Ho ho ho... Merry Christmas!

Just thought I’d wish anyone who has time to read my blog a Happy Christmas! This was my only excuse to blog up until this morning. The last few weeks have been quiet and a bit samey as in more Med Gull ring sightings and other gulls etc. The was a brief Ring-billed Gull at Radipole (found by Dave Chown) a couple of weeks ago and had my camera been to hand it would have made a nice post but the camera was safely in the house whilst I was watching the bird. However, this morning I heard back about DNA results of a possible Siberian Chiffchaff that Steve Hales and myself trapped and ringed at Abbotsbury Swannery back last month. There was never much doubt about this bird as it was a cracker but always good to air on the side of caution hence we stuck with the possible or probably theory. Now the results are back we can call it a definite Siberian Chiffchaff cos that’s what it is.

So there we go, another year gone. Next year should be fun as I’m planning on doing a patch year list with the patch being Radipole Lake! Makes sense as I can see the site from my house... So if anyone see’s anything at Radipole which is vaguely interesting at the site please get in touch! I’ll even twitch a Treecreeper or Coal Tit.

Merry Christmas all! I’ll leave you with a pic of a Bearded Tit I took last week. Happy new year as well!

A Penguin plus more gulls...

RSPB and RSPCA are often confused with each other. One does conservation and the other rescues animals but this confusion can often lead to some interesting things being brought into the Radipole visitor centre. In the past we’ve had Peregrine, Red-throated Diver, Shag, Buzzard plus an assortment of little birds and tons of pigeons! Thankfully there’s a local lady who’s willing to take on injured wildlife otherwise we’d be really stuck! Today’s surprise was a rather smart Guillemot which was picked up on Weymouth beach. We had one brought in a while ago but that one was identified as a Penguin before we obviously explained the difference! This one felt really skinny so is probably doomed but the RSPCA came along and took it off to their seabird centre up in Somerset. Best of luck mate!!

Gulls weren’t particularly numerous today at Radipole and the morning Med Gull flock was flushed by a Peregrine and didn’t come back. Got a load of ring number yesterday including a different Serbian bird to the one a few weeks ago plus two German birds amongst the usual French birds. Last week got one from Hungary which wasn’t my first from that country but a nice record none-the-less.

Herring Gulls were moving through in numbers today though and included a colour ringed bird from Norfolk.

Also picked up this interesting bird. Noticed this bird had plenty of white in the tip even when the wing was closed. Waited to while to get an open wing shot but got it in the end.

 Certainly not a south coast argenteus. I didn’t think the mantle was particularly darker than the rest of the Herring Gulls around but that wing tip pattern certainly suggests a more northern origin. Nice big white tip to the last primary plus a good size white spot on P9. Also fairly narrow back band on P6 where the back stops. Can I call this one an argentatus??

A good few years ago I went through a weird phase of photographing wing tips of adult Herring Gulls. This was during my gull discovery days when I knew a lot less about gull than what I do now. Got some really interesting wing tips though including this bird.

 Interestingly this bird didn’t have a noticeably darker mantle either but that wing tip is undoubtedly that of an argentatus. Wonder if I’ve been a bit caught up with the whole mantle thing? Might end up going through another phase of wing tip studying... Look out readers!! Hope something more interesting happens soon to stop me!

They've all come at once!

Mature Yellow-legged Gulls are getting a bit like buses. In four years of gull gauping at Radipole I’ve only ever seen a couple of ‘mature’ birds, as in ones which are older than juv/1^st winter. This week, Radipole has had a 3^rd winter, 2 sub adults and an adult! Seen three of these birds and Joe Stockwell from up at Portland Obs ventured down and found the adult bird. My last post was going on about the 3^rd winter bird so here’s some shots of two sub adult. Talking to Brett Spencer yesterday it could be that this first bird is an advanced 3^rd winter judging by the amount of black in the primary coverts. If that’s right then today’s bird is likely to be the same age. These things confuse me easily!

First a bird from Thursday.

Slightly different light. 

Interesting shot comparing mantle colour of Yellow-legged Gull, Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull.

And a wing shot.

And this evenings bird. thought initially it was the same one as the above but quite clearly a different bird!

In case your sick of Gulls here’s a shot of a 1^st winter male Marsh Harrier carrying a Snipe away which it had caught in the channel opposite the Radipole visitor centre! Brilliant thing to see happen right in front of you. Way better than a Sparrowhawk catching the friendly garden Robin!

This is a nice sharp shot of my house with a very blurry Marsh Harrier in front of it. 

Gulls again...

After a brief interlude of passerine ringing, it’s back to gulls. And judging by the success (or lack of it) of my last Clouds Hill session, this blog might resort back to pictures of Med Gulls and ring reading for the foreseeable future. Not trying to put you off or anything....

Springs tides have allowed the water level at Radipole to drop nice and low which always attracts good number of gulls. Constant scanning throughout the day only produced one slight oddity and that was this gorgeous 3^rd winter Yellow-legged Gull.

Think back to my deep state of confusion regarding a 3^rd winter something or other a few weeks ago which I wrongly settled on Yellow-legged Gull. I said back then that if it was actually a  Yellow legger it would have been a lot more obvious. This bird took about 3 seconds to ID and no problems with this fella. It was bloody massive! Only other option would be a Herring x Great black backed Gull... joke...

However the clinging feature of a Yellow-legged Gull is the width of a full extended gape. This bird obliged and opened it’s gob and it measured an impressive 153mm which is well outside the range of Herring Gull.

Had a very pleasant evening watching 350+ Med Gulls fall out of the sky onto Radipole Lake. This happens most evening between 4 and 4:30 and it’s well worth seeing! I’ve had over 500 in the past do this. Much more impressive than watching them fly up and down the fleet though I wouldn't mind seeing the 1000+ currently wintering down there.

Poxy Pipits...

Yesterday morning I was on hide opening duty at Radipole which is always a pretty pleasant job. It’s nice to be the first person to look out of the hide as plenty of goodies have been found like that in past. Nothing exceptional yesterday. Kingfisher, a few Beardies and the regular ducks. Plenty of pipits were flying around and my ears were tuned into Water Pipit as there’s usually a few birds that winter at Radipole. Didn’t hear any of them but did hear something I didn’t immediately recognise. First impression was that it was similar to Redwing in structure (though wasn’t a Redwing!), a slightly down slurred call though not as drawn out as Redwing. Heard it again and it was clearer this time. It sounded a little raspy. At that point I immediately recalled Red-throated Pipit. Heard it twice more and almost convinced myself. The bird was calling from the North end of the reserve so the next hour saw me wading around the fields armed with the camera on video mode to record to call. However, my efforts drew a blank. If it was one it’s a really late record but not impossible I guess.

It was a nice walk around the reserve though, a Bittern flushed from 5 foot in front of me and I had a slightly heart stopping moment whilst scanning some Reed Mace. A small orange bird with a short tail (as in not a Bearded Tit!) flitted between two seed heads. I instantly assumed Penduline Tit! This wasn’t the case though the bird did have a black mask. It was a bloody Stonechat... A frustrating day! Did get two Water Pipits on my walk though.

So this morning I thought I’d get back out to Clouds Hill. Got up first thing and it was drizzling quite heavily so went back to bed. An hour or so later it had stopped so ventured out. It was a very quiet morning with little in the way of new arrivals. A few Blackbirds were knocking around which were probably migrants. Only caught one though.

I waited around for the Long-tailed Tit flock to come through as there’s often a warbler or two hanging around with them. They came and went and nothing else came through with them. These two had clearly fallen out about something...

Last net round produced this little fella. Not caught many of these this autumn.

Overhead passage was pretty rubbish. Skylarks and Meadow Pipits dribbled through, as did a few Goldfinch, one Redpoll and one Brambling. However this bird livened things up briefly. Can you tell what it is??

A Richard’s Pipit obviously. Picked it up on call first and at the time had the wrong lens on the camera and had a Blue Tit in my hand. The tit went back in the bag and I nearly dropped my camera trying to change lenses. Managed the above shot as it carried on towards the Swannery, calling every 4 or 5 seconds. One day I’ll actually be prepared for something rare to fly past!

Clouds Hill - A Redpoll no fly zone...

Yesterday whilst ringing with Steve, we decided we’d give this morning a bit of a blitz in the hope of catching a few Redpoll, which in theory would be on the move. I went off to Clouds Hill whilst Steve stuck with the Swannery. My morning started off rather busily with the tit flock which had roosted at the site overnight. This was the first time this autumn I’ve connected with the flock  so good to get rings on all those Long-tailed tits. Here they all are temporarily in their nice colourful bags ready for ringing.

The morning got rapidly quieter after that and there was a distinct lack of any Redpoll! Birds were moving up the fleet including several decent sized flocks of Starling. Meadow Pipit, Skylark, Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Linnet were all on the move but no Redpolls! A few scarcities also went through, both actually showing reasonably well rather than being small dots making noises. A Lapland Bunting came over nice and low plus a Twite went through. Both on their own which made seeing them a lot easier to see!

Back in the nets a few Blackbirds added a little bit of interest. These two 1^st winter males had completely different bill patterns!

Song Thrushes were also about in good numbers with a total of 13 counted leaving the scrub a little while after sunrise. Despite there being good numbers around only one went into a net.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the nets was this Reed Bunting.

I think this is the first I’ve caught at the site but certainly not the first I’ve seen!

Steve down at the Swannery had a slightly more productive morning. I popped in to see how he was getting on mid morning and he had caught and ringed over 40 birds at that point. The feeders certainly helped! For some weird reason, Redpolls were moving over the Swannery but not Clouds Hill. To add insult to injury, Steve caught several. He must have been catching them before they made it too my site! However, something Steve didn't have was large flocks of Pintail flying down the fleet. Had the wrong lens on but this kind of sets the scene... superb birds!

Sibe Chiffy

Spent the afternoon down at the Swannery with Steve for a late afternoon ringing session in the withy bed. He’s had quite a good ringing week down there with a little flurry of Redpoll, four Bearded Tits and a Siskin which is an odd capture for the site. This afternoon was exceptionally quiet with just a Common Chiffchaff ringed up until sunset but just as we were going to shut down the nets, a small tit flock appeared in the withy nets. With them was a very different Chiffchaff and before extracting it I could see it was an ‘interesting’ Chiff. A few seconds later once out of the net it was clearly a Siberian Chiffchaff type thing. Did all the necessaries and as the light was starting to go and temperatures dropping we let it go on its way pretty quickly  to go find somewhere to settle for the night. Got a few photo’s in the fading light.

As you can see, the green tones are restricted pretty much to the wings, also the rump and tail which you can’t see from that photo. The head lacks any yellow and green. The underparts are completely pale and buff with no yellow. Legs were very dark, as was the bill, though the lower mandible has some paleness but I don’t think that matters too much. Annoyingly the bird didn’t call at all, even on release but Steve Groves (of http://stevesswannerysightings.blogspot.co.uk/ ) has heard a Siberian Chiffchaff at the Swannery over the last week or so. I’d guess this bird was the culprit!