An Easter break in Boscastle

I was looking forward to another weekend in North Cornwall, since it would hopefully give me the chance to catch up with some spring migrants and also the opportunity to walk the cliffs in search of Puffins. We set off early Friday morning and were crossing the northern tip of Bodmin Moor when a Sand Martin flew past in front of the car.....maybe a good omen!!

After a short break upon arrival in Boscastle I unpacked my camera gear and headed out onto The Stitches. There are strips of scrub at the eastern end and these usually act as a great migrant trap, with the fields being a great place to look for Northern Wheatears, larks and pipits. Two Barn Swallows dashing low across the fields were my first migrants, and a pair of Common Ravens were croaking overhead, twisting and turning as they tumbled from the sky. Other than a handful of singing Chiffchaffs and an occasional Blackcap, that was it migrant wise, although resident birds were in full song with Dunnocks and Chaffinch's being very vocal and prominent.

Male Dunnock

With not much happening on The Stitches I headed to the cliffs and a view of the sea. The cliffs were alive with auks, the most visible species being Razorbills on the land facing cliffs, with Guillemots being abundant on the seaward side. I spent a few minutes scanning the face of the nearest offshore island...Meachard, before turning my attention to the sea.

Razorbills on Meachard, off Boscastle

The odd passing Northern Gannet and the resident Herring Gulls were the most visible species, but a scan with my scope revealed a load more auks and around 30 European Shags on the water. Scanning west along the coast it was possible to see auks crammed on the ledges of two distant off shore rocks, Grower Rock and Short Island. I continued to scan and soon picked up two Puffins sat on the sea preening; after a while they took flight, circled briefly, before landing on the seaward side of the more distant rock, Short Island. I usually see Puffins on this rock and also another nearby one, that is just out of sight called Long Island, so it was good see them still there.

The rugged north Cornwall coastline, the two islands are
Grower Rock (nearer) and Short Island.

Another stroll around The Stitches yesterday (Saturday) morning, again produced very little in the way of migrants so I headed back to cliffs to scope the sea. The Northern Fulmars were settled down on the cliffs, with a few circling around on the wind, Herring gulls and Jackdaws were also paired up, but that was all.

With not much happening at sea I headed down Valency Valley, primarily to check up on the resident Dippers, but there seemed to be very little activity around the nest site. When birds are incubating there is often limited activity around the nest site, so lets hope that this is the case and not that the nest has been predated. I did see two further down the valley by the car park, but they were only fleeting flight views.

Fulmars, Boscastle

This morning I overslept and didn't head out until gone 10am, by which time most of the migration was probably over, assuming that is that there was any. There seemed to be more Chiffs and Blackcaps around and a single House Martin flew east, but again that was it. A rabbit was tucked into the vegetation around the field margin, so I thought seeing as it is Easter Sunday I would include a picture of it.

An Easter Day Bunny

A feeding flock of Herring Gulls, Gannets and Fulmars were just off shore, so I watched intently for a glimpse of a Harbour Porpoise or Common Dolphin, but it was not to be....hardly surprising as the sea was a bit choppy this morning. 

Grey Wagtail on the River Valency

With a lunch date planned with my wife and mother-in-law I headed down to the village centre; there were loads of people around but this did not deter a pair of Grey Wagtails that were busy nest building, oblivious to the hussle and bussle around them. 

Have to say I was slightly disappointed with my weekends birding and with heavy rain forecast tomorrow I don't think tomorrows birding is going to improve!!

Manor Farm Country Park Again....

This morning started with a pre-dawn start at Manor Farm Country Park. Overnight a thick fog had formed which made for a very damp and somewhat eerie feel, which was enhanced by the very vocal Barn Owls. I opted to put the usual nets up in the hope of catching some more Redwing, or maybe even a Fieldfare, and was rewarded with a couple of new Redwing, both first winters. There were very few thrushes around, so I was very pleased to have caught any, and especially as these will probably be the last ones I get to ring until they return in the autumn.

First year Redwing

Other species captured included Blackbirds, Wrens and a few Dunnocks, two of which were retraps. Both of the the retraps were over a year old, but the individual pictured below was originally captured on 8th July 2007, 4 years 247 days previously.

Adult Dunnock

In a previous post I discussed the difficulties associated with ageing Dunnocks and this individual, had it not already been ringed, would have probably been left unaged. However, the brightly coloured eye and the all black bill would have aged this bird as an adult, had it been caught in the autumn.

Adult male Goldcrest

Another bird that I was reacquainted with this morning was this male Goldcrest, who was originally captured on 6th April 2010, 1 year 126 days previously. He was in full song for much of the morning and raising his crest up in display to the accompanying female

Gold crest of the male Goldcrest

During the session there was a flock of five Bullfinch's feeding tantalisingly close to my net ride, but alas they were too engrossed in their meal to move along the hedge to my net.

Ringing again at Manor Farm Country Park

The weather conditions this morning looked ideal for ringing so I headed to Manor Farm for my first ringing session for a while. Once again it was freezing cold, and as I drove to the farm the temperature gauge in my car registered minus five!!! I am so glad I hadn't set the nets the night before as they would have been frozen solid. 

I was hoping that the cold weather would have brought in loads of thrushes, but in fact the frozen conditions had probably had the opposite effect and forced birds to move on. There were a handful of Redwing and Fieldfare present, single Grey and Pied Wagtails and not much else. But having made the effort I persevered and eventually ended with a total of 33 birds, including Blue Tit, Dunnock, Robin, Song Thrush, House Sparrow, Goldfinch and Greenfinch. The low number of birds around gave me the opportunity to concentrate on those that were caught, and it was just as well as in the end some interesting subjects were captured.

The first interesting bird was a Robin. The moult strategy in this species is typical of many European passerines, with adults undergoing a complete moult post breeding, whereas juveniles undergo a partial post juvenile moult. It is therefore usually possible to see an obvious break in the greater coverts between retained juvenile and moulted adult feathers in juvenile birds. But it is important not to be fooled by the variation in thorns present on the greater coverts (see below), which could be considered to be indicative of a moult limit. The example below seems to show an obvious break, but examining the ground colour of the feathers and the length and shape tells a different story.

Adult Robin

Referring to other features also pointed to something different; the broad and rounded tail feathers indicated an adult bird, and the all dark inside of the upper mandible the same. Luckily, this bird was a re-trap that had originally been ringed in November 2010 as a juvenile, and therefore it was possible to correctly age it as an adult...a very interesting lesson for the trainees present!

Adult Robin

Another species that always promotes discussion when trying to age it is the Dunnock, and today there was no shortage of them to discuss. According to Svensson (1992)(Identification Guide to European Passerines), ageing is possible in the autumn by way of eye colour and the paleness of the base of the lower mandible, whereas Jenni and Winkler (1988) (Moult and Ageing of European Passerines) suggest that the prominence and colour shade of light tips to the greater coverts and inner tertials is useful. Svensson is extremely cautious of this feature suggesting that the variation in different individuals is such that this feature should only be used by experts in the species. Two of the birds captured today illustrated perfectly why Svensson is skeptical of this feature.

Juvenile Dunnock Wing

This species again has a moult strategy which involves adults undergoing a complete post breeding moult, whereas juveniles undergo a partial juvenile moult, and therefore it may be possible to see a break in the greater coverts. The image above illustrates strongly pale tipped greater coverts, but what appears to be an obvious break where two darker and smaller tipped inner greater coverts are present. In addition the tail (below) is pointed and is heavily abraded, again  indicating a juvenile bird.

Juvenile Dunnock Tail

By contrast, the image below illustrates greater coverts that are not pale tipped and with no obvious break to indicate a moult limit...

Juvenile Dunnock Wing

                                               ......whereas the tail of this bird shows an obvious fault bar, a feature typical of a juvenile bird, and again the tail feathers are pointed and abraded.

Juvenile Dunnock Tail

As it happens both of these birds were again re-traps that were originally ringed as juveniles in the summer of 2011, and therefore are both first winter birds.

Adult Blue Tit

The session ended with another interesting record, this time a longevity record for the site, in the form of an adult Blue Tit. This bird was initially ringed on 11th July 2006, 5 years and 216 days previously; surprisingly the national longevity record for this species is 9 years, 9 months and 2 days...an amazing age for such a small bird!