Ringing, recording and recoveries at Sandwich Bay

Steffan Walton, Assistant Warden at Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory writes:

Life at a south-eastern Bird Observatory is full of surprises throughout the year. Late winter cold snaps on the continent can start the year off with a bang as wildfowl and thrushes burst into the recording area, whilst counts of almost 150 Woodcock in a morning have occurred in recent times. The spring sees thousands of northbound finches flying over, thermalling raptors, and Whimbrels passing through en masse, whilst typically scarce overshoots such as Kentish Plover, Temminck’s Stint, and Serin are reasonably regular. In 2016 an epic Lithuanian Blue Tit recovery set new records in the spring (see Demog Blog story), whilst both Long-billed Dowitcher and Common Crane treated the visiting young Next Generation Birders.



This is what a Lithuanian Blue Tit looks like - photo by Becky Johnson

Summers are typified by the (now increasingly rare in the UK) sound of the Turtle Dove, breeding waders, and of course, the Nest Record Scheme. Co-ordinated efforts to monitor, ring, and assess our breeding populations take priority whilst our recently started Retrapping Adults for Survival (RAS) projects on House Sparrow and Collared Dove are already bearing their first fruits. Bee-eater, Quail, and Honey Buzzard are all possible this time of year but highlights are just as likely to be non-avian being a truly fantastic site for Lepidoptera and Odonata records.

As the summer draws to an end things start to heat up. Autumn is traditionally our busiest time of the year avian-wise. Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory has a long history of ringing unusually large numbers of House Martin, Common Sandpiper, and Lesser Whitethroat during this time, as well as being one of the premier sites in the UK for Pallas’s Warbler. Just under 10,000 birds were eventually ringed in 2016, most of which were caught in autumn. In a typical year 7-8,000 birds may be ringed though a recent high of 11,000 occurred in 2015. Looking back at the most recent autumn, numbers such as 1,350 Blackcaps, 1,200 Chiffchaffs, 585 Robins, and 640 Blackbirds make impressive reading.

Tallies can vary from year to year as weather dictates what arrives and what carries on towards France. Meadow Pipits are usually ringed in excellent numbers, species such as Firecrest, Nightingale, Ring Ouzels, and Redstart frequently show well, as well as being one of the best sites to get to grips with continental Coal Tits. In recent year’s rarities such as Red-flanked Bluetail, Great Grey Shrike, Icterine Warbler, Wryneck, and of course, double-figures of Yellow-browed Warblers have found their way into our mist-nets.



Icterine Warbler - photo by SBBOT

The real highlights though come in the form of some very note-worthy foreign controls including a series of Robin recoveries all arriving in a fantastic three week period in October. One bird from Usquert, Netherlands moved 427 km in 16 days, another 545 km from Helgoland, Germany also in 16 days, but one record stood out from the others, the cream of the crop was an individual that was ringed at Kovda, Kandalakshskiy District, Murmansk Oblast, in RUSSIA! A movement of 2,460 km and believed to be the longest distance and furthest east Robin recovery in BTO history. Further interesting records included a good run of Common Redpolls (one being a Danish ringed bird, a movement of 814 km) as well as another Eastern Lesser Whitethroat (S.c.blythi) confirmed by DNA analysis (below).



Lesser Whitethroat - photo by SBBOT

If you would like to visit or ring, then stop by the Field Centre for more details. The home of Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory offers modern, comfortable, self-catering accommodation, allowing you to be on hand for early morning bird ringing, late night moth trapping, club events or just more time to explore the local area. We offer a self-contained flat, twin, family, and single rooms. All guests have use of shared shower facilities, kitchen, dining room and lounge. What’s more, you just might get a snapshot of all the additional behind the scenes crucial work ongoing at Bird Observatories across the UK. Be it the full digitisation of historic data for Birdtrack, Butterfly Monitoring Scheme Transects, the Kent Moth Group, RSPB Wildlife Explorers and Phoenix clubs, and more.

For more information see our website.

You’re in for a tweet, with National Nest Box Week

Hazel Evans (Nest Records secretary) writes:

With flurries of snow and frosty mornings over the weekend just gone it hardly feels as though spring is in the air, however some of our garden birds such as Blackbirds and Collared Doves have already started nesting and now is the time for nest box residents to start looking for a place to raise their young. This week is the BTO and Jacobi Jayne’s National Nest Box Week, which aims to encourage and promote putting up nest boxes in your garden and local area.

Whether you buy a nest box from your local garden centre or build a selection of your own, there is no doubt that putting up a nest box is one of the most valuable things you can do for your garden birds. The BTO’s National Nest Box Week webpage contains lots of information on which nest boxes are suitable, how to build a box and where to place them. You may be surprised by the variety of boxes that are available, from Barn Owl to House Martin and Blue Tit to Starling.

Nuthatch. Photo by Edmund Fellows

If you are looking to do more than putting up a couple of boxes in your own garden, you might consider contacting a local landowner, farmer, the council at a local park, or if your children are enthusiastic, their school might allow a few nest boxes to be put up in the grounds. Once the boxes are securely in place it is time to wait and keep your fingers crossed!

Hopefully you will soon see some activity at the box; birds entering and leaving, pecking the entrance hole and carrying nesting material in. The real conservation value of erecting a box is the opportunity it provides to monitor nesting attempts. As long as the BTO Nest Record Scheme (NRS) Code of Conduct is adhered to, we can safely look inside at intervals to count the number of eggs and chicks and submit this data to the scheme. This provides incredibly valuable data, and is also a rewarding and fascinating thing to do. This information is used by the BTO to study the breeding performance of wild birds to help identify when reduced productivity might be causing population declines. People can be concerned about opening up a nest box and checking the contents, but done in the correct way the value of the data collected is huge.

Each year, data from NRS are analysed and, alongside results from the Constant Effort Sites (CES) ringing scheme, are used to produce a summary of the breeding season. In 2016, the data collected by NRS and CES volunteers showed that whilst there were good numbers of adults at the start of the season, there was a late start to the breeding season for some species and productivity was generally poor. Additional results from NRS are presented in the annual BirdTrends report.

As this is the Demog Blog, I feel that as well as the nest monitoring side of nest boxes, I should also mention the value of ringing these broods. I am currently a trainee ringer and in addition to monitoring the nests in the boxes at BTO HQ and a local farm, I am able to ring all of the chicks (under the supervision of my trainer). This provides a huge amount of data – this year I will be monitoring around 70 nest boxes – and it is also a fantastic learning experience.

A Blue Tit shaking it's Bluti. Photo by Jill Pakenham

The most common inhabitants of our nest boxes are Blue and Great Tits. Combining the data from the thousands of nests monitored every year with the thousands of pulli ringed, provides an invaluable national picture for these species. The amazing coverage provided by BTO volunteers allows BTO scientists to explore how changes in the environment affect breeding birds and how their responses vary between regions and habitats. 

Nest boxes can of course be put up at any time of year but winter is ideal as it provides time for prospecting birds to find the site before the breeding season. Once used, it is a great idea to clean out old nests the following winter to allow for a fresh start in the spring. To comply with legislation, nests can only be cleaned out between 1 September and 31 January.

This year we are celebrating 20 years of National Nest Box week, so please do get involved by putting up a nest box and make your contribution really worthwhile by registering with the Nest Record Scheme. 

Ringing on Fair Isle

Ciaran Hatsell, Senior Assistant Warden for Fair Isle Bird Observatory (FIBO) writes:

Fair Isle has been a hallowed ground for ornithological studies for over 60 years. It's unique location and isolation coupled with its small size make it a nigh on perfect place to study both bird migration and seabird populations. With the old pioneers such as ‘Fieldy’ Stout paving the way for the modern day observatory staff (who rely more on optical equipment than firearms!), the art of daily observations and recording still holds a very relevant place in the ornithological world.

Fair Isle is famous for attracting rare and scarce migrants from all over the world and the daily ringing activities often provide opportunities to study some unusual species. With over 378,000 birds ringed at FIBO, there have been some remarkable movements logged, with ringed birds recovered as far away as Brazil, Canada, Russia and South Africa amongst others.

It would be easy to assume that the majority of the ‘vagrants’ that reach the isle will never make it back and that they have simply made a grave error on their migration route. However, down the years recoveries have shown that birds can re-orientate and get back on track. A Rustic Bunting ringed on 12th June 1963 on Fair Isle was shot in Greece on 15 October of the same year, demonstrating the ability of these birds breeding hundreds of miles from here to find their way again (albeit to meet an unfortunate end!)

American Wigeon photo taken by Edmund Fellowes

Another phenomenal tale was of a young male American Wigeon, ringed as a duckling in New Brunswick, Canada on 13 August 1986 and found on Fair Isle 21 September of the same year! In a recurring theme, the bird was then shot two months later in Ireland, presumably as it attempted to re-orientate. 

Fair Isle has been fortunate enough to host many first records for Britain over the years and birding here really can produce anything at any time: from a Rufous-tailed Robin (the first British record) being found on a family stroll, to a Magnolia Warbler found on the cavernous expanses of the west cliffs of the island on a Sunday afternoon off. It really is a magical place to observe migration. For those islanders and Bird Obs staff that value their ‘Fair Isle lists’, it can be the most unusual bird that gets people running. Several observers famously abandoned a search for a Siberian Rubythroat to go and see a Blue Tit that had turned up!

A super rare Blue Tit photo taken by Dawn Balmer

The other major aspect of work at FIBO is the monitoring of seabirds. The fortunes of Fair Isle’s seabirds play out a rather sinister tale and in recent years, the island have been a crucial biological indicator site of our changing climate. Several species have declined in number and the demise of the Kittiwake is perhaps the most evocative story. They have gone from 19,340 breeding pairs in 1988 down to just 880 breeding pairs in 2015.  The islanders who have been here since then are saddened by the lack of noise and atmosphere the Kittiwake once created, with the voice of the Kittiwake fast disappearing from our seabird choir.

Kittiwake photo taken by John Harding

There has been a great amount of work recently done on designating the waters around Fair Isle as a Marine Protected Area (MPA), which could potentially go some way to safeguarding the future of Fair Isle's seabird and marine life.

As part of the seabird monitoring work here we also get a chance to ring a good number of seabirds. One of the aspects visitors to Fair Isle often enjoy the most is the Storm Petrel ringing sessions. The opportunity for guests to get involved with releasing the birds is something people rarely forget and makes a trip to Fair Isle even more memorable. It never ceases to amaze how these dainty, Starling sized birds spend years out on the open oceans, covering great distances in the search of food and potential breeding colonies. The BTO website lists the oldest Storm Petrel at 37 years, 11 days old, remarkable for such a diminutive seabird! Fair Isle a great site for catching, with 2,453 birds ringed in 2014 alone. We have caught birds from the Faroes, Norway, Portugal as well as many hundreds from other sites in Britain.

The standardised daily recording and ringing of migrants provides a fantastic and unique data set. The data is currently being analysed with some fascinating results involving the arrival and departure dates for migrants. There is a vast wealth of data and it may take many years to analyse it all.

Over anything else, it is a great honour and privilege to get to work in such an incredible place, with the changing of the seasons bringing something new at every turn. From migrants, to seabirds to taking in the awe inspiring scenery, the work here at the Bird Obs is both scientifically relevant and hugely enjoyable.

Eds - It is great to see a report of the first ringed Hen Harrier being recorded moving to/from Fair Isle! Ringed as a chick on Orkney on 7 July. See more on their Twitter page.

Do Blue Tits move very far?... Generally no.

Ian and Sally Hunter from the Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory write:

Small groups of Blue or Great Tits, with the occasional Coal Tit, moving southwards along the seafront are not uncommon during visible migration observation at Sandwich Bay.

Despite 10,381 Blue Tits having being ringed by the observatory, we have not really discovered much about their movements. Until 23rd March 2016 the observatory only had one foreign control (ringed abroad), from the Netherlands, and one foreign recovery (found abroad), to the Pas de Calais region of France. Other movements were usually within Kent (19 birds), mostly to/from coastal sites, with six to/from other southern counties. The BTO ringing scheme as a whole has only had an extremely small number crossing the channel.


Blue Tit recoveries involving Britain & Ireland
Colour of location: Ringed in Britain & Ireland, Found Here; Ringed Here, Found in Britain & Ireland

So when a Blue Tit wearing a Lithuanian ring was captured, there was plenty of excitement. The bird was noticeably brighter blue than local birds. Its wing was a big 70 mm and it weighed 11 grams (average for British Blue Tit is 63mm wing and 10 grams). Interestingly the previous day a white headed northern race Long-tailed Tit had been observed and two days later a continental Coal Tit was ringed.



Lithuanian Blue Tit. Photo by Becky Johnson

The map below shows just how far this bird has travelled from Ventes Ragas, Silute distr. It was ringed as an adult Blue Tit at 13:00 on 15 Sept 2015 (nearly 1,400 km in about 6 months).

Making a home for my ‘tweet’ Valentine

Hazel Evans, Nest Box Challenge Organiser writes:

There is still a chill in the air, but at last the days are getting longer and it’s time to think about where our local birds will be nesting this year. Valentine’s Day sees the start of BTO and Jacobi Jayne’s annual ‘National Nest Box Week’. The aim of the week is to encourage and promote the putting up of nest boxes in your local area.

There are numerous reasons why I advocate nest boxes and it can be as easy as you like to take part. The simplest thing you can do is to go to your local garden centre and purchase a suitable Nest Box and put it up in your local area. This may be your garden, but if you are looking further afield, a local park or woodland is also great (as long as you have the land owner's permission). As old trees fall or are cut down, houses are better insulated and gaps under the eaves are sealed, there are fewer natural cavities available for nesting birds so providing artificial nesting locations is extremely valuable.

Robin in an open fronted nest box. Photo by John Cranfield

Once you’ve put up your nest box - or filled your local park with them - monitoring is where the real conservation value lies. Nest boxes give us the opportunity to easily collect data on the breeding success of cavity nesting birds; the same data can require a little more time and skill to collect from natural nest sites. As long as the NRS Code of Conduct is adhered to, we can safely record the progress of nesting attempts by looking inside next boxes to count the number of eggs and chicks and submitting data to the Nest Record Scheme (NRS). There is a very large body of research showing that the contents can be examined without any negative impacts on the outcome of the breeding attempt.

NRS participants monitor nests by inspecting them at intervals and recording the number of eggs laid, the number of chicks hatched and whether chicks fledge successfully. This information is used by the BTO to study the breeding performance of wild birds to help identify when reduced productivity might be causing population declines. People can be concerned about opening up a nest box and checking the contents, but done in the correct way the value of the data collected is huge.

Blue Tit chicks. Photo by Simon Thurgood

By far the most common inhabitants of garden nest boxes are Blue Tits and Great Tits. They have adapted so well to living in our man-made constructions that we receive thousands of nest records for these species every year. These records provide such good national coverage that it is possible to explore the degree to which birds' responses to changes in the environment vary between regions and habitats.

At the other end of the spectrum are Treecreepers, which have so far not adapted to using nest boxes. A nest recorder recently developed a design which mimics the thin, natural cavities preferred by Treecreepers. If you would like to have a go at making one of these boxes then please do let the Nest Record Scheme know whether the box is used or not. If it is used then you can also submit a nest record.

Treecreeper. Photo by John Bowers

A huge variety of nest boxes are available to either buy or to make and you can find information to help you choose an appropriate box on the National Nest Box Week website. When choosing a box it is important to make sure the lid can be lifted or removed to allow you to monitor the contents (or that you can appropriately modify it) and that it is well constructed from a thick enough (and appropriate) material to protect a clutch of very small, very vulnerable chicks! Building a box can also be very rewarding and save a lot of money.

Nest boxes can of course be put up at any time of year but winter is ideal as it provides time for prospecting birds to find the site before the breeding season. Once used, it is a great idea to clean out old nests the following winter to allow for a fresh start in the spring. To comply with legislation, nests can only be cleaned out between 1 August and 31 January.

Happening in a box near you

National Nest Box Week kicks off every year on Valentine’s Day. It’s a week where the BTO encourage members of the public to put up nest boxes in their gardens. Our garden birds are just starting to prospect nesting sites in preparation for the approaching spring, so the sooner you can get a box up the better, whether you build it yourself or buy it from the garden centre.

Great Tit - David Waistell

There are increasing concerns that the availability of suitable nesting cavities is falling as old trees are felled and houses are repaired, so erecting a box could make a real difference to a pair of birds in your garden. However, the real conservation value of erecting a box is the opportunity it provides to safely record the progress of the nesting attempt, looking inside at intervals to count the number of eggs and chicks and submitting data to one of the BTO’s nest monitoring schemes. The benefits of your monitoring efforts will be felt well beyond the confines of your garden, benefiting national bird populations by helping conservationists to understand the impacts of climate change and urbanisation on the number of young reared and therefore, ultimately, on population trends.

Blue Tit nest - Hazel Evans

Nest Box Challenge  (NBC) is an on-line monitoring survey focussed on gardens, with the ability to record data on both box-nesting birds, such as Blue Tits, and open-nesting species, such as Blackbirds and Woodpigeons.  The Nest Record Scheme (NRS) collects more detailed data on all nesting species across a wide variety of habitats. People are understandably wary of approaching nests, but there is a very large body of research showing that the contents can be examined without a negative impact on the outcome of the attempt, as long as the guidelines set out in our NRS Code of Conduct are followed.

The number of people nest recording in the UK has never been higher, with almost 1,000 volunteers monitoring over 45,000 nesting attempts in 2014 alone through NBC and NRS. The Nest Record Scheme is now in its 76th year and in that time over 1.35 million nest records from 232 different species have been sent in, creating an invaluable and unique record of the UK’s breeding birds. These data are used to generate annual trends in laying dates, the number of eggs produced and the number of chicks reared, which are published each year in the BTO’s BirdTrends report. By analysing nesting data in conjunction with survival data generated by bird ringing, we can assess the contribution that changes in the number of fledglings produced makes to national population trends.

Blue Tit fledgling - Tommy Holden

By far the most common inhabitants of our garden nest boxes are Blue Tits and Great Tits. They have adapted so well to living in our man-made constructions that we receive thousands of records every year; so do we really need any more? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes’, as the better the coverage, the more we can explore the degree to which birds responses to changes in the environment vary between regions and habitats. Your help is vital in continuing to build on this amazing dataset, so why not make 2015 the year you start monitoring nests?


By Hazel Evans, Nest Record Scheme secretary

Nice weather for nesting

Having put up with dampened breeding success in 2012 and a chilled start to the season in 2013, how are breeding birds faring this year following the relatively fine winter and spring? This timely question from BBC Springwatch prompted the Demog team to appeal to BTO nest recorders and ringers for any mid-season information they could pull together. True to form, an amazing 112 responses were received from recorders in just two days, which we've summarised below for seven representative species.

Barn Owl

Last breeding season was a very poor one for Barn Owl because of the adverse spring weather and lack of voles. Many birds did not even attempt to nest. Preliminary reports for 2014 from the nine recorders who contacted us about Barn Owl are much more positive, however: high site occupancy rates, laying 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule in places, large clutch sizes and large broods. There has also been some exceptionally early laying: Peter Rose in Northumberland found a Barn Owl pair on eggs in late February. This season's promising start has no doubt been aided by mild conditions but, as Colin Shawyer anticipated in his forecast for the season, the most important feature has been the incredibly high vole numbers, confirmed by the large food caches being reported in boxes.

A Barn Owl box with young looking out. Barn Owl box occupancy rates are reported to be back up this year after many birds didn't breed in 2013. Photo by Dave Short

Kestrel

Reports form BTO nest recorders in Lancashire, Cheshire and Lincolnshire suggest that laying is 1-2 weeks earlier than average in 2014 and up to three weeks earlier than last year. As with Barn Owls, this may reflect a plentiful food supply in addition to the warm temperatures. Clutch and brood sizes seem to be above average, again due to the large amount of mammalian prey. The reported early start will give young more time to build up strength and learn to hunt before winter, which may increase survival.

A brood of five Kestrel chicks in a box inspected by Essex nest recorder Steve Baines last week. Photo by Steve Baines

Peregrine

Reports from nest recorders in southwest England and Shropshire suggest that laying dates are not significantly different from the average. In contrast to the vole-dependent raptors like Kestrel and Barn Owl, Peregrines seem to be having an average to poor year in terms of numbers of breeding pairs and brood sizes. The wet weather in late spring may have reduced female condition, resulting in suspension of breeding and/or small clutches. Wet summers can adversely affect Peregrines by reducing prey activity levels and therefore hunting efficiency.

Swallow

Reports from 25 recorders suggest that laying is occurring a week or so earlier than last year, which is similar timing to previous warm years, such as 2011, and within typical levels of annual variation. As with Reed Warblers, the odd early attempt was noted: John Lloyd in Carmarthernshire recorded his first April eggs in 40 years of monitoring. A reasonably early start bodes well for repeat broods this year, so long as there isn't prolonged heavy rain, which can prevent birds hunting for airbourne insects. Large clutch sizes have also been reported this season.

Reed Warbler

This long-distance migrant rarely gets going before May - there are only 11 Reed Warbler nest records with April laying dates out of an NRS dataset of 10,000 - but this season several nests with eggs in April have been monitored by recorders in south Wales, Avon and Norfolk. However, it appears that these few early nesting attempts, enabled by warm weather stimulating good, early reed growth, were followed by a delay of 1-2 weeks before the main body of birds began laying at the normal time. This may have been due to delays on passage caused by cold, wet weather in southern France and Spain. BirdTrack data show that the timing of arrival in the UK was similar to recent years, from the second week of April onwards.

The peak breeding period for Reed Warbler, a long-distance migrant, begins in mid-May and finishes at the end of July. A pair will have 1-2 broods a year. Photo by John Harding

Blue Tit

Last season was one of the latest for nesting Blue Tit since the mid-1960s. From early reports this season, however, it appears this is one of the earliest on record, with laying 2-3 weeks earlier than normal. Andy Turner in Oxfordshire recorded a mean first egg date of 9th April, almost a month earlier than 2013 (6th May). Clutch sizes appear to have been average to below average - this could be down to high adult abundance, and therefore competition, following the good survival prospects over the 2013/14 warm winter. However, warmer springs also tend to be poor for productivity as, although birds advance their laying, caterpillars advance emergence by a greater amount, therefore reducing the synchrony between demand from chicks and availability of insect food. Moreover, the recent wet weather appears to have had a negative impact on chick survival - wet summers in general are problematic as they wash much of the insect food from the canopy.

Long-tailed Tit

Despite the warm weather in February and March, reported laying dates this season are close to the average, if towards the early end, with most clutches being built between late March and mid April. The wet weather in late winter may have delayed breeding somewhat if it meant that females struggled to find food and began the season in poor condition. Preliminary reports from ringers suggest that numbers of fledglings are much higher this season compared to 2013, which was particularly poor for Long-tailed Tit, owing to the very low temperatures in late winter and early spring. Warm, dry weather benefits fledgling survival as small birds can chill easily when wet.

Long-tailed Tit is one of our earliest breeders, typically laying from late March until early May. They only have one brood per year, although may relay if the first fails. Photo by Elspeth Rowe

Many thanks indeed to

Alan Ball, Bob Sheppard & Keith Bowden, James Anderson, Steve Baines, Tim Ball, Batty and Bateman, Phil Belman, BIAZA Nest Recording Project, Derek & Mary Bickerton, Rorger Bird, Bristol Naturalists Society, Paul Cammack, Steve Carter, Barry Caudwell, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Charnwood Ringing Group, Michael Colquhoun, Brenda Cook, Simon Cox, Ruth Croger, Crombie Country Park, Cwm Clydach RSPB Reserve, Robert Danson, Chris Dee, Richard Denyer, Derek Holman, Karl Ivens and Andy Glover, Thomas Dewdney, Ed Drewitt, David Dutton, East Dales Ringing Group, Chris Evans, Mark Fletcher, Jeremy Gates, Adrian George, Steve Gray, Philip Hanmer, David Harazny, Ian Hartley, John High, Kenneth Hindmarch, Peter Holmes, Mike Hounsome, Michael Hunt, Cynthia Hyde, Iain Inglis, Peter Johnson, Kelvin Jones, Tom Kittle, Lancaster & District Birdwatching Society, John Lawton Roberts, Alan Levitt, Jerry Lewis, John Lloyd, Garth Lowe, John Mark, Frank Mawby, Philip May, Kevin May, Michael McDowall, David Mckee, Merseyside Ringing Group, Minsmere RSPB Reserve, Colin Moody, Gerald Murphy, Mervyn Needham, Ian Nicholson, North Cotswold OS, North-west Norfolk Ringing Group, NT Farne Islands, Parc Natur Penglais Support Group, Keith Parkes, Pinley Abbey Nature Reserve, Pitsford Reservoir, Andrew Ramsay, Derek Robertson, Paul Robinson, Peter Rose, Paul Roughley, RSPB Fowlmere, RSPB Grange Farm, Salisbury Plain MOD Conservation Group, Malcolm Samuels, Robin Scott, Keith Seaton, Dave Short, Shropshire Peregrine Group, Doug Simpson, Judith Smith, Sorby Breck Ringing Group, South Derbyshire (Souder) Ringing Group, South Devon Nestbox Group, South East Cheshire Ornithological Society, South West Lancashire Ringing Group, South West Peregrine Group, Derek Spooner, Ian Standivan, Suffolk Community Barn Owl Project, Tay Ringing Group, Simon Taylor, Roger Taylor, John Thompson, Treswell Wood IPM Group, Andy Turner, Stephanie Tyler, David Warden, Barrie Watson, Waveney Ringing Group, Denise Wawman, West Midland Bird Club, West Midland Bird Club Boddenham, Williams and Tabor, Wirral Barn Owl Trust, Ian Wrisdale

Crossbill, Avocet or Wrybill?

Beak deformities in wild birds are unusual, with fewer than one in 200 adult birds thought to be affected. As long as the bird can feed and preen once a bill is deformed enough that the tip isn't constantly worn away, it can grow to amazing lengths.

Juvenile Blue Tit with the a bill deformity. Ipsley Alders Nature Reserve, Mike Barstow

Whilst ringing at Ipsley Alders Nature Reserve, Redditch, Mike Barstow retrapped a Blue Tit on 25/11/2013 that he previously ringed on 19/01/2012 with no deformity noted. This bird now had a severely deformed bill (below). The bird appeared healthy with good plumage, muscle and even had a trace of fat. There are therefore two birds (above and below) that have been recorded at this site which have developed a beak deformity within a few years.The research continues.

Adult Blue Tit. Ipsley Alders Nature Reserve, Mike Barstow

Measuring bill length to investigate growth rate for future captures- Mike Barstow

 Types of beak deformities in the wild:

• Crossed mandibles: similar to that of a Common Crossbill perhaps caused by slight asymmetry of the jaw. Straight beaks have been recorded as a deformity in Crossbills.

• Decurved upper mandible: can occur when the tip of the lower mandible is damaged so that the beak does not close correctly.

• Upcurved lower mandible: may occur when the tip of the upper mandible is missing (i.e. broken off).

• Elongation of both mandibles: produces ‘Curlew-type’ beaks, although the degree of curvature varies considerably between individuals.

• Bent to the side: seemingly uncommon, with one or other mandible warping sideways.

• Gapped: where the upper and lower mandibles do not close fully leaving a visible gap.

For more information click here

Great Spotted Woodpecker reaches a Great age

Since 1909, ringing has occurred on these islands and with all this information, a great deal has been learnt about how long wild birds live.

The BTO has compiled a longevity list that is updated annually here, which includes the details of the oldest British and Irish birds wearing a BTO ring. At 3 years 2 months, the Firecrest burns out quite quickly, to the other end of the spectrum of the 50-year old Manx Shearwater.

Longevity records are beaten relatively rarely so it's a special occasion when a ringer re-catches a record breaking bird, unless it's a recently colonised bird like a Little Egret (9 years 6 months) or Egyptian Goose (12 years 5 months).

Female Great Spotted Woodpecker

The last longevity record for a Great Spotted Woodpecker was set in 1976 with a bird caught in Rochester, Kent. That has now changed with Alan Ball contacting us about a 10 year, 10 month and 30 day, female woodpecker at Bourne Wood, Lincolnshire!

The wing of a definite adult Great Spotted Woodpecker with retained primary covert

This year has also produced several old Blue Tits in Bourne Wood including one 7 years 11 months and one 7 years 10 months and another aged 7 years. Just a couple more years to break these records as well.

Thanks to Alan for letting us know and for the photographs. The online longevity pages will show his record once we have all the data in for this year.

Norwegian Blue Tit update!

We have just heard from our colleagues of the Norwegian Ringing Scheme with an update of the Blue Tit wearing a Norwegian ring that was previously posted.

The first-year Blue Tit was ringed at Lista Bird Observatory, Farsund, Vest-Agder (58'06N, 06'34E) on October 5th. This bird was then caught 9 days later in Lerwick fit and well.


View NOS Blue Tit in a larger map

Alf Tore Mjös writes:
2012 has been another “big year” for Blue Tits in Scandinavia. Many have left the coastline and turned up on the remote island of Utsira 20 km off the west coast, including quite a few ringed at Lista Bird Observatory and Revtangen Bird Observatory. The usual movement of Blue Tits in southern Norway is along the coast from east towards west and then northwest to north.

Fair Isle Bird Observatory has also reported a Blue Tit in a garden while hoping for a Rubythroat. The warden writes on their blog "The last Fair Isle record of a Blue Tit was back on 1st January 1989, there have actually been 3 Rubythroats (including this years) on the island since this commonplace UK garden resident."

Thanks again for David Okill for letting us know and our colleagues in Norway.

Norwegian ringed Blue Tit in Shetland

Dave Okill writes:

Autumn in Shetland brings falls of continental migrants on south-easterly winds and the end of the second week in October 2012 brought large numbers of Redwings with smaller numbers of Goldcrests, Blackbirds and Bramblings into the Isles. Reports of more uncommon birds were scattered over the next few days and included Olive-backed Pipits into double figures, a Treecreeper and unbelievably a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Scotland's first authenticated record.

On the 14th October, an Olive-backed Pipit and a Great Tit were found in a mature wooded garden on the edge of Lerwick. These were joined on the 16th by a Blue Tit which was seen to be ringed with a 'chunky' silver ring. Permission was obtained by members of the Shetland Ringing Group and on the next day the Great Tit and Blue Tit were caught. The ring on the Blue Tit proved to be from the Norwegian ringing scheme.

Blue Tits are very scarce late autumn migrants in the Northern Isles and they do occasionally over winter; in the exceptional year of 1988 at least 40 were recorded but in many years there are no reports, so a ringed bird in the Northern Isles is very unusual.

There have been a number of previous ringing recoveries of Blue Tits to and from the continent but
these have nearly all been from south-east England especially along the channel coast. There have
been 9 foreign birds recovered in England and 10 British ringed birds recovered abroad. The single
Blue Tit recovered from Norway was at Felixstowe, Suffolk. It is possible that some of these birds
moving across the channel could have been ship assisted, but difficult to prove.

We await the ringing details from Norway with interest.

Thanks to Ray Johnston 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.

They're fledging... soon!

At this time of year, lots of Blue and Great Tits broods are starting to fledged, having been fed on caterpillars and other insects.

The Blue Tits that we're following on the BTO website and previously reported are very close indeed to fledging now, as are many all over the country. Will you be the first to see them fledged?

Here in Thetford, Norfolk we have had the odd brood dying from unknown causes, either adult predation or abandonment and out of the successful ones there have been a few broods with a definite 'runt of the litter'. Could it be that the caterpillar emergence was even earlier than expected this year due to possibly the warmest spring in a very long time, effecting food availability? Only time and more data will tell.

They're hatching!

The BTO website is currently live streaming a Blue Tits nest thanks to Gardenature. The eggs have been hatching for most of today, so have a look and see what progress they have made. The picture is live and has the added bonus of switching to a feeding station which can be full with birds.



Go to the BTO website or click here. This live streaming will be available until the chicks fledge.

Blaumeise the Blue Tit visits the UK

You never know what you might find in your own garden, as demonstrated by Mr Skehens from Gloucestershire who found a Blue Tit in his garden that had recently died. Nothing ground breaking there, due to their short life span and sedentary nature, but this ring had the magic words "Helgoland Germania" inscribed on it!

We have somewhere in the region of 22,800 reports of Blue Tit either found dead or moving more than 5km, but only 170 of these have moved more than 100km. This bird had travelled a massive 737km across the sea but unfortunately this bird is not the record holder. This remains as a Norweigan Blue Tit that was caught in Suffolk by Landguard Ringing Group (782km).


The red pointer is the German Blue Tit, while the Blue pointer is the Norweign Blue Tit.
View Blue Tit in a larger map

Thanks to Jill Pakenham for the photo

Blue Tits on the move???...

We rarely hear of long-distance movements of Blue Tits, so it was quite exciting to hear last week of a Belgian-ringed bird in Norfolk. This was recaught by David Fuller at his site near Garboldisham. You'd imagine this would be juvenile dispersal, but we found out today that BLB-10945741 was ringed at Essen, northern Belgium, on 10 October 2008, almost a year previously!


View Blue Tits in a larger map

The map above shows all foreign movements of Blue Tits, with blue pins marking BTO-ringed birds found abroad and green pins marking foreign-ringed birds found here (the red pins show the movement of David's bird). It is interesting that of the 10 movements of BTO- ringed birds, seven were ringed in Kent and no less than four were ringed at Dungeness Bird Observatory! There have only been four foreign-ringed birds found here (all recaught), and one of these turned up at Dungeness as well!

So the Blue Tits in your garden might not be as uninteresting and resident as you might think.....

'Azure' Blue Tit

This rather odd-looking Blue Tit was caught last week in Lanarkshire, looking almost like some strange Blue Tit x Azure Tit hybrid!


Great Tits do loose their colour the further east they go, with Asian birds being completely greyscale! We've not seen such an extreme in Blue Tits though.


Thanks to Iain Livingstone for the images of this most bizarre bird.

Fighting Blue Tits

This amazing sequence of events was captured by the nestbox camera of a BTO Nest Recorder. The female incubating a full clutch of eggs is attacked by an imposter, presumably a second female. During the scrap, the male of the nesting pair keeps entering the box and attempts to feed his mate, oblivious to the commotion.

Is he just insensitive to her plight or just intent on carrying out his feeding duties, ignoring the female squabbles?