Waxwing update update

Just had notification of another exciting record of an ex Newtown Waxwing scoffing cotoneaster berries in Bovey Tracey, Devon. This bird, a first year male, was ringed on 16th December and was one of the last few caught before they all moved on. Many thanks to Alan Edmondson for the record and photograph 

Waxwing update

At the end of last year, in a rare and exciting opportunity, we managed to catch exactly 100 Waxwings in Mid-Wales and, thanks to Raymond Duncan of Grampian Ringing Group, we were able to individually colour-ring almost all of them. So far we have been informed of 11 long-distance re-sightings of these birds from various locations in England and Wales as widely separated as Cardiff, Lewes in  East Sussex and Northumberland. Most of the sightings have been accompanied by excellent digital photos confirming the colour-rings present so we can be 100% sure of the accuracy of these resightings. We would like to thank all the birdwatcher and photographers who have taken the time to report their sightings and helped us to show the onward movements of the Newtown "flock".  It is amazing that these highly gregarious birds obviously do not move around as a cohesive group but must continually disband and rejoin other flocks as they disperse.

Some shots of the movers!

North Seaton, Northumberland on 15th December 2012 by Hector Galley

Seaforth Station, Sefton, Merseyside on 16th December by Steve Young

Lewes, East Sussex on 30th December 2012 by Ron Bewley

Acomb, York 14th and 15th Feb 2013  by Chris Gomersall

Hopefully all the above birds are still alive and well and already residing in new locations waiting to be rediscovered.

In a recent batch of recoveries from BTO headquarters we learnt the fate of two additional birds that weren't so lucky. One was found trapped in Harris fencing in Stafford and the other was killed by a cat in Bray, Co. Wicklow. A sad end to an amazing movement and a bloody good illustration of why, if you like birds, you should think twice about owning a cat!

All movements reported to date of Waxwings ringed at Newtown College, Powys in Nov - Dec 2012

Who needs mist nets??

Over the past few days finch numbers have been building in the garden, so I decided to put the traps back under the bird feeder. It turned out to be a very good idea, because in the last 4 days (usually just an hour or so in the morning) I've already trapped and ringed 28 Goldfinches, 7 Lesser Redpolls and 2 Siskins.

A nice little bonus

While out checking Dipper boxes, and putting up a few new ones with Tony today, he noticed this tree with a huge hole in it and said 'that looks good far a Barn Owl'. After a bit of inventive climbing, I found this cheeky chappy roosting in there.

Meeting, Lamping, Boxing

Thursday was the meeting of the UK Red Kite Co-ordination Group, this year hosted by the Welsh Kite Trust and held in Rhayader. Several of the delegates, namely Ian Carter (Natural England),  Adam McClure (RSPB Northern Ireland) and Marc Ruddock (Golden Eagle Trust) were keen to stay on after wards and try a bit of lamping. Following the recent snows the number of birds at our regular inland sites has been quite low so I decided to head for Ynyslas in the hope of meeting up with a few of the thousands of Woodcock, Golden Plover and Lapwing that had been pushed westwards. As it turns out there just weren't that many birds to be had at the coast either but we did manage to catch 3 Woodcock, a Snipe, a Fieldfare and a Redshank which seemed to be enough to demonstrate the technique.

The following day Ian and Marc headed home but Adam's ferry wasn't sailing until the evening so we spent the day checking owl boxes around Tregaron Bog. In all 9 Barn Owl boxes were checked and cleaned out. Worryingly only one Barn Owl was seen (and we missed catching it). Several of the boxes had recent pellets but no owls - hope they didn't all perish in the snow! One box held two roosting Tawny Owls of which we managed to catch the female who had been ringed originally in a neighbouring box this time last year.

Tawny Owls are always a bit of a treat for our Irish colleagues - they don't have any!

Also installed a few more Dipper boxes, including one under a low bridge where I misjudged the water level and managed to get a bit wet!

Another shorty!

I wonder what the incidence of short billed woodcock is in the overall population, out of the past 170 birds caught I have had three with bills between 45 and 50 mm. The normal length is between 70 and 80 mm tip to feather. These birds were all of good weight and so clearly it's not as much of a disadvantage as one might think.

Fortune favours the brave

I was out ringing on my site near Llanilar last night in a howling gale gusting well over 40 mph at times. Using a metal pole and what I now call my "storm net" I had to adopt the 'brace and lean into it' pose whilst being hit by gusts as I walked up to birds. On one occasion walking downwind onto a woodcock I found myself being pushed into an uncontrollable jog towards it.

However I had a feeling that this brief hour of ringing before the full moon rose might have a reward for me and I was right. I caught 6 woodcock, 4 of which were retraps, and the last one had a geo-locator fitted. This was a bird I caught and fitted with its tag on Feb 25th last winter. I have now re trapped 2 out of only 14 fitted with geo-locators on this site, not a bad recovery rate so far.

I have a feeling I might catch another before the ringing season ends in March. As with the previous geo-locator bird I caught a few weeks ago, it was just yards away from where I caught and fitted it with it's tag, they really are very site loyal!

A few unhappy returns

Woodcock ringed at Ceri Forest last winter

It is always a bit sad to get Woodcock recoveries, no matter where they are from, because it invariably means someone has shot and eaten them!  Two such recoveries came in the recent recoveries email from BTO headquarters, both ringed by Terence Lambert at his site near Clywedog Reservoir. One was shot in Russia in September and the other in France in November. It is amazing to think that with over 1,700 Woodcock ringed and some 22 foreign recoveries received (Russia 13, Finland 2, France 2, Norway 1, Spain 1, Germany 1, The Netherlands 1 and Eire 1) none of us has yet experienced the excitement of catching one wearing a foreign ring! With several French and a Belarus bird having been shot fairly locally in the past two winters it can only be a matter of time. 

2 recent Woodcock recoveries - ringing location in green, recovery locations in red

Little Egret recoveries are a happier matter altogether as they usually result from someone seeing the colour-rings on a live bird. Three more such sightings were reported in the same batch as the above two Woodcock, one from Anglesey, one from Lancashire and one from Waterford, Eire. The map below shows all sightings of Little Egrets colour-ringed at Bangor during 2012.

2012 sightings of Little Egrets ringed in Bangor - ringing location in green, recovery locations in red

2013 Hawfinch RAS up and running - just!

Today Dave Smith and I had the first attempt of the year at catching Hawfinches at our RAS site in North Wales. The recent cold weather had bought about 30 odd Hawfinch into the food that Dave's been putting out but this morning they were just not playing ball. After about 4 hours we did managed to read a single colour-ringed bird (ringed nearby in March 2012) and then, 6 hours in, we managed to catch the first new Hawfinch of the year, an adult female. One other Hawfinch was seen with a BTO ring only and there were at least 6 different un-ringed birds present. Hopefully, over the next few weeks, they will become a bit more attached to the feeding site and give us a bit more return for all our efforts.

Record shot of the first Hawfinch caught in 2013. 

For the photographers amongst you this was taken with an Olympus Mu, hand-held, on the wrong setting with the wrong shutter speed!

Desirable residences

Over the last few days Paul and I have been hard at work providing sheltered accommodation for a range of desirables around Ceredigion and Radnorshire. So far we've renewed two previously occupied Chough boxes and installed 3 new Kestrel boxes, 3 Little Owl boxes, 1 Barn Owl box and 6 Dipper boxes. Quite a few more of all still to be put up when the snow clears along with 18 Long-eared Owl baskets! The Kestrel and Owl boxes are being done in conjunction with the Welsh Kite Trust.

Let's hope someone chooses to use them! Wasn't without some immediate rewards though, at one site south of Aberystwyth we caught two adult Barn owls roosting in a new site and the male turned out to be a bird Damian Clarke,  Mike Hayward and I ringed as a chick near Clarach on 21st June 2007. By pure co-incidence at what turned out to be his natal site we caught 2 more un-ringed Barn Owls which could just possibly have been his parents!

Just to show how Barn Owl looks improve with age......

here he is as a chick getting his head measured! Same can't be said for everyone!

This is his mate making her getaway after ringing - interesting to see the contrast in the tail feathers with the male's being far whiter and less barred than the female's

We also re-trapped this adult male Little Owl, a rare bird indeed in Mid and West Wales now. He was originally caught in June 2011.