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

Golden Plovers at Bunny Meadows - November 2014

The weather forecast for this weekend was for rain, rain and more rain and so I didn’t make any arrangements for ringing on Saturday, instead I thought I would venture out and play with my new Canon 7D MK2. My initial plan was to go to Blashford Lakes, but I ended up staying local, birding at Bunny Meadows before heading down to the sea front at Hillhead.

It was a dull and overcast day with light drizzle, and so not ideal light conditions for trying out your new camera, but at least it wasn’t the predicted heavy rain. The tide was high so I headed down to the old wooden jetty, the best place for roosting birds. There was a good selection of wetland birds present, with a scattering along the main causeway en-route to the causeway. Eurasian Wigeon, Eurasian Teal, Mallard and Dark-bellied Brent Geese were present in small numbers and a lone Little Egret fed on the tide line. A single roosting Eurasian Curlew was the only wader present along the main causeway.

The wader roost at the old jetty was as expected with a fine selection of waders present. The totals included over 400 Dunlin, nine Greenshank, 38 Grey Plover, 32 Redshank, 16 Black-tailed Godwit, four Grey Plover and 10 Golden Plover. The Golden Plovers were roosting on the end of the small spit on the main causeway side, making them very susceptible to disturbance, but at the same time very close. They were nestled down in the vegetation and therefore could not be easily seen, in fact I only picked them up because a slight movement caught my eye.

Golden Plovers - Bunny Meadows

Golden Plovers hidden amongst Sea Purslane - their gold spangled plumage providing the perfect camouflage

Unfortunately, disturbance levels on this stretch of the Hamble estuary are very high and today was no exception, despite the bad weather. Numerous dogs were running out of control off the lead, as were many children, although admittedly they are not normally kept on a lead. I spent a good 30 minutes with the goldies but as I was watching them, a man with three children came along the causeway. The children immediately began throwing sticks and stones into the water near me and shouting loudly and I had to bite my tongue so I didn't tell them to shut up. The commotion unsettled the goldies and they moved from the shelter of the vegetation to the water’s edge, whilst I scowled with disapproval. The man eventually told them to be quiet but they paid little attention, fortunately they gradually moved off, allowing the goldies to settle back down.

Golden Plovers, Bunny Meadows

Golden Plovers, Bunny Meadows

Golden Plovers, Bunny Meadows

Golden Plover, Bunny Meadows

Golden Plover, Bunny Meadows - This shot was digiscoped with my Panasonic Lumix GF2 and Swarovski scope. I enjoyed photographing these birds so much that I thought I would make the most of it.

After Bunny Meadows, I headed to Hillhead; I didn’t go into the Haven but spent my time scanning offshore. There was nothing of note out there but in the harbour the Turnstones were feeding on the tideline and roosting on the groynes. A further opportunity to test out my new camera, so I took it.

Ruddy Turnstone, Hillhead

Ruddy Turnstone, Hillhead

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 - 6th October 2012

Back in the UK I thought this weekend would give me the chance to catch up with some bird ringing at Titchfield Haven, but heavy rain overnight, continuing onto Saturday morning scuppered those plans. So after doing a few domestic chores I headed out to Bunny Meadows to catch the rising tide. High tide was at around 14:30 and being a sunny Saturday   afternoon there were lots of people out walking, but there were still good numbers of waders around. The most abundant species was Common Redshank so I started to count them a immediately picked out a colour ringed bird. I was unaware of anyone locally colour ringing this species but text a colleague just in case it was one of his, and got an immediate response. It was, he hadn't ringed many but this bird had been ringed on at Hamble Point, 4 km to the south on 27th March 2011, 18 months previously. 

Eurasian Curlew

Continuing on there were a few Curlew, Eurasian Wigeon, Eurasian Teal, Grey Plovers and a flock of 96 Golden Plover. Having been away for the last few weeks these were the first I had seen this autumn. I spent a few minutes working my way through them just in case there was something different in the flock, but they were all Eurasian Golden plovers.

Eurasian Golden Plovers

My attention was drawn to  a couple of Oystercatchers on the far bank, one adult and one juvenile. The adult was one of the colour-ringed birds I had previously seen tending their newly hatched chick, so it looks like the chick survived. Whilst on the subject of those Oystercatchers, whilst away I heard back from the BTO details of their original ringing, and as suspected they were both ringed at Hamble Point. Interestingly they were both on the same date 29th December 2007, nearly five years previously. Since they were both ringed together I wonder if they were paired up then, and whether Oystercatcher are monogamous?

Bunny Meadows - 29th July 2012

There was no bird ringing for me today, partly because I was just too tired, and partly because I would have been the only one there, so potentially a lot of effort for little return, well based on the last few sessions anyway. Instead I opted for a 7am start and a stroll along Bunny Meadows on the rising tide. There have been a few good autumn waders in the west of the county at Pennington Marshes, so I was hopeful that it would be my turn to find one.

The tide was already pretty high when I arrived and the Turnstones had been pushed up close to the sea wall, so I was able to get excellent views of them doing what they do best....turning stones.

Turnstone - Bunny Meadows

In all there were 32 just scattered along the foreshore, they were so confiding that I was able to spend a bit of time photographing them and enjoying their incessive chitter chatter as the bickered over a tasty morsel. It was interesting to see that whilst some birds were busy turning stones, another standing nearby would pretend to be doing the same, but as a grub was exposed it would run in a snatch it from beneath the others stone....very sneaky!

Turnstone - Bunny Meadows

Last time I was here there were good numbers of waders present, despite it being very early in the season, and this visit was the same. In total I counted 45 Common Redshank, three Greenshank, 14 Eurasian Curlew, 11 Whimbrel, two Grey Plover, seven Lapwing and a single Dunlin. Black-tailed Godwits were again present in good numbers, with at least 43 present, but it was difficult to count this species as some were nestled right down in the tussocks.

Black-tailed Godwits

I would normally expect to see a few colour-ringed birds amoung the scattered groups, but unfortunately this time there were none, which was a shame, but I will keep looking. Three birds were roosting on the edge of a sea locked island, and although they were over 50 metres away they were very wary, and kept a close eye on my movements.

Black-tailed Godwits

Black-headed Gulls were the most numerous species, with 147 roosting on the islands, along with single first summer Mediterranean Gull and Common Tern, and as I was counting the gulls an adult sandwich tern flew by.

Black-headed Gulls and Common Tern

Continuing on I soon came across a pair of Oystercatchers, who were incredibly wary and constantly 'Kleeping' at me, I assumed it was because I was paying them an un-necessarily high amount of attention because they were both wearing colour rings.....but as it turned out that was not the case.

Colour-ringed Oystercatcher - Bunny Meadows

I think I have seen both of these birds before, but on looking through my records I could not find any detail, so I will contact the person who ringed them and let you know when I find out, although I suspect they were ringed at either Hamble Point or Cracknore Hard, but we will see.

Colour-ringed Oystercatcher - Bunny Meadows

Anyway, going back to why these birds were so alarmed was suddenly evident. My attention was so focused on making sure I had got the right colour combinations, that I hadn't noticed the fluffy little brown chick, gingerly wandering around on the top of the tiny island.

Newly Hatched Oystercatcher

I must admit I am not really sure how late Oystercatchers normally breed, but I presume this is a new attempt after a failiure, rather than a second brood. This chick was on a tiny island very close to the shore and I could have easily walked out and picked it up, so it is going to be extremely vulnerable to both predators and an out of control dog!...I will try and keep you posted on its progress.

Pipstrelle Bats and a Colour-ringed Oystercatcher

After the extremely mild and spring like conditions of the last week, it was back to winter with a changeable weekend weather wise, rain then wind on Saturday and then more rain and wind on Sunday! So with no chance of doing any bird ringing I headed down to a small barn to check on the local bats. I have been keeping an eye on this barn (well its bats) since 2007, and have recorded five species, Brown long-eared, Common and Soprano Pipistrelle, Serotine and Natterer's, during that time. The bats use the barn in different ways, with the Pipistrelle's tending to use it for hibernation and the Long-eared's using it mainly for breeding, with a few staying on to hibernate.

The last time I looked in the barn was January 2012, when I located single Brown long-eared and Serotine bats and seven Pipistrelle species. This time I located 13 Pipistrelle bats, which is the most of this species I have ever recorded in the barn. I have previously left a remote bat detector in this barn and have found that of the two Pipistrelle species, the Common Pipistrelle is the most regular and therefore I suspect that these bats are all that species.

Pipistrelle Bat (most likely Common Pipistrelle)

All of the bats were located in small crevices in the lower part of the barn, and were very awake, which is probably a result of the recent mild weather, although they will be in for a shock if they venture out tonight!!

Two Pipistrelle bats in a small Crevice

The bats were mainly clustered together in small groups with the largest group numbering four bats, but the most visible were a group of two just inside the entrance door. The Common Pipistrelle is one of the UK's commonest bats which on average can weigh between 4 - 8 grams and has been recorded living to the grand old age of 12 years.

Colour-ringed Oystercatcher, Bunny Meadows

By the time I had finished in the barn the weather had cleared and the sun was shining, so I popped down to Bunny Meadows. It was bitterly cold so didn't stay out too long, but did find a colour-ringed Oystercatcher on the inter-tidal. Two of the rings were discoloured but I think I eventually managed to get the correct combination. All of the previous colour-ringed Oycs I have seen here were originally trapped at Hamble Point on the other side of the water, so I am guessing that is where this bird was ringed.....but I will keep you posted.

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.