Ringing Tawnies

Today I had the pleasure of being invited down to March in Cambridgeshire to photograph young Tawny Owls as they were being ringed. The adult Tawnies were nesting in a purpose built 'Owl Box' set in a Walnut Tree in a large suburban garden. When I arrived the male was roosting, virtually out of sight, in an ivy-covered tree near to the house. When the sun is shining he is known to roost more in the open so as to enjoy the warmth of the sun. Not so today. The female bird was in the box keeping an eye on the three young inside. We knew that there were three young because the owners of the house and grounds have placed nest box cameras in and around the box and they keep a constant vigil on the birds. It was a proper Spring-Watch set-up.
An experienced, licenced qualified ringer from the BTO was present to ring the birds and ensure their safety. In fact everyone present seemed to be mindful of the birds' welfare above all else and the youngsters were not out of the box for more than quarter of an hour before they were safely back in their very smelly home.
 The female bird meanwhile was keeping an eye on things from a thick hedge at the back of the garden.

Three sibling Tawnies -' Los Tres Amigos'

In 2010 1,716 Tawny Owls were ringed in Britain. 1,439 of these were ringed in the nest like today's birds, 65 were juveniles, that is, birds in their first calendar year and 210 were adults. The remaining two birds were un-aged as it is often difficult to tell on plumage whether a bird is in its first year or older.
In 2011 1,655 Tawny Owls were ringed; 1,458 in the nest, 44 juveniles, 148 adults and five were un-aged.
Since 1909 until the end of 2011 47,010 Tawnies have been fitted with rings.

Young Tawny Owl  Strix aluco

Now here's the thing as we say: 2,550 of these have been recovered and these birds have provided some fascinating information. How old do you think a Tawny Owl can be? Ringing data  suggests that they average about four years. But the average is low due to the mortality rates of young birds - only about a third manage to get through the first year of life. Lots of young, inexperienced birds are killed by traffic on the roads. But a bird ringed at Malham Tarn in North Yorks on the 25th May 1967 was found freshly dead on the 7th November 1988. It was 21 years, 5 months and 13 days old!

Young Tawny Owl showing wing in pin

Do Tawnies move about or are they faithful to one place? The bird at Malham was found close to where it was ringed so we know that it spent over 21 years cleaning up the mice and voles in the Malham Tarn area. But a nestling ringed in Torbol in the Highlands on 4th of May 1987 was hit by a car on 23rd November 1987 687 km away near Pemby Forest in Dfyed!
Two other birds have lived beyond 19 years and two more have lived to be over 20 years. Others have been recovered at distances of 202km, 205km and 217 km away from their ringing sites. All  of this we know because of the successes of the BTO ringing scheme.

Young Tawny Owl
Relaxed, safe and ready for ringing

 Tawny Owls lay 2 to 3 eggs and incubate for 30 days and the young fledge after a further 35 - 39 days so this pair must have laid early to mid February. In 2000 it was estimated that there were 19,000 breeding pairs of Tawny Owls in Britain. Three more have now been safely ringed and we wait to see if there is any news of them in the future.
You can check out all of the ringing information at the BTO web site here: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/ringing/ringing-scheme
Or statistics on Tawny Owls here:  http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob7610.htm

 

You can't keep a good Cormorant down!

I've just been reading a paper published in the Journal of Ornithology titled: "Licensed control does not reduce local Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo population size in winter." It's another of those scientific studies carried out into human-wildlife conflicts which, to my mind, are becoming more and more prevalent. The current proposals for a badger cull being the latest. This paper, written by D E Chamberlain, G E Austin, S E Newson, A Johnston and N H K Burton says it all, more-or-less, in the title.
Here's the thing: Cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo have increased on inland waters in Britain causing conflicts with fishing interests - fishermen. Because of this several countries have introduced control measures; either lethal (shooting) or non-lethal (scaring the birds!). The paper states that "Human-wildlife conflicts are at the root of many current conservation problems and occur when requirements of wildlife overlap with those of human intersts." There's a surprise, I bet you could name a few in Britain alone - birds of prey, badgers, ruddy duck, fox, corvids! Measures to resolve such conflicts may include both lethal and non lethal control of wildlife. From the scarecrow to the gun. Cormorants are the source of human-wildlife conflict where their populations are increasing both due to damage to trees from guano - some fine examples of this at Attenborough Nature Reserve in west Notts - and potential impacts on fish populations.

Cormorant  Phalacrocorax carbo

 "Within Europe, the Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo population has shown steep increases over the past few decades. This is particularly true of the subspecies P. carbo sinensis which is the most numerous in the northern parts of continental Europe and has rapidly expanded its range and population." The coastal breeding subspecies, P c. carbo has also started to move to inland freshwaters during the winter - all bad news for the fishemen and the roost trees. In the UK, in order to prevent serious damage to fisheries from Cormorant predation, licences have been made available since autumn 1996 for limited control of Cormorant populations by shooting. The authors of this paper have analysed data  - particularly from WeBS (Wetland Bird Survey) Core Counts from 1988 to 2009 and in a detailed description of the methods used to collect and analyse this data stretching over half-a-dozen A4 sides come to the conclusion that~: "Based on the results here, there is no evidence that Cormorant removal at local scales has had an effect on longer term population size at a site level - put simply, killing Cormorants in one winter did not appear to impact upon numbers at a site level in the next winter."

Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo Taken at a local Country Park - Where the fishermen fish.

Breeding adult Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo - Rutland Water

The authors suggest five possible reasons why killing Cormorants at a given site does not mean a fall in population during the following winter. One - killed Cormorants are simply replaced by other birds moving in from other areas. Two - significant disturbance caused by shooting may cause dispersal which may lead to apparent population increases. Three- control was not carried out on WeBS sites and birds may have moved there for refuge. Four - licenced control may be sought in anticipation of increased Cormorant predation prior to enhanced fish stocking which attracts more Cormorants. Five - licences granted at short notice in response to local increases in Cormorant numbers would suggest that control measures are undertaken in areas with the greatest growth rates, but also that such measures do not have significant impacts on the increasing local population. All very thought provoking and stuff that adds an extra dimension when you are looking at Cormorants on your local freshwaters.

The paper concludes that "We therefore suggest that the English winter Cormorant population as measured by the Cormorant index is not negatively influenced by control measures, but we need to add the caveat that not enough is known about the population outside WeBS sites, which are poorly monitored."
What lessons can we learn from this with regards to the Badger culling?
Visit: http://www.bto.org/volunteer-surveys/webs for information on the Wetland Bird Survey and how you can join in.

Garden Bird Photography

Not a particularly exciting blog today but it's been so long since I added a new post and I have been taking photographs of birds feeding in the garden. I was out for nearly six hours waiting to take shots of Magpies and not a one ventured anywhere near the house or showed any interest in the bait on the lawn. Normally these birds are aggressive and quick to take any advantage of bits of food left lying about...but not today. So I was left taking pictures of those birds that did have the nounce to come and get easy food. Now I don't normally give Wood Pigeons a second glance but over the past year or so I've seen many pigeon species from the continents of both South America and Africa and some of them have been fabulous - such as Bruce's Green Pigeon but I reckon that seen close the humble Wood Pigeon can give most a run for their money.

Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus

Wood Pigeon Columba palumbus

 This Collared Dove is also quite striking in a pigeony/dovey kind of way even though these can be quite aggresive towards each other and most other species in the garden. There were two of these today and they were constantly giving each other grief.

Collared Dove Streptopelia decaocto

Just over twenty species came into the garden to feed, most of which were to be expected. A male Blackcap has been feeding here for five or six weeks and over the past two weeks he has been in full song. This is the only sign of spring I've had this year as it seems to be constantly damp, grey and miserable. The Blackthorn hedges hereabouts show no signs of ever wanting to bud. And as I write this there is a warning of severe snow in parts of Britain!
The biggest surprise was this none-breeding-plumaged female Reed Bunting (possibly 1st Winter)taking seeds from below one of the feeders. The bird was sporting a brown rump which is indicative of females, the rump of a first-winter male would be grey, although it can't be seen on these photos.

1st W Female Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

1st W Female Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

 

1st W Female Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

This is the first time that I have been able to photograph this species in the garden. It's not a rare bird, although numbers are falling, but it's nice to add a 'first for the garden photo' type photo.

Falconry and Owls


 Over the weekend we visited a country fair in north Notts primarily so that I could shoot some close-ups of owls because there is always, always a tent full of owls at these type of events. Normally they are common British species such as Little Owls, Barn Owls and Tawny Owls but quite often there is a chance of getting a picture of an Eagle Owl or a Great Grey. I was not to be disappointed as there were at least two such tents at this event! One held three or four owls - the most interesting to me was a Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus. This owl is probably the most widespread owl in North America but why does one end up in a tent in Notts? Why this species?



Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus

Likewise in another tent I came across this White-faced Scops Owl or Northern White-faced Owl Ptilopsis leucotis a sub-Saharan African species.

White-faced Scops Owl


Also present was this Eurasian Eagle Owl Bubo bubo which is widespread across the Palearctic region. So three different owls from completely different regions of the planet. Why these? I know absolutely nothing about keeping owls or where one gets them from but there must be certain species that are easier to keep in captivity than others. Some owls must be almost impossible to keep fit and healthy under captive conditions whilst others do well. I presume that all of the birds on show were captive bred and that over time you just know which birds will thrive and which won't.

Eagle Owl

The diurnal birds of prey which were present were captive bred and bought. I know this as a falconer was openly bemoaning the fact that he was not allowed to take wild birds for himself to train up and show. He was saying this through an open mic. to everyone present. For 4 000 years, he said, man has been hunting with falcons, all of which were taken from the wild and it has had no impact on wild numbers and it never did nobody no harm!! He was complaining that he had to buy captive bred birds - at a cost and that they sometimes flew away. Excuse me! Again, falconry is a subject I know nothing about, but birds sometimes flying away I would have thought was a risk you take when you...fly birds!
Now the next question I want to ask is why are so many falconer's birds hybrids? Apart from the ubiquitous Harris Hawk Parabuteo unicinctus which I always see in any falconer's tent (apparently because it is a good bird for beginner falconers to train) all of the other big falcons seem to be cross-breeds. Gyrs, Peregrines, Lanners and Sakers especially seem to be let loose on each other to merrily produce all kinds of (presumably infertile) offspring.  Is this deliberate artificial selection by the falconers: are some hybrids more docile than pure breeds?
This one for example has a lot of Gyr Falcon in it but I don't think it's a pure bred Gyr

Gyr and....?

And what's this? There was no label that I could see near this bird. Perhaps I didn't look properly. It looks to have some Peregrine in it and also some Merlin! It was getting on for the size of a Peregrine. Would these two species mate? Any answers please in the comments box below.

Peregrine and....?

Harris Hawk Parabuteo unicinctus

Bateleur Teratopius ecaudatus



Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway

 

The Crested Caracara Caracara cheriway and the Bateleur Teratopius ecaudatus two species from different continents were both surprise "Country Fair" birds for me. I can't imagine either of them being falconers' birds. How could you train a Bateleur? Is it possible? How would you feel if one of those flew away? And that Caracara would need some very careful handling.
I presume that these birds were on show purely to entertain and educate the public. Then again they might be flown by falconers. Either way I wouldn't like to think that these were being taken from the wild!
All of these pictures were taken at the country fair. The Gyr type bird was being flown but the others were all tethered.

Jack Snipe study.

Recently, when the weather has permitted, I have been trudging around suitable local habitat looking for Jack Snipe. I know that they are around but they are not always easy to locate. Common Snipe, too, have been thin on the ground. I've had a couple of birds shoot out of the vegetation but the pointy wings, white trailing edge to the wing, characteristic zig-zag flight and silly squeaky noise all point to definite Common Snipe. I was explaining to a mate that Jack Snipe have a different flight when flushed and that they only flush when almost crushed under a welly when he asked what was the best ID feature when they are on the ground. Having a few O.K. photos of Jack Snipe I thought I'd use them to try a little ID feature to help.
This first photo of a Jack Snipe's head shows the quite detailed head pattern. There is an obvious split supercilium i.e. two buff lines bisected by a rich brown line above the eye. Common Snipe lacks this feature as you can see in  photos 2 and 4. There is also a brown crescent running under the eye of the Jack Snipe which meets the brown eye-stripe behind the eye. If you look at photo 4 you can see that the brown mark under the eye of Common Snipe is obvious but does not extend upwards behind the eye.


Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus showing deep based bill and head patterning

Snipe Gallinago gallinago showing the pale median crown stripe

Some guide books suggest that Jack Snipe has a dark loral patch but I think that Common Snipe also has a dark loral patch so this is not much use as an identification point in the field. What is striking is the green glossy back and the obviously straw-yellow tramlines of the Jack Snipe which can be seen well in these photos. The Common Snipe has whitish stripes on a more subdued brown mottled back.

Jack Snipe Lymnocryptes minimus showing the all dark crown without median crown stripe.

These two pictures show the difference in the length of the bills. The Common Snipe has a very, very long bill that, to me, always looks a bit unwieldy whereas the bill of the Jack Snipe looks a lot more sensible as it is much shorter and thicker at the base. Both of the pictures of Common Snipe show that the breast and the flanks are quite heavily barred. The Jack Snipe shows streaking in these areas but you can't see this in these photos as the bird stubbornly refused to turn around!

34

The famous bobbing-up-and-down feeding action of the Jack Snipe is not much use if the bird you see is not feeding and to be honest I've never seen one feeding, they are always flying away or pretending to be totally invisible in the vegetation.
Back to that flushed flight...if it takes off silently from under your boot, frightens the bezeesus out of you, has a very pointed tail and then shoots back into the vegetation not too far away it's almost certainly a Jack Snipe. On the other hand if it's flight is really erraitic, it squeaks and zooms off over the horizon chances are it was a Common Snipe.

Pheasants and Buzzards: Pt 2


A few weeks back I posted a piece on the shooting of buzzards and the increased pressure on this species imposed by pheasant rearing landowners and keepers. You may remember that towards the back end of last year the government proposed and then rapidly withdrew a a plan to "sub lethally" control buzzard populations to limit losses of pheasants. Last week I was handed a paper on this subject and I think it makes for interesting reading. Titled "Pheasants, buzzards and trophic cascades." and written by A. C. Lees, Ian Newton and Andrew Balmford it was released about four months ago. I'm not sure where I stand re. copyright but I would like to quote some of this paper.
The Abstract sets out the discussion quite succinctly: " The partial recovery of large birds of prey in lowland Britain has reignited conflicts with game managers and prompted a controversial U.K. government proposal to investigate ways of limiting losses to pheasant shooting operations. Yet best estimates are that buzzards are only a minor source of pheasant mortality - road traffic, for example, is far more important. (How many road kill pheasants do you encounter on an average rural drive?) Moreover, because there are often large numbers of nonbreeding buzzards, local control of breeding pairs may lead to their replacement by immigrant buzzards. Most significantly, even if successful, lowering buzzard numbers may directly or indirectly increase the abundance of other medium-sized predators (such as foxes or corvids) which potentially have much greater impacts on pheasant numbers.


Buzzard Buteo buteo. Guilty of a minor impact on pheasant numbers

When Wildlife Minister Richard Benyon suggested that buzzard numbers could be controlled by nest destruction and translocation the general public and conservation NGOs were not pleased. When he changed his mind (not a U-turn!) it was time for the Countryside Alliance and similar outfits to get annoyed. Between 20 and 35 million pheasants are released by the shooting industry annually, adding to the wild bred stocks. The paper uses a case study of 486 reared pheasants that found that 37.5% were shot and 36% predated or scavenged - principally by foxes. "In this study, raptors were implicated in the deaths of <1% of individuals." Another study in Dorset found that 5-13% of pheasants are killed on the roads.

Conceptual map of interspecific interactions taken from the paper by A.C.Lees et al.

"It is estimated that for each paired buzzard in southern Britain there are up to three additional non-breeding birds (Kenwood et al 2000)" So get rid of your local buzzards and more will soon move in. "Two recently prosecuted Shropshire gamekeepers discovered the extent of such immigration for themselves when they illegally killed over 100 buzzards on one estate in less than six months (Evans 2008)" Over 100 buzzards in less than six months!! Anyone who likes to see a buzzard soaring overhead will no doubt have a strong reaction to news like this.

Ring-necked Pheasant Phasianus colchicus 20 - 35 million released in Britain every year.

An interesting point made by the authors is that : "Although buzzards may have a minor negative impact on game populations by direct predation, this may be more than compensated by buzzard predation on other predators such as corvids which, through nest predation, may have significant impacts on the reproductive success of the wild breeding stock of pheasants." The authors go on to point out that rabbits cause damage reckoned at £180 million annually - and we know what buzzards do to rabbits! Removing buzzards may impose subtle economic penalties on land-owners as well as leading to increased numbers of foxes, which kill at least four times as many pheasants as do buzzards.

Fox Vulpes vulpes. The main predator of Pheasants

The main concern of most people who are not stakeholders in the pheasant business was that the Benyon proposal: " would inadvertently give the greenlight to wider raptor persecution - this at a time when illegal persecution already looks set to drive Hen Harriers Circus cyaneus to extinction in England." I believe that this would definitely be the case. The current laws are already ignored as it is by some.

Common Buzzard Buteo buteo

The paper makes no bones about its findings stating that: "By ignoring their population biology and interaction with other species, ad hoc local control of predators such as buzzards could just as likely exacerbate losses of pheasants as reduce them. In the future, effective game management interventions will require far more rigorous analysis of the ecological, conservation, and economic consequences of maintaining supernormal densities of introduced game species than has been achieved so far."
I'd like to bet that this will not happen. Money talks!


Common Buzzard Buteo buteo

The paper ends, as expected, with a comprehensive list of references but, it does not give a link to an online version and I only have a hard-copy.

 

A Birding Weekend in Norfolk

I spent the whole of last weekend birding in Norfolk trying to find wintering species and at the same time trying to keep as warm and dry as possible. On Friday morning I drove down to Thetford and met the rest of the guys in the car-park at Nunnery's. The first target bird was the long-staying Black-bellied Dipper Cinclus cinclus cinclus. This bird is an example of the nominate north European race with the black/brown underparts (as can be seen in the picture below). The mainland British race, gularis, has a strong chestnut area below the white breast. It was easy to find but not so easy to photograph as the light was really poor and, stupidly, I had not brought a tripod. So hand-held, 400mm lens whacked up to 1600 ISO and I could only manage 20th sec. Hence slightly blurry shots. Still, good views of the bird and a good start to the weekend's birding. Jay, Kingfisher and Marsh Tit also put in an appearance to add to the list.

Black-bellied Dipper Cinclus cinclus cinclus Thetford

A real bonus was a sighting of an Otter working its way down the bank of the river Little Ouse (I think!). It was more-or-less permanently underwater but by following the bubble trail it was possible to follow the beast underwater and plan ahead to take a picture when it momentarily broke the surface. Again the light was poor and so is the photograph.

Otter Lutra lutra on the Little Ouse in Thetford.

After Thetford it was off for a couple of hours walk around Lakenheath Fen RSPB reserve on the Suffolk-Norfolk border. A brief sighting of Bittern and a lone Whooper Swan were good to start with but we failed to see any Common Cranes. There were swift views of Bearded Tits, a couple of Stonechat and at least five Marsh Harriers hunting over the extensive reed beds. A powerful Peregrine Falcon belted along the river hoping to catch an unwary Teal or wader and so were we! But there weren't many waders to be seen apart from hundreds of Lapwing on the move - as were Fieldfare. After a good period of grubbing about at Lakenhath it was time for the mini pork-pies and then the drive to north Norfolk to our weekend's accommodation.

Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus. The lone bird at Lakenheath

By the time we arrived at our digs it was getting dark so that was the cue to start worrying the wine that needed tackling before setting off to the local boozer for beers and food. Then it was back to do damage to the Talisker single malt!
The following morning saw a bitingly cold and strong wind with rain in the offing. But being as tough as commandos on a mission we were up and at it down at Titchwell RSPB reserve fairly early (After a leisurely full cooked breakfast, coffee, juice toast etc. - commando food) It was freezing and spitting with rain but we managed to rack-up a number of species including a female Red-crested Pochard, a good number of Brambling but unfortunately not a lot on the sea. Sea-watching was difficult as the sea was cutting-up and the wind was whistling in from the North-east blowing optics and people all over the place. It didn't seem to bother the birds though as this shot shows:

Oystercatcher  Haematopus ostralegus battling against the wind and waves at Titchwell

After Titchwell we drove down to the beach at Holme to search for a flock of approximately 80 Snow Buntings that had been reported from there. It didn't take long to locate these birds as they were very flighty and there were a lot of walkers about. We finished the day at Holkham trying to see Woodcock and Tawny Owl before heading back to the digs for more wine and more whisky.
Sunday and the wind was colder and stronger than yesterday and it was bloody freezing. Still being commandos we were out at Choseley drying barns early morning (after a leisurely full cooked breakfast, coffee, juice toast etc. - commando food). This was a good decision as we had great views of a Merlin as it came zipping through the fields and we passed a flock of at least 5 000 Pink-footed Geese searching for suitable feeding fields - a great spectacle as they flew over us in the early morning light. The hedges held good numbers of Yellowhammer and Brambling and there were a few Corn Buntings hanging about.
From Burnham Overy Staithe we walked the sea wall out to the dunes and saw virtually nothing apart from a couple of Common Scoter and a couple of Red-throated Diver out at sea. So we set off for Holkham Pines to look out from the Tower-hide for White-fronted Geese - duly found; Rough-legged Buzzard - not found and Barn Owl - found. There were at least seven Marsh Harriers competing for food over the marsh as well as three Common Buzzards, a Sparrowhawk, a couple of Kestrel and a Barn Owl. Who'd be at the bottom of the food chain?!
We twitched a Purple Sandpiper feeding in a pool in a field at Cley. Strange habitat for a Purple Sandpiper we thought but apparently feeding in freshwater pools by the sea is a well-known feeding strategy of these birds.
On the way back we had great views of a Barn Owl feeding by the side of the A149 and a number of cars had pulled over to enable the occupants photographic opportunities. So we joined them. Again poor lighting and poor photographic skills prevented me from securing some decent shots.

Barn Owl Tyto alba feeding by the side of the A149

We had to cut the birding short as the pub was calling...as was the Talisker and yet more wine. We popped into the supermarket at Wells for some milk and came out with three more bottles of wine...just in case.

Pink-footed Geese Anser brachyrhynchus - Part of a flock of at least 5 000 birds near Choseley

The tally for the weekend was 114 species which was not bad considering the iffy conditions. We had seen anumber of mammals too and quite a lot of dead things!