Scouse Ringer

On Tour: Vale Soeiro

2012-02-17T22:24:00.001Z

On Monday night we both arrived in Coimbra to stay with our good friend Paulo Tenreiro for a few days. On Tuesday morning we headed to a new site that PADA started ringing in November (shortly after I left from my autumn visit). The ringing session was part of a project investigating wintering birds, using standardised capture techniques and rotated through the different wintering ringing locations in a similar way to CES.

Early on, it was pretty cold, so once all the nets were up, we tucked into a hearty breakfast, the likes of which we don't see at Crosby Hall. This new site is mainly made up of a mixture of pines, although most of these are now dead as the result of a parasitic beetle, and olive trees.

Throughout the morning, there were a good number of Chaffinch and Serin calling from the surrounding area, as well as a few determined Firecrests that continued their high-pitched warblings, sadly none of these species were caught. Blackcap and Robin were the order of the day, making up the majority of the catch. In a few weeks, these birds will start to head North towards their breeding grounds, although some birds will be resident. This was evident in the number of birds carrying fat reserves, principally Blackcap.

By the end of the morning, we had managed to ring 39 birds, whilst these totals were less than half that of those caught further North, it was apparent that there was less opportunities for the birds to feed on the pollen of the acacias, as there were none in the vicinity.

It was good to complete a ringing session with Paulo Ferreira once again, the first with him since August at Santo André. We were also joined by José, a new trainee of the group, attending only his second ringing session - one for the future. By the time we had packed up, the air temperature had risen into double figures and our fingers managed to thaw out!

Ringing team (from left): Scouse Ringer, José, Paulo T, Paulo F

Blackcap - 13 (16)

Robin - 22 (6)

Sardinian Warbler - 1

Song Thrush - 1

Blackbird - 1 (1)

Short-toes Treecreeper - (1)

TOTAL 39 (24)

On Tour: Veiga da S.Simao Day 2

2012-02-15T21:08:00.000Z

On Monday, a much reduced team, in size and not quality (!), headed back to Veiga da S.Simao for a second day of ringing. Using the same nets as the day before as well as an additional 9m in a patch of gorse, we weren't expecting a large catch, due to the impact of the day before and the increased wind speed. As it happened, we were to be pleasantly surprised.

The first net round brought a decent return, mainly made up of Blackcap, the majority of which were covered in pollen from the acacia. With the volume of birds from the first net round and with Miguel and Vanessa still trainees, Moxey went around the nets with Pedro and Tó as we continued to ring the birds. The group returned shortly afterwards with only a few birds, including a second Dartford Warbler, and we expected that the numbers were due to slow down.

By the third net round, the air temperature had risen, and so it seemed had the birds. A Firecrest, the first for the site, was an unexpected bonus in the atricapilla line and on the same net round, we had a Siskin in the new net, now named spinus in it's honour. This made Miguel a very happy boy from Braga.

Miguel and his Estrelinha

Firecrest (Regulus igniacapilus)

Siskin (Carduelis spinus)

The catch rate remained steady for the rest of the morning, with plenty of Blackcap and Chiffchaff turning up, spread between the different net lines. During the morning there were a number of sightings, including Osprey, Peregrine Falcon, Sparrowhawk and Buzzard, whilst White Stork were also observed (the northernmost nesting site of White Stork was across the road).

Some of the team (from left): Vanessa, Miguel, Scouse Ringer, Pedro.

As I have mentioned in this and the previous two posts, Blackcap were the order of the day for both sessions and we were slightly disappointed not to catch one with a foreign ring, although we did retrap some of our own birds from previous sessions. The results of these sessions, and the fact that most of the Blackcap were carrying between 2 and 4 in fat score, highlight the importance of sites such as Veiga da S.Simao and also the importance of their current food source - pollen. The accumulation of pollen around the beak looks comical at times, but also rather awkward for the birds, especially Chiffchaff.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Pollen accumulation

By the end of the session, we had managed to beat the total of the day before, a rather satisfying result before the drive/train down to Coimbra.

Blackcap -   54   (5)
Chiffchaff -   19   (2)
Dartford Warbler -   1
Sardinian Warbler -   1   (1)
Wren -   1   (1)
Blackbird -   1
Firecrest -    1
Siskin -   1
L.T.Tit -   2   (2)
Chaffinch -   1
Robin -   2   (1)
Cetti's Warbler -   2   (5)
House Sparrow -   1   (1)
Great Tit -   1
S.T.Treecreeper -   (2)

TOTAL:   88   (20)

Charming!

On Tour: Veiga da S.Simao Day 1

2012-02-14T16:18:00.000Z

On Saturday morning, me and Moxey headed off for another trip to Portugal following my successful visit last February.....April....July/August.....and (unsuccessfully), in October. The plan was to ring for a few days in the North, near the small city of Viana do Castelo and then head south for a few days to the Mondego Valley to ringing with Paulo.

Sunday morning saw us arrive at Veiga da S.Simao by 6:20 to get the nets up before dawn which was some time after 7am. We were joined by quite a crew of trainees from the PBG group of ringers, based in the Porto area, as well as the giant Miguel Capelo from Braga. Having not visited the site since July (although Tó completed the Atlas sessions in late August and September), we were expecting the site to be pretty wet, as was the case last year, however the lack of rain this winter in Portugal has meant that everywhere is pretty dry. In some the case of the city of Braganca in the North-east of Portugal, they are already having to take drinking water into the city in tankers because there are insufficient levels in the reservoirs. I digress.

Morning at Veiga

It was pretty cold when we arrived, the in-car thermometer suggested that the temperature was just below zero, but it was the bare flesh of the hands on the metal poles that really made us cold. We started off with the three lines that have been consistent since the initial session in October 2010, named after the principle species they caught in the initial session or the chapel - atricapilla, collybita and igreja. We added a new net location, just one 15m part the way through the morning, after observing Blackcap and Chiffchaff movements amongst the acacia, so we named it 'Mimosa'.

Linha Mimosa

With so many trainees in attendance, it was lucky that we had a successful session, last February's sessions hadn't been that fruitful, mainly yielding resident birds with only a few winter visitors. This year however, there was a bigger presence of migrant species, principally Blackcap and Chiffchaff, largely feeding on the pollen of the acacia.

The Veiga Ringing Collective

We also had the unexpected company of a horse. Tó bonded particularly well with the horse, so he decided to call it Tony, after his favourite singer - Tony Carreira.

Tó gets 'familiar'

Earlier in the morning, one of the trainees had seen a Dartford Warbler in the meadow, to which we were surprised but on the next net round we had this young male waiting for us in the collybita line, right next to a Sardinian Warbler. It was Tó's first and a new, unexpected species for the site.

Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata)

Tó - undatably the happiest Vianense

With such an abundance of pollen, most of the birds were covered in it, including this Blue Tit that looked more like a hybrid with a Penduline Tit given the discolouration caused by the pollen.

Blue Tit (Cyanastes caeruleus pollenensis)

By midday, the weather had warmed up, a beautiful clear sky was above us and we had plenty of assistance packing away - a rather satisfying morning!

Blackcap -   38   (2)
Chiffchaff -   18
Chaffinch -   2
Dartford Warbler -   1
Cetti's Warbler -   4   (2)
Robin -   5
Coal Tit -   1   (1)
Wren -   1   (1)
Sardinian Warbler -   1   (2)
Dunnock - 1   (1)
Blue Tit -   3
L.T.Tit -   2
Stonechat - 1
Greenfinch -   1
House Sparrow -   1
Blackbird -   1
Short-toed Treecreeper -   1

TOTAL :   81   (9)

Following a spot of lunch, we headed up to Caminha on the Minho river to take a look at Paul do Coura where we had a successful ringing session in July. Things were pretty quiet with the odd Fan-tailed Warbler, Reed Bunting and Water Rail in attendance.

One of July's lines - well made!

A Frosty Reception

2012-02-06T20:55:00.000Z

On Sunday morning, myself and Moxey headed off to Kings Moss, realising it would be our best opportunity of catching any real numbers. Despite the forecast, the overnight temperatures dipped below zero and with the drizzle of the evening before, the driving conditions were trecherous. The frost produced these fantastic effects on the willow:

As it was just the two of us, we only put eight nets up, covering two of the feeding stations. Following Steves dedicated observations of the day before, we had been expecting finch flock to come in mid-morning. We were lucky with the wind, for the second session running, and we were able to put 30m of net along the hedge at the edge of the stubble field, bringing us two Redwing (first of the year), two Song Thrush (first of the year) and a single Yellowhammer.

Redwing (Turdus illiacus)

As expected, the finch numbers started to pick up through the morning, mainly at the feeding station near the orchard. Two Yellowhammer early on, along with a Reed Bunting were caught amongst a couple of Chaffinches. The other feeding station was mainly producing the titmice with plenty of retraps.

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)

Other observations included a persistent male Sparrowhawk, Grey Partridge, Kestrel and a few Fieldfare. Steve popped along around eleven to help us pack away just as a new finch flock descended bringing a good catch of Goldfinch. I had to pack up at midday however, a site visit on Rimrose in preparation for the BOB Box installation.

By the time we departed, the thaw was almost complete, and I could feel my fingers again!

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

Song Thrush -   2
Redwing -   2
Blackbird -   (1)
Yellowhammer -   3
Reed Bunting -   1
Chaffinch -   6   (1)
Goldfinch -   14
Greenfinch -   3
Blue Tit -   9   (17)
Great Tit -   3   (5)
Dunnock -   (2)
Bullfinch -   2
Willow Tit -   (1)

TOTAL:   45    (27)

Hammer Time

2012-01-28T15:59:00.001Z

This mornings session was held at Kings Moss as we had planned for last week but were put off by persistent bad weather. Today was a completely different story. Arriving at Kings Moss at 7am, the air was crisp, there was a reasonable frost and the sky was clear with absolutely no wind. These conditions are rare in this neck of the woods to say the least!

We decided to put a couple of extra nets up today, an additional 32m of nets alongside a hedge where, last session, we saw a lot of Yellowhammer activity. It was clear from the start that there weren't as many birds around, most likely as a result of the mowing of one of the stubble fields that had held a considerable number of finches last time out. With the four of us, we managed to get the nets up sharpish and get some music on the go by the time the Sun awoke.

First bird of the day happened to be the very bird we were targetting, a juvenile male Yellowhammer, joined later by an adult female and, on the penultimate net round, a stonking adult male. Sadly a battery failure on my phone (it's been playing up recently) meant that there are no photos of said stonker. The Yellowhammer were Charlies first of the species, unfortunately he did not get to ring a Willow Tit, but he did get to process two retraps. Right from the off Goldfinches and Chaffinches were caught and made up the majority of the catch, present in every net round.

As the Sun rose, the frost started to thaw exposing the quagmire caused by the week of heavy rain and leaving me, as the only one who opted for walking boots over wellies, rather muddy. Schoolboy error.

Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella)

As the session progressed, and we all warmed up, the titmice started to become more active, spread between the two main feeding sites. Unusually, no Bullfinches were caught, although a pair was seen briefly, as was a Buzzard digging for worms in the field adjacent to the cattle. A male and a female Kestrel were the only other raptors of any note.

Steve got off early, part-timer, to go watch the second team of Liverpool play the first team of Manchester, leaving myself to ring a bird in the form of the final Yellowhammer. Not a bad first bird to ring on my new trainer endorsed A permit!! Thanks to Seamus Eaves for taking a look at me for my upgrade.

The Kings Moss Massive

                                                                           Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Wren -   1
L.T.Tit -   (5)
Blue Tit -   6   (8)
Great Tit -   4   (7)
Willow Tit -    (2)
Robin -   (1)
Dunnock -   1   (2)
Chaffinch -    11
Goldfinch -   13
Reed Bunting -   2
Yellowhammer -    3
Greenfinch -   3
Blackbird -   2

TOTAL:   46   (25)

The forecast for the morning looks promising and Moxey has been keeping an eye on Crosby Hall, according to him it is due a good session.....time will tell!

Rimrose Ringers Launched

2012-01-23T22:08:00.000Z

Following the re-emergence of plans to build a dual carriageway down the middle of Rimrose Valley Country Park, home of Brook Vale LNR and Fulwood Marsh, I have been putting a lot of work into building a website to showcase the wildlife of Rimrose Valley. The website can be found here.

The website is still under development, but at this stage I am looking for individuals, either local or from further afield, who have any knowledge of, or records from, the site to contribute to the work we are trying to do. At this stage, we are looking to complete a number of surveys to try and build up a more accurate picture of the flora and fauna of the park.

On Sunday I headed down for an afternoon on Rimrose, it was too windy to go ringing, to scope out sites for a new nest box project that I will be setting up over the next few weeks with help from Savio High School. The school has developed a social enterprise around a unique product that was conceived by one of the teachers, Steve Burrows, of a multi-use next box - for bats or birds - BOB. The BOB box is excellent and I will be making a specific post about this later in the week. I've identified three different sites for the boxes to be located and we will get them up over the few weeks ready for the breeding season.

Here's a selection of pictures from my walk:

Scrapes in full flood

View towards the Piggeries

The handywork of the Rangers - ongoing willow carr management

The reed bed at Fulwood

As Reservas do Mondego

2012-01-22T01:09:00.000Z

As I have detailed here extensively in the past, I spend a lot of time ringing in Portugal, largely as part of the PADA Group of Ringers of which I am a contributor. In April, members of the group were filmed to be part of a short documentary on the natural reserves of the Mondego Valley.....until Miguel fell in the mud, took his pants off and promptly broke the camera!
This morning, Paulo emailed me a link to download the video, so I've uploaded it to YouTube to share with the wider community...you can even make out my ugly mug in there somewhere...

Note from Director:
Dado que só eu, o PJF, JFC e PFJ aparecemos nas imagens, a ausencia do PMA concede uma classificação de "Para todos". Sabemos que a presença dele conferia uma classificação de XXX - pornografia extrema". Agradece-se ao João Silva (Realizador) esta decisão.

Translated as:
Given that only Paulo Tenreiro, Scouse Ringer, Joana Cruz and Paulo Ferreira appear in the film and, in the absence of Miguel Araújo, the film has been granted a 'U' certificate. We all know that the presence of Miguel would give the film an 'XXX' certificate, for 'pornographic content'. Thanks to Joao Silva, the director, for this decision.

Third Day Running...

2012-01-17T22:33:00.000Z

On Sunday, I headed out to Crosby Hall on my own for the first session at the site of the year and an unprecedented third consecutive day of ringing for the gang. I've moaned extensively about the weather for the past two months, but this weekend, I can't really complain.

Accompanied by blue skies and subzero temperatures, I used the usual nets at the feeding station and another four elsewhere in the main body of the wood. As expected, the feeding station saw the majority of the action however, there was a considerable amount of Goldcrest activity in the wood. There isn't really much else to report except the lack of thrushes that has been evident over the past few weeks continues. Given that the air temperature reached as low as -2 degrees, I processed the birds quickly and opted against taking any photo's. As a result, I've included a few random shots from a trip I made to Oman a few years ago.

Blue Tit - 13 (3)
Great Tit -   3   (8)
Coal Tit -   (1)
L.T.Tit -    1   (5)
Goldcrest -   5   (3)
Robin -   1   (2)
Dunnock -   1   (2)
Chaffinch -   4   (1)
Greenfinch -   3

TOTAL:   31   (25)

Common Sandpiper (Actitis hyperleucos)

Garganey (Anas querquedula)

Patience.....

2012-01-15T22:21:00.001Z

Yesterday I headed out to Kings Moss with Charlie and Moxey to take advantage of a rare high pressure system that has given us a couple of days of settled weather, much needed given the disasterous situation we encountered during December. We usually seperate our Kings Moss sessions by a fortnight, but given the observations at our more local sites, we decided to give it another go this week.

This was Charlies first session at Kings Moss and given that there are a few species that we catch at Kings Moss that we don't catch elsewhere (Willow Tit, Yellowhammer) so I was hopeful that he would at least get a chance to process a few new species. Despite the high pressure, clear skies and the frost, things started off slowly, with a few Chaffinch turning up early amongst the titmice. Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting were about in numbers from the outset, but despite our encouragement, we were unable to catch any all morning. Steve has subsequently made a few changes to the feeding arrangements to see if we can capitalise in the next week or two.

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

Female Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

The catch rate throughout the morning was reasonably steady, with Chaffinch catching well and whilst the lack of Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting in our bird bags was slightly disappointing, it was good to be catching decent numbers of Fringilla. Steve turned up late morning with his permit renewal forms for Moxey to sign, giving Natasha an opportunity to handle a few birds, whilst me and Steve did a walk around to check out future opportunities.

Male Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)

Goldfinch (Carduelis carduelis)

By midday, the human traffic had begun to increase, so we gradually took the nets down, packing up after a successful session, Charlies first session at the site was a success, hopefully next time he will get some new species.

Blue Tit -   22   (7)
Great Tit -   5   (5)
Coal Tit - 1
L.T.Tit -   (1)
Dunnock -   1   (2)
Robin -   6   (5)
Chaffinch -   19
Goldfinch -   4   (1)
Bullfinch -   1
Greenfinch -   2

TOTAL:   62   (21)

A Different Slant

2012-01-14T17:08:00.004Z

Yesterday Moxey headed to a garden in the vicinity of our Ince Blundell site, courtesy of Dennis McNamara, with significant success. The first bird of the day was a male Sparrowhawk that went into the net as Moxey was putting it up, Dennis had to hold one end if the net so Moxey could get it out and then finish putting the net up!!! Not a bad start.

Moxey reports that the catch rate was steady and as expected, dominated by titmice. Dennis previously had good numbers of Goldfinch coming to the nijer in his garden but in recent weeks, these have become more elusive. Two Great-spotted Woodpeckers gave Moxey something to cry about...when holding them for photos, the 'peckers vented the full force of their fury on Moxeys fingers...nothing compared to a Pileated Woodpecker though!

Nuthatch (Sitta europeia)

Moxey (Homo moxensis)

Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Great-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocops major)

By the end of the session, Moxey had caught well over 100 birds, and Dennis got an opportunity to further his intrigue into ringing, having previously attended a number of sessions over the road at Ince Blundell. Many thanks to Dennis for allowing the use of his garden!

Coal Tit - 4 (1)
Blue Tit - 51 (15)
Great Tit - 13 (4)
Goldfinch - 4
Chaffinch - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Starling - 1
G.S.Woodpecker - 2
Blackbird - 1
Dunnock - 4
Robin - 8
Sparrowhawk - 1

TOTAL: 91 (20)

I will leave the last word to Moxey: "Not bad for starters" - that's the spirit!

Finally!

2012-01-10T23:31:00.004Z

After weeks of weather-induced frustration, we finally managed to get out to Kings Moss for a session with Steve and Natasha. We'd hoped to have gone out on Saturday, but when we woke, the winds were far too strong to even consider attempting to go out, so we switched the sessions and headed out on Sunday morning.

Arriving on site, the wind was stronger than we would have preferred, however it was forecast to die down so we put up a reduced number of nets so that we weren't caught short should the weather change.....which it did! Steve has put in a lot of hard work over the last few months, making sure that the net rides have kept clear and last weekend, Steve used his judgement, based on his patient observations, to clear a new net ride at 'feeding station 1'. Within a minute of having the net up for the first time, it had caught a bird, a Goldfinch and it continued to catch well throughout the day, contributing a significant number of Chaffinch and Goldfinch - well done Steve!

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

Early in the session, the catch was dominated by finches with a 100+ flock of Goldfinch circulating throughout the site during the morning. By 10am, the Chaffinch had died off and the tit activity started to increase at the feeding station. By 10:30 however, the light rain that had been forecast started to kick in, and we had to shut down operations.

Willow Tit (Parus montanus)

By the time we were all packed up, we were all rather moist, however with 77 new birds in the ringing file, we were quite happy despite the lack of Reed Bunting and Yellowhammer that we had all been hoping for.

Wren - 1
Great Tit - 4 (2)
Blue Tit - 19 (4)
Willow Tit - (3)
Goldfinch - 32 (2)
Chaffinch - 16
Bullfinch - 2 (1)
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 2

TOTAL: 77 (12)

Summary of 2011

2012-01-07T15:38:00.005Z

With no ringing today due to the string winds here in Liverpool, I've been able to total up mine and Moxey's totals for 2011 and here they are:

Species	Ringed	Retraps/Recoveries	Total Processed
Sparrowhawk	2	1	3
Buzzard	2		2
Kestrel	27	1	28
Stock Dove	5		5
Woodpigeon	11	1	12
Barn Owl	42	1	43
Little Owl	2		2
Swift	308	66	374
G.S.Woodpecker	9	3	12
Swallow	90	1	91
House Martin	202	20	222
Meadow Pipit	12		12
Wren	72	14	86
Dunnock	108	39	147
Robin	145	60	205
Wheatear	1		1
Blackbird	205	55	260
Fieldfare	4		4
Song Thrush	30	3	33
Mistle Thrush	4		4
Redwing	36		36
Grasshopper Warbler	4		4
Sedge Warbler	26	2	28
Reed Warbler	79	24	103
Whitethroat	89	10	99
Garden Warbler	10		10
Blackcap	425	39	464
Chiffchaff	83	17	100
Willow Warbler	18	1	19
Goldcrest	122	25	147
Spotted Flycatcher	1		1
L.T.Tit	149	69	218
Willow Tit	4	6	10
Coal Tit	52	45	97
Blue Tit	482	288	770
Great Tit	272	284	556
Nuthatch	6	16	22
Treecreeper	10	10	20
Jay	8		8
Magpie	8	1	9
Jackdaw	11		11
Starling	4		4
House Sparrow	13	1	14
Tree Sparrow	1		1
Chaffinch	189	34	223
Brambling	9		9
Greenfinch	130	14	144
Goldfinch	85	12	97
Siskin	11		11
Linnet	22		22
Redpoll	10		10
Bullfinch	24	2	26
Yellowhammer	1		1
Reed Bunting	43	4	47

TOTAL:	3719	1174	4893

New Species for 2011:

Buzzard - One nest
Spotted Flycatcher - Brook Vale
Meadow Pipit - Brook Vale
Redpoll - Woodhams, Brook Vale & Fulwood
Willow Tit - Kings Moss
Yellowhammer - Kings Moss
Grasshopper Warbler - Fulwood
Tree Sparrow - Crosby
Wheatear - Hightown Fields

When comparing the 2010 and 2011 totals, it is significant to notice the decline in our ringing totals of finch species. Whilst we have increased our totals of Linnet, Redpoll, Brambling, Bullfinch, Siskin and Reed Bunting we have seen a decline in the numbers of Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Chaffinch despite a similar effort made. The lack of ringing that was completed in late November and all of December will have had a significant impact on the totals of these species in particular.

BIRD OF 2011

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Runners-up:

Buzzard (Buteo buteo)

Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

INTERNATIONAL BIRD OF THE YEAR 2011

Orphean Warbler (Sylvia Hortensis)

Once again, I wish all ringers, birdwatchers and naturalists everywhere a successful 2012.

Off the mark...

2012-01-02T20:07:00.004Z

After the December that the Met Office officially referred to as 'the most anti-ringing since records began', it was excellent to get out this morning with Moxey to fit a quick Bank Holiday session in before I go back to work tomorrow. The session looked in jeopardy before we started, with pretty strong gusts when I arrived in Crosby to collect Moxey but we headed out to Ince Blundell and found some shelter in the woods. With the weather as it was, we decided to stick to just three nets, two at the feeding station and one at the bottom.

As predicted, the catch was dominated by tits, with a lot of retraps, mostly caught at the feeding station. Two retrap Goldcrest and a new Treecreeper were the highlights from the net at the bottom, whilst the biggest catch of Chaffinches in a long time came from the feeding station. The session was punctuated however, with talk of the lack of thrushes, Robins and Dunnocks. There was very little 'noise' in the woods from any of these species, the odd Mistle Thrush or flypast Redwing aside. These absences have been the standard so far this winter, which has been milder, wetter and windier than in previous years.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris)

And so with 2012 now underway, we are off the mark for the year, the total birds ringed of 34 today, more than doubles the total birds ringed during December (yes, it really was that bad!). As January lays before us, there are a few projects that I need to get moving on. One of which is the analysis of the Blackbird data that I, and others, have been collecting for the past two years. Hopefully by the time I see Miguel Araujo in February, we'll have got something provisionally in place. Secondly, I am building a new website specifically relating to the work done on Rimrose Valley, now under threat with the proposal of a new link road, indeed to a road that is yet to exist itself. More on that later.

Chaffinch - 6
Goldcrest - (2)
L.T.Tit - 1 (2)
Blue Tit - 16 (21)
Great Tit - 6 (22)
Coal Tit - 4 (1)
Treecreeper - 1

TOTAL: 34 (48)

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T14:25:00.003Z

December has been an awful month for ringing here in North Liverpool with only two sessions attempted as a result of the strong winds and rain that are the scourge of any ringing session. Two session at Brook Vale yielded a very low return, with only thirteen birds ringed which seemed to echo the observations at our other feeding sites where there has been little activity, insufficient to warrant a ringing session should the weather have agreed.

With plenty of cancelled ringing sessions, its left time to catch up with jobs around the house and making sure all of the data is entered on IPMR ready for the end of year submission. Recently however, there has been a resurfacing of the link road proposal between the Thornton relief road (yet to be built) and Dunningsbridge Road at Seaforth, this would run straight down the middle of Rimrose Valley Country Park, destroying Brook Vale Nature Reserve and Fulwood Marsh. It would appear the Peel Holdings are looking to capitalise on the fragile state of the economy, relaxed planning legislation and the promise of jobs. I don't want to go into the proposal in too much detail here, but as a group of ringers, we will challenge the proposal and the impact that it will have on this important area for wildlife.

In the next few days, I will release a summary of 2011, a record year for Blackcap, another good year for Swifts and four excellent trips to Portugal. Until then, have a hilarious new year!

Even the birds were on strike!

2011-11-30T20:07:00.002Z

Being a teacher, this morning I made the (very) difficult decision to go on strike in protest at changes that the ConDem government have made to teachers pensions. This however, is a bird blog, so to avoid alienating my audience, this is all I will say on the matter.

So this morning I met Charlie, later joined by Moxey, for a session at Ince Blundell. I would have preferred to ring at Brook Vale this morning, the feeders are getting emptied every other day so I had hoped to get a session in and see what is using the feeders. Recent visits have also highlighted a decent number of Water Rails in the reed bed - so hopefully I will be able to get some traps out to see if we can pick any up. Back to Ince, the shelter afforded by the woodland gave us more optimism for a more productive session but for a while, it looked like the public sector workers were not the only ones on strike!

After a slow start, yielding a large percentage of retraps, we started to pick up the Goldcrests, including one that was ringed at Crosby Hall last month.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

Given the time of year, I would have expected to find more thrushes in the woods, yet during the whole ringing session, I only saw one Song Thrush, two Blackbirds and heard a single Mistle Thrush. This was in addition to a lack of Chaffinches - on paper, Ince Blundell is a the ideal woodland site for Chaffinches, but of the four caught, two were retraps - both ringed by Ian in nearby Thornton. Whilst this might sound like a ringer 'complaining' about low ringing totals, it does provide interesting conversation during the ringing sessions and begs the question, 'where are the birds?'.

Once Moxey had arrived, we put up an extra 15m net and had instant success as it brought in a first-year male Blackcap, four new Goldcrest and a retrap Treecreeper - justifying the long walk down 'the bottom'.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Treecreeper (Certhia familiaris)

By 1am we had wrapped the session up and after the slow start, we had caught a satisfying seventy five birds, going some way to making up for the damp squib (David Cameron please take note of the real meaning of the term - ooops, sorry!) that was last weekend.

Goldcrest - 8 (5)
Treecreeper - (1)
L.T.Tit - 1 (3)
Coal Tit - (2)
Blue Tit - 8 (15)
Great Tit - 7 (15)
Chaffinch - 2 (2)
Blackcap - 1
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 2 (2)

TOTAL: 30 (45)

The weather doesn't look great for the foreseeable and we are still without any real cold weather.

Brambling about the best...

2011-11-21T18:19:00.005Z

Me and Moxey headed to Crosby Hall on Sunday morning, a morning that could only be described as grey! It was a reasonably calm start to the morning, with all the nets up by 8am we were hoping for a good catch following Saturdays relative success.

The early activity was from the Long-tailed Tits and Goldcrest with very little action at the feeding station, most likely as a result of the shoot the day before. By 9am, things started to pick up a bit with the second Brambling of the winter, a first-year female, that was followed by a couple of Chaffinches.

Brambling (Fringilla montefringilla)

Current indications from our ringing totals suggest that it hasn't been a great year for Great Tits, whereas Blue Tits have done better, although maybe not as well as in previous years. Yesterday we only managed six Great Tit, three of which were ringed this year, and three at least one calendar year ago.

We were joined briefly by Matthew and Olivia before it was time to pack up and they were thrilled to handle Nuthatch, Greenfinch and Blue Tits. I always enjoy showing the birds to the youngsters (it makes a change to the ageing trainees!).

L.T.Tit - 9
Goldcrest - 3 (2)
Blue Tit - 8 (5)
Coal Tit - (2)
Great Tit - (6)
Brambling - 1
Chaffinch - 2
Robin - 1 (1)
Greenfinch - 4
Nuthatch - 1
Blackbird - (1)
G.S.Woodpecker - (1)

TOTAL: 29 (18)

In other news, Ian caught retrapped a Chaffinch in his garden on Saturday, it was originally ringed by Moxey at Ince Blundell on 19th January 2003 as an adult male, meaning that this bird is in its tenth calendar year! Pretty decent!

...more 'crests...

2011-11-19T17:29:00.004Z

I met up with Charlie at Ince Blundell this morning, joined by Moxey (once all the nets had been put up I might add!). A mild and bright start made for a pleasant session, with two nets at the feeding station and four others dotted around the woods in the Rhodies. Charlie was back with us after two weeks off, the new Grandchild has arrived and he has officially been released to resume trainee duties!

The first net round yielded approximately half of the birds for the session, including a female Blackcap, bringing our annual total to 423 and the first of fourteen new Goldcrest. Ince has a lot of Rhododendron coverage which provides shelter and feeding opportunities for a number of species, but as has been the pattern over the last few weeks, the thrushes were absent. Having perused many of the ringing blogs during the week, those that I had missed, Moxey was sure to fill me in on, there seems to be a lack of thrushes in the country at the moment. I can only assume that the mild weather, both in Scandanavia and here at home, is what is keeping the thrushes away. Checking the Twitter feeds, there are very few sightings of Waxwings being reported so far, leaving us wondering whether we will have a Waxwing Winter like last year.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

As titmice dominated the catch, the Goldcrests made a refreshing alternative, building on the recent good numbers of this species. I am still hoping for a Firecrest or two, but unfortunately they still evade us despite being heard close to our ringing sites by local birdwatchers. The Yew stands provide excellent cover and feeding for Goldcrest, so a single nine meter net and an mp3 player quickly brings them in, usually followed by a couple of Long-tailed Tits.

Harem of Ladybird

By 11:30, the catch began to slow down and the shoot grew closer, leading a rather ropey moment when a wounded Pheasant hurtled towards my face as I was taking down a net...most would argue that the addition of a Pheasant to my face would be an improvement...others might not notice. Ultimately, I ducked and the Pheasant was lost in a dense cluster of rhodies.....

Charlie rings his first Jay

Goldcrest - 14 (1)
Wren - 1 (1)
L.T.Tit - 6 (3)
Blue Tit - 15 (15)
Great Tit - 9 (20)
Coal Tit - 2 (4)
Robin - 2
Chaffinch - 3
Blackcap - 1
Blackbird - 1 (1)
Jay - 1

TOTAL: 55 (45)

...all quiet...

2011-11-13T16:18:00.004Z

Earlier last week, I blogged about a quiet weekend with sessions at Crosby Hall and Brook Vale yielding less than fifty birds ringed in total, this weekend wasn't much better. With such mild weather, there has been little influx of winter migrants let alone any decent numbers of winter finches and the feeding stations are reasonably quiet. However, there seems to be some hope on the horizon, a midweek Facebook message from Julio Neto, who is currently working in Sweden, informed me that the conditions there are also very mild and there is a decent number of birds that remain. Hopefully they will find their way here soon.

For the past six months I have been taking additional biometric measurements on Reed Buntings for some work that Julio is doing with one of his PhD students. The measurements include measuring the length of each primary, the length, width and height of the bill, the tail and the tarsus as well as photographing the bird in profile. I don't really want to say too much before the work is completed, but this weekend was the last opportunity for collecting this data and with that in mind, Saturday saw us at Fulwood and today we visited Kings Moss with Reed Bunting the target species.

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

It was a quiet start at Fulwood and despite using mp3 playback, the only response from the thrushes was a single Redwing that managed to get out of the net before Moxey could get to it. With a total lack of thrushes, the mp3 was switched to a variety of finch species but there was little response with such few birds around. It was down to the reed bed to provide the Reed Buntings and four new birds were caught, as well as a retrap of a bird originally ringed in July.

L.T.Tit - (4)
Wren - 2
Goldcrest - (1)
Chaffinch - 1
Greenfinch - 1
Blackbird - 1
Reed Bunting - 4 (1)
Great Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 7 (3)

TOTAL: 17 (9)

This mornings session at Kings Moss looked in jepardy upon our arrival as the wind was much stronger inland than it had been in Crosby where we were coming from. However, we stuck with it and managed to find shelter in the woodland with all but one of the usual nets being put up. There was only one Redwing caught of the small flock of 19 that were present this morning and unusually, an absence of Blackbirds and Song Thrushes. Early on, the majority of the activity at the feeding stations was dominated by titmice and as the morning progressed, the Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Bullfinch started to appear to boost our finch total. We also managed to catch three Reed Bunting which gave me an opportunity to take some final measurements before sending data off to Julio tonight. A small amount of excitement was had when I arrived at the pond, with a female Sparrowhawk flapping around in the net, but I barely got off the mark and it was already out of the net.....typical!

Redwing (Turdus iliacus)

Redwing - 1
L.T.Tit - 11 (4)
Willow Tit - (3)
Coal Tit - (1)
Blue Tit - 12 (3)
Great Tit - 3 (3)
Bullfinch - 3
Chaffinch - 5
Greenfinch - 7
Reed Bunting - 3
Dunnock - 1

TOTAL: 46 (14)

Steve and the guys at Fir Tree Farm have done an excellent job at Kings Moss so far, a site full of promise. It will be interesting to see how the site catches through the winter.

Slowing down

2011-11-08T21:07:00.003Z

Following a reasonable end to the month of October, with a flurry of Reed Bunting and Redpoll at Fulwood, the first Brambling of the winter at Crosby Hall and a good yield of Goldcrest all round, the first week of November has been something of a disappointment.

Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis flammea)

First-year male Brambling (Fringilla montefringilla)

Migration seems to have all but ceased, with no real thrush numbers present at any of our sites, particularly Rimrose Valley that yielded the majority of last winters catch. There is also very little finch activity at any of our feeding stations with the titmice also demonstrating a concerted lack of interest.

However, Goldcrest have been an ever-present over the last few weeks and I really can't complain that one of my favourite birds has been the most-ringed in recent weeks. Interestingly, the majority of the Goldcrest have appeared to be migrants, with only one retrap from the previous week at Crosby Hall, the individual in question had a much lower body mass, was not carrying fat and had a muscle score of 2. The nine individuals ringed on Saturday all had a body mass >5.0g and a minimum of fat score 2, suggesting that they were passing through. No Firecrest though, that would have made my week!

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

Crosby Hall

Goldcrest - 9 (1)
Blue Tit - 1 (1)
Great Tit - 4 (2)
Coal Tit - 1
Robin - 2
Chaffinch - 5 (1)
Song Thrush - 1
Blackbird - 3
Nuthatch - (1)

TOTAL: 26 (6)

Whilst the weather has been pretty mild recently, a late Red Admiral on Saturday and flowering blackberries are slightly surreal for early November. Despite the mild daytime temperatures, the signs of winter approach were evident on Sunday morning with the first significant frost of the winter.

Following a top up of the feeders on Saturday lunchtime, the signs looked good at Brook Vale for a session on Sunday morning, Chaffinch, Bullfinch and Greenfinches occupying the feeding station. However, Sunday turned out to be a pretty dismal session, the highlights of which were a single Goldcrest and two passing Whooper Swans.

Frost

Brook Vale

Goldcrest - 1
Blue Tit - 4 (2)
Great Tit - 1 (2)
Robin - 1 (1)
Dunnock - 1
Blackbird - 2
Greenfinch - 2

TOTAL: 12 (5)

Top Ten at Ten

2011-11-02T21:39:00.003Z

As we have now come to the end of the tenth month of 2011, I think it is worth taking a look at ringing totals that myself and Moxey have achieved so far this year. Last week we exceeded our 2010 ringing total, and this is reflected in the increase in certain species, Blackcap in particular. The species with higher totals (so far) than 2010 are in bold.

1. Blackcap (422)
2. Blue Tit (417)
3. Swift (308)
4. Great Tit (242)
5. House Martin (201)
6. Blackbird (194)
7. Chaffinch (168)
8. Robin (126)
9. L.T.Tit (119)
10. Greenfinch (116)

Blackcap - most ringed so far!

This year we have also caught a number of species that we hadn't caught in 2010, these are:

1. Lesser Redpoll (Woodhams, Brook Vale, Fulwood & Kings Moss)
2. Buzzard
3. Yellowhammer (Kings Moss)
4. Spotted Flycatcher (Brook Vale)
5. Grasshopper Warbler (Fulwood)
6. Meadow Pipit (Brook Vale)
7. Willow Tit (Kings Moss)
8. Tree Sparrow (Crosby)

With two months until the end of the year, we are hoping to ring close to 5000 birds this year, but a lot will depend on the weather and the arrival the rest of the winter migrants.

Moxey on Tour: Taipal

2011-11-01T18:54:00.005Z

The 28^th was spent travelling back to Brasfemes so there was no ringing. It was early to bed as an early start was called for. We left about 5am and got the constant effort line up at Taipal before dawn. This is a reedbed site in the Mondego valley near Montemor-o-Velho and it is a place that I always look forward to go to when i visit Paulo. The nets erected it was off for breakfast in Montemor.`

The weather forecast predicted temperatures of 34C but it was rather cool at first. It was another beautiful sunny day with no clouds. The wind was almost non-existent and I just wish we could have these conditions here on Merseyside when we are operating at our sites.

The first net round produced a Little Bittern- a rather stroppy species which is not averse to having a go at you after you have released it on the ground. It was nice to ring one. Over the years I have caught quite a lot of Little Bitterns at Sto. Andre. However recently they have been caught infrequently by us and we have had on sightings of them in some years. The conditions at Taipal are more favourable for them and I usually see them on every visit.

It was an excellent mornings ringing with a total of 43 birds ringed. As one would expect in this habitat Reed Warblers were a substantial part of the catch. There were still a few Bluethroats and Willow Warblers about but nowhere near the numbers of the previous weekend at Salreu. As the morning progressed the temperature rose to the predicted 34C and the catch rate slowed right down.

Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

Little Bittern - 1
Blackbird - 1
Pied Flycatcher - 1
Sedge Warbler - 1
Willow Warbler - 5
Bluethroat - 3
Whitethroat - 1
Cetti’s Warbler - 6
Reed Warbler - 23
Blue Tit - 1

TOTAL: 43

Sadly I had to leave. I had had a great week with Paulo and Luis on the road. In total we ringed 870 birds and I had met up with old friends and made some new ones. My special thanks to Paulo, Isobel, Ana and Daniela for as ever making me so welcome in their home. They are very special people and I look forward to the day we can welcome them into our home.

Paulo put me on the 3pm train in Coimbra and with the instructions of my son Thomas, an ex Porto resident, I managed to navigate the Metro in Porto to the airport to catch the flight back to Liverpool where the temperature was not very different to that of Coimbra.

Moxey on Tour: Atenor

2011-10-30T19:01:00.004Z

We journeyed north to Atenor in the blazing heat. This site is very different to Faia Brava. The habitat had open fields which had been harvested with hedgerows and woods. A stream bordered by trees bisected the ringing site. In total four lines of nets were erected, three along hedges and one a dogleg of two nets, one of which crossed the stream at a dry spot. Azure Winged Magpies were calling all around us and Greenfinches were coming to roost in the trees above the stream. Woodlarks were in evidence and landing in the small trees which were frequented by Pied Flycatchers and Robins. The evening catch was fourteen birds and reflected the change in habitat.

Robin - 9
Whitethroat - 2
Chaffinch - 1
Pied Flycatcher - 2

In the evening we dined at the home of Jambas in the village. We were made very welcome and I have to say his green wine was excellent. He showed a photograph of himself holding his baby son on one arm and a Golden Eagle under the other. The eagle looked at least three times the size of the baby and carrying a new born lamb would be no problem for it. Jambas by the way is an expert at trapping eagles.

Bonelli's Country

The day dawned bright and calm with the nets already opened by my two stalwarts. Trainees take note. The Young Pretender has (Editor Note: Scouse Ringer would like to state that days of being a trainee are long behind him...but would welcome someone to put the nets up for him). After an excellent breakfast prepared as ever by Paulo we did the net rounds. It was to be a busy morning and we each took responsibility for different net lines. Later we were joined by Jambas and his wife Barbara. Paulo Ferreira (PJF) also joined us in the late morning having made the long trip from Aveiro. He got his reward.

Firecrest (Regulus igniacapilus)

The catch was dominated by Sylvia Warblers and they accounted for exactly fifty per cent of the 142 birds of 25 species ringed. Blackcaps dominated the catch and 50 were ringed. One Subalpine warbler was ringed, in keeping with the results elsewhere. One unusual event was the capture of a Grasshopper Warbler in the top pocket—by no means my first but the site was- in the trees. A single Chiffchaff was caught and there was no sign of its Iberian cousins. The third species of wagtail for the trip was a Grey Wagtail caught typically by the stream. The variety of species was very good with some nice species for PJF.

When he arrived we had a new species for him, a Woodlark, one of two caught. He was also re-acquainted with two species he had ringed with me last year, Rock Bunting and Crested Tit. I know he felt the long drive was worth it.

Crested Tit (Parus cristatus)

Rock Bunting (Emberiza cia)

Blackcap - 50
Subalpine Warbler - 1
Garden Warbler - 7
Whitethroat - 11
Sardinian Warbler - 2
Chiffchaff - 1
Willow Warbler - 3
Grasshopper Warbler - 1
Firecrest - 1
Pied Flycatcher - 10
Robin - 12
Redstart - 3
Blackbird - 7
Blue Tit - 4
Great Tit - 3
Crested Tit - 1
Long tailed Tit - 2
Short-toed Treecreeper - 1
Serin - 2
Chaffinch - 9
Woodlark - 2
Grey Wagtail - 1
Cirl Bunting - 2
Rock Bunting - 1
Azure Winged Magpie - 5

TOTAL: 142

After a late lunch, with more of the excellent green wine, and the donkeys had been milked we went off birding. Jambas had promised to show me a Bonelli’s Eagle so off we went to the Douro. The journey took us to places my Volvo or the camper van could not go. I feared for the Land Rover but Jambas was obviously well used to the terrain. We stopped high above the Douro looking across to Spain and waited patiently seeing Crag Martins and some Swifts. Paulo also saw a Goshawk and a Rock Sparrow put in a brief appearance. The scenery was magnificent and the weather glorious but there was no sign of an eagle. We waited patiently and then in the distance on the Spanish side a Bonelli’s appeared. Jambas assured us it was a Bonelli’s but it was distant and I could not see any plumage details. It was quickly lost to view but then another appeared in the same area. This was more obliging and it drifted closer to us. We watched as it glided from right to left along the slopes above the gorge giving superb views. It looked as though it would continue off into the distance but it did a u-turn and we were treated to another flypast giving even better views before turning and disappearing up river. Then the first one re-appeared so I was treated not one but to two Bonelli’s. Thanks Jambas.

José Jambas - The man, the myth, the legend!

Jambas was eager to show us one of favourite places so off we set to the Land Rover. The time for daylight was running short. Another fast journey over rough tracks was followed by a brisk walk over rocks and through scrub to another view of the Douro. It was almost brown trouser time for me as Jambas took me to the edge of a shear drop to show me a roosting Griffon Vulture directly below. The scenery was fantastic and I could happily have stayed there for a few hours but daylight was fading. As we returned to the Land Rover a Nightjar flew past and as we drove on our way to the road I saw another.

The next stop was Mogadouro and the restaurant for the famous steak. It was a must for me and is fast becoming a tradition for us. The steaks are massive and cooked on an open fire. They are from locally bred cattle and are very tender. Last year I managed to eat it all but with the late lunch I have to admit I failed this time. Then it was back to Atenor for a final night in the camper van before returning to Brasfemes.

Moxey on Tour: Faia Brava

2011-10-23T15:44:00.007+01:00

After a damp, blustery weekend here in North Liverpool, there wasn't much to report, so to lighten the mood, here is another instalment from Moxeys September Portugal Tour. I'm off to Portugal for a few days myself now...so see you when I am back. Scouse Ringer

The Douro Landscape

After lunch we set off for the only private reserve in Portugal, Faia Brava. The journey north took us to the border town of Vila Formosa where I had crossed into Spain a few weeks before on my way home with my wife Anne, alias the Mothership, and eldest daughter Julia. Paulo, as usual, was keen to show me the sights so there were several detours. There were spectacular views of the Douro with roosting Griffon Vultures on the cliffs.

We arrived at Faia Brava in the early evening and in time to put up the nets. The formation of the reserve was initiated by Antonio Monteiro. From small beginnings it has expanded and is now quite large. The group have great plans for the area and have made a good start. A small herd of horses keep the grassy areas cropped which encourages rabbits which provide food for both Golden and Bonelli’s Eagles. It also has the aim of reducing the risk of fire which is a real danger in the summer months. Egyptian Vultures breed and along with Griffons frequent the feeding site particularly in the first fifteen day after the eggs have hatched.

The reserve is hilly and boulder strewn with not a great deal of cover for the nets. This meant that the net lines were more apart than usual. The terrain and the glorious weather made net rounds hard work for me - not so for Paulo and Luis.

The evenings catch was twenty nine birds of ten species. The main species was Pied Flycatcher Which was great for me as I don’t handle them at home very often. They seem to by-pass SW Lancs RG area on their migrations.

Whitethroat 1
Pied Flycatcher 10
Blue Tit 9
Sardinian Warbler 1
Short-toed Treecreeper 1
Blackbird 1
Redstart 1
Spotted Flycatcher 1
Cirl Bunting 1
Great Tit 1

TOTAL: 27

26th September: Faia Brava

The day dawned bright and chilly. Paulo and Luis had the nets open and after breakfast we ringed the roosted birds while Paulo did the rounds.

Luis was keen to ring Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and I was very keen to see one as they are absent from my sites and the only one I had ringed was over 20 years ago. As usual, Paulo did not disappoint us. In the first round he brought one with a Nightjar from the first line – not bad for quality.

Lesser-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocops minor)

Redstart (Pheonicurus phoenicurus)

The weather warmed up and I was grateful I did not have to do the hard slog around the nets. Luis and I were helped greatly by Vanessa doing the scribing. Paulo brought us a steady stream of birds including a Reed Warbler. What was that doing there in such an arid place? Three Griffon Vultures drifted over while we were ringing just before Paulo brought us two Hoopoes. There was an added bonus as we could compare them and see that one was a juvenile and the other an adult.

Corn Bunting (Miliaria calandara)

Dartford Warbler (Sylvia undata)

Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus)

Like Vale de Senhora da Pova, the bulk of the warblers caught were Blackcaps and the Subalpines had largely gone. Only two were ringed but there was a nice surprise for Luis, his first Dartford Warbler. Then Paulo brought back a sparrow. Now Spanish Sparrows breed commonly in the village and surrounding area but alas it was just a House Sparrow. I now have a reason to return here – not that I need one though.

Antonio alerted me to a Golden Eagle that was drifting by directly overhead. This gave me the opportunity to break off from ringing and do the scribing thus allowing Vanessa to do some ringing. She showed great potential and i hope she gets the bug.

Towards the end of the session as Paulo was extracting at one of the lines, some Thekla Larks decided to fly into the nets right next to him. So Paulo and Luis got to ring them. They brought the total of species ringed to 25 for the day and in all a very satisfactory total of 87 birds were ringed.

All too soon it was time to move on and say our farewells. Many thanks are due to Antonio and his colleagues for their help and hospitality. I will return next year given half the chance.

Sardinian Warbler - 9
Blackcap - 23
Robin - 3
Stonechat - 2
Pied Flycatcher - 5
Blue Tit - 5
Cirl Bunting - 2
Corn Bunting - 1
Reed Warbler - 1
Redstart - 1
Whinchat - 1
Garden Warbler - 1
Blackbird - 12
Hoopoe - 2
Nightjar - 1
Whitethroat - 1
Nuthatch - 1
Thekla Lark - 4
Great Tit - 2
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker - 1
Willow Warbler - 3
Subalpine Warbler - 2
Dartford Warbler - 1
Short-toed Treecreeper - 2
House Sparrow - 1

TOTAL: 87

A Damp Day of Diversity

2011-10-19T18:57:00.005+01:00

Me and Moxey made the fourteen mile trip to Kings Moss on Sunday morning, to meet Steve for the third session at the site. The weather was not in our favour early on, a slow movement of low cloud and intermittent light drizzle but we didn't let this dampen our enthusiasm. We quickly got the nets up, the usual line (originally identified as being ideal for thrushes during migration), the two feeding stations and a dog leg at the pond.

A grey, damp start at Kings Moss

It was a slow start, largely due to the mist that decended shortly after dawn that seemed to curtail any significant dawn movements, in contrast to Saturday on Rimrose. The feeding stations produced the bulk of the birds early on, with Chaffinch, titmice and Bullfinch coming in in numbers.

Willow Tit (Parus montanus)

Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

The mist started to lift by 9am and with that, the thrushes started to move, the line picking up the Redwing and later on the Song Thrush and Fieldfare. As Moxey and Steve continued the ringing, I was constantly circulating around the nets removing the steady stream of birds. Once again the thrushes were abundant in good numbers, despite the lack of overhead migration.

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea)

Steve with his first Redwing

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Steve and Natasha with their first Fieldfare

By the end of the morning, we had finished on totals approaching the hundred mark, making this the most productive session so far at Kings Moss with twenty different species being caught and ringed. The feeding stations are yet to really establish and with the thrush migration starting to pick up, next weekend, weather permitting, may yet be a bigger one.

Blackbird - 9 (1)
Fieldfare - 3
Redwing - 4
Song Thrush - 4
Reed Bunting - 2
Blue Tit - 16
Great Tit - 16
Willow Tit - 1 (1)
Coal Tit - 1 (2)
Greenfinch - 2
Nuthatch - 1
Goldfinch - 5
Goldcrest - 4
L.T.Tit - 1 (7)
Bullfinch - 5 (1)
Wren - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Chaffinch - 8
Robin - 2 (2)
Dunnock - 3

TOTAL: 89 (14)

Upthrush

2011-10-18T19:37:00.002+01:00

On Saturday morning, I met Charlie (not very) bright and early at Brook Vale with hopes of late Blackcap and Chiffchaff and the first real thrush movement. It was to transpire that we were to have a little bit of everything. Using the usual line at the feeding station, where activity has increased this week, and a couple of extra nets in the elder, we were a smaller operation than usual, however we were using mp3 to try and call in the thrushes, 'crests and late warblers.

The first net round brought the first Redwing of the autumn, with a couple of late Blackcap and a handful of Goldcrest. The first Goldcrest out of the net was already ringed, which is reasonably unusual given that we don't ring many Goldcrest at Brook Vale and most of the ones that we do are on passage. So, with a closer inspection, the ring was read: DRN954 - the bird was a young male, and the ring isn't from an SWLRG sequence, so this is likely to be a northern bird, possibly a similar movement to the Goldcrest from Fife last year. If you recognise this ring number, let us know!

DRN954 - Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

As the birds started to arrive in numbers, Moxey arrived, to lend a hand with proceedings. In the meantime, the massive thrush passage happened. Estimates were made of 600-800 Redwing and 500-700 Fieldfare during the morning, as well as small number of Redpoll, Goldfinch and Chaffinch. As usual, it was difficult to make any accurate observations due to the attention to the ringing.

The thrush passage continued until mid-morning, with Redwing and Blackbird being caught in good numbers along with a solitary Fieldfare. It was interesting to look at the measurements of the Blackbirds, with weights over 105g suggesting that there was a small Blackbird migration along with the other Turdus.

Fieldfare (Turdus pilaris)

Redwing (Turdus iliacus)

Comrade Fletcher rings his first Fieldfare

It was a good day for Charlie, ringing four new species - Magpie, Redwing, Fieldfare and, a new bird for the site, Lesser Redpoll. The Lesser Redpoll is only the third that we have caught in 2011, but it has been a long time since we have ringed significant numbers of Redpoll in our area, so hopefully we will start to see an increase in our ringing totals of this species.

Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis flammea)

The wind and the temperature eventually started to rise, so we called it a morning at 11:30 whilst Steve made preparations for Sundays session at Kings Moss.

Goldcrest - 4 (1)
L.T.Tit - 3 (2)
Wren - 2 (1)
Lesser Redpoll - 1
Blue Tit - 9
Great Tit - 6
Goldfinch - 1
Chaffinch - 4
Dunnock - 2 (1)
Robin - 1 (2)
Blackcap - 6
Redwing - 17
Blackbird - 9 (1)
Fieldfare - 1
Magpie - 1

TOTAL: 67 (7)

Moxey on Tour: Vale de Senhora de Povoa

2011-10-12T22:17:00.005+01:00

Moxey continued his trip around the interior of Portugal with members of the PADA Group of Ringers and writes....
Scouse Ringer

Vale de Senhora de Povoa

The area was very different. Nets were set around the edges of the small fields against the cover of brambles and small trees such as olives. Four lines of nets were put up using a mixture of 15m and 12m nets. While they were being erected we could hear the calls of Azure winged Magpies everywhere.

Before the nets were furled for the evening we had caught 20 birds of 11 species for ringing in a very short time.

Azure winged Magpie - 6
Blackbird - 1
Blue Tit - 2
Pied Flycatcher - 4
Blackcap - 1
Sardinian Warbler - 1
Whinchat - 1
Robin - 1
Great Tit - 1
Wren - 1
Willow Warbler - 1

TOTAL: 20

What a fantastic day—great company, great weather, great scenery and great birds. As I looked up at the clear sky and surveyed the stars, I wondered what tomorrow would bring, and how privileged I was.

Azure-winged Magpie (Cyanopica cyanus)

The day dawned clear, calm and a little cold. Paulo and Luis already had the nets open by the time I got up, which I hasten to add was at dawn. Paulo prepared breakfast so I was well fed before the first net round. It was Sunday and the hunters were out. Their shots and voices were very clear but Paulo soon re-assured me that they were a distance away from us and the nets. It was so still and free from traffic noise that the sounds of the hunters seemed to be much closer than they actually were.

Catching was good from the offset although the good numbers of Willow Warblers which were present the previous evening had obviously upped and gone south with the perfect conditions overnight. The first net round produced two Azure-winged Magpies with at least another two escaping from the nets. There were birds everywhere in the trees and bushes with Woodlarks and what appeared to be Crested Larks in the open areas. Cetti’s Warblers were calling from the scrub which I did not expect as the habitat was very different to that of the places I have caught them before. Soon the temperature rose and Paulo did the rounds of the nets while Luis and myself did the ringing.

In late August Paulo, Miguel and The Young Pretender had caught a few Orphean Warblers. These I did not really expect and if any were present they avoided capture. In their place were Blackcaps - No worries ; something to look forward to next year. Most of the Subalpine Warblers had moved on and just two were caught. From the line that in August had produced about sixty Subalpines, Paulo made the three of us very happy by bringing back a Woodlark each. They are really great little birds.

As the morning rolled on the goodies continued to arrive. Pied Flycatcher, Redstart, Whinchat and Nightingale as well as Cirl Bunting and Serin were ringed. A female Hawfinch, only the second I have ever handled, was treated with the utmost caution. Then the identity of the second lark species was confirmed after reference to Svensson – Thekla Lark. Two new species of lark ringed in a day by me was most unexpected.

When things started to quieten down I managed to get to the nets near the campervan. I was rewarded with a real beaut of a Hawfinch, a male this time. Somehow, I managed to extract it without being bitten by that fearsome bill although earlier the female did have a go as I handled the closed bag It was great to see the difference between the sexes.

Female Hawfinch (Cocothraustes cocothraustes)

Male Hawfinch (Cocothraustes cocothraustes)

Lunch time approached and we had to take the nets down before heading north. This was not before 119 birds of 26 species had been ringed. - a very satisfying mornings ringing in a really great place.

Azure winged Magpie - 2
Blackbird - 11
Great Tit - 1
Blue Tit - 8
Long tailed Tit - 9
Thekla Lark - 1
Woodlark - 3
Whinchat - 2
Stonechat - 1
Nightingale - 1
Redstart - 1
Robin - 4
Serin - 7
Chaffinch - 2
Hawfinch - 2
Cirl Bunting - 1
Tree Sparrow - 1`
Wren - 1
Short- toed Treecreeper - 1
Pied Flycatcher - 3
Blackcap - 32
Sualpine Warbler - 2
Sardinian Warbler - 11
Garden Warbler - 6
Willow Warbler - 2
Cetti’s Warbler - 2

TOTAL: 119

Thekla Lark (Galerida theklae)

Woodlark (Lullula arborea)

Next stop: Portugal's only private nature reserve - Faia Brava

Moxey on Tour: Salreu

2011-10-10T21:48:00.009+01:00

Having completed a very successful Migration Atlas trip with Paulo Tenreiro and Miguel Araújo at the end of August (which you read about here, here and here), it was Moxeys turn - referring to Scouse Ringer as a Young Pretender, the old folk these days eh? Scouse Ringer

Moxey writes:

After the Young Pretenders road trip in August it was now my turn.

On 22nd September I took Mr. O' Leary's evening bus from Liverpool to Porto. The landing was a bit heavy, probably due to heavy mist which meant we only saw the runway a few seconds before. Got the Metro into town and met up with Rui Brito. Rui is great company and as it was too late to get down to Brasfemes near Coimbra so I spent the night in his flat which. In the morning, despite the mist the view was amazing. From his terrace you can see a lot of Porto including the magnificent football stadium, the Douro river and much much more. After a leisurely stroll to Campanha, I caught the train down to Coimbra where I was met by Isabel Teneiro, Paulo's wife and taken to the family home in Brasfemes.

Paulo soon arrived from his morning ringing session and lunch was taken. The camper-van was loaded with the provisions and ringing gear and off we set on the first leg of a very memorable trip picking up Luis on the way. Salreu was our destination and we arrived with about an hour of daylight left. In spite of the mosquitoes a line of nets was quickly erected in the reeds as the Flava wagtails were coming into roost. I was concerned we were too late but such is Paulo's efficiency the nets were up in no time and immediately started catching. We even had time before dark to put up two other lines ready for the morning. The nets were emptied and the birds brought back to the 'caravan'. Paulo Ferreira (PJF) joined us for the evening and soon we got stuck into the ringing and processing. The evenings catch resulted in 180 birds being ringed.

Flava Wagtail - 173
Alba Wagtail - 1
Reed Warbler - 3
Reed Bunting - 2
Nightjar - 1

TOTAL: 180

Motacilla flava thunbergi

Juvenile Motacilla flava

Adult Motacilla flava

Motacilla flava flavissima

All of the birds with the exception of the Nightjar were roosted overnight. The Flava Wagtails included a lot of stunning individuals of several races including flavissima.

24th September

Paulo and Luis rose before dawn and opened the nets while I remained in bed. They were the orders, not that I minded. That was to be the pattern for the whole trip. The day dawned clear, bright and very sunny. Catching was good from the off and after the first rounds Luis and myself, even though we were joined by PJF, found ourselves confined to the ringing table. Paulo did the rounds constantly and while we observed a small passage of Swifts and Swallows over the ringing table he put on the tape and both Red-Rumped Swallow and Swallow were caught. After one round Paulo's face was beaming - a juvenile Reed Warbler bearing a Norwegian ring. We had obviously caught most of the Flava Wagtails at the roost as only one was caught. Willow Warblers were present in good numbers and also responded to the the song recording. In total 236 birds were ringed in the morning of 22 species including a Wryneck which really did put on a performance. What a spectacular bird.

Swallow - 22
Red-Rumped Swallow - 5
Flava Wagtail - 1
Pied Flycatcher - 1
Blackbird - 1
Nightingale - 1
Stonechat - 1
Wryneck - 1
Bluethroat - 12
Reed Bunting - 13
House Sparrow - 1
Yellow Bishop - 1
Blue Tit - 3
Great Tit - 3
Garden Warbler - 1
Blackcap - 3
Whitethroat - 6
Cettis Warbler - 26
Grasshopper Warbler - 3
Sedge Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 36
Willow Warbler - 93

TOTAL: 235

Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)

Juvenile Red-rumped Swallow (Hirundo daurica)

Paulo Ferreira (PJF)

STAVANGER, Norway!!!

Male Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

Wryneck (Jynx torquilla)

Wryneck 'wrynecking'

Juvenile Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica) - note the tips to the GC's

Yellow-crowned Bishop (Euplectes afer)

After lunch with the temperature about 30C and not a cloud in the sky it was time to move east and say farewell to Salreu. Our destination was Vale de Senhora da Povoa - a drive from the Atlantic coast to near the Spanish border. In late August the Young Pretender had caught lots of Subalpine Warblers there and a few Orphean Warblers, a species I have never handled. Would they still be around?

Going Solo: A 'crest cracker!

2011-10-09T16:19:00.004+01:00

Scouse Ringer took the show out solo this morning amidst forecasts of strong winds and heavy rain. Never one to be detered by the Met Office, a quick peek out the window at 6:30am suggested that the forecast was wildly wrong and so it would be worth heading out. The original plans for the weekend had involved a Rimrose double-header, but yesterday was cancelled at the last minute due to the strong winds and rain, this morning it was due to be Brook Vale but due to the weather, where Brook Vale is more spread out and more exposed, a switch to Crosby Hall was made. The main advantage to hitting up Crosby Hall was the close proximity of the nets and the shelter that the site offers...I wasn't to be disappointed.

Getting on site at 7:45, it didn't take long to get the five nets up and open. Moxey only got the feeders up on Friday but when he visited yesterday to clear the net rides, there was a lot of activity at the feeding station, but he also noticed a lot of Goldcrest sound from the Pine stand and the Yew 'hedge'. With a bit of music to aid the process, it wasn't long before the 'crests started to find their way into the nets, along with three juvenile female Blackcap (total now at 414). As expected, the tits were the first to find the feeders and for the first two hours, there was a steady stream of Blue and Great Tits, punctuated with the occasional Coal Tit.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

Coal Tit (Parus ater)

Returning from the feeding station on the third net round, I heard the thrushes going mental, which usually means one thing, as four Blackbird and a Song Thrush hurtled into the net, a Sparrowhawk wasn't far behind, looking like a young male....I sprinted....well, I kind of ran, not sure you could call it a 'sprint' but the bird managed to get out before I could get to it, along with the Song Thrush and two of the Blackbirds.....you win some....

As the activity slowed at the feeding station, I started to take down the nets, collecting another three Goldcrest in the process. It was interesting that the two retrap Goldcrest (both ringed earlier in the year) were carrying no fat reserves, whereas all the 'new' Goldcrest were carrying at least a fat score of 2, most carrying 3 and all had muscle scores of 3. This suggests that these birds are likely to be migrants rather than local birds, possibly coming from Scotland - one control from November last year was ringed in Fife only a month earlier.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

During the morning there was a lot of Grey Squirrel activity...although this was reduced by at least three when my old school mate Graham turned up with his shotgun. With Red Squirrel in the wood, it's important that every opportunity is taken to reduce the Grey population - Lancs Wildlife Trust are doing a lot of dedicated trapping in local woodland to humanely cull the Grey population and also take blood samples from any Reds that are incidentally captured.

A Raven made a noisy flypast heading south and three Mistle Thrush were a constant presence in the park. The only other migrants that were in evidence was a small number of Redpoll that flew over mid-morning, followed by a small flock of Meadow Pipits. The warm weather of last week seems to have brought a second wave of blackberries and even some of the Rhododendron were back out in flower! A Red Admiral was the sole butterfly of the day but the honey bees were out in force, seeming to be feeding on the berries on the Yew tree.

Rhododendron

Goldcrest - 13 (2)
L.T.Tit - (1)
Dunnock - 1
Chaffinch - 9 (1)
Great Tit - 17 (2)
Blue Tit - 12
Robin - 2
Coal Tit - 4 (1)
Blackcap - 3
Blackbird - 3 (1)

TOTAL: 64 (7)

Over the next few days, Moxey will be making a contribution to the auld blog with a report of his recent trip to Portugal. Expect large volumes of birds and photo's to make you extremely jealous!

Where did the Sun go?

2011-10-03T21:15:00.004+01:00

Kings Moss was the order of the day on Sunday for me, Tineke, Steve and Natasha for what was our second ringing session at the site. As we left Liverpool, the rain started to fall, which, for a while, was refreshing after overnight temperatures remained in the upper teens. By the time we reached Kings Moss, the rain was very light and intermittent, so we decided to make a start - by the time the nets were us, the rain had gone off.

We were able to put a couple of extra nets up this week with the absence of the wind and, as with the Rimrose sessions of recent weeks, we played Blackcap song to try and attract any stragglers - we were rewarded with a further six individuals. With such low cloud cover, it was always going to be difficult to assess the visible migration, but there was a slow trickle of Redpoll, Linnet, Goldfinch and Chaffinch overhead, with no sign of any real Mipit movement.

In response to the passing Goldfinches, we played the song at one of the nets, catching twelve birds, mainly juveniles. The same net yielded three Bullfinch in the same net round, adding to the three we caught early on at the Blackcap/soon-to-be-thrush location.

The bird(s) of the day had to be the pair of Willow Tit that were caught in the main line. This was the first time in a long while that I had handled Willow Tit, a bird we just don't catch closer to home. The Willow Tit was another new species for Steve, who is now racking them up with every ringing session he attends.

Willow Tit (Parus montanus)

Willow Tit and Coal Tit (Parus ater)

As the numbers started to dwindle, we gradually took down the nets, discussing the Blue Tits that we had caught during the morning. Of the thirteen that we ringed, only four were juveniles, suggesting that they hadn't had a terrific breeding season. The ratio of adults to juveniles is a good indicator of productivity, with productive years yielding a higher ratio of juveniles to adults.

As we came to take down the last net, Steve was 'well chuffed' to find a Redpoll waiting for him in a bird bag, only the second of the year.

Lesser Redpoll (Carduelis flammea)

Next week will see a return to Rimrose, weather permitting, and in the meantime, we hope to get the feeding stations set up at Crosby Hall and Ince Blundell ready for some Midweek Madness with Moxey.

L.T.Tit - 5 (3)
Chiffchaff - 3 (1)
Wren- 1
Lesser Redpoll- 1
Great Tit - 7
Blue Tit - 13
Willow Tit - 2
Coal Tit - 1
Blackcap - 6
Goldfinch - 12
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 3
Reed Bunting - 1
Bullfinch - 6
Blackbird - 4 (1)
G.S.Woodpecker - 2

TOTAL: 68 (5)

400th Blackcap & Some Mipits (at last!)

2011-10-01T15:18:00.005+01:00

I met up with Charlie and Neil this morning at Brook Vale, hopeful that the clear weather would yield some late warblers and some pipit passage, with a target of four Blackcap to reach the 400 ringed-in-2011, we were hopefully. Unfortunately, we lost Neil early-on, well, we didn't lose him, he was viciously attacked by a tree as we were putting the nets up, sustaining an injury in the process - get well soon mate!

We operated the usual nets with the addition of an extension to the highly-successful 12m net, now named the 'Spotted-Fly net' - that I finished in the ridiculous heat of last night. The temperature was 17 degrees when we arrived at 5am, if someone had have offered me a fiver that the first ringing session in October would be completed in tshirts and temperatures that rose to 27 degrees, I would have bitten their hands off!

Early-on we achieved the 400 milestone for Blackcap, a young male caught in the reed bed being the record-breaking bird. Charlie did the honours of ringing the individual.

Charlie does the honours

Great-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocops major)

Despite breaking the Blackcap record, the early hours were pretty slow, despite the line pulling in five Song Thrush in one net round. Single Chiffchaff punctuated what looked to be a slow and disappointing morning and with the total still in the twenties, along with the temperature, we were considering starting to take down some of the nets. Then they came. The unmistakeable call of the Meadow Pipit. A spritely jog was in order.

The 'extension' paid dividends with Meadow Pipits

With the aid of my mp3 players, we started to pull in the Meadow Pipits, a new species for the site. We have tried in previous weeks to catch Mipits on Rimrose, but with no success - the small numbers that had flown over being too high. Today was different. The birds were moving up the Valley reasonably low and were easily called down to the nets, the first few birds perching on the top of the net before bolder birds managed to get themselves caught. Charlie was sceptical that we would catch them at first.......O' ye' of little faith!

Meadow Pipit (Anthus pratensis)

Visible Migration was stronger from 10am onwards, with movements of Greenfinch (26), Goldfinch (47), Linnet (23), Swallow (17) and Meadow Pipit (87). As always, it can be difficult to record vismig during a ringing session and from other blogs, I notice counts of 1000+ Mipits at Seaforth and on the Fylde. Sparrowhawks were a constant menace to the passerines, two different females narrowly evading capture whilst at least two different males were also hunting outside the reserve.

Wren - 2
Chiffchaff - 4
L.T.Tit - 1
Meadow Pipit - 12
Blackcap - 9
Blue Tit - 1 (2)
Robin - 1
Dunnock - 1 (1)
Chaffinch - 1 (1)
Coal Tit - 1
Great Tit - 1 (2)
Greenfinch - 1
Song Thrush - 4 (1)
Blackbird - 5 (2)
G.S.Woodpecker - 1

TOTAL: 45 (9)

In the morning we are heading to Kings Moss for our second-ever session. It will be interesting to see what is about in terms of both visible migration, being further from the coast, and also the feeding stations that have become more active over the past couple of weeks.

...Summer at last?

2011-09-27T21:06:00.004+01:00

I have seen a lot of unusual things on ringing sessions, but on Sunday morning, driving into Brook Vale I was greeted by a burning motorcycle. Very strange. I was half expecting to see some bums huddled round a drum keeping warm. Anyhow, Steve and Natasha were waiting for me, so we quickly got the nets up and turned the mp3 players on.

Following Saturdays slow morning, I wasn't expecting to catch a massive number of birds as it looked like the warblers were slowing down to a trickle. There had been a few light showers during the night, but there was little to no wind, so there had been a good chance of some late movement.

Early on, Blackcaps were the order of the hour, instantly responding to the mp3 player and bringing our annual total to 396, over three times the number that we ringed in 2010 - just four short of the 400-mark. This is a magnificent total and whilst we have targetted this species more this year, it matches the increasing national trend.

We managed another two Chiffchaff and also a Goldcrest, the latter seem to be starting to move through in increasing numbers now, this one was a young male.

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

There wasn't a significant amount of visible migration, however a small flock of forty-odd Pink-footed Geese flew over as well as ~10 Wagtail and ~8 Meadow Pipit. Despite the fact that Rimrose (at the Brook Vale end) is only 1Km from the coast, there doesn't seem to be anywhere near the vis-mig that is reported at Seaforth.

Late on, a young male Bullfinch made an appearance amongst a handful of tits. We have caught very few tits in recent weeks despite ringing in areas where we would expect to catch reasonable numbers. Part of the reason for this might be an abundance of natural food at a time when we are yet to establish the feeding stations for the autumn/winter sessions.

Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula)

Goldcrest - 1
Chiffchaff - 2
Great Tit - 2
Robin - 1
Bullfinch - 1
Blue Tit - 1 (1)
Blackcap - 13 (1)
Blackbird - 3 (1)

TOTAL 24 (3)

This evening I took advantage of the good weather and headed down to Brook Vale with Tineke and Canela. We spent an hour or so on site, reinstalling the feeders and making a few repairs and by the time we left, we already had birds coming in to feed. There were a good number of birds around, with some vis-mig of Greenfinch, flying high towards Liverpool and at least three Bullfinch calling from the willows. There was the usual large number of Magpies, making a nuisance of themselves, feeding in the area that we cleared of willow earlier in the year.

As we were leaving the site, we took the opportunity to raid the apple trees to fill my the freezer for thrush food - later in the winter. Tineke thinks she is making apple cake....

A ray of sun....flower

Tailing Off?

2011-09-24T17:13:00.004+01:00

With a really positive overnight forecast, I met with Charlie at Fulwood this morning, putting up a near full complement of nets, even braving the depths of the reed bed to put a double up. Overnight there had been a calm southwesterly breeze and mixed cloud cover, I had been hopefull that this would have allowed some migrants to move in, but sadly the opposite was seemingly true and the migrants that we had, moved out. It seems I wasn't the only ringer disappointed this morning, as Fleetwood Birder reports something similar.

As expected, the majority of the Blackcap came in the first net round, as did the Robins, with the rest waiting until dawn had fully broken and things had started to warm up a bit. We managed the first titmice at Fulwood for quite a while and Charlie got to ring his first Bullfinch (not a dead vole inside a bird bag this time!).

Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita)

I was suprised to catch a Whitethroat this late in September, let alone an adult that had originally been ringed as a breeding bird in early June. The bird was quite light for an adult at this time of year (adult birds generally migrate before the juveniles) weighing in at 13.1g and no visible fat reserves and only muscle score 2. This puzzled me slightly, but on closer inspection, the bird was carrying a head injury - not ringing related I must add! It seems that the bird had been victim to a predator at some point as you can see from the photo below. I have occasionally caught birds with similar healed wounds in perfect health on migration. The wound had healed and I would expect it was a couple of weeks old.

From behind

The healed wound

By 10am, things were really starting to slow down and a text from Paulo (who is ringing with Moxey at the moment) in Portugal didn't do much to lighten my disappointment:

...Prediction for today 300 birds. Last night 180. Do you want swallows or daurica. How many?...

This was later backed up by a text from Moxey:

...Just finished. 416 ringed including last night. 1 Norwegian Reed Warbler...

To conclude, Paulo was wrong in his prediction. Thats all I have to say.

Wren - 1
Chiffchaff - 1 (1)
Blackcap - 7
Robin - 3
Great Tit - 2
Blue Tit - 3
Chaffinch - 2
Bullfinch - 1
Whitethroat - (1)
Reed Warbler - 1
Reed Bunting - 3
Dunnock - 1 (1)
Blackbird - 3 (1)

TOTAL: 28 (4)

Fracking Hell!

2011-09-22T18:46:00.002+01:00

I normally keep my posts bird related, however:

Over the past couple of days, plans have come to light of a proposed gas extraction site at Banks near Southport, prompting concerns from environmentalists. Gas platforms have been a familiar site in Liverpool Bay in recent years, but this latest project isn't tapping into Natural Gas resources in the traditional sense.

A company called Cuadrilla Resources are behind the project and they estimate that there is over ten times the amount of gas trapped in rocks than is found under the North Sea. The gas is trapped in layers of shale below the water table and is extracted in a process known as 'fracking'. The process of fracking involves pumping a combination of water, sand and chemicals into the shale layer. This releases the gas which is then collected over a period of years.

Cuadrilla claim that the impact to the local environment will be minimal with above-ground infrastructure being of low impact so that disruption to the landscape will be kept to a minimum. The group are also keen to promote the local economic impact, with the creation of over 5000 jobs, with 1,700 of them here in Lancashire boasting average salaries of £55,000.

The project is not without controversy as campaign groups claim that the fracking process could lead to the destabilisation of the substrate with concerns linked to claims that fracking has caused mini-earthquakes. Aside from the geological impacts, there is the issue of carbon emissions. With plans to build upto 800 of these wells, it is hard to see where these plans fit into a program of less carbon-reliant energy generation.

Whilst these plans are still to be passed, I can't see many positives aside from the economics. With areas on the Fylde and South-west Lancs earmarked as potential sites, this touches close to home and as the planet further towards a population-driven climate-change catastrophe, I feel we should be investing in other energy forms, primarily nuclear or non-aquatic green sources.

You can find the original article from the BBC here.

Surge in Migrants

2011-09-19T19:32:00.006+01:00

I arrived at Brook Vale at 5am on Sunday morning for a solo session with hopes that the weather would stay positive and I would be able to get a session in. Following the wash-out the previous day, which you can read about here, I wasn't really expecting large numbers of birds. I managed to get a total of eight nets up, short of the usual total, but I was on my own.

As expected, I had the usual dawn flury of Blackcap with Goldcrest, Sedge, Reed and Garden Warbler - by 7am, I already had twenty five birds ringed and I was expecting it to tail off. The second net round didn't yield many birds, a couple of Robins, a Song Thrush and a pair of Chiffchaffs. In the meantime, the weather had brightened considerably and there was no wind whatsoever - very unusual.

Juvenile Sedge Warbler (Acrocephalus schoenobaenus)

Adult female Bullfinch (Pyrrhula pyrrhula) - primary moult

Heading over to the dell, there was another spike in Blackcaps, with another dozen in the net round, including a female Bullfinch - only the fifth ringed this year. Open reaching the final net, I was hoping for a tardy Whitethroat or two, no joy, instead I was rewarded with the first Spotted Flycatcher for Brook Vale. Brucey bonus! By the time I limped back to the ringing table, Eugene was passing on his rounds of the park and I was able to show him the striata that he had predicted earlier in the year. Should have put a fiver on that!

Juvenile Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata)

By the time the birds had dried up, the clouds were starting to form from the north, so I took down the nets, with two Blackcap being the last birds ringed in a session that featured very few resident birds and no retraps.

Visible migration included thirty five Swallows, six House Martin, fourteen Mistle Thrush and two Meadow Pipit, a Tree Pipit was also heard from outside the reserve.

Chiffchaff - 2
Goldcrest - 1
Wren - 1
Blackcap - 35
Spotted Flycatcher - 1
Garden Warbler - 4
Robin - 2
Reed Warbler - 1
Sedge Warbler - 1
Bullfinch - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Blackbird - 2
Jay - 1

TOTAL: 53

Between the Showers

2011-09-17T18:49:00.006+01:00

As an Evertonian, I have developed an eternal sense of optimism, and coupled with the lousy weather forecasting in this fine country, this provides opportunities to get a ringing session squeezed in against the odds. This mornings forecast was one of showers and sunny spells, however upon arriving at Rimrose at 5:15am, it was pissing it down. At this point, it was very tempting to get back in the car and go back to bed, but when Moxey arrived fifteen minutes later, we decided to sit it out and wait to see what happened.

By 6am the rain had gone off, although I am still unsure why we needed to check this by standing out in the rain for fifteen minutes, and we decided to make a move. We stuck to three nets, all very close together in case of a change in the weather. Despite a brief shower, the rain stayed off until we decided to pack up at 8:45am when the birds had dried up. Once again, Blackcaps were the order of the day, now the most-ringed bird in 2011, followed by Swift, with a single Song Thrush, Blackbird, Chaffinch and two Dunnocks.

Following the success of Phil and Seumus up on the Fylde, I did hope for the opportunity to have a go for Meadow Pipits, however there was no visible migration, in fact, aside from the Blackcaps, a Kestrel and two passing Sparrowhawks, there was very little around. With that in mind, I have included some pictures from my recent trip to Portugal, to try and brighten things up a bit.

Blackcap - 13
Dunnock - 2
Chaffinch - 1
Song Thrush - 1
Blackbird - (1)

TOTAL: 17 (1)

WANTED - Dead or Alive

PFJ & PJF - Paulo's first Beeater

Nightjar (Caprimulgus europeaus)

Crested Lark (Galerida cristata)

Little Bittern (Ixobrixus minutus)

Fit for a King

2011-09-14T21:21:00.004+01:00

On Saturday evening, me and Tineke joined Steve and Natasha at the new site at Kings Moss, near the village of Crank, to clear the net rides for a session on the Sunday morning. Steve has been visiting the site for a number of years and suggested it could be a good place to catch species such as Yellowhammer, Reed Bunting and late summer warblers. Given that the first site visit from me was just before I headed to Portugal, we didn't have time to squeeze a session in during July and upon returning from Portugal, I wanted to focus on Rimrose, but this Sunday we had our first session.

Arriving early, we put up a line of three for Blackcap and the possibility of Garden Warbler and then a couple of nets around a small feeding station, although there doesn't seem to have been much activity yet. A further two nets were then placed in some more open goat willow. The weather conditions weren't exactly ideal, although the sky was overcast, there was a strong breeze but we were able to shelter our nets sufficiently to operate.

Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

The first net round was reasonable successful, with four Blackcaps responding to the mp3, a couple of Chiffchaff, a Willow Warbler and a Linnet. Whilst Natasha (the very helpful helper) set up the ringing table, I quickly wizzed around the nets for a second time, taking out a flock of Long-tailed Tits that flew in over my shoulder as well as a few more Blackcaps.

Linnet (Carduelis cannabina)

Steve was made up. By the third net round the Blackcap count had reached ten, the Chiffchaff count to five but the bird of his day was still to come. I made the decision to close up once the wind got too strong and as I went to close the line, there was a male Yellowhammer waiting for me. Taking it back to Steve, he quickly realised that it wasn't a 'funny-looking Goldfinch' and with a massive smile, he promptly slapped a ring on it!

Adult male Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinela) - in heavy moult

Reed Bunting - 1
Linnet - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Blackcap - 10
Blue Tit - 5
Great Tit - 3
Coal Tit - 1
Yellowhammer - 1
Chaffinch - 2
Dunnock - 1
Robin - 2
Willow Warbler - 1
Chiffchaff - 5
Treecreeper - 1
L.T.Tit - 13
Blackbird - 2
Jay - 1

TOTAL: 52

A pretty good result for the first session and with the autumn coming, there are high expectations of winter finches and thrush flocks.

September so far...

2011-09-11T16:00:00.007+01:00

Since returning from Portugal at the end of August, things have been pretty hectic here in North Liverpool with returning to work and trying to maximise ringing sessions on Rimrose. From the 1st to 4th of September, I ringed each day, being rained off at Fulwood on the third but still managing one hundred Blackcaps and the first Garden Warblers of the year. Sadly, the reed bed at Brook Vale was inaccessible due to a combination of flooding and the effect of strong winds on weak reeds, causing the reeds to flatten and effectively 'close' the reed bed.

The weather of the previous two weeks has been particularly poor. A mix of strong winds and heavy rain have made any mid-week sessions impossible for Moxey, with the exception of a short, realitively unsuccessful session in the woods at Ince.

Some of the highlights:

1st September - Fulwood

One of many Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)

The Rimrose Crew: Charlie, Tineke & Moxey

Reed Bunting (Emberiza schoeniclus)

Garden Warbler (Sylvia borin)

Wren - 4
Chiffchaff - 2
Willow Warbler - 3
L.T.Tit - 2 (2)
Robin - 5
Blue Tit - 4
Whitethroat - 7
Dunnock - 3
Blackcap - 40 (1)
Garden Warbler - 2
Reed Bunting - 1
Great Tit - 2 (1)
Sedge Warbler - 2
Chaffinch - 1
Blackbird - 20 (1)
Woodpigeon - 1

TOTAL: 99 (5)

2nd September - Brook Vale

Female Sparrowhawk (Accipiter nisus)

Wren - 5
Chiffchaff - 2
Willow Warbler - 1
Robin - 5
Blue Tit - 1
Whitethroat - 5
Dunnock - 1
Blackcap - 31 (5)
Garden Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 3
Blackbird - 4 (1)
Woodpigeon - 1
Sparrowhawk - 1

TOTAL: 62 (5)

3rd September - Fulwood (rain stopped play)

Moxey shelters from the rain

Wren - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Whitethroat - 1
Dunnock - 1
Bullfinch - 2
Blackcap - 10
Song Thrush - 1
G.S.Woodpecker - 1
Blackbird - 5

TOTAL: 23

4th September - Brook Vale

Chiffchaff - 6
Robin - 5
Blue Tit - (1)
Whitethroat - 3
Dunnock - 3
Blackcap - 19
Garden Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - (1)
Sedge Warbler - 2
Song Thrush (1)
Blackbird - 4

TOTAL: 44 (3)

9th September - Ince Blundell

Coal Tit - 2
Robin - 1
Blackbird - 1
Blue Tit - 1
Dunnock - 1
Blackcap - 2
Great Tit - (2)

TOTAL: 8 (2)

10th September - Fulwood

Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)

Chiffchaff - 3 (1)
L.T.Tit - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Blackcap - 25 (4)
Whitethroat - 1
Robin - 1
Chaffinch - 3
Dunnock - 2
Blue Tit - 2
Great Tit - 1
House Sparrow - 1
Blackbird - 2

TOTAL: 43 (5)

Ringing Road Trip - Vale de Senhora da Povoa

2011-09-06T18:43:00.005+01:00

Following the success of the morning in Atenor, we headed to the final site on our road trip, close to the historical town of Sabugal - Vale de Senhora da Povoa. This site was part of Miguel's survey area for the Atlas, located in between the Serra de Estrela and the Spanish border. The site is made up of parcels of agricultural land, mostly olive groves, maize fields and vineyards.

As we had arrived reasonably late in the day, we had to get the nets us up reasonably quickly before dark so four net locations were chosen, three lines of three and one of two. As with the previous days, we weren't using a massive numbers of nets, but with the potential of catching large numbers of birds, we didn't want to be caught short.

Somewhere, an asylum has lost two lunatics!

Second net round: Serins!

The ringing totals were mainly made up of the core species of the previous two sessions, Willow Warbler, Subalpine Warbler and Garden Warbler but with the land use, also came a decent catch of Serin - mainly caught in one line during the second net round. Also of interest was the catch of eleven Reed Warblers, once again, miles away from any reeds or wetland habitat. It was another big total so the ringing was very 'business-like' - to make sure the birds were processed as quickly as possible, while the next lot of birds were on their way back from the nets. The rest of the catch was made up of pretty standard stuff, a single Melodious Warbler being the last bird ringed on the day.

Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus)

Adult male Subalpine Warbler (Sylvia cantillans)

And so the ringing road trip was complete......until the next one, now in just over two weeks time. Being a teacher, I will be unable to attend, however, Moxey will be there in my place to send updates!

30 August

Subalpine Warbler - 67
Garden Warbler - 36
Whitethroat - 9
Sardinian Warbler - 10
Blackcap - 3
Willow Warbler - 29
Serin - 35
Wren - 1
Short-toed Treecreeper - 1
Grasshopper Warbler - 2
Reed Warbler - 11
Robin - 4
Pied Flycatcher - 3
Chaffinch - 3
Redstart - 3
Cirl Bunting - 4
Blue Tit - 7
Great Tit - 2
Long-tailed Tit - 3
Blackbird - 8
Melodious Warbler - 1

TOTAL: 242