Swift
Hobby
All common Warblers now in
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| 24-4-18 85 Swifts, Woodford (Ian Stapp) |
1 Swift, 2 Jay, 1 manky Fox
Stockwood Open Spaces:
1 Buzzard, 3 Coal Tit, 6 Lt Tit, 4 Chiffchaff, 6 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Song Thrush, 6 Goldfinch
SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Oldbury Power Station:
8 Sedge Warbler, 9 Reed Warbler, 2 Grasshopper Warbler (lagoon 3), 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Whitethroat
1 Buzzard, 3 Coal Tit, 6 Lt Tit, 4 Chiffchaff, 6 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Song Thrush, 6 Goldfinch
SOUTH GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Oldbury Power Station:
8 Sedge Warbler, 9 Reed Warbler, 2 Grasshopper Warbler (lagoon 3), 4 Lesser Whitethroat, 5 Whitethroat
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| 24-4-18 Swift, New Passage (Aravind Ramesh) |
3 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Dunlin, 1 Snipe, 2 Swift, 100's hirundines, Reed Warblers singing, 2 Wheatear, 2 Yellow Wagtail, 4 White Wagtail, 25 Pied Wagtail
Lyde Green:
2 singing Garden Warbler
Ingst, BBS:
2 Mallard, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 5 Skylark, 4 Swallow, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Nuthatch, 28! Wren, 4 Song Thrush, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 16 Linnet, 22 Goldfinch.
NORTH SOMERSET
2 singing Garden Warbler
Ingst, BBS:
2 Mallard, 1 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 2 Green Woodpecker, 5 Skylark, 4 Swallow, 6 Chiffchaff, 3 Blackcap, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Nuthatch, 28! Wren, 4 Song Thrush, 1 Greenfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 16 Linnet, 22 Goldfinch.
NORTH SOMERSET
Puxton:
2 Canada Goose, 8 Mallard, 3 Grey Heron, 1 Cormorant, 1 Buzzard, 2 GBB Gull, 2 Herring Gull,
7 LBB Gull, 6 Collared Dove, 1 Swift, 1 Green Woodpecker, 8 Skylark, 1 Sand Martin, 7 Swallow, 2 House Martin, 9 Chiffchaff, 1 Sedge Warbler, 7 Reed Warbler, 7 Blackcap, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Goldcrest, 13 Wren, 6 Starling, 1 Song Thrush, 21 House Sparrow, 6 Chaffinch, 1 Bullfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 11 Linnet, 17 Goldfinch, 1 Yellowhammer, 3 Reed Bunting
BELOW M4 & BANES
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| 24-4-18 Dipper, Wick (Peter Coslett) |
1 Sparrowhawk, 3 Buzzard, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Dipper, 1 Grey Wagtail
Newton St Loe:
10 Skylark, 25 Swallow, 10 House Martin, 2 Chiffchaff , 6 Blackcap. 1 Whitethroat, 4 Greenfinch, 3 Yellowhammer
RESERVOIRS:
Chew Valley Lake
4 Barnacle Goose, 1 Black Swan (Herriotts), 13 Shelduck, 8 Shoveler, 4 Teal, 6 Gadwall, 1 f Scaup, 1 m Goldeneye, 1 Sparrowhawk, 4 Buzzard, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Green Sandpiper, 6 Common Sandpiper, 3 GBB Gull
100 Swift, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, 1 Kestrel, 1 Hobby, 2 Raven, 4 Jay, 20 Sand Martin, 20 Swallow, 11 House Martin, 4 Cetti's Warbler, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 5 Chiffchaff , 4 Reed Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 4 Blackcap, 2 Garden Warbler, 2 Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Goldcrest, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Grey Wagtail, 1 Reed Bunting
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| 24-4-18 Hobby Woodford (Ian Stapp) |
Request for help in studying Bristol-born Starlings
Starlings are one of the fastest-declining species in southern Britain but we still have little idea what is driving this decline. We are fairly sure that the problem takes place away from the breeding areas. Unfortunately, Starlings are highly dispersive and current tracking technology cannot tell us where they encounter the threats that are causing excess mortality.We would like to test a different approach to this research question. Instead of waiting years for new radiotag technologies to come along, we plan to deploy lots of receivers to increase our chances of relocating ordinary radiotags. At this stage we only have a modest number of receivers and hope to test whether they work, with a view to scaling up to a larger study.
This is where we need your help. We plan to catch a bunch of young Starlings soon after the first broods fledge (mid-May), fit them with radio tags and then follow them with small, portable receivers, deployed by volunteers. We are looking for somewhere in urban/suburban Bristol to catch the birds - ideally, a small cluster of gardens where we can bait catching sites (from mid-April). We then need to find places at two km and four km from the tagging site where some of the receivers can be stationed. The rest of the receivers will be offered to volunteers willing to carry them around Bristol and surrounding areas, to sample a wider range of sites. Anyone can help with this if they are travelling around the city for work or simply because they are interested in Starlings.
All the birds will be colour-ringed too, so we would like to encourage everyone to look out for blue rings on Starlings' left legs, marked with white letter codes (digital camera images are proving ideal for reading these rings). Radiotracking is usually more productive than colour-ring re-sighting, but with so many active birders in Bristol, colour-ringing may prove more effective.
If anyone can offer potential ringing and receiver sites in Bristol or help with carrying the receivers around the city and its outskirts, please contact me (david.buckingham@rspb.org.uk) or Vivien Hartwell (vivien.hartwell@rspb.org.uk). Vivien will be comparing the effectiveness of traditional radiotracking, the new receivers and colour-rings while using all three approaches to measure habitat use.
The targets to beat (set by radiotracking in Cambridgeshire) are to follow the birds for longer than a month or further than ten km from the tagging site. We completely failed to find 40% of our tagged birds in Cambridgeshire - we would like to know more about what these rapid-dispersers are doing as they may be the birds that ultimately survive to adulthood. Many thanks in advance.
Dave Buckingham (RSPB Centre for Conservation Science)
