This is turning into a good spring for Black-necked Grebe in Oxfordshire. The latest to be found was a summer plumaged bird on the small Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury. I popped in at lunchtime today…
Just a few meters offshore, in full summer plumage… wow!
These were the sort of views of Black-necked Grebe that I had only previously dreamt about. Look at those eyes!
Those golden ear tufts!
Occasionally the bird would tilt it’s head to scrutinise birds flying over:
Good to bump into Ewan and Moth there too. There are more details about Black-necked Grebe records in Oxfordshire in this post here.
Black-necked Grebe is a scarce passage and winter visitor to Oxfordshire but has been recorded in every month of the year and in every year during this period, except for 2008, when there were no records in the county. Scanning a reservoir or gravel pit in spring and finding a summer-plumaged Black-necked Grebe may be the highlight of spring migration for birders in a land-locked county such as Oxfordshire. This article looks at the pattern of occurrence for Black-necked Grebe in the 14 years from 2000 to 2013 inclusive.
As many observers can submit records for each individual bird present, using the total number of records per year on the OOS database does not provide an accurate reflection of the actual number of birds present. The table below was calculated by examining the OOS reports from 2000-2013 and determining the likely number of birds present in each month, rather than the total of submitted observer records. A conservative approach to numbers was taken if birds were reported from nearby locations on consecutive dates, so the real numbers of birds involved may well be higher than this estimate. Figure 1 shows, for example, that there has been a total of 5 Black-necked Grebes recorded in the month January in the years 2000-2013:
Spring records:
There is a clear spike in records beginning in March and increasing in April. These records are of wintering birds returning to their breeding grounds in northern and central England. Black-necked Grebes were recorded in the month of March in three years and in the month of April in six years during the fourteen-year period between 2000 and 2013. There were cumulative totals of 9 birds recorded in March and 18 in April (see figure 1). Birds recorded in early March, such as the birds pictured below at Dix Pit on 7th March 2018, are in predominantly winter plumage. By the end of April most Black-necked Grebes will be in full breeding plumage.
However, the totals for March and April are inflated by two significant flocks of Black-necked Grebes: 5 birds together at Dix Pit on 6th March 2002 and 7 summer plumaged birds together at Farmoor Reservoir on 27th April 2012. Some of these birds remained for a number of days and gave fabulous views, even performing courtship displays on occasions:
Breeding season records:
There is only one May record (of two birds on 24th May 2013 at Farmoor) and a single record from June: a bird in full breeding plumage seen at Standlake on 4th June 2000. This is the only June record of Black-necked Grebe in Oxfordshire (OOS Annual Report, 2000) and at time of year when breeding birds are usually on territory, hence the paucity of Oxfordshire records in early summer. This bird could have been a very early failed breeder, but perhaps is more likely to have been a breeding bird dispersing in search of potential nesting habitat. This species is noted for “widespread aerial reconnaissance” (CBWP).
Post-breeding records:
The gradual increase in records from July through to September correlates with the arrival of failed breeders and post-breeding dispersal. Failed breeders may leave breeding ponds as early as July, whilst post-breeding dispersal typically occurs from mid-August (Migration Atlas, BTO). This accounts for the gradual rise in Oxfordshire records in the autumn period. In eight of the fourteen years analysed Black-necked Grebes were recorded in September, making this the most productive month overall for records in Oxfordshire, even though the overall number of birds found in September, sixteen, is eclipsed by the total found in April, eighteen.
Winter records:
In the western palearctic Black-necked Grebes winter within the breeding range, with movements to the coast when inland water-bodies freeze. CBWP states that most birds are on their wintering grounds by November and that the UK wintering population may receive birds from continental Europe that shelter in the estuaries and inland water bodies of south-east England. Winter records in Oxfordshire increase from October to December (see figure 1) and could conceivably be from both Black-necked Grebes that breed in the UK or from birds that have migrated to southern England from breeding grounds in continental Europe.
A global footnote:
The movements described above are trivial compared to the migration of Black-necked Grebe in other parts of its global range. Hundreds of thousands of Black-necked Grebes are thought to winter in the south Caspian Sea off the coast of Iran, with tens of thousands on Turkish lakes in winter (BTO, Migration Atlas).
In North America nearly 1.5 million Eared Grebes (the name by which Black-necked Grebes are known in the west) migrate to Lake Mono in California where the adults undergo a complete moult and the juvenile birds a partial moult. The birds at Lake Mono more than double their weight on their autumn staging grounds, their chest muscles shrink as their bodies favour rapid fat deposition. Eared Grebes are rendered flightless during this period and are flightless for up to 9 or 10 months of the year, the longest flightless periods for any species bird capable of flight in the world (Cornell 2017). Eventually the brine shrimp population, on which the vast numbers of grebes feed, collapses. The grebes, by now having completed their moult, migrate to the coast at night. The nocturnal movements of so many birds can leave them prone to severe weather-related incidents, such as this report of some 4,000 Eared Grebes that landed in a Walmart car park in a storm in Utah in December 2011. In Europe both diurnal and nocturnal migration of Black-necked Grebe has been recorded, in contrast to the purely nocturnal migration of Eared Grebe in North America (Migration Atlas, BTO).
References:
“Bird Atlas 2007-2011”, BTO, 2013.
“The Birds of the Western Palearctic”, concise edition (CWBP); Snow & Perrins; OUP 1998.
“The Migration Atlas”, BTO, 2002.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology; “Eared Grebe” website; 2017; [https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/overview]
Weblinks to news items on the mass downing of thousands of Eared Grebes in Utah in 2011:
On 6th March 2002 I found a flock of 5 Black-necked Grebes a Dix Pit, one of my first noteworthy self-found birds in the county. A photo of that flock, by George Reszeter, was published in Birdwatching magazine. Despite the caption on the photo, I don’t think it is too unusual it is to see small groups of these grebes, as recently a party of 5 have spent the last couple of months at Sonning Eye gravel pits.
Black-necked Grebes appear annually in Oxfordshire, often in small numbers in early spring, as they move to their breeding grounds on pools in northern England. I thought of the flock that I found in 2002 as I headed out to Dix Pit this morning, 16 years and one day later. It was a nice moment then, when scanning from one end of the pit, I picked out 2 Black-necked Grebes on the far side. I worked my way around the gravel pit to get closer, the light was better and the birds showed nicely. These birds were more in winter plumage than summer. Their heads and necks are taking on the black of their breeding plumage, but they had not yet grown their fabulous golden ear tufts. Nevertheless, seeing the red eye is always a treat:
Having found a single, very distant, Black-necked Grebe on Monday at Henley Road gravel pits, it was good to get much better views of these beautiful grebes:
A productive couple of hours on the southern border of Oxfordshire. The redhead Smew was not only on the same pit as when I lasted visited on 7th February, but was pulled out of the water on exactly the same branch, above.
The Smew was here:
The other side of the peninsular produced a distant Black-necked Grebe. It was mobile and fishing constantly:
I wondered if this bird may have been part of the flock of 5 Black-necked Grebes that had spent the last couple of months on nearby Sonning Eye gravel pits, so I popped over to have a look.
As well as all the usual suspects, such as Great Crested Grebe, above…
Sonning held 3 Goosander (above), a Little Egret, a singing Cetti’s Warbler, a flock of 30 Siskin and 18 Goldeneye. I could find no sign of the Black-necked Grebes in the small bay past the sailing club, perhaps they have moved on?
The male Goldeneye were displaying, bobbing their heads up and down, whilst their evocative calls sounded out over the lake, something like this:
Personally I have never found distinguishing Marsh and Willow Tits particularly easy. The scolding “taah, taah, taah” call of Willow Tit was always a good basis, but that wasn’t helpful in birds which did not call. In silent birds the pale wing panel and more bull-necked appearance of Willow Tits seemed the best features, though these seemed more obvious in birds that I saw in Europe than in British Willow Tit candidates. Then in 2009 British Birds published updated criteria for separating these two similar species. The size of the bib and the glossy cap of Marsh Tit were demoted as less reliable features. The most reliable criteria seemed to be song, call, an unmarked upper mandible in Willow Tit and a strong contrast between the white cheeks and the pale brown neck sides in Marsh Tit:
This morning Dave Lowe and I paid a visit to the wood just north of Grimsbury Reservoir in Banbury, pretty much the only reliable site in the county for seeing Willow Tit. It was a cold, sunny morning but we worked our way through the riverside trees finding Goldfinches, Siskins, a single Lesser Redpoll and Blue, Great, Coal and Long-tailed Tits. After about 15 minutes I picked out an all dark-headed Tit in trees on the far bank of the River Cherwell:
Fortunately, it and another similar bird, did the decent thing and flew across to our side of the river where we enjoyed good views of this pair of birds feeding in the wood. On three occasions we heard the “taah, taah, taah” call and at no time the loud “pitchoo” of Marsh Tit. Both birds had a pale wing panel, formed by pale creamy edges to the tertials and secondaries, though these were more obvious in one bird than the other. This was the bird with the brighter pale wing panel:
Meeting the other criteria for Willow Tit on the other bird required some work! In bright sun some images seemed to show that there were pale markings on the bill (but could this be reflected sunlight?):
But it was the contrast between the white ear coverts and the pale brown neck sides, of which there is little in Willow Tit, but much contrast in Marsh Tit, that I struggled with the most. Both the pictures above and below do show a clear contrast between the white ear coverts and the buff neck sides on this bird, a better feature for Marsh Tit:
Compare the buff colour of the neck area behind the ear coverts on the two images above with the clean white colour on the bird with the brighter wing panel, below:
I posted some of the above pictures on the Oxon Birding website as Willow Tits at Grimsbury Reservoir and Richard Broughton came to the rescue:
“Hi Tom, definitely Marsh and a Willow in those pics – maybe the nightmare scenario of a mixed pair! Pics 1, 4 & 5 are Marsh, the others are Willow. Cheek pattern (white/grey) and pale bill mark are definitely there in the Marsh (see especially pic 5 where the bill is in shade, and the white mark shows nicely). Clear dark bill on the willow in pic 3, and undertail also shows the graduated tail tip (at least 3 feather tips visible in steps, sometimes shown by adult marsh, but generally a good pointer for willow). Pic 2 also shows willow tit pattern on greater coverts – dark centres and contrasting pale margin (new feature: http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/517411). Had another report of mixed pair up north last year – the Marsh Tit was even ringed as a Willow by mistake (out of usual range), and seemed paired with a Willow. Oddly, it seemed to be mimicking willow calls when associating with Willows, and only gave a pitchoo call in response to playback. There a record in the literature of a mixed pair attending a nest, so they might be able to hybridise (never been proven genetically). Cheers, Richard”.
If both species are present, then extra caution is required when looking out for Willow Tit at this site in Oxfordshire! All in all a thoroughly enjoyable and instructive morning.
A calm, sunny visit to Henley Road GPs near Reading (but crucially, just in Oxfordshire) produced a nice Smew this morning. The first bird in my first scan was a male Wigeon, far right in the picture below. The second, a redhead Smew, second from right. A pleasantly quick result:
After a few moments, the Smew pulled out of the water and perched for a while…
… before continuing fishing under the overhanging branches:
Aging redhead Smew appears to be a tricky affair, as adult females and juvenile birds are very similar. Collins mentions that juveniles have a greyer, less white belly and that the loral area remains brown in their first autumn and “sometimes for longer”. This bird was too distant for me to to be certain of either of those features, so remains an ageless redhead (!).
The Hawfinch invasion of 2017 brought large numbers of these fantastic finches into the county. I enjoyed catching up with some of the vanguard back in October, see here, but I wanted some more good views of these birds, just in case they all disappeared in the spring! The churchyard at Northmoor has held a small flock of Hawfinches since the autumn, so I paid a visit this morning.
I began by scanning the trees in the churchyard, checking the higher exposed branches for perched birds and the dense yew trees for signs of feeding birds, hidden away in their depths. I regularly looked around for flying birds and listened for the flight call. I checked the trees at the front of the churchyard, then walked quietly around to watch the trees at the back, before returning to the trees at the front again. This seemed like a sensible strategy but after half an hour it had produced zero Hawfinches. I had seen a fly-over Red Kite, Buzzard, Sparowhawk, Kestrel and even a circling Peregrine:
After nearly an hour, I was getting seriously cold and was in despair about why I had not located a single Hawfinch. Perhaps the regular raptor flyovers were keeping the Hawfinches secretive? Was I to be the only birder in the county to come here and not see Hawfinch?! Then an elderly couple enter the churchyard, both wearing binoculars. “Have you seen any Hawfinches?” they call, “this is the fourth spot we have tried for them, we keep missing them”. I have to admit that my heart sank. Having more people wandering around would not increase my chances of seeing these shy finches.
Nevertheless, I went over for a chat and the couple told me that they had read reports of the birds feeding at the back of the church. I had checked those trees even more frequently than the ones in front of the church, as they were out of the wind. “Let’s have another look” I suggest and we walk around behind the church. Immediately the elderly woman calls “There’s one” and points up to a single bird in the tree behind the church. I lift my binoculars and look at the bird. There is a Hawfinch perched in the exposed branches in the top of the tree. I must have checked that tree twenty times in the last hour. The couple have been in the graveyard for less than a minute!
We admire the bird and after a few minutes it starts calling. Not the hard “tick” call, but something more like the soft flight call:
[Ruud van Beusekom, XC298155. Accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/298155]
The Hawfinch then flew to the tall trees at the front of the church. As it leaves the tree, at least three other birds fly in to join it.
Hawfinches are masters of perching up quietly and using the shadows:
The small flock drops down to feed in the trees in the front corner of the churchyard. I then spend a fabulous 45 minutes watching feeding birds in the yew trees:
Their plumage breaks out their outline very effectively. In flight, in good light, the huge bill and tail tip glow white. But in the shadows of the trees, the white patches on the tail, undertail coverts and wing coverts blend in with the patches of sunlight between the branches, making them hard to pick out:
The black bib forms a triangular patch that perfectly mirrors the large pale bill, when viewed from below:
I saw the huge bill, famous for it’s power, being used to delicately pick out seeds from the tree:
This bird, below, is in mid-crack. The seed casing can be seen falling down, in front of the bird’s breast:
Hawfinches are superb birds. Although it took a while for the birds to come and feed, once they were settled it was fabulous to get close, relaxed views of what it historically a tricky bird to see in Oxfordshire. A fantastic morning and a reward for the slow and cold start.
Many years ago, a man who goes by the name of Badger, decided it would be good to bring the local community of birders together for a Christmas meal. And so it was. Over time this festive meal became an established part of the annual routine for Oxfordshire birders. Last year Badger asked me to say some words at the end of the meal and together we handed out a few prizes, in recognition of the work local birders do. Not so much after dinner speaking, but more of a gentle dessert.
This year we went all out and held a review of the year, together with a full on Oscar-esque prize giving ceremony. Some prizes were obvious, such as Best County Find and Best Local Patch Find. Others were more tongue in cheek: the Best Oxon Bird Photo included three appalling photographs of birds in Oxfordshire and there were prizes for the Best Dressed Birder and, my favourite, the You’ve Smashed It Award for the person who had broken the most equipment in the calendar year. 2017’s winner had accidentally damaged a staggering £16,500 worth of lenses, hence the award’s alternative name “The Thank God for Insurance Award”.
It is always great to get everybody together and such an event allows us to thank Badger and Adam for the tireless work they do in running the Oxon Bird Log. The open, free exchange of information on birds in the county is not something that happens everywhere and we should celebrate the fact we have an open, friendly birding community.
Many thanks also to Peter Alfrey, who not only turned up, but won a prize, took some pictures (above, thank you!) and even wrote a nice little blog piece, here. We look forward to seeing more of him and fellow recent addition to the Oxon birding community, Mick Cuningham, out in the field in 2018. Both have already found good birds in the county. Standards are rising!
Like a cherry stone in a Hawfinch’s bill, I cracked on Saturday morning. The second half of October has seen record numbers of Hawfinch arrive in southern England, presumably from the continent. Further north, there is little evidence of large numbers of birds passing through. For example, only small numbers of Hawfinch have been recorded at Spurn this autumn (see Mick Cuningham’s comment below for clarification). But for landlocked, migration-deprived counties such as Oxfordshire, this is a huge event. Seeing Hawfinch in Oxfordshire has always been difficult and usually required a number of visits to the miniature railway shed at Blenhiem Palace in early spring. Every time I went it was absolutely freezing. Once in a while, often after quite a long while, very small numbers of Hawfinch could be glimpsed distantly in the tree tops, before inevitably disappearing. 2011 was a good Hawfinch year in Oxfordshire: there were 11 records. By 2012, numbers had reduced to a single record.
The autumn of 2017 has changed everything. From mid-October onwards Hawfinch began being reported from all over the county, often fly-over birds migrating with Redwing. In the last 15 days of October 2017 there were 152 records from Oxfordshire (full details in the Oxon Bird Log monthly report here). Unfortunately October 2017 also proved to be the month that my business purchased new commercial premises and moved location. I had been fully committed to work issues all month, had done absolutely no birding and had barely even been outside. Thank goodness the Siberian Accentor irruption did not occur in 2017.
Friday night drinks with a few local birders began stiring my interest, a few of the guys had already added Hawfinch to their local patch lists or had sought out birds feeding in the woods in the Chilterns. When Andy Last popped into Standlake and recorded a fly-over bird with Redwings on the Saturday morning, I knew I had to get out and find my own. A quick negotiation for a couple of hours off childcare on Saturday afternoon and I headed south to the Highmoor area, near Nettlebed. Unsure of whether I should find a vantage point and hope for a fly-over bird, or go into the woods themselves, I decided to try both. Almost immediately I picked up a distant flock of 5 finches flying in from the north. In binoculars they were unidentifiable at such range. I quickly took a few pictures, but even on the back of the camera, could make out virtually no detail. However, when I got home and processed the pictures, enlarging the birds to the point of pixelation, they did prove to be Hawfinches, not that I knew that at the time:
A few Siskins were moving around, 2 Lesser Redpolls flew south calling but there were no further Hawfinch candidates. I moved south into the woods and saw nothing but Redwings for an hour. They appeared to be feeding on the yew trees here. Then suddenly, where there had been nothing for an hour, there was a flock of 5 birds perched up in a nearby dead tree: 5 Hawfinches! A Waxwing-esque appearing trick. As I raised my camera, they flew deeper into the wood, taking a further 2 Hawfinch that I had not initially seen, with them. I stayed for another half hour or so and got further glimpses of a single Hawfinch in a treetop, but there was no further sign of the Hawfinch flock. The walk back was something of a finch-frenzy with Chaffinches, Bullfinches, Greenfinches and Goldfinches, the icing on the cake being a fine male Brambling:
Sunday morning involved an early morning run over my local Shotover Hill. Even here the woodland bird theme continued as I flush a close Woodcock from a secluded track. Now that local birders have migrating Hawfinch firmly on their radar, it will be interesting to see how many autumn records Oxfordshire will get in future years. Have we been missing something all along and it has taken an irruption of birds at a national level to increase our awareness of these fabulous flying finches?
