If you go down to the reedbed tonight...

Well, afternoon and early evening I guess.

Whatever time you prefer to call it, come 2:30pm a few friends from my our ringing group, Brewood Ringers, gathered at Belvide Reservoir to set some nets for the reed bunting and starling roost.  Now starling don't get a great press, raiding bird tables, making a racket and a right mess when they murmurate and roost in urban areas, but up close they are awesome birds.

Far from black, they are a mix of iridescent black, green and purple!  For good measure they also have creamy markings thrown in, and its these which are part of the criteria you need to check for ageing a bird.  If the markings are dagger shapped, the bird is an adult whereas if they are more blotchy the bird was born in the last 12 months, and so a juvenile.  Combined with the shape and pattern of the tail the species is relatively easy to age.

Did you know you can also sex a starling based on the bird's eye colour?  If there is no contrast in colour across the eye, its a male as females have a contrast in colour, sometimes quite an obvious difference in colour.

So any thoughts on the bird below?

First reebu roost of the autumn

Several years ago we had a very successful autumn and early winter catching reed bunting (aka reebu) at a roost site at Belvide Reservoir.  This year water levels once again allow us access to the reedbed so we'll be ringing every few weeks as long as conditions allow.

The last time we caught at this roost we had several hundred new birds over the course of the season, with an astonishingly low number of retraps, suggesting that the majority of the birds were merely stopping off at Belvide to roost before heading off elsewhere.  So sitting in the hide every evening you could be forgiven in thinking that all the birds dropping in are the same as the week before.  Just another example of how valuable bird ringing is!

The evening ended with 35 reed bunting and 2 starling from a small flock which also roosted in the reedbed.  More to come over the coming weeks, we hope!

A birdy breakfast

This morning I was out on Cannock Chase with Brewood Ringers to catch birds at a feeding station as they arrived for breakfast.  After setting the nets it was evident that a huge number of redwing had clearly arrived in the last few days, with several hundred passing over us during the morning.

The session ended with a respectable 39 new birds including 3 great spotted woodpeckers, 14 goldcrest, 7 lesser redpoll, 2 coal tits and a single nuthatch and redwing.  All in all, a lovely way to spend a morning.

Fungal foray

Today I've been up on the Roaches Estate with local fungi expert, John Stanney, to survey for fungi as part of our Natural England higher level stewardship agreement.  A survey in 2012 found many interesting species of waxcap and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust are keen to see how they're doing.

Its not been a great year for fungi.  September was the driest since records began in 1910 with, on average, just a fifth of the usual amount of rain.  As a result the amount of fungi we managed to record was greatly reduced, but we still managed to record 11 of the 14 species we're monitoring.

However, star of the show was the 'Caterpillar fungus'.  The species identified was the Scarlet Caterpillarclub Cordyceps militaris.  This fungus is reasonably colourful but that's not the reason its so amazing.  This fungus is parasitic on the pupae or larva of butterflies and moths, which is effectively mummifies and keeps alive just long enough to produce the fruiting bodies we see above ground.  That's right, fungi aren't all feeding off dead wood.  Some are murderers!

Above ground, a colourful little fungus

Below ground, a murderer!  You can just make out the mummified creature

Other species recorded included blackening waxcap, parrot waxcap, meadow coral, scarlet waxcap and several mosaic puffballs.  The final treat of the day was a skein of 150+ pink-feet which flew over, a true sign of autumn!

Meadow waxcap

Mosaic puffball

Meadow coral

Parrot waxcap

Can you see the pink-feet skein?

Portugal report

I've been away in the Algarve ringing birds with Brewood Ringers for nearly two weeks at the Parque Ambientle near Vilamoura (hard life I know).  There've been some great birds, great weather and great company.  Here is my brief take on the events and star birds, I'll post a link to the full report when its out.

We arrived on 30th September and around the apartments there were some great birds, most of them seen or heard from the balcony.  Azure-winged magpies, red-rumped swallows, hoopoe, cetti's warbler and sardinian warblers.  On our walk to the restaurant we also encountered several flocks of cattle egret going into roost, a glossy ibis and a calling tawny owl.

A great start
Day 1 kicked off well with over 100 birds ringed including a 2 western bonelli's warblers (right photo below), but star of the show was a paddy field warbler (left photo below).  Check in Collins Bird Guide (other field guides are available) to see how far off course this bird was.  We believe it is the 5th record for Portugal.

Paddyfield warbler (left) and western bonelli's warbler (right)

'The V'

On an afternoon off I decided to walk around the local area to try and get some photos of the large number of cattle egret and hoopoe we'd seen along the road verges on our travels between the apartment and the nature reserve where we were ringing.

As well as a few awful photos I discovered an amazing place for birds, a seemingly bird-less manicured path between two apartment blocks.  Little did I know it would produce some great birds including crested larks, azure-winged magpies, several wheatears, a pied flycatcher and three, yes three wrynecks!

Later that week a few members of the team set out to ring a few of the birds present, and succeeded in catching a wryneck and a cattle egret amongst a few other birds.

Bird of the trip, a humble blackcap

With some great species ringed, including a 5th for Portugal in the paddyfield warbler, it might seem surprising that a blackcap was the star bird of the trip.  However, hear the story and you'll soon know why.

A few days into the trip, Dave pulled out another blackcap from the net and noticed it was already ringed.  Checking the ring he saw it was a British ring, not that unusual as we'd already caught reed warblers from Holland and Sweden, but close inspection and Dave thought he recognised the ring number.  A quick phone call home to his wife revealed that it was a bird that he originally ringed back in Staffordshire at Blithfield Reservoir less than a month earlier.  Amazing to think that the two of them were in the same place at the same time after 3 weeks and over 1000 miles travelled!

Out into the dark

Along with ringers from Brewood Ringers we were joined by three great guys from Shropshire, Paul, Kevin and Martin.  Paul had bought along a spot light and hand net in the hope of heading out at night to catch red-necked nightjar.  The evening was great and we succeeded in catching one bird (on the second attempt), along with a crested lark.

Red-necked nightjar

Crested lark

And finally...

At the end of our 10 day trip we caught and ringed 930 birds of 49 species, not one of the highest totals of individuals but a great mix of species to make up for it.  Collectively the group recorded 106 species, including those ringed.  They were:

Gadwall, shoveler, mallard, ferruginous duck, pochard, red-legged partridge, little grebe, gannet, cormorant, little bittern, cattle egret, little egret, squacco heron, great white egret, grey heron, white stork, glossy ibis, greater flamingo, short-toed eagle, booted eagle, black-winged kite, marsh harrier, kestrel, montagu's harrier, buzzard, water rail, moorhen, coot, purple swamphen, little ringed plover, lapwing, sanderling, turnstone, green sandpiper, common sandpiper, greenshank, whimbrel, snipe, arctic skua, black-headed gull, lesser black-backed gull, yellow-legged gull, mediterranean gull, feral pigeon, collared dove, little owl, tawny owl, barn owl, short-eared owl, red-necked nightjar, swift, kingfisher, hoopoe, green woodpecker, great spotted woodpecker, wryneck, crested lark, thekla's lark, swallow, sand martin, red-rumped swallow, house martin, yellow wagtail, white/pied wagtail, grey wagtail, bluethroat, redstart, stonechat, whinchat, wheatear, song thrush, mistle thrush, blackbird, zitting cisticola, garden warbler, blackcap, whitethroat, sardinian warbler, subalpine warbler, sedge warbler, reed warbler, cetti's warbler, paddyfield warbler, grasshopper warbler, melodious warbler, willow warbler, chiffchaff, western bonelli's warbler, spotted flycatcher, pied flycatcher, great tit, crested tit, penduline tit, short-toed treecreeper, azure-winged magpie, jay, spotless starling, spanish sparrow, house sparrow, linnet, goldfinch, greenfinch, serin, common waxbill, black-headed weaver, corn bunting.

Grasshopper warbler (left) and short-toed treecreeper (right)

 Penduline tit (left) and pied flycatcher (right)

Hoopoe

Little bittern