Meadows 

Whimbrel - Bunny Meadows

I continued past the islands to the remains of the old causeway, another good bird roosting location. There were good numbers of waders here too, with Redshank (60), Black-tailed Godwit (2), Greenshank (2), Oystercatcher (5), Lapwing (5) and Grey Plover (5) present. Two of the Grey Plovers were adults and three were juveniles, one of the adults had colour rings on its legs, and eventually it put both legs down so I could get the combination. The bird was ringed at Hamble Point by Farlington Ringing Group in January 2009, the subsequent sightings are provided below the image.

Grey Plovers - Both adults, with one bird colour-ringed (see inset) - Bunny Meadows

First Ringed        02-Jan-09 Hamble Point, Southampton Water, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           26-Dec-11 Bunny Meadows, Warsash, River Hamble, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           27-Dec-11 Bunny Meadows, Warsash, River Hamble, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           18-Nov-12 Bunny Meadows, Warsash, River Hamble, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           18-Nov-12 River Hamble, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           16-Sep-13 Hook Links scrape, Hook-with-Warsash, Southampton Water, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           04-Feb-14 Bunny Meadows, Warsash, River Hamble, Hampshire, S England
Resighted           22-Aug-14 Bunny Meadows, Warsash, River Hamble, Hampshire, S England

With the tide now dropping fast my next stop was Curbridge, further up the Hamble Estuary. Curbridge has been good to me in recent weeks and today was no exception. I started at the Horse and Jockey pub entrance and immediately picked up three Common Sandpipers and a couple of Kingfishers. There were small numbers of Curlew (2) and Whimbrel (2) and a handful of Little Egrets (5). There were at least 600 gulls present on the intertidal, which is not unusual, but the fact that at least 287 of them were Mediterranean Gulls was astonishing. Flocks of several hundred post breeding Mediterranean Gulls often form on the arable fields around Titchfield Haven, but I have never seen this many at Curbridge before. One of the adult birds had a green colour ring on its left tarsus, but unfortunately it was too far away to see if any letters were on it.

Mediterranean Gulls, Adults and Juveniles and Black-headed Gulls - Curbridge

Bunny Meadows again.....

The weather was fantastic today, full sun, flat calm but it was extremely cold...although not as cold as Norfolk last weekend!! Since I had been away last weekend, today was all about spending time with my wife, so we decided to go for a stroll along the shingle spit at Bunny Meadows, but not before a spot of lunch at a nearby pub. High tide was at 13:25 so we timed our walk to coincide with the last hour of the rising tide.

Roosting Waders Bunny Meadows

We arrived about an hour before high tide, just in time to see birds concentrated on the last remnants of inter-tidal mud before they were covered in salt water.

Dunlin and Wigeon

Around 200 Dunlin were feeding on the exposed mud, along with Wigeon, Greenshank and Grey Plover. The Dunlin were scattered around on the last remaining exposed areas of mud frantically feeding, whilst other species such as Grey Plover and Greenshank were opting for a quick snooze.

Dunlin and Grey Plovers

There were at least five colour-ringed Grey Plover visible on the mud but unfortunately I did not have my scope with me to allow me see the colour combinations, although zooming up on the photo above has enabled me to see three.

Greenshank and Dunlin

Five Greenshank and a single Black-tailed Godwit were present whilst two Grey Plovers roosted on the old wooden walkway.

Grey Plovers

I have tried to capture Rock Pipits at Bunny Meadows on many occasions, so I was intrigued to see that birds were very approachable on the shingle spit as the tide came in. 

Rock Pipit

In fact one bird kept walking up to me and I am sure it would have been attracted in by a well positioned meal worm in a spring trap.

Rock Pipit

Given the close views I was getting I thought it might be possible to age the birds present. Adults undergo a complete post breeding moult, whereas juveniles a partial moult and therefore I was hoping that it might be possible to see a moult limit within the greater coverts, but unfortunately there was nothing obvious visible.

Rock Pipit

A subtle cough in the background reminded me that I wasn't alone, so I packed up my camera stuff and continued my walk with my very patient wife.

Farlington Marsh Wader Ringing Again

After a couple of very wet and windy days which were looking at putting this weekends planned ringing session in doubt, the skies cleared, wind dropped and so it was off to Farlington Marshes for another wader ringing session. The forecast was for the temperature to drop below freezing, so we opted to set out nets on the stream and ring birds in the relative comfort of the shelter, and as it turned out it was a wise choice since there were very few birds on the main lake and it got very cold late on.

Our first bird was captured just as we were walking away having set the nets....a first winter Grey Plover. I cannot actually remember the last time I had handled this species, so we set about ageing it.

Juvenile Grey Plover

In the field it is very easy to age this species since gold spotting is present on juvenile/first winter feathers, and these are often present until mid winter. This bird was a classic first winter with gold spots present in the inner medium coverts, scapulars and throughout the mantle.

Gold Spotted Juvenile Feathers

In the autumn juvenile Grey Plovers can easily be misidentified as Golden Plovers due to the gold spotted plumage, but the presence of black axillaries on the underwing will confirm the species since these are lacking on Golden Plovers.

Grey Plover Underwing Showing Black Axillaries

We were very excited to have captured three Curlew on our previous ringing session as this is quite a rare event at the marsh, so to find another in the net on the first net round filled us with eager anticipation. But as it turned out this was the only Curlew of the night.

Juvenile Curlew

This bird proved to be a juvenile based on the presence of both adult and juvenile feathers within the wing, in addition the primaries were worn and pointed.

Juvenile Curlew Wing

Once again Dunlin proved to be the most numerous species with a 50/50 split of adults and first winters captured. The first winter birds were still relatively straight forward to age, due to the buff fringing to the flight feathers.

Juvenile Dunlin Wing

Whereas the adult birds lack the buff fringing, instead having brownish grey coverts with white fringing, although interestingly one of the adult birds captured had retained some summer plumage feathers within the mantle.

Adult (upper) and Juvenile (lower) Dunlin Wings

In total we captured 21 birds, which included single Grey Plover, Redshank and Curlew and 18 Dunlin. The Redshank was a retrap adult bird, whilst all the other birds were new. Given that the high tide was not a particularly high one, and therefore many islands in the harbour were not completely covered, we thought this was a very respectable result.