Colour-ringed Waxwing Update

In 2010 Grampian and Orkney Ringing Groups individually colour-ringed almost 500 waxwings between late October and late November.

GYG at Prescot, Knowsley, Merseyside (Steve Tomlinson)

Thanks to so many birders, photographers and ringers throughout the country over 100 resightings have been reported along with 6 dead birds. At less than 1 in 5 birds, this is an outstanding return rate for a passerine (and hopefully there are more to come). A big thanks to all. Below is a map the movements so far.

Every waxwing invasion is different but early movements seemed fairly normal with some rapid movements from Orkney to Aberdeen, an Orkney bird in Norwich within a couple of weeks of ringing and several Aberdeen birds well south within a few weeks (in Dunfermline, Lothian, Glasgow, Cumbria and Manchester). Then the cold and snowy weather arrived and really put a spanner in the works.

The waxwing circus trapeze artists. You forget how agile waxwings can be when feeding until you see these images like this, taken in Dorchester, Dorset (Chris Rowland)

With competition for berries at a premium (mistle thrushes were even having to fight off wood pigeons this winter) the remaining Waxwings in Aberdeen departed en masse earlier than ever before, leaving fewer behind than ever before. There then followed a record fast movement towards the south of England with unprecedented numbers along the south coast. From colour ring sightings it appeared many of these birds leap frogged those already further north in England. 8 colour-ringed birds were reported in Kent alone.

2 different colour-ringed birds drinking in the same gutter in Hemel Hempstead. Even waxwings let themselves down occasionally! Photographed and reported independently by different birders. (Joan Thompson, Michael Nott)

With this build up on the south coast we wondered if birds might start crossing the channel into France and Belgium. However, numerous sightings of colour-ringed birds suggests they are preferring to head east or west along the south coast in search of berries rather than face another hazardous sea crossing. That’s so far any way. Meanwhile colour-ringed birds are still being reported from further north so it will be exciting to see what develops over the next couple of months

Two colour ringed bird in one photo! GBL and BBG in Northampton (Ian Pretty)

Once again, a big thank you to everybody who has taken the time and trouble to report colour-ringed waxwings, many with tremendous photographs which we have kindly been allowed to use in articles such as this. Keep up the great work.
Raymond Duncan
(On behalf of Grampian and Orkney Ringing Groups)

Young love! YGB, an Orkney bird, at Hardingstone, Northants. (Dave Jackson)

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

Save a Waxwing near you

Unfortunately waxwings are notorious for killing themselves against windows. In 2004, out of 87 dead waxwings reported from various sources in the UK, 66% were confirmed as window casualties, often with several reported together at any one site. The species feeding behaviour is its downfall. Flocks swarm into berries trees together for a rapid feeding frenzy then fly out, often low and very fast, back towards a nearby resting place in a high tree or TV aerial. If house windows or a bus shelter are nearby or, worse still, in between then this is when problems occur. Collisions seem to happen more often when it is bright and sunny, these conditions making the reflections in the glass or perspex much clearer.

This winter has been no exception with the usual spread of casualties as they make their way down through the country in search of berries. During the early part of the invasion in Scotland 16 were reported over a weekend in Inverness, with 6 of them against the (ehh hem) RSPB Office windows. 6 were reported in Elgin whilst in Aberdeen at one traditional site 9 were picked up by local postman Derek Beverley over a period of a few weeks. 8 were recovered at this same site in 2008 (see below).

Waxwings gather on TV aerials before descending into the “waxwing graveyard” in Wallfield Crescent, Aberdeen to feed on rowan berries

All is not lost however and action can be taken in some situations to prevent such losses. In and around Aberdeen we have most of the berry sites mapped out and we have managed to get folk to keep their blinds down at one or two sites when the waxwings are around .

Blinds drawn at Hilton College, Aberdeen. There were lots of waxwings and windows but no casualties.

At one very traditional site a bus shelter was erected out on the street a few years ago but by the time we realized it was a hazard in 2008 (it was about 10 metres away from the feeding trees and screened to a certain extent by tree branches so the danger wasn’t immediately apparent, see photograph 4), 8 waxwings and even the resident mistle thrush had been found dead having collided with it. Posters were put up to prevent any further casualties that year. Thankfully this is the same bus shelter below in 2010 (see below)

The “blue” bus shelter in Aberdeen. One of the white berried rowan trees can be seen behind off to the left of the shelter in the photo below

The council were quite cooperative and spoke to the shelter maintenance company who then sprayed it this obvious turquoise colour to prevent further incident. Thank goodness they did because the same scenario occurred in 2010. Groups of up to 30 or 40 birds would fly rapidly out low from their bout of feeding to head back across the road to their resting trees. Thankfully they were able to see the blue sprayed perspex with the flock sometimes parting in two as it zipped round either side of the shelter and there were no casualties this year. Of course we also took advantage of this behaviour now and again and the birds would meet with a mist net on their way out and we managed to colour ring a good sample of birds before they finished the berries and moved on.

If you find a feeding flock of waxwings always check for dead birds below any nearby windows or bus shelters, particularly anything in line of flight between feeding and resting trees. Try to stick up temporary covers or blinds to block any glare but ultimately, in the case of bus shelters try to get them sprayed like the one in Aberdeen, or even moved. It is one of the hazards waxwings have to face when taking advantage of all the ornamental berry trees planted around our towns and cities. The only saving grace really is that the waxwings do not take long to strip the berry trees and move on before long, hopefully to a safer set of trees not so close to these alien human hazards that we have created.

Bob McGowan at the National Museum of Scotland would be pleased to receive any freshly dead waxwings corpses. I have kept a particularly smart adult male back in my freezer for stuffing to replace the fairy on the top of the tree next Christmas!


Raymond Duncan

(On behalf of Grampian Ringing Group)

GBB Gull ringing

What do you do with 17 loaves of bread, a turkey carcass, two mince rounds, a pizza and a whole salmon that Raymond has had since November? Thats right - an expedition to catch gulls in the harbours of the North-east!

Despite a distinct reduction in the number of herring gulls in the harbours due to the lack of fishing boats coming in over the festive period, we tried a few tried and tested catching methods as well as a bit of improvisation. The result was 11 GBB gulls and 3 herring gulls.

As a side effect though, Euan managed to make us think we should carry a first aid kit with us when out ringing and Raymond had to sit in a car on his own as he was designated stinky salmon toucher.

Another Waxwing Update

Nearly all the Waxwings have gone now from Aberdeen, and we've been rewarded with a multitude of sightings from across the country in the past couple of weeks. Recently we've had birds resighted in Dundee, Edinburgh, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Worcestershire, Leicestershire, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire, Bedfordshire and Kent. The map below shows our movements from this invasion so far.

At the moment our resighting rate is about one in thirteen birds, fantastic for a passerine. This is just for birds outwith Aberdeen, not including the numerous sightings of birds within the city itself. With regards to ringed Wawings coming to Aberdeen, six birds have been resighted/recaptured from Orkney, one control from Fair Isle and one from Sweden. The bird in Norfolk was ringed in Orkney and seen in Norwich. Note BLR, seen at Folkestone, Kent amongst a flock of four hundred. There's a good chance they'll be heading across the channel soon and we'll get some sightings on the continent.

The majority of our sightings have come with fantastic photographs attached. A big thank you to all the photographers who have sent us some cracking images. Credit for the photos shown goes to Paul Welsh (WRY, Stockton on Tees, Cleveland), Steve Blain (GNG, Woburn, Bedforshire), Danny Arnold (RGB, Eardiston, Worchestershire) Peter George (WNR, Bingham, Nottinghamshire) and Anthony Griffiths (BWR, Oswestry, Shropshire).

Please continue to keep checking all flocks for colour ringed birds.

Euan

New species for the group - ICELAND GULL!

The cold temperatures have continued in Aberdeen so our efforts to catch gulls have also continued. Yesterday lunchtime we'd just put the sausages on for sausage softies when Ewan noticed gulls on the neighbour's roof. A quick scan established the usual common gulls queueing up but also an Iceland gull sat above our catching area!

We quickly put out some cooked liver and bread and waited. Other gulls starting to come in but the Iceland didn't move! After what seemed like an age the bird swooped in and landed straight in the catching area. A quick check that the catch was safe and we pulled. The bird stayed perfectly caught along with 12 other gulls.

The gull was a 1st year bird and was a new species for the group. Previously there has been one Glaucous gull rung. It was a lot smaller in the hand than we'd expected, as can be seen below with a 1st year herring gull for comparison.

We think this was only the 10th Iceland Gull to be ringed in the UK so we're a little bit excited! Not bad for our little garden in an Aberdeen suburb! We're now up to 74 gulls this winter in the garden including British and Norwegian controls and now an Iceland gull. If the snow stays we'll be getting through the E's and G's this winter.

After ringing, weighing, photographing and measuring the bird we released it again and reset the net to see what else would turn up!

We've also just heard from Dave Anderson in Central Scotland that the Black-headed gull was ringed as a chick on Carron Reservoir near Stirling in late June this year, a total distance of 167km.

Ewan and Jenny

(Photos copyright of Ewan Weston and Jenny Lennon)

Great gulls!

The snow in Aberdeen has halted some of the waxwing chasing in the last week or two. Out in Westhill we've returned to our favourite garden ringing of gulls. A couple of miss-fires with a whoosh net has meant a change in tactics so we are now using a classic clap net as that seems to work better in the 20in of snow we have in our garden.
In the last few days we have caught over 60 gulls with another 10 by the young lads in Peterculter. We've been weighing all of the birds and they seem to be stable with about 10% of birds being significantly below weight.


Star birds have been a juv Black headed Gull British control and a Stavanger Common Gull - taking our tally to four for our garden in the two years we have lived here!

The most interesting bird was a common gull we rang yesterday morning in Westhill and was caught less than 2 hours later in Peterculter by Euan and Calum - a distance of 4.2km as the gull flies. This was the lightest bird we have caught in the garden so it was maybe that which made it travel further for food.

Gulls number have decreased in Westhill as birds have probably headed into town looking for food where there's less snow. But we will try again tomorrow with our reduced bread from Tesco!

Ewan and Jenny