Mipits on the move

It's that time of year when as soon as there's a favourable light wind the Mipits are on the move...

This last weekend was the first settled period for a while on The Lizard and autumn vis-mig started to pick up. The first Reed Buntings of the winter were around the fields and the first real Skylark movement got underway, but it was Meadow Pipits we were interested in. We're lucky enough to be able to ring on a wild bird seed field down near Southerly Point, where we can also target Meadow Pipits in a triangle of nets. The theory is, set the nets in a tight triangle, put a tape lure (or more accurately an MP3 lure!) in the middle and wait for birds to drop in.

As Saturday went on, migration picked up and hundreds of Meadow Pipits were heading south, many dropping in to the triangle. Through the morning, two of us ringed 149 Meadow Pipits and some extra two-shelf nets through the weedy field also produced a few Linnet, Goldfinch, two Stonechat and a late Whitethroat.

Nets along the weedy field margin were particularly effective

The next day saw similar weather, so we repeated Saturday's efforts and ringed a further 114 Meadow Pipits and a more impressive 30 Linnet. In fact, our weekend total of 43 Linnet is the most ringed in the county in any year since 1985! Almost mirroring Saturday's catch, we also ringed two more Stonechat and a late Sedge Warbler.

The weedy field looks very tempting if you're a small finch or bunting,
so will make for interesting days later in the winter

Just to round of the weekend, this morning saw a change of scenery, with the team moving up to Gunwalloe for yet more pipits. This wasn't quite as successful as The Lizard, but it gave us the excuse for some late autumn reedbed ringing, producing a few Reed Buntings, a late Reed Warbler and a Cetti's Warbler.

All in all, the long weekend ringing totals were 449 birds ringed, including 349 Meadow Pipit, 43 Linnet and 21 Dunnock!

Ringing at Nanjizal, Cornwall's other CES

After detailing some of the highs and lows of our CES at Gunwalloe, here Kester Wilson gives a flavour of ringing in Penwith, where he also runs a CES at Nanjizal.

"The early part of the year was quiet, with most of my time spent improving the habitat on site. Last year's clearance around the bird feeders continued to improve the catches of finches and Lesser Redpoll, Siskin, Brambling and last year's Cirl Bunting were all caught in the first few months of the year.

Every year has its quiet times and if you're lucky a few purple patches. During spring 2013, the purple patches were few in number, with winter dragging on well into spring. In late March, the wind turned southeast and many birders noticed large numbers of Chiffchaffs in the far southwest of Britain. On 25th March, my nets were opened and 118 Chiffchaffs caught, two of which were controls: DLL278 was ringed at Icklesham (East Sussex) on 18/9/2010 and EKX125 was ringed at Portishead (Somerset) on 1/7/2012. Soon after, details of three more controls were received and gave a further indicator that most of the birds involved were destined for southern Britain. EPL449 was ringed at Nanjizal on 30th March and found dead at Crew (Somerset) on 1/5/13, another ringed on 26th March was controlled a few weeks later at Slapton Ley (Devon), and another ringed during the same period  on Skokholm (Dyfed) stayed to breed at Nanjizal instead of heading back further north.

Compare this to the spring of 2011, when prolonged periods of southeasterly winds brought larger numbers of abietinus Chiffchaffs than usual and in amongst them were two interesting controls. One ringed at Sul Panaro, Italy, on 2/10/2009 and controlled on 4/5/2011 and another ringed at Giessen, Germany, on 26/9/2010 and controlled at Nanjizal on 7/4/2011.

Spring/summer 2013 didn't produce any further noticeable falls, just the odd surprise turning up in a net; the most surprising being a female Subalpine Warbler caught on 5th July.

After last year's poor breeding season, it was nice to be catching good numbers of young birds on CES and most species seem to have done OK, with both Sedge Warbler and Dunnock doing very well, and only Blackcap having a poor year. See below the numbers of young birds ringed of selected species during the whole CES season in 2012 and to the end of July only in 2013.

Year	2012	2013
Dunnock	39	34
Wren	37	62
Sedge Warbler	26	39
Whitethroat	3	11
Chiffchaff	115	98
Blackcap	15	6

For the first time I have used tapes at Nanjizal this autumn and my change of heart came with the chance of purchasing cheap, small MP3 players with decent rechargeable batteries.  Once the CES visits were completed I started to play Grasshopper Warbler just before sunrise and I am sure other people have noticed that Gropper tapes also work very well for Sedge Warbler: I later found that you can pretty much play any warbler and other species will respond. Up to 24th September, I have now ringed a surprising total of 53 Grashopper Warblers!

Further confirmation of a good breeding season for Sedge Warblers sees my annual total now over 500, a high percentage of which were trapped around the Gropper tape. An Aquatic Warbler also seemed to find it appealing on the 20th, only the second bird seen in the UK this autumn!

Until last week, numbers of Blackcap had been unusually low, but they have now arrived en masse and the 20th alone saw 98 being ringed, bringing my annual total over the 400 mark. As well as the large numbers of birds, the last few ringing sessions have produced the afore-mentioned Aquatic, Marsh Warbler (22nd) and a Wryneck (24th). A few recoveries have also come in over the last few weeks and the Skokholm-ringed Chiffchaff reappeared in a net a few days ago."

Swedish-ringed Osprey

The RSPB office in Penzance recently passed across sad news of the demise of an injured Osprey. What is more unusual is that this bird was ringed, and a Swedish ring at that!

Thanks to Lee Stevenson for reporting (and photographing) the bird

92A07295 was found at Relubbus on 30th August and despite being cared for at Mousehole Bird Hospital it died soon after. We've sent the detailson to BTO who will send them on to the Swedish ringing scheme, and we'll post the details here when we receive them.

There is just one previous report of a ringed Osprey in the county, which was a bird ringed near Inverness in 1994 and seen in St Columb Major in April 1997, before being killed hitting wires in Scotland three weeks later. Even looking further afield, there are only 23 reports of Swedish-ringed Ospreys in the UK, so this is a very unusual record. The map below shows all Osprey movements to/from the UK, from the BTO's online ringing report.

2012 Cornish online ringing report released

The BTO has just released the 2012 Online Ringing Report, which makes fascinating reading. The various reports don't just show national figures, but also break them down by county, so there's plenty in here for Cornish birders.

The Cornish ringing totals for the year (here) show 7,161 birds ringed which is well down on the last few years, symptomatic of the poor breeding season. The top five species ringed in the county (with 2012 totals for comparison) were:

• Swallow - 748 (445)
• Blue Tit - 712 (1,455)
• Chiffchaff - 681 (1,054)
• Willow Warbler - 516 (377)
• Chaffinch - 508 (666)

Notable in the totals were the only Hoopoe and Iberian Chiffchaff to be ringed in the UK in 2012 and also Spotted Crake (one of only three ringed nationally), Wood Sandpiper (four ringed of just eight nationally) and Aquatic Warbler (two of only seven ringed nationally).

Perhaps of more interest though are the recoveries that these, and other, ringed birds generate (here). Considering the relatively low ringing total for the county (not enough ringers!), most of the most interesting recoveries are of birds ringed elsewhere and seen or found here. But amongst the 1,803 recoveries involving the county, the highlights included colour ring sightings of:

• Great White Egret from France (seen at Amble Marshes)
• Ringed Plover from Norway (actually the fourth to be seen in the county)
• The first Lesser Black-backed Gulls from Germany and The Netherlands

recaptures of:

• Green Sandpiper in The Netherlands (ringed at Nanjizal)
• Firecrest originally ringed in Sussex
• Swallow originally ringed in Belgium (just one day earlier!)

The one-day, 787km movement of a young Swallow from Belgium to Gunwalloe

• The first ever Chiffchaffs in the county originally ringed in Denmark, Germany and The Netherlands (and the third from France)

and the unfortunate dead birds:

• German Jack Snipe and German Snipe (shot at St Austell and Zennor respectively)
• Russian and French Woodcock also shot

• Collared Dove ringed in Dorset and found dead 195km distant near Truro
• Dutch-ringed Yellow-browed Warbler found in Truro in 2008 (only the second foreign-ringed Yellow-browed Warbler to be found in the UK, following a quick movement of a Norwegian-ringed bird to Fair Isle in 1990)

 

Most of these recoveries of ringed birds came from birders and members of public, so if you've been lucky enough to find a ringed bird or see a colour-ringed bird, report it online via www.ring.ac or contact us direct and we'll pass it on.

Amazing Med Gull histories and a Herring Gull coincidence

Terrible photo of a Mediterranean Gull (iPhone-scoped) but a fascinating bird! Red PHJ6 was at Hayle estuary this afternoon and the joy of the internet tells me that it has a great history. Ringed as a chick in Poland in May 2007, it was first seen in Cornwall in February 2008, at both Marazion and Hayle estuary.

In April 2009 it was seen at Badminston Gravel Pit, Hampshire, paired with another colour-ringed Med Gull (Yellow 2A34). Now interestingly 2A34 was ringed as a chick in Lancashire in May 2007, but has since been seen in Dorset (April 2011) and remarkably by me at Men-Aver beach, Cornwall (November 2011 and January 2012). So I've now seen both of this pair in Cornwall!

Back to PHJ6... Post-Hampshire, it was seen in Devon in July 2009 and then back in Cornwall around St Ives and Sennen Cove in October-November 2009. It was then seen back in Devon in July 2011 and August 2012, before being seen again on Hayle estuary in September 2012 and then again this afternoon.

The coincidences go on, as over the summer a couple of us went over to Guernsey to help with Paul Veron's colour-ringing project, cannon-netting birds on Chouet Landfill. On the trip we all camp in Paul's garden, where he traps a few gulls in the winter and it was here that White 3CT1 was ringed, a Herring Gull also on Hayle estuary this afternoon!

So all in all a pretty productive stop off this afternoon and just goes to show how colour-ringing can tell us so much about what our birds are doing.

Last few Stormies of the year

With the weather looking nice and calm and overcast, with a new moon to boot, we decided on one last Storm Petrel session on Wednesday night. We were hoping for something to liven up the day after a paltry 14 birds in the morning at Marazion Marsh, where there was still no Aquatic Warbler. AND we've now been beaten to it by Devon, with one seen at South Milton Ley yesterday morning.

So off to Hot Point we went, with just two nets set. It was pretty quiet (perhaps not surprisingly for September), but we did ring another six birds before giving up early at 1:30am. Interestingly, all bar one of these birds were already well into moult, as on the bird below, suggesting that these are non-breeding birds. Breeding adults are thought to moult slightly later in the year; starting in October.

The primaries are too worn to really guess if these are 'juvenile-type' or 'adult-type' (based on how pointed/rounded they are), but also note the very nice white-tipped greater coverts, shown in both newly-fledged juveniles but apparently also older birds.

Another Aquatic-less day, but perhaps an Estonian Arctic Tern instead?

With the wind hinting at turning to the east, we headed to Marazion this morning in the hope of a late Aquatic Warbler. But sadly still no luck, although 32 birds caught wasn't too bad considering how quiet the reedbed seemed. These were mostly Reed Warblers, though one of the driest net rides did catch this rather smart female Kingfisher (female by virtue of being greeny-blue instead of bluey-green) and almost caught a passing Common Sandpiper. Overnight the wind is proper easterly though, so maybe tomorrow will be the day...

A bit of extra interest for the morning came with the delivery, via RSPB, of a GPS data logger that was reported on an injured tern at Sennen Cove on Saturday. Unfortunately the bird died but the second finder only removed the data logger and not the ring, so we're still a bit in the dark as to what the bird was and where it was from! Rumour has it though that an Estonian-ringed Arctic Tern caught in Grampian recently also had a similar logger, so here's hoping...

 

 

We won't find out for a while though as the logger has to go back to the manufacturer (in Poland) to be downloaded to ID the bird. For info, the aerials allow the GPS data to be downloaded remotely to a radio base-station once the bird is back on its breeding grounds. So for those with 1107 € to spend, check out the technical specs here.

Thanks to Tony Mills for the Kingfisher photo and Terry George (Sennen Cove Birdwatching), Kester Wilson and Dave Flumm for eventually getting the logger to us.

Last 'CES' of 2013

Meet D129878, the final bird of our 2013 CES (Constant Effort Site) season at Gunwalloe. The fluffy flanks give it away as a pretty fresh juvenile Reed Warbler, the commonest species caught at the site, and totting up, the catch of 52 adult and 63 juvenile Reed Warblers compares OK to last year (60 and 48), but still not up the totals from our first year in 2011 (88 and 96).

The next most frequent species caught, Sedge Warbler, fared somewhat better though. The poor breeding season in 2012 was reflected in the number of returning adults (just 13, compared to 33 in 2012 and 30 in 2011), but the number of juveniles was surprisingly good (64, compared to 36 in 2012 and 85 in 2011). One species notable by its 'near-absence' though was Cetti's Warbler: the total of three adults and 12 juveniles in 2011 dropped to three adults in 2012 and just a single juvenile this year.

Species diversity was also down, with 12 species caught this year down on the 15 in 2012 and 17 in 2011. The only real highlight were the five juvenile Stonechats ringed, but even these weren't quite the Aquatic Warbler of 2012 or the three Grasshopper Warblers of 2011. But looking on the bright side, the year was in general a slight improvement on 2012, but not yet recovered to the levels of 2011. The chart below shows the catch totals per CES visit each year: note how typically windy spring weather means we always miss the first visit, but at least it's Constant!

So hopefully the disastrous breeding season of 2012 and the wet start to 2013 won't be repeated next year and we can look forward to another bumper year.

Colour-ringing comes good

After a summer of colour-ringing effort, it always pleasing to have the first reports from birders of a couple of our birds. First up was House Sparrow A31, photographed at Old Lizard Head on 30th July. This was too far from where it was ringed, but nice to see such a great photo of one of our birds 'in the field'.

Thanks toTim Bunce for the excellent photo of A31

Then just today we received a report of W:029, a Herring Gull ringed as a chick on the roof of a Falmouth Industrial Estate in July. This bird had foregone the promise of pasties, chips and bins in Falmouth and relocated to Stithians Reservoir, just 10km away. Again not a very long movement, but certainly an interesting one.

Other ringing recently has been a bit hampered by the weather... But between us we've managed a few Storm Petrel sessions, catching good numbers of birds (over 200 for the year now) and also birds from France and the Channel Islands. The latter is notable, with just 11 previous reports of Channel Islands-ringed Storm Petrels in the UK.

A rather poor composite of the 'Jersey' Storm Petrel ring

CES this morning at Gunwalloe was the first productive one for a while, with just under 50 birds caught, including good numbers of passage Sedge Warblers on the first net round. It was also nice to finally catch up with a Cetti's Warbler, the first of the year on CES! Numbers worryingly seem to have been on the decline at the site, with four birds caught by 20th August 2012 and 15 by 20th August 2011.

Despite a missing central tail feather, this juvenile still showed just nine more
- pretty unique in the British bird world.

Wandering Barn Owl

Barn Owls don't tend to go very far, so when I received a report today of a ringed bird just up the road at Ruan Minor (Lizard) that wasn't one of mine I was intrigued. 

It turns out that GC58243 had actually been ringed as a chick at Nanjizal (Penwith, in blue below) in June 2010, some 37km from Ruan Minor (in red below). With so much good Barn Owl habitat between Penwith and Lizard it's a bit surprising it made such a long journey, but that's the joy of ringing!

View Wandering Barn Owl in a larger map

First Cornish Stock Doves ringed in 25 years

Yesterday we had a great CES morning at Gunwalloe, with 81 birds caught easily beating just 30 on the same visit last year! Good numbers of juvenile Sedge and Reed Warblers made up most of the catch, with three more very juvenile Stonechats new for some bisitonv ringers from up country. Amusement (for some) came in nearly losing our newest C-permit holder to the marsh...

We then mopped up some remaining Barn Owls, which have been about six weeks late this summer. Many birds have also given it a miss this year, presumably in too poor condition to breed, including this Newquay pair.

Other sites checked included an abandoned clutch of three eggs, one unused for the first time in 17 years and broods of just one or two. The highlight in Cornish terms though, was an adult Stock Dove with two big chicks - the first Stock Doves to be ringed in the county since 1988! In fact, the three birds doubled the total number ringed in the county since the 1970s!

Not a Swallow

We've tried and failed at our first Swallow roosts this last week (at Gunwalloe), catching just a handful of birds. This did include a few Sand Martins and a Swallow we ringed at roost in July 2011 though, but the highlight for some was this rather smart (and very juvenile) Stonechat.

Our latest CES visit at the site was a bit more successful, with the 51 birds caught comparing well to 31 from the same visit last year. Lots of young Reed Warblers out now and also a few Sedge Warblers passing through, including a 'Fat 4' bird. Hopefully bodes well for the rest of the season...

New moon Stormies and an old Kittiwake

The current new moon (and rare calm conditions for The Lizard!) gave us our second opportunity of the year to catch a few Storm Petrels. The night started a bit quiet, but by 2am (when Tony had left) things picked up and we ended the night at 3am with 79 new birds and a ringed bird which looks to be from Co Dublin.

When you catch a good number of Stormies there's always a few missing toes or feet and last night was no exception, with one footless bird and one missing a whole lower leg! Birds seem to do OK with bits missing (presumably nipped off by fish), so we ringed both birds on the good leg and away they went.

Stumpy

We also took advantage of the low tides a new moon brings to get into the zawn at Rinsey to colour ring a few more Kittiwakes. However, with so few birds actively breeding though this was never going to be easy, and most birds went out to loaf on the sea before we got close. Not all bad news though, as there's always been one metal-ringed bird in the colony that I've wanted to catch, but it was always a bit too high on the face. But with a bit of patience and effort we managed to catch this bird - originally ringed as a chick on Tresco, Isles of Scilly, in 1998! So this is now sporting a new colour ring (CC - below) and it'll be interesting to keep track of this bird from now on.

15-year-old 'CC', now a Rinsey resident

Only other birds of note were a couple of Shags ringed and a few more Herring Gulls also colour-ringed in addition to our urban birds.

More urban gulls and a very Cornish surprise

Yesterday was spent catching up with the Rinsey Kittiwakes, but this didn't entirely go to plan. In perfect weather, the colony was worryingly quiet and a scan through produced a few sat birds but the only birds I could see on anything were three pairs on a total of four eggs! I know the season is a bit late, but compare this to 5th July last year when I counted 32 chicks, some of which were well on their way to fledging...

The only consolation was a very Cornish surprise on the way down to the site, barely viewable in this shockingly low-quality iPhone footage.

So further work abandoned we headed to Falmouth to mop up a few more roof-nesting gulls. This was marginally more successful, with an easy roof yielding 13 Herring Gulls of various sizes, but all big enough to now be sporting a colour ring.

Dismal CES season at Gunwalloe

Having completed Visit 6 on our CES at Gunwalloe this morning (in perfect conditions), the total of just nine birds was incredibly low, as we'd expect 30+ birds by now.

Looking out over the 'dry' ride at Gunwalloe - not so dry though,
still being thigh-deep in mud in places!

So with such a low total hot on the heels of the 13 birds caught on Visit 5, I thought I'd compare the ctch totals for the first half this year to those in 2012.

	2012	2013
Adult Reed Warbler	45	37
Juvenile Reed Warbler	4	1
Sedge Warbler	19	5
Blue Tit	15	1
Cetti's Warbler	3	0
Total all species, all ages	95	53

I was surprised to see so many Reed Warblers in the total, but the lack of species variety is rather worrying! We normally catch good numbers of Blue Tits, Reed Buntings and Chiffchaff but these have all been notable by their absence this summer. Hopefully this is just the effects of a late season, so we'll have to see if it picks up in the last six visits.