Life Cycle Winter 2024-25, with article about our Water Pipit project

https://www.bto.org/our-science/publications/lifecycle/lifecycle-issue-14-winter-2024-25 

Broads area - 29th January 2025

 Took a leisurely drive around the broads, managing to flush a Woodcock from a ditch during our search for wild swans. Managed to find some Bewick's Swans associating with some Whoopers in a field at Ingham. The day continued with no luck for Cranes where we've seen them before, or white-fronted   geese in with a flock of Egyptian geese. We tried St Benet's Abbey at about 2pm and saw 3 Short-eared Owl, 8 Cattle Egret, 16 Cranes albeit distant, 2 Marsh Harrier including one with wing tags that we couldn't read and some Pink-footed geese.

Finished off with some ring reading at Hoveton Bridge getting 30 or so rereads (and assaulted by a number of over positive Mutes wanting food). A few bare legged swans present, so may be worth another visit with rings and last bird was a metal ringed Finnish Black-headed Gull that we managed to get the entire number. The ring is quite worn so we hope it has some age.

ST265199 Helsinki, Finland.

Recording the 

entire code

takes a bit of patience

when the ring is metal

and not a darvic code.

Sculthorpe Moor - 25th January 2025

 An attempt to catch Woodcock that proved the same as several other recent evenings where birds were flighty and lifted too early for capture. There were plenty of Snipe, but they would have needed nets for capture, so they just reduced the chances of getting closes enough to successfully catch the Woodcock.

The owl net did have success in the form of a Tawny Owl.

No Barn Owls were attracted to the audio-lure.

Total: 1

tawny Owl - 1

Deepdale Farm - 22nd January 2025

 After a damp and drizzly day the weather cleared a little and we went back to the farm where we had seen some six or so Barn Owls two days ago, but only caught one. We got a 15m 40*40 net up for me to watch while Chris took another punt at thermalling.

The evening was quite productive with two new Barn Owls females, both developing brood patches and a younger male, ringed in the nest, but not on site. He was ringed at Cradle Hall Farm, Stanhoe on 14 June 2024. So with all these unringed owls, where are the pulli that have been ringed on site and where have the unringed owls come from? Are there more second broods than realised, or just a lot of natural nest sites.

7F Barn Owl

5M Barn Owl

Adult Woodcock

6F Barn Owl

Chris also managed to catch a Woodcock, so apart from the flat tyre that prevented us from checking out two other areas of the farm, not a bad return for a few chilly hours in the field.

Total:

Barn Owl - 2 (1)
Woodcock - 1

A farm in North West Norfolk - 15th January 2025

 Today, joined by CJH, we worked the farm hedgerows in thick fog for much of the morning. This winter has been difficult as much of the wild bird mix areas have failed, providing less food than could have been expected and providing less cover for siting nets. We believe this crop failure is partly responsible for the reduced numbers of finches and buntings in some farms this winter. 

5F Reed Bunting with darvic code UW(BB)

We secreted some two panel nets in some waist high curly kale, one full height net through the hedgerow with more parallel to the hedge boundary. There were some quite large groups of Goldfinch, Chaffinch and Reed Bunting. However our catches were quite modest. We did at least catch 6 Reed Bunting and get the opportunity to mark them with brown darvics, code UW followed by two letters.

Total: 15 (8)

Blackbird - 1 (2)
Blue Tit - 2 (1)
Dunnock - 3 (4)
Great Tit - 1
Reed Bunting - 6
Robin - 0 (1)
Wren - 2

Stanhoe Orchard - 12th January 2025

 Plans to target a finch flock near Langham had to be abandoned as they have been attracting attention from photographers, being in hedges right next to the road. With the frosty conditions we decided that that it was best not to try that on a weekend when frustrated toggers might criticise us for catching in the cold (while ruining their plans). Instead, returned to the orchard.

We got 6 doubles up and ran a session from 8am to 12:30pm catching a total of 35 birds of which 26 were Fieldfare. This means that they are our leading species at this point of the year and it's not that often anyone can say that.

The team was CL, DKL & EGB with experience of two new species for EGB.

Near full moon sinking over Stanhoe as we approached.

Total: 33 (2)

Blackbird - 1
Dunnock - 0(1)
Fieldfare - 26
Goldfinch - 5
Green Woodpecker - 1
Robin - 0 (1)

Stanhoe Orchard - 10th January 2025

 A hard frost, but minimal breeze to start the morning. The birds were sparsely spread all around the orchard as the apple crop had been a bumper one and windfalls were still present in several areas of the site. We got five doubles up, mostly larger mesh nets and covered three rides where there were apples on the ground.

We finished on 31 birds, 20 being Fieldfare. This is the best yearly total that we've ever had there, and there is still the possibility of more captures, if the weather stays cold. Redwings were conspicuous by their absence.

6M Fieldfare

Adult male Green Woodpecker

Total: 31

Blackbird - 3
Blue Tit - 2
Chaffinch - 2
Fieldfare - 20
Green Woodpecker - 1
Goldfinch - 2
Robin - 1

A farm in North West Norfolk - 3rd January 2025

 The first session of the year and a very chilly start. There were a few smaller flocks of finches about, but we failed to capitalise on that as they were very mobile and the full height nets were blowing a bit too much. We did do quite well with a double of three panel nets.

We started the morning believing we were in for a Dunnock day, with all but one bird from the first round being a Dunnock. Thankfully, we did manage to get a few Chaffinch and some retraps from the past couple of years.

6M Chaffinch

Beautifully marked and shaped adult Chaffinch retrices

5F Starling

Total: 25 (10)

Blackbird - 1 (3)
Chaffinch - 11
Dunnock - 11 (6)
Robin - 0 (1)
Starling - 1
Wren - 1

Iceni Bird Monitoring Group, end of year totals 2024

 

Total new birds ringed in 2025, species showing as 0 were ringed in 2022 or 2023 but were not captured in 2024. There were over 970 subsequent encounters, mainly retraps but quite a few colour ring re-sightings too.