A waxwing winter

Well what a super Waxwing invasion! An early spread of birds from mid-October including down into England and over to the west and right down to the south west suggested it was going to be a big one. Now flocks of 100s and up to 1,000 have confirmed this.

Over 100 have been ringed on Shetland and also on Orkney, where 69 of them have also been colour-ringed. 224 have been colour-ringed in NE Scotland in Elgin, Banchory and Aberdeen. We would be very grateful to all observers and photographers if they could report any colour ringed birds they might see or find on their photographs. Some birds are on the move down the country already, continuing their search for rowans and other berries, whilst others have settled down a bit. We have been receiving lots of sightings already. Thank you very much.

A bird ringed in Finstown, Orkney on 29^th October was photographed by Stuart McMahon and Steve Clarke in Saltcoates, Ayrshire on 10^th November.

Juvenile female Waxwing Orange/Orange/Yellow ringed in Finstown, Orkney on 29^th October and photographed by Stuart McMahon and Steve Clarke (shown) in Saltcoates, Ayrshire on 10^th November.

Juvenile male Waxwing Green/Red/Red basking in the Aberdeen sun on 6^th November (Mark Sullivan) the day after ringing nearby.

 

From a catch of 38 in Aberdeen on 5^th November so far colour-ringed birds have been photographed in Dunblane on 12^th November by Gillian Baird, Glasgow on the 16^th by Stuart Watson and Newcastle on the 17^th by Mike Carr while one was retrapped still in Aberdeen on the 22nd. 

Juvenile female Waxwing Light Green/Blue/Red basking in the Dunblane sunshine on 12^th November (Gillian Baird)

Adult male Waxwing Green/Green/Red basking in the Glasgow sun on Possil Road on 16^th November (Stuart Watson).

Juvenile male Waxwing Red/Orange/Orange basking in the Newcastle sun in Benton on 17^th November (Mike Carr).

2 others ringed on the 4^th and 8^th were resighted by Ian Rendall in a flock of 60 25kms out of town in rural Banchory on 15th. One of these was photographed 5 days later in Errol, Perth & Kinross 85kmSW by Christine Hall who then on going to see another flock at Invergowrie in Dundee on the same day photographed another colour-ringed bird, this time from Elgin ringed on the 13^th. 

And Red/White/Orange in Musselburgh on 21^st surely photographed at a distance of 1m by Len Hunter?!

Juvenile male Waxwing Red/White/Orange photographed in Musselburgh on 21^st November (Len Hunter)

A Finnish ringed bird has had its ring partially read from photographs in Kirkwall, Orkney but efforts to catch it have so far proved unsuccessful.

It is both fascinating and exciting to follow the movements of these irruptive winter visitors when we are lucky enough to have an invasion but it’s not so good news for them. They have vacated their breeding areas to find a lack of berries and so have had to make a sea crossing into unknown territory (for most of them) in search of food. Fortunately many of our towns and cities have large amounts of ornamental rowan trees which attract and support these hungry birds but this comes at a cost. A lot of them have never come across houses and windows (and bus shelters) before! Along with other urban hazards such as traffic, cats and sparrowhawks mortality is quite high.

 

Window strike fatalities are particularly common. We have heard of 19 so far this invasion in Aberdeen and Banchory. The photos show a rather innocuous yellow rowan tree beside houses in Kincorth, Aberdeen. A flock of up to 100 birds were coming into feed on it when we found it and despite birds usually flying out the opposite way to rest in taller trees 3 dead birds were found below the windows to the left. The occupant was disappointed to hear about this and her upstairs windows now have large black bird silhouettes on them. Maybe too late for this winter but we’ll alert her in future winters if the Waxwings come back.

When you arrive at a typical site such as this rowan tree in the street do have a look around for nearby obvious house windows reflecting back trees and/or sky. Have a word with the owners who perhaps could open or shut blinds/curtains to reduce this reflection. Or even better silhouette shapes or anything dark/matt. It will only be required for a short period of time (a few days maximum?) as Waxwings are like locusts and all the berries will soon be gobbled up and the birds will move on. 

Local wildlife rescue New Arc have also highlighted the issue of window strikes recently: https://www.facebook.com/newarcwildliferescue/posts/pfbid023Dnp4CdwVnBvDWQMax1FeZtK31e54yzpntMnmRDo2rzeR9hmyAoyamH9nvxJyHVRl.

 

Please try and be a step ahead and take action, and spread awareness of how to protect these birds.

 

Here's hoping we’ll post again soon with more colour ring sightings from observers and photographers helping us to follow the Waxwings fortunes and movements throughout the country.

We’ll also describe how a Waxwing in the hand is worth two in the bush: As their moult reveals just how abruptly some of these birds have had to leave home to find food. And their unique plumage features sometimes enables us to pin point which bird it is when colour ring reports are uncertain. Just what are the Waxwings favourite berries? And has Elgin taken over from Aberdeen as the new Waxwing capital?

 

rduncan393@outlook.com

Grampian Ringing Group

Redpoll madness!

Lesser redpoll

In 2016 we achieved the highest ever redpoll total for Grampian Ringing Group, with 2280 lesser redpolls and 45 common redpolls ringed. Most of these birds was caught at two birch woodland sites at Drumoak and Banchory, almost entirely during October and November.

Foreign travels stopped us ringing redpolls the past couple of years, but this autumn we were back in the country and keen to have another go. We started catching in mid-September and through October, averaging 70 redpolls a session. It was the end of October and beginning of November that saw our peak numbers in 2016, so we took a couple of weeks off work and hoped that time of year would deliver again.

Common and lesser redpoll

The first catches at Drumoak and Banchory were quieter than expected, with 83 and 66 redpolls caught. Perhaps there wasn’t the big numbers around this autumn like in 2016? However, some intel from Al Young in Moray suggested the redpolls were feeding on spruce this year instead of birch. On 29^th October we tried a new site with plenty of spruce at Pitfichie Forest, which resulted in a record catch of 343 redpolls. Interestingly this was exactly the same date we’d had our previous highest catch in 2016 (324 redpolls).

We then tried another new spruce site at Durris which saw the record catch keep being surpassed! Over 4 days we ringed 1580 redpolls at the site, with the peak being 510 birds ringed on 05^th November. There was clearly enormous numbers of redpolls in the area as amazingly we didn’t have a single same site retrap during these sessions.

Lesser and common redpoll

And then just like that it was all over! 9^th November saw only 42 redpolls ringed, and the following weekend only a measly 7 were caught. Multiple sites have been checked but it appears that the large flocks of redpolls have cleared out of the region. Interestingly English ringers have noted a lack of any significant redpoll numbers down south this autumn, so perhaps they will have a deluge of redpolls hitting them soon. 

We ringed 2850 lesser redpolls over the autumn, and with Al and Skitts getting some good catches too, the group total for the year sits on over 3800. Common redpoll numbers were down on 2016, with only 16 caught compared to 45. This may be do with the prevalent easterly winds we had in 2016 which we’ve lacked this autumn.

The map below shows movements from birds ringed in 2016 (including one to the south of France, right at the edge of the lesser redpoll's range). We look forward to seeing where the birds ringed this year end up. 

  

As well as to understand their movements, the main reason we're ringing so many redpolls is a study we're conducting on their poll colours. As anyone who's ringed a fair few redpolls will know, they don't all have red polls! In fact perhaps only half of them are red, with a range of shades of yellow, gold, orange, brown, pink and purple. We have detected around 40 distinct colours of poll, and hope to publish our findings soon. 

Euan and Carmen Ferguson

Waxwings – Going, staying……..and wandering aboot

It’s turning out to be a tremendous winter for Waxwings (hopefully) throughout the UK. In and around Aberdeen we are getting the best of both sides we think. It’s early January and we still have 100s here whilst, thanks to so many birders, photographers and observers around the country our colour ringing project is helping us keep tabs on the movements and fortunes of many of those birds which have chosen to move on.

THE GOERS

The map below shows the distribution of colour-ring sightings (up to 06/01/2017) of birds ringed in Aberdeen and shire during November and December 2016.

Just some of the great photographs being sent through:

Mike Sinclair © Waxwing LGY Motherwell 02/01/17

Waxwing YLO, ringed as a young male in Aberdeen on 27/11/16, was photographed by Neil Alderson and Yvonne Williams in the B&Q car park in Llandudno, north Wales on 30/11/16 then 5 days later by Emyr Evans 82km south in Machynlleth in mid Wales.

Neil Alderson © Waxwing YLO Llandudno, north Wales 30/12/16

Emyr Evans © Waxwing YLO Machynlleth, mid Wales 04/01/17

Alan Scoullar © Waxwing YOB Wrexham, north Wales 30/12/16 Also reported and photographed by Hugh Linn

David Preece © Waxwing WLO Roade, Northhamptonshire 02/01/17. Also reported and photographed by Duncan Baxter and David Jackson

Trevor Williams © Waxwing LLB Cromer, Norfolk 31/12/16. Also reported and photographed by John Furse

Sadly not all reports/photographs have been of happy berry eating birds. Below is Waxwing BLO found dead after striking a window in St Andrews in Fife.

18/12/16 Malcom White ©

Windows and Perspex bus shelters are a very real and fatal hazard to Waxwings. Despite our best efforts around Aberdeen we have still had over 20 birds reported dead in the city due to striking windows.

THE STAYERS

Meanwhile other birds colour-ringed at the same time as some of the movers above are still being recorded in Aberdeen. Having almost completely finished the rowan berries (apart from a couple of trees still being guarded by reeeeeally hard Mistle Thrushes) they have now moved onto Tree Cotoneaster, a species so abundant around town this should keep birds with us until May.

THE WANDERERS

Some of the birds don’t seem to have decided if they are going or staying though. Once the flocks had finished the berries in rural towns such as Inverurie and Ballater (22km NW and 58km W of Aberdeen) colour-ringing has shown that some birds moved away south whilst others moved into the city where berries were still plentiful. One decided to be different and headed 77km W over the hills into Speyside while a bird ringed in Aberdeen City Centre on 28/12/16 decided to head 35 km W back out into the countryside to Aboyne where it was photographed on 05/01/17.

Desmond Dugan © Waxwing RO Nethybridge, Speyside 27/12/16

And wanderer of them all so far is a bird colour-ringed in Perth, Central Scotland on 15/12/16 which turned up in Aberdeen on 05/01/17, a movement NE of 117kms!

So a very big thank you to all you folks (too numerous to thank individually here) who have kindly taken the time and trouble to report a colour-ringed Waxwing to us. Each sighting contributes greatly in helping us to follow the movements and fortunes of these truly awesome Scandinavian invaders. If you do see a colour ringed waxwing then let us know: grampianringing@gmail.com. 

Happy New Year

Raymond Duncan

(on behalf of Grampian Ringing Group)

Durris Siskin City

Following various blog reports during the autumn/winter about high Siskin numbers being ringed in England we’ve been lucky enough to “find” an amazing site at Durris near Aberdeen to help keep the picture of movements through the country going into the summer.

Thanks very much to Edith Beveridge for mentioning in passing she had counted 73 Siskins on a friend’s feeders one winter . I’m not sure if she was allowed to even finish the sentence before being interrupted to ask where, when and would her friends maybe like to see some bird ringing done in their garden!

Edith’s friends Lesley and Colin Blackhall were only too pleased to have us out to ring their Siskins and here we are 2 months and 1292 Siskins later now enjoying playing England shires and counties as details of some of the 27 birds ringed elsewhere start to filter through from BTO HQ.

See map for movements so far.

We thought we’d peaked at a session with 306 birds caught on 7^th May followed by a spell of fine weather and “only” 37 caught on 14^th May but emails from Lesley the following week saying numbers were back up again encouraged another visit on 22^nd May. A gentle 10 whoosh net and 9 mist net catches and 6 and a half hours later and we stood at 403 birds caught. A check of the feeders before leaving suggested we’d only caught half the Siskins present. Incredible!

Unfortunately with everybody busy trying to keep up with the breeding season we have had to lay off the Siskins for a bit but we can’t wait to get back in the “autumn”. This years’ Juveniles are already beginning to swell numbers again!

Many thanks to Lesley and Colin Blackhall for very kindly allowing us into their Siskin City to have such an amazing time ringing the birds in their garden. We look forward to sharing ring exchanges up and down the country in the coming months to continue monitoring the winter/summer/winter movements of this awesome wee finch.

PS Lesley tells us she has been feeding the birds and getting loads of Siskins for years!!

Sedge Warbler Brood Survived!

We didn’t hold out too much hope for a typically open 2nd brood sedge warbler nest at Logie Buchan on 24th July 2010, especially as we nearly trashed it heading out to prepare the net rides for another autumn of reed bed ringing. We put in a bypass and rechecked it a couple of times and were pleased to find it still going with 4 ringable chicks on the 4th of August. We were then even happier to know the nest had fledged successfully when we retrapped the first chick ringed, number L084396, nearby in the reeds on the 1st of September. To complete the happy story we have just received news back from the BTO about number 97, retrapped by ringers at
Heultje, Antwerpen, Belgium on the 19th of September!

Raymond

Photo by Euan Ferguson

Inland Oyc Movement

Fully grown Oystercathers are mainly ringed on the coast, but for the past few years we've had several cannon net fires at roosts inland during spring.

Oystercatcher FH24678, ringed on 27th March last year at Tarland was retrapped by Richard du Feu from North Lancs Ringing Group, who have also been catching good numbers of Oystercatchers inland, at Heysham on 22 January. This bird could be a breeder on its way up north. Thanks to Richard for letting us know.

Photos Ewan Weston

Metal detecting ringing

So how do you ruin a nice Sunday walk? No not golf - you take a metal detector with you to look for rings! We decided that we would have a go with a metal detector in the Sandwich tern colony at Forvie to look for rings on chicks that hadn't fledged.

After weeks of practicing on small nails in the garden we headed off on Sunday with dogs in tow, with a spade and big rucksack to carry back all of the 100's of rings we expected to find.
Well it didn't quite turn out that way... D2's don't cause a reaction in the metal detector unless you have almost a whole string of them together! So we found nothing with our metal detector (but had great fun playing airport security!) and had to look for rings the old fashioned way. We found 12 of this year's chicks long dead with rings on, including 6 that were colour ringed also.

We had fun on our walk but learnt an important lesson for ornithological conservation - don't use a metal detector for finding D2s! Thanks to Ian for sourcing the metal detector.

Raymond, Jenny, Ewan, Clunie, Freya, Bramble, Sula, Moya and Tyr

BHG recovery

We've had a recovery of one of the Corgarff black headed gull chicks rung last summer. Unfortunately it was found in poor condition in the bad weather this winter. It had gone to Larkhall, Strathclyde though so is a good movement. Photos from Ann of the gull derby last June!

Latest recoveries

The always long-awaited pack of recoveries arrived last week on Raymond's doormat. Among the usual Shag and Cormorant darvic sightings there was the information back on a few birds we had been waiting for.

Oystercatchers
This included information back on another of the three controls we caught last March near Aboyne in the big oystercatcher catches. One was a bird ringed in 2001 at Llanelli Docks as an adult. Another bird from this catch was found dying locally in summer 2009 by a member of the public.



Starling
Finally a report back on a Westhill control Starling caught in March 2009 which was a bit of an abmigrant having been ringed in Wick in January 2008.


Tawny Owl
Another interesting one is a tawny owl chick that was ringed by John Massie in June 2008 that was found dead on the road in Buckie, 54km away in July 09. Quite a distance for a tawny owl!

Swallow
Star bird goes to an adult male swallow ringed at flick-netting on the banks of the Dee in 2004, recovered in Dundee, dead last November. Not much you might think but its Wasbank, Dundee, Kwazulu Natal, SOUTH AFRICA! Thats 10,000km eachway, each year since it was first ringed making 100,000km clocked up in the last five years - WOW!