22/09/12 - Jack...frost

Last night saw the first frost of the autumn, on the equinox in the Lower Derwent Valley NNR and the same night saw the first Jack Snipe of the autumn appear and find its way into our mist nets.

Large numbers pass through the Lower Derwent Valley/Skipwith Common NNR's each year, mainly in October and November with a smaller return passage in March and April. Last nights bird seemed a little early but on checking the records it is probably about on time. Small, but sometimes significant numbers can occur in late September, with 24 caught in five mist netting sessions at Bank Island between late September and early October in 2002, when as many as 50-60 birds may have been present. However, most birds do occur from mid October to late November depending on water levels and ground conditions, the 14 caught drag netting over a 6 day period in November 2010 being typical of this.

This is the second bird to be caught here this year, following one caught on Skipwith Common earlier in the year. Hopefully we'll be in for another bumper year to add to our total of 83 ringed in the valley as the conditions look perfect for them and there is currently large numbers of Snipe still coming through. We have in the past held public Jack Snipe events if birds are reliable (similar to the public Storm Petrel ringing sessions on the coast) and these have always proved popular, so we would be looking to hold these again if it's a good autumn - more details to come later.

As well as the Jack Snipe, another 2 Common Snipe were caught and ringed along with 2 Teal.

13/09/12 - NNR team visit

On Wednesday the NNR Estates and Procurement Team visited the LDV for a look round Bank Island and to help with a few tasks - whilst here we also put on a ringing demo to give them the opportunity to see a few birds up close, and find out exactly why we ring and what it involves.

Unfortunately soon after their arrival the heavens opened and the rain lashed down, this soon brought the ringing to a halt but we did manage to catch a few birds beforehand! Nets had been opened in the hope of a few Snipe, however the Snipe had other ideas and were nowhere to be seen! Instead we came away with a handful of hirundines - Swallows, Sand Martins & House Martins. There were massive numbers present in the valley on Wednesday, leading us to believe that there was some movement going on.

After the ringing demo everyone (well most of them!) donned the waterproofs and got stuck in, helping us with a variety of tasks, from making nest boxes for Barn Owls and Kestrels to weeding and planting up the Base Garden.

 

In just the short time that they were here they helped make several nest boxes which will soon be put up around the valley and hopefully next year they will be used by a breeding Barn Owl or Kestrel pair. 

Despite the wet conditions everyone enjoyed themselves and a good time was had (we think!).

Not much else to report from the last week or so....between the 17th and 21st nine Moorhens have been caught, with one or two a day - much slower than it has been in recent weeks. 

Teal numbers continue to build (upto 500 now) with small groups of Wigeon, the odd Pintail and skeins of Pink-footed Geese moving south - winter wildfowl ringing is not far away!

11/09/12 - Marshy heads back into the wild

Last week Jean received a phonecall telling her of an adult female Marsh Harrier which had been seen in a farmers field, seemingly unable to take off fully from the ground. Jean soon had the bird in her care, and whilst checking her over noticed feather damage in lines on both wings, suspected to have been caused by hitting wires. Whilst not causing any major damage, it had clearly left her bruised and unable to hunt well, and as a result of this she was massively under weight for a bird her age, sex and size, and therefore unable to hunt further. Due to this she was on a downward spiral without help. On arrival Jean weighed her at 400 grams - massively under the actual average weight for an adult female Marsh Harrier - over 700 grams.

Marsh Harrier on arrival at Jean's

Jean soon fed her up on chicks and a week later she weighed 680 grams and was raring to go. Large birds of prey like Marsh Harriers usually make it obvious when they are ready to go and it's a case of going with that before they either damage or stress themselves in care. It was decided that she would be released onto North Duffield Carrs where there is currently a Marsh Harrier roost of atleast 12 birds - more details can be found here on Andy's blog, a regular LDV birder. 

Marked wings from the wires

Ready to go...

Off at speed!

Another great job Jean, well done! This is the second Marsh Harrier that Jean has helped make its way back into the wild. The previous being in 2008 which had also hit wires and was unable to fly and feed.

Over the weekend Snipe numbers seemed to be on the increase and so another session was had in the early hours of Monday (10th) - another 4am start! The first round was quite unbelievable really, with 2 Little Grebes caught! Plus 5 Snipe and 2 Teal. A few rounds later and we were upto 15 Snipe for the morning, with many caught in full light. The duck trap also held three new Moorhen.

Photos (top to bottom) - Little Grebe (this years), Juvenile male and adult male Teal, Adult male Teal showing chestnut brown feathers coming through, Common Snipe - 15th for the day.

10/09/12 - Over the Moorhen

During the weekend (8-9th) Mike & Craig managed to keep the ringing going, and with the water level gradually going back down the duck trap kicked in again, on Saturday it held 12 Moorhen (all this years), followed by another 10 on Sunday - all new! 22 Moorhens in just two days, bringing the years total to 62!

Over the years it has become apparant that during August and early September there is a large movement of juvenile birds, followed in late September and October by adult birds. From November onwards some of the birds caught are extremely big with wing lengths sometimes pushing or even exceeding 200mm (the size of a small Coot). It is assumed that some of these longer winged birds might be of a continental origin.

We are still yet to have a colour-ringed Moorhen sighted outside of the valley, once caught and ringed it's not unusual to see them here for a few days but then they disappear...keep your eyes peeled for our coloured feathered friends, these birds must be going somewhere....but who knows where? 

Adult female & young male Moorhen

Also in the early hours of Sunday morning as Craig was setting the nets for a planned catch (in the evening/early hours) a flock of birds whooshed in - 7 Teal, 4 Snipe, Lapwing, Dunlin, Tufted Duck and a Pochard! This is only the 6th Pochard to be ringed in the valley, they are unusual at any other time of year than during periods of extensive winter floods, however upto 6 pairs have been present this summer due to the wet conditions and this is probably one of the females that attempted to breed.

07/09/12 - Slow start

Well we were on abit of a roll with good numbers and good birds being caught during the last few days of August, but the first few days of September were on the quiet side with no birds caught until Tuesday (5th). With the water back to a better level for attracting waders we opened the nets in the early hours of Tuesday, with slight disappointment of a Woodpigeon in return for the early start! However as the morning went on we did eventually catch one Snipe! This went down a treat with the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust volunteers who were busy working on Wheldrake Ings, taking apart the recently vandalised bridge to Pool Hide.

It was really nice to be able to share it with them, and they marvelled at the distance this bird might have travelled - it's thought to have headed here from more northerly and north easterly locations - Iceland, Scandinavia and across into Russia. Some birds might winter here but many probably continue west and south - but hopefully re-sightings from colour-rings will tell us more.

Jean also came in today with a few of her birds, some of which were ready to go, a Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Barn Owl and Tawny Owl. The Tawny Owl and Sparrowhawk were both ready to be released, the Tawny was left until the evening to be released back into the wild but the Sparrowhawk went off from Bank Island - at speed!

After reading several blogs lately about Barn Owls doing well with second broods, we decided to check a few of ours that had failed earlier in the season. Several boxes later and we hadn't been successful in our finds, however we did catch a new pair that were roosting together.