Supersize or am I missing something?

Over the last week or so the number of Lesser Redpolls in the garden have increased along with the Goldfinch and newly returned Siskins. Today there must have been a mixed flock in excess of 50 or so on the feeders. A quick netting session produced about 20 new birds and this re-trap of a bird first caught last week when i didn't have a camera handy. The wing length of this individual is 78 mm (checked 3 times!) - outside the range given for Lesser Redpoll. To be honest though it just didn't stand out as anything out of the ordinary and I can't convince myself that it is anything else! Second opinions welcome!

Surely this is just a bigger Lesser Redpoll!

I can do this one! Adult female Siskin, just in.

Olwen by eck!

Last spring I satellite tagged a Woodcock near to Aberystwyth as a part of a research project run by the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust (GWCT) see www.woodcockwatch.com. This bird was given the name Olwen, and along with another 11 Woodcock tagged in the UK and Ireland last winter set off on her spring migration to Russia in March.

Olwen prior to release near Abersytwyth 7/3/13

It has been fascinating to be able to observe the details of their migration and already this project has revealed some fascinating information on the migration strategies of Woodcock. For example all the birds made long flights of up to 1,000km before stopping to rest for up to a week before setting off on their journeys again.

Being able to observe migration with accurate definition doesn't come cheap- each tag costs  £3000, but this has been possible due to funding for 26 tags coming from the shooting community. There are plans to secure further funding from a talk and auction being given in London by our national Woodcock expert  Andrew Hoodless of GWCT and myself this spring.

As Woodcock are a semi-nocturnal species this has meant that there have been a few issues with tags batteries running flat due to the lack of solar charging as daylight length shortens in the winter. However there is sufficeint data for some interesting research to be conducted on such fascinating topics as the corellation between weather and migration routes.

Migration tracks of tagged Woodcock

Data comes via the Argos satellite every three days and it has become a fascinating obsession to look at what our Woodcock have been up to. Google Earth has enabled us to zoom in and look at habitat on stopover points and in most of Europe, where street view has been available it has been amazing to be able to drop in and look at views from the nearest road to where our Woodcock are resting up.

In mid December we suddenly started receiving fresh data from Olwen. This indicated that she was on the move as often a migration stage will give enough sunlight on the birds back to bring the batteries back to life. Another indication that Woodcock will migrate during daylight hours as well as night.

 

Olwen had spent her summer months in north west Russia a few hundred km south of Arkhangelsk but on Dec 19th she turned up in Beswick, a small village north of Beverley in Yorkshire.

Olwen's migration route

A picture of habitat near to Olwen's summer location in Russia

On learning this I did my usual 'street view' trick to have a look the habitat of her new location. It emeregd that Olwen had found a hedge rather than the customary deep woodland for her daytime resting location. On closer investigation I was able to establish the name of the farm as the owner had kindly placed a sign near the entrance which gave their name along with that of the farm. After a short session on Google I was able to get a phone number of the landowner and gave them a call.

Olwen's hedge near to Beswick

They were delighted to learn that Olwen had made their farm her home and although they were shooting folk assured me that they did not shoot Woodcock so Olwen would remain safe on their land for as long as she stayed there.

So far Olwen has been happy to remain in Yorkshire, the mild winter may mean that she does not feel the need to push further west. Interestingly she has given good data for the time she has been in Beswick, which is probably because resting under her hedge has allowed sufficient light to ensure that the batteries on her tags have stayed charged. This has enabled us to observe her movements over the past couple of months, which shows a pattern of exploring different nightime fields, but returning to a position along the length of her hedge during daylight hours.

Despite being able to spy on Woodcock in such detail there still remain many questions about the mysterious ways of the Woodcock. Could it be that Olwen is a Yorkshire lass after all, and only turned up on my ringing site in Wales after being pushed there by the very cold weather of late Feb last spring?

You can see more about our woodcock work on our Face Book page under The Woodcock Network.

Losing Control!

After a few days of heightened expectation Andre and I returned to the finch field first thing this morning armed with loads of clean bird bags. As it turns out there are actually two finch fields, the one we put the nets in and the ones the finches were using!! After a couple of attempts at persuading them to join us in the original turnip field we gave up with just 1 Blackbird, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Dunnock and 3 Chaffinches for all our efforts. Still at least Andre was pleased - he'd never ringed a Dunnock before and we got to try out the new ring size too - every cloud!

Taking Control

Yesterday afternoon Sarah, Andre and I had a go at mist-netting a large finch flock (ca. 400 mixed Chaffinch and Brambling - that's big for these parts!) in a small turnip field near Devil's Bridge. In the first round after the three 60ft nets had been put up we extracted 49 finches including the 200th Brambling of the winter and the second control Brambling of the winter too. Unfortunately the next hour or so added just two more before they all headed off to roost!! If we get a spell of settled weather we'll certainly be trying there again only a bit earlier in the day this time.

Can't wait to discover where this first-winter female Brambling was ringed originally.

Old Black is Back

Kev Joynes got a few very nice photos of the male Black Redstart on the Old College in Aberystwyth and they clearly show the bird is ringed. Obviously we can't be 100% sure without catching him or getting a much closer shot of the ring but it is almost certainly the same one Paul and I ringed there as an adult two winters ago. 

A touch of gardening!

In the brief respite from gale-force winds and driving rain I managed to get a net up in the garden for a few hours this morning. Result was 38 new birds ringed including 22 Lesser Redpolls and 6 Goldfinch  - should stay at home more often!

The Redpolls have only just returned to the feeders and if this year follows the same pattern as last year there will be a lot more to follow shortly.

Day 2 and a hat-trick already!

Last night Carlton Parry, his daughter Elinor, and I headed up to the Ceri Ridgeway again in search of more Golden Plovers to colour-ring. The wind was a bit strong and blustery making the birds rather jumpy but there were a reasonable number of Golden Plover present and we eventually managed to catch 3 new birds along with a Lapwing, 2 Jack Snipe, 1 Snipe and 1 Woodcock.

 'Snipe' family photo - the always welcome and strangely satisfying lamper's 'hat-trick'

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Last night, Amy, Hannah and I had a quick spin round the fields at Ceri Ridgeway on our way back from New Year in Lancashire. Although the weather was perfect for lamping there wasn't that much to be seen (probably due to a fox seen patrolling the fields) but we did manage to catch the first few birds of 2014 - 2 Fieldfares a Skylark and a Golden Plover.

Here's hoping that the coming year proves to be one full of successful catches, interesting recoveries but most of all great times and happy memories. Have a good one!

Carry On Ringing!

Following a week or more of bright moonlit nights and an additional few nights of seasonal festivities I finally managed to get out again for a couple more lamping sessions. On a very wet and windy Boxing Day evening on the Ceri Ridgeway I had a very welcome double hat-trick with 2 Woodcock, 2 Snipe and 2 Jack Snipe along with 1 Fieldfare, 1 Skylark and a Golden Plover. This takes our annual total of Jack Snipe ringed to an impressive and nicely rounded 30. Then last night, Jane and I caught 12 more Woodcock (plus a re-trap) near Aberystwyth including  9 in one field!

13 Woodcock in the hand last night - worth a few in the bush!

A nice pair of hooters...

After Tony found a pair of Tawny Owls roosting in a barn a couple of months ago, we finally got round to have a go at catching them today. Our luck was in as both of them flew straight into a well placed mist net.

As you can see from the photo below, one of them was extremely grey in colour. It'll be interesting to see what colour the chicks will be next year if they stay and breed.

(one very happy Silvia getting the up-close encounter with owls I'd promised her)