Historical British Birds journals available – quite a collection!

British Birds (as I am sure many of you will know), is a monthly journal which began in 1907, and has been an incredible resource for birders ever since. https://britishbirds.co.uk/content/about-british-birds
These journals contain a range of material on behaviour, conservation, distribution, ecology, identification, movements, status and taxonomy, as well as the ‘latest’ news items and book reviews… or in the case of the ones we have at Blashford Lakes, some very historical information!

A while ago, we had some boxes of British Birds journals given to us, and there are just too many to put in the Welcome Hut. The collection goes as far back as 1946, to around 1999. We don’t have every year by any means, but the years we do have generally each monthly edition is present.

We are happy for these to go as an entire collection, or as specific years, but we don’t have the capacity at the moment to deal with lots of emails asking about specific journal dates etc. We have already a donation for a few years, which included the year the person started birdwatching, and the year of their binoculars!

If you (or somebody you know) would be interested in this rather wonderful historical record of British Birds for a suitable donation to Blashford and HIWWT, please email Chloe chloe.dalglish@hiwwt.org.uk to organise coming in to the Education Centre to take a look. Please note I work part-time, so I won’t always respond straight away. We really hope these journals can find good homes!

As ever, happy birding!

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Blashford birders and photographers – we need your help to record ringed Lapwing and Redshank.

The GWCT Wetlands department is studying the breeding ecology of redshank in the Avon Valley and are aiming to discover more about this fascinating bird’s breeding behaviour and ecology. We need a better knowledge of redshank territory size and how faithful birds are to their breeding sites within a breeding season and between seasons. We also need to know about the movement of birds in the valley – where they feed and where they go to in winter. This information allows us to refine management recommendations designed to benefit redshank, by understanding the specific habitats that are most important for nest and chick-rearing, and the areas of habitat required by each pair. We are using colour ringing to investigate these questions.

Adult ringed Redshank

Colour ringing involves fitting a unique combination of coloured rings to a bird’s leg. This enables identification of an individual bird in the field, without the need to recapture the bird to read the metal ring number. Larger, long-lived species like waders and gulls are particularly suited to colour ringing because the bird and its rings are more visible and may be reported multiple times during the bird’s life. Ringing of all kinds is only performed under strict licence, and colour-ringing projects must obtain approval from a central co-ordinator that considers both bird welfare and the viability of the study.

If you are spending time at Blashford and are able to photograph any ringed Lapwing and Redshank clearly that would be incredibly helpful. Please share the information as per the details on the bottom of the information sheet.

Bird ringing at Blashford

Brenda has been ringing birds at Blashford for many years, and it has been a pleasure to observe some of her winter ringing sessions. The practise of bird ringing generates information on the survival, productivity and movement of birds, and is an important method to help us understand locally and nationally (and globally!) how and why populations are changing.

All bird ringing is conducted following BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) protocols by trained and licenced ringers, with assistance from supervised trainees. If you would like to learn more about this head to https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/ringing.

Long tailed tit (Aegithalos caudatus)

A morning ringing… it’s an early start!
Birds are most active in the morning (not the sort of just before lunch lazy morning, the real ‘sun just got up and is only just peeking over the trees’ type of early!), so the mist nets are set-up to make the most of this, and as a general trend more birds are caught early, with the numbers tapering down until the nets are closed around lunchtime.

Close up of a mist net. Mist net including poles and guy ropes.

Mist nets are an invaluable piece of equipment for ornithologists, providing a safe method to catch birds for research. A mist net is made of very fine nylon netting and is almost invisible, hence the term ‘mist’. Each net has 5 evenly spaced thicker horizontal strings called trammels, which are secured to vertical poles at each end of the net to ensure even tension. Between each trammel is fine netting that arcs down into a sort of pouch. They fly into the net and fall into a pouch and await careful extraction. This is the part I find fascinating. On each net check (regular intervals throughout the session) Brenda determines which side of the net the bird flew into, so that she can extract it successfully. She uses a variety of holds to ensure the bird stays still and can be untangled from the net without harm. Once extracted they are placed into a small drawstring bag for safekeeping and taken back to the area which has been set up for processing.

Birds waiting to be processed. Table laid out with ringing equipment.

Biometric data is taken for each bird (e.g. wing length, weight) and age/sex determined (depending on time of year) by identifiable features related to moult, feather colouration and feather shapes, or if during certain times of year the presence of e brood patch or cloacal protuberance (CP). If the bird is a re-capture then it will already have a ring, but if it’s a new bird then a small metal ring is fitted around the right leg which has a unique identifiable number. The rings are made of wide, flat metal, which is pressed around the leg, ensuring the join is smooth and the edges are flush. Once the ringer is confident the ring can move up and down the leg with absolutely no impact on the bird’s movement, it is then released. Brenda has a fantastic way of teaching and is exceptionally calm and patient and has one bespoke piece of kit that she made herself, a knitted bird! This bird can be used to practise specific handling techniques, be fitted with bird rings etc, so that when a trainee comes to handle a live bird they are more confident in their abilities.

These unique ring numbers are vital, as the data on re-capture can tell us how old the bird is, where it may have flown from (therefore its range), helping to inform bird conservation efforts. This morning we caught around 25 birds, and (bearing in mind I class myself as ‘not really a birder’) being able to see so many birds up close and learn about their markings has really helped me in my quest to be better at bird ID!

Lesser redpoll (Acanthis cabaret)

Feathered Friends

Last Monday we went bird watching with our Wildlife Tots, enjoying some bird themed craft activities before heading outside to see what we could spot.

We began by making bird puppets out of recycled materials and binoculars to help us with our bird watching.

They loved the binoculars!

We then headed outside in search of some cuddly toy birds and had a go at naming them and deciding whether each bird would prefer to live in the woodland or on water.

We then headed to the Woodland Hide to see which woodland birds we could spot and visited Ivy Silt Pond in search of some ducks. In the afternoon with a smaller group we also managed to visit Ivy South Hide.

Jon even did a bit of bird watching from the badger:

Bird watching from the badger by Rex Waygood

We finished off the session by making bird feeders, mixing suet, raisins, sunflower seeds and sunflower hearts together before squishing the mix in to a pine cone.

Hopefully the birds will enjoy them!

Next month we will be looking for signs of Spring and enjoying some fun sensory games and activities on a short wander around the reserve. Details including how to book via Eventbrite can be found on our website.

A huge thank you to volunteer Rex for joining us on both sessions and taking some lovely photos!

Bonaparte’s Again

A couple of years ago Blashford Lakes was visited by a first year Bonaparte’s gull, a small species between little gull and black-headed gull in size and looking very like the latter. They breed in North America and very occasionally get blown across the Atlantic. Most turn up in this country in spring and are first year birds. It seems probable that they are blown across in autumn storms and are following a natural instinct to migrate north after wintering well to the south of us. Yesterday the second of this species to be found on the reserve was seen from the splendid new Tern Hide and attracted a fair few birders as the news got out.

Bonaparte’s gull (right) with black-headed gull of the same age and common terns.

Although similar to a black-headed gull the differences are not too hard to see up close, although this bird is somewhat larger than our last and so less obvious. At long range and especially if feeding on the water, it is much less easy to spot. However there are some clues that might help. The most obvious is the difference in feeding action, the Bonaparte’s has a habit of up-ending and overall swims with neck very stretched looking reminiscent of a phalarope, with their faster feeding action as well.

The Tern Hide is also proving a great place, appropriately enough, to see terns, specifically common tern.

displaying common tern from Tern Hide

The last few days have seen a few migrant birds passing through or arriving, we have recorded our first swift and migrant waders like dunlin and whimbrel. I have not managed to get pictures of any of these but I did snap a red kite that flew over on Monday.

red kite

The spring is not all about birds though, as the season moves on we are seeing lots more insects such as small copper, holly blue and many spring hoverflies.

Epistrophe eligans – a typical spring hoverfly

We are also seeing more reptiles and I found the grass snake below basking beside the main car park!

grass snake

Our developments are still ongoing, but are drawing to a close, however the latest job will be to resurface the car park nearest the Education Centre, meaning it will be unavailable for parking for a few days, most likely next week. We are nearly at the end of the works, so things should settle down soon! Thank you to New Forest LEADER for funding our improvements to the area in front of the Education Centre.

 

Some Birds and Some Bees

I had my first proper look out of the new Tern Hide when I arrived to open up this morning and was greeted by something between 600 and 1000 sand martin swooping over the water, the first serious arrival of hirundines this spring. I saw only one swallow though and no sign of any house martin.

Along the shore in front of the hide there was a pair of little ringed plover and a fine male lapwing.

male lapwing from Tern Hide

There were several ducks feeding close in too.

drake gadwall, not just a dull, grey duck as some would have you believe

shoveler pair

tufted duck pair

I spent a good part of the day trying to complete the annual report, which kept me in the office on a day when outside would have been far preferable. However I did have an excuse to get out for a while and enjoy the sunshine as we had a visit from a small group of top entomologists to look particularly at solitary bees, of which we saw many species including a few new reserve records. Incidentally we also saw several orange-tip, including one female, speckled wood and peacock.

Locking up the weather was still sunny and at the Woodland Hide finches were still feeding, including a good number of brambling.

male brambling

There were also several reed bunting, almost all males.

male reed bunting 

Improvement update and birds, birds, birds!

Just a quick reminder to anyone who hasn’t visited us in a while or missed any previous blogs or onsite signage, improvements on the reserve are now well on the way so if you do decide to visit us soon, please bear with us!

The main nature reserve car park is open as usual, however Tern Hide is no longer there (it was dismantled at the start of the month so there was plenty of time to do the all important ground works) and the installation of the new hide will not take place until next month – if all goes to plan it should be open by the end of March.

The new pond by the Education Centre should be finished soon and the Welcome Hut which arrived on Monday should be completed by the end of the week – with both these works taking place so close to the Centre, along with deliveries arriving over the next few days for other aspects of our improvement works, car parking at the Centre is limited. If you are able to park in the main car park and walk across to this side of the nature reserve please do!

The Education Centre itself, Lapwing, Goosander, Ivy North, Ivy South and the Woodland hides are all open as usual.

Last week saw the delivery and installation of some brilliant chainsaw carved sculptures by Simon Groves, a chainsaw artist from West Sussex (to see some photos of these being enjoyed by some of our younger visitors, please read on!) and on Sunday our Young Naturalists worked with willow artist Kim Creswell on three dragonfly sculptures which will also be added to our newly named ‘Wild Walk‘ along with more of Kim’s wonderful work. A separate blog about Young Naturalists will follow!

On the bird front, two Bittern were seen from Ivy North hide on Sunday and at least one has been seen from there this week, including excellent views today, and a pair of Redpoll continue to visit the feeders at the Woodland hide.

And birds are the real reason for this blog, as last week was half term and it was a busy bird filled one, with a family event weaving willow bird feeders and two bird themed Wild Days Out where we were lucky enough to get a little closer to some of our native owls and raptors, courtesy of Liberty’s Owl, Raptor and Reptile Centre, made a lot of bird feeders and visited the Woodland and Ivy South hides in whatever time we had left in a girls vs boys who could spot the most species challenge.

We were joined by John from Liberty’s on Wednesday and Jayson on Thursday, with both giving brilliant talks to the children about the different birds they had bought with them, encouraging them to ask questions and letting them stroke the owls, a definite highlight! On Wednesday we were treated to a Kestrel, Peregrine falcon, Golden eagle (which really was huge and delighted the children by going to the toilet in the classroom) and Barn owl and on Thursday saw a Tawny owl, Little owl (definitely my favourite), Kestrel, Peregrine falcon and Goshawk.

On both days the children loved seeing the birds up close and being able to stroke some of them, and they asked some very sensible questions. It was definitely a highlight and we would like to thank John and Jayson from Liberty’s Owl, Raptor and Reptile Centre for taking the time to join us and supporting our Wild Days Out in this way. They once again very kindly demonstrated their birds free of charge to support Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust, something they were only too pleased to be able to do as long standing “Wildlife Investors” of the Trust.

To find out how your business can support the work of the Trust at Blashford Lakes, or anywhere across the two counties, follow the link or contact Steph Watson on 01489 774400 or email Steph.Watson@hiwwt.org.uk.

Liberty’s owls and raptors were once again a hard act to follow, but whilst we had been waiting for them to arrive the children had been busy making popcorn bird feeders by threading popcorn onto a piece of wire, and fat balls using a suet, bird seed and sultana mix, so we headed outside to make our feeders for the fat balls to go into.

On the Thursday we had a few children who were bird feeder pro’s, having already made one either the day before or earlier in the month at Wildlife Watch, so they had a go at a different design, weaving one solely from willow instead of using the wooden disc base.

All three feeder designs looked great and everyone went away with two fabulous feeders. We then had just enough time to visit both the Woodland hide and Ivy South hide in two teams, boys vs girls, to see who could spot the most species of bird. On Thursday we even had time to walk a slightly longer loop so we could admire the new chainsaw sculptures that had been installed earlier in the week. The children loved them, with the badger in particular proving popular.

Despite having photographic evidence of the boys using their binoculars to bird watch, I have to say the girls did spot more species both days, we were obviously being too competitive for photography! They also, rather sneakily, lulled Jim’s boys team into a false sense of security on the Thursday by making a right noise when the two teams crossed paths with each other, but up until this point had been super quiet and determined to see the most…

I know the boys did see a few bird species we didn’t see, but the girls’ lists over the two days included Coal tit, Great tit, Blue tit, Robin, Chaffinch, Dunnock, Long tailed tit, Goldfinch, Siskin, Blackbird, Greenfinch, Reed bunting, Jay, Jackdaw, Moorhen, Cormorant, Coot, Tufted duck, Great crested grebe, Black-headed gull, Mallard, Gadwall, Pochard, Collared dove, Treecreeper, Goldcrest, Pheasant, Carrion crow, Grey heron, Little grebe and Wood pigeon. I was particularly impressed with Megan for spotting the treecreeper! It was pretty good for a quick bird watch and I know they all really enjoyed their day.

Our Wild Days Out will be back for the Easter holidays, where we will be heading out onto the reserve in search of our reptiles and amphibians. Bookings may be made on-line only and are taken 4-6 weeks in advance of the activities via: https://shop.hiwwt.org.uk/product-category/events/

A trip to the coast

At the end of November we headed to Keyhaven Marshes for some coastal bird watching with our Young Naturalists. We were last here with the group a couple of years ago so it was great to return again with some who came last time and take some of our newer members who had never visited this part of the coastline before.

Pleasantly surprised by the weather (I had been keeping an eye on the forecast all week and been expecting to get wet), we headed off from the car park under a lovely blue sky. Deciding once again to list the different bird species spotted, we were quick to see collared dove, house sparrow (bathing in puddles along the side of the road) and starling. We scanned the first area of reeds for marsh harrier but were unsuccessful, settling for mallard, black-tailed godwit and grey heron instead.

Keyhaven on a lovely blue sky day

Following the path we watched a number of turnstone rummaging for insects, crustaceans and molluscs on the shoreline. On our way to Keyhaven Lagoon we added black-headed gull, little egret, brent goose, magpie, pintail, gadwall and wigeon to our list. Pausing by the lagoon we watched mute swan, coot, shelduck, avocet and Canada goose for some time and flock of linnet also flew over our heads. Whilst walking along the path between Keyhaven Lagoon and Fishtail Lagoon we saw buzzard, curlew, redshank, dunlin, stonechat, lapwing, shoveler, teal and herring gull. Out in the Solent we saw great crested grebes and on pausing to chat to a group on the corner by Butts Lagoon we were directed towards a pair of peregrine, perched either end of a concrete block on an island.

Peregrines perched on a concrete block in the Solent with Hurst Spit behind

The group also told us they had seen red-breasted merganser from this corner as well, so we spent some time trying to pick these out using the scope and were rewarded for our patience.

Looking at the Red-breasted merganser

We carried on along the path, noting down great black-backed gull, moorhen, blackbird and carrion crow. We found a sheltered spot to stop for lunch (it was still a bit windy out on the sea wall) before heading inland and following the path past the old tip.

Heading inland towards lower Pennington Lane and the ancient highway

Here we did not spot what was spooking the lapwing and golden plover but we did enjoy watching them flocking overhead.

Golden plover

Lapwing

We decided we had enough time to make a brief detour towards Pennington Marsh so headed along the lane, watching kestrel, pheasant, robin, chaffinch, jackdaw, wood pigeon, rook and dunnock and hearing the distinctive call of a Cetti’s warbler. We then turned back and headed towards Keyhaven and the car park, following the ancient highway and watching cormorant and tufted duck on the pond by the landfill site. Along this path we also saw meadow pipit, blue tit and great tit and heard a nuthatch calling.

Finally we paused again by the bridge over Avon Water, scanning the reed bed and trees behind for signs of a marsh harrier. We spotted a large bird perched on the top of a distant tree and whilst this is a good place to see marsh harrier, with its back turned to us we couldn’t say for certain it wasn’t a buzzard. We let Will decide whether or not this was a sighting and he quite rightly decided it wasn’t, as we couldn’t be certain. It had been worth the look though as whilst here we saw a kingfisher fly past, a very lovely bird to be last on our list.

Keyhaven

Our Young Naturalists group is kindly supported by the Cameron Bespolka Trust.

Counting birds and a community fund

On Sunday our Young Naturalists took part in the garden bird watch, visiting the woodland hide and watching the feeder and trees close to the Education Centre, watching the birds for one hour and recording the highest number they saw of each bird species at any one time within that hour.

Talia and Poppy

 

Unsurprisingly, our top species was chaffinch, with 23 birds recorded at one time. This was followed by goldfinch (7), great tit (5), blue tit (5), long-tailed tit (4), greenfinch (4), blackbird (4), robin (4), brambling (4), siskin (3), dunnock (3), coal tit (2), nuthatch (1), jay (1), carrion crow (1), and lesser redpoll (1): sixteen different species in total.

Talia took some lovely photos of the different birds and has shared them with us for the blog:

Siskin by Talia Felstead

Robin by Talia Felstead

Long tailed tit by Talia Felstead

Great tit by Talia Felstead

Dunnock by Talia Felstead

Chaffinch by Talia Felstead

Chaffinch by Talia Felstead

Brambling by Talia Felstead

In addition to the birds we also spotted four bank voles and one brown rat.

Bank vole by Talia Felstead

After lunch we headed over to the area by Goosander hide to remove some of the young birch trees which have self seeded and started to dominate this part of the reserve. The smaller ones we either pulled out or levered out using a fork. Geoff had also made a very nifty sapling lever which we had a go at using. The larger trees we cut at waist height, hopefully reducing the likelihood of them continuing to grow – if coppiced low to the ground they would certainly sprout new shoots quickly.

Young Naturalist Megan has very kindly nominated our group for the Waitrose Community Matters fund and we’ve been chosen as one of their three charities throughout February at the Lymington store for a share of the months funding.

So, if you live in or near Lymington and shop in Waitrose, or feel like popping in throughout February, please make sure you get a token at the end of your shop and place it in our Young Naturalists pot to support the group!

Thank you, and thank you Megan for nominating us!

Our Young Naturalists are kindly supported by the Cameron Bespolka Trust.

Who would live in a house like this…

On Thursday I joined volunteers Brenda, Jacki and Sarah to put up the twelve nest boxes made by our Young Naturalists last October.

Brenda had made a few changes to the boxes for us: attaching a metal plate to the entrance hole which will prevent larger birds and other predators from enlarging the hole to gain access; adding a couple of drainage holes to the bases of each box; drilling fixing holes to allow wire to be passed through so the top of the box can be secured firmly to a tree; and finally extra hooks to ensure the box lids closed firmly.

Nest boxes built by our Young Naturalists group in October

The boxes were used to replace some of the older ones on the reserve that had seen better days, rather than increasing the number on site as checking them all takes time! Once they were positioned on to a tree, Jacki recorded the direction the box was facing, the height of the box, its GPS, the species of tree it was attached to and the number of the box.

Most of the boxes were attached quite low to trees – bird boxes do not need to be high and fixing them low means they can be easily checked by volunteers without the need for a ladder, speeding up the process. We did however attach one box higher than the others, in the hope of enticing a pair of nuthatch to make it their home, so low boxes don’t suit all species.

Brenda and Jacki are going to keep us updated with our Young Naturalist nest boxes, fingers crossed they will be put to good use and we can follow what happens, who moves in and how many chicks fledge successfully. All of the data they collect is passed on to the British Trust for Ornithology and helps to build a better picture of the breeding success of our birds across Britain.

We look forward to our updates and hopefully later on in the Spring when there is less chance of us disturbing any activity we will be able to assist Brenda and Jacki with some of the monitoring.

Blue tit checking out one of the nest boxes on site