24/06/13 - Exotic surprise

Following our successful goose catch in the Wheldrake corale, it’s been rather quiet with very few broods appearing in what appears to be a rather late season. However, following large numbers of Mallards breeding throughout the valley (up to 500 pairs), numbers of drakes are now starting to build up on the pool at Wheldrake to moult.

This resulted in a catch of six drakes in complete moult on Sunday, followed by six mallards (including two ducklings) and three Greylags today. However, it also turned up somewhat of a surprise - a female Mandarin!

Which is a surprise because Mandarin’s are a rather scarce visitor to the Lower Derwent Valley NNR, partly because the habitat isn’t quite right and what they would normally select, and secondly the nearest and rather small breeding population occurs about 60 km away to both the east and west. A total of 13 records exist for the Lower Derwent Valley NNR detailing 21 individuals, 18 of which are males, with the last, a male at Wheldrake Ings on the 27^th May this year. Therefore, any Mandarin in the valley is notable, particularly so a female.

The second surprise is that this bird was in complete wing moult - and looking at the stage of it, it must have been present and flightless for a couple of weeks at least. It is remarkable that it’s gone undetected on the site for this long, only to show up in one of the traps. How many other birds must slip through the valley (relatively well watched as it is) and it will be interesting to see if it is seen again over the next three or four weeks that it is likely to be present with us.

This is only the second Mandarin to be ringed in the valley following the first on 24^th April 2008 - an adult drake. Unsurprisingly there have been no recoveries of the species, although one well tracked drake in the York area did give some idea of its movements in 1983 when it was seen at Wheldrake Ings on the 27^th October and 12^th November, followed by Castle Howard lake on the 23^rd November before ‘being shot in error’ near Haxby, York, on the 26^th December.

08/06/13 - LTMN hits the road

Last week saw a flurry of activity in the Lower Derwent Valley with an influx of 30 Natural England staff and volunteers over the course of the week. This was all part of setting up the LDV as a Long Term Monitoring Network (LTMN) site. The LTMN is part of Natural England’s Integrated Monitoring Programme, which aims to provide evidence to improve our understanding of environmental change, particularly climate change, air pollution and changes in land management policy and practice. 

Rob (LTMN leader) addressing the team

A better understanding of the long-term changes will allow Natural England to advise others and to adapt our own strategies and interventions. There are currently 20 core sites in the network, which will be increased to 40 sites by the end of 2014. Most of these will be NNR's, a significant proportion of which will be those managed by Natural England.

Heading into the meadows for a long day...

 

Our task this week was to survey the 50 2x2metre permanent quadrats present on NE owned land in the valley on a host of individual sites and trying to record each species in every quadrat in addition to sward height, the amount of bare ground and extent of litter. This is the first full vegetation survey for the LDV site which will be subsequently repeated every four years to see what has changed and compare it with other information we are collecting on site such as weather, air pollution, bird and butterfly records and how the land has been managed.

LDV Team - NDC Quadrat#1 - dominated by Amphibious Bistort, Redshank, Marsh Bedstraw, Creeping Jenny and Common Bent, with the occasional Cuckoo Flower and Marsh Stitchwort.

All of those taking part in the surveys were given a half day training session on survey methods and more specific plant/grasses identification training. Obviously the Lower Derwent Valley has been chosen as an example of a lowland wet grassland site and monitoring here is likely to pick up on changes to climate in relation to flooding events, many of which featured on here strongly in the past 12 months!

LDV Team - NDC Quadrat#2 - dominated by Meadow Foxtail, Meadow Buttercup, Common Sorrel, Curled Dock and Autumn Hawkbit. 

Whilst the impacts on breeding birds have also been shown on this blog in recent posts and particularly over last summer, the LDV is also important for its range of grassland communities, ranging from the drier wet grassland types (MG4 in the National Vegetation Classification) through to swamp and reedbed (S1 in the NVC). Whilst the extent and species composition of the wetter communities appear to have remained largely unchanged over recent years, it is clear that the MG4 grassland (Meadow Foxtail and Greater Burnet communities) have been really squeezed back to the boundaries of the reserve. Hopefully the LTMN data will allow us to compare national trends on grasslands like this, as well as climatic variation elsewhere, to help unpick the real causes of any such change – national/global variation in climate or local river catchment changes, long term or just short term sporadic effects. 
 

LDV Team - NDI Quadrat#1 - dominated by Meadow Buttercup, Greater Burnet, Red Fescue, Common Bent, Red Clover, Tufted Vetch and Meadow Vetchling

Long Term Monitoring provides the baseline against which the future state of the environment can be assessed in a reliable historical context and it allows the unanticipated changes to be identified. It was also a great opportunity for a range of NE staff and volunteers to experience this NNR, share skills and get some time spent in the field with expert botanists.

 LDV Team - NDI Quadrat#2 - dominated by Glyceria and Phalaris with the occasional Marsh Horsetail and Redshank - with a Common Frog providing a welcome distraction!

It was certainly an enjoyable, if not very hot and long week, and nicely summed up by Rob Keane, Environmental Monitoring Specialist of the Integrated Monitoring Team who said ‘many thanks for allowing us to bring enjoyment and real science together on a wonderful site for all involved’.

LDV Team - East Cottingwith Quadrat#1 - dominated by Lesser Pond Sedge, Meadow Sweet, Meadow Buttercup and Marsh Bedstraw. 

Below are a selection of wildflowers taken throughout the week from various locations around the Lower Derwent Valley.   

Common Bistort

Cotton Grass

 Marsh Orchid

Ragged Robin

Cuckoo Flower

Yellow Rattle

Quaking Grass

Greater Burnet

31/05/13 - Pliers at dawn

Following a successful breeding season in the Lower Derwent Valley NNR, up to 100 Greylag goslings and 200 adults currently remain throughout the site. The largest concentration is at Wheldrake Ings, where up to 80 adults are present, accompanying 80+ goslings.

Whilst many have bred on the wetter parts of the NNR, other broods have also been walked from small ponds and other water bodies in the surrounding area away from the reserve, such as this brood seen walking along the road at Storwood before making their way across the fields and onwards towards Wheldrake Ings.

During late May and early June when the goslings are of a suitable size for ringing, the young and adults (and any non-breeding moulting and flightless adults) are rounded up using our corale trap. This involves waiting for the birds to be in the right place and herding them gently through the water and willows towards the trap. We failed to make any catch last year due to the extensive flooding so we were looking forward to this year’s catch with the hope a good sample could be marked. Things went extremely well this year with an early catch and an impressive 71 Greylag geese and a single Canada Goose were caught. This included four re-trap Greylags from previous years and an impressive 51 goslings.

This is the largest single catch of Greylags ever taken in the Lower Derwent Valley and should help our understanding of the re-established population and how birds from this population may mix with ‘wilder’ Icelandic birds which winter in the valley. The WWT are keen to increase the numbers of Greylags ringed in the country to help monitor the population and add to our knowledge so this catch is even more valuable. National ringing totals over the last five years have ranged from 300 to 678 with this catch representing 14% of the annual UK five year average total. However, it was particularly pleasing to get 51 goslings as these birds have a known age and breeding location, and with national ringing totals ranging from 52 to 81 over the last five years, this catch represents 64% against the national five year average – a great result. With a team of volunteers the birds were quickly dealt with and released to re-group into their large crèche. After the successful round up we followed it up with a brood of seven Canada Geese goslings at Bank Island.

A total of 686 Greylags have been ringed in the Lower Derwent valley NNR, producing several interesting movements, some of which are shown below, including the two longest movements of goslings ringed in the valley.

5239407 

Ringed (1) - 29/05/08 - Wheldrake Ings, North Yorkshire

Recovered (+) - 09/09/10 Caerlaverock, Dumfries & Galloway, Scotland 207 Km

5224823 

Ringed (1) - 16/06/08 - Wheldrake Ings, York, North Yorkshire

Recovered (+) - 23/09/09 - Meathop Marsh, nr Grange-Over-Sands, Cumbria 131 Km

These goslings are also getting into the regular core wintering range of Icelandic Greylags, whilst the recovery below shows an adult ringed in the winter also heading north into the main wintering area of Icelandic birds.

5237589 

Ringed (6) - 02/02/07 - Wheldrake Ings, York, North Yorkshire

Recovered (+) - 15/09/08 - Loch Leven, Tayside, Scotland 300 Km

Several goslings have also moved north-east into the Ripon/Harrogate area which has also shown an interchange of birds between the re-established and wild populations, as shown below.

5227279 

Ringed (6F) - 02/03/03 - Lingham Lake, Nosterfield, North Yorkshire

Re-sighted (VV) - 19/04/03 - Bard, Midfjordur, ICELAND 1778 Km

Re-sighted (VV) - 09/03/04 - Lingham Lake, Nosterfield, North Yorkshire

Re-sighted (VV) - 21/01/05 - Castle Howard, North Yorkshire

Re-sighted (VV) - 11/02/05 - Castle Howard, North Yorkshire

Re-sighted (VV) - 19/02/05 - Lower Derwent Valley NNR

Greylag Geese in the Lower Derwent Valley provide a classic example of both how a species status can change in a relatively short period of time and through increased knowledge of ecology and movements. The species was a rarity to the Lower Derwent in the 1970’s with a mere five birds recorded during 1974. Since 1976 they have been recorded annually, followed by resident status first achieved in 1979 with a record count of 44 present in the December of that year. Numbers increased quickly to peaks of 110 in 1980 and 200+ in 1981 to 560 in 1988. In 1993 numbers reached 820 but over recent years (since 2000) counts of 2000+ are not unusual. Breeding numbers have increased likewise with the first breeding pair in 1978 increasing to ten pairs the following year and 25 pairs by 1986. Numbers of breeding pairs in and around the valley now typically average 40-60 pairs.

Following the goose catch a brood of four Jackdaws plus the adult bird were then caught from an Ash tree at Bank Island. This tree has been a regular nest hole for many years for a number of species including Barn and Tawny Owls, however Jackdaws have now been in residence for the last ten years and the owls have moved off to the nearby boxes.

 

12/05/13 - On foreign soil....

Reading colour-rings in the field has been really valuable in getting to know 'our' Whimbrel, and regular readers of the blog will know from last years posts that these have shown just how site faithful and regular the birds can be and are a good indicator for the length of stay. 

Out of the 101 colour-ringed birds out there by the end of 2012, this had generated a further 400+ colour-ringed sightings, all of them local apart from another movement within Yorkshire last year. 

Well, that was the case until last week when we heard from across the channel that one of our birds had been spotted in France! On the 3^rd May, Gilbert Vimard saw one of our birds in a roost at Manche, Normandy, France. 

This bird (EL99843) was ringed at Wheldrake Ings on the 1^st May 2008, with several re-sightings since (shown below). This is an interesting record and suggests that it has changed roost sites during the year – perhaps delayed on spring migration like many of our migrants this year. Many thanks to Gilbert for this diligent observation and sending the sighting on – once again showing the value of colour-rings for allowing wider involvement in these projects.

Whimbrel (EL99843): Red/Lime Red

2008 – Ringed on the 1^st May, seen several times afterwards until the 6^th May

2010 – Seen back in the valley on the 22^nd April (DT)

2011 – Seen back in the valley on the 20^th April (PR), present until at least the 24^th April (PR)

2013 – Seen in a roost at Manche, Normandy, France on the 3^rd May

We’ve been busy over the last few weeks since our initial Whimbrel post, monitoring the numbers of birds in the roost and locating birds in the day time feeding areas along with checking the birds for colour-rings. It’s been a frustrating job as the birds have been more difficult to locate during the day as the relatively dry conditions appear to have forced birds into different feeding areas, thus meaning that we’ve only been able to find a fraction of the birds present on any given day. The slow spring has meant that many of the day time feeding pastures haven’t yet got grazing livestock on them, and whilst the grass growth has been slow it doesn’t take much growth for the colour-rings/legs to be obscured, or indeed for the whole Whimbrel to disappear!

However, our hard work and persistence has paid off with a total of 13 different colour-rings read off since the first ones were seen on the 22nd, the other new ones for the year are listed below:

Whimbrel: Yellow/Yellow – Pink

2010 – Ringed on the 19^th April, seen several times until the 24^th April (CR)

2012 – Sighted on the 30^th April (LM), present until at least the 6^th May

2013 – Sighted on the 22^nd April

Whimbrel: Yellow/Yellow – Orange

2006 – Ringed on the 23^rd April, last seen on the 2^nd May (DT)

2009 – Sighted on the 20^th April (DT), present until the 25^th April (PR)

2010 – Sighted on the 19^th April (PR), re-caught on the 20^th and then present until the 27^th April (PR)

2011 – Sighted on the 20^th April, present until the 29^th April (PR)

2012 – Sighted on the 20^th April (CR), seen multiple times until the last sighting on the 3^rd May (CR)

2013 – Sighted on the 25^th April

Whimbrel: White/White – Yellow

2009 – Ringed on the 29^th April

2010 – Sighted on the 22^nd April (PR), last seen on the 30^th May (PR)

2011 – Sighted on the 24^th April (PR), seen several times by PR until the 29^th April

2012 – Sighted on the 30^th April (LM), seen again several times until the 3^rd May (CR)

2013 – Sighted on the 25^th April

Whimbrel: White/Yellow – Yellow

2009 – Ringed on the 29^th April

2010 – Sighted back in the valley on the 19^th April (PR), re-caught on the 26^th April and then seen again on the 27^th (PR)

2012 – Sighted on the 26^th April (LM)

2013 – Sighted on the 25^th April

Whimbrel: Yellow/Orange – Lime

2005 – Ringed on the 2^nd May, seen several times by DT until the 10^th May

2006 – Sighted back in the valley on the 2^nd May (DT)

2007 – Sighted back in the valley on the 30^th April (CR), re-caught on the 4^th May and then seen again several times until the 8^th May (DT)

2012 – Sighted back in the valley on the 28^th April (CR)

2013 – Sighted on the 26^th April

Whimbrel: Lime/Yellow – Pink

2010 – Ringed on the 2^nd May

2013 – Sighted on the 29^th April

These are great results and once again we are grateful to the many local birders who have reported day time feeding birds around the LDV area and managed to read off any colour-ringed birds. This is the real value of colour-ringing and where the real hard work begins – catching and ringing the birds is simply the start!

And so the projects continues......

The Bank Holiday Monday saw some of the LDV ringers gather once again for an attempt to catch and colour-ring Whimbrel at the Wheldrake spring staging site as they came into roost. Although many aspects of the LDV Whimbrel project are now complete, it is important to monitor this nationally important spring staging site. We also decided it would be useful to keep a marked sample of known individuals in the population on a rolling programme, by marking individuals on a single catch per year. We decided to do this after the peak count of birds after the 1^st May as to limit any possible disturbance to the roost. So in the baking afternoon sunshine (and 20 degrees heat!), 1200ft of net was erected in time for the birds returning at dusk for the roost. Long walks in chest waders after dark and through waist high vegetation/water/mud was undoubtedly hard and hot work but produced a catch of six new Whimbrel - all of which were colour-ringed (one of the new birds can be seen below - Yellow/White - Blue).

The weights of these birds were interesting in that they were quite low suggesting they had either been late arriving during the spring and had not yet fed up and weren’t ready to go, or, had been struggling to feed and put on weight with the dry conditions out in the fields. The Whimbrel seem to arrive here weighing about 350grams and leave between 550-600 grams: most birds caught were around the 400 mark although one sizable female was over 530 grams and perhaps getting ready to make the onward migration to Iceland or Sweden perhaps.

Hopefully these birds will be seen back here next year or somewhere else on their travels. 

Other birds caught included two breeding Redshank and a Little Grebe (our 43^rd to be ringed in the valley) all of which were also colour-ringed as part of ongoing projects.

09/05/13 - Bowled over by return of 'Cricket Teal'

‘Cricket Teal’ is the old local name for Garganey of which the Lower Derwent Valley has always been regarded as somewhat of a stronghold for this beautiful migratory duck and summer visitor. This name probably comes from the strange cricket like call of the drake, often likened to the sound of an old football rattle. 

This year has so far proved to be a particularly good one for the species, and for local and visiting birders hoping to catch up with one of the individuals on the reserve. Up to six drakes and at least two females have been present throughout the site, with Bank Island, Wheldrake Ings and North Duffield Carrs being the best sites to try and see them (see our monthly sightings for more details).  

Over the years, we’ve caught and ringed 16 Garganey in the Lower Derwent Valley, which includes a moulting adult drake last year (see here). Out of the 16 ringed in the valley only one other recovery has been produced, until now.......

Whilst watching a drake at Bank Island on the 28^th April this year we were most fortunate when it chose to walk out of the water onto a muddy bank, promptly showing off its colour-rings...! Nine months later and he’s back! A great record and nice to know he’s made it to southern Europe or Africa and back avoiding the guns – to our knowledge this is the first time a drake Garganey has been shown returning to a breeding site in the UK in a subsequent year. 

EX75514 ringed as a 6M (adult male) on the 30/07/12 at Wheldrake Ings, re-sighted on the 28/04/13 at Bank Island, Wheldrake.

Top photo - Teal (left) drake Garganey (right), bottom - drake Garganey (photos - Russell Slack).

Hopefully with the numbers of birds around already this year we may be able to colour-ring further birds this summer.

The only other previous recovery is listed below:

EK82959 ringed as a 1 (duckling) on the 22/07/97 at Wheldrake Ings, recovered on the 04/08/97 in Boulogne-sur-mer, Pas-de-calais, France (shot) distance travelled 438 Km. 

This was a rapid southerly post breeding dispersal movement especially as this bird was probably a week off fledging when ringed.  

Only a handful of birds are ringed in the UK each year at best so our knowledge of UK Garganey is limited. With this in mind, the colour-ringing scheme was set up last year for this species in order to try and increase the chances of getting some information back.

With the departure of the wintering ducks and the end of the winter duck ringing season (albeit a short one!) here’s a quick review of the ringing totals....despite the poor start to the year and the limitations created by the flooding we managed to pull back a wintering sample of 224 new Mallard, 39 new and 15 re-trap/control Shelduck, 5 Wigeon, 2 Mute Swan, a Moorhen and a single Greylag (272 birds). Further to our spring post detailing the newly ringed Grey Herons we’ve made another visit to the heronry and have now colour-ringed 17 of this year’s chicks. 

The first fledged juvenile has already been seen at Wheldrake Ings so we are expecting to see some of our ringed birds starting to appear locally and hopefully any day now before they start to disperse further afield. A recent ringing recovery of one of last year’s chicks (see here) suggests a rapid post breeding dispersal. 

1297501 ringed as a 1 (chick) on the 30/04/12 in Thorganby, recovered on the 29/06/12 at Easton Moor, Guisborough, Cleveland (found dead), distance travelled 76 Km.

Hopefully the colour-rings will provide additional re-sightings to help identify their movements. 

We are now looking forward and planning for the start of the breeding season and this year’s waterfowl duckling/gosling season. As always, the ringing totals and recoveries we get are just the tip of the iceberg with lots of behind the scenes hard work preparing, moving and baiting the traps, survey work, monitoring and planning. This week the team have been carrying out a refurbishment to our corale trap in which we attempt to trap moulting adults and flightless young waterfowl. In a couple of weeks we will be hoping to round up the Greylag crèches (presently about 20 adults and 50 young) to ring a sample of them – after missing out completely in 2012 due to the flooding. This is also the main way in which we catch Shoveler and Gadwall ducklings in June and July and how we will hopefully catch some more Garganey in 2013. The first Lapwing chick was also ringed on the reserve on the 8th, hopefully 2013 will be a better year for waders after getting virtually flooded off the entire site last year.

Top - bottom: One of the many Greylag broods that have appeared on the reserve this year, photographed at Storwood on the 3rd May - The first Lapwing chick of the year ringed on site on the 8th - A Shoveler nest found tucked away in the long grass whilst working at North Duffield.