East Budleigh Italian Sparrow

Since early November 2017 a male Sparrow showing characteristics of Italian Sparrow Passer italiae has been residing in East Budleigh with a House Sparrow flock. The bird was first found by local home owner and wildlife enthusiast Dave W and identified as a possible Italian Sparrow by local birder Chris Townend, who after careful liaison with locals, announced the news on Devon Birds on 11th Nov.

Possible Italian Sparrow in East Budleigh (c) Chris Townend - 16/12/17

Italian Sparrow is now treated as a full species, but relatively recent DNA research confirmed what many thought, that the species originated from hybridisation between House and Spanish Sparrows. They can be found throughout most of Italy, being one of the commonest birds in the country, with smaller numbers also breeding in France, Greece, Switzerland and Slovenia in regions neighbouring Italy. They're considered to be quite a sedentary species, although ringing studies have shown some sort of northward movement in the autumn. To cloudy matters though, House and Spanish Sparrows also hybridise in North Africa, but these aren't considered Italian Sparrows.

There have been several UK sightings of male Sparrows resembling Italian Sparrow over the years, some looking pretty convincing but others not so. The East Budleigh bird could well be described as being the most complete-looking candidate to date. Other recent records include single males in Cambridgeshire in November 2017, North Norfolk in August 2013, then again during the next two autumns, and  Hampshire in May 2014. There are many theories as to what these birds actually are and why they keep popping up. Are they simply odd House Sparrows? TreexHouse Sparrow hybrids? The results of a female Spanish Sparrow or two lurking in UK House Sparrow flocks? True Italian Sparrows? No one really knows.

Due to the complexity of this relatively new species and all the uncertainty around its identification, there have been no accepted British records of Italian Sparrow. In response to the submission of the above listed Norfolk bird, BBRC decided upon a 'Not Proven' verdict, although used the following wording in their published reply; 

"Ultimately, it was decided that while there was nothing wrong with the plumage of this individual, a 1^st record of this species would require DNA evidence and it was unfortunate that this eluded us on this occasion"

This gave Chris an idea. He contacted me around Christmas last year, and once I'd obtained all the necessary paperwork and permission from the Special Methods Technical Panel of the BTO's Ringing Committee, a couple of weeks ago the green light was given for me to trap, ring, and remove three flank feathers from the East Budleigh possible Italian Sparrow for the purpose of DNA analysis. Approved special method projects like this always come with strict guidelines and rules, all of which I ensured were adhered to throughout the whole process.

Thanks to the kindness of local home owner Dave W, and almost ideal mist netting weather conditions, the morning of Monday 9th April saw the first attempt take place in a private East Budleigh garden. Amazingly a mere 45 minutes and three House Sparrows into the session, the possible Italian Sparrow flew into the only mist net set. No tapes or sound lures were used.  The bird was quickly extracted, ringed, processed (with a multitude of biometrics taken), three feathers were then carefully removed and the bird was briefly photographed for research/identification purposes, before being released.

In short, the bird looked as good in the hand for Italian Sparrow as it does in the field. I'm not going to go into great detail here, but I do have a couple of comments to make regarding the above photos and following my in-hand observations.

1/ Although Sparrows do tend to have slightly longer upper mandibles, this bird clearly has a slight deformity with an even longer and more hook-tipped upper mandible than expected. It hurt more than any Sparrow I've ever handled before that's for sure!

2/ The chestnut crown, as can be seen in the middle photo above, showed lots of buff flecking throughout. It wasn't grey and was only present at the very tips of the feathers. Sparrows often show pale fringing to crown feathers, particularly early in the season, so the presence of this is not at all surprising.

For anyone interested, the possible Italian Sparrow is still present today in the same general area. For viewing directions see Chris's original Devon Birds post here;
https://www.devonbirds.org/news/bird_news/devon_bird_sightings?blogEntry=16037

I just want to again thank Chris Townend for being the catalyst of this project, the home owner Dave for his hospitality, bird ringers Mike (my trainer) and Peter (a local A ringer) for accompanying me during this ringing session, and all the other individuals and organisations who offered their support and/or advice during the build up. Of course special thanks and recognition must go to the BTO for allowing this exciting and potentially highly educational development to take place, for which I've been humbled to be a part of.

See also Chris's post about Monday on his blog Cream Tea Birding.

So it's now over to Prof Martin Collinson of Aberdeen University to do what he does best...

Sources;
https://creamteabirding.blogspot.co.uk/
https://letterfromnorfolk.wordpress.com/
https://cambsbirdclub.blogspot.co.uk/ 
https://thebarleybird-er.blogspot.co.uk/
https://www.devonbirds.org/home
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_sparrow
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03078698.2002.9674270

Migration Moving Up A Gear

Today was forecasted to be the day the recent colder weather was to be replaced by a milder air flow, so I had high hopes we might see a nice pulse of spring passage - and I was right! 

First thing this morning I had 11 Sand Martins circling over my head which was nice, but they soon moved off north.  It was also evident early on that there were still good numbers of Chiffchaffs about, but judging by the amount of fat on them (I caught seven during a short ringing session) they won't be around much longer.

Spring Chiffchaffs often arrive in to the UK with this thick black substance on the feathers around the base of their bills, it's dried pollen that they've acquired whilst feeding up to fuel their migration.

A late morning walk around Beer Head showed more passage, in particular Meadow Pipits with birds arriving in off the sea almost constantly, although very few appeared to land and they continued on northwards. I counted 200 in an hour, but I bet they were arriving in far greater number earlier in the day.  It was nice to see some more Wheatears too, with five males together along with a single Stonechat...

A fine male Wheatear and a bit of gorse!

Best of all up here though, and it was the reason why I counted Meadow Pipits arriving for an hour, were a pod of about ten Bottlenose Dolphins. At first they were well to the east, somewhere off Branscombe, but they slowly moved westwards, passing Beer Head probably between 1/2 and 3/4 a mile out.  Not a common sight off this part of the coast, so they are always a treat to see...

This is part of the pod seemingly actively hunting - it was so interesting watching so many different behaviours.

In the pod were three or four young ones, and they seemed to spend a lot of time just messing around!  I only saw one or two adults do a full breach, but the young'uns were constantly jumping about...

What a spectacle!  And to finish, here's a short video showing most of the pod...

Beer Head

Since the last post I have managed two short ringing sessions on Beer Head, one with Peter on Wednesday 3rd and a couple of hours by myself on Monday 8th.

On the 3rd 28 birds were trapped and ringed, with 26 of these being 'new' birds. No stand out species, but it was mostly about Sylvia Warblers with ten new Blackcaps and three Whitethroats trapped, along with two already ringed Blackcaps.  The Blackcap re-captures were interesting as it shows I'm catching local breeding birds and not just passing migrants, with one of them being a male I ringed here back in May, and the other a young bird I first caught as a 3J (which means still in juvenile plumage - so almost certainly hatched on Beer Head) in the middle of August.

I will do on a post on Blackcap ageing one day in far more detail, but here's three head shots all showing first-year male Blackcaps, and the various extent of brown on the cap. The top bird had completed it's post juvenile moult, the middle and bottom birds were still in the process of their PJ moult, but they will probably retain some of those brown cap feathers even after their moult has finished.

3m Blackcaps

Other birds ringed included singles of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and Goldcrest (the second ringed of the autumn), and a nice trio of Long-tailed Tits - my first ringed at this site.

In my last ringing related post I mentioned about the partial post juvenile moult in passerines, and that some species actually complete a full moult in their first autumn - replacing all their flight and tail feathers. Well Long-tailed Tit is one of those species, but all three of our birds could still be aged as first-year birds (3's) as they hadn't completed their moult yet.

They had replaced all of their primaries, although the last couple we still growing, but were only part the way through their tertial, secondary and greater covert moult. The browner and more worn juvenile feathers are pretty obvious to see, but hopefully the red lines will help. You can see a half grown secondary feather along the middle red line and the arrow is pointing to the replaced adult tertial feather. Compare the condition of replaced tertial with the older juvenile one above it - the old one has little nicks at the tip and along the edge of the feather, this is natural feather wear and a brand new feather wouldn't show this. If I was to catch these birds in maybe a week/ten days time I'm pretty sure they would have completed their moult, and would be aged as '2's' on plumage (the age code for haven't a clue - could have been born in any year).

Yesterday I caught just ten birds, but eight of these were migrants so I was still happy; three Blackcaps, three Willow Warblers and two Chiffchaffs.

I've been up Beer Head again this morning, but only for a quick dog walk.  There was a real late autumn feel to it, with crisp blue skies, a chill in the air, and heaps of Meadow Pipits flying about.  Also saw ten Wheatear, three Grey and two Yellow Wags, five Blackcap, three Whitethroat and a handful of Chiffchaffs. Sadly no Wrynecks.

Redstart Ageing

Yesterday sounded like a great day at Beer Head, with Phil noting 40+ Willow Warblers, four Whitethroats, three Spot Flies, three Tree Pipits, two Whinchats and a Reed Warbler. As a result I was eager to get up there this morning, especially as a veil of cloud had rolled over and even produced some pre-dawn drizzle. Perfect.

Sadly though in reality it was soon pretty obvious that most/all of  yesterdays birds had moved off - probably during the clear weather ahead of the front - and very little had dropped in to replace them. Saying that though we still ringed 23 birds from two mist nets, with two Dunnocks and a Wren being the only (presumed) resident birds.

The best of the captures was this lovely Redstart that appeared in front of us several hours after dawn, and flew straight into my 60 foot net...

There's more than enough visible in the above photo to age and sex this bird. What do you think it is? 

This photo should do it if the above didn't.  A bird with this much orange on its breast has to be a male, along with those black centred throat feathers.  You may notice though it's lacking a white forehead stripe, has a dull greyish brown crown, and the black throat feathers have broad white/off-white tips - well this makes it a first year bird.

And now I'm going to break with tradition for this blog and get a bit technical...

All juvenile passerines under go a post juvenile moult which starts not that long after fledging. Unlike adult complete moults, post juvenile moults are partial moults and include only a small numbers of wing feathers and only very rarely the main flight feathers (primaries and secondaries)*.  The wing feathers most often replaced during post juvenile moults are the greater coverts (GC's), with some birds replacing all of these, some replacing none, but most replacing a few. This gives ringers a very helpful ageing tool as in theory any passerine showing two different age classes of GC's is a year old or less. This moult limit will show in a bird until it undergo its first complete adult moult when ALL the GC's are replaced.  *Some species do a complete post juvenile moult (House Sparrow, Long-tailed Tit to name two), and some individuals of other species by some freak have been known to have complete post juvenile moults when they really shouldn't.

Anyway, here's the greater coverts of this mornings Redstart...

And here they are again with some red lines and words...

Notice how different they are. The new inners ones (the GC's are always moulted from the inside out) are rounder, almost blue in colour, grey edged with narrow brown tips, with the seven remaining juvenile GC's being dull with pale brown edges and tips.  They will stay this way for a little under a year, although as the feathers wear and fade it will become less obvious.  Now look at the first photo again and see if you can spot it on the closed wing.

Tails are also often big helpers in ageing passerines, with young birds tails often being pointed and more worn compared with rounded and newly grown adult ones.  This tail shape difference isn't so obvious in Redstarts, but look how abraded the tips are, plus I think the dull/dark tips and marks on some of the feathers is an age thing too and wouldn't be seen on an adult Redstart....

I think that's enough for today's lesson!

We also caught six Blackcap, six Robin, four Chiffchaff, two Whitethroat, one Willow Warbler and a Goldcrest.  Apart from a few large flocks of hirundines and the odd Yellow Wag, very little was flying over. Two Whinchats and a Wheatear were the only other grounded migrants I saw.

The weather looks good for the rest of the week, so I hope to fit in another ringing session at some point.

Beer Head Is Calling...

....and loudly!

Many of the usual migration hot spots have already had some decent passage this 'autumn', so this morning I nipped up Beer Head with some tools to make sure the net rides were cleared and ready for some autumn ringing.  I should have done that last week though and taken my nets up this morning, as flitting around my net rides were half-a-dozen Willow Warblers and this Redstart...

Hopefully it'll hang around for a few days...

I've forgotten how good Beer Head is for butterflies, lots of lovely long grass about to attract them.  Saw my first Clouded Yellow of the year (a nice male) and several Marbled Whites in this short visit...

A Mixed Morning

Once the early morning shower had passed (although there were a few more afterwards!) I took my nets up to a site near Beer where I monitor the breeding Swallows.  Last week I had come up here to eye up the potential for catching adult Swallows, but instead came away in awe of what must be one of the busiest bird feeding stations I've ever seen - with an impressive variety of species too!

I only had one 60 foot net up (this is all it needs) and it kept me very busy! My personal highlights were three Siskin; an adult male that was already ringed (D776068), a second year male and a juvenile.  We all know how stunning male Siskins are...

But even the juveniles are super little birds...

I had been here for about an hour and a half (although had to close the net for twenty minutes whilst another rain shower came through) when I started hearing rumblings about one of my most wanted gulls well within twitching distance...

Soon enough it was confirmed - there was a Ross's Gull on Bowling Green Marsh!  There's very few species I'd drop everything for if they were turn up off patch, but this is one of them.  I love gulls, I dipped Ross's Gull in my younger years, and it's simply a species I've always wanted to see - the opportunity was too great to let go.  I sent a few texts out and within ten minutes had a car full getting ready for a trip west.

We left Seaton at 10:30 with news the gull was still these despite the tide having fallen, but on arrival we were informed twenty minutes ago it had flown off towards the Estuary. Bugger.  We headed for the platform by the River Clyst, but one last glance over the marsh revealed it sleeping beside a Black-headed Gull.  We spread the news that it was back and enjoyed some great views over the next half hour or so...

Not the everyday view of Bowling Green Marsh....

Although it was great to watch it resting and feeding, it looked even better in flight!  The tail really is striking - a black-tipped diamond.  Size for me was a really noticeable feature too, as although it was smaller than the nearby Black-headed Gull it never looked minute as Little Gulls do. There's a great photo on Devon Birds which shows the size difference well, click HERE.

Oddly when I was watching the Ross's feeding in a muddy scrape it reminded me most in shape, structure and behaviour of a Common Gull! 

You can see from these photos though why it caused some headaches and debate yesterday...

An obvious Ross's Gull

Hmmmmm..... a far from obvious Ross's Gull!

Lastly I'd like to thank Bun, Ian and Karen for the twitching company, and Matt and Mark for all the useful info and updates throughout the morning.

Wheatears...

2014 has easily been my worst spring for Wheatears on patch.  I didn't see my first until 10th April (almost a month later than other years!) and have only seen four since. In previous springs I've see four times as many in an hour on Beer Head, or on one fence line at Seaton Marshes!  I'm not sure why it's been so poor, as other sites have had them, but it's not just me, Ian M was saying exactly the same this morning.

After this morning though, I now feel like I've had the best ever spring for Wheatears! And it's all thanks to this beastie...

WOW!!!!!!

The Firecrest and Redstarts have all been fab, and much more than I expected, but for me this is the highlight so far. Not just because of it's stunning plumage, it's was just a really lovely bird to handle. 

Better still, wing length (104mm) weight (38g) and plumage (amount of black in tail, rusty edge to upper mantle feathers) puts this bird safely in the Greenland Wheatear (sub sp. leucorhoa) camp.  So not only has it flown all the way from South Africa, it's now got to get to Greenland - maybe even Canada!  

Other than this, it was a very quiet ringing session. There were clearly no migrants in the bushes, a single Blackcap trapped and ringed was the only other migrant I netted today. Overhead a few Swallows and a single Yellow Wag were as good as it got. 

But this fantastic capture has shown me that even if it is quiet at Beer Head, it always worth having the nets up as you just never know.

Number 100!

Enjoyed another ringing session up Beer Head this morning, with Peter again. Despite my first Tree Pipit of the year overhead, and a Yellow Wag, the bushes were quiet. As April turns to May this is to be expected to be honest, as the chance of a good fall decreases with each day that passes now.

Despite the fairly baron bushes, two nets gave us a light trickle of Willow Warblers, a Chiffchaff and a few of the locals (Blackbird, Blue and Great Tit, etc).  I absolutely love ringing phylloscs, and the last Willow Warbler trapped and ringed today (a lovely grey male) was the 100th phylloscopus Warbler that's been trapped and ringed on Beer Head this spring.  85 Willow Warblers and 15 Chiffchaffs to be precise. And to celebrate, here's a nice comparison shot...

Willow Warbler at the front, Chiffchaff at the back.

I really hope some of these birds get retrapped elsewhere - I would love to know exactly where they are going.

This afternoon a look along the Estuary showed not much, but a Dark-bellied Brent Geese that flew in over the town before landing on the Estuary was a bit a surprise...

"where am I?"

Why Bother Going Out?

Beer Head aside, I enjoyed the best birding of last week from my house! One Devon A rarity, two Devon B rarities, a rare British breeding bird and more.

Last Friday, whilst I was at work, at Cattle Egret was discovered with the cattle on Colyford Common.  Once I'd finished work I didn't make a mad rush for it, as once upon a time this species could have been described as an almost regular visitor to our valley - but I was keen to see it from the house.  I thought I'd blown it when I heard the Cattle Egret flew off mid afternoon, but in the evening Phil re-found it on the east side of the river. So the scope was up and I waited and waited and waited.... Five Little Egrets came flying down the valley, with a sixth Egret a short distance behind - the Cattle Egret!  The six Egrets landed in the roost above Axmouth, and I watched the Cattle Egret find its spot in the trees before settling down.  What a mega house tick!

The next decent house bird came on Sunday, and was almost exactly the same as two Sundays previous (see here) - an Osprey!  I knew something was up before walking through the front door, as the gulls were calling, and several were clearly fleeing from the lower Estuary.  Straight in and upstairs, and over Colyford Common there was an Osprey circling.  It disappeared for about ten minutes before reappearing again low over the upper Estuary. Then, in about two minutes and only about five large soars, it was suddenly a dot in the sky miles high. It pulled in its wings then powered north.  Wow.

Later on Sunday, after hearing a Barn Owl was seen not too far from the house, I was on dusk duty with the telescope from the bedroom window.  I didn't think for a second I'd get lucky, but soon had a few brief flight views, and then a Barn Owl perched up for two minutes! Wahoooo...

Tuesday afternoon dinner in the back garden gave me my first House Martins of the year. Two spent about an hour feeding and calling low over. My favourite hirrundine, and about a week later than usual.

Wednesday afternoon, again whilst having lunch in the back garden, at about 12:40 the Estuary gulls got me on my first house Red Kite circling high over the upper Estuary, although it soon headed off east.  It was always distant, but that didn't stop me grabbing what is truly a record shot...

I have been out birding. If I'm not up Beer Head or at work, I've gone for a walk around Black Hole and Colyford Marsh after breakfast. I've had a single singing Reed Warbler (still no Sedge), one Whimbrel, one Greenshank (on two days) and a couple of Wheatears. Yes, I have now seen a grand total of three Wheatears this year!

I made a good call about when to re-visit Beer Head for ringing this week, I picked Thursday morning.  This time I invited Peter, a trainee from Budleigh...

Peter ringing a Willow Warbler. Note the simnel cake to the side - well it is Easter...

Like Monday, it felt at first like it was a very VERY quiet, but also like Monday, birds started to appear about half an hour after dawn. Willow Warblers and Chiffchaffs mostly, but also saw a respectable total of four Redstarts, two males together and two different females.  Two single Yellow Wagtails over were my first of the year.

So what did we catch? Well there were fewer phyllosc about, as we trapped and ringed 13 using the same net set up and in the same time frame as Monday when I caught 30. It was still pretty impressive though that each time we did a net round, at least one new phyllosc was there, and we didn't re-trap a single one.  Of the 13, eight were Willows and five Chiffs.

Although there were less phylloscs in the net, the Redstart count was double that of Monday's session.  The first was a stunning adult female, a really colourful bird and what an eye-ring...

And then another male...

It's such a drag ringing such fantastic birds with stunning views like this...

Donkey Ringing

....well maybe not quite, bird ringing at the Donkey Sanctuary yes.

I'm really privileged to be able to ring here as this charity owns and manages acres and acres of superb wildlife-friendly habitat, containing a surprising variety of different habitats too.

Friday morning I spent three and half hours with two nets up, which resulted in 34 birds ringed.  One of the first birds in the net was a Nuthatch, but not any old Nuthatch. The only other time I've ringed at this location was back in May 2012, and during that session I caught one Nuthatch - the same Nuthatch! 

Love the powerful dagger-like bill

She was a breeding adult when I caught her back in 2012, thankfully she's still a she!

In keeping with the trunk climbing nature of this species, the real highlights from the session were two absolutely beautiful Treecreepers.  Not an easy species to age, in fact it's only recently that a few features have been noticed. Even so, I was confident ageing one as an adult, but the other I've had to put down as a '4' (ringers age code for not a clue!).

This bird was considerably longer billed than the first,  so maybe a male?

The same bird. Incredibly it was two grams lighter than the Wren we caught an hour earlier!

I really look forward to doing more ringing here. It will be interesting to learn how many birds are making use of this well preserved part of East Devon.

Wonderful Waders, Glorious Gulls and Sweet Swallows...

Black Hole Marsh just keeps getting better!  Still no rares, but waders on it this morning included several Black-tailed Godwits, Redshank, Common and Green Sands, 56 Dunlin, 24 Ringed Plover, one Little Ringed Plover, one Ruff and a Greenshank.

Part of the small wader flock

Amongst the small gulls Phil picked out a colour-ringed juv Kittiwake. Bit of an odd record, and I was a bit gutted I didn't see it from the house as it would have been a cracking house tick! Anyway, here it is...

My first juv Kittiwake of 2013. You can't see the rings but I've sent the details of (hopefully to the right place!)

Later on, another visit to Black Hole Marsh was mainly to have a look through the resting gulls on the Axe Estuary, and I soon picked out two juv Yellow-legged Gulls. One disappeared soon after I spied it, but the other showed well for ten or so minutes. It was interesting to see this bird had more white on the tips of the tertials than the 'classic' juv YLG...

An 'almost classic' juv Yellow-legged Gull

So the tertials may not be bang on - but everything else was. The most clinching feature visible on the above photo are the second generation mantle feathers.  Here's a closer look at them...

Two of them are very clear to see

First of all, notice the colour of them; The dark bits are almost black, compared with the lovely warm brown of the other mantle and wing feathers, notice the broad white areas near the tips too. Then there's the pattern of them; Lovely anchor shapes and nothing like the plain juvenile mantle feathers. Scroll up and have another look at the top photo again - can you spot them now?

So, next time you hear the term second generation mantle feathers, this is them! And this is what to look out for to absolutely clinch a juv Yellow-legged Gull at this time of year.

The other onithological action for me today was taking another look at one of my Swallow breeding sites. The second brood is well underway, although one nest just had eggs in. Another nest had four naked and blind young in, but a third nest had four larger juveniles in - which I ringed...

Cute!!

An Easy One

My only year tick today was a rather easy one, Marsh Tit. 

There's been one regularly in Mum and Dad's garden over the past few weeks, so when I was up there earlier I spent a short while looking out the window. I saw it within about a minute!  The amazing thing is this Marsh Tit is ringed, so it surely has to be this one...

Ringed in their garden on 09/06/11. See blog post here: http://www.stevesbirdingblog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/week-of-ringing.html

This is the only Marsh Tit I've ringed here.  After ringing it, and before Dad started seeing it a few weeks ago, we haven't seen it or any Marsh Tit once in the garden!  Also whilst looking for the Marsh Tit this afternoon I noticed a ringed female Blackcap too.  I really must get the nets back up, and find out if these are indeed 'my' birds.

Earlier today, I just had to have a sea watch because of the rather breezy southerly wind.  It looked promising with a few Gannet out there, and a few more auks.  In reality though, in the hour I gave it, four Red-throated Divers west were as good as it got.

With more snow forecasted I hope this cold spell has a few more patch year ticks to offer. Come on wildfowl - get moving!!!

Baby Barn Owls

My Schedule 1 license for ringing Barn Owls came in to use last night, as I had time to visit a near by nest box. This, pleasingly, revealed four very healthy looking chicks. As ever with Barn Owl chicks, there was a clear difference between the oldest...

Too big really!

And the youngest...

Just a ball of white fluff with a Barn Owl face!

The biggest were the oldest Barn Owl chicks I have ringed, and boy do my hands know it...

It didn't hurt at the time, but it looks like I've been pulling up brambles with my bare hands!