Sunday 31 May 2015

47 and still counting

Since the last post, several visits have been made to the wheatear RAS site to try and bling up an acceptable minimum sample size of  50 individuals and this year success looks very likely; thanks to the dedicated efforts of Mike and Theresa we only now need to catch another three individuals to add to the total of 16 re-sightings and 31 new birds caught so far. Mind you, to reach this total we have had to accept "immigrants" - Teifi RG immigrants at that! The last individual to be added to the tally was a female wheatear originally ringed as a juvenile on 4th July 2014 at Carn Ingli by Karen (Teifi RG). It is only 8km as the crow flies from Carn Ingli and the date and age of the bird suggests that it was presumably born very locally to Carn Ingli before settling to breed within a few km here at Carn Breseb (v
ia Africa). This is the only recorded movement away from the site despite ringing 312 wheatears since 2008. It is also very appropriate that the bird was ringed by Karen who often makes the long foot-slog up the Preselis to help with the project.  Luckily the politics of the group welcomes migrants!


Karen's wheatear with added colours

The 2015 wheatear season is running much later that last year and is more on a par with 2013, an exceptionally cold spring with delayed breeding and small broods. Following a very sunny April, May has been relatively cold and quite windy so perhaps this has caused females to delay egg-laying, or even abandon and start again. So far no fledglings have been seen. Another potential cause of nest failure is predation. Wheatear nests are completely safe from corvids and at this site from foxes too - who often try to dig them out unsuccessfully, but it was clear from the response of three male wheatears that they absolutely panic in the presence of weasels. During one of the visits a weasel was seen systematically searching any crevice or hole it could find and up to three male wheatears were in attendance, all hovering within a foot or two and giving off a very agitated rattle-like alarm call. The weasel didn't seem to find anything and it later became clear that very close by a female wheatear must have been incubating a clutch that escaped predation.

A weasel on the prowl - probably looking for voles but three male wheatears were in a panic

Another unusual record this spring was a wheatear caught on 29th May in full moult - this normally starts at the end of |June or mid-July following breeding, but this bird must have started by 20th May. Whether this was caused by the cold weather combined with a failed early breeding attempt is not clear, but it is extremely unusual for an adult of any migrant passerine to be in moult this early.

Male wheatear in full moult on 29th May


Adult male



Tuesday 5 May 2015

Wheatear RAS is on


Most adult wheatears that make it back return to the exact territory that they bred in during the previous season
This is the third season of the wheatear adult survival study (RAS) at Mynydd Preseli and it is very much hoped to get the sample of colour-ringed adults up to 50 this year. This is something that was the aim in 2013 and 2014 but annual totals of only 26 and 30 respectively were achieved. Rather than admit failure though, this underachievement has been classified as an essential learning-through-experience part of the project. The open habitat means mistnets are unsuitable so the birds are caught for colour-ringing in spring traps baited with mealworms.

A few things learnt:

Although some wheatears are caught readily, they very quickly become trap shy and if they witness another individual being caught they become highly suspicious of the traps and become very difficult to catch. During the egg-laying and incubation period the males usually mate-guard the females by following them about whenever they are off the nest, so it is difficult to find a time when females are on their own. Whilst females are on the nest, the males tend to sing and generally loaf around, so they don't spend much time feeding. They are only attracted to the bait when they need it, so on nice warm sunny days when they are often well fed, they ignore it.

If the nest is full of hungry chicks then both adults are much more likely to be tempted by the bait and this is when most birds are caught. However in 2013 the very cold weather in May meant that there were lots of nest failures, and those that were successful had small broods (e.g. brood sizes of 1 and 2 were frequent instead of the usual 4 to 7). The weather subsequently turned warm and dry and this left many pairs not that desperate for the bait.

Once the young fledge, the adults seem to switch from feeding them soft prey to adult insects and aren't fussed about eating mealworms, so they have to be caught before they fledge young. In 2014 the season was surprisingly early and about 50% of pairs had fledged young by the time of the first visit on 24th May.

The secret of catching all the adults lies in timing the catching effort to coincide with feeding nestlings, so regular reccy visits from late April onward are essential to keep a finger on the pulse of what each pair is up to.

Some of the colours fade whilst the birds are are in their sunny African wintering grounds. Red, in particular, fades to a sort of pinky-orange within a year making it almost impossible to tell from orange with certainty. Light blue seems to get much paler and can appear white. Luckily all the ambiguous combinations were not applied to the same sex, so all birds are still uniquely marked.

red over grey in May 2013


The same bird a year later


In 2014, 12 out of the 26 marked in 2013 returned (46%), and so far in 2015, 12 out of 30 have been confirmed, though not all territories have been checked so the figure will almost certainly rise.