Although I have recently been busy finishing-up my PhD thesis, I have had a few opportunities to do some BTO-licensed bird ringing over the last few weeks. These sessions have been really enjoyable, and have highlighted to me three core benefits of bird ringing.
First, during a session at a new meadow site just within Oxford ring road, we caught many summer visitors to the UK, including several sedge and reed warblers. This amazingly included a reed warbler which had previously been ringed as an adult in 2019. Given the migratory behaviour of this species, this means that the bird had made the 100s-of-kilometres journey to/from Africa over twenty times already! This really highlights the incredible potential of bird ringing to further our understanding of the survival and movement patterns of long distant migrants such as this individual. Second, although I am not undertaking the full field season this year, I have spent a couple of days in Wytham helping the current fieldworkers. Getting to ring a few blue tit broods while simultaneously wrapping up my PhD thesis has reminded me of the value of bird ringing from the perspective of linking many generations of individuals to gain a better understanding of long-term changes within a population and patterns of inheritance. Finally, I recently helped at a ringing demonstration for a local environmental group. Here, we got to show those who attended the wonderful diversity of species across the site, which made me realise how sharing these types of data collection with local communities can encourage people's appreciation of the natural world, promoting conservation of key habitats even in urban settings.
0 Comments
I have just returned from an incredible trip to The Isles of Scilly, where I had some really amazing wildlife encounters. I have been visiting Scilly every year all my life, and as mentioned many times on this blog, it is a very special place for wildlife. However, given the geography of the islands, it is a particularly special place for birdwatching during spring and autumn when it hosts a wealth of migratory species that drop down during their journeys to-and-from breeding grounds. I have only once visited the islands outside of mid-summer, and I am too young to remember much of what we saw!
I started the trip with a calm crossing on the Scillonian III ferry, where the holiday began with sightings of many manx shearwaters, guillemots and razorbills in rafts between Land's End and Scilly. It's extraordinary to think of the journey these birds have made, with many of our Manxies migrating across the Atlantic from South America to breed in Scilly (and other areas along the western coast of the UK). When I arrived on St Marys, I had a few hours before my mum would join me on the islands. I walked to some of the nature reserves on the island, managing to see the stunning purple heron which had been on the islands for a few days, in addition to a soaring hen harrier - both Scilly firsts for me! Over the next few days, there were some notable 'twitches', such as the pair of pink-footed geese which had been feeding in a field next to St Nicholas Church on Tresco for a week or so. There were also many sightings of classic migratory drop-ins, including tonnes of wheatears flitting about the beaches. However, a highlight for me was an early morning walk to the north end of Tresco, where I heard a grasshopper warbler reeling along the bushes, and an absolute gem of a male ring ouzel. This was another first for me, and was a highlight of the trip. Though I didn't see it at first, I knew there was something interesting around when I heard it call. The vocalisations are similar to the 'chack' calls of fieldfare, which would've been an exciting sighting for Scilly at this time of year. But once I caught a glimpse of the bird and realised it was a ring ouzel I was even more thrilled! The next morning, I started the day by checking a small flood near St Nicholas Church on Tresco. I was keen to keep an eye on this flood, as it looked like great habitat for small waders to drop into. Although I was unsuccessful with this hope, there was a very bright male yellow wagtail preening on a fencepost. However, I wasn't prepared for the next 20 minutes, where everything seemed to happen at once! First, I picked up a large dark bird approaching from the south. It took a minute or so before it was close enough for me to identify as a black kite - a first for me within the UK! While this was being mobbed by gulls, suddenly a red kite arrived. This is a species I commonly see back home, but to see one in Scilly was somewhat surreal. Just a few minutes later, a female marsh harrier drifted over, without stopping at all. In less than half and hour, I saw three raptor species that I haven't seen on Scilly previously! It was a real highlight of the trip. Later that day, I had the opportunity to see a beautifully-poised woodchat shrike at the south end of the island. This was a species I was hoping to see during the trip, so I was very glad to get a few photos of it. Over the next few days, we took a wildlife trip around the deeper waters of Scilly, seeing many more razorbill, guillemot, shags, and even a few puffins. We also got the chance to see quite a few grey seals, for which Scilly is a real strong-hold for the British population. Finally, on a walk around Bryher, I caught some brief views of a lovely male whinchat, a real favourite of mine! In total, I saw 90 bird species over the course of the week (eBird trip report found here) - it certainly isn't a trip I'll forget any time soon! Another wonderful trip down to Portland Bird Observatory brought with it a new species for my bird life list - purple sandpiper! There was a small flock of five individuals at Portland Bill. This is a winter visiting species in the UK, and there is still much we do not understand about their migratory movements, though it is thought that many of our wintering birds come from Arctic Canada.
A lot of what I post on this blog concerns local wildlife sightings and endeavours, but when I'm not out birdwatching I undertake research on the causes and consequences of variation in age structure in natural populations (for example, if there are many old versus many young individuals in an animal population, how does this affect how the population socialises, performs reproductively, and interacts with its environment?). I recently had the pleasure of presenting some of my findings at a Royal Society scientific meeting themed on Age and Society. This was a great privilege as these meetings have been running since the 17th Century, and have previously held talks from some of the most eminent scientists including Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke and Charles Darwin. I got incredibly useful feedback, and it was very encouraging to see scientists working on the most contemporary challenges in ecology and social evolution. My talk can be found below from 1:48:30. New OxPods episode is out! Found on our website, Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts.
The trajectory of evolving species is strongly affected by the environment in which they exist, and one particularly interesting example of this is when organisms evolving on islands differ predictably from their continental counterparts through a suite of morphological and behavioural traits, known as ‘The Island Syndrome’. But what is it that’s so special about islands that leads to this process, and what can biologists learn from the species that exhibit the syndrome? In this episode of OxPods, I chat to Prof Sonya Clegg, an associate professor of evolutionary ecology at the University of Oxford who studies the processes that promote species divergence New OxPods episode is out! Found on our website, Spotify, Google and Apple podcasts.
Sex is so widespread that you could assume it’s essential for life as we know it, playing a central role in the evolution and the development of animal and human societies. However, it’s not the only way of producing offspring, and compared to asexual reproduction, sex actually entails a number of costs. Because of this, ‘Why sex?’ is one of the most fundamental questions in biology that has puzzled scientists for many years. In this episode of OxPods, I chat to Dr Chris Wilson, an evolutionary biologist whose research aims to uncover why sex exists. Waxwings are surely one of the most sought after bird sightings for a UK-based birdwatcher in the winter. These birds are winter visitors to our isles, but the numbers that visit fluctuate greatly year-by-year depending on the size of the local population in their Scandinavian breeding grounds. This winter has been a waxwing "irruption" in the UK, and I was waiting for some local visitors until today where there has been a small flock feeding in the housing estate where I live! It was great to see them on my walk into the office. It also made me wonder about the wider patterns of winter visiting birds in the UK. This year I have seen many more redpoll and siskin around Oxford, both of which are winter visitors to the UK (although siskins do have a moderate breeding population restricted outside of central England). I wonder whether waxwing irruptions correlate with winters where we see many more numbers in the other species that come from their Northern breeding grounds?
I had a very grey walk around Farmoor reservoir to catch up with some of the site's classic winter species, as well as a few unusual visitors. The female greater scaup was showing well, a species that has been wintering at this site for a number of years now, but always as a single individual or in very low numbers. Additionally, a lovely pair of red knot were found along the causeway. Large numbers of this species winters in the UK away from their Arctic breeding grounds, but its an unusual species to see in central Oxfordshire seeing as they mostly congregate along our coastlines.
2023 was my best year of birding so far, seeing 197 species in total (21 more than the previous year), including a massive 36 lifers! This is reflective of a few things: more time spent birding local patches; a few trips to new places; and a generally increasing love for knowing what birds are around me wherever I go. The first of these (birding local patches) was something relatively new to me. I focussed on an area which I've posted about previously - a 2km squared patch in the northeast of the city of Oxford. I visited this site over 100 times during the year, made easy by the fact that I walk through part of it on my way to and from work. Highlights include my daily visits after fieldwork in the spring to a small flood, which luckily didn't dry up until May allowing for a few interesting waders which dropped past on their migrations (including lapwing, green sandpiper and common sandpiper). Also, a few lucky flyovers from species such as yellow wagtail and oystercatcher in the spring, and brambling and merlin in the winter, brought my tally up. Significant flooding in the north along the river Cherwell allowed for a shelduck and great white egret (the last two species seen on the patch before the new year!). However, the main highlight for me was the totally unexpected barn owl which flew off a roosting site in September, I'll be sure to keep my eyes out for it in the future as this is a relatively rare species to see within the city. In total, I saw 97 species on this site - not bad for a non-coastal urban patch! Visiting new places both within and outside the UK was also a great way to see new species. A trip with the research group to Norfolk in February was made special by seeing tonnes of brent geese, pink-footed geese and whooper swans across a number of sites; shore lark at Holkham bay; and a long-eared owl and snow bunting at Cley. I took an Easter break with my family to the Cairngorms, which featured one of my birding highlights of the year with a pair of golden eagles on my birthday; and a post-field season camping trip to Gloucestershire was a great opportunity to see the returning bluethroat. Visiting my girlfriend's family in Paris meant I was able to see some species rarely seen in the UK, including a black kite along a main road just outside of the city, as well as short-toed treecreeper and middle spotted woodpecker in a large metropolitan park. My annual family trip to Scilly was fantastic this year, with the pelagics sea trip bringing Wilson's storm petrel and three new species of shearwater. Finally, a trip to Copenhagen with my sisters in December included a short walk around Naturecenter Amager, where I saw my first ever rough-legged buzzard. 2024 will be an interesting year. I'll be finishing off my PhD and am unsure of where I'll be going after that - but I'm excited to see what this uncertainty will lead to (both bird-related and bird-unrelated!). Top 10 2023 bird moments: 1. Pair of golden eagles on 8th April (my birthday!) undergoing pairing behaviour from the summit of Creag Choinnich in the Cairngorms. 2. Small flock of shore lark glistening in winter sunlight after a long walk trying our best to find them on 25th Feb at Holkham Bay. 3. A beautiful bluethroat posing on a post to a small group of birders on 16th June at WWT Slimbridge. 4. The wood warbler with its ridiculously beautiful song trilling and showing well on the 29th April in Wytham Woods after a check of my nest-box round. 5. Finding a common sandpiper on the 23rd May after many daily trips to the local Marston Meadows flood. 6. A pogo-ing Wilson’s storm petrel dashing past the boat on the 24th July on a pelagics seabird trip off Scilly. 7. A couple of beautiful singing woodlark on the 26th February in south-east Oxfordshire. 8. An eery spotted crake singing its unusal drip-drop like calls at dusk on the 29th April at RSPB Otmoor. 9. The sudden appearance of a Goshawk when watching one of the data collection drone flights on 21st March at Wytham Woods. 10. Ringing my first firecrest on 28th September caught at Portland Bird Observatory.
|
Joe WoodmanA blog of my ideas, photography and research of the natural world. Archives
February 2024
|