Bye Bye Wagtail!

Just been browsing the interweb and I came across this piece on the BT homepage of all places. Usually they post articles about the 'telly', 'people on the telly', and stuff about 'celebs' so it makes a change to see them posting something that is of more concern.
The three species of wagtail that breed in the UK are suffering long-term declines, a study has revealed. Yellow Wagtails, Grey Wagtails and Pied Wagtails are all in decline, according to the annual Breeding Bird Survey's latest report, though conservationists say the reasons for the reductions are not clear.
Yellow Wagtails, farmland birds which migrate to sub-Saharan Africa, have seen numbers reduce by more than two fifths (43%) between 1995 and 2012.
Changes in agriculture are thought to be to blame for the Yellow Wagtail's decline, but as it is a migrant, problems overseas cannot be ruled out, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) said.
Grey Wagtails, a species which lives by rivers, (sic) has declined by almost a third (32%) since the Breeding Bird Survey started 20 years ago, while the familiar Pied Wagtail has seen declines of 11%.
Both birds have shown rapid declines along rivers and canals, according to the Waterways Breeding Bird Survey, which focuses on river habitats, and Pied Wagtails have seen steeper declines in the river-based survey than in the general Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) which covers all habitats.
This suggests there may be issues related to rivers which are affecting both species.
The "races" of Pied and Yellow Wagtail which breed in the UK nest virtually nowhere else in the world, conservationists added. Sarah Harris, BBS organiser at the British Trust for Ornithology, said: "I find it fascinating that three seemingly similar birds, the Yellow, Grey and Pied Wagtail can lead such different lives and face such a variety of challenges.
"With the UK races of two of these species - Pied and Yellow Wagtails - being largely confined to our islands, these population changes are of global conservation significance."
The results of the survey by the BTO, Government advisers the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) and the RSPB, using counts made by volunteer bird watchers, also show declines for key farmland birds.
Grey partridge numbers were down by 56% between 1995 and 2012, and Skylarks have declined by nearly a quarter (24%), with increasingly intensive agriculture playing a key role in their declines, the experts said.
And the latest update reveals that some breeding birds saw a significant year-on-year decline in 2013, as a result of the bad weather conditions in 2012.
Mark Eaton, RSPB principal conservation scientist, said: "This survey is most valuable for showing us trends stretching back nearly 20 years. "However, it also provides a snapshot into changes between years, and this report reveals that 2012 was clearly a bad year for some of our breeding birds. A cold spring followed by the wettest summer on record have to be prime candidates for why many species showed a significant decline in 2013. Of the 36 species which showed a significant change in numbers between 2012 and 2013, 34 decreased."
Hey Ho...it never seems to get any better!

Grey Wagtail - Motacilla cinerea  Down by 32%

Pied Wagtail - Motacilla alba yarrellii.  Down by 11%

Yellow wagtail - Motacilla flava  Down by 43%

Colour-ringed Sanderling

Whilst bimbling around the beach at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire yesterday (20th August) I snapped this distant moulting post-breeding adult Sanderling as it fed along the tideline. After cropping the image and magnifying it for use I saw that the bird was carrying a number of coloured leg rings. On the left leg we have green over blue over green and on the right leg it looks to be yellow over white. I'll send this info to The Wash Wader Ringing Group and the BTO and I'll update this page with any additional information on this bird as it becomes available.

Colour-ringed Sanderling, Gibraltar Point, Lincs. 20/08/2014

Wood Sandpiper at Annesley

Juvenile Wood Sandpipers can be identified by their neatly spotted upperparts and the finely streaked breast and both of these features can be seen quite clearly on this individual which turned up at Annesley Pit Top in Notts, yesterday. A passage migrant that is most likely to be seen during the autumn migration period this bird played true to form. Only a handful of these birds are normally found in Notts. during most years so this was an opportunity to see my first in Notts. for 2014. The legs on this individual were bright yellow and you can see how confusion with Lesser Yellowlegs can occur. Adult birds tend to have greener legs and confusion is less likely. Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Redshank, Greenshank - it's all in the colour of the legs! The bird was quite distant, feeding along the shore of the lower lagoon so I had to add a 2x converter to my 400mm lens. This resulted in me hand-holding the equivalent of an 800mm lens without autofocus so I was expecting a load of blurry out-of-focus shots. As it happened that's exactly what I got but I managed to rescue a dozen or so that will do as record shots. The best four or five are below.
August is a good month for passage waders so I expect a few 'goodies' over the next few weeks!

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts

Juvenile Wood Sandpiper, Annesley, Notts

Mainly Butterflies

Still a bit quiet on the birding front. Reports of Honey Buzzards being seen almost daily now from the Welbeck Raptor Watch-point in north Notts are tempting me to visit soon. The Great Knot in Norfolk and the Lesser Yellowlegs in Lincolnshire could not tempt me away from a planned trip to Chambers Woods in Lincolnshire to look for butterflies. These woods are famous for holding a breeding population of White Admirals and Purple Hairstreaks and for having good numbers of Marsh Fritillaries and Marbled Whites in an adjacent meadow. It is too late in the year now for Marsh Fritillaries but the other species are currently on the wing.
On arrival we parked up and next to the car park is a dog-poo disposal bin. Someone had missed this obvious receptacle and left a huge dog turd on the ground. Normally this would be really annoying but for once I was pleased to locate said turd on the footpath as it was being used as a mineral source by a Purple Emperor! Great start but getting close-up shots was disgusting. Later there was a Comma using the same turd! This time I didn't get so close.
We saw at least seven White Admirals, mainly flying around the tops of the oak trees although one paid a fleeting visit to my feet but it belted off before I could focus the camera. No Marsh Fritillaries, as expected, but we did see a Silver-washed Fritillary zooming along a ride - a real bonus. Ringlets, Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns and Small Whites were all abundant. We only located a single Marbled White but it was a good 'un.
Small Skippers were quite numerous but there were only two or three Small Tortoiseshells and Commas. I presume that these are second brood insects and are freshly on the wing. They all looked pristine. We saw a dozen species in this wood and we missed the hairstreaks. I recommend it!

Purple Emperor - on dog poo

Purple Emperor. Better shot of the turd!

Small White
 



Ringlet

Small Skipper

Small Tortoiseshell

 

Comma - on dog turd!

Marbled White

Purple Emperor - in tree tops.

Meadow Brown

 

 

 

The Gaudy Birds of Kew Gardens

There are a few special introduced species which can be seen during a visit to Kew Gardens. Category C of the British List encompasses all of those species which have been introduced to this country but which now maintain stable populations without recourse to further introductions. You see a lot of Category C birds most days whilst out birding: Common Pheasant, Red-legged Partridge and Little Owl for example. At Kew they are a bit more exotic: Golden Pheasant, Ring-necked Parakeet and Red-crested Pochard are all pretty easy to see and photograph. So I went to see them and photograph them. As they are all a bit arty and gaudy and really shouldn't be here I've translated that into the photographs. These pictures are all a bit arty and gaudy and shouldn't really be here!

Ring-necked Parakeet - being quiet for a moment - Kew Gardens

Ring-necked Parakeet - Kew Gardens

Breeding by released or escaped Ring-necked Parakeets was first confirmed in Kent in 1971 now there are around 8.600 breeding pairs or c30,000 individuals post-breeding. Originally from southern Asia and sub-Saharan Africa it's coming to a garden near you...soon!

Female Red-crested Pochard



Male Red-crested Pochard

Red-crested Pochard breeds patchily in Europe and east into Central Asia and most of the birds seen in Britain have originated from escapes or releases of birds from waterfowl collections.. The first British breeding record was in Lincolnshire in 1937 but numbers have increased to such an extent that there is now a naturalised, self-breeding population.

Young male Golden Pheasant. About as gaudy as it is possible to be.



More than its fair share of colours!

Young male Golden Pheasant - painted!

Golden Pheasants are from China and were introduced into Britain from 1725 onwards (main introduction from 1850) and have been released as far south as the Isles of Scilly and as far north as the Isle of Gigha off the coast of Argyll. They seem to be disappearing from their stronghold in the Brecks and there are only a few reliable sites for this species in Britain.
All of these photos were taken at Kew Gardens and have been extensively mucked-about with in Photoshop!

Mostly Dragonflies

June is always a quiet month for me as far as birding goes. Usually I spend a couple of days searching for a few migrants that I may have missed earlier, Quail likely as not, or I travel after a couple of enticing rare species. I quite fancied having a look at the Short-toed Eagle in Ashdown Forest but I couldn't summon up the enthusiasm for the drive. I didn't even have the get-up and go to get-up and go for the Spectacled Warbler in north Norfolk. Instead I have been concentrating on photographing insects and wild flowers in south-east Notts. Having sub-titled this blog 'A Birding Miscellany' I suppose I should stick to birdy matters but I think I have the option of veering off from time-to-time; especially when I have no bird related matter to share.
So here we have a selection of dragonfly shots all taken at Naturescape Wildflower Farm in Langar, Notts.

Broad-bodied Chaser Libellua depressa

 There is a pond that has been created specifically to entice dragonflies to breed and the designers certainly knew their business. I have seen and photographed seven species of dragonfly during two morning sessions. The most common is the Azure Damselfly with more than 50 of these floating about in the meadows that surrounds the pond.

Common Blue Damselfly Enallagma cyathigerum . Mating pair in wheel position

 Common Blue Damselflies are not, surprisingly, as common as the Azure but they are present in good numbers also in the surrounding meadow and flower fields.

Common Darter Sympetrum striolatum

Common Darters were present in small numbers and these were relatively easy to photograph as they allowed a close approach and they tended to stay away from the water, resting on reeds and sedges and tall grasses in quite conspicuous places. Unlike the Emperor Dragonflies which never settled anywhere!

Emperor Dragonfly Anax imperator

 These big dragonflies were constantly on the move patrolling the pond. They had a set route but were erratic and unreliable in flight making it a difficult task to photograph them. Hence the blurry photographs of this species. Females often settled on floating vegetation so that they could lay their eggs onto submerged plants and occasionally the insects fell into the water and floundered around until they managed to get a hold of some floating stuff and pull themselves out. I took a few photographs of these dragonflies in the water but although they are sharp and well exposed they are not really aesthetically pleasing!

Emperor Dagonfly Anax imperator

 Unlike this Four-spotted Chaser which was glistening and glinting in the sunlight. I only saw one individual of this insect but there may well have been more lurking on the far side of the pond. Close-up this is a stunning insect; all subtle golds and bronze.

Four-spotted Chaser Libulla quadrimaculata

Azure Damselfly Coenagrion puella

This Azure Damselfly, a male, is identified by the U-shaped black mark on the second segment of its abdomen. It can be seen here just beneath the wings where they attach to the body. You have to get  close views to be certain to separate them from Common Blue Damselflies. The Banded Demoiselle, on the other hand, is distinctive from a good distance away.

Banded Demoiselle Calopteryx splendens

Broad-bodied Chaser Libellula depressa

Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers

I drove the short distance to Gonalston this morning to take a few pictures of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers which have been coming to feeders in a private garden. Adult birds have been reported from this site for about three weeks but I never managed to connect with the birds even though I stood watching the feeders for three hours at a time over a number of days. Wrong feeders...wrong garden! Yesterday was an Open Garden day at Gonalston so an opportunity presented itself  to find the right garden. After only a couple of minutes I was watching an adult and a juvenile Lesser Spotted Woodpecker feeding in the right garden. The owners were brilliant...lots of feeders, fantastic garden, very friendly and accommodating. There were loads of people wandering around the garden but the peckers didn't seem to be too fazed unlike the Great Spotted Woodpeckers which would not come down to the feeders whilst so many people were present. The owners of the garden invited a friend of mine back this morning so I tagged along to get some photos. The male and one juvenile were feeding quite regularly but there was no sign of the female. Earlier there were three birds, possibly another juvenile or the female although I have heard it said that the female tends to feed away from the male. A specific feeding strategy of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers.


Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus minor. Gonalston, Notts. June 2014

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus minor. Gonalston, Notts. June 2014

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus minor. Gonalston, Notts. June 2014

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus minor. Gonalston, Notts. June 2014

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus minor. Gonalston, Notts. June 2014

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker Dendrocopus minor. Adult feeding Juvenile. Gonalston, Notts. June 2014