Deepdale Farm - 30th March 2024

 A first session for the year hoping for a few early migrants. We only had 13 captures, three being Chiffchaff and the Blackcaps heard about the site keep well away from the nets. The others birds were resident and included three obvious pairs captured together. A pair of retrapped Goldcrest has been ringed here as juveniles last year female with BP1, a pair of Long-tailed Tits included a Marsh Barn Carr bird neither in breeding condition yet and the Goldfinch pair male was starting to develop a CP. There was also  female Dunnock with a clear BP2.

 Totals: 8 (5)

Dunnock - 1 (1)
Chiffchaff - 3
Goldcrest - 0 (2)
Goldfinch - 2
Long-tailed Tit - 1 (1)
Wren - 1 (1)

Sculthorpe Moor - 24th March 2024

 A monitoring afternoon at the scrape for birds marked for our colour ringing projects. This was the second try for Lapwings ringed as chicks that may have returned to their natal site to breed. The North Norfolk Lapwing project started in 2022 when 4 chicks were found at this site, and marked with a red project marker and blue individually coded rings. Typically birds with attempt to breed in the second season after hatching and the current survival rate for Lapwings in their first year is believed to be around 0.595 (known from data previously collected across the UK via ringing studies). Our project is designed to collect further information about chick survivability, as the UK population is in decline, and an increasing mortality rate is suspected. Lapwing are status red in the birds of conservation concern list. 

The use of colour rings allows records of the bird without the need for it to be captured and also encourages public engagement as field observations can be submitted by anyone who sees and records the individual ring code with location and date information.

The water level is still very high and the prospective breeders are in the process of finding suitable nesting sites. It looks as though there will be increased numbers of Black-headed Gulls as there are many birds present and as water levels drop they are likely to complete with the Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Greylag and Redshank for places to nest. Little Ringed Plover have nested in the past but were not in evidence on our visit.

We managed to find 01 in a grassy area to the right of the scrape from the viewing hide. From the behaviour observed, this bird is probably female, keeping away from the gulls on the ground and flying in support of another Lapwing, tenacious in its efforts to drive away gulls that came too close. 

Lapwing 01 ringed 25th May 2022

Statistically, there could be other returners so we will continue to monitor for other birds with colour rings.

We also saw that Black-headed gull 2C23 was one of the birds loafing about the scrape. This bird has a history of sightings that shows both summering the wintering locations, demonstrating the sight faithful nature of the bird.

2C23 sightings

Ringed on 22/06/2022 as adult Black-headed Gull (EA88135)    Little Snoring garden, Norfolk

Encountered on 07/10/2022 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Weymouth beach, Dorset

Encountered on 03/11/2022 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 09/11/2022 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 11/11/2022 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 27/11/2022 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 07/12/2022 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Ferrybridge, Dorset

Encountered on 08/01/2023 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 06/07/2023 Black-headed Gull (EA88135)  Sculthorpe Moor, Norfolk

Encountered on 28/09/2023 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 04/11/2023 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 13/12/2023 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Encountered on 24/01/2024 Black-headed Gull (EA88135) Radipole Lake, Dorset

Last encountered on 24/03/2024 Black-headed Gull (EA88135)  Sculthorpe Moor, Norfolk

2C23 Radipole Lake, 13/12/2023

Costa Rica - March 2024

 Costa Rica is a wonderful place to see the natural world and we're now back with 3000+ images to sort through. Mervyn Cruz was our guide for the 14 day trip, using Ebird to record observations and show the target birds when mixed flocks were involved. We didn't provide a wish list, just a brief to see a good spread of species types without being in the field all hours of the day. We visited the Caribbean and Pacific sides and the cloud forest in between ending on 385 bird species including one day when we saw 50+ species before breakfast. A typical day started at 5.45am for birding before breakfast, second birding 8.15 to 11ish then a rest in the quiet, hot time of day until restarting at 3.00pm until 5.30ish.

Very pleased to find a Motus terminal at one of our lunch stops!

Here's a selection of birds seen.

Emerald Toucanet

Golden-hodded Tanager

Green Violetear

Fiery-throated Hummingbird

Fiery-throated Hummingbird

Sooty-capped Chlorospingus

Tiny Hawk

Baltimore Oriole

Buff-throated Salttor

Black Vulture

American Pygmy Kingfisher

Collared Aeracari

Red-legged Honeycreeper

Tent making bats

Spectacled Owl

Gray-necked Wood-Rail

Green Heron

Montezuma Oropendola

Greater Kiskadee

Sunbittern

Silver-throated Tanager

White-naped Brush-Finch

Black and White Owls

Pacific Screech-Owl

Anhinga

Magnificent Frigate Bird

Snowcap

Gartered Trogon

Keel-billed Toucan

White-nosed Coati

Great Jacamar

Slaty Flowerpiercer

Resplendent Quetzal

Purple-throated Mountain-gem female

Volcano Hummingbird

White-whiskered Puffbird female

A farm in North-west Norfolk - 25th February 2024

 A windier day than expected and only 17 birds caught. We switched to an adjacent hedgerow but as we might have expected, the flock then simply located to where we would normally site nets.

Observations were of greater interest than the birds captured with female Hen Harrier, Marsh Harrier, 2 Red Kite, 6 Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and 4 Grey Partridge seen, also our first Brimstone butterfly of the year.

5F Reed Bunting

Totals: 13 (4)

Chaffinch - 2
Dunnock - 5
Goldfinch - 1
Great Tit - 1
Long-tailed Tit - 1 (2)
Reed Bunting - 1
Robin - 1 (1)
Wren - 0 (1)
Yellowhammer - 1

There was quite a lot of activity from the Hares on the fields.

A farm in North Norfolk - 17th February 2024

 A morning spent with PWL & EGB at this very good farmland winter site. There are still lots of birds on site but the behaviour is changing and small flocks of finches and buntings are now moving between bird crop areas rather than there being some birds in all areas at any one time. The hedges were trimmed in January and topping of the bird crop has now started leaving any nets much more obvious with less vegetation to disguise their presence.

We managed to catch 19 birds altogether. Ten were new, and half of these Dunnocks, including a female already with BP2. Amongst the retrap birds were another 5 Dunnocks and a Reed Bunting that we had ringed on 7th November, our first day of monitoring here. 

CL made a brief survey of the fields and wood with the thermal imager and found no signatures for Woodcock at all. They had been very jumpy when he tried dazzling on two evenings in the previous week, usually a sign that they will soon leave their wintering grounds and the mid weather may have already induced them to depart.

We are very grateful to the landowner who had granted access for monitoring to take place on his land.

Totals: 10 (9)

Blackbird - 1
Chaffinch - 1
Dunnock - 5 (5)
Long-tailed Tit - 2 (3)
Reed Bunting - 1 (1)

Selbrigg Pond, Norfolk - 15th February 2024

 This morning we visited the pond having gained permission from the land owner to try to catch and mark some of the Marsh Tits there for our new colour ringing project. Woodland birds are habituated to being feed at an area close to the pond so we set just two nets in the woodland and put on tape lures.

The Mute Swan family are still there with the three remaining cygnets, although one of the youngsters seems to be spending a lot of time away from the group. He (we believe) did swim out to the centre of the pond at one point and there seemed to be no animosity between him  and the adult birds. He was seen feeding on pond weed, although he declined to come to food provided by pond visitors. The other two cygnets appear to be of a much slighter build and are probably females. All five birds are much less keen to take advantage of the free food provided by visitors.

We managed to get the first two birds for the Marsh Tit project. Both were hatched last year.

We only caught four birds but two were the target species with a Goldcrest and Coal Tit bycatch.

Total: 4

Coal Tit - 1
Goldcrest - 1
Marsh Tit - 2

A North Norfolk farm (after dark) - 12th February 2024

 Following on from our success last week when CL and I split up to work separately for nocturnal ringing, we tried the same again at this farm site.

Chris went dazzling, seeing 11 Woodcock but none of which he was able to capture. He did however return with a brace of Grey Partridges, the first time handling these birds for both of us. They really are very strong little birds.

Grey Partridge male

Grey Partridge female

While CL was out dazzling, I had the owl net up and through the evening tried Barn Owl, Tawny Owl and mouse. There was a Tawny that gradually worked its way towards the net, but despite CL seeing it on the barn roof, it avoided the net. I did, however, get a Barn Owl recapture. Ringed 16/07/2014, one of a brood of 4, in a box at a barn near Stiffkey.

Total: 2 (1)

Barn Owl - 0 (1)
Grey Partridge - 2