August at Nanjizal

Whilst September is the official start of autumn, migration has been in full swing at Nanjizal during August. During the month, there was no coverage from the 14th-20th (peak Sedge Warbler passage) due to family holidays and a short period at the start of the month. None the less, a non-too-shabby total of 1,698 new birds was achieved. Unlike a lot of coastal sites, good numbers of birds at Nanjizal usually coincide with still clear nights where the birds can pick good habitat, rather than being happy to land on the first bit of land they see whilst flying through inclement weather. As you can see from the totals the main species trapped are species that have a tendency to migrate SSW in autumn, with Sedge Warbler and Blackcap both funnelling down in big numbers. This funnel affect also brings a good number of dispersing British Robin, as we always get good numbers at the end of August into September. Other species such as Willow Warbler are never in such large numbers.

Top 10 species ringed in August

Sedge Warbler	837	Reed Warbler	80
Whitethroat	192	Grasshopper Warbler	56
Willow Warbler	176	Robin	56
Blackcap	107	Wren	25
Chiffchaff	102	Garden Warbler	14

Ringed birds recaught during the month came from Scotland, Leicestershire, Wales, Cheshire and Belgium, all bar one being Sedge Warblers. Most species seem to have done OK, with Whitethroat, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Grasshopper Warblers picking up after a slow start. Song Thrush seem to have done very well locally. Other unusual species ringed included seven Tree Pipit, two Firecrest and two Spotted Flycatcher.

The month also saw a few rare and scarce birds appear in the nets, predominantly birds from the south, as there hasn't been much arriving on the east coast to filter down. A blast of south-eastlies on the 22nd seemed to do the trick and a good run started with a Wryneck on the 24th, white-spotted Bluethroat on the 25th (one of 224 birds ringed that day). The 26th then produced the second Melodious Warbler of the month (the first was on the early date of 10th) and for the second month in a row a Blyth's Reed Warbler, this time a first-year bird.

Late autumn 2016 at Nanjizal - 100 Yellow-broweds and counting

Like many ringing sites in the UK, 2016 didn't seem to be the best of breeding seasons, with the cold, wet spring seeming to have reduced the amount of successful first broods. Compared to 2015, the most noticeable drop in numbers over the autumn was for Sedge Warbler, from over 1,300 ringed to barely 700 this year. This may have been due to the weather and slightly reduced coverage, but the national picture seemed to be show a poor breeding season. Blackcaps were late arriving in September and, like Sedge Warbler, in much lower numbers. The current total of just over 1,450 again compares poorly to the 1,933 ringed in 2015. The only real up sides saw Willow Warbler pretty stable at 469 compared to 473 last year, and Whitethroat actually increased, from 248 to 366.

During September coverage was similar to last year, but increased dramatically in October with extended periods of calm weather. During this later part of the autumn, the most noticeable absentees were the crests. There may yet be more to come, but the total of just 167 Goldcrest is well down on last year's 469. Similarly, just 27 Firecrest ringed so far doesn't compare to the bumper catch of 114 in 2015. The highlight of the autumn though was the mass arrival of Yellow-browed Warblers. After the dramatic increase in 2015 (with 22 ringed), this autumn has so far seen an incredible 105 birds ringed, with 13 ringed in one day alone! Long-distance movements of Yellow-broweds are rare, so we were surprised to catch a bird in 2015 ringed in Lincolnshire the week before. This year, we retrapped a bird on 31st October that had originally been ringed at St Abb's Head, Borders on 9th October, almost 700km to the north.

Other unusual species trapped during the autumn include two Nightingale, four Wryneck, Melodious Warbler, Marsh Warbler, an unprecedented two Paddyfield Warblers, two Dusky Warbler and Little Bunting. With the weather now turning for the worse, it's doubtful we'll get many more days in before packing up at the end of the month, which is a pity as the thrushes have arrived and the ongoing turnover of Chiffchaffs has included numerous tristis, with several 'Siberian' Lesser Whitethroats also turning up, but more on these later...

Stripe overload with SEVEN Yellow-broweds ringed

It's always a highlight of a day out birding or ringing when you come across a Yellow-browed Warbler, so to find three on our first net round at Nanjizal was an absolute bonus! These stunning little birds originate in the Siberia and used to be rather scarcer than they are now, but with hundreds arriving along the east coast over the last couple of weeks it was only a matter of time before they filtered down to the southwest.

Three happy ringers with a Yellow-browed each

As if that wasn't enough, our second net round also produced three unringed Yellow-broweds, with one later in the morning bringing the total to a staggering seven birds! This brings the autumn total to10 birds, which compares well to previous years: the annual total in Cornwall counting backwards are 24, 13, 19, 8, 3, 4, 1, 7, 6.

The morning ended on 167 birds ringed, including 44 Blackcap, 28 Robin (fresh-in Continental birds), 27 Meadow Pipit, 26 Chiffchaff, two each of Willow and Reed Warbler, Grey Wagtail and Stonechat, a single Firecrest and the mystery bird below... Scroll down for the species.

A very smart first-year female Whinchat!

Big day at Nanjizal

It's not often the ringing group has a really busy day netting, but this morning was a bit of an exception. A small group of us headed to Nanjizal, with weather conditions looking good and lots of birds around locally. We weren't disappointed, and the first net round alone must have produced 150 birds! OK, so 50 of these were Meadow Pipits from a V of nets we'd set up, but many of the rest were Blackcaps.

Just one net, full of Blackcaps

We ended the busy morning on 248 new birds, including impressive totals of 96 Blackcap, 71 Meadow Pipit, 32 Chiffchaff and five Grasshopper Warbler. Add to that a scattering of common species and singles of Spotted Flycatcher, Firecrest, Grey Wagtail, Garden Warbler and Wryneck. Rather bizarrely, the Wryneck was in the Meadow Pipit nets, sat right out in the middle of a field!

Whilst we were all out an about, we took the chance to visit a few Barn Owl sites to check for  second broods. We didn't find any, but did have one box occupied by a ready-to-fledge Stock Dove. Interestingly, this is actually a much less frequently ringed bird in Cornwall than Wryneck; the last five years have seen seven Wrynecks ringed, but only four Stock Doves!

Perfect timing for a Paddyfield

There are always benefits to being social and this morning I thought I'd just briefly nip down to Nanjizal to say hello to the visiting ringing group who are down for the week and drop off some rings. When they returned from a net round with just half a dozen birds I realised they were having a quiet morning! OK, so they'd just recaught a Dutch-ringed Reed Warbler (the first from there to be found in the county!) and earlier in the week they had ringed Common, Green and Wood Sandpiper, but it was still a bit quiet.

A trio of sandpipers!

 My timing was perfect though as the sixth bird out of the bag was a bit more interesting!

Juvenile Paddyfield Warblers get very worn very quickly, but the smart tertials give away its age

This young Paddyfield Warbler popped up just over two years after we'd caught a much darker one at Nanjizal (see the blog post here), so two at the same site is rather incredible! The first for Cornwall was as recent as 1996, with these two ringed birds being just the fifth and sixth county records.

The 2014 Paddyfield for comparison

If the thought of using more B+ rings then B rings in a week's ringing might tempt other groups to come down for an autumn week, then check out some info on our Nanjizal page.

Eastern or Western Bonelli's Warbler at Nanjizal???

With the winter weather taking its toll on the vegetation, Nanjizal still has a rather wintry feel and the leaf must be a month behind normal. Spring migration has also been very slow, with only a couple of periods when birds arrived in any numbers. The best arrival so far was over 21st-23rd April when a decent south-easterly wind and rain dropped a few birds in, primarily Willow Warblers and Blackcaps. Virtually all the birds were very light and obviously finding the cold, wet weather hard going.

One unexpected surprise for Kester though was a Bonelli's Warbler (of some sort) caught on the 23rd. This bird didn't look like the birds he had caught before in Cyprus, but similar to birds he'd handled in Greece. It also didn't look quite right for the milky-tea coloured birds from Spain. As you can see below, the obvious pale edges to the greater coverts and tertials are very fresh and not worn or bleached. If pale edges are a feature of eastern birds, it looks like it's a plumage feature rather than relating to the age of the feathers. The bird's long-billed appearance (more reminiscent of Western BW (Phylloscopus bonelli) than Eastern BW (Phylloscopus orientalis)) was maybe exaggerated by a few feathers missing from the top of the bill. Luckily the bird did leave behind a feather though, so it'll be interesting to see what the DNA comes back as!

Record year at Nanjizal

With the nets now down at Nanjizal for the season, it's a good time to reflect on what was a record year for the site. The final total of 7,898 birds ringed was exceptional, with the top 10 species ringed for the year being:

1. Blackcap - 1936
2. Sedge Warbler - 1364
3. Chiffchaff - 1126
4. Willow Warbler - 469
5. Goldcrest - 438
6. Robin - 284
7. Swallow - 271
8. Whitethroat - 248
9. Reed Warbler - 205
10. Chaffinch - 181

But totals of several other species were also notable:

• Hoopoe - 2 (none ringed nationally in 2014)
• Wryneck - 5
• Tree Pipit - 7
• Song Thrush - 81
• Grasshopper Warbler - 87
• Yellow-browed Warbler - 22
• Firecrest - 114 (only 402 ringed nationally in 2014)
• Little Bunting - 2

Add to that singles of  Nightjar, Blyth's Reed Warbler (the first record for Cornwall), Melodious Warbler, Dartford Warbler, Subalpine Warbler, Pallas's Warbler and Common Rosefinch and it really has been a year to be remembered!

Cornwall's first ever Blyth's Reed Warbler

A small amount of preparatory habitat work was done during the winter, but on the whole the site looked ready for the season. Around six years ago, the field margin had been sown with maize, but with the ground becoming too waterlogged, the area was left to fallow. It soon filled in with willowherb and other native species and became excellent habitat for Sedge Warblers, but unfortunately, was cut and sown with rye grass in mid-September. This will obviously have an impact on the breeding birds, but maybe not so on passage birds. It just shows how quickly good, low maintenance breeding habitat can be created in a short space of time.

Spring was a bit hit and miss and there weren't any high numbers of common migrants passing through. I can only remember one notable day when a good number of Grasshopper Warblers appeared. Garden Warblers increased again and reared young for the first time in a few years and Dunnocks had a good, early breeding season. A few unusual birds turned up in spring and two were patch ticks; Squacco Heron and Little Bittern. From photos, the Squacco was different to the bird at Creen Bottom.

The breeding season seemed to be quite reasonable and it was nice to see the Sedge Warblers rear a good number of young, quite different to the national picture. Other species also seemed to have reasonable season, with notable increases in species such as Coal Tit, Redpoll, Siskin and Goldcrest. Once autumn passage commenced, the still and favourable weather, along with increased ringing hours, helped the annual totals considerably, with just under 8,000 birds ringed! The increased coverage was mainly due to the efforts of the ringing group, although two other ringing groups from up-country did visit for an intensive week's ringing.

Record numbers of Sedge Warbler and Blackcap were trapped in the still weather during August and September. A species that seems to have done well everywhere is Firecrest, with 114 ringed on site. Other species that broke any previous annual total by a considerable margin were Cetti's Warbler, Kingfisher, Reed Warbler and Yellow-browed Warbler. Presumably this was due to a good breeding season and possibly an expanding range of the latter. The autumn passage of Willow Warbler was far more noteworthy than the spring and Whitethroats didn't seem to be as abundant as last year and totals were down. September through to December saw a good passage of Chiffchaffs in the southwest and this year seemed to be quite a normal year, although local breeding birds didn't seem to be very successful.

This late-autumn Willow Warbler is surely a good candidate for a northern acredula bird

Late-autumn also provided the chance to see Yellow-browed and Pallas's Warblers
together on a couple of mornings

The totals show a good number of unusual birds were also caught, which are always nice to see, although unfortunately they always seemed to appear on busy days when you don't have much time to appreciate them! The most noticeable catch was Cornwall's first Blyth's Reed Warbler, but a Dartford Warbler was a welcome and overdue addition to the site ringing list.

As for controls (birds ringed elsewhere), fewer British Blackcaps than last year were controlled, even though the numbers were higher, and the site saw its first continental Goldcrest in the form of a Dutch-ringed bird. One of the many early dispersing September Robins made its way to Wendover, Bucks, and we also caught our first Sedge Warbler from Shetland. Also of note was a Yellow-browed Warbler recaught just five days after being ringed at Gibraltar Point Bird Observatory in Lincolnshire!

So all in all, 2015 has been an excellent year, with many thanks to all the ringers involved and if you're tempted to visit in 2016 then check out the details on the website.

Busy Nanjizal week and more Skylarks

The last five days have seen daily ringing at Nanjizal, with 493 birds ringed, including 171 Blackcap, 74 Chiffchaff, 22 Firecrest (60 ringed so far this autumn), three more Yellow-browed Warblers (15 so far this month!) and a Little Bunting (one of two present). Also of note were late Reed Warbler, Garden Warbler and the six Siskin (unusual for the site).

Away from the Penwith valley, the rest of us headed out to Predannack (National Trust farm near Mullion) this morning to try for our first Skylarks of the winter. The fields were pretty quiet, so it's perhaps a bit early in the season, and pre-dawn drag-netting saw three birds slip under the net. We were slightly more successful mist-netting, though nine nets did still only produce four birds!

A rather grainy dawn photo, but the colour difference in these birds is hopefully still apparent,
with two rather grey birds (left)

While we were there we took the opportunity to turn the 'Skylark H' into a 'mipit triangle', but the presence of various raptors kept the majority of birds away from the nets. Some hedgerow nets did catch a single Linnet, in amongst a plethora of Dunnocks...

This bird was an interesting aside though, as it had hints of pinky-colour coming through on the breast (suggesting a male), but an incredibly dull, grey head. So we might presume that this was a winter-plumage male, but the moulting wing, and in particular the worn state of the unmoulted inner secondaries (and very dull head), suggested this was an adult part-way through moult. So quite why an adult male Linnet would look quite so shabby is a mystery, but we presume this is a second-year bird, having had a dull first-summer plumage and, so far, a delayed moult of its head feathers.

Note the newly-growing outer primary and the wear on the unmoulted inner secondaries

Lincolnshire-ringed Yellow-browed Warbler

With Yellow-browed Warblers seemingly flooding into the north and east of the country, it was only a matter of time before they made it down to Cornwall in numbers. The last week has seen Yellow-broweds in seemingly every valley and Nanjizal has been no exception. This morning's catch of seven was rather notable though, especially as it included a bird that was already ringed, and not by the group.

One of the seven Yellow-browed Warblers caught at Nanjizal this morning

HPY702 had actually been ringed just seven days previously at Gibraltar Point Bird Observatory in Lincolnshire (over 530km distant). That day there were five ringed at the bird observatory (with an obs record count of 11 in the recording area!). Interestingly, this bird weighed 5.5g when first ringed and a week later it had actually increased in weight to 6.1g.

Blyth's Reed Warbler at Nanjizal - a first for Cornwall

In what didn't look like overly-promising weather, the regular autumn mist-netting at Nanjizal continued this morning, producing 93 birds, including five Reed Warblers, four Grasshopper Warblers, three Garden Warblers and what must surely be one of the birds of the autumn in the county! Blyth's Reed Warbler is a long-overdue bird for Cornwall (with a single record from Devon eclipsed by five in Dorset and no fewer than five on the Isles of Scilly), but this didn't detract from the excitement of finding one in a mist-net!

So here are just a few photos and details of the bird, with no doubt more to follow...

Blyth's Reed Warbler will always be a difficult bird to identify in the field, but the rounded wing,
with very short primary projection, can be seen in this bird. Also note the indistinct supercilium,
broad-based bill and the forehead peaking behind the eye.

The identification clincher can be seen in the open wing, with both P3 and P4 (primaries) emarginated:
the narrowing of the outer web of the feather towards the tip of the wing.
On other 'reed' warblers this emargination is only seen on P3.

As if we need to plug the site even more, but any visiting ringers wanting to join the ringing group at Nanjizal can find out more details elsewhere on the blog.

Early autumn at Nanjizal

August is always an interesting and busy time at Nanjizal, with the first big push of migrant warblers coming through. Where other Cornish sites are catching <100 birds in a session, the valley at Nanjizal regularly produces catches three times this number. Just over the last week, morning catches of 341 and 281 have been dominated by Sedge Warblers (201 on one morning alone), but in amongst them have been a few more interesting species.

Wednesday morning produced an early Melodious Warbler (above) and also Nightingale (below),
actually a much rarer species in the county!

Anyone still stuck for an autumn ringing trip away might want to consider a trip down to Cornwall, so check out some extra info here.

Early spring at Nanjizal - Little Bunting and Hoopoes (yes plural)!

Early spring has always been a bit hit and miss at Nanjizal. With the site being so exposed to the winter weather, the vegetation growth usually lags behind sites just inland, so we presume that early migrants overfly the rather wintery-looking site. Like a lot of other sites in the southwest, early spring is dominated by Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff, but constant northwesterly winds are never good news, and this year seems to be no exception. When the wind does drop, birds seem to find themselves further east; perfect for Portland Bill!

Over the last winter, the surrounding fields at Nanjizal held good numbers of Reed Bunting and the first ringing session of the season targetting them (on 5th March) saw a nice surprise in the form of a Little Bunting. It could well have been overlooked during the winter months, but was light, with little in the way of fat, so may have actually been on the move back north.

Chiffchaff numbers were very low in March and only one Willow Warbler was ringed, but things improved in April following a period of good weather. Despite there being no large numbers of Willow Warbler or Chiffchaff present, the vegetation is improving and Blackcap are finding the flowering Blackthorn to their liking, with the first Grasshopper Warbler and Whitethroat also now in.

Highlight of the spring so far came at the start of April though, with three Hoopoes frequenting rough, pony-grazed pasture next to the site. On consecutive days, a male and female were caught, giving a great opportunity to compare plumage details on these two second-year birds.

We won't necessarily tell you which is which of these two birds, but if you'd like to have a go at sexing them yourself then there's a great online resource here:

Autumn migrants going the wrong way and more Welsh Stormies

We've just received a whole batch of reports back from the BTO detailing some movements of birds to and from the group area. There were rather a lot of local movements, but here are some of the highlights.

 

Our great run of Storm Petrel movements continues (see the first few here), with yet more movements to and from Wales. This time we received details of four birds ringed at The Lizard that were recaught in Pembrokeshire, on Skokholm Island and at Wooltack Point. Two of these were birds ringed in 2012 and 2013, but the others were quite quick same-year movements, at 38 days, 26 days and 20 days. In fact, all of these last three were ringed on the same date (30th June), the same date we also caught a Portuguese-ringed bird.

The Portuguese-ringed Stormie caught back in June

We then just had one Storm Petrel movement he other way, from Skokholm to The Lizard (194km), but in managed this in just one day! It was ringed at 00:40 on 24th July and recaught down at The Lizard at 00:30 on 25th July.

 

Two rather more unusual reports came from Nanjizal, with migrants moving north in the late summer/autumn. A Sedge Warbler ringed on 21st August was recaught 250km away in Dorset seven days later (so moving northeast) and even more bizarrely a juvenile Sand Martin ringed on 10th July was recaught nearly 500km away in West Yorkshire six days later! This again is a very quick northeasterly movement and seems most odd...

Six-day movement of Sand Martin Z118605

Nanjizal 2014 totals

After another succesful season at Nanjizal, the nets were finally taken down yesterday. Whilst there are boind to be a few more wintering Chiffchaff and Yellow-browed Warblers on site, it's time to focus on other things.

So time for a quick summary of the 2014 season, when an exceptional 5524 birds were ringed. The top five species ringed for the year were:

	2014 total
Blackcap	1305
Sedge Warbler	1274
Chiffchaff	753
Whitethroat	353
Robin	304

But some of the totals of scarcer species are perhaps more notable:

	2014 total
Tree Pipit	9
Grasshopper Warbler	146
Yellow-browed Warbler	10
Firecrest	9

Add to these totals a fair smattering of rarities (Aquatic Warbler, Paddyfield Warbler, Barred Warbler, Common Rosefinch and Little Bunting) and it's been a good year! If anyone is interested in ringing at Nanjizal (and joining the autumn warbler monitoring at Marazion  Marsh RSPB reserve), then check out more details on the Nanjizal page.

Netful of Grasshopper Warblers

Paddyfield Warbler

Aquatic Warbler

Barred Warbler

Little Bunting