First site Twite !

Three weeks ago I put down several sacks of wild bird seeds at Buckton near the cliff top dell, today I went back for the first time since and found the area alive with birds, over 150 Corn Buntings, 200 Yellowhammers, 50 Reed Buntings and this highly confiding Twite, my first ever at Buckton. At times it was within 5ft of my open net and was in song but just failed to go in ! Other birds seen included Short-eared Owl and 4 Lapland Buntings. A good start to the year.

Socks off if you love Redpolls !

This 'niger sock' was a gift from Andy Wraithmell in America, its just brilliant at pulling in and holding redpolls. I am amazed this hasnt been marketed over here yet, instead of finches trying to take niger seeds from small pecking holes or clogged up feeding ports they simply have the full run of the bag with seeds sticking out all over the place ! Had a maximum of 15 Redpolls on the sock at one time yesterday, just perfect for the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch (click here) this weekend.

24 years ago this week

I was a 14 year old Young Ornithologist Club (YOC) enthusiast. On that day, January 13th 1987 there had been about 6 inches of snow in Sheffield and my mum and dad had just left the house to collect my 7 year old brother from school, at around 3pm. They had gone on foot as the roads had come to a standstill. A few minutes later a casual glance out of the patio window changed my life for ever, there sitting in our 10ft rowan tree was a bird akin to winning the lottery to a teenage birder.

My diary reads - "sat watching song thrush from downstairs window, suddenly saw a bright bird landed in the garden tree, first sight saw a large brown buffed bird, size of starling, prominent feature was it crest and yellow tail band. I quickly ran upstairs and got my bins, bird was still in tree, I focused and identified it as a WAXWING ! It flew off then came back two minutes, my parents saw it and then it was not seen again before dark, WOW!"

My first ever WAXWING ! Even now I can still point out THE very branch it was sat on, a short twisted branch facing skywards at 45 degrees. My dad recalls the incident quite well as he was greeted by me, stood outside in bare feet waving like crazy, he thought there was a serious problem and was faced with a son who could hardly speak and just dragged him to the window and thrust binoculars in his face!

Today I took Blyth to see his first Waxwings, despite the pouring rain they were every bit as special, proving birds can be brilliant life long companions, remember that son !

You gotta roll with it !

You have only got to mention Arctic Redpoll and my eyes gloss over and my mind blanks, it all stems from winter 1994 when this species was virtually everywhere in South Yorkshire but try as I may I was unable to find one despite trying very hard for 3 months and having some big redpoll flocks on my doorstep. Since then I have purposefully avoided reported Arctic Redpolls like the plague, as it is by far the biggest gap on my British list and I have relegated it to 'one day I will visit Shetland and see a proper one'. Well today I did see one and it was a proper one, even if it was a Coues' Arctic Redpoll and not a Hornemann's (from Scandinavia and not Greenland). It had all the classic features, large unstreaked white rump, clean white flanks, no undertail covert streaks, small 'pinched in' bill, large size with broad shoulders and head and rather elongated body. Whats more the views were great at very close range and often at eye level, the bird was very striking even when alongside the 10+ Common Redpolls in the flock of 38 birds.

So, am I happy ? well... (I laugh) Redpolls do my head in ! I think its because I sense that they are evolving faster than I can type and as a set are simply not the complete deal yet. But for now, I am happy just to roll with it !

Vajazzled in Essex

A rubbish day dipping the Slaty-backed Gull at Rainham tip along with 800 others. The only way is Essex!

Fine detail

First winter female, features visible include lack of yellow 'right-angled' primary tips (see adult below), only 3 red waxy tips, defuse black throat and bib edges and rather short yellow tail band.


First winter male, extensive yellow tail band, large number of red waxy tips and well demarcated black bib.


Adult male, features visible here include 'right -angle' yellow primary edges, 9 red waxy tips and broad yellow tail band.

How to raise the bar ?

This is the only Treecreeper I have ever caught at Buckton in 9 years of ringing, caught in fall conditions on October 20th 2002. It was a particularly white and pale washed out brown individual with a broad white supercillium. Buckton is no place for a Treecreeper and this individual does not fit the pattern of post breeding dispersal which takes place in July-August, so there must be a very high possibility it was of Scandinavian origin but short of a ringing recovery how do you prove that?



Above top, this was a first winter female Northern Bullfinch caught at Buckton on October 22nd 2004, the bird had a wing length of 90-91mm - see middle image, well out of the range of the resident British race (P.p.pileata) of Bullfinch which has a wing max length of 84mm. Note the white wing outer primary edges in P3-5, I found this pattern to be identical to several Bullfinches I handled in Kiruna, Northern Sweden in January 2006 - see the male above. I have never seen this primary pattern in any pileata Bullfinches I have caught.

This Lesser Whitethroat was caught and ringed at Buckton on October 11th 2004. It was very sandy brown backed and had a particularly short wing, a great candidate for a bird of Central Asian origin, but how can that be proved ?

Finally, I have always been interested in odd jizz resemblances that can be attached to certain birds, like Leaches Petrels resembling Mars Bar wrappers blowing in the wind. Well how about 1st winter Barred Warblers looking like Great White Sharks.. I will sign off !

Lieutenant Cook claims the Ashes !

Never before have winter nights been so memorable, listening to TMS in the small hours whilst England rampage with bat and ball in the Antipodes. Alastair Cook has been outstanding with a series aggregate of 766 runs. Has English cricket ever been better !

Totals

During 2010 a total of 1736 birds were caught at Buckton, this included 1650 'new birds' ringed of 50 species - a record year !

New Birds

Sparrowhawk 1, Kestrel 1, Lapwing 2, Wood Pigeon 1, Barn Owl 3, Wryneck 1, Swallow 21, Tree Pipit 2, Meadow Pipit 110, Wren 20, Dunnock 73, Robin 149, Redstart 16, Whinchat 3, Stonechat 1, Wheatear 2, Ring Ouzel 1, Blackbird 75, Song Thrush 73, Redwing 39, Grasshopper Warbler 3, Sedge Warbler 4, Reed Warbler 1, Lesser Whitethroat 10, Whitethroat 56, Garden Warbler 8, Blackcap 21, Chiffchaff 55, Willow Warbler 52, Goldcrest 93, Spotted Flycatcher 5, Pied Flycatcher 8, Long-tailed Tit 36, Willow Tit 1, Coal Tit 4, Blue Tit 14, Great Tit 14, House Sparrow 3, Tree Sparrow 146, Chaffinch 73, Brambling 59, Greenfinch 15, Goldfinch 113, Siskin 18, Linnet 38, Redpoll 2, Bullfinch 3, Yellowhammer 29, Little Bunting 1, Reed Bunting 170.

Of the commoner species 2010 saw the highest annual totals over the past nine years for Meadow Pipit, Dunnock, Robin, Redstart, Grasshopper Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Pied Flycatcher, Long-tailed Tit, Tree Sparrow, Chaffinch, Brambling, Goldfinch, Linnet, Yellowhammer and Reed Bunting. This is encouraging, as quite a few of these species are Birds of Conservation Concern.

I hear that lots of other ringing sites had great years, Spurn did brilliantly well, see link http://spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/sightings/december10.html . At Buckton, birds were ringed on 38 days (about 9% of the year).

A grand total of 5165 new birds of 66 species have now been ringed at Buckton over the past 9 years.