Nest with the best

Over 250 keen NRS participants have attended BTO nest recording courses since veteran recorder and volunteer tutor Tony Davis ran the pilot in 2008. This year, thanks to BTO Scotland and recorders Colin Davison and Gilian Dinsmore, the regular weekend courses in Norfolk and Surrey were joined by a brand new afternoon workshop at Scotland's Big Nature Festival.

Punchbowl pipits

Five weeks ago nine more keen recorders met Tony at the Devil's Punchbowl in Hindhead, Surrey, to spend a weekend increasing their nest finding knowledge. Saturday was spent learning to find warbler and finch nests in gorse at a nearby heath, and looking for Skylark nests at Butser Hill. Then on Sunday the group descended into the Punchbowl itself and soon found what appeared to be two Tree Pipit territories either side of the main path. The next hour was spent practicing watching nesting activity unobtrusively, which for wary Tree Pipits often means at least 50 metres back! One pair turned out to be feeding fledged chicks and an hour spent on the other territory proved inconclusive—at least for the target species. After standing in the same spot for 20 minutes, attendee Colin became aware of a Robin stealthily taking food into a patch of gorse immediately behind him. The bird was watched carefully for two more visits, the 'hotspot' was searched, and a nest found containing four young. Nest number 15 out of 25 found over the whole weekend—plenty for Tony to follow up!

Top: Colin Wilson searches for a Robin nest after watching an adult carrying food. Bottom: Trainee Teifion Thomas rings a brood of Robins from another nest, while ringer Colin Wilson supervises

Scotland's Big Nature Festival

The weekend before the Surrey course, Scotland's Big Nature Festival played host to its first ever nest recording workshop, thanks in part to a local volunteer who couldn't actually be there on the day. Keen for the workshop to include an outdoor demo where people could be shown nests and how recorders safely monitor them, BTO Scotland realised that one of the country's top nest recorders, Colin Davison, lived near the venue. When they contacting him about helping, Colin said that he was working that day but would try to find a few nests in advance—and then promptly located 12!

Top: veteran nest recorder Colin Davison pointing out the location of a Chiffchaff nest. Bottom: Ben Darvill takes people on a bird song tour as part of BTO Scotland's roster of events at the 2015 Big Nature Festival

The workshop was very well attended and began with talks from Mark Wilson (BTO Scotland) on why Scotland needs more nest recorders and another local recorder (and Reed Warbler expert) Gillian Dinsmore on her experiences getting started. Mark and Gillian then announced the outdoor demo and were delighted when 30 keen members of the public stepped forward. Folk were divided into groups and taken on carefully planned tours of Colin's nests, which included some in cover (Blackcap with eggs, Robin with chicks), some on the ground (Skylark and Meadow Pipit, both with eggs), and a Blue Tit nest in an unbelievably narrow crack on the wall of one of the observation hides. It was great to see so many people interested, especially given the pressing need for more recorders in Scotland, and needless to say plenty of NRS starter packs were given out. Both Colin and Gillian have pledged their support for future workshops—hopefully Colin will be able to attend the next one!

Interested in going on a nest recording course? Please see here.

A huge thanks to volunteers Tony Davis, Colin Davison and Gillian Dinsmore for making this years' courses/workshops possible, and a huge thanks to BTO Scotland staff Ben Darvill and Mark Wilson, and BTO Thetford staff Mike Toms, Hazel Evans and Debbie Todd. And of course thank you to all the course and workshop attendees!

Tough times for sea birds

As you heard in a previous post, we have been receiving large numbers of reports of dead or dying Barn Owls. What we didn't mention is that we are also receiving reports of large numbers of dead seabirds on the east coast of Scotland and northern England but also as far south as East Anglia.

The majority of these birds have been found in the Firth of Forth, Scotland, and this seabird wreck has occurred at a time when these birds should be getting into prime condition for the breeding season, or even nesting now. High winds and 'uncomfortable' sea conditions are thought to be the prime cause, making finding food difficult.

Colour ringed Shag - Sarah Featherstone

The majority of reports of ringed birds have been Shag but have also included a wide variety of species, including Puffin, Razorbill, Guillemot, Kittiwake, Cormorant and even Little Auk. The graphs below show the 10 year average of reports (blue) against the number of reports so far this year.

 

You can clearly see the huge difference between early and late March. The number in early April is slightly less than late March and early indications show that late April will have many fewer reports of dead shags, as long as the trend continues.

 We receive very few recoveries of dead Puffins generally during the winter period but this year in late March we can see evidence of the wreck.

 

Strangely, Guillemots have fared very well, considering the previous two species, with a lower than average report rate. Although there have been large numbers of Guillemots washed up in Cornwall and Devon from a synthetic chemical called polyisobutene. Surprisingly only nine dead and two live Guillemots (which are yet to show in the graph above) have been found ringed out of a minimum estimate of 1500 dead birds.

Detailed Common Sandpiper movements discovered

We've had a number of recoveries of Common Sandpiper on migration and on the wintering grounds over the years including Algeria, Morocco, Italy and Guinea Bissau. The distribution can be seen on the map below (purple - ringed in Britain Ireland, yellow - ringing location of birds later found in Britain or Ireland).

However, we now have more information from a study by Highland Ringing Group ringers which investigated the pre-migratory change in mass and the migration route of Common Sandpipers in 2011. Some of these birds were fitted with geolocators in Highland, Scotland, which logged the approximate location of each bird using a combination of time and day length.

They write:
"One bird left Britain on 21 July and migrated for three days to Morocco where it staged before continuing its migration to W Africa for the non-breeding season, arriving on 29 July. The region in which it spent most of the non-breeding season (Oct–Feb) was S Senegal or The Gambia.
Prior to northward migration, the bird spent a period inland, before crossing the W Sahara desert to Morocco. Its migration was then delayed, probably due to adverse weather (strong NW winds). However, after a week in Morocco, which involved some northward movement, it followed the east coast of Spain and crossed to W France before moving through England to Scotland. Although Common Sandpipers can accumulate sufficient stores for a long single non-stop flight between N Europe and W Africa, the focal bird migrated in medium-range “skips” during both its southward
and northward migrations."

This is the first record of a British-breeding Common Sandpiper on its wintering ground south of the Sahara. The earlier record in Guinea Bissau referred to a bird on migration, so its origin was unknown.

Thanks to Brian Bates, Brian Etheridge, Norman Elkins, James Fox & Ron Summers for conducting this fascinating study. For more information on the International Wader Study Group click here.

The Welsh / Scottish connection

We have just heard from the Norwegian Ringing Scheme, who have told us that one of their ringers has read the rings of 2 Oystercatchers that were breeding together in Norway, amazingly they were both wearing BTO rings.


View Oystercatchers move to Norway in a larger map

One of the birds was ringed on Anglesey, Wales by SCAN Ringing Group (an adult, at least 3 years old, ringed on 10/02/2008) and the other on the Eden Estuary, Scotland by Tay Ringing Group (hatched in 2003 and ringed on 21/08/2004) .