BTO cuckoos falling by the wayside – 3 out of 4 cuckoos tagged in England are MIA

Welsh and Scottish cuckoos faring much better
September 2012. BTO have revealed that no further signals have been received from two of the cuckoos and they have had to assume that they have died. A third cuckoo was already believed to have died in August.

Body temperature
Taking a look back at the temperature data, the last few messages from each tag show a lot of variety associated with time of day - i.e. cooler in the early morning and reaching over 30°C in the afternoon. Temperatures prior to that had always been higher than 30°C, even when the Cuckoos were in Britain. This suggests that the birds' body temperature wasn't influencing the tags' temperature and does, unfortunately, support the idea that they may have perished.

Fires in Spain
The wildfires that have spread through Spain have been caused by chronic drought, which will have meant very dry conditions and made feeding more difficult. John behaved very oddly once he got to north-eastern Spain and even made an oblique re-crossing of the Pyrenees, and Reacher disappeared in exactly the area where the recent fires have been reported.

Lyster (tagged in 2011)
Lyster, whose tag has also failed to transmit further signals since his position in the Mauritanian desert, took a similar route. He passed through Catalonia (one of the areas where fires have been reported) during late July and stopped off in what appeared to be an area of irrigated farmland, rather than the montane forests he used last year. This area is less likely to have provided such a good feeding opportunity and perhaps he failed to put on enough weight here for the desert crossing in Africa. Sadly, it looks as if we may only have one of the Cuckoos tagged in England left.

Chris - 2nd year bird
Chris - the only one of the cuckoos tagged in England to have taken the route via Italy - is still on track. He has moved 52km (32 miles) south of his position on 8 September. He remains in Chad but is only around 195km (120 miles) north-west of the border with the Central African Republic (CAR), an area he visited last year, before continuing into the Congo Rainforest. Last year he remained in Chad until early October before travelling into CAR and then quickly on to Congo. It will be interesting to see how closely his activities this year match last year.

Cuckoos from Wales & Scotland faring much better
A further 10 cuckoos were tagged in Scotland and Wales, and these appearing to be faring much better than there English cousins. Click here to see how the Welsh and Scottish cuckoos are progressing. If you would to be involved in this tracking, it is possible to sponsor a cuckoo.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bto-2012-cuckoos.html

Birds and berries to be surveyed

Gardeners and birdwatchers are being asked to help identify birds' berry-eating habits.

The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) study is the first large study of how birds use garden berries and fruits.

While it is known that berries attract birds, little is understood about which berries different bird species favour.

Scientists are concerned that by preferring certain berries, birds may be spreading the seeds of invasive plant species, such as cotoneaster.

The bounty of berries that autumn and winter produce can be an important source of food for many birds, such as thrushes, starlings and wintering warblers.

They offer sugars and easily digestible nutrients during a time when food can be scarce.

The plants that produce the berries then rely on the birds to disperse the seeds hidden within this nutritious flesh.

Garden berries are important as they are usually available later in the year and often untouched by other birds.

The mistle thrush will aggressively defend holly berries all winter, for example.

But little is actually known about which garden berries and fruits are being eaten by which birds and when.

"There is no evidence for how important garden berries are compared to those in the wider countryside," said Mike Toms, head of garden ecology at the BTO.

Read on:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19422637

First BTO cuckoo heads south, after just 6 weeks in UK

A short summer for Chris
Chris has left the UK! He is the first BTO Cuckoo to leave and is currently in Belgium, close to the border with The Netherlands.

Stayed just 6 weeks
Having been recorded back in the UK on 1 May 2012 in Essex he quickly moved back to Thetford Forest, the area where he was originally tagged. He remained in this area until 9 June, when we had a series of poor quality fixes. These were inconclusive but when he transmitted again yesterday he was near the town of Hoogstraten in Belgium. How long is summer? Well for Chris it was less than 6 weeks (42 days)!

It's interesting to note that Chris was the first bird to leave the area in which he was tagged last year – sometime between 3 - 5 June 2011 - moving down to Sussex for a few days. He then turned up in The Netherlands approximately 20km (12 miles) NNE of Maastricht on 17 June 2011.

His current movement has taken him on the correct bearing to reach the same staging area as last year but he stopped approximately 85km short of the first place he stopped then. Will he end up in the same place this year?

Short hops for LysterTransmissions from Lyster's tag show that he is moving around a relatively small area. He is currently close to the River Chet in an area known as Hardley Flood, northeast of Loddon in Norfolk. This area consists of shallow lagoons and reedbeds which act as a spillway for the River Chet. This is the same location where Lyster was spotted in the field last July.

New cuckoos to follow
BTO has been very busy preparing all the maps and web pages ready to reveal details of the new Cuckoos that they will be following in 2012. These will be up on their website soon! 

Lyster and Chris will be joined by of two more English Cuckoos, but, sadly, with no further transmission from Kasper BTO have had to accept that his journey has come to an end. 
A brand new batch of Scottish and Welsh Cuckoos will also be followed this year.


http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/bto-cuckoo-migration.html#cr

BTO reveals England's going for goldfinch

...But song thrush numbers have halved

March 2012: Goldfinches are the star garden visitor for many people in Britain, according to the report on this year's BTO Garden BirdWatch.

The British Trust for Ornithology first carried out the survey 16 years ago, and it has been held every year since. The figures for 2011 show that nearly five times as many gardens are visited by goldfinch as 1995, but the number of song thrushes spotted in gardens has halved over the same period.

Numbers of the dazzling goldfinch in gardens have reached an all-time high. Far more householders saw this species in 2011 compared with 16 years ago. This meteoric rise has seen goldfinches rocket from number 20 in the garden bird ‘league table' to number ten.

Bullfinch is a garden regular in WalesEngland topped the podium for goldfinches in 2011, with 58 per cent of gardens visited during a typical week, compared with 53 per cent in Wales and 49 per cent in Scotland.

Meanwhile, Welsh gardens boasted the highest reporting rate for the handsome bullfinch, an increasingly common garden visitor. Scottish gardens were best for both starling and greenfinch - although numbers of these species in gardens across the UK last year were at their lowest in almost a decade.

Wren and song thrush waningAfter a succession of cold winters, numbers of the diminutive wren visiting gardens have dropped. Compared with the long-term Garden BirdWatch average, as calculated from 1995-2010, around one in three householders have now lost this beautiful songster. Another cherished voice that is ebbing away is that of the song thrush, with half as many gardens visited during a typical week last year compared with 1995.

Brambling boomThrough the year-round recording of BTO Garden BirdWatchers, fascinating seasonal patterns have emerged. These volunteers keep simple weekly records of the birds in their gardens. During late winter in 2011, brambling numbers soared, up by almost 250 per cent on the same period in 2009 and 2010.

Blackbird numbers down 40 per centSpring 2011 saw numbers of goldfinch and bullfinch in gardens rise well above the average of the previous two years, while numbers of siskins spotted in gardens during last summer were up by a quarter. 

Gardens were relatively quiet during autumn and early winter last year, with thrushes particularly notable by their absence - blackbird numbers, for example, were down by 41 per cent compared with the same period in 2009 and 2010.

BTO's Dr Tim Harrison said: ‘Improved foods and feeder designs, coupled with feeding pressures in the wider countryside, appear to be driving goldfinches and other farmland species - such as bullfinch, reed bunting and lesser redpoll - into gardens.

‘Every season and every region has its garden bird highlights. The size of the influx of brambling last winter, for instance, exceeded all previous Garden BirdWatch records. English gardens are the best place to see species such as blackcap and long-tailed tit, Welsh gardens for the blue tit and robin, and Scottish gardens for tree sparrow and coal tit.'

He concluded: ‘For every garden bird success story - such as goldfinch and bullfinch - there is, unfortunately, a species faring less well. Mistle thrush, for example, is really struggling. During 2011 the percentage of gardens visited by this imposing thrush was at its lowest point in the 16-year history of BTO Garden BirdWatch, and it is now largely absent from gardens in Greater London.'

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/goldfinch-survey.html

Ornithologists seek to answer riddle of white blackbirds and pink sparrows (via Matt Salusbury)

They are the bizarre-looking birds which defy expectations, from blackbirds which are brilliant white, to shocking pink house sparrows.

Now, following an increasing number of reports of birds with the "wrong" coloured feathers, ornithologists have launched a study to investigate what could be behind the strange sightings.

The phenomenon affects many of the most common species, including several known for their distinctive colourings, such as red kites and robins, both of which have been observed without their renowned red plumage.

As well as all-white blackbirds, there have also been reports of coots, crows and moorhens with all white rather than black feathers.

Other cases include black-headed blue tits and yellow rather than red woodpeckers.

Experts believe the discolouration is often associated with genetic conditions but say that plumage can also be affected by environment and diet.

House sparrows living near a salmon farm at Kinlochbervie, in the Scottish Highlands, have developed a distinctly pinkish tinge after feeding on fish pellets containing prawn shell, designed to give the salmon flesh a pink colour, while the yellow colouration on blue tits relates directly to the amount of caterpillars in their diet. So a shortage can lead to this colour fading.

The study, by the British Trust for Ornithology, will look for other similar cases as well as investigate the behaviour of affected birds, which often act differently to those with more traditional appearances.

Robins with white breasts appear to be more shy and cautious than those with red breasts, the vibrancy of which are seen in the species as a symbol of dominance.

In some cases, strangely-coloured birds are not recognised by potential mates and their unusual plumage can mean they stand out more to predators.

As part of the study, which is the first of its kind, members of the public are asked to register all sightings and any observations about behaviour.

The sightings are being compiled in a database and will be analysed alongside existing statistics about bird populations, to help identify trends.

From these, scientists will be able to establish if there are particular "hot spot" parts of the country and whether certain species have higher "abnormality rates" and will allow for further investigation into what is behind the phenomenon.

The BTO first appealed to members to send in their sightings less than a month ago, and have already received more than 700 reports. Initial indications are that the species most commonly affected are sparrows, blackbirds and chaffinches.

The most common variation of discolouration is thought to be leucism, a genetic condition where one of more pigments are lost, producing "snowy-looking" birds.

Leucistic birds can appear all white but retain normal coloured eyes unlike true albinos whose eyes are pink. It can also be found in other animals and humans.

Dr Tim Harrison said: "We get a substantial amount of reports about these birds so now we want to investigate more. This study will allow us to ask further questions about why certain birds in certain areas are affected and what is behind it.

"These birds are inherently interesting because of their appearance and we are also interested in the way in which they interact with others."

To take part in the Abnormal Plumage Survey online, visitwww.bto.org/gbw or telephone 01842-750050 for a paper recording form.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/9014881/Ornithologists-seek-to-answer-riddle-of-white-blackbirds-and-pink-sparrows.html