Cuties and the beast

Ringing this morning was much busier then yesterday but without the high-impact species. We did, however, catch a first for the lighthouse garden: a Great Reed Warbler. This species is regular in the reed bed at Flommen, so it's not that exciting on a wider scale, but still always a nice species to get in hand.

In the afternoon we joined Peter Olsson at Vellinge to help with his wader monitoring/ringing project. The afternoon was a success with three Lapwing chicks (first photo), five Dunlin chicks (second photo), an adult male Dunlin (third photo), an second-year female Ringed Plover (fourth photo), and a Ringed Plover chick.

We also watched first-hand one of the dangers to the nesting waders, a hungry fox. We found two predated Oystercatcher nests and Peter's nest camera showed that at least one of them had been predated by a (the) fox.

Many thanks to Peter for letting us come along.

Douze pwa'

Wow, what an exciting 24 hours that has turned out to be.

Yesterday's ringing was pretty quiet with just 17 birds ringed and nothing of any real note species wise. A couple of Blackcaps added some interest to proceedings. This adult male did a good job at dispelling the "brown in the crown = second-year" myth:

While this second-year male had done something I've never seen before on a Blackcap; it had retained (a fair few) juvenile crown feathers:

They're the very worn very bleached feathers. It's important to note that these retained feathers are not the same as the brown in the crown of many young male Blackcaps; they are a result of brown tips to the (moulted) post-juvenile feathers.

The 3+cy male Red-breasted Flycatcher was still around, too.

After ringing, I took a walk out to Nabben with Peeter Christmas, who was in Skåna for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was really nice out there with plenty of things coming and going including a Little Gull, two Red Kites and good numbers of migrating geese. Peeter trained his scope onto a flock of migrating Barnacle Geese and casually called out, “Red-breasted Goose”. Sure enough, there was a Red-breasted Goose migrating north with the Barnacle Geese. Nice!

That evening we had a call from Jonas Ekwall asking if we wanted to take a trip to Malmö. Of course we did... so at 21:30 we set off, resisting the temptation to stop off in Hyllie, and headed to an area just east of Malmö. A River Warbler had been found singing there for a couple of days ago. The location wasn't quite what I was expecting — a reedy ditch between a row of suburban streets and a football field — but sure enough, after about 10 minutes, the bird began to sing. I've heard plenty of River Warbler recordings but the song in real life is quite different. There's a double-layer quality to it: a base song that's similar to Grasshopper Warbler with the expected insect-like song over the top of it. Occasionally the Grasshopper Warbler-like song, which seems to get lost on recordings, would cut off for a second or two while the insect-like song continued. The bird was close but it was dark and the bird stayed low in the reeds, so no chance of seeing it this time.


We were quite exciting about this morning since, if our optomism was correct, today would be the day; the wind, which had been blowing from the east for several days, was due to drop and we hoped the garden would be full of migrating birds and goodies from the east. It was a bit of a disappointment then when I woke up to the sound of rain lashing against my window. Thankfully it didn't last long and an hour later it was clear and perfectly still. We opened the nets... There had clearly been a small arrival of Garden Warblers but it very quiet otherwise and clearly wasn't going to be the three-figure day we'd expected. Nonetheless, the 3+cy male Red-breasted Flycatcher was now singing in the lighthouse garden and it was a nice morning to be out.

Then in the second round, Marcel came back carrying a female Collared Flycatcher! Amazingly, it was already carrying a Swedish ring.

It felt like, despite the low numbers of birds, we had the chance to catch of catching something else nice so we kept the nets open for a bit longer beyond planned closing. What we caught ended up being several steps beyond "something else nice": a gem of an adult male Eastern Subalpine Warbler.

It called as we released it:

Amazingly, this is the first subalpine warbler ringed at Falsterbo. It's also the first albistriata for Skåne. I'll say a bit more about this bird next time we have a rainy day (and I'm not so sleep-starved).

We attempted to keep the mega ball rolling with some birding in the park but all we could manage were a few Wood Warblers and a couple of Red-breasted Flycatchers, while four Black Terns were the best we could muster at Vellinge. Not that we're complaining, of course!

parva party

This southeast wind is doing strange things to the ringing. Twelve birds ringed today; two Red-breasted Flycatchers. Plus another two seen in the garden that didn't make it into the nets. Excitingly, one of this morning's birds was an adult male.

In contrast to yesterday, there were very few other birds around so I spent the rest of the day at my desk. Mind you, I did manage to see Rough-legged Buzzard, Red Kite and Garden Warbler from the window, and there's a Thrush Nightingale singing outside, so it's not all bad!

Southeasterly blow

The wind was 10 m/s this morning. Critically it was from the southeast — and originating from quite far southeast. It was promising but with such blustery conditions we could only open a few nets, and we weren't expecting many birds to be around. We were right; there weren't many birds around, but those few that were added a dash of eastern quality. Walking the net round, I found a Red-breasted Flycatcher and a short time later a Common Rosefinch was singing (unseen) in the lighthouse garden. We caught six birds over the morning: two Dunnocks, a Tree Pipit, a Willow Warbler, a Blackbird and... the Red-breasted Flycatcher.

Marcel and I birded our way back home after ringing. In a sheltered spot by Falsterbohus we found a male Pied Flycatcher, a singing Icterine Warbler, a singing Serin, and a smart pink male Common Rosefinch.

This afternoon we took a walk along the length of the love path. There were, considering the still windy conditions, quite a few migrants about including three Pied Flycatchers, 20+ Spotted Flycatchers, two male Red-backed Shrikes, a Honey Buzzard, a Cuckoo and quite a few Garden Warblers.

The wind looks set to continue overnight (it's 13 m/s SE at the moment) but should drop by the morning. Perfect for catching lots of exciting southeastern species. I'll report back tomorrow when we've caught that Olive-tree Warbler...

Stuff. And things.

It's Marcel's birthday today — happy birthday, Marcel! We celebrated by getting piss wet through and catching two birds. Salvaging what we could from the morning, I've managed to convince myself that the asymmetrically moulted (and thus differing in pattern) alula on the second-year female Great Spotted Woodpecker was "interesting". [Actually, it is interesting, but possibly not so interesting that it outweighs being soaked to the bones]

The other bird, a female Chaffinch, also a second-year, showed asymmetrical moult as well. Interestingly (or, again, maybe not), GC1 on the left wing was juvenile but T1 was moulted, while on the right wing all of the GCs were moulted but all three tertials were juvenile. I don't have any photos so you'll have to take my word for it.

What else has been happening during the last week? Mostly stuff. And things. We had a couple of three-figure days... then someone turned the Willow Warbler tap off. Totals for the last four days haven't reached over 30. Indeed, two of the days haven't made it out of single figures.

The only unusual species ringed was this Tawny Owl chick. Am I the only one who thinks it looks like an extremely ugly troll?

Stockholm

Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon I was in Stockholm. I didn't have much free time but I did manage to take a walk along the waterfront from the train station to the opera house and King's Garden via the parliament building. It's a really beautiful city and I hope that next time I have a reason to visit I'll have more time to explore.

Parliament House

Royal Swedish Opera House

 Kungsträdgården (King's Garden)

Oh curruca!

It's my strong opinion that curruca should be used as a curse word.

As should Ficedula... but we'll leave the explanation of that one for another day!

On a brighter, happier, shinier note, we did catch this Serin this morning:

And these have appeared in the hen house:

Lesser Whitethroat moult

Lesser Whitethroats are like a box of ex-display chocolates; you never know what mess you're gonna get.

We've been catching a couple of Lesser Whitethroats each day recently. Just a couple a day is enough to see a good deal of variation in moult strategy. Adults undergo a complete post-breeding moult followed by a winter pre-breeding moult; juveniles have a partial post-juvenile followed by, as in adults, a winter pre-breeding moult.

Here's a perfect example of a second-year. The primaries, secondaries and then outer greater covert are juvenile. The rest of the greater coverts and most of the median coverts are post-juvenile; T3 is probably post-juvenile, too. The rest of the median coverts are pre-breeding, as are the lesser coverts, A1, and T1 & 2. Note the gingery-buff fringe to the inner primary coverts — this seems to be useful for ageing trickier birds:

This next bird was ringed in the lighthouse garden as a first-year last year. It's had a more limited post-juvenile moult (the four outer greater coverts are juvenile) but a more extensive pre-breeding moult (inner two greater coverts, all three tertials, and S6):

By way of comparison, here's an adult (3+cy). It's moulted the lesser and median coverts, A1, GC9 and at least T1–2 pre-breeding. Lesser Whitethroats party hard and many birds, like this one, appear quite worn; though note the less worn grey-fringed primary coverts and the relatively broad and black A3:

This adult is quite interesting. The pre-breeding moult is more limited than the adult above (note, for example, the contrast between the worn post-breeding and grey pre-breeding lesser coverts). A1 has been moulted pre-breeding, A3 was moulted post-breeding last year... but A2 hasn't been moulted at all! It looks like it should be an adult-type feather, which on the face of it makes this bird a 4+cy — but how can we rule out a 3cy that moulted A2 as part of its 2012 pre-breeding? The answer is that we probably can't. Overall, this bird is in very good conditions with beautiful broad grey-fringed primary coverts:

A gold star for anyone who can explain what this 2cy bird has done. It appeared to have had a limited pre-breeding moult (for example, all of the median coverts you can see are post-juvenile), which didn't included any greater coverts. GC3 & 4 should be juvenile and GC5 & 6 are post-juvenile. Oddly, GC7 appears to be juvenile, GC8 post-breeding, GC9 juvenile, and GC10 missing. The outer two greater coverts, GC 1 & 2, seem newer — as is P1. This is presumably due to accidental loss, probably with all three feathers lost at the same time:

Reassuringly, the right wing was much better with GC1–4 juvenile and 5–10 adult.

I did the resting bird counts at Knösen this afternoon. It was very quiet for water birds with just e.g. eight Mute Swans (compared to the usual three-figure total). The exception to the rule was Greenfinch, of which there were plenty. Passerine action was slightly more exciting (though only slightly) with six Whinchats, four Common Redstarts and a Ring Ouzel.

Six out of six

We've done well for thrushes this season with a spring day record for Blackbird, two top-ten spring days for Song Thrush, the eighth best spring season for Redwing, a Mistle Thrush, and a few Fieldfares. There are six regularly occurring species of thrush in Sweden and today we caught the sixth: Ring Ouzel, an adult female.

It was a pleasant spring day all round with 59 birds, of which 30 were Willow Warblers. Amongst them was this Wood Warbler:

I also (finally) saw my first Sand Martins of the year this morning — a day after I saw my first Common Swift of 2013!

Unbreakable

There are some season records at Falsterbo that seem unbreakable. The Chaffinch record, for example: the top spring season total was 370 in 1987, towering above the next best total, 216 in 1985. Then we went and smashed it. The current spring 2013 Chaffinch total is an amazing 477.

The Dunnock record seemed equally out of reach. The number one total, again from 1987 (definitely a good year), stood at 322. Second place, spring 1984, was almost 100 birds less with 231. However, as of today, the 2013 Dunnock total stands at 329. A new spring season record!

We celebrated by catching a Danish-ringed Dunnock, surprisingly our first Prunella control of the spring.

Most interesting catch today was a Goldfinch that had moulted primaries (P4–7), the first time I've seen this on a bird in Sweden.

It's actually pretty hard to spot, and it was the unworn white tips to P4 & 5 that first drew my attention to it. As is expected with this sort of eccentric moult, the primary coverts are all unmoulted juvenile feather. The alula is moulted, as are the tertials and all the greater coverts, but the secondaries are all juvenile.

I've, umm, ‘enhanced’ the photo by tweaking the levels in Photoshop to help show the difference in colour between the moulted and unmoulted feathers.

Spring season records

The last couple of days have been relatively with 14 and 23 birds yesterday and today respectively. Yesterday, we were joined by two children worth looking out for in the future: young 10-year-old Alve, who was (literally) better than a fair number of the ringers I've been ringing with; and Andreas, who is almost as good :) We caught our 4th Great Spotted Woodpecker of the season, taking us level with the 1989 spring season record.

Today, we toppled that record with our 5th bird of the season. We also caught our 15th Firecrest of the spring: another spring season record broken.

Taking stock

It's always nice when plans go as they should. We set up a large-mesh mist-net in the station garden this afternoon to catch Stock Doves and, a couple of hours later and via one Magpie, hurrah, two Stock Doves ringed. There are plenty of interesting things to say about these (and, indeed, about quite a few of the things we've been catching over the last two days); but to balance the previous slightly nerdy post — and also because I want to go to bed — I'll save them for another time. For now, here are some pretty photos.

We caught 82 birds in the lighthouse garden this morning (totals online — click Ringing). Nothing too spectacular, though 19 species meant it was varied. Yesterday was equally varied with exactly 100 birds of 17 species, the best of the lot being our first Wryneck of the year and a Hawfinch.

Migrants are still arriving; the latest addition to my list is Whinchat, with two males at Flommen this morning as I came back from the lighthouse. There are plenty of Common Redstarts and Lesser Whitethroats singing around the station now as well, and it's warm enough to take the laptop and work outside. The best office in the world? Probably!

Quite interesting

It was a fairly quiet morning this morning with the only highlight being another Firecrest. With a bit of time to spare I thought it was worth mentioning a few of the more interesting things we've caught over the last week. First up, the (so far only) Pied Flycatcher.

Pied Flycatchers (of both age classes) undergo a partial pre-breeding moult before they leave their wintering grounds. Critically, this means that both ages show a moult limit in the greater coverts in spring. Not all of the body feathers are moulted during this pre-breeding moult; the result is blotchy brown patches on the neck, scapulars and back that contrast with the black breeding plumage. The autumn/winter plumage of both young and adult Pied Flycatchers is brown, so this contrast is between brown and black plumage not between faded/bleached and new plumage.

The moult limit on all birds can make ageing difficult at times and one has to assess the wear, colour, etc of the feathers that have been retained from the previous autumn's moult (primaries, secondaries, tail, unmoulted greater coverts). This week's bird was reasonably easy to age: the primaries and secondaries are dark (rather than brownish) and in good condition, and the unmoulted outer three greater coverts are almost as black as the moulted pre-breeding greater coverts, indicating an adult (3+cy).

This bird shows a few interesting quirks. Firstly, the greater coverts.

GC10-6 (innermost) are pre-breeding, as is GC4, while GC1-3 (outermost) are post-breeding (from last autumn). GC5 is conspicuously and you could be forgiven for thinking there are in fact three generations of feathers in the greater coverts. GC5 is, however, probably not as interesting as it first seems. Many adult male Pied Flycatchers show a pseudo-moult limit in the greater coverts with the inner 6 to 8 being brown and the outer 2 to 4 being black. This is likely an adaptation to maximise the extent of black in the breeding plumage or to reduce wear on the the feathers that likely be retained for a full year (i.e. not moulted in the pre-breeding) since blacker feather = more melanin = less wear. Probably both factors come into play. GC5 should therefore, despite the apparent differences, be the same generation as GC1-3 (autumn 2012). The moult pattern was the same on both wings.

Examining the right wing further, it's apparent that the bird has retained S6 (the innermost secondary).

Although clearly older than S1-5, this feather is in good condition and is rather dark and black. According to data in Jenni & Winkler Moult and Ageing of European Passerines retained secondaries in autumn are not uncommon; the number in spring is a lot less. There might be several factors at play (perhaps the moult is suspended rather than arrested and hence completed on the wintering grounds; perhaps birds with retained secondaries are physically less fit and thus more likely to die on migration) but it's probably because of the extensive pre-breeding moult (often including the inner secondary/ies) that we don't notice it more often in spring — it's been 'covered over'.

It's hard to know exactly where the retained S6 on the right wing came from. The most likely answer is that it's a spring 2012 pre-breeding feather that wasn't moulted during the 2012 complete autumn moult.

Checking the left wing, things become more intriguing still. S6 is retained here as well; but it's clearly older than S6 on the right wing!

The conclusion is that this bird shows four generations of feathers: 2013 pre-breeding; 2012 post-breeding; 2012 pre-breeding; and S6 on the left wing, which must be from autumn 2011. The question then is, what can we say about S6 on the left wing? Despite the fact it's pretty shagged, it's still in reasonably good condition for a feather that must be 18 months old. It's still quite dark and, although the tip has broken off, the feather wear isn't *that* heavy (though still considerably more so than on S6 on the right wing). I'd expect a juvenile feather to be a lot more worn than this, and a lot more faded — indeed, it probably wouldn't be much more than a feather shaft and a few tufts of sandy-brown barbs. If this feather isn't a juvenile feather than it must be an adult feather from the 2011 post-breeding moult; that means this bird should be a 4+cy.

Amongst the huge numbers of Chaffinch we caught the other week there were two interesting birds; they had also retained some feathers that they shouldn't have done. This female had retained some greater coverts on the right wing only (GC1, 4-5 & 9), all three tertials on the right wing and T3 on the left wing, and S5-6 on the right wing.

The retained feathers are in good condition, not too worn, and, in the case of the tertials and secondaries, broad and square-tipped: this indicated that they are adult or adult-type feathers. The tertials and the greater coverts could have been moulted during the post-juvenile moult and would then not allow us to differentiate a 3cy from a 4+cy. However, a post-juvenile moult would not include the secondaries; thus the retained S5-6 allow us to age this bird as a 4+cy.

The male-like colours appearing on the back and breast also support the theory that this is an older bird.

In the second case, an adult male Chaffinch had moulted everything except for the tertials on both wings. The tertials, in contrast to those on the bird above, a narrow and worn; they appear to be juvenile feathers.

It's slightly off-putting that T1 is blacker than T2-3. Perhaps this is simply due to being more protected. If the tertials are juvenile feathers, that would make this bird a 3cy.

Always interesting, we've been catching plenty of Dunnocks the last couple of weeks — in fact, with 227 ringed so far, 2013 is the second-best spring on record. Perfect for testing out a paper that Björn Malmhagen and I have just had accepted for publication in Ringing & Migration: Ageing Dunnocks Prunella modularis using plumage characteristics. It seems to work well... though I guess we would say that, wouldn't we?!

Second-year female. Bootiful.