best birds: October 2010

Last Week

The Weather put a stop to anything going on Thursday Friday last week. Wednesday another Canada Goose ringed down in Ramsey Harbour and 2 More Rock Pipits ringed.

Hope to meet up with Kev this week and start Colour ringing Rock Pipits

Yesterday went up to the point of Ayre to catch some Linnets and to see if any Twite were about . I was set up for 08:00 Very quite with only 9 new linnets caught and a retrap from 28 August . I packed up at 1130 and headed down to Port Lewaigue.

Nice and calm at Lewaigue

7 Blackbird ringed

1Dunnock

and a Male Blackcap

40 Blackcaps ringed at this small site this year

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Glossy Ibis, Welney

I spent the first half of today on the Norfolk/Cambs border watching a Glossy Ibis near Welney. The bird was feeding at the far end of the cow field when I arrived, but no sooner had I put up my scope, the bird took off and flew to the roadside pool, just down the road from the cow pens where I was watching. I jumped back into my car and spent the next 90 minutes photographing the bird from the car. By the end of my visit, the bird was very comfortable with my presence, not bothering about me getting out and moving around by my car (although it did become very alert when newcomers arrived at the site and tried to get closer to the bird).
Here are the pick of the bunch, click on a photo for a larger image...

EGYPTIAN GEESE IN EXTREMADURA. WHERE DO THEY COME FROM?

Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus), adult. Cornalvo Natural Park, Badajoz. 16-06-10 (José Ledo)

The Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus) is one of the most numerous of the African Anatidae. Mainly sedentary, it is native to Africa south of the Sahara and in the Nile valley. It also has thriving feral populations in some European countries, estimated to be about 2000 pairs at the end of the twentieth century. Most of these feral birds are in the UK (700 pp. in 2000) and Holland, with a growing number in Belgium and a scattering of birds in Germany and France. In 2009 it was officially declared to be a pest species in the UK.

Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus), two adults and two juvs. Talaván Reservoir, Cáceres. 22-10-10 (Sergio Mayordomo)

In Spain it was considered to be a rare vagrant until 2006; it is currently listed as an introduced species breeding sporadically without established populations (Grupo de Aves Exóticas). A check of the records up to 2003 (De Juana, 2006) shows year-round presence with winter peaks. This is explained by the arrival of birds from Europe and escapes from wildfowl collections, plus the birds born in Spain from feral birds.

Egyptian Goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus), pair of adults with nine chicks (only eight seen in the photo). Ibahernando Reservoir, 5-10-10 (Genaro Sánchez Peña)

As with most introduced species the number of sightings in Extremadura has shown an upward trend since the first record in 1993, becoming almost regular after 2007 when the first proved breeding occurred near Trujillo. Up to 2008 there has been a total of 19 records involving 60 individuals, 49 of them in 2007 and 2008 and with peaks in October and September. Taken together the sightings tally with the three abovementioned hypotheses about their origin. Some are obviously escapes, such as the birds seen in Sierra Brava and Casas de Hitos, where there is a large wildfowl collection nearby. Other individuals seem to come from the European population, such as the pair of adults with two juveniles seen in Talaván (middle photo). Lastly, there are the birds that breed in Extremadura, though there is as yet only one known breeding pair in Ibahernando Reservoir, Cáceres, which bred at least in 2007 (6 young), 2009 (11 young) and 2010 (9 young; bottom photo) (Julián Panadero; Genaro Sánchez Peña; Steve Fletcher). But there are other birds whose origin is harder to track down (top photo).

- De Juana, E. (2006). Las aves raras de España. Lynx Edicions. Barcelona

Remember these

Back in June this year Kev, Adam and i all met up at Maughold Head to ring at the Cormorant Colony. A memorable day with over 60 Young Cormorants ringed.

This week Kev got a control back from the BTO saying that a Cormorant had been found dead floating in water at Tyttenhanger Gravel Pits, Hertfordshire, England on the 20 August.

A distance of 394km and only 64 days after being ringed by Kev in the nest

A Shame but quite a journey for such a young bird

WALLCREEPER IN MONFRAGÜE

The above picture has been borrowed from the Birdingextremadura blog of our colleague Martin Kelsey. The photographers were Tom and Greg Marbett, who were lucky enough to spot a Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria) in the carpark of Salto del Gitano in Monfragüe on 11 October 2010. A subsequent check of the records showed, surprisingly, that there is only one other published Wallcreeper sighting in Monfragüe, dating from 11 years ago in 1999 (J.A. Ojalvo, although we know of other records that were never published, including a much earlier observation by Alan Parker dating from 11 January 1989). The three Extremadura Ornithological Yearbooks published up to now record only two other sightings in the whole region up to 2003, one in 1989 and the other in 1991, both from the same observer (Godfried Schreur). Between 2004 and 2008 (unpublished) the picture changes, with ten more records. These include a bird on Trujillo castle, four birds together in Valencia de Alcántara, a bird originally ringed in Picos de Europa that was found dead in the town of Cañamero on New Year's Day 2005 and one or two birds that that stayed on the height called Pico Villuercas for three months (January-March 2008). These fourteen records, running from October to March, involve birds on rockfaces throughout much of Extremadura, though especially the quartzite sierras of Las Villuercas (half of the records).

The Wallcreeper is the only member of the Tichodromidae family. It is a rock breeder on mountains of the southern Palearctic, from Asturias to China, taking in the Alps, the Caucasus and Himalayas on the way. In Spain its range is limited to the uplands of the Cantabrian cordillera, especially the Picos de Europa, and the Pyrenees, preferring limestone rocks. Its total breeding population is reckoned to be a few thousand pairs, most in the Pyrenees of Huesca. In autumn and winter part of the population remains in the breeding areas, even at high altitude. But others drop down to lower rockfaces, even at sea level, especially the limestone cliffs in eastern Spain. Despite the dearth of observations it probably winters fairly regularly in Extremadura, tucked away in inaccessible habitat that makes any sighting a real lottery.

Twite on the move

Deja Vu, Back in the Pennines i used to be part of the North West Twite project catching and colour ringing Twite at four different Sites for a great friend and mentor of mine Dave Sowter. I knew the isle of Man had wintering Twite in small numbers and it was great to see a photo of a few taken by Bill Callow at Ramsey harbour on the 16 October. On closer inspection the back bird had a colour ring on Green above White. I emailed Dave and told him about the ringed bird he came back to me saying it was definitely ringed by Rob Angus and his team of ringers up in Machrihanish, Argyll. Dave replied saying

"Machrihanish team responded with great cheer to me, as they have also has one at Heysham last few days and today had a photos of a Duddon estuary bird"

They have ringed over 400 Twite with Green /White the left leg

Photo by Bill Callow

Click to enlarge

Redpoll, Swans and Geese

See more at grayimages.co.uk

A Beautiful morning today and no wind. So i decided to head up above Ballaught to the plantations on the tops for Redpoll.

13 Redpoll Ringed and a BlueTit in the first 2 hours then the wind got up so i packed up.

Headed back down to Ramsey Harbour for High Tide.

2 Canada Geese ringed

and a Mute Swan control U3465

Which when i look back at the Manx ringing groups records says it was ringed in Ramsey 1993 as a 3

{juvenile} and has been reported 6 times in 17 years see map

Press for bigger image

Coal Tits Behaviour | common garden birds of the UK

Yesterday I watched the Coal Tit and saw some behaviour that I do not think is usually seen in common garden birds of the UK.
Again it was sheer luck that I glanced out of the kitchen window whilst filling the kettle and saw a Coal Tit, I first saw it as it flew from the feeder and onto the drive. I considered it to be another chance sighting, but maybe these Coal tits are visiting the garden so

Port Lewaigue

A cracking Morning down at Port Lewaigue to day.

Birds ringed

10 Blackbirds

1 Redwing

1 Treecreeper

2 Song Thrush

2 Long tailed Tits

1 Goldcrest

and a Female Sparrowhawk control

I text Kev to see if it was one of the groups rings , he came back straight away saying it was ringed in July 2009

as a chick up the top of the island. Distance of around 14 km.

More Mutes

A great day out today with Kev, we decided to try and catch some more Mute Swans after yesterdays success. Kev got to mine for 9 am and we decided to go for Rock Pipits at Port Moore as high tide was not until 12 so no use going for swans till then.

After 20 mins down at Port Moore and no Rock Pipits interested we packed up and headed for Ramsey Harbour. We set up our Ottenby trap for the Turnstone and tried in vain to walk a few towards it . 3 times we tried and as they got up to the leads they flew.

Ottenby Trap

1 Rock Pipit ringed

We walk across to the slipway by the new swimming pool and caught a Canada goose then we noticed the Mute Swans near the swing bridge .

30 minutes later we had caught 5.

U7291 One of the mute swans i caught yesterday was caught again and this time a colour ring placed on the left leg

3 new Mutes were ringed with BTO Metal on right and colour ring on left

the last was just ringed with BTO metal as we have now run out of Colour rings {Darvics}

hopefully will get some new in soon.

We decided to go down to the white bridge at Poyll Dooey to see if any wildfowl were down there

as you approached the old ford you see this sign

as we drove to the car park we looked back in surprise to see this

just goes to show short cuts do not always work

Also this week 19 more Linnets ringed up at the point

13 More Goldfinch in Garden

Kev, Chris and kay caught and ringed we think the first Gt Spotted Woodpecker on the isle of Man

on sunday this does not include the Calf of Man

see Kevs Blog for details

A Mates Control

Today as the weather was to windy to mist net i decided to go for a drive into Ramsey. Just passing the swimming pool there is a slipway and i noticed a load of Mallards sat there. I parked up and decided to feed the ducks to see if i could ring a few. As i started feeding 3 Mute Swans came off the water and straight up to me , 2 were ringed with BTO metal rings and no Darvic rings. I decided to catch them both and read the rings .

One was an old type ring and the numbers and letters were badly worn i could just see 7291

the other was ZZ7452.

I emailed Kane from WWT to tell him the news and he came straight back saying he was certain that ZZ7452 was ringed by him and would get back to me.

I emailed Kev as well and he is pretty sure that 7291 could be U7291 which had been given darvic A68 ON 21/02/1998 in Ramsey.

Kane rang back to say

ZZ7452, was ringed as a 5 Female on 04/10/2008 at Whitehaven Harbour, Cumbria.
No further sightings!

60km is the distance to Ramsey!

Mute swans Ramsey Harbour

So the day started with very little ringing and ended up with a control from Whitehaven by a great friend of mine. And a Swan from Ramsey over 12 years old

OOH and 1 Male Mallard ringed

CLICK FOR BIGGER IMAGE

BUFF-BREASTED SANDPIPER: NEW SPECIES FOR EXTREMADURA

Buff-Breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis). The even spangling of scaly fringes on the back tells us it's a juvenile. Valdecañas Reservoir, Cáceres. 15.10.10 (Ángel Sánchez).

On 15 October 2010 a juvenile Buff-Breasted Sandpiper (Tryngites subruficollis) was spotted at Valdecañas reservoir near El Gordo in the province of Cáceres. This is a first for Extremadura. The only observer was Ángel Sánchez, the bird proving impossible to find again in subsequent days.

The Buff-Breasted Sandpiper is classed as a rare vagrant in Spain. It is the third most frequent American vagrant wader after the Pectoral Sandpiper (Calidris melanotos) and the Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes). Up to 2007 a total of 42 sightings had been accepted, involving 46 different birds (Díes at al. 2009). Figures have not yet published for 2008 and 2009 but the autumn passage of 2010 is turning out to be extraordinary, with no fewer than 30 different birds recorded on September and October (Gutiérrez, 2010) . One possible cause might be the series of Atlantic storms in this period. Another notable feature of this year's records is that the birds have turned up in inland areas and even steppic habitat, whereas all pre-2003 records had been coastal (de Juana, 2006).

The Buff-Breasted Sandpiper is currently considered to be the only member of the Tryngites genus, although recent studies suggest that it might be very closely related to the small waders of the Calidris genus, and even includable therein (Thomas et al. 2004). It breeds on the arctic tundra of North America and northeast Siberia, wintering on the pampas of South America after migrating inland down the American continent (see map). The regular passage through western Europe suggest there might be a minority migration route in the east Atlantic, used more in autumn than in spring, although it is not known whether these birds winter in Africa or South America. Unlike other sandpipers it prefers humid inland pastureland as its stopover and wintering sites. The estimated Buff-Breasted Sandpiper population is 16,000-84,000 birds, based on migration counts, although it was much commoner in the past (hundreds of thousands). Its conservation state is precarious and it is listed as Near Threatened (NT) on a global level due to its declining trend (BirdLife, 2010).

- De Juana, E. (2006). Las aves raras de España. Lynx Edicions. Barcelona.
- Dies, J. E. et al (2009). Observaciones de aves raras en España, 2007. Ardeola 56:309-344.
- Gutiérrez, R. (2010). Buff-breasted sandpiper in Spain, autumn 2010. Rare Bird in Spain Blog. 19-10-2010.

Coal Tits

The Coal tits showed again this morning as I was looking through the kitchen window. The feeder pole had swung around and so as the first little fellow landed on the seed feeder I had a perfect view of it. I am getting quite fond of seeing these Coal Tits.

Of course I did not have a camera to hand as he or she put on a perfect display for me. "Should I fetch my camera?" I said to myself over and

THE CRANES ARE HERE

Common Crane (Grus grus). Oliva de Plasencia, Cáceres. 30-08-2010 (J. L. Rivero/Objetivo Verde)

Ever since the end of summer the first winter visitors have been trickling in to Extremadura. This invasion has picked up pace since early October and by now skylarks, meadow pipits, robins, lapwings and red kites are daily sightings just about everywhere. The real red-letter moment of winter arrivals, however, is always the first Common Crane (Grus grus), without doubt one of Extremadura's flagship winter visitors. The first recorded cranes were the 13 seen flying over Trujillo on 9 October (M. Kelsey). But the first real sign of a mass influx was the sudden appearance of 3000 cranes in the Aragón lake of Gallocanta on the 12th, many of which flew off southwards on the morning of the 13th with other groups moving in to replace them (J. Mañas).

They didn't take long to get to Extremadura. On the morning of this same day, the 13th, a flock of 18 was seen in Oliva de Plasencia (R. Montero) and 56 in the central zone (M. Gómez Calzado). On the following days they turned up in many places: 26 over Casas de Miravete (G. Naharro) and 21 in Navas del Madroño on the 14th (G. Schreur and J. Tarriño), 36 on passage over Plasencia (J. Prieta) and 30 in Gabriel y Galán (A. Pacheco) on the 15th, etc. The numbers are now going from strength to strength: by the 14th there were 1200 in the central zone (M. Gómez Calzado), 1000 in Santa Amalia on the 15th (Á. Sánchez) and thousands in Los Canchales on the 16th (A. Matador). In short, an appreciable arrival of birds spread throughout all their traditional wintering areas.

Manolo Gómez Calzado tells us in his blog, dealing almost exclusively with cranes, that their average arrival date in central Extremadura has moved forward about two weeks over the last 20 years. We've checked the Extremadura birdwatching yearbooks to see if the same thing has happened in the region as a whole but no arrival dates were recorded until 2000. From then on, however, the dates have changed little, with the main arrival around 15 October and a few forerunners in the last days of September. It is sad to note that until recently there was so little interest in recording and communicating such a striking event.

These checks of the yearbooks from 1998-2008 did have a serendipitous result, however. They served to confirm that there were no previous records of cranes oversummering in Extremadura, something that has in fact occurred in various sites in 2010. One example has already been mentioned on several occasions in this blog (sightings of June and August): a 2nd-year bird present in Oliva de Plasencia at least from 12 June to early October and seen by numerous birdwatchers (R. Montero, S. Mayordomo, J. Prieta, J. L. Rivero, E. Palacios, J. C. Paniagua, et al; top photo). Another was seen on 22 June in the reservoir of Los Canchales (T. Álvarez in Quercus 294:47), where it was still around on 18 September (Á. Sánchez). And apparently another two cranes oversummered around the reservoir of Orellana (M. Gómez Calzado) and three more in Gallocanta, Aragón (J. Mañas). In previous years there were records of cranes in Extremadura in spring and summer, at times until August, never in September. It was always mooted that these were sick birds unable to migrate. But we can confirm here that the first two abovementioned birds in summer 2010 seemed to be in perfect nick.

My Garden Birds | Update

I have not been spending much time consciously watching the birds in my garden recently, but the casual sitings from the window (usually in front of the kitchen sink) have been getting very interesting.

We have experienced the usual late summer lull of August and September when most of the birds seem to disappear but now as autumn kicks in, the garden takes on a whole new perspective.

The

Blue Tit Control

I caught a Blue Tit in the garden last week a Control born this year . We thought for a few days it was the first to come over the sea from the mainland but found out it had been ringed on the Calf of man. Not a bad distance for a Blue Tit

25 Miles as the crow flys

Please check out Kevs blog to see the info he got back on the Storm Petrel Controls we got in August

The theme of Red continues

Out again with Kev yesterday , a slow morning but good laugh with 4 more Redpoll ringed and a few more Goldcrest. More Goldcrest went through the net than in it when you think they weigh around 4>5 Grammes its not surprising. We packed up and said we would meet up at Smeale in the evening .

All the conditions were spot on for a bit of wader netting we set two 60FT two shelve nets in a lagoon left by the spring high tides. All full of seaweed and flies and food, not a bit of wind either the nets just hung dead straight. Not many evenings in October when you can say that up at Smeale.

After 3 hours we got 1 Redshank, better than none. Not a wader about we even walked up and down the shore line to try and dazzle and didn't see a thing.

Today i was up at another plantation looking for a good spot to put nets up for redpoll.

6 Redpoll ringed

1 Song Thrush

4 Goldcrest

1 Wren

1 Coal Tit

St. Agnes

Spent the day on St. Agnes today, which relieved the relative (for Scilly) boredom of slogging around St. Mary's and seeing very little. Mark and I headed straight for Gugh once we left the boat. The sandbar separating the island of St. Agnes from Gugh was just starting to become uncovered, so I did a bit of paddling and scampered across to be first on the islet. There were quite a few birds around the plantation, including my first 2 Fieldfares of the autumn. Ring Ouzel, Redstart, Black Redstart, Pied Flycatcher and a few Wheatears were also a nice supporting cast. Mark got onto a Wryneck, twice, but a never managed to see it and I couldn't really be arsed to hang around and wait for it to come back out, so we headed off to St. Agnes for some lunch at Covean Tearooms. My first cream-tea of the trip was greatly appreciated and I even helped Mark finish off his, as he also had the mushroom soup (5/5 Mark gave it) and couldn't just manage the rest of his cream-tea. Well, that's what mates are for, eh.
It was really nice to bump into Graham Gordon on Gugh, a friend that I first met when I was in the RAF in Norfolk and he was at the UEA, and whom I subsequently spent a lot of time with at Cape May in New Jersey. Graham now lives on St. Agnes and he spent the rest of the afternoon taking us around fields and hedgerows that were off-limits to most visiting birders. Firecrest, Ring Ouzel, Garden Warblers and lots of finches were our reward.
All-in-all a nice day, with lovely sunny weather (shorts and t-shirts weather really). At least when there are now birds on Scilly it's still really enjoyable to walk round.

Reed Warbler

Firecrest