Lapwings and Skylarks

I was recently contacted by Barrie Roberts, a trainee bird ringer working towards his pulli (nestling) licence, about doing some Lapwing pulli ringing. Barrie has been doing plenty of other nestling birds with his trainer but had yet to ring many ground nesting birds. This morning I took him down to the site near Havant where I normally ring Lapwing chicks, to see what was happening there. It is always difficult to predict what stage the chicks will be at and I had seen that Lapwing chicks had hatched nearly a month ago on some sites, but he was keen to go. There are usually only low numbers of Lapwings at the site, despite the extensive amount of habitat and in recent years it has been increasingly difficult to find the birds that are there because the site is not grazed anymore and subsequently it is becoming dominated with rush. 

We arrived on site at 9am and almost immediately picked up two adult Lapwing on the edge of the rush pasture. At this point patience is required, because if the adults are spooked, they will alert the chicks, and they will sit tight. After a few minutes the first chick came into view and began feeding near one of the adults. I jumped the gate and edged my way along hedge keeping an eye on it. I was about 50m away when I picked up a second chick, but at the same time the adults saw me and began alarm calling. I kept a fix on the first bird whilst also occasionally glimpsing at the second bird; before long we had two Lapwing chicks for Barrie to ring.

The usual strategy of the chicks is to run for a bit of dense cover and then tuck themselves under it, although if there is no dense cover they will nestle down into a shallow depression. When settled down it is amazing how similar they look to a bit of horse dung and even though you have seen where they have gone down, it can take a few minutes to find them.

Can you see the Lapwing chick

A closer view of the second chick hiding from us

Juvenile Lapwing - one of two ringed

Once we had finished ringing the chicks we continued on with a circuit of the field, regularly scanning for more birds, but it appears that there was just the one pair this year, and only the two chicks. As well as Lapwings there are also fantastic numbers of Skylarks and Meadow Pipits on the site. I have never ringed these species here, but this morning we decided to spend a bit of time looking for nests. There were so many Skylarks that it was difficult to assess the number of breeding territories, but none of the birds we watched seemed to be carrying prey. We did eventually find a nest, but that was more by luck than judgement; we were stood watching a bird on the ground when one flew off the nest just in front of us. The patience and skill required to find a nest is very evident when you look at the image below. A clutch of four eggs were in the nest, so we recorded it for the BTO nest Recording Scheme and quickly moved on.

Skylark nest is located centrally in the image

Cutch of Skylark eggs

We spent a good hour or so wandering around the site with the notable species recorded being Mistle Thrush (3), Stonechat (3), Yellowhammer (1 pair), Red Kite (1), Buzzard (2), Kestrel (2), Whitethroat (1), Linnet (several pairs) and Tawny Owl (1). A Dingy Skipper was the butterfly highlight.

Green-winged Orchids, Curdridge

The Glebe Meadow is a County wildlife site that is located just around the corner from the offices of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, and my place of work. The site is designated for its species-rich meadow that includes Green-winged Orchids. Last year there were around 100 flower spikes and as now is the peak time for flowering I popped around to see how they were doing this year. There were 93 flowering plants in the meadow and a further two more in the adjacent graveyard, so another good year for the species.

Green-winged Orchid is a species of grassy habitats with base-rich soils (or mildly acidic), such as ancient hay meadows, unimproved meadows and sand dunes. Road verges, churchyards and lawns also support them.

Green-winged Orchids - Curdridge

Green-winged Orchids - Curdridge

Green-winged Orchid Flower showing the distinctive veins on the broad lateral sepals

On the way back to the office a dead Grass Snake was on the road. It had only just been killed, presumably run over by a car; not an ideal way to see my first Grass Snake of the year.

Dead Grass Snake

Bird Ringing again at Botley Wood

After what has seemed like an absolute age I finally got my act together and arranged to do a bit of bird ringing over the last few days. The first session was on Sunday 10th May at Botley Wood; Chris and I started at 6am and set a few nets along the road in our usual net rides. It was a fairly slow session with only 16 birds ringed, but they were all quality birds. The most numerous species was Garden Warbler, one of which was a retrap from last year.

Garden Warbler - Botley Wood

The next most numerous species were Chiffchaff and Bullfinch with three birds trapped, unfortunately one of the Bullfinches could not be ringed due to growths on it's leg. All three birds were first winter birds, the buff coloured tips to the greater coverts are very obvious on the bird below.

Make Bullfinch - Botley Wood

The other species were two Blackcaps, one a retrap from last year, and single Great Tit, Blackbird, Long-tailed Tit, Dunnock and Whitethroat. 

Later in the afternoon I opened a net in the garden and ringed eight new birds, four Greenfinches, and single House Sparrow, Dunnock, Nuthatch and Great Spotted Woodpecker. The Ring-necked Parakeet was hanging around the area but fortunately did not come into the garden.

After work on Monday Rob and I decided to head back to Botley Wood for another ringing session. It had been a while since Rob had last done any ringing so he was ken to get out and the weather looked good. We set four nets within what I thought were Nightingale territories and hoped for the best. As it turned out my hunch was right, and we eventually caught two Nightingales, both adults and both males (based on the fact they sang once released). There was one other Nightingale singing on a territory where I had caught one last year so I presume it to be that same bird, hopefully I will find out over the next couple of weeks.

Male Nightingale - Botley Wood

Male Nightingale - Botley Wood

The session included two Blackcaps, one a retrap from last year, a Wren, Long-tailed Tit, Chiffchaff and Coal Tit. Over the three sessions we ringed 33 birds of 15 species, so not a bad few days.

A day full of Birding

I had managed to wangle a day off on Friday 8th May and so decided to start early with another seawatch down at Stokes Bay. It was an overcast morning, and was fairly calm, with a southerly wind gradually veering round to south-east. It was difficult to tell if there was an air of anticipation about the conditions because most of the talk was about the previous days General Election, and the disbelief that the Conservatives had once again got into government, and with a majority. There has to be a genuine fear for Britain's wildlife with them back in.

Sea watching soon took centre stage and a steady trickle of Common, Sandwich and Little Terns drifted by. A winter plumage Red-throated Diver was the first species on note, followed by a couple of Whimbrel. It was pretty slow going with good numbers of Barn Swallows and the occasional Swift coming in, and then Mark Rolfe, who was one of the assembled crowd, picked out a Roseate Tern amongst and small flock of Commons. It took me a while to get on to the bird, but eventually I was on it. I was following the bird east and it had just gone out of sight when Mark called out Hoopoe!!! Amazingly, a Hoopoe was flying along the beach towards us, flew over our shelter heading inland, and then veered west and continued to fly inland. That made up for the bird I missed a few weeks ago in Crawley, when I was in Cornwall. The sea watch continued as it had before the Roseate and the Hoopoe, with a steady trickle of terns and swallows and by 10am, when we finished, the only other species of note were two Mediterranean Gulls, and a Wheatear that landed on the beach in front of us.

I left Stokes Bay and headed to the Haven to pick up some bird food, to keep the parakeet fed. I had a quick scan from the sea front before heading home; there were three Dunlin and a Bar-tailed Godwit feeding on the Meon, several Swifts, House Martins and Swallows feeding over the reserve, but that was all of note.

Bar-tailed Godwit - Titchfield Haven

My next stop was Bunny Meadows. Bunny Meadows is known for it's wading birds and so at this time of year, there isn't likely to be much around, unless some migrants drop in. The tide was pushing up towards high and so there was very little mud left exposed, but five Whimbrel were making the most of what was there.

One of five Whimbrel at Bunny Meadows.

The reed bed was showing little evidence of spring, but there were still plenty of Reed Warblers singing, as was a male Reed Bunting. A couple of House Sparrows were tucked into a dense bit of bramble mid-way along the causeway, which seemed to be an odd location for them, and a Wheatear was feeding on the causeway.

Wheatear - Bunny Meadows

Oystercatchers were the most common wader species, seven in all and two Ringed Plovers and a single Dunlin were flushed off a roost next to the causeway by an off-the-lead dog. Three of the Oystercatchers were colour-ringed, I suspect they will be birds that I have seen before, but noted the combinations anyway. The rings on one bird were very discoloured but hopefully it will be possible to figure it out.

Colour-ringed Oystercatcher - Bunny Meadows

I was just about to head home when news came through that the 2nd CY Bonaparte's Gull was once again back at Riverside Park on the River Itchen at Bitterne. Although I had seen this bird on Monday at Weston Shore, my views were quite distant so I was keen to see it again, and also get some pictures. It has been frequenting the area between Cobden Bridge and a small reed bed to the north, opposite a sewage works, occasionally going into the sewage works and being lost from view. When I arrived it was showing very well but was regularly flying up and down the river, and only occasionally settling down to bathe.

The views were so much better, with the bird on occasion down to 10 metres. There were also around 30 Black-headed Gulls present so it was really nice to compare the two species. The Bonaparte's was so much smaller, and had a more dainty flight than the black-heads, as such it was very easy to pick out as it flew around. Being so close it was easy to pick out the key features, such as the small, all black bill, the grey nape, 'bubble-gum' pink legs and the neat trailing edge to the primaries and secondaries and all white underwing.

Bonaparte's Gull - Riverside Park

Bonaparte's Gull - Riverside Park

Bonaparte's Gull - Riverside Park

Bonaparte's Gull - Riverside Park

Bonaparte's Gull, with Black-headed Gull behind - Riverside Park

Whilst at the Bonaparte's I bumped into a couple of birding mates, and after a quick beer to celebrate with a work colleague, I headed home. What a cracking day it turned out be, starting with Roseate Tern and Hoopoe and ending with a Bonaparte's Gull.