Titchfield Haven - End of October Ringing Update

With very few birds ringed at the Haven over the last couple of sessions it is probably time to move on to our winter sites. It is always difficult to close every thing down and move on, but when you catch a measly 10 birds in a session, the enthusiasm does tend to wain. Last Friday was obviously bolstered by the Firecrest and Redwing, but on Saturday there was nothing of note in the ten birds ringed.

Following on from my post of 22nd October, this post provides a further update of the autumns ringing. As expected we did not catch any more Grasshopper, Garden and Willow Warblers, nor did we catch any more Whitethroats; the totals from that post are therefore still correct. Since that last post over 200 more birds were ringed, a total that was well and truly boosted by good numbers of Reed Buntings. We have ringed a total of 4603 new birds of 42 species, with the totals for three species, Willow Warbler, Blackcap and Robin, reaching new highs. 

Ringing Totals for Selected Species from 1998 - 2014

The Sedge Warbler total was looking like that might end up being the highest at one point, but the number of birds tailed off quicker than expected. The total ended on 1225 which was the fifth highest total of all time. The graph below shows some interesting variations in the ringing totals over the last 17 years, but there is a very clear upward trend in the number of birds caught over that period.

Sedge Warbler Ringing Totals from 1998 - 2014 at Titchfield Haven

The Reed Warbler total of 693 was the second highest total ever, and once again there is a clear upward trend in the number of birds caught. The number of birds caught between 1998 and 2014 has not fluctuated as much as with Sedge Warbler, with the exception of 2002 and 2004. The last two years have produced the second and third highest ringing totals.

Ringing Totals for Reed Warbler from 1998 - 2014 at Titchfield Haven

There has been a very strong upward trend in the numbers of Blackcaps ringed at the Haven over the last 17 years, culminating in a record number for 2014. The total of 807 birds was a 14%, or 104 bird increase over the previous best of 703 in 2007. The BTO previously reported that good numbers were being recorded at ringing sites, it will be interesting to see what reasons are given for this.

Ringing Totals for Blackcap from 1998 - 2014 at Titchfield Haven

The Chiffchaff total was again a strong total, with the 611 ringed being the second highest total ever. The numbers of birds ringed over the 17 years have been fairly consistent with a slight peak in 2002, but strong peaks in 2011 and 2014. The upward trend for the Chiffchaff  is probably skewed by the massive 2011, and 2014 totals. There are still a few Chiffs passing through the site, but we have not caught any new birds for a couple of sessions.

Ringing Totals for Chiffchaff from 1998 - 2014 at Titchfield Haven

Other species totals of note are Robin, with a new high of 88, Cetti's Warbler with 61, Goldcrest with 43 and Reed Bunting with 63. Blackbird and Song Thrush numbers are down with only 23 and 8 new birds ringed, respectively.

Titchfield Haven, Mid-September Update

It is now mid-September and what started as a slow season has turned out to be an excellent autumn. As I have mentioned in previous posts, we try to use standard trapping methods at the Haven, this includes using the same number of nets, ringing on only three mornings a week and the same tape lures. This allows us to directly compare our totals year on year. Of course the birds that we catch will not necessarily be from the breeding population in the UK, but are likely to be birds from other parts of Europe, as was illustrated so dramatically illustrated with the Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler a couple of weeks ago.

Looking at the nine key species that we study, it is evident that they have all had good years. The Sedge Warbler total currently stands at 1183, which is already our sixth highest total ever. Reed Warbler's seem to be one of the winners this year, as the total of 642 is already the second highest total ever, and the Willow Warbler total of 267 is the highest ever.

The Grasshopper Warbler total is the fifth highest total ever and Garden Warbler's appear to have had a good year as this total is our second highest ever. It is still early days for Chiffchaff, as this species is a later migrant, but the total to date is the second highest of the last five years. I was only today reading a post on the BTO Bird Ringing Demog Blog about large numbers of Blackcaps being ringed at western and central sites in the UK, and this is definitely the case at the Haven. We have already ringed 537 birds, which is the eighth highest total, but looking at the year to year comparisons, the total this year is already 180 more that at the same point in 2010 when the third highest total ever was recorded. The total for Common Whitethroat is on a par with our highest ever total, which was recorded in 2011 and the Cetti's Warbler is again indicating a strong breeding season.

There were no surprises over the last week, although we did catch our second Sparrowhawk and Green Woodpecker of the year and our first Spotted Flycatcher of the year.

Titchfield Haven - End of August Update 2014

This weeks ringing activities ended with a decidedly mixed weekend. Saturday started with strong winds and heavy rain whereas Sunday was still and calm after a clear night. We had planned one of our public events on the Saturday morning and were on the verge of calling it off when the rained eased and the wind dropped. The adverse overnight weather was not ideal for a good ringing total but that did mean that we had time to discuss the birds we caught in detail with our guests. We struggled to a total of only 37 birds which included Sedge (8), Reed (8), Grasshopper (2) and Cetti's Warblers (1), Whitethroats (8) and Blackcaps (4). As with most ringing sessions there is usually a stand out species and this sessions was a stunning juvenile male Eurasian Sparrowhawk. This was the first Sparrowhawk we have ringed this year and it certainly proved to be a crowd pleaser.

Juvenile Male Eurasian Sparrowhawk

It is relatively straight forward to age and sex Sparrowhawks, males are much smaller than females and therefore biometric measurements of a wing or tarsus can determine sex. Age is determined by the presence of chestnut fringing to the upper parts and bold heart shaped markings on the underparts. The iris colour is described as grey-olive in Baker (1993) for a first winter, becoming bright yellow, sometimes with a hint of orange in a second winter. This individual had a bright yellow iris which may suggest it was from an early brood. For comparison I have included an image of a second winter male that ringed in December 2012.

Second winter male ringed in December 2012 

In the image below the heart shaped tips to the feathers on the underparts are clearly evident as is the chestnut fringing on the subsequent images.

Juvenile Sparrowhawk showing heart shaped tips

Juvenile male Sparrowhawk showing broad chestnut fringing to upperparts

Juvenile male Sparrowhawk showing broad chestnut fringing to upper parts and tail

By contrast Sunday can only be described as a bit manic. The previous nights weather had evidently halted migration for a while and birds were desperate to get going. Our total was an excellent 324 birds including Sedge (108), Reed (49) and Grasshopper Warblers (40). Blackcaps had evidently started to move with 80 ringed, and Common Whitethroat numbers remained strong with another 14 ringed. Other species included a further 15 Willow Warblers, eight Chiffchaff, two Garden Warblers and our first Pied Flycatcher of the year.

I have updated the graph and table which compares this years total up to the 31st August with those of 14th September for the years 2010 to 2013. The outstanding total remains that of Willow Warbler which is evidently a record year for us. All the other key migrant species also appear to have had a good breeding seasons with the majority of the totals being above average and some, such as Reed and Cetti's Warblers already being above of close to the September 14th totals of previous years.

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that I have been making some changes. One of those changes in the addition of a new page which provides some recent recoveries from the Haven, which is viewable by clicking on the tab at the top of the page.

Our First Ringing Control in Portugal

Ringing activities during November for me have been restricted to a couple of sessions at Titchfield Haven and a bit in the garden. The sessions at the Haven were the latest we have ever done and did not really amount to much despite having all of our nets open. In fact on both dates half of the birds were resident retraps. However we did manage to add a few more chiffs to our annual total and caught more goldcrests in those two sessions than we had all year.

Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita

We also caught another new kingfisher which takes our total to the year to four. This bird was an adult, this can be seen by the all black colouration at the base of the lower mandible.

Adult Kingfisher Alcedo atthis

One session was also memorable due to the capture of two green woodpeckers. Both birds were retraps and adults, but one was a male and the other a female.

Male Green Woodpecker Picus viridis

Male birds (above) exhibit a red centre to the black moustache, whereas female birds (below) have no red in the black moustache. 

Female Green Woodpecker

One thing I do like about winter is the fantastic light and lack of heat haze, on a still clear day this lends itself to taking crisp photos with lots of contrast.

The River Meon at Titchfield Haven from our ringing area

The downside of ringing in the winter, is that on clear nights you can start your session with a heavy frost. This is not ideal when trying to open furled nets as it quickly saps any heat from your hands and makes your nets stand out until the sun melts the frost.

Frost on Phragmities Reed Head

Within the last couple of weeks we have also had a few recoveries back from BTO HQ, a summary is provided below. It is sometimes quite frustrating how long some of these take to come back, this is very evident with the blackcap T619991. This bird was controlled in Portugal in February 2010, but we have only just received the information. In these days of instant news and computerised data it is a shame it takes so long. On a very positive note though this is the first bird that was ringed at the Haven to be controlled in Portugal, so a great recovery for us.

Other interesting foreign controls were two French ringed sedge warblers. One bird was ringed as a juvenile in France in 2011 and retrapped at the Haven this autumn two years and a day since its original capture. The second bird was first ringed as an adult in France last August and and retrapped at the Haven this August. Both were presumably British birds migrating south when they were trapped in France, which is why they have been retrapped at the Haven. A reed warbler ringed on the Isle of Wight was retrapped at the Haven, having travelled north by 17km in five days. It is possible that weather conditions were preventing this bird from migrating south and therefore it was coasting waiting for suitable conditions.

Species	Ring No.	Capture Type	Age	Date	Details
Blackcap
	T619991	N	3	27/09/2009	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire
		C		06/02/2010	Fontes, Faro, Portugal (132 days, 1623km  SSW)
	Y759573	N	3J	22/07/2013	Bessacarr, near Doncaster, South Yorkshire
		C	3F	07/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (47 days, 297km, S)
Reed Warbler
	Y718412	N	3	17/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire
		C	3	05/09/2013	Litlington, East Sussex (19 days, 99km, E)
		C	3	12/09/2013	Litlington, East Sussex (26 days, 99km, E)
	Y813442	N	3	01/09/2013	Great Meadow Pond, Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead
		C	3	24/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (23 days, 80km, SW)
	D562011	N	3	29/08/2013	Haseley Manor, Arreton, Isle of Wight
		C	3	03/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (5 days, 17km, N)
	Y544426	N	3	01/09/2013	Thatcham Marsh, Thatcham, West Berkshire
		C		08/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (7 days, 65km, S)
	Y813442	N	3	01/09/2013	Great Meadow Pond, Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead
		C		21/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (20 days, 80km, SW)
Sedge Warbler
	Y719541	N	3	07/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire
		C	3	20/09/2013	Nanjizal, Land's End, Cornwall (13 days, 327km, WSW)
	6693908	N	3	19/08/2011	Marais de Cap, Montmartin-en-Graignes, Manche, France
		C	4	20/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (732 days, 173km, N)
	6706223	N	4	24/08/2012	Urdains, Bayonne, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France
		C	4	02/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (343 days, 819km, N)
	D218893	N	3	26/07/2013	Kirkton of Logie Buchan, Aberdeenshire
		C	3	10/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (15 days, 728km, S)
	D610553	N	3	21/08/2013	Dunkirk, Little Downham, near Ely, Cambridgeshire
		C	3	19/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (29 days, 209km, SSW)
	D639756	N	3	21/08/2013	Much Marcle, Herefordshire
		C		07/09/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (17 days, 159km, SSE)
	L931682	N	3J	04/08/2013	Bellflask, West Tanfield, North Yorkshire
		C	3	10/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (6 days, 375km, S)
	Y661622	N	3J	22/07/2013	Rye Meads, Hertfordshire
		C		06/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (15 days, 137km, SW)
		C		08/08/2013	Titchfield Haven, Hill Head, Fareham, Hampshire (17 days, 137km, SW)

Titchfield Haven - Bird Ringing Update August 2013

The bird ringing season is already well under way at the Haven, and after a slow start the autumn migration is now in full swing. Despite the slow start the daily totals were bolstered by good numbers of breeding residents with the Cetti's warblers being the most numerous species. To date 33 different birds have been captured, with 25 of those juveniles and three new adults, the rest were retrapped adults. Evidently this species has had a good breeding season.

The grasshopper warbler migration started about 10 days later than last year and has so far not reached the dizzy heights of previous years. In fact we have only been averaging 12 birds per day and this year have only ringed 147 birds; all of those have been juveniles. Sedge warbler numbers have been very good and today (10th August 2013) a catch of 272 birds (including 6 controls) was made up of 187 (including 3 controls) birds making the total for the year 647. This week an extraordinarily dark juvenile sedge warbler was captured.

Dark Sedge Warbler Acrocephalus schoenobaenus (B.S Duffin)

As can be seen from the pictures the bird was generally dark rusty brown in colour on both the upper and underparts, a truly striking individual.

Underparts of Dark Sedge Warbler

Surprisingly this is not the first time I have seen a bird with this colouration. In 2010 a similarly coloured reed warbler was trapped at the Haven during the autumn migration. This bird was different in that it seemed to have a brown sticky mess on its forehead, which suggested that the bird may have fallen into something, this did not appear to be the case with the sedge.

Dark Reed Warbler A. scirpaceus from 2010

The pattern of migration this year is again similar to previous years with sedge, reed and grasshopper warblers being the most numerous. Willow warbler numbers are now starting to build and today we ringed 17 new birds bringing the total to date to 50. All of the willows were again juveniles including a very pale washed out individual. According to Svennson northern populations are more greyish-white and generally lack any yellow tones.

Juvenile Willow Warbler Phylloscopus trochilus of the northern/acredula type

This bird was was exactly that, a pale greyish-white bird with no yellow tones. When compared with a typical willow warbler it was possible to see just how striking the bird was.

Willow Warblers - both these birds had a wing length of 61.5 mm and therefore
we thought that they were ideal for comparison. The pale left bird weighed 7.4 grams
whereas the normal right bird weighed 8.5

And if an unusual sedge and a northern willow wasn't enough, we were also treated to a very smart wood warbler. Every year we try for this species and have only ever caught a handful. Today's bird was the first for four years and added to what was an excellent days bird ringing.

Wood Warbler Phylloscopus sibilatrix the first ringed at the haven for about four years

Our tally today included six controls, three each of sedge and reed warbler. That brings our total of outstanding controls for the autumn to 18 including one French and one Spanish, and we are not even halfway through the season yet. Our total for new birds ringed stands at 1309 birds of 24 species, 108 birds have been retrapped.

Summary of Tichfield Haven Ringing between 10th July and 23rd August 2010 - 2012

I have mentioned in some of my previous posts that the ringing totals at Titchfield Haven have been considerably lower this year than last year, and that the percentage of adults birds ringed has been much higher this year, than last. So given that more typical British summer weather had once again returned, and there was no chance of ringing on Saturday I thought it would be an ideal time to do a bit of analysis. Initially I was just going to compare 2011 totals with 2012, but seeing as last year was such a fantastic year for several species, and was not typical for the site, I thought I would also include 2010 in my totals.

Bird ringing at Titchfield Haven has been carried out since the early 1970's, but it was in 1999 that we started ringing at the current location. We adopted a standardised approach, whereby we only ring on three days in any week, and we use the same number of nets during each session. This has meant a high level of commitment from the ringing team, but it does allow us to make some useful comparisions from year to year.

For this analysis I have chosen a selection of species, the dates chosen are from our first sesson of the year through until the 23rd August. The totals for each year are summarised in the graph and table below.

 

From the graph it is possible to see Sedge Warbler is the to most numerous species ringed at the site, and last year over a thousand birds were ringed up to 23rd August, and the second most numerous species switching between Grasshopper Warbler and Reed Warbler. The surprise last year was the amazing numbers of Grasshopper Wablers ringed, with 564 captured. Other species that seemed to have a good year were Common Whitethroat, Blackcap and Garden Warbler, with 97, 61 and 76, ringed respectively.

Species	Ringing Totals
	2010	2011	2012
Grasshopper Warbler	163	564	127
Reed Warbler	263	295	187
Sedge Warbler	484	1032	360
Willow Warbler	130	96	63
Chiffchaff	21	28	19
Whitethroat	35	96	11
Blackcap	16	54	30
Garden Warbler	32	68	18
Cetti's Warbler	19	9	10
Blackbird	6	9	9
Robin	12	20	19
Wren	22	15	23

 

Looking back to the 2010 totals it is possible to see just what an amazing year 2011 was, and a real blip, which presumably was down to the weather conditions, which were ideal for migrant birds to breed. This year, as we all know, the weather has at times been atrocoius, and after an early warm period in April, May and June turned out to be a wash out. Unfortunately, these conditions were not ideal for summer migrant species, but our resident birds were able to take advantage of the warm April weather. The totals for 2012 seem to reflect this, with Sedge, Reed, Grasshopper and Garden Warbler and Common Whitethroat all significantly down. The Blackcap is down on last year but up on the 2010 total, whereas as Blacbird, Robin and Wren are all on a par with 2011, or have done better. The worrying trend is the steady decline in the numbers of Willow Warblers ringed, even in 2011.

So the next thing I have done is looked at the percentage of adult birds within the ringing totals. The reason I have done this is because during our ringing sessions this year we felt that we were catching a higher than normal percentage of adult birds for the time of year. The significance of this could be that some summer migrant species have had such a bad breeding season, that the adults have given up trying to breed and started their autumn migration.

From the analysis it is interesting to see that in fact our feelings were correct for some species, but not for others, but the most noticeable species was Garden Warbler, where over 55% of the birds captured were adults. Other species with a higher percentage of adults were Reed Warbler, with 44%, Blackcap, with 23%, Common Whitethroat, with 9% and Willow Warbler with 9.5%. The higher parcentage of adult Cetti's Warbler, Blackbird, Robin and Wren are probably due to an increase in the number of breeding birds in the ringing area.



Species	% of Adult Birds Captured
	2010	2011	2012
Grasshopper Warbler	1.2	3.2	2.4
Reed Warbler	17.9	35.9	44.4
Sedge Warbler	7.4	17.4	5.3
Willow Warbler	5.4	2.1	9.5
Chiffchaff	33.3	25.0	15.8
Whitethroat	8.6	1.0	9.1
Blackcap	6.3	13.0	23.3
Garden Warbler	9.4	11.8	55.6
Cetti's Warbler	5.3	0.0	20
Blackbird	6.7	33.3	44.4
Robin	0.0	20.0	5.3
Wren	4.5	13.3	8.7

So what does all this mean? Well obviously this study only relates to our ringing totals at Titchfield Haven, and up to the third week of August. But the results seem to suggest that some summer migrant species have had a poor breeding season, as the number of juvenile birds passing through is down on both 2011 and 2010. Whereas some resident species, such as Blackbird, Robin and Wren, and some migrant species, such as Chiffchaff and Blackcap seem to have had a good breeding season. Willow Warbler appears to be on a steady decline. The number of adult Grasshopper and Sedge Warblers captured is lower than the two previous years, which could suggest that birds are breeding later, certainly at the time of writing this we were still catching Reed Warblers that appeared to be feeding young. I guess we will just have to see what the second half of the season brings, I will keep you posted.