Autumn approaches

Where does the time go?  As our stay in the UK nears its end, we realise that we haven’t managed to do anything like as much birding here as we had hoped and intended.  However, as already reported, we have visited a number of the reserves that were previously our regular stamping grounds and in the process it has been good to meet up with quite a number of old friends.  Bittell Reservoirs have recently been added to the list of local sites visited and we also managed a few hours at Lakenheath Fen RSPB Reserve on our way back from a trip to the Norwich area.

Peter was born within walking distance of Upper Bittell Reservoir and Sunday afternoon visits there were regular long before he owned any binoculars.  In fact, his earliest visits, across the fields from what used to be known as ‘Groveley Corner’, probably involved him being carried by his parents!  Access to the reservoirs is rather more restricted now than it was in those days and although there are public footpaths that allow some views, it would certainly be necessary now to obtain permission from the owners, Barnt Green Waters Ltd, to cover the area thoroughly.  Without such permission our visit was a bit frustrating.

The website of Barnt Green Sailing Club has an interesting section on the history of the reservoirs, which owe their existence to the Worcester & Birmingham Canal, completed in 1815.  Apparently there was intense opposition to the building of the canal and the necessary Act of Parliament was not passed until the third attempt in 1791!  Who in those days could possibly have foreseen the importance that the reservoirs now have as habitat for birds and other wildlife - not to mention the sailing and fishing!

At Lakenheath Fen we managed to see a couple of Common Cranes, a Little Egret, an Osprey and a Marsh Harrier but few other birds of note.  However, as we have been pleased to find elsewhere, there were plenty of butterflies, particularly Small Tortoiseshells, which have been relatively scarce in recent years.  Our favourite bird organisation, the BTO, currently has a page on its website detailing records of Small Tortoiseshells provided by participants in BTO Garden BirdWatch.  These records show that numbers increased dramatically with the hot, dry weather of early July.  A number of possible reasons, including the weather, are suggested for the annual fluctuation in numbers of this most familiar of our butterflies.  For several weeks the Buddleias in our garden have been attracting them (along with lots of Large Whites), we now have one that seems already to be hibernating in our office and there seem to be others looking to find a way in!

 Lakenheath Fen (above & below)

 

Small Tortoiseshell

If you do go to the BTO website, also take a look at the latest news of the satellite-tagged Common Cuckoos.  Back in 2011 we chose well when we decided to sponsor ‘Chris’ which is now the only Cuckoo known to survive from the five that were tagged that year.  The latest signal received from ‘Chris’ was on 2nd September.  He arrived in Chad on 24th July and has remained there throughout August but based on his movements during the past two migrations, he can be expected to head soon for the Central African Republic and then on to the Congo Rainforest.  We will be following his progress and hoping that he makes it back to Thetford Forest in 2014.

Here in Stafford "barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, and touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue" but Keats made no mention of those hundreds of Canada Geese that pass over the house each morning and evening!

Join us for a seabird trip!

Very soon we'll be back in the Algarve and we're very much looking forward to the autumn migration period when we'll hope to see a rarity or two appear among the regular species.  Raptor passage, best experienced in the Sagres / Cabo de São Vicente, is a particular feature during September and October and we will also hope to spend some time with the ringing group from the UK who will be at Vilamoura for a week.  Remember last year they caught an Aquatic Warbler and the highlights of their previous years' mist-netting sessions have included Common Yellowthroat and Common Rosefinch.  Around the Ria Formosa or at Castro Marim, another North American wader would be nice, maybe a Least Sandpiper or a Solitary Sandpiper!

Cory's Shearwater

Autumn is also the time for seabird passage and we have arranged a boat trip from Fuseta for Friday, 4th October.  We plan to be out for about 2½ - 3 hours and we'll hope to see Shearwaters (Cory's, Great, Balearic and maybe Manx or Sooty), Skuas (Great, Pomarine and maybe more), European Storm-petrel, Gannets, various gulls and terns, etc.  Based on previous experience of similar trips and assuming good weather, there should be good opportunities for photography.  If you're interested in joining us, please contact us via our website for further details.

Birdfair 2013

We‘re just back from an exhausting but very enjoyable weekend at the Birdfair held as usual at Rutland Water Nature Reserve.  The organisers describe it as the international wildlife event of the year and who would argue?  This year Birdfair was celebrating its 25th anniversary and with almost 350 exhibitors and four simultaneous lecture programmes it has grown well beyond anything that could possibly have been imagined back in 1989 when Tim Appleton and Martin Davies organised the first modest birdwatchers’ fair on behalf of the RSPB and the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust.

Right from the start, profits from the Birdfair have been donated to conservation projects with the total amount raised now standing at more than £3 million.  Currently Birdfair is supporting BirdLife International’s Global Flyways Programme, funding projects to study and help migratory species.  This year it is grassland-dependent migrants in the Americas that are the focus, species such as Upland Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Swainson’s Hawk and Bobolink that rely on the effective management of grasslands throughout the Americas flyway where the remnants of native grasslands are fast disappearing under grain, oil-seed and other commodity crops.  A Birdfair-funded project will co-ordinate work at grassland Important Bird Areas in Mexico, Colombia, Bolivia and Argentina. 

Buff-breasted Sandpiper - this one was in the Algarve

We travelled to Rutland Water on Thursday to help put up the Avian Adventures stand and then spent most of Friday, Saturday and Sunday talking.  We talked about birds and we talked about travel.  We talked a great deal about the Algarve and we talked about many other places we have been and others that we would like to visit.  We talked to friends from countries in Africa, North, South and Central America and various parts of Europe and we talked to friends from the West Midlands.  We talked to people who have been with us on Avian Adventures tours and to many whom we have guided in the Algarve.  We talked to an encouraging number of you who are regular readers of our blog.  In short - we talked!

 The Avian Adventures stand before the Birdfair opened - all neat and tidy!

Marquee 3 - there were 10 marquees this year

Birdfair is undoubtedly one of the highlights of our year.  We always come away disappointed by how quickly three days have passed and because in that time we haven’t been able to get round the whole site and see everything and everybody.  Already next year’s event is in our diary - it’ll be on 15th, 16th & 17th August 2014.  

Time to Stop the Shooting!

We applaud the Portuguese Liga para a Protecção da Natureza (LPN) which has today called for a two-year moratorium on the shooting of Turtle Doves. Tomorrow sees the start of the hunting season but it surely makes no sense whatsoever to continue killing a species that is clearly in serious trouble with a population that continues to decline at an alarming rate. As an example, the British population is reported to have reduced by 90% since the 1960s.

Major changes in farming methods and adverse conditions in their wintering areas in Africa may well be the main causes of the decline in Turtle Doves and competition with Collared Doves could also be a factor. However, the scale of the slaughter of these birds in Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Portugal and elsewhere in Europe cannot be sustainable. And then, outside the European Union, there’s Morocco, Egypt and other countries in North Africa where large numbers are also shot, many of them by ‘tourist’ hunters from Europe!

While resources are being devoted to research and conservation programmes in the UK and elsewhere and there is a long-term Management Plan in place with the objective of halting the species’ decline, it makes very little sense to allow up to an estimated 3 million or more of these birds to be legally killed actually in the EU. In fact, it’s complete madness!

The LPN press release calls for the Portuguese Government to act now to protect the Turtle Dove before it is too late and the population reaches the point of no return. The plight of the Turtle Dove in Europe is unsettlingly similar to that of the Passenger Pigeon in North America, which was also once a common and widespread bird but driven to extinction as a result of hunting pressure and habitat loss. Nineteenth century Americans may have had some sort of excuse in their ignorance of what was happening to the Passenger Pigeon but there can be no such excuse for Europeans if we allow the Turtle Dove to continue its slide to oblivion.

Doxey Marshes v Upton Warren

We had the idea that while we are in the UK we would try to visit at least a few of what were once our regular birding sites around the West Midlands and maybe fit in a trip a bit further afield.  We have plenty of other distractions but we hoped that this vague plan would ensure that we get out and see at least some birds while we are here. 

We started by going to our local reservoirs, Blithfield and Belvide, and since then we’ve been birding on Cannock Chase, at Doxey Marshes, at Chillington and at Upton Warren, all of these places where we have spent many happy hours over the years. 

We have blogged already about Blithfield and Belvide; our time on Cannock Chase has been in the evenings, mostly looking for and at Nightjars; we spent an enjoyable sunny afternoon at Chillington looking as much for butterflies as for birds.

Just 40 miles apart, Doxey Marshes and Upton Warren, one in Staffordshire and the other in Worcestershire, are very similar in some respects but in others they are also very different.  Both are reserves managed by county wildlife trusts, both have several pools that have formed as a result of land subsidence following brine extraction, both are bisected by rivers (the Sow and the Salwarpe) and both are designated as Sites of Special Scientific Interest.

Amongst the birds we saw at Upton Warren last week were more than 80 Lapwings, 20 Curlews, 14 Green Sandpipers, 7 Avocets, 2 Little Ringed Plovers, 2 Dunlin, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Common Redshank and several Common Terns.  We were able to watch these from several well-positioned hides that overlook the best areas of the reserve.

 Juvenile Avocet at Upton Warren

Upton Warren Flashes

Other than a few Lapwings, our earlier visit to Doxey Marshes produced no waders at all.  There were plenty of Canada Geese and at least three pairs of Mute Swans appeared to have bred successfully but really they weren’t what we had hoped for!  The view from the only hide was certainly unrewarding, the water level on what we laughingly refer to as ‘the scrape’ being suitable for ducks but not shorebirds.

 Mute Swans at Doxey Marshes

View from the hide at Doxey Marshes

Where Doxey and Upton Warren differ is in the way that they have been managed over the years and their current condition which results from that management.  Staffs Wildlife Trust has undoubtedly had difficulties to contend with.  Flood alleviation work involving the re-grading and deepening of the river have certainly had a detrimental effect and it seems that the agreement and co-operation of the Internal Drainage Board and the Environment Agency are needed before anything can be done to achieve better control of water levels.  There is also the complication that subsidence is continuing.  Four years ago the IDB and the EA were said to have begun implementation of a water level management plan to create better habitats for ground nesting and migrating birds on the reserve but there is precious little sign of that being successful or of breeding success for any of the waders that support the reserve’s status as an SSSI.  Maybe there are factors that we don’t know about.  It probably doesn’t help that the SWT newsletter Marsh Warblings, which used to keep us informed about Doxey, has been discontinued and that no Annual Report has been published since 2009.

Moors Pool, Upton Warren

At Upton Warren amongst the species that have bred on the reserve this year are Avocet, Lapwing, Little Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Common Tern and Black-headed Gull.  As evidenced by what we saw during our visit, conditions are currently just right for wading birds and local birders can certainly look forward with optimism to the coming weeks of migration season.  Worcs Wildlife Trust and everyone involved with the management of the reserve are to be congratulated.  Although we no longer visit there with the regularity we once did, it’s one of the main reasons that we continue our membership and support of WWT.  Maybe if we weren’t going back to the Algarve, we would think of moving down there.

Doxey Marshes v Upton Warren?  It really is no contest!

Caspian Tern

The appearance of a Caspian Tern at Rudyard Lake on Friday gave us the possibility of a twitching trip to see a species that neither of us has ever seen in the UK let alone in Staffordshire.  Rudyard Lake is less than 50 miles away and Caspian Tern is a genuinely rare species in the UK; there have been only eight previous records in Staffordshire and this was the first since 1999. 

We didn’t go!

It didn’t take more than a few seconds to realise that there wouldn’t be much sense in spending time and money chasing off to see a species that we can see almost every day in the Algarve.  We do enjoy seeing and watching Caspian Terns but the only reason to have gone would have been to add a tick to a list. 

We realise that we are lucky to be so familiar with Caspian Terns.  In Tavira we sometimes see one come into what is effectively the town centre, fishing in the Gilão River.  Although they don’t breed in the Algarve, there are usually a few to be found throughout the year either in the Ria Formosa or at Castro Marim.  These birds are almost certainly from the breeding population around the Baltic Sea many of which winter in West Africa.  We see them on their way south in the spring and on their way back later in the year but many stay in the Algarve through the winter and a few, presumably sub-adult non-breeders, spend the summer with us.  We know of only one record of a colour-ringed bird in the Algarve: a bird seen by Ray Tipper on 30th September last year at Castro Marim that had been ringed just 91 days earlier as a nestling in Sweden.

Apart from in Portugal, we have also seen Caspian Terns in Finland, Costa Rica, South Africa, various parts of Africa and in several US states - they are widely distributed around the world also breeding in China, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere.  It is the world’s largest tern, almost the size of a Lesser Black-backed Gull and its striking large red bill makes it unmistakeable.  

In Britain there have been more records in July than in any other month, which is perhaps a bit surprising.  The assumption is that these birds are also from the Baltic population although there is a record of a bird ringed in North America being found in Yorkshire back in 1939.

Perhaps surprisingly Caspian Tern is regarded as monotypic; as yet there are no recognised sub-species although no doubt someone somewhere will be working on that!  It is reported that birds from North America, the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf are somewhat smaller than European ones, while birds from South America and Australia average larger.

The Rudyard Lake bird  stayed throughout the weekend and was apparently last seen flying out to the north early on Monday afternoon.

A Morning at Blithfield

After two weeks or so of what we used to think of as normal summer weather the tabloids now have headlines featuring “rocketing temperatures” and “heatwave warnings”, stories about “climate change” and articles about skin cancer!  Yes, it certainly starts to look as though our plan to escape the heat of the Algarve by coming to the UK is a failure.  But then again, perhaps not - forecast high temperatures today in Tavira and Stafford are 28°C and 25°C respectively, hardly a level to cause panic and alarm in either of those places.  We shudder to think what our friends in Tucson (35°) would think about such a reaction to weather we’re sure they would find to be a relief from the genuinely high temperatures they have been experiencing for the past few weeks and which they expect to have at this time of the year.

Anyway, making sure to use sunscreen, wear a hat and take plenty to drink, we spent yesterday morning at Blithfield Reservoir, another of our old stamping grounds in Staffordshire.  Blithfield, like Belvide, now has several new hides which are a great improvement on the old ones but we had forgotten just how far away from the birds several of them are. 

Although in some ways we enjoy the challenge of trying to identify distant waders, it was a bit unsatisfactory to come away from Blithe Bay not knowing for sure whether we really had seen a summer-plumaged Sanderling.  Even at 60x magnification through a Swarovski telescope it was just a dot!  And, while there was no doubt about the identification of spiffy Black-tailed Godwits, there was still no getting over the fact that they were 500 metres or more away and that as a result it was difficult to fully appreciate their finery.  Clearly we have been spoiled by the very close views of waders that we enjoy around Tavira!