Nesting day and inland Ravens

Today was a day for checking various nests and it turned out to be a pretty varied one! En route to the cliffs we checked up on or Mute Swan nest at Helston Boating Lake, which is now up to a full clutch of five eggs. A second nest has also sprung up and a bit of gentle persuasion of the sitting parent to lift her bum revealed three eggs.

This was followed by our regular check of Rinsey Cliffs, where a few more Shags and Herring Gulls had completed clutches, and then onto a few Barn Owl boxes. Three of those checked had birds in: a lone male, a regular female on three eggs and a new female on five eggs. One site was unoccupied (as it was last year), but the ivy around the box produced a Song Thrush on five eggs!

The highlight though was a corvid hotspot found by local nester Simon Taylor (see his nesting blog here). This inland site (a couple of old engine houses) has a few pairs of Jackdaw, a Magpie on eggs and perhaps two Raven nests.

Raven nest somewhere at the top of this engine house!

It was never going to be easy to see what was in the nest, but a bit of cobbling together gave us a mirror on a stick, lashed to an extension pole, on top of a ladder! Sadly despite the effort we still couldn't make out what was in the nest, so the only thing for it was to retire and find a suitable spot to get the 'scope out...

Heath Robinson method of nest-checking

Luckily we could just about see through one of the old windows and into the nest, which was home to three whopping Raven chicks looking pretty close to fledging. Now we know about this site, it's one Simon will monitor next spring, so watch this space.

Truro Dipper chicks

Summer is really getting going now and we've recently been out ringing our first pulli (nestlings) of the year. Whilst most of our other nestbox birds (tits) are still building, our Dippers are already feeding rapidly-growing chicks. We only monitor a couple of boxes near Truro, but both of these had chicks to ring last week.

Dipper nestbox-checking

The three chicks in this first box (from four eggs) were just sprouting flight feathers, but those in the second box (only two chicks out of five eggs...) were a few days behind, still being pretty naked. Two chicks from five eggs is a bit disappointing, but Dippers normally produce 2-3 fledglings per breeding attempt (per BTO BirdTrends page), so this isn't too bad.

Rinsey Shags six weeks late

The long wait is finally over, with several pairs of Shags apparently laying at Rinsey over the last week. There are only 14 pairs in the main zawn at the moment, with at least eight of these now on eggs, including four pairs on a full clutch of three eggs. This is a good six weeks later than last year when our first egg date was 8th March!

It looks like our first Herring Gulls are also laying now in the zawn, but they (perhaps wisely) sit very tight, so it's not so easy to check clutch sizes. But at least two pairs have a single egg, with a dozen more birds probably also incubating.

Mullion Cormorants

Yesterday a small boatload of us made our first visit of the year to Mullion Island. With our outboard not quite in a usable condition yet, so thanks to Luke for rowing us out! Whilst it might seem a bit early in the season, Cormorants have a very long and extended breeding season so an early visit is essential to make an accurate count of nests.

Once on the island, we were greeted by well over 80 Cormorants around the main 'colony', which seemed to have shifted slightly along the top of the island (or was that just my imagination?). In total we counted 52 active nests, which compares well to the 24 counted last year.

Most of these nests appeared to have complete clutches of three or four eggs, with one even having five eggs which is pretty unusual. The earliest nest was also in the process of hatching, with three naked chicks hatched and the final chick just breaking out of the egg. But the timing is much later this year, as our first visit last year (on the earlier date of 6th April) saw 14 out of the 24 nests already with chicks, with several big enough for ringing. So with incubation of around a month (thanks BTO BirdFacts), watch this space to see how the later season progresses...

  

Downscaling a bit, we also had chance to check two of our Dipper boxes near Truro. Both were on eggs last time we visited and nothing had changed, with clutches of four and five eggs. With incubation of just 17 days it won't be long until these clutches both hatch.

Dipper nestboxes are simple but effective!

New French Kittiwake at Rinsey

We regularly see French-ringed Kittiwakes in our study colony at Rinsey Cliffs, and already this year we've seen two. One (OYM,NWR - Orange, Yellow, Metal, Black, White, Red) is a regular, seen several times in 2012 and 2013, but one seen yesterday was a new bird for us.

Shocking photo of YBM,YRL on a pretty hard to observe ledge!

YBM,YRLwas ringed as a chick at Point du Raz, Plogoff, in 2005 and is the oldest French bird so far at Rinsey. Since ringing it's not been seen again in France, so chances are it's been somewhere in the southwest breeding in recent years, so it'll be interesting  to see if it hangs around. We've seen an older bird at nearby Trewavas Head (ringed in 2002) but haven't had a chance to get there yet this year.

'Almost Easter' eggs

OK, so it's not quite Easter yet, but April always seems very spring-like, so what better time to recheck a couple of Dipper boxes we inherited from a decades-old project. A couple of weeks ago both were built, lined and ready to go, and this afternoon both were occupied. A judicious bit of chatting ensured one female slipped away on approach, revealing four eggs, whilst the other female sat tight (in the box you can just about see under the bridge below), so one to visit another time...

So with incubation of 17 days, it hopefully won't be long before we'll be ringing our first nestlings of the year!

Commuting Storm Petrels and warblers

We recently received some interesting recoveries from the BTO, mostly of some pretty fascinating Storm Petrel movements. In the past we've traded quite a few birds with Ile Banneg, home to France's largest breeding population of Storm Petrels, but these reports were notable.

Over summer 2013 at Hot Point, Lizard, we only caught one French-ringed Storm Petrel (compared to four in 2012), but we've just heard that we had a great run of records of birds going the other way. In total five birds ringed at Hot Point in 2013 were recaught on Banneg later in the year, with a further bird ringed in 2012 unfortunately found predated there. This compares with just one going that way in 2012.

But what was interesting was when these birds were caught, with some making very quick movements over the 178km to Banneg. Birds ringed in June were recaught 35 days, 32 days and four days later, whilst a bird ringed in July was recaught three days later and one ringed in August was recaught the next day! I'm sure birds regularly commute backwards and forwards across the English Channel, but in theory non-breeding birds are more attracted to tape lures, but I bet these movements are of breeding birds...

We also just received details of a few movements from last autumn, including a Sedge Warbler ringed at Marazion and recaught in France five days later (but it did weigh 11g when ringed so was obviously getting ready for the off), a Spanish-ringed Reed Warbler recaught at Gunwalloe was ringed on spring migration (the first to be found in Cornwall), and a Chiffchaff we caught in November had been ringed in North Yorkshire a month earlier. This bird had come over 500km and was presumably on migration through the country when ringed.

The map below shows where these birds were ringed/recaught: Storm Petrels (red), Sedge Warbler (green), Reed Warbler (blue) and Chiffchaff (yellow). 

T015 trades Spanish dumps for sunny Lizard Point

Our run of colour-ringed Great Black-backed Gulls has slowed down a bit, so we've had to make do with the occasional Lesser Black-backed Gull instead! But Orange T015 was an interesting one, seen at Lizard point on 17th March.

T015 at Lizard Point on 17th March (Terence Thirlaway)

It was ringed in February 2010 at a rubbish dump near Salamanca, central Spain (red marker), and is almost certainly a British breeding bird. In 2011/12 it wintered further east, seen at two other Spanish rubbish dumps (blue markers).

T015 at ringing in Salamanca, February 2010 (Miguel Blanco)

 It was seen on the same dumps again in March 2013 and February 2014 and was last seen at Colmenar Viejo on 2nd March, so made a quick two-week movement back up to Lizard Point.

T015 at Colmenar Viejo, Madrid (Delfin Gonzalez)

There have only been 15 records of Spanish-ringed Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the UK, but this is the second in Cornwall, following another colour-ringed bird seen at Gwithian in 2006.

Return of the Kittiwakes

After a tip-off that Kittiwakes were starting to gather on cliffs, I had a trip out to our RAS (Retrapping Adults for Survival) site at Rinsey Cliffs this morning and found about 40 birds back on ledges in our study colony, claiming some early territories. It wasn't the best weather for digi-scoping, so apologies in advance for the poor quality of the grabbed photos below!

It was nice to see a few of my colour-ringed birds back as well, and of the five birds seen, three of them have interesting non-Cornwall origins. Below are A8 and AL, which was originally ringed as a chick on the Isles of Scilly in 1999 and had its colour ring added in 2012.

AL (second from top) and A8 (bottom - honestly)

Another Scilly bird was CC (below), which was ringed on the islands in 1998 and recaught (and colour-ringed) by the group in 2013.

CC as seen this morning and below when it was colour-ringed last year

Along with the Scilly birds, there was also a single French bird (OYM,NWR), which dropped in too briefly to grab a digi-scoped photo, so here it is at Rinsey in July last year! It was originally ringed as a chick at Point du Raz, Finistere, in 2008.

Geeb-fest at Lizard Point

The last couple of weeks have seen large numbers of Great Black-backed Gulls (and the odd Iceland and Glaucous Gull, and even a smart Kumlien's Gull!) gathering on the reef at Lizard Point. There seems to be an endless stream of colour-ringed birds in amongst them as well, with birds from as diverse places as Norway, Wales, Channel Islands and France! So far we've recorded 13 different colour-ringed birds, and  the origins of some of those we've photographed (well Tony has photographed) are below.

JP164 was ringed as a chick at Risøy, Mandal, Norway in June 2011

White LAK2 was ringed on Looe Island, Cornwall, in June 2010 and has been seen several times in Guernsey

White LAY4 is another Looe Island bird, ringed in July 2012 and has previously only ventured as far as Camel Estuary

Black 96N was ringed in Normandy, France, in July 2013 and has been seen at Dawlish Warren, Devon, in October and December

Black 25L was ringed in Normandy in May 2012 and has been seen multiple times in Guernsey, lastly on 22nd February

P01B was ringed at Portland Breakwater, Dorset, in June 2013, and this is the first sighting since ringing

Yellow 0KK5 was ringed as a chick on Lihou Island, Guernsey, in June 2010. It has been regularly seen on the islands since ringing, and was also seen on the Plym Estuary in August 2012.

Yellow 0TT6 was too distant to photograph (and a bugger to read!), so here's a photo of it when it was ringed on Lihou Island, Guernsey, in June 2011. It has also been seen at Dawlish Warren, Devon, in April 2012.

Yellow 1PP7 was ringed as a chick at Jethou, Guernsey, in June 2013. The only sighting since then was on Looe Island, Cornwall, on 20th January 2014.

Green M65 was ringed as a chick in June 2013 at Iles Saint-Marcouf, Manche, France. Interestingly it was also seen on Looe Island on 17th January and 25th February.

Among a few other interesting birds was Herring Gull Red S:037 which I originally saw in Newlyn Harbour in October 2011. It had been rehabilitated and released at Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, in July 2011, and was reunited with me again at Lizard Point on 11th March!

Chiffchaffs getting ready for the off

Finally the weather improved for long enough on Wednesday to get out and put up some nets! With winter fast coming to an end we took the opportunity to make a late visit to one of our sewage works sites at Ponsanooth. We ended up with 21 new birds and 13 retraps, including the typical sewage works fare of two Grey Wagtails, a Siberian Chiffchaff and several 'normal' Chiffchaffs. Highlight though was a net round of three Firecrest (including the two males below) and a Treecreeper, the latter being the first one ever caught by the group!

What was more interesting though was the weight changes in some of the retrap Chiffchaffs. EKT783 weighed 7.9g when ringed on 17th December, up to 9.9g now. EKT753 weighed 7.8g when ringed on 26th November, then 7.6g on 12th December and 7.9g on 29th January, now weighing 8.4g. Finally one of our controls (a bird ringed elsewhere), DYP947, weighed 8.3g when caught on 29th January now weighs 9.7g.

These birds were also fat, scoring 3 or 4 (on a scale of 0-8), compared to earlier in the winter when the carry little or no fat (score 0 or 1). These are both sure signs that spring is on its way and birds are preparing to move back north...

Yellow-browed-tastic!

Finally the weather calmed down enough this morning to allow us to dash out an get some nets up. We still had to dodge the rain showers at Ponsanooth Sewage Works, but it was worth it with plenty of birds buzzing round the site. Whilst our total of 38 birds wasn't stunning, this was more than made up for in quality. The total included 13 Chiffchaffs, two of which were classic tristis Siberian Chiffchaffs, another was a bird we ringed at Ponsanooth in January 2013 and another had originally been ringed in Devon in September 2010. This was a juvenile when ringed so may have been on passage and may well have wintered in Cornwall each winter since then. Whilst we'll never know, it's a good age already so might even last another winter.

This Siberian Chiffchaff had a slightly funny eye (slight infection?), but didn't seem
to be inconvenienced by it, being a reasonable weight

After catching our first Yellow-browed Warbler of the year (but not the first of the winter of course), we then heard a bird calling just outside the site and when we finally tracked it down we noticed it was unringed, so we briefly put a playback call on and it was soon in a net. The first bird may well have been an adult, but these are quite hard to age confidently, but the second bird had a very pointed tail and was probably a first-winter.

Just to add to the above, we also ringed a single Firecrest, with another unringed bird around, so not a bad day all told!

Thanks to Emma Inzani for the photos, taken in very dim daylight!

Robins (and Earth girls apparently) are easy...

Our first proper team outing of the year saw us dropping in to a couple of our sewage works sites: Carnon Downs and Gwennap. The day saw us catch just 38 birds, but this did include 17 Chiffchaffs and a scattering of Pied Wagtails, Meadow Pipits and 'others'. One of the others was a juvenile Robin that showed quite nicely how easy they can be to age sometimes.

Apologies for yet another poor iPhone photo

On this bird, note how the retained juvenile greater coverts (yellow in colour) show obvious 'thorns' that are longer towards to bird's body, whereas the moulted adult-type greater coverts (more orange in colour) have more limited 'thorns' which are more obvious on the outside of the feather tract. Simples!

Unfortunately we didn't catch the three Siberian Chiffchaffs on the two sites nor the Yellow-browed Warbler at Gwennap. Next time...

Ringing Group report 2013

With the wind not looking like it's going to ease any time soon, this gave me the chance recently to put together some facts and figures for our first ever ringing group report.

I won't give away all of the juicy totals and recoveries here, but it was a reasonable year, hampered only by yet another summer of poor weather. Hopefully if the climate sorts itself out a bit in 2014 we'll see a good increase in the totals for the group, so watch this space.

To download a pdf copy of the report, simply click here.

Woodcock dazzling

We failed..... Came within inches of one at Windmill Farm near Lizard, but a bit too light - next time!