December birding: Pygmy Owl & Parrot Crossbills!

Since the beginning of October there has been an unprecedented invasion of Parrot Crossbills in the Netherlands. Many groups of varying sizes were seen throughout the country. In my region the observations were spread rather thinly - there was a group present on NP de Hoge Veluwe but not anywhere else. I tried to see this group once and had birds, just taking off from a pine tree: not a really satisfying observation. Since you have to pay an entrance fee for the park I didn't visit them more often - I wanted to find them myself!

And thus, almost every weekend in November and December I did a lot of cycling through the forests, surrounding Apeldoorn. It wasn't succesfull until last week. My dad found some Parrot Crossbills early December, but we could not relocate this group.

Last Thursday, the second Christmas day, my dad and I did a search for Crossbills again. After a few hours searching we still hadn't seen any Crossbills. When we were close to Kootwijk there was one more place I wanted to check with my dad for Parrot Crossbills: to me this would be the perfect place for them!

Once we arrived there I noticed a Crossbill perched in a pine tree. One look through my binoculars and I knew enough: Parrots! Full of exitement we started taking photos. A bit later the bird flew off with a second one and started foraging in some pine trees further down the path. So there were two birds, a male and a female!

Finally after so many hours of searching I'd found my own!

 Parrot Crossbill (Loxia pytyopsittacus), male (photo taken by me)

Parrot Crossbill (Loxia pytyopsittacus), male and female (both photos taken by Tammo).

Kootwijk - Regelbergen - the pine forests to the right is where I found the Parrot's

Now time for another story:

Since a couple of weeks a Pygmy Owl has been present not far from my house. It had been really hard to find the last few weeks but since last weekend the bird has been observed continuously. Yesterday I visited the bird with my dad, and indeed: we had fantastic views of the bird! My second observation ever of Pygmy Owl and that only 20min from home!

Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum), last photo taken by Tammo

The group of birders at the Pygmy Owl

Redstart from Norway!

The first CES of the year was held at my site last Sunday. At arrival, temperatures reached -3 degrees Celsius, very cold for late April! During dawn it even reached -4.. Still, birds were already active, despite the cold.

When we stepped out of the car at 5, the first bird was already singing, a Redstart. After a relatively quick set up of the nets the ringing could start. The first two rounds were quite decent with 10+ each. The first round provided a first for the site: a female Hawfinch! Only my second in hand. The rounds after were slower, but still ok. Then around 11.00 I came across a Redstart in the net. And it was ringed! While I extracted the bird I looked at the ring. It said: Stavanger Mus. Norway! The first foreign ring for my site. Furthermore we caught 2 Great Tits with unknown Dutch rings, together with an unknown Pied Flycatcher.

Blackbird 2 - 0
Blue Tit 1 - 0
Chaffinch 6 - 0 
Great Tit 10 - 8 with 2 unknown Dutch rings
Hawfinch 1 - 0
Pied Flycatcher 4 - 2 one from last year and one femal (ringed as a pullus summer 2010!)
Redstart 0 - 1 Stavanger!
Robin 4 - 0
Song Thrush 1 - 0
Tree Pipit 1 - 0
Willow Warbler 1 - 1

Total: 31 new 12 retraps = 43 birds of 11 species

 Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes), female

 Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), male; the darkest male we've caught so far..

Redstart (Phoenicurus phoenicurus), adult male

Observations included two Bramblings (a singing male and a foraging female), displaying Goshawk, singing Cuckoo, Yellowhammers and a pair of Lesser-spotted Woodpeckers showing really well.

Here is a recording of the Brambling (Fringilla montifringilla):

Mibo's on the Veluwe

Middle-spotted Woodpeckers have been increasing rapidly in our country. At first, you had to go all the way to Limburg to see some Middle-spotted Woodpeckers, but nowadays that's not necessary anymore. They're occupying small parts of the Veluwe as well now.

Below a map with all the sightings of Middle-spotted Woodpeckers in our province Gelderland.

Distribution of Middle-Spotted Woodpeckers in Gelderland. Note the large(r) concentrations in the Achterhoek (especially Winterswijk), near Arnhem and Nijmegen.

My dad had seen one Middle-Spotted Woodpecker near Hoog Soeren last Monday, so today our goal was to get to see it(or them) again. At the location we first had one male Middle-spotted Woodpecker calling and singing. At one point a Jay started imitating the singing Middle-spotted Woodpecker! Below the recording:

Too bad of the background noise (''sound bubbles''), probably has to do with the app I use on my phone.

Anyway, after this first bird we heard some more Middle-spotted Woodpeckers calling, showing territorial behaviour. And for the next 15-20 minutes we experienced some great activity! Three Middle-spotted Woodpeckers were flying after each other, calling, singing, etc. A real treat! 

Middle-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus medius), male

Then as we did another round we found a 4th Middle-spotted Woodpecker, foraging quite low to the ground. 

Middle-spotted Woodpecker (Dendrocopus medius)

Next to the Middle-spotted Woodies we had Great-Spotted, Lesser-spotted, Black and Green Woodpecker. So 5 species of Woodpecker in one day!

Sibilatrix

Friday morning we went ringing at my ringing site again. The thunder and rain they had forecasted for the night didn't come out at all.. which was good for us. There was no wind and there was a complete cloud cover, perfect!

In the first round I came upon a great surprise in the net: a Wood Warbler! This was one of the species I was hoping to catch here, and now we did! It's not a species that's ringed very often (especially not at the breeding grounds); the main ringing records come from the coastal areas (the isles) in autumn. It's the first time I ring this species here in Holland. The bird was an adult female; it was surprising to see how good the condition of the flight feathers was, you would expect a much more worn bird. There were (young?) birds calling nearby, in the adjacent oak forest; same place where a male has been singing this entire spring.

 Wood Warbler (Phylloscopus sibilatrix), adult female; having a broodpatch

Wing of the Wood Warbler, note the good condition of for eg. the tips of the primaries and secondaries.

Another new, but expected species for this site was a 1cy Nuthatch. It was about time that we would catch one here! While doing a nestbox survey on Wednesday I had already noticed a large flock of young birds: many Tits, mixed with Willow Warblers, Chaffinches, Great Spotted Woodpeckers etc. I had hope the flock would still be around, and it was. We only managed to catch a small piece of the flock on Friday.

Nuthatch (Sitta europaea), 1cy

Among the tits we recaptured three juveniles that I'd ringed as pulli on this site this year. Good to recapture some! Furthermore it seems that most of the (adult) Pied Flycatchers have completed their post-breeding moult and left, none were caught this session.

Totals:

Blackbird 1 -
Blackcap 2 -
Blue Tit 1 -
Crested Tit 2 -
Great Tit 9 - 3
Great Spotted Woodpecker 1 -
Nuthatch 1 -
Robin 5 - 2
Song Thrush 2 - 1
Willow Warbler 5 -
Wood Warbler 1 -

Total 30-6 = 36
11 species

Yellowhammer

The weather has been pretty shitty the last week , and next to that the weather forecast turned out to be wrong multiple times. Well done weathermen! This morning was calm and sunny though, excellent for ringing. What a contrast compared to the strong SW wind of 5 bft with rain.

So this morning the 5th session of the season was held on the Veluwe. We had a nice number of birds and species for this site. Observations included: Siskins, Linnets, Crosbills, Bullfinches, quite a few Hawfinches (when we will catch one??), Firecrest, Woodcock, male Goshawk and of course the more common stuff. Below the totals:

Blackbird (Turdus merula) 2 -
Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) 2 -
Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) - 1
Dunnock (Prunella modellaris) 1 - new species for the site!
Great Tit  (Parus major) 6 - 1
Robin (Erithacus rubecula) 4 - 1
Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla) 1 - 1
Song Thrush (Turdus philomelos) 2 -
Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) 2 -6 including 1 Dutch control (controlled on the nest already, but first time in the nets)
Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella) 1 - beautiful adult female
Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) 1 -

Total 32 birds (22-10) spread over 11 species.

Some adults had already started their post-breeding moult. For example a few Pied Flycatchers, a Willow Warbler and a Great Tit.

 Yellowhammer (Emberiza citrinella), female, possibly a 2cy according to the very abraded tail

 Dunnock (Prunella modellaris), an unusual capture I would say in the middle of the forest.

Pied Flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) that have started their post-breeding moult. The upper bird has started moulting its inner few primaries and also its greater coverts and has already moulted two primary coverts. The bird below is moulting the inner two primaries and has already moulted the inner two primary coverts.

'Our' juvenile Blackbirds in the back garden are doing great by the way!

Promising start on Queensday

Unlike many other people, we spent our Queensday bird ringing. How wonderful!

Together with my dad, Hans and Henri we had an excellent first CES round at my ringing siste. As always with the first time, the set up took a bit longer then expected but for the rest everything went smooth.

From this year on, nestboxes have been hung on trees at the site and I think this has caused a clear increase in Pied Flycatcher and Great Tits. 

The morning started with cloud cover and low temperatures but soon the sun came forward and it became a beautiful day, the first reasonable day for Holland so far this spring!

Cloud cover is good for ringing and this was proved soon. Every round we had quite a few birds. Below the totals:

Blackbird (Turdus merula)	2
Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla)	2
Blue Tit (Cyanistes caeruleus)	1
Chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs)	2	1
Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus)	4
Goldcrest (Regulus regulus)	1
Great Tit (Parus major)	16	2
Jay (Garrulus glandarius)	1
Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca)	6
Robin (Erithacus rubecula)	2
Short-toed Treecreeper (Certhia brachydactyla)	1
Tree Pipit (Anthus trivialis)	1
Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus)	2

Total 41- 3 (recapture of one 'unknown' Dutch ringed Great Tit)

Observations during the ringing included: singing Lesser Redpoll, Yellowhammers, Marsh Tits, Coal Tits, Woodlark, Cuckoo, Redstarts, first Wood Warbler of the year and displaying Goshawk.

 Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), >2cy female; rounded primary coverts, rounded tail; blackish alula etc made me age this one as a >2cy, eventhough females are tricky.. (Well Pied Flycatchers in general in spring are difficult...)

  Pied Flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca), >1cy male; of the browngrey 'morph'

But what about the age of this one? A very good 4 I would say! (Upper individual)

 Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus), >1cy; pale looking individual

 Crested Tit (Lophophanes cristatus), >1cy male

Jay (Garrulus glandarius), >1cy female