Session 4 - 18th October 2012

We began today's session by looking back at the species we saw on last week's fieldtrip to Pennington Flash in Leigh, the highlights being the Willow Tit, Nuthatch, Kingfisher and Snipe some of which were 'lifers' for a few members of the class.  See the end of last week's posting for the full species list.

With this being the 25th anniversary of the Great October Storm of 1987 (you know, the one which BBC weather forecaster Michael Fish infamously said that a hurricane wasn't on its way), we spent most of this session looking at 'Birds and Weather'.

Our discussion was based on an article from the Sunday Telegraph which looked to dispel some of the myths about this 'hurricane' and the affects it had on people in the UK.

In Michael's defence, the writer was keen to point out that the video clip that most people see is actually cut short, because he goes on to say, " ... but having said that, actually the weather will become very windy".

However, the term 'hurricane' has a very specific definition to a meteorologist and only occurs in the tropics.  The term 'hurricane force' means sustained winds which average 73mph and this did not happen during 15 and 16 October 1987.

So strictly speaking, Michael Fish was actually correct, a hurricane was not on it's way, although to most people in the south-east it certainly was a severe and destructive storm which is the dictionary definition of a hurricane.

But that spoils the 'fun' doesn't it, and so this myth is another case of 'never let the truth get in the way of a good story'!

Another myth is that the storms affected the whole country when in fact only the part of the country east of a line form Bournemouth to the Wash experienced the storm.  For this area the weather was very severe with gusts up to 115mph and 18 people dying as a result.  15 million trees were uprooted and Kew Gardens suffered many losses of ancient trees. In addition insurance losses exceeded £3 billion at today's prices.

So what's all this got to do with birds? Well, as we have been learning, birds are very much affected by the weather and several species of seabird were blown inland across south-east England as a result of the storm.  These species which breed in the high Arctic would have been on their southward migration when they got caught up in the storm.

We were asked to consider which species might have been affected and came up with the following list:

• Shearwaters
• Phalaropes
• Skuas
• Petrels
• Auks, such as Razorbills and Guillemots
• Kittiwakes
• Gannets
• Certain types of Gull

Next we looked at two specific species which were seen at inland waters all over southern England in the days following the storm: Sabine's Gull and Grey Phalarope. We read a section of the book 'Birds and Weather' by Stephen Moss which told us that both these species spend the late autumn feeding in the Bay of Biscay which was where the Great Storm originated.

A block of cold polar air originating from Hurricane Floyd on the east coast of America, moved south from the Atlantic and met the warm, moist air in the Bay of Biscay.  This caused a sudden and large drop in pressure down to just 959mb forming a depression gathered speed as it passed along the northern edge of an anticyclone.  A great number of both of these birds were swept along by the ferocity of the wind.

In spite of this, most of the displaced birds seemed to be in remarkably good condition. To quote from the book, 'Indeed the fact that the vast majority were found on extensive areas of open water where they were able to feed and recover suggests that they were mainly in good health.  This contrasts noticeably with the usual weak and disorientated condition of most wrecked seabirds'.

A likely theory for this suggested by Norman Elkins is that rather than fighting the storm and becoming exhausted, the gulls and phalaropes remained in the central 'eye' of the depression, which is relatively calm and away from the strong winds circling around it.

Once they sighted the English coastline they dropped out of the eye and were swept inland by the fierce southerly air stream and, as the winds weakened, the birds came to land relatively unscathed.

Apart from Sabine's Gulls and Grey Phalaropes there were not many other species, mainly due to the late date of the storm: had it occurred a month or so earlier, there would have been more 'wrecks' (large numbers of dead birds) of petrels and other birds. But by mid-October they were far out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond the reach of the storm.

Jay at Burrs Country Park (Martyn Jones)

After this fascinating discussion on Birds and Weather, we went on to look at three species of birds which are likely to be seen at this time of year:

• Bearded Tit
• Jay
• Owls

After a brief recap on the world's 'Faunal Zones' as discussed in a previous session, Peter handed out a map of the world's zones as well as chart showing shore and estuary birds in autumn and winter.

Knot at Marshside (Alan Flavell)

Finally we were given colour photographs of three 'mystery' birds to identify, on of which Alan had taken at Marshside during the high tide on Tuesday this week.  For each bird we had to identify the species and plumage stage and they turned out to be:

• Red-necked Grebe (in winter plumage)
• Knot (in winter plumage)
• Pallid Harrier (in summer plumage)

At the end of the session I showed the class the short report I'd put on this website about the Pennington Flash fieldtrip, and said that any contributions of photographs, reports or articles on any topic would be very welcome.

It's half-term next week, so the next session will be held on 1st November. See you then.

Birds in Focus - Grey Phalarope

Grey Phalarope in flight (RSPB)

The Grey Phalarope is an Arctic-breeding wader sometimes comes to the coasts of the UK after storms. They are most often seen at the coast; around 200 birds per year are seen. Like the other phalarope species, the female is the more colourful and leaves the male to incubate the eggs and bring up the young. In North America, these birds are known as Red Phalaropes, due to the birds' orangey-red breeding plumage.

Grey Phalarope (RSPB)

Grey Phalaropes spend a large proportion of their lives out at sea, many miles from land. Birds that turn up in the UK - largely around the coast but occasionally at wetlands inland - have been blown off-course by bad weather and strong winds.  They are most often seen between October and January.

In winter, the Grey Phalarope eats marine plankton picked from the sea's surface. On breeding grounds, they eat small insects and aquatic creatures.

Birds in Focus - Sabine's Gull

The Sabine's Gull is a small gull which breeds in the arctic and has a circumpolar distribution through northernmost North America and Eurasia.

It migrates south in autumn; most of the population winters at sea in the Pacific off western South America in the cold waters of the Humboldt Current, while Greenlandand eastern Canadian birds cross the Atlantic by way of the westernmost fringes of Europe to winter off southwest Africa in the cold waters of the Benguela Current. 

Occasionally individual Sabine's Gulls can be seen off other coasts such as the northeastern United States or further east in Europe, typically following autumn storms.

This species is easy to identify through its striking wing pattern. The adult has a pale grey back and wing coverts, black primary flight feathers and white secondaries. The white tail is forked. The male's hood darkens during breeding season. 

Their bills are black with a yellow tip. Young birds have a similar tricoloured wing pattern, but the grey is replaced by brown, and the tail has a black terminal band. The juveniles take two years to attain full adult plumage. They have a very high-pitched and squeaking call.


The Sabine's Gull breeds in colonies on coasts and tundra, laying two or three spotted olive-brown eggs in a ground nest lined with grass. It is very pelagic outside the breeding season and takes a wide variety of mainly animal food, and will eat any suitable small prey. It also steals eggs from nesting colonies of Arctic Terns.

It is named after the Irish scientist Sir Edward Sabine, who had sent a specimen to his brother Joseph Sabine when it was first described in 1819.

Birds in Focus - Knot

Knot at Marshside high tide (Alan Flavell)

The Knot is a dumpy, short-legged, stocky wading bird. In winter, It is grey above and white below; in summer the chest, belly and face are brick-red. In flight, it shows a pale rump and a faint wing-stripe. It forms huge flocks in winter which wheel and turn in flight, flashing their pale underwings as they twist and turn.

Many knots use UK estuaries as feeding grounds, both on migration and in winter, and therefore the population is vulnerable to any changes such as barrages, sea-level rises and human disturbance. Large numbers of birds visit the UK in winter from their Arctic breeding grounds.

Knot at Marshside high tide (Martyn Jones)

Knots are found in large muddy estuaries around the coast between August and May. The greatest numbers are found on The Wash, Morecambe Bay, and on the Thames, Humber and Dee estuaries, the Solway Firth and Strangford Lough. The largest numbers can be seen at high tide roosts between December and March. They eat shellfish and worms.

Here is a BTO identification video:

Birds in Focus - Pallid Harrier

The Pallid Harrier is a migratory bird of prey of the harrier family. It breeds in southern parts of eastern Europe and central Asia and winters mainly in India and southeast Asia. It is a very rare vagrant to Great Britain and western Europe, although remarkably a juvenile wintered in Norfolk in the winter of 2002/3.

This medium-sized raptor breeds on open plains, bogs and heathland. In winter it is a bird of open country. This is a typical harrier, with long wings held in a shallow V in its low flight. It also resembles other harriers in having distinct male and female plumages. Adults measure 40–48 cm long with a wingspan of 95–120 cm. Males weigh 315 g while the slightly larger females weigh 445 g.

The male is whitish grey above and white below, with narrow black wingtips. It differs from the Hen Harrier in its smaller size, narrower wings, pale colour different wing tip pattern.

The female is brown above with white upper tail coverts, hence females and the similar juveniles are often called "ringtails". Her underparts are buff streaked with brown. It is best distinguished from the female Hen Harrier on structure. It is very similar to the female Montagu's Harrier, but has darker and more uniform secondaries from below.

Pallid Harriers hunt small mammals, lizards and birds, surprising them as they drift low over fields and moors. The nest of this species is on the ground. Four to six whitish eggs are laid.

Birds in Focus - Jay

Jay at Burrs Country Park (Martyn Jones)

Although they are the most colourful members of the crow family,  Jays are actually quite difficult to see clearly. They are normally a very shy and elusive woodland birds rarely moving far from cover. This means that it is hard to get close to see or photograph them. Most often all that will be seen is the flash of a brownish bird with a white rump as it flies away. The screaming call usually lets you know a Jay is about and it is usually given when a bird is on the move, so watch for a bird flying between the trees with its distinctive flash of white on the rump.

They are found all year round across most of the UK, except northern Scotland and live in both deciduous and coniferous woodland, parks and mature gardens. They particularly like oak trees in autumn when there are plenty of acorns and are often seen flying across a woodland glade giving its screeching call.

Jays become more obvious in autumn when they may fly some distance in the open in search of acorns and there seems to be a influx of these birds in Britain at the moment with large groups being seen in some parts of the country. At this time of year they are busily collecting and storing acorns for the winter, but this year's acorn crop is a poor one and Jays are having to travel considerable distances.  BirdTrack, the BTO's recording system for bird migration and distribution, has had its highest ever recording rate for Jays last week.

Jay (Alan Flavell)

Sightings of high-flying flocks suggest that the acorn crop might also have failed in Europe and Continental Jays are flying here across the North Sea in search of food.  But some birders think that most of these Jays are from inland and, as yet, there have been no large numbers seen coming in off the sea at coastal observatories.

Jays can hoard up to 3,000 acorns in a single month, digging holes with their bills and burying two or three at a time. Most are eaten but the ones that are missed or forgotten are an important way for new oaks to be naturally planted - they are said to be the single most important planter of oak trees in Britain!

The acorn shortage is likely to lead to more Jays visiting gardens in search of food, with their pinky-brown plumage, white rump and black and white wings with a vivid blue flash, they are always a welcome sight.  They are often seen at dawn on autumn mornings looking for the large juicy garden spiders that this season brings, although they do eat almost anything including chicks in springtime.

Birds in Focus - Bearded Tit

Male Bearded Tit at Leighton Moss RSPB (Martyn Jones)

Bearded Tits or Bearded Reedlings as they are known in some books, are a brown, long-tailed bird, usually seen flying rapidly across the top of a reedbed. The males have black 'moustaches' rather than 'beards'. Although they have a superficial resemblance to Long-tailed Tits, they are not part of the true titmouse family (Paridae) and hence the alternative name. They are sociable and noisy birds, and their 'pinging' calls often being the first clue to their presence. The birds are particularly vulnerable to severe winters and their population has declined in recent years, making them an Amber List species.

Bearded Tits spend their lives in reedbeds (the only place they are found) but they may move away from breeding areas in winter.  Although they can be seen all year round, calm autumn days between 8am and 10am are the best time to look out for them when 'eruptions' sometimes fly high above the reed beds.  In spring and summer they eat insects, insect larvae and spiders and their diet changes to seeds in autumn and winter.

Ringing records show that it is mainly juveniles that are involved in the 'eruptions' - once they have completed their moult a proportion fly up above the reedbeds in a rapid climb accompanied by loud 'pinging' calls. Many will plunge straight back into the reeds but a few will fly up again and move off in all directions, stopping only at another reedbed.  This is how Bearded Tits are establishing themselves in Scotland, Wales, Northumberland, Cheshire and the Wirral.

The grit trays along the main 'Causeway' at Leighton Moss RSPB are an excellent place to view these birds in October, when they start to change their food source from insects to seeds. The birds need to swallow grit to grind up the grain in their stomachs as part of the digestive process.

Female or Juvenile Bearded Tit at Leighton Moss RSPB (Martyn Jones)

Blacktoft Sands RSPB near Goole and close to the head of the Humber Estuary is a major stronghold for this species, where they can usually be seen from the Marshlands, Singleton and Townend Hides. However, the birds have had mixed fortunes over the past few years with two hard winters drastically reducing numbers from 300 to just 50 because the reed heads containing the seeds that are their only winter food source had frozen solid.

The cold and very wet April weather also meant an almost total failure of their first nesting attempts (the first time this has ever happened) but since then they have managed to produce good numbers of late broods and some of these birds will be taking to the skies to establish new colonies.

Birds in Focus - Owls

Humans like Owls and seem to have an affinity with them.  Perhaps this is due to their human-like features of a rounded face and binocular vision.  They even seem to have ears, although what is usually seen are just tufts of feathers which complete their faces. Their facial discs are actually sound receivers which collect and focus the nearby sounds rather like a satellite dish.  It's the Owls' hearing that enables them to hunt so well at dusk or in the dark.

There are five species of Owl found in the UK:

Tawny Owl (RSPB)

The Tawny Owl is the most common Owl in Britain. It can be found almost anywhere there is mature trees, including woods, parks and large gardens. They nocturnal birds in their hunting but do use exposed perches.  The most characteristic feature is perhaps their distinctive call which is well-known to most people but many do not realise that the sound you learn as a child is both the female and male birds calling and answering. The female' sharp 'ke-vick' call is often preceded by the male's 'hoo-hoo-hoo', especially in Autumn.

Most of the calling you hear is that of young males that have dispersed from their parents' territory to find their own.  They call from dusk to dawn to establish if another male is nearby.  Tawny Owls are very sedentary and rarely move far from their birth place during their whole life.  A local Tawny Owl was ringed when it fledged and was found dead 21 years later barely a mile from where it was ringed. Most of the time the Tawny just sits and waits before dropping on its prey - it knows every detail of it's environment and can detect the slightest movement.

Barn Owl (RSPB)

The Barn Owl is sometimes called the Screech Owl due to its blood-curdling shriek.  They are found in open country such as farmland, meadows and downland.  Old barns and trees provide nest sites with rough grassland providing their main food source of voles.

Barn Owls are mainly nocturnal, but when they have young to feed they hunt in daylight. They can be seen over roadside verges and field margins or passing through headlight beams.

Short-eared Owl (RSPB)

Short-eared Owls are found on coastal marshes, moors, fields and young forestry plantations.  They are commonest and most widespread in winter due to autumn influxes of Scandinavian birds. The Short-eared Owl hunts in daylight with late afternoon seeing peak activity. They 'quarter' open country fields on long wings and several can hunt in one area if the vole count is high.  Harsh 'barking' calls are made during mid-air disputes.

Long- eared Owl (RSPB)

Long-eared Owls are found in areas of scrub and trees, including hedgerows, shelter belts, woods and heathland.  They are very secretive and can be very difficult to see as they hunt at night.  Communal winter roosts assemble in thick scrubs and late autumn brings the last chance to find 'tired' immigrants resting in the open.  The young make 'squeaky gate' begging calls in late spring. Courting males make a low, but far-carrying mournful "oh" sound.

Little Owl (RSPB)

The Little Owl is found in open country with mature trees such as farmland, parkland and downland.  It is about the size of a fat Blackbird and has a small stumpy form on fences, telephone poles and the boughs of trees at dusk.  Little Owls fly with fast wingbeats and glides, swooping up to a perch. They make a soft but far-carrying "Goo-ek" or "Weew" sound at dusk.

These compact Owls ooze character; they're small but they have attitude, accentuated by their piercing yellow eyes and permanent scowl.  Although they might seem at home in here, the Little Owl is the only non-native Owl in the UK.  The thousands that now exist in Britain all originate from the few that were released into Northamptonshire the 19th century by Lord Lilford.

Here's a BTO video on identifying Short-eared and Long-eared Owls:

Session 3 - 11th October 2012

Pennington Flash Fieldtrip

Today's session was a fieldtrip to Pennington Flash in Leigh.  It was a pretty awful day for going out and about, but that didn't deter the intrepid birders from the Whitefield 'Birds and their Habitat' class.  Today we were joined by Barbara from the Ramsbottom class making a total of 12 birders plus Peter.

We got to Pennington Flash at 1:30pm and waited on the car park for everyone to arrive.  This area of the Flash is normally very popular with families who feed the ducks, swans and other birds here and this has caused them to amass in great numbers here.  Amongst the flocks there were Canada Geese, Mallard, Mute Swans, Black-headed Gulls and a large single resident Muscovy Duck (presumably a farmyard bird or escapee) which to me looks more like a goose than a duck.  There was also a small group of Moorhens on the grassy area to the left of the car park and many Coot in the water.

Willow Tit at Bunting Hide, Pennington Flash (Martyn Jones)

Peter decided to go to Bunting Hide first of all as it has been closing early on some days due to staffing problems and we didn't want to miss it.  Bunting Hide is a feeding station and therefore you are nearly always guaranteed a good number and variety of birds there.  One of the specialities here is the Willow Tit, a bird that we have recently been discussing in the class and some people come quite a long way to see them here.

Here's a photograph of a Willow Tit that I took here on a previous visit.

Other birds of note here are the very brightly coloured male Bullfinches, of which only one was seen today - but it did look very smart with it's newly developed plumage after the summer moult.  Sometimes there can 10 or 12 of these birds feeding here, along with the more subdued coloured females.

Chaffinch at Bunting Hide

There are always a variety of titmice at Bunting Hide and today we saw Coal Tits, Great Tits and Blue Tits.  There are also usually a few Long-tailed Tits here (although not strictly one of the titmice Paridae family) but none were seen today.  Male and female Chaffinches were also present as well as a huge party of Greenfinches feeding in one of the cages - there were at least 12 of them and I've never seen so many here at once before. Finally there was a Robin, Stock Dove and Moorhen bringing the species count to 10 - not bad for a start!

Greenfinch at Bunting Hide

From Bunting Hide we went on to Horrocks Hide, the largest and possibly best placed of all the other hides.  On the way there we had a brief stop to look over the Flash where we saw a Great Crested Grebe, Tutfted Ducks, four or five Pochard in the distance and some Gulls standing on the coloured buoys.  Peter pointed out that one of them was a Common Gull with yellowish-green legs and white 'mirrors' on it's wing tips but you really needed a spotting scope to see these features clearly. There were also both Great Black-backed and Lesser Black-backed Gulls on the other buoys.

Horrocks Hide overlooks a long thin strip of land known as 'The Spit', which is the remains of an old railway line that used to pass through this area.  In recent weeks the Spit has disappeared altogether under the volume of water caused by the very heavy and frequent rainstorms, but today a fair amount of it was viewable even though the water levels are generally still quite high.

A typical view of the end of 'The Spit' - Cormorants and Gulls

The Spit is often a great place to see waders, but today there were few if any about - even the normally present Lapwing were missing  The Cormorant numbers are increasing once again after their absence in the summer and there were at least two white-bellied juveniles at the end of the Spit.

There were also a lot of Canada Geese present.  In the pools there were Teal and Mallards, with a Great Crested Grebe in the distance.  Perhaps the best bird to be seen today were four Common Snipe which were distant and very well camouflaged as they sat low amongst the vegetation at the far end of the Spit, only occasionally wading in to the water.  To the right is a photograph I took of a Snipe here from earlier in the year:

Grey Heron at Edmonson's

From Horrocks Hide we went on to Tom Edmonson's Hide and the first bird we saw there was a juvenile Grey Heron.  The rain was starting to become very heavy by now so we were grateful for the shelter.

The shingle scrapes were all but under water and so there was little chance of any waders, but there were Gadwall, Teal and Mallard pairs feeding here as well as a single pair of the large-billed Shoveler.  The drake was just coming out of eclipse and starting to regain it's colour.  There was also a male Cuckoo! Wait ... did I say Cuckoo? Well it was actually Peter's excellent impression of a distant Cuckoo which he started up when I mentioned to Alan that I'd heard a Cuckoo here in the spring. I'm sure he's had many people fooled with that one before now!

Little Grebe at Ramsdale's Hide

After the rain had died down a little, we decided to move on. En route to Ramsdale's Hide a blackbird flew across the path and we could hear Long-tailed Tits in the bushes.  A member of the class was keen to see a Kingfisher here and it didn't disappoint, first by perching on a submerged post at the far end of the pool and then by flying fast and low across the water in a shimmering iridescent bue blur towards the left side of the hide.  Also of note here was a Little Grebe that put in a brief appearance amongst the usuals of Coots and Mallards and some Lapwing were seen briefly overhead. Outside in the trees, more Long-tailed Tits could be heard and Peter said he could also make out a tiny Goldcrest from its call.

Our final call for the day was at Teal Hide, which is a short walk through the trees towards the Golf Course.  On the way Peter stopped us to listen again for Long-tailed Tits and also Willow Tits, and there was also a Robin or two along the path. At Teal Hide the water level was very high and so there was little dry land for waders, as has been the case for most of this year.  There were however, several pairs of Shovelers, some Gadwall and Coots and a Moorhen here. And then it was time to go home.

So in summary, here's a list of all the birds seen today:

Great Crested Grebe	Carrion Crow	Lesser Black-backed Gull	Black-headed Gull
Mallard	Moorhen	Common Gull	Canada Goose
Coot	Tufted Duck	Willow Tit	Coal Tit
Great Tit	Greenfinch	Blue Tit	Chaffinch
Stock Dove	Robin	Magpie	Blackbird
Grey Heron	Shoveler	Teal	Gadwall
Mute Swan	Snipe	Cormorant	Kingfisher
Goldcrest (heard)	Long-tailed Tit (heard)	Little Grebe	Pochard
Starling	Nuthatch	Lapwing	Greylag Goose
Woodpigeon			Cuckoo (NOT!!)

Some 37 species - not bad for a dull and wet Thursday afternoon.

If there were any more or there are any corrections needed to the text, please let me know by e-mail (geekteacher.mpj@gmail.com).

A great (if a little wet) afternoon out in very pleasant company - now I'm off for some soup and soldiers to warm up a bit - see you next week!

Martyn Jones

Thank-you

Dunlin at Marshside in September

Thank-you to all the members of Peter Baron's 'Birds and their Habitat' Whitefield class for your support in receiving this website today.  It seems that most of you (including someone from Bury Council) liked the idea and hopefully it will serve to enhance the learning experience in our classes.

It's my intention to write up the topics discussed each week and present them here together with additional photographs and links to other relevant websites.  All the information and photographs included will be fully accredited to the person who originates them.

If anyone already has a Flickr album on the internet and would like it included here, just let me know its web address.  Or if you'd like to find out about how to put your bird photos online with Flickr, I can set up a free account for you and show you how to upload your photos at the end of one of the sessions.

If you'd like to contribute anything to this website in the form of an article, a trip report or some photographs, please get in touch in class or by e-mail at the address below. In addition, if you find any errors or have any ideas for extending and improving the website, I'd like to hear from you.

Finally, if you'd like to make a comment on a particular post, just click on the word 'Comments' at the bottom of the post, type your message in the text box, choose 'Anonymous' in the 'Comment As' dropdown menu and then click the Publish button.  You can include your name in the message if you like.

Martyn Jones (aka GeekTeacher)

geekteacher.mpj@gmail.com

Session 2 - 4th October 2012

Today's session started with Peter listing the 62 bird species he saw this week on a five hour trip to the Wirral Peninsula.

Of particular note were two Great White Egrets at Parkgate, two juvenile Marsh Harriers at Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB, a Sandwich Tern at Hoylake and a Rock Pipit at Red Rocks.

All the above links are to the excellent Dee Estuary Birding website from which this map was also downloaded.

We then went on to look at an article from the Yorkshire Post (29/09/12) about autumn migrants on the east coast this year.

Our main focus in the article was on the Yellow-browed Warblers which have been brought to such places as Spurn Point on the Yorkshire coast by this week's strong winds and heavy rain.


The Yellow-browed Warbler breeds in the Ural Mountains across Asia and usually migrates through China to wintering areas from central Nepal southwards to the Malay Peninsula.  But some birds seem to be changing their migration pattern and are arriving in the UK in increasing numbers each autumn.  In October 2005, 1250 of these small warblers were recorded in the UK -  so how many were there actually present and how many first set off from the Urals?  The species is no longer a rarity here as it once used to be - it is now the most common Siberian migrant to pass through the UK.

Yellow-browed Warblers have now been recorded in most European countries and even in Senegal, Africa.  The question as to why this is happening and what is making them migrate in a completely different direction is perhaps due to the considerably shorter distance than the traditional route to south-east Asia.

During the course of reading this article we also discussed the concept of faunal zones or ecozones and in particular the Western Palearctic and Eastern Palearctic zones of Eurasia.

These are large areas of the planet's surface with their own distinctive fauna and flora due to physical boundaries such as mountain ranges, oceans and deserts.

Here in the UK we are are in the Western Palaeartic zone and the Yellow-browed Warblers have flown in from the Eastern Palaeartic where the avifauna is quite different.

Following this very interesting discussion we went on to recap the weather conditions needed to produce good 'falls' of migrants landing in the UK during Autumn.  Many Scandinavian songbirds migrate south-east over the North Sea for the winter and they set off during a period of high pressure when the skies are clear and the winds are light.  They usually fly at night when there is less chance of predation and they can easily use the stars and moon to navigate, along with the earth's magnetic field.

However, if they meet a low pressure weather system from over the Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Northern France etc) where the winds are much stronger and in the opposite (easterly) direction, they can be forced off course and need find land on the east coast of Britain, rather than ditching in the sea where they would probably die. Therefore, the criteria for good numbers of autumn migrants on the east coast are:

1. A high pressure weather system (cyclone) over Scandinavia
2. Easterly winds blowing in from the North Sea
3. A low pressure weather system (anticyclone / depression) over the southern North Sea

Spurn Point

Conditions such as these can bring a whole host of common birds and rarities to places such as Spurn Point, which is a very popular place for birders in Autumn provided the weather conditions are right.

A bird observatory has been set up here as it is a key recording site for the UK and you can even book an overnight stay there for just £12 if the fancy takes you.

On the west coast of the UK, autumn is good time for seeing seabirds blown close inshore and even inland from the Irish Sea and Atlantic Ocean.  The weather conditions which facilitate this are strong to gale-force westerly winds from the Atlantic.  These will bring in such pelagic (ocean-going) birds as Shearwaters, Petrels, Skuas, scarce Gulls and Phalaropes and October is a good month to see all these species.

We briefly finished this section by recapping on the weather conditions that can make a productive trip to Parkgate on the Wirral at this time of year.  Parkgate is well-known for it's high tides bringing in raptors hunting for the rodents and small mammals that are trying to escape the rising water levels on the marshland.  However, the conditions need to be just right, so:

1. Choose a high tide in October or March
2. Look for a tide above 10 metres
3. North westerly winds are needed to push the tide further up the Dee Estuary than normal

With this in mind, Peter issued the class with a printout of the Sunday high tides for October 2012 and I'm lucky enough to be going to the first one on Sunday 7th October.

Next we went to have a look at last week's 'homework', which was to read an article on how to identify the 'twin species' of Marsh Tits and Willow Tits.  These are discussed in the 'Birds in Focus' section of this website.

Birds and their Habitats Website

The main session was then concluded by discussing the arrangements for next week's field trip to Pennington Flash in Leigh, with the focus being on the birds that might be seen on our visit.  More on than next week.

Finally, I presented this website to the class and I'm pleased to say that it seemed to be well-recieved by Peter and the other members. I've written a little 'Thank-you' here, together with a few more details about the aims of the website and how people can contribute to it.

UPDATE

Would you believe it? A Yellow-browed Warbler has been reported at the Wigan Flashes on Saturday 6th October.  Watch out for the rush !

Birds in Focus - Gulls

Gulls can be one of the most difficult of birds to identify, so much so that many birders don't bother!  There are so many variations in colour and plumage depending on the age of the bird and the season. However, Gulls can be the most numerous of all the birds on a particular site and a large flock may indeed consist of four or five different species. Here we concentrate only on adult birds.

Criteria for the identification of Gulls

1. BPC - Bare Parts Colour - anything without feathers on it, i.e. leg, bill and eye colour
2. Upper wing colour and pattern

There are five main species of Gull that can usually be found on most large bodies of inland water:

1. Black-headed Gull - smallest of the five species with red legs and red bill with a black tip
2. Common Gull - greenish yellow legs with white 'mirrors' on the wing tips which appear rounded.  Black eye.
3. Herring Gull - pink or flesh legs and yellowish bill and silvery grey upper wing colour. Pale 'beady' eye.
4. Lesser Black-backed Gull - yellowish legs with slaty grey upper wing colour
5. Great Black-backed Gull - pink or flesh coloured legs with black upper wing colour. A very large bird.

Nearer to the breeding season the colours get much brighter.

Other Gulls which are scarcer but which can usually be seen in North West England include:

• Mediterranean Gull
• Little Gull
• Iceland Gull
• Glaucous Gull

Birds in Focus - Marsh Tit and Willow Tit

Willow Tit (RSPB)

Marsh Tit (RSPB)

The Marsh Tit and Willow Tit are an example of a 'twin species' and are a pair of birds that are very difficult to tell apart.  Traditionally the following characteristics have been used:

1. Voice or call
2. Distribution - i.e. where it's found
3. Head colour and appearance - Marsh Tit has a glossy black cap, whereas the Willow Tit's is dull black
4. Wing panel colour - Willow Tit has a pale patch on the inner wing which Marsh Tit lacks

The bird's call is a surefire way of identifying each bird, but what if it's not heard?  There is increasing evidence to show that the other three methods are not always as conclusive as first believed because both birds can at times display similar features.

Recent suggestions for telling the two birds apart are:

1. A 'smeary' white mark at the base of the Marsh Tit's upper mandible which is missing on the Willow Tit
2. Grey-brown hues on at the neck-sides on the Marsh Tit compares to warm buff hues on the Willow Tit

The best place to see these birds in North West England are:

• Marsh Tit - Leighton Moss RSPB
• Willow Tit - Pennington Flash Country Park or Astley Moss

Whichever method is correct, the two birds obviously give even the experts plenty to discuss and so for many birders the chosen method will still be voice first, followed quickly by distribution.

Here's a BTO identificartion video: