In search of winter birds, Day 2 - Norfolk 2015

After the now traditional hearty breakfast we planned our day and prepared to head off. There were a few bits and pieces on the feeders in the garden but nothing of much note, Great Spotted Woodpecker and Coal Tit were probably the most notable. 

Wolferton

We started the day at Wolferton in search of the elusive Golden Pheasant. We have tried for this species in previous years but without success, but this year Paul's local knowledge gave us hope. We headed for the northern road that forms the Wolverton triangle and slowly  searched the area. Our first circuit was without success, but on our second circuit we flushed a stunning male bird, who was feeding right on the edge on a clearing. This was our second new species for our annual Norfolk trip and one we were very pleased to get.

Hunstanton

Our next destination was Hunstanton and the coach park opposite Tesco's. Two Waxwing had been visiting trees in the car park all week, but not today. We searched the area for a while but failed miserably. Our next stop was the cliffs at Hunstanton; this would give us a view of the sea in search of ducks and also views of Northern Fulmars. The sea was very quiet and other than a couple of flocks of Sanderling passing by there was nothing of note. We did get some cracking views of Fulmars though as the hung in the stiff breeze.

Fulmar - Hunstanton

Holme Beach

We are fortunate in that when we stay in Norfolk we stay in the home of a birder and are able too enjoy his choice of artwork. One of my favourite artists at the moment is Darren Woodhead (http://www.darrenwoodheadartist.co.uk/) and it was a very pleasant surprise to see one of his pictures hanging on the wall in the cottage. The painting is of a flock of Fieldfares, and a lone Waxwing, feeding in a clump of Sea Buckthorn. 

Darren Woodhead Painting of Fieldfares on Sea Buckthorn 

Our next stop of the day was Holme Beach and here the image on the wall came to life as we were greeted with a flock of Fieldfare, minus the Waxwing, feeding in a clump of Sea Buckthorn. As we enjoyed the birds we could just imagine Darren sat with us painting the scene.

Fieldfare - Holme Beach

Fieldfare - Holme Beach

Our main reason for going to Holme was to look for the flock of Snow Buntings that were known to be present. After spending a few minutes with the Fieldfares we headed on in search of our quarry. We first stubbled across a few Knot that were feeding in the nearby pools, they were extremely approachable, the individual below was the tamest.

Knot - Holme Beach

There were good numbers of Skylark feeding in the sand dunes and as we homed in on the Snow Buntings we stubbled across some pretty of approachable individuals.

Skylark - Holme Beach

There were about 20 Snow Buntings present but they were constantly moving back and forth along the beach. We eventually pinned them down and were able to get some cracking views before they took flight. 

Snow Buntings - Holme Beach

Snow Bunting - Holme Beach

Thornham

Thornham Point has been a regular site for Twite and Rock Pipit over the last few years, except last year that is. After Holme we headed there and were quickly on to a few Rock Pipits. A handful of wader species were present, mostly Redshank but also Grey Plover, Ringed Plover and Curlew. 

Redshank - Thornham

Curlew - Thornham

We eventually picked up the Twite flock, about 30 birds were feeding on vegetation on the salt-marsh. Typically they come to the gutter of the nearby building to drink, but that was not to be the case today.

Titchwell

Our next stop was the RSPB's Titchwell reserve, this is usually a great place for a variety of wader and duck species but also a good place to look out to sea for divers and sea duck. We arrived at Titchwell and headed straight out along the footpath to the beach. The scrape on the north had the best to offer with several Ruff, Snipe, Dunlin, Redshank and Black-tailed Godwits present. At the back of the scrape there were several pipits, including two Water Pipits, four Rock Pipits and a couple of Meadow Pipits, a Bearded Tit joined them for a while and gave good but distant views.

We continued along the footpath adding a few more species to our trip total and then picked up an Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit, both of which had colour rings. As regular readers will know I am constantly on the lookout for colour-ringed birds, so will endeavour to find out where these were from.

Colour-ringed Black-tailed Godwit - Titchwell

A quick check on the sea was disappointing, with only Common Scoter and Goldeneye recorded. It has been suggested that the storms of last years have changed the dynamics of the seabed and therefore there are no sea duck present, hopefully things will be back to normal next year.

A149 at Burham Overy Staithe
We intended to finish the day Lady Anne's Drive, but on the way we headed past Burham Overy Staithe on the A149. As we headed towards the lay-by there were a group of birders appearing to be watching something, so we pulled in to have a look. As it turns out they weren't watching anything but we stayed for a while. It was a good choice as we soon picked up a Short-eared Owl, several Marsh Harriers, three Common Buzzards, including a very pale individual similar to others I had seen on the continent, a Barn Owl and a Rough-legged Buzzard.

Lady Anne's Drive
We eventually arrived at Lady Anne's Drive and had another couple of Barn Owls and four Woodcocks, which was in fact our target bird.

We ended the day on 85 species bringing our total for the trip to 101.

Spring has finally sprung in Hampshire - March 2014

There is no better sound than that of the sound of spring, and the start of the dawn chorus. Blackbirds, song thrushes and robins are usually the first to start and their song makes the pre-dawn start for bird ringing all the more worthwhile. With the lengthening days the weather has calmed too, which has meant in the first 10 days of the month more birds have been ringed than in the whole of January and February. The majority of the sessions have been at Manor Farm Country Park, but this weekend I ventured back to Botley Wood for the first session of the year.

The sessions at Manor Farm have again been targeted on gathering data for the House Sparrow RAS project. The RAS season started on the 1st March and so the aim was to get as many retraps as possible. The season started well and with 16 new birds ringed and 15 birds either sighted or retrapped. The usual species were also ringed including Wren, Dunnock, Robin and Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tit.

A species that is grossly underestimated by many is the Common Starling, a striking species in the field but truly stunning in the hand. The pale tips contrast strikingly with the metallic violet and green sheen to the main part of the feathers. In the summer months the bill becomes bright yellow, except for the base that is, which turns blue in a male and pink in a female. The image of the male below illustrates this perfectly.

Male Common Starling - Manor Farm Country Park (Rob Skinner)

Six new Redwing have brought the total this year to 20 and another Fieldfare was the second of the year. According to the pattern on the head feathers, which showed very little black other than along the shaft, this bird appeared to be a female.

Presumed Female Fieldfare - Manor Farm Country Park (Rob Skinner)

The session at Botley Wood was more about cutting in net rides in preparation for the arrival of spring migrants, particularly Common Nightingales, but we still put a couple of nets up just in case. Surprisingly there were no spring migrants around not even the odd Chiffchaff, but two Eurasian Woodcocks, a Siskin and a Kingfisher made the visit worthwhile. In contrast to the ringing which resulted in two each of Blue Tit, Wren and Robin, so not really with the effort.

The warm spring days have seen the level of invertebrate activity increase dramatically, Brimstones were abundant at Botley Wood and when I returned home there were Small Tortoiseshell's and Red Admirals in the garden.

Underwing of Small Tortoiseshell

Upperwing of Small Tortoiseshell

Moth numbers have also increased as has the diversity of species and in just three session 15 species have been recorded in my garden. The species list has produced nothing as good as the recent Acleris literana recorded at work but has included Small Brindled Beauty, Clouded Drab and Twin-spotted Quaker.

Twin-Spotted Quaker

Twin-spotted Quaker is common and widespread throughout Hampshire and the Isle of Wight with the peak month for its emergence being March. The other species recorded included  Early Moth, Early Grey, Hebrew Character, Early Grey, Diurnea fagella and the Common Plume Moth Emmelina monodactyla.

Four Thrush Species in a Morning - Back at Manor Farm

For the second weekend running it was back to Manor Farm in the hope of catching some of the redwings and fieldfares that were there last week. We arrived early to set the nets, putting up two rows of three 18 metre nets and a single 9 metre net. Pre dawn there were redwing and fieldfare calling and moving around, and it wasn't long before we had our first birds. Our first bird was a species that I have only caught a handful of times before........a fieldfare.

Fieldfare Turdus pilaris

As I previously mentioned, fieldfare is a species that I catch extremely infrequently despite it being an annual winter visitor to the site in good numbers. For ageing and sexing I referred to my trusty Swennson and Jenni and Winkler, so here goes. Adult fieldfares undergo a complete post breeding moult, whereas juveniles only undergo a partial moult. However, Svensson states that many birds (though not all) do not complete the moult of their juvenile greater coverts. There was no obvious break in the greater coverts on this bird which was an indication that it was an adult.

Fieldfare

As with many species the shape of the tail feathers is a useful indication, with adult feathers being broad and rounded, whereas first year feathers are pointed. This bird had very broad and rounded tail feathers and therefore due to the combination of features it was aged as an adult.

Broad Adult Type Tail Feathers of the Fieldfare

For sexing fieldfares Svensson describes the pattern of the crown feathers as a useful feature; male feathers are generally dark centred, whereas female feathers have the dark area restricted to the central shaft, and the base, where it is slightly broader. Svensson also states that where this is ambiguous the colouration of the tail feathers is useful. In males the tail feathers are black to blackish whereas female tail feathers are dull dark brownish-olive.

Head of Fieldfare

Given the black colouration of the tail feathers on this bird and the extent of black in the crown feathers, we sexed it as a male. The numbers of birds present was nowhere near those recorded last week, nonetheless the next round did produce a retrap blackbird, the first two redwing of the year and a new song thrush. 

Redwing

There was still a mixed flock of finches feeding in the top fields of which single greenfinch and goldfinch were caught, and a small mixed tit flock boosted the numbers a little. Another species that we don't catch very often is collared dove, and today one bird was caught. The eye of this bird was bright ruby red, the legs bright red and there were no pale fringed feathers present in the plumage, we therefore aged it as an adult. I used to catch quite a few collared doves in my garden, but in recent years they seem to have declined, probably as a result of the local sparrowhawk which used to be a regular visitor.

Male Collared Dove

By the end of the session we had caught 18 birds, 15 new and three retraps, of 13 species. The three retraps were an adult male blackbird that was originally ringed on the 15th September 2013, a long-tailed tit that was originally ringed on the 11th April 2010, and a blue tit that was originally ringed on the 3rd January 2011. The complete list of species was blackbird (1), redwing (2), fieldfare (1), blue tit (5), great tit (1), song thrush (1), dunnock (1), long-tailed tit (1), goldfinch (1), greenfinch (1), collared dove (1), carrion crow (1) and robin (1).

Finally Some Bird Ringing - Manor Farm Country Park January 2014

The recent rainfall and gale force winds have been extremely frustrating for me since it has been impossible to do any bird ringing. So when the forecast for Sunday 5th January looked calm and still, I went for it. Unfortunately my trainees were all busy and so I decided to go to Manor Farm Country Park and try for some more house sparrows. I had been advised that the fields were saturated and best avoided so I set my nets around the farm, and in similar locations to those used just before the Christmas break.

The session itself was pretty quiet and in two hours I only caught 10 birds, five of which were retraps. The species caught were dunnock (3), house sparrow (3), blackbird (2), and single wren and robin. The three house sparrows were all retraps with the oldest being a female that was originally ringed on 6th November 2010, 3 years and 60 days previously.

Fieldfare Turdus pilaris - Manor Farm Country Park

I shouldn't have listened to the advise about the fields, as in between net rounds I wandered up into the fields to see hundreds of winter thrushes. The birds were feeding in another of my normal trapping areas and when flushed flew low into the nearby hedges...it was very frustrating. There were at least 500 redwing, about 150 fieldfare and a mixed flock of finches that included 35 greenfinch, seven goldfinch and a couple of bullfinch.

With the wind now picking up and rain beginning once again I decided to call it a day, but rather than heading home I nipped down to Titchfield Haven for a spot of birding. There have been a couple of velvet scoter hanging around off shore since the autumn; they were still there as was a distant great northern diver. Other highlights included 15 sanderling, 20 dunlin, 100 oystercatchers and one bar-tailed godwit.

On Saturday 4th a local birder reported a presumed Siberian Chiffchaff along the boardwalk on the east side of the Haven. The bird was calling well and showed the distinctive pale grey brown upperparts, pale underparts and a good wing bar, so pretty conclusive. On Sunday morning, whilst trying for reed buntings Barry Duffin trapped a bird that showed some features that looked good for a 'tristis' type chiff, but this bird did not show a wing bar and therefore it was considered that it may be a different bird to that reported.

Siberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis (B Duffin)

As can be seen from the pictures the bird does have a greyish tinge to the upperparts, but most of the feathers are fringed green. The supercilium had a yellow hue to it, the carpel joint was strongly tinged yellow and the ear coverts were dark.

Chiffchaff Underparts (B Duffin)

The most striking feature of this bird was the colouration of the underparts, which were extremely pale except for a slight buff tone to the under tail coverts.

Siberian Chiffchaff (B Duffin)

Unfortunately I did not get to see this bird in the hand, and have yet to see the reported Siberian Chiffchaff at the Haven, and initially I did have my reservations about this bird. But having chatted to the local birder who found the bird at the Haven, and following discussions with other birders, it seems that this bird is indeed a 'tristis'.

I have to admit it has been a while since I have seen one and I was originally being slightly cautious in my original post. Interestingly, it is considered that this bird is indeed the same individual that was recorded the day before being caught, yet in the hand it appears the lack the wing bar which was very visible in the field.