Hotting up.

First year at Uni is quickly coming to an end. It's been quite a few months. Meeting some lifelong friends along the way, this academic year has been an amazing journey. Learning so much and gathering invaluable skill sets throughout.

Coming to Uni was a big thing for me, I've seen Shaun (my older brother) through a degree and also a lot of friends back home and abroad have also studied. Coming out of the other end, everybody just seems that little bit more worldly. Things don't surprise then, they've seen it or they understand it. They may not have all enjoyed Uni, but it certainly molded them into different people. Me on the other hand, I'm here to enjoy it and take everything that I can from it. Jumping at opportunities and putting time and effort in around these parts seems to be paying off.

Me, Rob Werran and Nick Shimwell have been attempting to find as many species of flora and fauna on our campus as possible. We're motivated by the 1000 species in 1km challenge. We know we won't get anywhere near this, not only due to lack of time spent on campus, but also lack of knowledge when it comes to the creepy crawlies and plants. We're trying though, using various methods.

We've joined hedgehog trackers, torched and seen bottle trapping of newts, sweep netted for inverts, traced foxes, we're operating a moth trap when possible and we're always looking and listening for birds. The latest count of species is around 225 for the year, many of which are lifers for all of us. We've recorded 83 Species of bird. Highlights including Goosander, Red Kite, Raven, Golden Plover, Glossy Ibis and Kingfisher.

Below are some of the moth highlights thus far.

Purple Thorn 1st generation, Brackenhurst campus 2014. Craig Brookes

Chocolate Tip, Brackenhurst Campus 2014. Craig Brookes

Muslin moth, Brackenhurst campus 2014. Craig Brookes

Pale Tussock, Brackenhurst campus 2014. Craig Brookes

Swallow Prominent, Brackenhurst campus 2014. Craig Brookes

Aside from the Brackenhurst 1000 in a 1km, birding has been decent elsewhere too. A visit home in early April produced Osprey on the Mere along with the Arctic Skuas past Rossall, Sherwood forest has been nice with Crossbills and Siskins everywhere. Grizedale was nice too with Raven, Crossbills, Marsh Tit and Willow warbs en masse.

This last weekend things were pretty good. With a blocking pressure to the south lifting migration seemed to flow a little better. Little gulls and waders were picked up elsewhere in Notts in the morning and after a brief shower around midday my mind was made up, it was time to go birding.

Hoveringham railway pits was the first port of call. Me and Rob left Nick revising and arrived at the pit, leaving the car I could hear Whitethroats everywhere, maybe a small fall was happening. We ambled along the pit scanning and counting the ducks as always. Yellow Wags called from the nearby fields (which reminded me more of Sweden than England, up North they're not that common). Scanning through the Black-head colony hoping for a Med gull or a little gull when I saw a Black tern bobbing in the background. Stunning birds as always and a scarce inland passage bird, it felt like justice after hours of lifeless birding and whacking of bushes. News was put out to local birders and all the patch guys got it, which was nice. We exchanged niceties with the patchers, discussed the sailing pits (where they had been all morning) and decided we'd have a quick look there before beating a hasty retreat to get some reading done, serious students us you know.

Arriving at the sailing pit common terns where displaying and I had a very brief scan to try and pick out an Arctic which had been there moments before, as is often the case with migration, the tern had left. Probably following the Trent, as many birds do. A tiny white tern was fighting the wind out there though, just as Pete (a patcher) was about to leave, I got it in the bins. LITTLE TERN. Not a mega by any stretch of the imagination, go to any breeding colony on a beach and you'll surely have great views, but for a patcher, and I consider Hoveringham my patch down in Notts, they really are a special bird. Below are a few record shots of the Little tern and a Google maps image of Hoveringham pits in relation to the coast (43 miles at it's closest point). 

I can't wait to see what May has in store, other than end of year exams.

Little tern (sterna albifrons), Hovering sailing pit 26th April 2014. Craig Brookes

Little tern (sterna albifrons), Hovering sailing pit 26th April 2014. Craig Brookes

The future

Growing up and birding a coastal town, Blackpool, meant that my bird watching was able to be very varied as a youngster. I found my feet birding around the Fylde, in local bird groups and often traveled on organised trips out to various locations. Networking naturally came as part of these events and I came to meet some fascinating people in my local area.

I was taken under the wing of my local ringing group in 2007. Seumus and Phil were my newly adopted family, enthralled by bird ringing and migration, my interest manifested. Birding became a really worthwhile part of my life, I began to take notes and I started to feel really confident with my personal reliable records. I started to bird a patch, Marton mere LNR and kept religious notes. My findings were interesting, thought provoking, fluctuations in numbers and species were always noted, even no data collected is good data. I was introduced to Birdtrack and thoroughly enjoyed recording the daily comings and goings in my garden, patch or wherever.

By 2010 I was a fully licensed C permit holder for the BTO allowing me to live capture, mark and release birds in the UK, by 2011 I had landed myself a job in Sweden heading up survey work and leading an international team of bird ringers at a site called Kvismaren Fågelstation. I also travelled and worked in Falsterbo during the autumn of 2011 and finally ran ringing studies down in Southeast Denmark at Gedser Fuglestation. In 2012 I repeated the process and in 2013 I worked only at Gedser and only for 6 weeks (early autumn). My time out in Scandinavia was incredible, I was lucky enough to meet and work with some great people. I learnt so much about migration, behaviour, pressures on birds etc. My passion for birds has grown into an insatiable thirst for knowledge, everything we see can pose questions, results from bird ringing recoveries for example, answer one question, leave many others unanswered.

My passion for data collection is astonishing, clean data sets encourage me to gather more and more info, 'citizen science' seems the buzz word nowadays and I not only love to contribute to my own notes but data can also be important on a national or international scale, so join in, submit your sightings, enthrall and enjoy yourselves.

The reason for this post is not only to promote the ease of citizen science websites such as Birdtrack, but to inform that my blog will be changing slightly as I look to answer more questions or ask more questions regarding bird behaviour, migration, breeding stategies. I will also look into the fact that migration never stops, it only slows.

I would like to thank all the people that have played a huge role in making me into the birder and data cruncher that I am now, particularly the following few.

Seumus Eaves, Phil Slade, Ian Gardner, Kane Brides, Steve Christmas, Bo Nielsen, Magnus Persson, Martin Carlsson, Jan Sondell and last but not least Louis Hansen.

Back in Gedser

2013 has been a relatively slow year, ringing wise. I've ringed little of interest and therefore haven't updated the blog. Now however, I'm back in Gedser, Denmark; where I have now work for a few weeks. I'll return home shortly and attend University (Nottingham Trent) in late September.

So Gedser, I arrived 31st July to a very hot, humid and green Gedser, it was a shock to the system having spent two autumns down here, often in sub zero conditions. The birds are obviously much different too. Autumn migration has been evident throughout my stay and continues to gather pace as millions of birds are funneled through the South of Scandinavia on their way to wintering quarters. Daily highlights in the beginning were 1000+ Crossbills, Swift and smaller number of terns moving. The focus has shifted now as Crossbills fall away and the Swifts have migrated, trickles of hirundines pass through daily with increasing numbers of waders and raptors beginning their autumnal passage. Warblers were evident on the ground throughout early August and after a few weeks of wrong winds,the floodgates opened for Marsh, Reed, Willow and Garden Warblers to pour South. Along with the 'common migrants' so far this season, we have recorded some nice scarcities.

Long-tailed Skua's, White-winged Tern (amongst the countless Black Terns), Ortolan Bunting, Spotted Crake, Montagu's and Hen Harrier, Merlin, Honey Buzzard and Osprey. Two-barred Crossbill and Red-throated Pipit have also been seen along the peninsular.

We've ringed a couple of thousand birds throughout August. Mainly warblers, Reed, Marsh,Willow,Wood, Garden and Icterine. Also Blackcap, White and Lesser Whitethroat also help make the bulk.

Ringing highlights have been few and far between this year, but Short-toed Treecreeper, Black Redstart, Wood Warbler, Rosefinch, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Firecrest and Thrush Nightingale along with the countless Marsh Warbler and Iccy's would all be great birds to catch back home.

I'll try to update my blog more often as I catch myself coming backwards with things to do after starting Uni, until then, here are some photos of the 'goodies' - don't worry, no Bill Oddie shots here.

Red-breasted Flycatcher (Ficedula parva) 2CY+ female

Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla) 1st CY.

Wryneck (Jynx torquilla) 1st CY.

Rosefinch (Carpodacus erythrinus) 1st CY

River Warbler (Locustella fluviatilis)

Standardised ends.

Having been at Gedser for a little over 6 weeks now, the autumn standardised ringing season has just finished! The autumn season ran from 20th until today and over 11,500 birds were ringed in this time. I was only here for the last 6 weeks however. We have managed to ring just under 5000 since October 1st. Some niceties have also been caught, Firecrests, Waxwings and a Woodcock. Long-eared and Tengmalm's Owls and many Sparrowhawks.

Tengmalm's Owl - Aegolius funereus 2cy

Long-eared Owl - Asio otus female

 

The finer points of a Woodcock 1cy, scolopax rusticola

Sparrowhawk - Accipiter nisus 1cy male (light rufous type)

The birding has been great at times with very heavy migration; over 50'000 birds moving on some days! This week the birding has been fairly quiet though. Long-tailed Ducks, Common and Velvet Scoters, increasing numbers of Red-throated Divers (Ca80 this week) and an occasional Black-Throated too.

Waxwings and Goldfinches seem to be the dominant passerine migrants at the minute with a few hundred of each moving this week, supported by a few dozen Yellowhammer and Reed Bunts! Another (late) Serin has been hanging around but returned again after a second migration attempt.  

I received news this week of a Sparrowhawk ringed back in October which had flown 270Km in 5 days before slamming into a window in Hannover, Germany. (See map below)

Sparrowhawk Movement, 270km in 5days; hit window.

We are trying to catch some more owls tonight, though the weather isn't on our side it seems. Check back soon to see how it's been.

A fantastic week

The weather picked up a bit this week and made for some nice days birding and ringing. Migration seemed to pick up mid week and saw decent numbers of Waxwings arriving too. We ringed somewhere near a hundred birds though I won't mention full totals. Highlights included 2 Firecrests and 3 Waxwings.

Waxwing 2cy+ female - Bombycilla garrulus

Firecrest - Regulus ignicapillus - 1cy Male

 We also caught OK numbers of Thrushes, some Blackbirds, Redwings and Fieldfares; few Redwings.

Migrants this week

Whooper Swan - 5
Mute Swan - 3
Rough-legged Buzzard - 3
Red Kite - 2
Buzzard - 10
Sparrowhawk - 9
Merlin - 1
Peregrine - 1
Kestrel - 1
Rook - 49
Long-tailed duck - 46
Velvet Scoter - 6
Common Scoter - 82
Eider - 1800+
Red-throated Diver - 40
Black-Throated Diver - 1
Scaup - 12
Little Gull -5
Waxwing - 1320
Fieldfare - 840
Starling - 55
Redwing - 350
Goldfinch - 00's
Chaffinch/Brambling - 00's
Greenfinch - 00's
Siskin - 00's
Redpoll - 200+
Linnet - 25
Twite - 80
Bullfinch - 40
Yellowhammer - 75
Reed Bunting - 13
Snow Bunting - 6
Woodlark - 5

Again, migrant numbers are minimums as I can't watch all day, everyday!

Recent recoveries

I also received news of some recoveries of recently ringed birds. A Song Thrush I ringed in October was found freshly dead having been killed by a cat; though it did travel 511km in 154days before hand.

Song Thrush movement, 511km in 15 days

Another, 'better' recovery was the finding of a Blue Tit ringed October 3rd which traveled 548km in 19days and was caught and released by a ringer in the Netherlands. This recovery was actually the furthest Southerly recovery of a Danish ringed Blue Tit, ever. (See map below.)

Blue Tit movement, 548km in 19days.

I also have some findings of birds controlled here to report so maybe over the next few weeks we will find out some more interesting data. In fact I caught 5 Long-tailed Tits from Sweden with consecutive ring numbers.

Long-tailed Tits (3 types) - Heather McGinty

The picture above shows 3 types of Long-tailed tit. The left 2 and the far right are the northern Aegithalos C. Caudatus. The 3rd from left and 2 inside right birds are of europeus ssp. The central bird is somewhere inbetween. Apologies for the mixing up, but if you kept up you did well.

Migration ebbs

Apologies for no recent posts. I now plan on posting at least weekly with updates.

Weather here in Gedser has been quite poor recently. I've only managed to ring around 25 birds in a week due to high winds or rain and so I have tried to watch visible migration when I have had time. It's getting to the time of season when the finch migration is drying out, most finches have passed South earlier in the season where they will stay for the winter in warmer climes. Still though, late birds trickle through daily. Raptors are also fizzling down to zero apart from a few Rough-legged Buzzards which I expect to keep passing for a week or two. Ducks are arriving in the Baltic for the winter and I plan on talking a little more about this later.

A brief summary of this weeks migration highlights. Combined totals of birds migrating this week, in no particular order are.

Eider 400
Fieldfare 1200
Purple Sandpiper 1
Parrot Crossbill 18
Crossbill 4
Serin 1
Red-throated diver 26
Black-throated Diver 5
Common Scoter 184
Velvet Scoter 3
Waxwing 22
Scaup 3
Little Gull 8
Peregrine 1
Red kite 14
Sparrowhawk 8
Buzzard 8
Snow Bunting 2 (Resting)
Chaffinch/Brambling 450
Greenfinch 600
Siskin 800
Redpoll 450
Tundra Bean Geese 5
Grey Wagtail 2
Twite 70 (Wintering flock)
Raven 4 (Roaming)
Long-tailed Duck 26
Golden Plover 95 (Resting)
Lapwing 3
Reed Bunting 7
Yellowhammer 25
Bullfinch 30

Below is a quick, unedited video of 2 Resting Snow Buntings on the beach; by me.

I didn't count migration, all day everyday so these counts are in no way accurate, but we can say that these are bare minimums of each species.

I have really enjoyed my Sea-watching time here, stonking views of Long-tailed Ducks, Scaup and the Scoters aren't common on the West coast of the Britain. Preben the migration counter here at Gedser has been very disappointed with the duck migration so far this winter, he says usually you would see some thousands of each species passing the point daily at this time of year as they flock for the winter. Common Scoter, Eider and Long-tailed ducks form the largest flocks here and can be quite a sight.

Mixed sexed flock of Long-tailed Ducks migrating - Photo Arne Ader

An estimated 1.4 Million long-tailed ducks are said to winter in the Baltic (2009) though this number is down by 65% on the previous estimate in 1992/3 when there were approximately 4, 272,000 Individuals in the winter. So these fascinating ducks are in decline.

Common Scoter females in flight - Photo Joe Pender

 Common Scoters also use the Baltic as an important wintering area, the European population is said to be 130'000 birds of which the majority winter in the Baltic.

Common Eiders resting - Photo Scott Leslie

Finally Eiders, declined from C. 800,000 to C. 370,000 birds in Danish waters between 1990 and 2000 according to a paper by the WWT. Another source suggests that the population has increased since 2000 to approximately "500,000 bird by the winter of 2009" Christensen & Bregnballe (2011)

It is unfortunate then, that all of these charismatic species are in decline. It is, however a pleasure to be able watch these fascinating birds on a day to day basis as they pose no real identification problems in the field and are a joy to watch. 

Hopefully the weather this week will pick up a bit and there will be some more ringing. Maybe some more Owls at the end of next week, I'll wait and see.