MP8

No, not a mis-print, MP3 = MP 13 last week. Did manage to get out early, even though the winds were a bit stronger than I would have liked. The sun also becomes a problem from 9am (currently) on a site without much cover and what there is is in the wrong direction for any 'shade'.

The week-end's ringing resulted in 28 birds of which 4 were re-traps. 11 species were caught, one of which was new for this sub-site. I have caught a Treecreeper in the garden at the end of winter last, but it was a pleasant surprise to get one working the willows and alders along the stream. Maybe there are more, who knows?


Things have certainly slowed up just recently and we are back to more 'resident fare' such as Dunnock, Robin and the tits.


Today's "Prunes" were the 25th/26th ringed in just a relatively small area here.

But for the moment, there are some late migrating Blackcaps and Chiffchaffs still to be caught, plus, with the help of a 'tape lure', the Meadow Pipits which are now well and truly on the move through here. I just love that cryptic head pattern from above. As for the 'luring', I suppose that I caught roughly 10% of the birds passing overhead; a bit of a guess, but I think about every other one that ventured near the net(s) did not feel the urge to get ringed but flew off after a couple of minutes to join the cavalcade south.


Rest of the week: for 'the meadows' excl. 21/09's birds
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Great Tit 1 (1)
Chiffchaff 1
Blackcap 2
Treecreeper 1
Wren 1 (1)
Blackbird 1
Robin 1 (1)
Dunnock 2
Meadow Pipit 11
Chaffinch 2

Total 24 (4), 11 spp.

It won't be long now before the thrushes descend upon us; I am hoping to 'harvest' a few before the clocks go back, as the meadows may well become a 'bit of a birding desert' over the winter, especially as far as small birds are concerned.

Congratulations to the newly wed Mr & Mrs L. Barber.

Scratchin'

I've had an increasingly severe itch that needed scratching over the last few rainy days! Today positively oozed better weather. I awoke early to overcast skies, little wind and NO rain; we've had well over 40mm lately. Gathering my skirts up, I proceeded down to the water meadows at first light - which is getting to a more reasonable hour, but we are still on BST.

I put a 60 in the balsam rack and another in the apple trees. With the assistance of a 'Chiff' tape, I caught a Blackcap in the Balsam. Wise thought - and switched the tape to Blackcap ... only to catch a Blackbird. I'd had enough of that by now so put it on to Mipit. Good timing as there had been about 14 birds pass over in the last half hour. Another 14 went over in the next half hour, too, but those that cared to stop, sat on the HT wires some 50' above the net, mainly for a rest, it turned out!

Decided to move the MP3 to the orchard net in frustration. No birds of any sort were moving through the veg.; they were just passing over at some height, even the local stuff like Dipper, Grey Wag and Green Sand! I was scratching to catch anything at all, to say the least. The wind was getting up and the nets were in full autumnal sun by now.

Bingo! A Mipit in the bottom corner! Run, run! Species 37 for the square. Yippee!
I did catch another one and a second Blackcap as well. Hard graft for 5 new birds.
One of the young Mipits (Meapi) had a wing of 85 and had moulted its median coverts, whereas the other had a shorter wing of 77 and had not moulted any of its flight feathers yet. After a couple of hours, I had counted 48 Mipits over, all heading SW for the Brendons, which is the easternmost part of Exmoor and generally around 200m ASL. This is the first noticeable movement of the autumn.


Meadow Pipit. Euring age 3 after PJ moult.

Other birds on site (not previously mentioned) were Green & Gt. Spot Woodpeckers, a couple of Pied Wags and c.18 Swallows on the move with 3 House Martins in tow. I did hear one Chiff; perhaps they have moved out, providing they weren't 'drowned out'. A couple of Chaffinches might be the vanguard of some finches from "oop nworth".

Getting autumnal

The leaves are beginning to turn on the trees and the mornings, apart from being darker, are colder and with a dampness in the air. Ringing has been hit and miss with a couple of early morning garden sessions and, likewise, a couple on the water meadows. The winds have had a southerly component, so not alot of 'joy' in the nets. Nevertheless, it's all 'good stuff' and grist to the mill. I am still on course for 2,000 new birds for the year for the 1km square where I live.

Garden birds:
Blue Tit 1 (1)
Great Tit 1 (1)
Coal Tit 1
Long-tailed Tit 2 (2)
Chiffchaff 1
Blackbird (1)
Robin 1 (2)
Goldfinch 6


3J female Goldcrest, mid Sept. On passage?

Down-along-the-stream birds:
Goldcrest 1
Long-tailed Tit (1)
Chiffchaff 12 (2)
Blackcap 6
Wren 1
Robin 1 (2)

Whilst processing a Blackcap on day 2, I noticed that 3 Chiffchaffs had gone into net 2 all of a sudden. Turning back to the job in hand, out of the corner of my eye, I glimpsed a Woodpigeon heading that way. Lo and behold, it hit the 40' net at full tilt - and out sprang the 3 Chiffs! What a b*gg*r!

Other birds seen - 3-4 Buzzards wheeling over the house and the meadows (the local pair and their off-spring), very few Swallows now, just the 1 local family brood and small parties south every now and then, the local House Martins, a couple of Great Spots, a Green Woodpecker (red-letter day!), a family party of Magpies with still reliant (begging) young, a Green Sand, the first 3 Mipits of the "winter", a lone Sky Lark south, a flock of perhaps 2 dozen Goldfinches (yippee!) and 4 Little Egberts (that I managed to photograph in the tree overlooking the ford; the closest I got with my 'teeny-weeny' camera was 60-70m)

Between Irene and Katia

Apart from the beginning of the week, when we had strong winds, the weather has been a mixture of sunshine and showers for the greater part. This has hampered any attempt to ring. However, I did manage to catch a few in the garden and some others down the water meadows during quieter spells.

The garden yielded 14 of the new birds spread over two days and the water meadows saw 8 new birds on the Wednesday and 13 new birds on the Friday, aka "dawn raids".

Below par, the week's total was 35, (3):
Sparrowhawk - 1; juv male
Blue Tit 2 (1)
Great Tit 2
Chiffchaff 4 (1); the r/t was first ringed as 3JJ on 14/08
Blackcap 4; all with F10
Wren 1 (1)
Robin 1
Dunnock 3
Goldfinch 17; 5 adults & 12 juvs

The Goldfinches have found the feeders again, thanks to the wet and windy weather, after the summer "lay-off".

On the Friday, I got a call to help out at the RSPCA centre at West Hatch. There had been a serious 'beaching' of 600+ Shearwaters on the Welsh coast on 06/08 and 07/08 at Newgale Sands on St Bride's Bay (Pembrokeshire). It was suspected that they were this year's youngsters from Skomer that had recently abandoned their burrows.

Some of the washed Manx Shearwaters ready for release (unringed) into the English Channel.

Also see here for a close up of one of the birds we ringed

Denise and I went that evening and after I had showed her how to form a 'Fcoe' ring we got on with ringing the first few. First bird out was already ringed! We cleared one pen and then went home. Early the next day we returned. There were about 400 birds that had been washed and fed that the RSPCA wanted ringing. A slight hiccup - 500 'Fc' rings were still in the post from the BTO. This time we took Karen and 4 ringers from Chew RG (Mike, Steve, Paul & Ed) also came along. Once they had all been shown how to apply the rings, we got going.

Before the postie arrived, we made do with 'Es' rings which we then "squashed" into a more elliptical shape for those birds whose tarsi were <7.0mm. Birds with larger legs had the remaining few 'Fcoe' rings that I had made up the day before. When on a coffee break, the postman arrived and we were then able to continue ringing all the remaining birds with 'Fcoe' rings. By the end of the day, we had ringed approx. 390 shearwaters between us.

Ed Drewitt (C) in the "wash room" with a juvenile Manx Shearwater on his lap.
Ed, originally from Epsom, is our budding local TV and Radio star.

A rewarding, if tiring day, and not without a few scars.
PS. I also got to ring a Fulmar.

Reposting from Pembroke Birds, Sunday 11th Sept.:


L-R Sarah , Annie and Bob ringing shearwaters prior to release.

The picture is of Sarah Allen assisting Annie and Bob Haycock, ringing shearwaters prior to release from the Stena Europe just off The Tusker Rock Lighthouse. The waters were relatively sheltered there and there were also concentrations of Manxies nearby.
It seemed that all of them were very healthy and of an optimum weight for migration (at between 350 and 400 grammes) . No need to feed them, no need to clean them and they were certainly as waterproof, as they were ever likely to be. There are no guarantees but local experts Jean Haines and John Hayes had kept them calm and unstressed until we picked them up and got them on the ship. They were certainly fit and feisty, as our fingers bore the marks of their indignation at the indignity of being handled and ringed but this was minimal. They all flew off safely and we can only hope the brief interruption to their migration south will be the first of many more circumnavigations of the Atlantic.
In Calmer conditions and without the threat of continued storms we would have released them earlier from the ship, but our decision to wait until we reached the lee of the Irish mainland and Tusker Reef seemed to be confirmed by the number of birds already taking shelter there.
The next few stormy days will be a trial for many more migrating birds, lets hope not too many more will end up on the beaches but if they do, With Stena's Help and the expertise of local people we will do our best to get them back to sea as soon as possible. It was great to be a small cog in a team that worked together to help our birds, thanks for all the messages of support! Thanks too to Sea Trust Volunteers Barbara Davies who had to travel back to Burry Port in the early hours of the morning and Jessica Creak who filmed the release on her i-phone!

Black and Blue

Got in some "quickie" ringing over the weekend. First up, I was able to get down to the meadows and set just the one 60 foot. Caught 10 birds (before summoned back for breakfast) of which 8 were Blackcaps with zero or ESF30 fat plus a young Dunnock and a retrap juv Great Tit. Had to turn my attention to the garden whilst being 'civil' to our guest for the rest of the time. Resulted in 7 Blue Tits, a very young Wren and recapture of a Robin and a Dunnock. The monsoon season is upon us with 6mm last night and more as I write. The forecast is for much more to come. Just what we want to bugger up our autumn catches during southward migration.

Sixteen years ago ...

Sixteen years ago, well, actually, 16y 3d ago, was the last time I ringed any Swallows on my own rings. The last handling of the said species was three years ago, to the day, on the BTO Gibraltar Point ringing course in 2008. Trainers just assist with the extraction so I doubt if I got round to ringing any.

Before being dragged off to Morrisons for the weekly shop, I shot down to the newly cut and baled meadows and put up four single panel nets. The day was much sunnier and a lot less windier than yesterday, when the hirundines were flying very low and reaping the benefit of the recently disturbed insects. I waited until I heard a Swallow calling over the garden as they are generally late risers hereabouts and then spend the post dawn period at some height, catching arial insects.


However, I persevered for about an hour from 8 o'clock. Typically, two of the four nets, Jap of course, now need repairing as one or other of the strings has come adrift. Out with the 'superglue' some other time! One bird did get caught but, as it was travelling down-wind, it made the effort as I approached closely and flitted. Ten minutes later, an adult male flew into the wind - and the net - and became the 36th species ringed at the site.


So, there you have it! Craving satisfied!