PWC 2016 January Totals

Well it's been an amazing month to kick this challenge off with, had some awesome birds including; Raven, Bullfinch, Brambling,  Yellowhammer, Lapwing and Gadwall. 

Here is a roundup of this month's sighting: 

Greylag Geese: A resident species around the patch,  2 birds flew round the village, then relocated at the 'pond' in the afternoon on the 23<sup>rd 

Mallard: A resident species on the patch, around 30 birds present on the 'pond' with 3 domestic ducks</sup>

Mallard and Moorhen from the 23rd

Gadwall: 1 bird flew south outside the village on the 23^rd probably came off the 'pond' , this is the first ever record on the patch, a species that  I didn't think I'd ever get

Red-legged Partridge: Rare but resident species, 7 birds were seen feeding in a fallowed field near Old Dalby Wood on the 31st

Grey  Partridge: Very rare but resident species, 2 birds were sen feeding with the 'Red-legs' on the 31st, this is the first sighting in 3 years!!!!
 
Pheasant: A resident species around the patch , 7 was the highest count on the 16^th 
Sparrowhawk: A resident species around the patch, but can be elusive, seen on the 2^nd, 6^th, 10^th of this month

Grey Heron: A vagrant species, one was feeding at the 'pond' on the 31st

Grey Heron flying away at the 'pond' on the 31st

Buzzard: A resident species around the patch, seen every time I've gone out birding, highest being 2 birds on the 23^rd 

Buzzard from the 23rd

Sparrowhawk:A resident species around the patch, only one female was seen flying through the village on the 16th

Moorhen: A resident species around the patch, seen regularly on the 'pond' highest count being 3 on the 24^th 

Golden Plover: A rare vagrant on my patch, this species I've only had one other sighting, one bird was heard on the 6^th flying over in the night
 
Lapwing: A rare vagrant on my patch, with only a handful of records on the patch, 5 birds circled round just south of the village on the 23^rd  

Lapwing from the 23rd

Woodcock: Uncommon Winter visitor, one bird was flushed in Old dalby Wood on the 31st

Common Gull: A vagrant on my patch, only 1 record was recorded this month being 6 birds flying SE on the 24^th
 

Herring Gull: : A vagrant on my patch, only 1 record was recorded this month being 17 birds flying SE on the 16^th
 
Stock Dove: A resident species around the patch, only a handful of records this month, the highest being a flock of 12 feeding with a flock of c30 Woodpigeon on the 31st at the 'pond'

Woodpigeon: A resident species around the patch, highest number was c200 feeding in a winter wheat field on the 17^th 

Collared Dove: A resident species around the patch, seen most days hanging around the village, the highest number being 5 birds in Grimston Churchyard on the 24^th 

Barn Owl: A rare vagrant on my patch, with one bird flying down a private lane on the 8^th 

Little Owl: A resident species around the patch, heard most nights around the village, one bird was sighted sitting outside a Barn Owl box at the 'pond' on the 24^th 

Tawny Owl: A resident species around the patch, heard most nights around the village, 3 birds were heard on the 13^th 

Green Woodpecker: A vagrant on my patch, one record this month, being a male feeding in a paddock on the 24^th
 
Great-Spotted Woodpecker: A resident species around the patch,  a few birds hang around different areas of the patch, the highest count at one time was 2 birds on the 24^th 

Kestrel: A resident species around the patch, one sighting was of a female hunting near the grain dryer on the 4^th 

Peregrine: A rare vagrant on my patch, with 2 previous records on the patch, a huge adult female raced through village chasing a Woodpigeon on the 24^th
 
Magpie: A resident species around the patch, only 1 record this month off 3 birds on the 9^th 

Jackdaw: A resident species around the patch, always around the village, and the nearby paddocks, the highest count being around 300+ on the 23^rd going to roost

Rook: A resident species around the patch, always in the nearby paddocks, highest count being 200+ birds during roost on the 23^rd 

Carrion Crow: A resident species around the patch, always hanging around the patch in small number, the highest count being 36 in the paddocks on the 23^rd
 
Raven:A single bird spent the morning around the village on the 9^th, it's more than likely it's still around with Corvids in the paddocks, then seen on the 31st when showing my Grandad the Bramblings on the 31st
 
Goldcrest: A resident species around the patch, resident in Old Dalby Wood, but a vagrant everywhere else, 1 bird was seen near the Grain Dryer on the 24^th
 
Blue Tit: A resident species around the patch, seen regularly on the patch, 13 birds on the 17^th was the highest count

Great Tit: A resident species around the patch, seen regularly on the patch, 7 birds on the 17^th was the highest count

Coal Tit: A resident species around the patch, seen regularly on the patch, 3 birds on the 24^th was the highest count

Skylark: A resident species around the patch, this time of year they hard to pin down, found 3 birds feeding in the fields outside the Grain Dryer

Long-tailed Tit: A resident species around the patch, regular flocks around the patch, a flock of 16 was the highest count recorded

Treecreeper: A vagrant species to the patch, one bird was recorded with a flock of Tits (Great, Blue and Long-tailed) on the 9^th 
Wren: A resident species around the patch, highest count being 2 birds in my garden on the 3^rd
 
Starling: A resident species around the patch, biggest flock count being 200+ flying round at roost time on the 24^th 

Blackbird: A resident species around the patch, the highest count being  11 birds between the Orchard and Grain Dryer on the 22^nd 

Fieldfare: A winter visitor to the patch, the highest flock count was 600+ birds flying through on the 23^rd and 31 birds were recorded feeding in the Orchard 14^th 

Song Thrush: A resident species around the patch, sadly declining species, one bird was seen at the 'pond' on the 31st and two birds were in the Orchard on the 14^th  

Hazy shot of the Song Thrush at the 'pond' on the 31st

Redwing: A winter visitor to the patch, highest flock count was 300+ birds flying through on the 23^rd 
Mistle Thrush: A vagrant species, one bird was within the flock of thrushes on the 14^th in the Orchard

Robin: A resident species around the patch, highest number was 8 birds around the patch on the 24^th, but there are probably more birds around

Dunnock: A resident species around the patch, 4 birds together was the highest count on the 16^th 

House Sparrow: A resident species around the patch, with around 60+ birds in Grimston, including a female with 2 white primaries on each wing, she was seen on many occasions

Tree Sparrow: A resident species around the patch, but sadly declining species, with a handful of birds around, with 3 birds in a flock of c30 House Sparrows in a Shoby feeding station on the 2^nd 

Grey Wagtail: A vagrant species on the patch, there were 2 records this month, 1 bird on the 1^st and another heard flying over on the 24^th, could well be the same bird
 
Pied Wagtail (yarrellii): A resident species on the patch, 5 birds were seen around the paddocks on the 24^th 

Brambling: A winter visitor, a record number were recorded at the Grain Dryer on the 30^th 22 birds were seen, these birds have increased in numbers over the last few years

7 of the 22 birds seen on the 30^th

Lovely Male Brambling from the 30^th

Chaffinch: A resident species on the patch, regular flock of 30-40 birds are at the Grain Dyer with the Brambling ,and a flock of 15-20 birds on the paddock hedgerows

Bullfinch: A resident species on the patch, 8 birds was the highest recorded, with 3 birds (2 Male and 1 Female) at a cover crop field, and 7 birds (4 male and 3 Female) at Saxelbye Hall on the 24^th 

Male Bullfinch from the 23rd

Greenfinch: A resident species on the patch, sadly another declining species, with only 1 record, of a bird flying S on the 23^rd 

Linnet: A resident species on the patch, numbers at the moment are down, with 2 records of a flock of 10 birds in the fields around the Grain Dryer regularly

Lesser Redpoll: A vagrant species on the patch, a flock of 3 birds at a cover crop field on the 16^th and a single bird flew N on the 24^th
 
Goldfinch: A resident species on the patch, with regular 'charm' flocks, the highest being 27 in a cover crop field on the 16^th
 
Siskin: A winter visitor, a record flock was recorded of 7 individuals in the Goldfinch flock on the 16^th and c10 flock was seen in Old Dalby Wood

Yellowhammer: A resident species on the patch, with 7 birds present in the hedgerows near the paddocks on the 24^th 

Male Yellowhammer from the 24th

Reed Bunting: A resident species on the patch, with 7 birds with the Yellowhammer on the 24^th 

Red = Less than 10 records on the patch
Blue = Between 10 - 50 records on the patch

My Spreadsheet showing all the species

My Spreadsheet showing all the species

My Spreadsheet showing all the species

So the first month proved very well with 59 species with 60 points, with the female Peregrine being the only 2 pointer.

The Bramblings

For the last few years, in the winter months small flocks of Brambling have been congregating, feeding and roosting with our resident Chaffinches at the Grain Dryer. There are usually around 4/5 birds with c30 Chaffinch, but this year despite the extremely mild climate we have had record numbers of these birds, 22 birds were recorded on the 30th. This is the biggest flock of Brambling recorded in Leicestershire and Rutland in the Winter period of 2015-16.

So here some absolutely stunning photos that I've managed to take of these birds.

Many of you have seen these images on Twitter, thank you for the support and on Monday I'll be posting my Patchwork Challenge round up of the month.

Nasal Saddled Tufted Duck

Just before Christmas I went out with my friend Sam (@sampittmiller) to his local patch Priory Water, a medium sized Gravel Pit in the Wreake valley in Leicestershire. In the winter, this area attracts a lot of different duck species, and, a few days earlier, Sam found a 1st Winter male Scaup which is very uncommon so far inland.

So we went in search of this bird, checking through all the Tufted Duck flocks floating on the choppy water, when I noticed something very unusual on one of the Tufted Duck's beaks. After having a closer look, we were able to make out that it was a ‘nasal saddle’, which is a type of colour mark in which the 'ring' is strapped on the upper mandible. This was very exciting because one of the last times I visited Priory Water with Sam, I found a colour-ringed Cormorant with the initials 'CTH' which had been ringed the year before at Attenborough Nature Reserve.

Nasal saddled Tufted Duck 
'A43'  Photo by Toby Carter

So getting back on topic, after trying to get some half decent photos of this bird through my telescope (Digiscoping), we managed to work out that the nasal saddle was marked with the combination 'A43'. I reported this and after a few anxious weeks, I got the results which were very interesting.

It turns out that the bird was originally ringed in Saint-Philbert-De-Grand-Lieu, France in December 2009. It was spotted a year and 9 months later at Matignicourt-Goncourt (again in France) 312 miles away (as the 'Duck' flies). We spotted this bird at Priory Water 4 years and 3 months since it had last been reported, and it had traveled 373 miles (again as the 'Duck' flies) from its previous known location.

This is one of the reasons I love ringing and birding, as out in the field you can spot colour-ringed birds of all sorts, like Reed Warbler, Coot, Cormorant, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Common Gull and Black-headed Gull, and that is just to name a few! Behind each ring is so much information that helps people like the BTO understand more about where these birds are feeding, migratory patterns, and much, much more. Reporting ringed and colour-marked birds is a really valuable thing to do and if you ever do spot a colour-marked bird you can report it using this website. 

I'd like to say a big thanks to Sam of course but also to BTO,  Kane Brides, David Rodrigues and Alain Caizergues for digging up the old records of this bird.

CTH (Sam)

There's more info on this Tufted Duck here. 

Toby Carter, @TobyWarbler
Sam-Pitt Miller @birdboysam

Freezing Day Birding

I went back to Priory Water with Sam, hoping to see 'A43' again but sadly no sign, with there being some hard cold night recently, we arrived to around 80% of Priory Water frozen over, this in some cases made it easier to count!

Only area that wasn't frozen!

Had a nice surprise of 9 Goosander in a decent flock, as well as c50 Teal, c30 Wigeon and the odd Gadwall. In the nearby trees we got some very good views of a small flock of Siskin (c10), after a bit of a search we managed to find a Little Grebe (not very common at Priory) and Sam found a Water Rail! The first of the year for me and first for this site, it was quite amusing to watch it walk briefly across the ice.
But it wasn't till we were on our way back did Sam find the 1st Scaup, which was another reason for visiting. Last time i was there it was still very brown and (juvenile) looking, but now it almost looked like an adult with the white back and lovely green sheen on its head when the light caught it. We watched the Scaup for the next 3/4 hour, till we head strange noises coming from the ice, turned out to be a young Mute Swan skidding along the ice trying to get to land.

Here are a series of Scaup photos taken from my DSLR though the telescope. Plus photos of the Mute Swan.

1st Winter Scaup

1st Winter Scaup

1st Winter Scaup

1st Winter Scaup

1st Winter Scaup with Tufted Ducks

Mute Swan skating

Mute Swan skating

Mute Swan

Patchwork Challenge (PWC 2016)

For the first time I'm taking part in the ever more popular Patchwork Challenge (PWC), the aim of this is to compete not just against people in your area but across the UK, seeing who can get the most species on their local stomping ground/patch, so this year I've entered myself into it. I'm not expecting to get a high score compared to others as I've hardly got a good body of water for Waders and Ducks. But hey ho you never know what might turn up!
Last year I had Crane on the patch now kicking myself for not starting last year!

My Patch for the challenge consists of Arable/Pasture fields, Hedgerows, Woodland, my village (and my garden) and a big'ish pond.
All of these 'Patch' photos were taken last Summer, I know its warm but not that warm lol!

And my patch looks like this:

Using PWC website

My Entire Patch quite big!

So at the end of each month I send of my records to PWC, and I'll do a blog post hopefully rounding up what myself and Dad have seen.

Here is a link to PWC: http://patchworkchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ 

What a year!!!!

2015 has been an awesome year full of surprise and memories that I will treasure for a life time!
So here is a top 7 of my favourite places/things I've done over the last 12 months:

7: Catching first Elephant Hawkmoth

This year as many of you my dad and I started Moth-ing for the first time but by far the highlight of this was catching a lovely Elephant Hawkmoth, we later went on to catch Poplar Hawkmoth and finding a Hummingbird Hawkmoth feeding on our Lavenders for the second year on the run, to see last years post on this Moth click on the link:Hummingbird Hawkmoth

Elephant Hawkmoth

6: Rutland Water Work Experience

Last summer I spent 5 days working with the staff at Rutland Water (Wildlife Trust), which I helped with a range of jobs; till work, helping with the Osprey Project and my favourite part was helping with the final touches to the new Volunteer Centre  in which David Attenborough opened! During my two days helping with the Management team, I found a Little Ringed Plover nest, on the new site! For the two days during lunch time I was monitoring the parents as they incubate the nest.
Another highlight included finding a Great White Egret on my final day, this bird ended up staying till almost September.

Little-Ringed Plover eggs

5:Ringing

This year I've done a lot of ringing, and there has been so many highlights but to narrow it down here are a selection of photos that have been highlights, others include ringing 4 Reed Warbler Chicks, Adult female Kestrel, House Martins.

Redshank

Tawny Owl Chicks

Adult Female Little Owl

Carrion Crow Chick

Adult Stock Dove

Lapwing Chick

Little Ringed Plover Chick

Barn Owl chicks

Adult Male Green Woodpecker

Lesser Whitethroat

Willow Tit

4: Birdfair 2015

Birdfair is always a highlight of my year, but Birdfair 2015 was brilliant, as I got to help out with the BTO on both their stands (ringing and 'normal') stand, I had the help from friends Ben Moyes and Evie Miller to see the BTO's new membership 'Young Birders', if your under the age of 18 and are interested please click on this link:http://btoyoungbirders.blogspot.co.uk/
Also another highlight of the Birdfair, was the Birdfair's first comedy/children's book play. With the likes of Nick Baker, Mike Dilger, Dominic Couzens, Bill Oddie, Lucy McRobert and Rob Lambert, all staring in this hilarious play!

3: House Martin Survey

This is a survey that my dad and myself have started, we started last year  ringing adult and Juvenile House Martins, the reason for this study is that we've had this string colony on our house for the last 6+ years and we want to know more about it, were hoping to learn if the same pair use the same nest each year or if the juveniles from last year use the nest to breed in that they fledged from the previous year. This is going to be a long term study that we are carrying out, but it nicely coincides with the BTO's House Martin survey (I'll put some links to that at the bottom).
So we were into our second year of this survey, last year we ringed 13 birds - (9 adult and 4 juvenile), this year we ringed 17 birds -( 10 adults and 7 Juvenile) and 3 re-traps but all of the re-traps were adults which is interesting. We were also monitoring all of the these bar one, which was too high for us to reach with a ladder. So the survey is doing so well and can't wait to carry it on.

Copyright Toby Carter

Copyright BTO

Copyright BTO

Copyright BTO

Copyright BTO

2: BTO Work Experience

I've already got a big blog post on this, but it was an amazing highlight so won't touch on it too much, I got to ring a Water Rail, stand in reeds and water upto my chest for a day (It was awesome), being in the audience at Springwatch plus many many more things so please check out the blog post  - http://grimstonwarbler.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/bto-work-experience-26-29th-may.html 

Reeds

Copyright Lee Barber

Reed Warbler nest

Springwatch Audience

Me in the background Copyright Ben Moyes

1: SCILLY ISLES

This was definitely without a doubt the highlight of my year, again there is a big blog post on it but some of the highlights were; BLYTH'S PIPIT, HUD WHIMREL, RF-BLUETAIL, MINKE WALE AND FINDING MY FIRST ORTOLAN BUNTING and that is just a few,so please if you haven't read the post please do! SCILLY POST!!!!!

YB Warbler

RF-Bluetail

Hud Whimbrel

My ORTOLAN BUNTING

House Martins : http://grimstonwarbler.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-house-martins-need-you.html

Thanks for reading and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!