29/10/14 - Beards & Buntings

As with each autumn, we eagerly anticipate the return of 'our' Wigeon and Teal, however this year numbers seem to be slow to build up with only up to 1500 Teal and 900 Wigeon recorded so far. This is especially low when compared with this time last year when we'd already had records of over 600 Teal at Wheldrake Ings, 500 on Skipwith Common, 1550 at Thorganby and 2000 at Bank Island by the end of October. 135 Teal were also ringed as part of our ongoing ringing and research programme during October 2013 with just 24 ringed this October. Numbers of Wigeon were also high last year, with c3500 at Bank Island by the 31st. 

Teal - October 2013 

With the lack of ducks on site Mike has still been putting his time and effort into catching passerines, and following a good sample of warblers caught this autumn (130 Reed Warbler, 210 Sedge Warbler, 25 Garden Warbler and 110 Blackcap), lately he has now been catching Reed Buntings, with a massive total of over 300 caught.

Sedge Warbler - August 2014

Reed Buntings have been present in good numbers recently at Wheldrake Ings, however they can be found throughout the valley occurring in most fields with suitable habitat, although sites like Wheldrake Ings, North Duffield Carrs and the Pocklington Canal attract the largest concentrations. Although they can be more widespread and found in different habitats during the winter, they often form large winter roosts next to water and two such roosts can be found in the Lower Derwent Valley – in the reedbed upstream of Church Bridge at Melbourne where up to 100-150 birds can be present in the winter, and at Wheldrake Ings where up to 200/300 have been counted in recent years.

Reed Bunting - September 2014 

Breeding birds from northern Britain move south in autumn/winter when birds also move from higher altitudes to the relatively warmer lowlands. We also get continental birds arriving into Britain in the autumn as they move westwards to escape colder eastern winters – but perhaps for such a common bird we don’t really know that much about the movements of this species. Over the last couple of years we’ve noticed a large movement of birds through the Lower Derwent Valley in September, and last month a large influx took place into the valley (around 20^th September) when over 250 were counted throughout the site - presumably many more were present but remained uncounted. At the same time, regular ringing surveys also revealed large numbers of birds as being present at a site in the LDV and at Skipwith Common with 200 birds ringed during the last week of the month between those two sites – with 20-30 birds caught each day and no ringed birds re-trapped, suggesting a regular and continued passage through the site. Hopefully some of those will be controlled elsewhere in the winter and help establish where these birds were coming from and going to.

Last week in the early hours of Wednesday morning along with a sample of buntings a nice surprise was found in one of the mist net rides, in the form of a Cetti's Warbler - amazingly coming out the same net that produced a Barred Warbler earlier in the autumn. This represents the 12^th record of the species in the valley with Wheldrake Ings accounting for 9 of them, and the 5^th to be ringed on the site. Winter records (late October to March/April) seem to be the norm and the species has now been annual in the valley during the last four years. 

Cetti's Warbler - October 2014 

Cetti’s Warblers are best described as a skulking bird that inhabits dense/overgrown vegetation near water, and can often prove very difficult to see. They usually make their presence known with loud bursts of song and explosive metallic clanging notes, the first glimpse will probably be of a dark, rather stocky warbler diving for cover, with short wings and a full rounded tail. Cetti’s are one of the UK's most recent colonists, first breeding in the country in 1973 and since having increased to around 2000 singing males/pairs but largely confined south of a line between the Wash and the Severn estuaries. Only a handful of birds are recorded in Yorkshire each year although they are increasing and have bred in the county in recent years – so one to look for (or at least listen out for!).

Another 'mega' bird for the Ings recently have been up to 12 Bearded Tits, which have been showing well in the reedbed by Swantail Hide. Several weekends ago this fine male (one of a pair) was photographed there by Duncan - through the fog!
 

Bearded Tit - October 2014

In the UK Bearded Tits (also known as ‘Bearded Reedlings’) are confined to large extensive reed beds in the breeding season, mainly on the east and south coasts but with outlying populations in Lancashire and along the River Tay in Scotland. The species is resident throughout the year but they do disperse during the autumn, sometimes undertaking regular ‘eruptions’  - these are marked by flocks of birds rising out of their breeding reed beds and taking high towering flights with lots of excited calling – small groups then peel off and disperse. It is these birds that turn up at this time of year away from their usual haunts making it a good time to look out for them in suitable habitat in our area – areas with reed beds such as Wheldrake Ings, along the Pocklington Canal and Skipwith Common are worth checking. Although they are often difficult to see as they feed in and amongst the reeds, they are sociable and noisy birds, their ‘pinging’ calls often being the first indication of their presence, usually between late September and late November.

Looking somewhat similar in shape and size to a Long-tailed Tit, both sexes are fawn brown in colour with only the males having a grey head and black ‘moustache’. Although it is tempting to assume that these birds have come from the nearest breeding populations on the Humber, ringing recoveries and re-sightings of colour-ringed birds seen in the valley in the past indicates a wide-ranging origin to these birds, including Suffolk and Lancashire.