End of Year Review, December 2013

So here we are at the end of my third full year writing this blog, I hope you have enjoyed its content and would like to thank all those who follow it and those who have visited over the years. This year (2013) has been an interesting one for me as back in February I started a new job, which I had hoped would give me more spare time to enjoy bird ringing and other natural history activities. In reality, more spare time meant more out of work social commitments, which did limit the amount of free time I had, and three stints in hospital were certainly not welcome. Despite the set backs I still had a great year which resulted in several new birds in for me in Hampshire, over 20 new moth species in the garden, a couple of new birds in the hand and ended with a British tick (Brunnich's guillemot). In typical fashion for a year end post I thought I would do a quick summary of my personal highlights of the year, and please feel free to share yours with me.

January
The start of the year for me was all about trying to see as many bird species as possible on the patch. There were no real highlights to speak of with this, that came in the form of a recovery notification from the BTO of one of the common nightingales that I had ringed at Botley Wood. Unfortunately the bird was found dead in France 488 days since being ringed, which was not good news for the bird, but was my first foreign control of this species since starting the project.

Adult Common Nightingale - Sadly found dead in France

February
The long staying and very confiding black-bellied dipper at the BTO HQ Thetford in Norfolk was the first that I had seen in the UK, and got my annual Norfolk pilgrimage off to a good start.

Black-bellied Dipper - Norfolk

March
Eurasian siskins came into my garden in good numbers this year and I ended with a record number of 40 new birds ringed, beating the previous best of 12 back in 2003. Individuals were trapped throughout January, February, March, April, May and one bird was re-trapped in August. The peak month though was March when 22 new birds were ringed.

Male Eurasian Siskin

April
The return of the common nightingale is always a highlight for me and this year was no exception. At least eight singing males were back on territories, and I managed to catch four of those, one being a bird from May 2009. This month was also memorable for the presence of a singing male common redstart and a lesser spotted woodpecker, both found whilst surveying for nightingales.

Retrap Adult Nightingale - Botley Wood

May
Being my 25th wedding anniversary this year my wife and I took short break to the Greek Island of Rhodes. There were no new birds for me but we did have a great trip with a variety of wildlife being seen. The highlight for me had to be snake-eyed lizard which was stunning beast, the resultant blog post has become the most read post on this site. 

Snake-eyed Lizard, Rhodes

June
The undoubted highlight for me this year was being invited out to ring northern goshawk pulli. I had ringed common buzzards before but the size of these birds, in particular the females and their talons was amazing. The low point was being savaged by a cat and spending four days in hospital with an infected arm.

Juvenile Goshawk

July
Mothing really took off this month and checking the trap before work became near on impossible due to the numbers present. On one date I recorded 250 moths of 90 species in the garden and by the end of the year I had recorded 310 species. The second high point was surviving being knocked off my bike by a car and only needing seven stitches in a gash on my chin and having mild concussion for 48 hours.

White Satin Moth - a new species for me

August
Ringing was starting to get into full swing at Titchfield Haven and on 17th we ringing 223 new birds, with 24 of those being garden warblers, the most we have ever caught in one day by a long way.

Garden Warbler - Titchfield Haven

September
This month was memorable for two amazing highs, catching my first, and second, Clifden nonpareil moths whilst staying at Castlehaven on the Isle of Wight; and seeing the first brown shrike to ever be recorded in Hampshire. An excellent find by Bob Marchant.

Clifden Nonpareil at Castlehaven, Isle of Wight

October
There were many highlights during October, but these were sadly all overshadowed by the untimely death of Tim Lawman, a popular and active member of the Hampshire birding scene. The highlights were finding a yellow-browed warbler at The Hampshire and Isle of Wight Trusts (HIWWT) Testwood Lakes Nature Reserve, and then another at Anton Lakes whilst waiting for Hampshire's second ever Radde's warbler to show. The semi-palmated plover at Sandy Point on Hayling Island, a truly amazing find by Andy Johnson. And if all that wasn't enough, it ended with us catching our first, and Hampshire's third Radde's warbler at Titchfield Haven. What an autumn this turned out to be!

Radde's Warbler at Titchfield Haven

November
Ringing bearded reedlings (or parrotbills) at the HIWWTs Farlington Marshes reserve was a real treat, but the undoubted highlight had to be the phenomenal starling roost of 10,000 to 100,000 birds at their Blashford Lakes nature reserve. As natural history spectacles go this is one of the best I have seen and is still continuing as I write this post. If you get the chance it is definitely worth a visit and if you are lucky you may even get the see one of the two bitterns wintering there.

A Murmuration of Starlings at Blashford Lakes

December
There is only one contender this month and that was the Brunnich's guillemot in Portland Harbour. We were heading home after spending Christmas in Cornwall and made the short detour. A cracking bird and a British tick for me to end the year on.

A bit of Goshawk pulli ringing....

On Friday 7th June I was invited by a good friend, Wayne Percy, to assist with the ringing of Northern Goshawk chicks in the New Forest. Wayne has spent the last 20+ years studying raptors in the forest and his claim to fame is finding the first ever breeding pair there. Since then the local raptor group has been ringing the expanding population; it was now my turn to get in on the act. Several nests had already been checked and the chicks ringed, but there were four still to do. 

As we approached the first nest it was fairly obvious, both from its size and location what it was, it was also fairly obvious that the two chicks were too large to ring. 

Goshawk nest set about 18 metres up a tree. Note the large nest
located two thirds of the way up the trunk.

The nest was massive and set about 18 metres up the tree, right next to the trunk. Moving in closer we could see our first chick, it was sat right on the edge of the nest, looking down on us as we approached. Another which looked even larger was sat just behind. Apparently a good indication of whether a bird is too large to ring is the amount of down still on the head, both these birds had none, so we didn't risk going up to the nest. We watched them briefly, and both the parents who were circling overhead, before gathering up our kit and moving to the next nest.

Large Goshawk chick looking down on frustrated ringing group!

Our second nest was more successful - two chicks, one male and one female were present and both looked to be a good size for ringing. The nests are always located high up in a tree and considerable effort and tree climbing skills are required. But once the chicks have been lowered to the ground and lifted out of the bag you can see that all the effort was worth it.

My first Goshawk!

My first Goshawk chick and what a cracker! This male had a grey iris, chestnut feathering to the head and breast and a grey mantle. The birds were surprisingly docile in the hand but I was still mindful of the fearsome looking bill and talons whilst holding them.

Female goshawk...what an awesome bird!

Size is always a difficult thing to gauge, and having only seen goshawks in the field before, I was very surprised by their enormous size, particularly the females that is. There is considerable sexual size dimorphism in many raptor species and in goshawks (and sparrowhawks) it is very evident. The wing span of a male ranges between 90 - 105 cm whereas a female ranges from 108 - 120 cm, for comparison the wingspan of a buzzard ranges between 110 - 130 cm. Interestingly though the tarsus of a female goshawk is larger than that of a buzzard; it takes an 'H' size ring rather than the 'G' size that the buzzard and the male goshawk takes.

Goshawk Chick - slightly bedraggled after morning rain

Success again at the third nest, this time three chicks, two females and a male, all downy young and a nice manageable size for ringing.

Downy Goshawk chick, the youngest of the day but still a good weight

Given that these birds were so easy to handle I took a pic of their tarsi to illustrate the difference in size between the male and female birds. It is quite obvious and when compared with the thumb holding one of the birds it is possible to see just how large these birds are.

Comparison of male (upper) and female (lower) legs.
The thumb in the top left hand corner gives a good indication of the size of these birds,
particularly the hind claw of the female

Our fourth and final nest was located on a limb at least 25m up a tree, and required some excellent climbing skills. We could not see into the nest to see whether it was occupied, but as we walked into the copse a female goshawk began calling loudly, so we had a pretty good clue that it was.

Climbing up to the nest 25 metres up!

And after what seemed a never ending climb to the nest, and several close passes from a female goshawk, that to be honest was more reminiscent of a macaw since it was moulting its outer tail feathers, we had three more chicks. 

Three very healthy chicks - two females in the foreground with the male at the
back being lifted out of the weighing bag

Two more females and one male. Once again the birds were very placid and seemed to just accept what was happening around them, I wish kestrel chicks were as docile as this!

Slightly bedraggled chick after a rain shower

By the end of the day I had ringed eight goshawk chicks and had some fantastic views of both male and female adults. These birds look extremely fearsome but they were a delight to handle and I ended the day without so much as a scratch on me.....amazing thanks Wayne!

Goshawk chick - it's important to keep an eye/hand on the talons!

As a footnote to this post, on the very next day, Saturday 8th June, I was loading up my car with ringing kit to go a check my owl/kestrel boxes when a cat got in my house. The bugger ran up stairs into my bedroom and I just could not get it out! Eventually I managed to grab it but in doing so it sank its teeth into my hand and its claws into my arm. By Saturday night my arm was double its normal size and I was on antibiotics. By Monday morning I was in casualty on intravenous antibiotics and being prepared for surgery to open the wounds and clean them. After three days in hospital I was released but still have four nasty open wounds on my arms and am on antibiotics. I not sure what the moral of the story is here, but I certainly will think twice before tackling a domestic cat with my bare hands in future, but will have no hesitation in handling another goshawk!!