Blackbirds in the green...

Recruiting blackbirds to our project is either a labour of love, delusion or insanity. Either way sometimes it pays off like this morning when we managed to the 28th individual for the project.

However, its the by catch that made this morning, and Facey's day when a green woodpecker rocked up in one of the nets. The rest of the by catch comprised the usual - blue and great tits, a robin and a wren.

Catching blackbirds; somewhat aberrant plumage on this one....

 

Swallow Success 2012

Looking through last year's swallow project notebook this evening has me looking forward to this coming season with more enthusiasm than normal and pondering what it will hold. Will it be a success? Will it be an out and out failure? A review of 2012 showed that you never know until its over. Despite the appalling summer, and a few false starts, 2012 proved to be the most productive season since the project started in 2006.

Despite being one of the wettest summers on record, 139 young swallows (from 159 eggs) fledged from the stables last year, beating the previous best  by seven (from 177 eggs in 2009). Its a far, far better total than 2006 when only 69  young (from 130 eggs) fledged in what was a very hot and dry year.

Over 550 swallows have fledged from the Cardiff Riding School since 2006;
which isn't bad going for a site approximately 1km from Cardiff's Civic Centre.

The Riding School, along with the Blackweir Ambulance Station make up the core area of our RAS project. We only started monitoring the BAS in 2011 so its hard to draw any firm conclusions but the colony here was up from 3 to 5 pairs in 2012. Nest recording here is a little random but we know at least 16 young made it off the nest; not bad for a site that backs on to one of Cardiff's main roads!

Five pairs made their home at the Blackwier Ambulance Station in 2012.
The swallows breed in the building in the top right corner.
All ten adults were caught in one catch, including a male hatched at the stables.

These two sites are within two of the three large parks in the centre of Cardiff (you can see the Millennium Stadium from the stables!) and between them saw at least 150 young fledge in 2012.

The Welsh-French-Senegalese Connection

We’ve recently heard of some controls; some of ours going elsewhere and those of others coming to us….

Back in June 2010 6232921, a Sedge Warbler, was caught in Dunes du Mont St Frieux, Dannes, Pas-de-Calais, France. 284 days later, in May 2012 we caught 6232921 at a sunny Cardiff Bay. Meanwhile the Welsh-French connection was reversed; we first ringed Reed Warbler X612793 at the bay at the beginning of August 2011. By the beginning of September, 34 days later in fact, the plucky traveller was caught at Braud et Saint Louis, Gironde, France.

As you may recall, Vaf and Facey headed to Senegal back in January, while they were there they caught Sedge Warbler 6693961, who had originally been ringed on migration in Marais de Cap, Montmartin-en-Graignes, Manche, France 159 days earlier. They also caught DYT538, a Chiffchaff also ringed on migration in September 2011 but this time in Blighty, well Icklesham, East Sussex to be precise. This means that in 2012 Vaf and Facey have dealt with SEDWAs on all three stages of their life cycle; wintering, breeding and migration. Neat eh?!

Actually this is not  6693961 but is an actual Sedge Warbler, actually ringed in
Senegal. By Vaf actually.

 

Realing from Recoveries

News of recoveries arrived recently, which is always a pleasure. However, we recommend you have a box of tissues to hand as death and destruction is very much the theme:

We’ve not ringed many starlings at the Cardiff Riding School so we were excited to see a recovery slip for LB09232. Sadly this adult female ringed in 2010 had smacked in to a window. Now, the last “window collision” starling recovery of a Cardiff ringed starling we had was from Lithuania. LB09232 however was obviously too fond of Brains Dark and a Clark’s Pie as she smacked into a window within the city limits, albeit 2km away from the Riding School, on 14 May 2012.

Two Fforest Farm ringed Great Spotted Woodpeckers also met their end in Cardiff gardens. One was taken some 3km away (in Radyr for the local readership) by a sparrowhawk on 26 April 2012; 1551 days after it was ringed in 2008. The second was found worse for wear within 1km of the reserve on 27 May 2012, 233 days after ringing. It sadly died the same day.

Ringing gulls on Flat Holm is an experience. Actually ringing gulls generally is an experience. One of the herring gulls chicks we ringed on the cliffs of Flat Holm in 2011 was found dead, but not fresh, in Dorset on 19 July 2012; 382 days and 89 km from when/where we ringed it.

Mallard GR03883 was ringed at Cosmeston Lakes as a health first year male in September 2011 with a life looked full of promise – until he was shot 5km away in the Barry area.

Our Cosmeston Mute Swans haven’t fared much better:

Z21136  was ringed as a second year in January 2009. On 15 October 2012 it was found 19km away in Newport as little worse for ware –The slip read “In care at Swan Sanctuary”. This is the first recovery of one of our swans from the ‘Port.  ZY5212 was among of 37 swans that died in the Cardiff area due to a disease; it was found dead on 29 June 2012 Cardiff Bay 251 days and 4 km from where we had ringed it.

 

W28928 originally ringed on 10 June 2010  was found on 13 July 2011 at East Moors Cardiff  (398 days, 7 km) having had a “Misadventure”. The bird crash landed and was sadly put to sleep on 5 August 2011. W28914 didn’t fair much better; 665 days  after being ringed in 2010, it met its end on 14 January 2012, 31 km away Portishead Marina, North Somerset. It was put to sleep after being attacked by a dog. W28948 also had a run in with a dog on 26 September 2012 (598 days Distance, 10 km). Luckily it survived to tell the tale. Hopefully this dog owner has learnt their lesson and will keep their dog under control (on the lead!) while near wildfowl.

W28515 was victim of the overhead wires on 23 January 2010 (yes bit of a while getting to us) in Chepstow. Having flown 44km form its place of ringing, it was put to sleep on 18 February 2010. W28949 met the same end and was found dead under the wires it hit 30 May 2012, 28 km away in  Rackley, Compton Bishop, Somerset. Shame as markers on power lines reduces this sort of thing. W28528 was found dead in 113km away in Powys, Mid Wales on 09 July 2012. Cause of death unknown. This was our first Mid Wales recovery –Diolch chaps!

We’d like to say thank you to the people who took the time to report the rings of the birds they found; it’s very much appreciated.

25 and counting! Slowly..

Keep it under your hat but the Blackbird Project may be heading into a productive patch; the last two outings to a newly established feeding station have resulted in TWO whole new BLABI's for the project. The last of these was the project's 25th Bird! Welcome aboard FH!



Who'd have thought back in April of this year that it would take

this long to catch and colour  ring 25 Blackbirds? Not us!

Hahahaha! Hahahahaha... Hah.... Ha. Ha...

Pointy Faced Bird

Look what you get when you dont even try!

A Tidy Redpoll

Not much doubt about the age and sex of this one!

Cold Cardiff

Gloves would have been a welcome addition to the Cardiff Ringers' wardrobe this morning as would have thicker socks. Yes the bay was a little parky on our arrival this morning. But it was a clear, crisp and bright morning so spirits and hopes were high, especially with a view like this:

A beautiful view of the sunset over the barrage from the end of one of our rides.
It was far better in real life of course!

Our hopes were for flocks of wintering finches and thrushes; the Gods of Ringing partly answered. First bird of the day was our first redwing of the winter. It was quickly followed by BLABI after BLABI; possible continentals, residents, retraps and a possible control. Of course this stream of black gold, which nearly made double figures, was accompanied by Facey whimpering in to coffee "Why can't we catch this many in the park?! Why!? Why?!".

ASBO and Pliers processing two of the first catches of the day

 Variety was added by robins galore, a couple of Songthrushes, a new Cetti's for Vaf's PhD, a Goldcrest, Blackcap and obligatory great and blue tits and this little beauty:

Bird of the day by far!

Sighting and sound of the day went to the burble as the starling roost began to rouse before flying over our base camp. It was a good few hundred strong this morning.

This blog post was brought to you by Facey, Vaf, ASBO, Pliers and new editions Sam and Lizze G, with visitor Ryan.

Blackbird Bonanza!

Friday morning saw the break of what has been an unlucky run for the blackbird project. The last four outings have failed to recruit any new birds.

But erecting nets in the dark paid off, relatively speaking, as we caught 3 new blackbirds (and two retraps!), which is out second best session to date! For a change most of the new birds were female. We also landed about the same number of robin; perhaps we should to a RAS on them...

The first bird of the day.

A Lesson in Wet Marshy Places

The wet marshy habitats across Europe and Africa (and probably the world) are similar in lots of ways. They are all usually wet, smelly and jam packed full of blood sucking invertebrates. They will all usually support a range of specialist wetland passerines (and "near passerines") in some form or another. 

A "near passerine"

When you spend much of your working week standing in damp waders, putting up and taking down mist nets, attempting to distinguish chironomidae from dixidae between the occasions when you catch a study bird species in order to collect its "dietary waste"- you gain a sort of insight to some of the differences between marshy wet habitats. 

Always smiling

For example, some of these habitats carry less risk of contracting a party list of liver or blood-cell parasites. Some are not surrounded by hundreds of miles of Sahelian arid habitats. Some of them are within a wine-growing country -where you can enjoy the local produce at the end of yet another sunny day after day after day. 

But one of the main ways they differ is in the variety and quantity of birds you might encounter. For example, as you get further south you might encounter a 'zitting cisticola' or fan-tailed warbler.

or perhaps a Little Bittern or two.

Yes it is very sharp and 'jabby'

 And a steady netful of introduced species from Africa.

Waxbill

and some typical European migrants.

Now what was this one again.. something 'throat'

fliedpycatcher

After a full season of catching reed warblers in South Wales- what more could I wish for than a research trip to Portugal to catch some more reed warblers. Suffice to say I coped...