Feeling a bit broody

With winter loosening its grip on the British countryside our bird life is starting to look forward to spring! Here at BTO HQ, we are winding up to a busy nesting season and are searching the hedgerows and bushes for nests.


Egyptian Geese - photo by Rachael Barber

So far this year we have found nests of Coot, Egyptian Geese, Mallard, Robin, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Long-tailed Tit, Wren, Collared Dove and Dunnock, with more species being added every day. Each nest will be fully recorded for the BTO Nest Record Scheme (NRS) with nest finders following the NRS code of conduct.


Mallard nest with nine eggs - photo by Lee Barber

Robin nest - photo by Rachael Barber

Several BTO staff and volunteers record nests around Thetford, Norfolk, but how do we avoid recording the same nest? The answer is that we share a Google Map between us, with colours and shapes used to denote the progress of each nest and a note included of who found the nest. After a day of 'nesting' we update the map with our exciting discoveries and this informs everyone of where the nest is, the species, when it was found and at what stage the nest is at (nest only, nest with eggs, chicks, not active). Each recorder will then follow 'their' nests and submit them to the BTO (usually via the ringing group) at the end of the season/nest completion.



Last years nest locations on a shared Google map

Across the country there are some species that have been nesting for some time already including Grey Heron, Raven, Dipper, Stock Dove, Cormorant and Crossbill. The BTO NRS Forum has come alive with reports of nests, includes a Peregrine laying in Woking, Surrey (webcam link), a Woodpigeon squab about two weeks old in North Cornwall and Moorhen, Mistle Thrush and Ring-necked Parakeet with eggs in London. Dippers have full clutches in the Scottish Borders and some chicks have already been ringed in Wales. A Stock Dove in North Norfolk must have fledged by now as well.


 

Blackbird nest - photo by Lee Barber

Nest recording is vital to our understanding of productivity and every nest counts! It is amazing how much difference one nest record can make. By looking at the NRS submission totals, you can see what nests have been recorded previously (2016 records are still being analysed). In 2015, just 24 Goldcrest, 15 Snipe and nine Grasshopper Warbler were recorded in the whole country. Take that down to the county level and you could make a big difference to the totals, especially if you focus on one particular species. Open nesting birds are particularly under recorded because they are generally harder to find, but with a little practice and patience it can be done. Click here to find out how to take part and develop your nesting skills.

Let the nesters... nest!

During the winter months, nest recorders (known as nesters) all around the country are eagerly waiting the first signs of spring. Some start in February when pigeons, Ravens and Cormorants are starting to breed. We have posted previously on nesting Tawny Owls, some of which would have left their nest by now, but spring is really here when we receive our first reports of our garden birds nesting.

While walking through Thetford, Norfolk last Friday on a cold and dreary morning, I came across two Blackbirds fledglings being fed by their parents (below). They had been seen earlier in the week and by now had become very obvious. The eggs of this brood must have been laid in January as they were reasonably well developed but still very reliant on their parents. Unfortunately during my lunch break today, I found one of these fledglings on the road, after being struck by a car but the other one is still alive and well.

First Thetford Blackbirds of the season - Lee Barber

Another classic garden bird is the Robin. In the BTO grounds they are usually very elusive but after seeing a Robin in the same place on Thursday, Friday and today, I can finally confirm that another BTO nest is underway with a part built nest.

We will of course be following the progress of these two 'nests', and we will add many many more during the season. We will shortly be out looking for Long-tailed Tit nests while they are building their domed lichen nest, but if you have never recorded a nest before, get in touch with us at the NRS website and join us with our notebooks and nesting sticks.

What a whopper!

A Blackbird weighing 125g is not particularly unusual... in winter. Catching three females at this weight in the second week in April is unusual.

My husband Jeff and I have been studying the Blackbirds in our Thetford garden since we moved here in 1996. Our local breeders are joined by their continental cousins in mid-November each year and they co-exist.  In the mid-winter, particularly when there is snow, their weights peak as they put on fat to survive the cold. In January of this year we caught 52 Blackbirds, seven were over 125g
in weight, indeed one weighed a massive 150g. As Spring approaches, so weights drop.  For the local breeders weights continue to fall – typically a breeding Blackbird will be under 100g with some getting below 90g. For the Continental birds it is a different story – having dropped to close to 100g they will start to increase again, this time putting on fat to fuel their migration. We have had two Norwegian ringed birds in our garden giving a good indication of where many of these birds are off to. Typically we think birds depart our garden at weights of 110g to 120g.

Male Blackbird - Allison Kew

Like most people we look forward to the Spring.  For us one of the features of Spring is the departure of the Continental Blackbirds, allowing us to focus on colour-ringing and re-sighting our breeding birds for our RAS project. We know when the Continentals have gone as the Blackbirds behave differently and we stop catching heavy birds. The date varies from year to year but is normally in the last two weeks in March.

Female Blackbird - Allison Kew

This year we’re still waiting – departure for many of our Blackbirds is at least a couple of weeks later than ever before, the strong, cold, easterly winds not providing good migration conditions.  Over the weekend of 6 and 7 April we had more birds over 117g than in all of the other Aprils combined and one was still here on the 13 April.  Indeed we’ve never had females at 125g in April before – this year there have been three.  All signs of delayed migration. We’re expecting that, with the more favourable weather conditions, all the Continentals will have gone by the coming weekend.

Meanwhile, our local breeders are also slow to get going - by now we’d expect most females to be feeding young and have some doing that, but nowhere near as many as normal.
Just goes to show how useful it is to collect measurements of birds. Without recording wing-length and weight we’d not understand what the Blackbirds were up to as migrants and residents can’t be distinguished by eye. 

Thanks particularly to Jo Lashwood who has done a lot of the recent hard work on this project and actually caught the 150g Blackbird.

Allison Kew
CES & RAS Organiser

Last minute Christmas time news

This week has been a very interesting time to be in the Demography team.

Ringers have a great habit of checking any dead birds they find for rings, as they are well aware that any wild bird could have one. Mark Lawrence for example, was travelling down the road in a car and noticed a dead Blackbird that had been hit by a car but duly stopped to check it for a ring. Amazingly it did indeed have a ring... from Sweden!

During a ringing session this afternoon (21/12/2012) Denise Wawman was ringing in her garden in Somerset and caught a Brambling with a ring. Assuming she had ringed it in a previous year she was rather shocked to read the address on the ring was from Russia! This would be the 3rd ever from the Russian Ringing Scheme.

Brambling - Denise Wawman

The big news is that we have just issued the 6000th ringing permit! Twenty year old Zac Hinchcliffe (below) received this permit recently after ringing over 2,800 birds. He has been on ringing sessions catching Oystercaters and caught birds that could have been even older than he was.

Zac Hinchcliffe with permit number 6000... and a Long-eared Owl chick

Thanks to all our ringers and nest recorders who have done us proud again this year with their efforts during a very wet season and also to everyone who has found and reported a ringed bird.

Rocking Robin Recovery

Last year British ringers ringed over 22,200 Robins. I'm sure that most of these ringers didn't expect any of their Robins to be recovered more than 20km away. This is what Jackie Lawrence thought until one of her Robins, that was ringed in her Hampshire garden, was found in a water butt in Finland seven months later!


There have been 11 recoveries of British or Irish ringed Robins found in Finland. All of these were ringed on the East coast of Britain at places like Lincolnshire, Suffolk, East Yorkshire, Shetland and Orkney. These Robins would be birds that bred or hatched in Scandinavia, or on the near continent, and then migrated through Britain and France on their way to the Mediterranean.

Interestingly the Hampshire Robin was ringed in December and could have actually been wintering in the UK before migrating back to Finland. Could this be the start of something new?


View Robin Recoveries in a larger map

This was the first ever ringing session in Jackie's garden with a total was 25 birds caught and this Robin was the first bird she caught. A Blackbird was also ringed, that was later found in Sweden! Not a bad ringing session at all.

Thanks to Adrian Blackburn for letting us know and to John Harding for the photo.

Another Curlew Tit is spotted

The life of a wild bird is not an easy one. The BTO get quite a few reports of 'unusual' looking birds with abnormal plumages and deformities. The types of deformity vary widely but the most commonly reported are of the legs and especially the beak.

The most common bill deformities reported by Garden BirdWatch members are:

• Upper mandible over grown
• Upper and lower mandible crossed over
• Upper and lower mandible elongated together
  
• Lower mandible over grown
• Bill fractured
  

Ringers are in the unique position of being able to record abnormalities by measuring and by taking photographs. John Griffin from Devon recently caught this adult Blue Tit with an 18mm long bill! The cause behind this abnormality is unknown but this bird was at a healthy weight so was able to feed and take care of its plumage to some extent.


Ringers have reported ringing birds (Blue Tits in particular) with normal beaks and then, on re-catching these birds again months later, they have varying abnormalities. This proves that the abnormalities in birds can occur at any time in their lives. The most common bill deformities in Blackbirds are fractured bills, however this is rarely reported in Blue Tit, Great Tit or Starling. More information can be found on the Garden Birdwatch pages.

Thanks to John Griffin for letting us know and the photo.

Black and Gold

Every BTO ringer who has a current ringing licence has a permit number. Trainee ringers have a permit number of 0000 to start with but when they are able to operate with 'remote supervision' (C permit holder) they get issued with another number . This number then stays with them for the rest of their ringing career. The latest permit number to be issued is currently 5866.

Coming from someone whose ringing permit number is after 5000, seeing data going to ringers with permit numbers below 1000 or even 100 is amazing. After Tony Mainwood qualified for his A permit with number 903, the first bird he ringed was a Blackbird on 31st January 1962. Exactly 50 years on, during a routine ringing session on 31st January 2012 he reached this 50 year 'mile stone' by ringing another Blackbird.


We have 64,249 electronic ringing records for Tony (not including all the ringing he has done with other groups). As he started ringing way before the computerisation of ringing records, his total is actually much much more.

Thanks to Jez Blackburn for the photo.

Say it with flowers!

Despite the cold winter and recent wet weather, birds are still making good progress with their nests and romance is obviously in the air. Nest recorder Frank Mawby recently watched a male Starling carrying a purple crocus flower to its nest. While we can’t rule out the possibility that he had forgotten an important anniversary, previous studies have suggested that Starlings are adept at using herbal remedies to combat parasite infestations in the nest, often incorporating vegetation in the lining.

Long-tailed Tits seem to have been less affected by the cold winter than many of us feared - here at The Nunnery most have now built their beautiful lichen and spider web nests and are in the process of lining them with feathers. ‘Our’ Song Thrushes and Blackbirds are just starting to lay, but the first reports of chicks are starting to arrive and many Robins are now busy feeding their broods.



With so much happening, it’s a great time to be out looking for nests. If you’ve found one, get in touch with us at nrs@bto.org and we’ll send you a Nest Record Scheme Starter Pack so that you can monitor it, or you can go on-line to take part in Nest Box Challenge www.bto.org/nbc.

'German Geordie' returns to Lothian

'German Geordie' is an old friend to Tom Dougall and members of Borders Ringing Group.


He's a male Blackbird ringed on the German island of Helgoland on 10 March 2005, and was presumably on return migration there, breeding further to the north or east in Scandinavia. He was the first caught near Gifford, East Lothian, on 16 February 2008, a farmland site fed up by Mike McDowall.

Though some birds are quite faithful to their wintering areas, it was a surprise when he was caught again on 14 December 2008 (and 3 January 2009). Even more interesting, he was caught again recently, on 30 January 2010. Presuming he'd been in the area all along this would have been his sixth winter, and he looks very good for it!

Thanks to Tom for letting us know about 'German Geordie' and to Duncan Priddle for the photos.

More bizarre nest sites

Following on from the railway Oystercatcher, a couple of other bizarre nests have come to light this week...

Just last weekend I was shown this Blackbird which is nesting in a coiled up hosepipe right out in the open on the side of a house in Skegness. The female seems quite happy there, and tolerates regular trips to the garage!


Also in Lincolnshire is this Robin family. The nest is just two 2 ft from the back door of the house, where the comings and goings of the adults are regularly watched by 5 english setters. After years of not being used, as soon as the box acquired a decorative Kingfisher, the birds moved in!


Since 2005 this Swallow has chosen to nest on top of a motorbike wheel in a barn in Hoylake, Wirral. They've successfully raising chicks in all five years, with 20 raised so far.


Thanks to John Elliott for the Swallow photo, Keith Bowden for the Robin photo, and Mick Briggs for showing me the Blackbird.