A Boxing Day showdown with an old foe

It was a cold, crisp Boxing Day morning. The sun hadn't yet risen above the horizon and all was dark and calm. One by one, cars rolled up into the field and dark figures came walking through the grassland with handheld torches lighting the way through the icy darkness. The bird ringing team was being assembled, Avengers style, for what was going to become one of the most monumental mornings of mist netting there had ever been.

The nets went up, hoisted high to catch winter thrushes and weaved through hedgerows to intersect flyways to give us the best possible chance of a high capture rate. The light came up and the birds started coming in. Each net round resulted in a about 5-10 birds at least and we finished on a total of 60. It wasn't the numbers that made this morning special however, it was one very special guest that paid us a visit.

You see, there has been one bird that's given us the run around ever since I've been out ringing and has been taunting my trainer for the whole ten years she's been ringing the site. It usually makes at least one appearance a morning and you usually hear it before you see it. As we're stood processing the birds or enjoying a drink, a laugh will come drifting across the grassland. Then comes the culprit, a flash of a lime green rump as it flies in its up and down fashion across the landscape. It will land somewhere just out of sight and then laugh again - "You can't catch me!".

And let me tell you, we've tried. We've tried nets in every position with tape lures underneath them but all that's ever achieved is bringing it closer to the net before it lets out a laugh (known as a Yaffle) and disappears off into the trees on the edge of the wood where we suspect they breed. I am, of course, talking about the Green Woodpecker.

We've had near misses too, where it's skipped up out the grass  from where its been eating ants and flew agonising close to the net. Even more traumatising was my trainer's experience of seeing it in the net, only for it to get out as she approached and fly away, laughing. It's been an on going duel, a battle for the ages, a showdown between human and bird that has seen the feathered side come out tops every single time.

But not this day.

My trainer returned from a net round with a beaming smile across her face. It had taken no tape luring, no chasing it into the net, it had just found its own way there. A gorgeous adult male - a final festive gift before we head into the New Year.

Luckily I had bought my camera with me too.

Now THAT'S a bird!

That rump - Phwwooaarrr

Things like the red line under the eye are things that go completely unnoticed until you get so close.

One of the best birds I've had the privileged to see in the hand.

Roadside Ringing and more Fieldfares!

Next to a roadside isn't the first place you would think to put up some nets and do a spot of bird ringing but, earlier this week, I found myself in this exact position. Granted, it wasn't directly by the roadside - rather it was in an orchard separated from the road by a hedgerow. Even so it was still strange to have cars hurtling past at 50 miles an hour while you're extracting a Robin from a net.

I was out ringing with a fellow called Chris Lilley, a member of my ringing group who had kindly invited me out with him to a few sites I had never been too. The week before we had ringed over 20 Goldfinches in a garden of one of his family members which gave a perfect opportunity to compare and contrast many individuals of the same species. One thing I like about catching one species regularly is the chance you get to learn how to age or sex them. I had the chance earlier in the year to do the same with Yellowhammers, and it really gets ingrained in your brain how to process the bird when you deal with such a large number of them!

The orchard, which was in somebodies large garden, contained a number of feeders and brought in many different species. We saw lots of different birds, such as Yellowhammer, Fieldfare, Collard Dove, Redwing etc, but catch rates were slow throughout the day and we finished on a meagre total of about 15 birds for about 3 hours of ringing. It wasn't an unenjoyable morning by any means however as it was nice to see a new site, talk to Chris and get my hands on my first Tree Sparrows in what must be at least 2/3 years.

Nice to see these little guys in the hand again.

Fast forward the week to yesterday (Saturday), and I was back at the old stomping ground with the usual group trying our hand at catching the winter thrushes again. This time we were more successful than ever with an impressive haul of 3 Redwings and 3 Fieldfares on the first net round before I had to leave early for work. Well worth getting up in the dark and freezing your toes off for!

It'll take something special to beat this bit of winter ringing!

Catching a Fieldfare

The winter thrush luck is well and truly in at the moment!

After a nice haul of around 6 Redwing's (probably the most we've ever caught in a year) it was now the turn of only the 4th ever Fieldfare caught on the site to turn up in the net. As mentioned previously, catching the winter thrushes is a difficult task with Fieldfare being the most difficult of the lot. 

We had been tipped off by a fellow ringer on a technique that he had used with great success to catch Fieldfare with on his site. It's pretty simple - just increase the height of the poles you stick your mist nets on. This means that when you put a tape underneath, the Fieldfare are still caught despite being a much warier bird that most often stays high over the tape. You always have to set up in the dark to catch the winter thrushes, to get them as they emerge from their roosts. So there we were, in the dark, frozen fields getting ripped apart by hawthorn in order to get ourselves a Fieldfare.

We then went about setting up the other normal nets and the morning's ringing began. We were catching fairly well (adding 2 Redwing to the year total) and I took time out to nip back home to grab a drink to help me deal with this annoying cough I had developed. When I returned it was getting well into mid morning. Certainly past the time we should be catching Fieldfare. Most definitely. 100%. No chance. Nil. Nada.

Birds don't play by the rules.

Not only had it been caught fairly late in the morning, it had also been caught in one of our normal nets and not the one we had got up in the dark to put up. Birds eh?

Luckily it could be forgiven because, not only is it a ringing tick for me, but it is absolutely beautiful. 

The morning was rounded off by one final birdy bonus in the form of a stunning first year male Sparrowhawk. Two Sparrowhawks in the space of 3 weeks, as well as a plethora of other birds, and it certainly feels like Christmas is coming early for me!

Redwings, Pink Crows and Sparrowhawks.

A couple of Sunday's ago I had one of the best ringing mornings I think I've ever had.

A Redwing is always the best way to start off a morning for a start...

The interesting thing about Redwings and their larger cousins the Fieldfares when it comes to trying to mist net them is that you only really have one shot at it in the early morning. You have to get your nets up and tape under before the sun is fully up and move well out of the way. Even then you may be only likely to catch the odd one or two as, despite traveling round in big flocks, catching more than a couple of Redwing before the chance is over is something I've never seen happen. Those people who say otherwise are just laying down Red (Herr-)wings. I do apologise. Lets move on.

Later on in the morning we were able to catch a bird from a notoriously difficult family of avian brain boxes. I am, of course, talking about the crow family. The crows are probably my favourite group of birds but, due to their intelligence, vigilance and size, are difficult birds to get your hands as they prove masters of detecting, avoiding and escaping nets. Therefore any day that a crow finds its way into the net is a good day in my eyes. Back in September we had a Magpie that had come into the feeding station that we were able to ring, but this Sunday it was time for a crow that I hadn't ringed in over 3 years to make another appearance. - The Jay.

A bird that pretends to not really be a crow at all with its burnt pink and electric blue plumage, the Jay is just as much a corvid as the rest of them. Although it will happily takes chicks and eggs from nests once located, around this time of year you're more than likely to see them gathering up nuts and seeds (mainly acorns) to stash so they have a food source to live off once winter hits.

And finally, on our way back up from net around the feeding station that the Jay had come out of, we passed a net that seemed to have another sizeable bird in one of the bottom shelves. I thought it was likely to be another Blackbird as we had been catching many of them all morning due to an influx of Scandinavian birds but, as we got closer, Dean (a C ringer who was with me) broke out into a sprint and dived on this bird to make sure it didn't go anywhere. When I reached the net to help him take it out the net it was obvious what we had - a Sparrowhawk.

We think of birds of prey to be big birds, but this first year male Sparrowhawk was smaller than the Jay that we had caught moments earlier. The females are a lot bigger (a general rule for raptors is that females are a third bigger) and this means that you have to correctly sex it before putting a ring on as the sexes take two different sizes. Funnily enough me and Dean had ran towards the same net when it was holding a much larger Sparrowhawk (probably a female) that managed to get out earlier that morning. But needless to say, we weren't kicking ourselves for too long with the way the morning eventually panned out.

Finally, I will leave you with this picture of us managing to weigh a Sparrowhawk successfully just by laying it on its back. A trick known by many bird related people, it basically involves making sure the birds wings are tucked securely under its body and it will sit there for some time, unharmed, before its had enough and scarpers.  

A cracking ringing tick and Brent Geese in the mist.

Boom.

Spotted Flycatcher

The first Spotted Flycatcher ever caught at our ringing site and I was lucky enough to stick a ring on its leg! They aren't summer residents on our site, although they can be found in more suitable habitat about ten minutes drive away, but this was a youngster moving through in mid September.

We also did well for 2 members of the Tit family in the past few months that are fairly unusual for us to catch. Marsh Tits, the one on the right, are the species that we more commonly come across whilst Willow Tits, on the left, are more of a rarity. Having the two of them on the same day was allowed for us to compare the defining features of the two species when trying to identify them in the hand.

The Willow Tit can be identified by the presence of a white panel on the secondary feathers once the wing is closed, whilst the easiest feature to pick out on a Marsh Tit is the presence of white on the base of the bill. For more information, this website provides a good breakdown:
http://birdingfrontiers.com/2012/03/23/marsh-or-willow-tit/

Brent Geese out on the sea through the morning fog.

About a month after that glorious day of ringing I visited Spurn Point on a trip with my local bird group. I'd not visited Spurn for about 10 years, and my last memories were of getting a Red Backed Shrike on someone's garden fence, being drowned in Yellow Browed Warblers and then staking out a bush for a couple of hours to get sight of a Radde's Warbler. Unfortunately there was nothing even remotely on the same level upon this visit. After scanning the vegetation in the pub car park to try and find a reported Yellow Browed Warbler and only coming up with a Chiffchaff, we headed along the sea edge to see what we could find.

It was then that the most biblical fog I have ever seen in my life rolled in off the sea and completely blanketed the entire area for a good hour or so. This, as you can imagine, made birding near impossible unless the birds were within about 20 metres of us. Luckily, a few thoughtful birds abliged and we managed to see Brent Geese (to my knowledge a lifer for me), Wheatear and a selection of waders. Then as the mist cleared we picked up Stonechat and Whinchat sat next to each other in the fields as well as my first Fieldfare of the year.

Once the fog cleared up it was a glorious day.

Unfortunately though that was about it for the whole day. We searched for a Firecrest in vain before giving up hope and deciding to head back. It wasn't until I got home and checked Twitter that I saw reports of a Radde's Warbler sighted at Spurn only an hour after we had left.

Typical.

An expedition to Buton Island, Sulawesi, Indonesia.

First off let me apologise for the lack of posts since May. I've been a little... preoccupied.

Y'see for two months this summer I got the chance to go to Sulawesi in Indonesia to work as an ornithologist for Operation Wallacea. It was the best thing I've ever done, and here's the story...

I was based on Buton Island, just off the South East coast of mainland Sulawesi, for 8 weeks in a small forest village called Labundobundo - so nice they named it 1 and a half times. We lived with local people, sharing their houses and using the village as a base from which we went to the forest camps. There were forests camps dotted around the island, some close to the village about an hours walk into the forest and others further away. One, at the Northern end of Buton Island, was a 6 hour drive, 1 hour boat trip and 1 hour trek through the forest. So swings and roundabouts really.

Trekking through the forest to one of the camps

Now when I say 1 hour walk, this isn't a walk like "walk" is normally meant. This is a walk in over 30 degrees Celsius heat WITHOUT the sun even out. Add to that the humidity of 100%, the rucksacks filled with enough gear for a 5 night stay on our backs and the "paths" that we were walking through the jungle and you might begin to realise that this wasn't some casual stroll through the forest. It was hard going. After the rains had been down some of the paths were the hardest walking I've ever done anywhere. But the treasures that lay within the forest made it all worthwhile... and then some.


I was there as I had been employed as an ornithologist for Operation Wallacea, and I was working most days over the 8 weeks collecting data through point counts to survey the bird populations of the forest. This data would then be used to try and obtain better protection for the forest reserves and the birds within them. Let me tell you... some of the birds were stunning! One of the most charismatic species there is the Knobbed Hornbill, a bird that isn't found anywhere else on Earth apart from Sulawesi (as with many of the other bird species). Its a huge bird that you could hear most days in the forest, whether that be its barking like call or the sound of their wings as they glided over the forest canopy from tree to tree.

Knobbed Hornbill

The reason that Sulawesi is so important is for the reason that most of the animals there are so special and unique. Sulawesi is on the Wallace Line, an imaginary line that seperates the flora and fauna of the Asian and Australasian continent. On the left hand side of the Wallace line you get typically Asian species; Tigers, Indian Elephants, Orangutans etc. whereas on the right hand side you get Australasian species; Cassowaries, Marsupials and the like. However Sulawesi has a mixture of both, so in the forests you will encounter Macaques (Asian) alongside Bear Cuscus, a marsupial (Australasian). That's why this area is in need of study and protection.

Indonesia as a whole has the second highest rate of deforestation in the world after Brazil and I saw much evidence that designating somewhere as a national park has little effect on logging. That's why the work that the team of scientists that were out there was so important, to make known the value of the area and to try and get better protection for the region.

Perhaps the bird that is highest up any birders list when Sulawesi is mentioned is the Maleo, an endemic member of the Megapode family. The scientists wanted to try and document presence of Maleo on the island as it would add further weight to the protection efforts. After a member of the team had been sent on a week-long trip to document Maleo nesting sites around Buton Island with very little success, a few days after his return a live specimen was brought into the village by a local man who had caught it in a jungle fowl snare. It was found in the forest on the outskirts of the village and some of the locals said, once they knew that was what a Maleo looked like, they occasionally see the bird crossing the forest road. This may mean there is a possibility that there may be a population of this highly endangered endemic species in the local area. Unfortunately I was at a forest camp at the time so was unable to see the Maleo and witness the events that day!

But I did manage to see some fantastic birds. I finished on over 80 species for the trip, which admittedly isn't a large number for such a length of time but that was due to the dense forest vegetation we were working in. I did get some crackers though, birds like the Yellow Billed Malkoha, Sulawesi Crested Myna, Rufous Bellied Eagle and Ornate Lorikeet to name a few with many on my list only being able to be found in that part of the world. I also got Oriental Hobby, which was only ever the second record for the island. I saw some other great wildlife too - Sulawesi Wild Pig, Reticulated Python, Sulawesi Tarsier, Black Macaque, Dwarf Cuscus and a probable King Cobra!

Sulawesi Hawk Eagle

However despite seeing all of these incredible animals, the best part of the experience was the people that I met. It was nice to be able to find like minded people to myself that were so passionate about nature and concerned with trying to preserve it and understand it. It was also a fascinating experience to work so closely with local people - something that I embraced and managed to learn a decent degree of Indonesian!

It's a wonderful place and was a truly remarkable way to spend 2 months of my summer. I very much hope I'll get to return next year.

Mudskipper down in the mangroves

Bala camp nestled in a jungle clearing

A little dude of a tree frog

Sulawesi Dwarf Kingfisher with small birds syndrome

He was gorgeous though!

The rarely seen Dwarf Cuscus

A Large Hanging Parrot caught by one the the mist netters

Pied Cuckoo Shrike

Sulawesi Serpent Eagle

Reticulated Python

Sat in the canopy, watching dawn break over the forest

Shrike-y mate!

Its exam season.  The final exam season.

The last Becher's Brook size hurdle of my 3 years at university before I find myself spat out into the big wide world and wait for life to smack me round the face. The exams should go OK. That is, all except one.

 Like an academic Leviathan rising out of the exam timetable froth, formed from the most difficult to remember biological processes comes "Animal Developmental Biology", which I sat today. Well when I say "sat" it felt more like I was spending the entire time drowning in a sea of over complicated gene names and desperately fighting against being dragged down by an undercurrent of biological jargon. "Don't let go Jack"? By the end I was ready to take a lung full and let the exam markers have a feeding frenzy over my soul.

I don't get bothered by exams, as you can tell, but this one really was a nightmare and a one way ticket to Failsville. I needed to cheer myself up.

The day before I had seen through Twitter that there were reports of 5 Bee Eaters being seen in Flamborough, and I half had the mind to abandon my revision right then to go off to see them. I thought better of it in the end though and decided that it might just be the perfect cure for a bout of post exam trauma. They ticked all my twitchable bird boxes; 1. Not too far - only about an hour and a half drive from Leeds, and 2. They are absolute little stunners. Plus they are very rarely recorded this far north and particularly not in these numbers.

So today, at 12 midday, I set off to Flamborough. Flamborough and the surrounding area has been a favourite holiday spot of my family for years so it didn't take much time at all to locate where the Bee Eaters had been seen. It was made all the easier by 3 birders standing aimlessly by the side of the road looking wistfully along telegraph wires. The news was as I feared, no sightings since half 11 that morning (it was now about 2ish) and some people had even reported seeing them high up flying out to sea.

This was turning into my first unsuccessful long range (for me) twitch but the sun was shining and there was plenty else to see. Especially when one of the birders told me of a site five minutes down the road where a Red Backed Shrike had been since the day before and showing brilliantly. Sure enough, after being there for only a couple of minutes, it popped up onto a willow where it stayed for five minutes before disappearing off into a thicket from which no one could locate it.

The sun shining on North Landing. Enough to brighten anybodies mood

I had been hoping to get some photos digiscoped from my phone so hung around for about an hour and managed to see a nice Roe Deer as well as talk to a couple of birders. That's the thing about birdwatching, you can easily pass an hour talking to someone you've never met before. There's something very special in that.

My patience was rewarded after I decided to have a walk up to the direction that it was last seen (no one was checking that area so some reason) and it popped up into view where it stayed for a good 15 minutes where I managed to get some decent record shots.

For those that read this blog looking for directions to the site; the small reserve is located on North Marine Road on the road down to North Landing in Flamborough. Its the left turn dead before the Viking Pub signposted Thornwick Bay Caves and Bird Sanctuary. Good luck!

From there I headed to Bempton Cliffs, one of my favourite places in the world, to see the sea bird colony. I got good views of all the regulars; Puffin, Gannet, Razorbill, Fulmar, Guillemot and Kittiwake.

Razorbills - one of my favourites. They look so smart!

Colony of Guillemots enjoying the evening sun

The view down the cliffs

 It was about 5 when I decided to start making my way back and on the way up to the visitor centre was where I got my best wildlife encounter of the day. From the ground to my left a large white bird rose and started flying across the sky with laborious wing beats. My first instinct was a Little Egret, but as soon as I got my binoculars on it there was no mistaking it; a gorgeous Barn Owl. It its talons it clutched some prey it must have hunted in the fields as it slowly floated into the distant haze.

There was only one way to end such an amazing day; fish and chips. Which I duly demolished with haste.

What started out as a pretty terrible day had turned into one of the most enjoyable days I think I've ever had. Just goes to show that you should always get out there, you never know what's waiting for you!

Adding to the list

This post will be fairly picture heavy as I go about recapping various birds that have been added to my year list so far.

Before I get started with bird watching though, I'll start with a lifer bird for me in regards of bird ringing.

Any guesses?

If any of you have managed to guess what they are based on the above pictures then I am remarkably impressed and you may need to consider spending less time knee deep in rivers wading around under bridges. That clue should have really given it away - they are Dipper chicks. 

We'd previously visited them a few days earlier and they were too small to ring but we judged the days and size they would get too accurately and came back when they were more the correct size. Only one had been lost over the 5 days that passed and if a healthy brood of four fledges then it will be judged a pretty good success. Fingers crossed they all make it!

Now, back to the bird watching.

A visit to Lound Gravel Pits a couple of weeks ago turned up the first House Martins of the year as well as Willow Warbler, Whitethroat, Oystercatcher and Ruff making it a very worthwhile trip. It was probably a bit early for Turtle Doves (although I didn't really have a good look) but I was able to spot the other specialty of the site that remains present all year round; Red Crested Pochard. I didn't realise until recently that the majority of the UK population are escapes, I just thought they were native but only very localised. As this population is fairly large and present all year round then I assume it must have been founded by captive birds some years ago.

Finally I visited the RSPB's Old Moor a couple of days ago with my grandparents where we decided to take the track that skirts round the edge of the reserve rather than visit the hides as we usually do. It proved a very nice walk and with sightings of two Black Necked Grebe on Bolton Ings, I can't complain at all. After finishing the walk me and my Grandad decided to head into the reserve to do an hours quick blitz to target some new species for the year. We chose to go for the main path on the reserve to aim for Mediterranean Gull and Gargeny over the path that possibly offered Green Sandpiper and Bittern and, although we missed the Gargeny, we were successful in our hunt for the Mediterranean Gull as well as hearing our first Cuckoo of the year.

Can you see it?

There were hundreds of Black Headed Gulls screaming and wheeling round as well as the countless birds nesting on all the islands, making the search for the Med. Gull a needle in a haystack job where the needle is also straw coloured. A site like Old Moor is really a site where telescopes come into their own and after a scan across the colony the Med Gull was located. You can tell the difference as they have a darker head that is black rather than chocolate brown of the Black Headed Gull and the black covers much more of the head on the Med Gull. It's bill is also thicker and a much more vibrant red. Still, a pretty pleasing spot if I do say so myself!

Not a brilliant picture, but you can see the jet black head.

Yellowhammer overload and a migrant bonanza

Spring is in full swing with migrants on the wing that are doing much to lift the spirits in tune with the rising temperature. Bird ringing has been a joy in the past two weeks, with a wide variety of species coming from the scrub land site at Bondhay. In particular its been Yellowhammer that have continued to flood into the feeding station despite the warm weather. The total for the site in March and April are only 16 shy of the overall group average annual totals as we currently stand on 62 for the year.

Interestingly, after finding a Reed Bunting with only one leg the week before, one of the Yellowhammers also appeared to be worse for wear in the limb department with a missing lower leg. The damage seemed to have occurred some time ago as the leg had completely healed (or it may have been born that way) and the bird didn't seem to be too adversely affected. Both birds were missing the lower leg below the joint which is an unusual place for both to sustain traumatic injuries as a coincidence... There may be some kind of limb losing epidemic sweeping across the site!

I managed to bag my first Swallow of the year today as well as hearing my first Whitethroat singing along with a couple of Willow Warblers. There's a Phylloscopus Warbler at the Crags that I've got my eyes on that sings outside the visitor centre with a mixture of Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff song and I wonder whether it could be a hybrid. Its been there for at least two weeks which would make it an early Willow Warbler, but with the way this season is panning out that should come as no surprise!

Finally, here is the earliest Grasshopper Warbler ever caught on Bondhay which was caught today. There population was at an all time low last year, so here's hoping they are on the up this year!

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker and the first Chiffchaff of the year

Its been some time since I've written a blog post due to the mountain of work that I had to assail in order to to reach the pinnacle of that greatest peak in the University mountain range; Dissertation. I thought about writing a post while making camp about two thirds of the way up but when I sat down to write my post I realised I had nothing to write about. All I had seen for the most of February was the inside of a University computer room. 

But alas! The summit was reached last week and I've since had a safe descent. This meant I was able to get out last weekend where I went birding with my Grandad to see Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at the same place we went last year. It took a while to locate but we eventually found it, doing what I think was nest excavation.

We also saw a pair of Pink Footed Geese in the fields, as well as a nice pair of Mandarin and seeing and hearing my first Chiffchaff of the year. As there was last year, there was also a Canada/Greylag Goose with a white neck and head and orange beak. It was joined by another similar looking bird and I can only assume that they are hybrids between a wild bird and domesticated ones.

The hybrid geese. Either Canada or Greylag crossed with domestic geese.

The following day I helped run a bird ringing demonstration in the glorious sunshine of Creswell Crags. We didn't catch much, I think our tally finished on around 10, but everybody who came to watch seemed to really enjoy themselves and were most friendly. We caught our first Chiffchaff of the year though which was nice. 

First Chiffchaff ringed of the year

 However the main enjoyment for me came from the chocolate orange cake served in the gift shop which was absolutely superb!