Year List update- 6 new species

I haven't blogged about this year's "year list" for a few weeks, and, as you can see from the title of this post, I've managed to add 6 new species to this year's list.

The first two species, Grasshopper Warbler and Sabine's Gull, were added at Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve a few weeks back.

The next two species, Sedge and Garden Warbler, were added last weekend, whilst ringing at Poolsbrook Marsh last weekend.

The final two species, Yellow-legged Gull and Little Egret were added this week. The Yellow-legged Gull, a nice adult bird, was reported on the Sheffield Bird Study Group website, as being on playing fields in Low Edges, a five minute drive from home, so I popped along and "ticked" it. The Little Egret was seen today fishing in the Boating Lake on the Esplanade in Ryde, Isle of Wight.

Whilst in Ryde, Jayne and I also spotted 5 moulting adult Mediterranean Gulls. Although not a year tick, there are always nice to see and photograph. Here are a couple of photos.

Mediterranean Gull (back bird) and Black-headed Gull

Year List update:
157 – Grasshopper Warbler
158 – Sabine's Gull
159 – Sedge Warbler
160 – Garden Warbler
161 – Yellow-legged Gull
162 – Little Egret

Derbyshire Sabine's Gull!

It was only last year that I saw my first Sabine's Gull at Pennington Flash, Greater Manchester (see here). On Wednesday news broke that a moulting adult bird had been seen on the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve.

I couldn't get over until today, so this evening I drive across with Lydia and found the bird feeding on the small flash, south of the main lake. It never came very close, staying about 30m away at all times, but I still managed some decent record shots, one of which I cropped. Unfortunately, no flight shots this time around.

Sabine's Gull

This record is only the 7th of this species in Derbyshire, and the first since August 1997. For me this is not only a "year tick", but it also my first ever Derbyshire record.

Whilst there, I also added Grasshopper Warbler to the year list, with 1 reeling bird, and about 20 Swifts.

Year List update:
157 - Grasshopper Warbler
158 - Sabine's Gull

Summer Migrants...at last!

The weather this spring has been, to put it nicely, poor! Cold, northerly winds and rain have meant that few summer migrants have managed to push north so far. I did, however, manage to add a few ticks to the "year list" with a visit to the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve on Monday, where I managed to pick up a couple of male Garganey, and 2 fly-through Sand Martins. Another addition to the list was a  remaining winter visitor, the Wigeon.

Year List update:

88 – Garganey

89 – Sand Martin
90 - Wigeon

Sedge Warbler Recovery

So far in my ringing "career" I've only ringed 1 Sedge Warbler, so you can understand my excitement, when I received an email from David, our data manager at Sorby Breck RG, telling me that the bird I ringed last year, had been "recovered" by ringers in France on its way south for the winter!

The bird in question was a juvenile, born last year at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale Reserve, and ringed by me on July 28th (see here for details and a couple of pictures). The bird was "recovered", which means it was retrapped away from the site it was ringed, by ringers in Sandouville, in the Seine Maritime region of northern France on August 12th, a distance of 431km. According to BTO's Birdfacts page, British Sedge Warblers have been recovered throughout France and Spain, down into Western Africa, so who knows where this bird spent the winter.

In the same session, we also retrapped another 2 Sedge Warblers, 1 of which had been ringed by my trainer at Carr Vale in 2013, so there's a possibility, that "my" bird could turn up in Derbyshire again this year. I'll be sure to let you know if this happens.

Siberian Chiffchaff

Common Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita) is, as the name implies, a common summer visitor to Britain. These birds are recorded throughout the country during the summer months, with a several birds also over wintering. Today I saw a couple of these at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve, whilst I was looking for a much more uncommon bird, the Siberian Chiffchaff (Phylloscopus collybita tristis). Again, as the name implies, this subspecies of Common Chiffchaff originates from much further east, and is an annual, but scarce, winter visitor to the UK.

Telling these two birds apart is very difficult in the field, but one of the main identifying features is the over all grey tones of the Siberian Chiffchaff. Today's bird showed quite well, if somewhat briefly, and was noticeably greyer than the accompanying Common Chiffchaffs. I managed to grab a very poor photograph, which I heavily cropped.

Siberian Chiffchaff (honestly!)

 

To see some much better photographs of other Siberian Chiffchaffs see the Birdguides website here.

As this bird is still a subspecies of Common Chiffchaff it can't be added to my Year List.

Carr Vale Ringing - 2 new species

On Saturday I was out ringing with my trainer and Brian from The Sorby Breck Ringing Group, at the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale reserve. It was the first visit for a while, and hopes were high for a few warblers. We were not disappointed as we caught 27 individuals of 7 different species, including 2 new species for me.

The first new species was a Lesser Whitethroat. It was one of the first birds out of the nets, and also my first sighting of the year. Unfortunately no photos as I was busy getting all the information from it!

The second new species for me was a Sedge Warbler- 1 of 3 birds processed today. The bird I ringed was a new bird, born this year, while the other 2 were retraps. 1 had been ringed by my trainer at Carr Vale last year, and we're still waiting for information about the other bird. Here's a couple of photos- the first is the bird held safely in the "ringers' grip", whilst the second is a close up of the bird's head. What a super bird!

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler's head

Along with these 2 birds I was also lucky enough to ring another 27 birds of 13 species -Whitethroat (2), Chiffchaff (2), Wren (1), Blackcap (2), Reed Warbler (2), Reed Bunting (1), Bullfinch (1), Great Tit (2), Blue Tit (2), Long-tailed Tit (2), Dunnock (1), Robin (1) and Song Thrush (1). All these birds were new birds, except the Dunnock, which was a retrap.

Year List update
163 - Lesser Whitethroat

Carr Vale Ringing - 19th April 2014

I was out ringing yesterday morning at The Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's Carr Vale Reserve with my trainer and 3 other members of Sorby Breck Ringing Group. We arrived at 06.00hrs, hoping to trap and ring a few summer migrants. By the end of the morning we had caught 25 birds, which included 3 Chiffchaffs and a couple of Blackcaps.

One of the Chiffchaffs was a retrap, a bird that we had caught before, and it turned out to be a bird that we had first caught last July at Carr Vale. Interestingly, the bird had been caught by Alan last year, and he also "processed" it today. It would be great to know where it had spent the winter. Southern Europe perhaps, or even further south??

Another bird that was very interesting this morning was a female Reed Bunting.

This bird was identified as a female by the presence of a brood patch, but, as you can see from the above picture, it had a great deal of black on the face. which is more normal in a male bird (see here for typical male and female birds).  Apparently there is evidence that some female Reed Bunting's colouring  becomes more "male-like" as they get older, but this bird was aged as 5, i.e. born last year, so what's happening is a bit of a puzzle. That's the joy of ringing, always lots more questions than answers!!

Ringing and Year Listing 2013

Well 2013 is nearly over (just 8 hours to go), but I've just got back in from a few hours around Linacre and the sun is just setting, so unless something amazing happens I don't think I'll be doing any more ringing or adding any new species to my "Year List". With this is mind I thought I'd write up a quick post to round off the year.

First up the ringing. Over the last twelve months I've been out ringing with my trainer and other ringers from the Sorby Breck Group, 42 times. Linacre was the most frequently visited site (17 visits), followed closely by The Avenue in Chesterfield (10 visits). As well as these traditional sites, we also started visiting some new sites, most notably the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's reserves of Carr Vale Flash near Bolsover, and Ladybower Woods near Bamford. I "processed" a total of 526 birds of 30 species, with 4 new species added this year (Woodpigeon, Little Owl, Redstart and Pied Flycatcher.)

Year Listing in 2013 was very successful  with an end-of-year total of 197 species, which included 4 new birds or "lifers"; Egyptian Vulture, Thekla's Lark (both in Minorca), Ivory Gull and Two-barred Crossbill. Please click on "Year List 2013" labels for details of all the new birds seen this year.

So that's it for 2013. Thanks go to everyone who has supported me again this year. Happy New Year to everyone reading this blog and Happy Birding in 2014!!

Warblers!

Yesterday I managed to get out ringing with the group, to Carr Vale, the Derbyshire Wildlife Trust's reserve near Bolsover. We arrived at 06.00am and in 4 and a half hours we'd managed to ring 65 birds of 13 species.

As you can tell from the title of today's post, warblers were the key birds, with 41 of the 65 birds caught being warblers. Blackcap were particularly numerous with 17 new birds ringed, followed closely by 10 Chiffchaffs, 2 Reed Warblers and 1 Whitethroat. The bird below was one of the Blackcaps. This bird is a 3, meaning it was born this year, and you can just see a few of the brown juvenile feathers remaining.

Moulting Blackcap

 

As well as the warblers we also caught 4 species of tit (Blue, Great, Long-tailed and Willow). Included in the 12 Long-tailed Tits were two birds that were already ringed. We haven't caught any Lottis before, so it will be interesting to see where these birds were ringed.

 

Other birds ringed on site were (new/retraps): Dunnock 2/1, Bullfinch 1/0, Robin 3/0, Chaffinch 1/0 and Wren 1/0.

First eggs!!

Popped down to Linacre for an hour this afternoon to show Jayne the Pied Flycatcher that I saw yesterday. It wasn't around today - arrgh!!! Whilst waiting though I had a quick check of a few nest boxes and got lucky with box 26 that contained five tit eggs - hurrah. Last year the first eggs were found on 15th April, so you can see how late there are this year. 5 is about half the usual total for a Blue or Great Tit, and the eggs were cold and not being incubated, so this clutch is still being laid. I'll check again at the weekend when, hopefully, the clutch will be complete and there will be a few more full nests. Hopefully the Pied Fly will be around again as well.

Box 26

 

A couple of Stock Doves were feeding in the field by the main entrance and whilst walking by the middle reservoir we managed to hear and photograph a male Blackcap. Can you spot him in this photo?

 

Blackcap

Before I went to Linacre I spent a couple of hours with members of the ringing group at Carr Vale, a Derbyshire Wildlife Trust reserve near Bolsover, where we set up a new feeding station and cut some net rides. Sedge Warblers ( a year tick) were singing all around us and hopefully we'll be able to ring these and other warblers over the summer.

 

Year List update:

124 - Sedge Warbler