Rings around the world

Nightingale at Gatwick Airport (Photo by Dean Samsudin, 2020)

Back in May 2016, myself and volunteer Donald were carrying out a reptile survey in the North West Zone when a sudden burst of bird song erupted near my head; a Nightingale was the last thing I'd expected to hear that day! This is a real stand-out moment from my time at Gatwick. I nipped back that same evening to make a recording (this being back in the era of a busy night-time airfield). Ambient noise didn't put this energetic songster off...

 

Sound only clip (no image)

Nightingales arrive in the UK around late April, having migrated all the way from their overwintering sites in Africa. Checking Gatwick's pan-species list, there are few previous records of Nightingale within the airport boundary. It seemed in 1987 the Hilton Hotel car park (around 3km from the current spot) contained some good scrub habitat which was suitable for their breeding, however in 2021 this area is now a stand of semi-mature trees.

Corridors of good quality habitat are important for dispersing wildlife, especially for highly mobile species such as migrating birds. The River Mole diversion project was completed in the year 2000, resulting over 20 years later in a 3.5km length of meandering floodplain meadow, bordered by sloping species-rich grassland, graduating into scrub and mature woodland. 

North West Zone biodiversity area

Since that record in 2016, I've heard a Nightingale in the same spot on the River Mole 5 years out of 6; could it be the same bird returning each summer? Another male then set up territory along the River Mole in 2020, about 1km further downstream. This year they've both remained on site late into summer, therefore are very likely breeding. Two Nightingales on one reserve doesn't make a population, but along with increasing numbers of Song Thrush and summer-visiting warbler territories, it could indicate that our scrub and grassland mosaic is coming into peak condition.

River Mole corridor, July 2016

Our biodiversity areas are only a short stint away from the Knepp Rewilding project, itself a large 1,400ha estate of grassland, wetland and scrub, 22km away as the Nightingale flies (for comparison our NWZ site is only around 40ha). It also contains a heck of a lot of Nightingales. Anecdotally, this red-listed species seems to be having a few good years, with other additional sites popping up nearby. Could this be an overflow of birds fledging at Knepp? When local wildlife watcher Dean alerted us that the second Nightingale was sporting a silver ring on its leg this year, it meant we could possibly find this out...

Penny Green in the River Mole grasslands

The bird ringing scheme, overseen by the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), gathers data on the survival, productivity and movements of birds, which is important in understanding why populations are changing. Recovered rings have told some pretty surprising things over the years, causing our estimates of wild bird life-spans and travel distances to be revised. It is an intensive undertaking which involves a lot of special training. Fortunately several of the ecologists we work with happen to be licenced bird ringers!

Jon Middleton is an aviation ornithologist for Birdstrike Management Ltd, who visits Gatwick Airport as a consultant several times a year. In his spare time, Jon is an avid bird ringer and after hearing about our two Nightingale territories, he offered his help with Nightingale Territory 1; the original, un-ringed male.

Just as the night was drawing in, we had success in our single mist net; a male Nightingale caught and gently handled by Jon. This happened to be Jon's first time with this species in the hand, so it was a double celebration. The first ever Nightingale to be rung at Gatwick Airport!

A few nights later, it was the turn of another crack team: Penny Green the Knepp Estate ecologist and her partner Dave, who were keen to capture the second male and check the ring reference number. It was a more intrepid route on that evening, setting up our mist net at Nightingale Territory 2...

Photo by Dave Green

Success came once again just as it was growing dark, exactly as predicted by Penny and Dave!

With the bird in the hand, Dave could clearly see the silver ring. The priority was to note down the reference number, before taking additional measurements for biometric data...

Male being checked for breeding condition

An incredibly gratifying moment was when Penny checked the Knepp ring numbers from last year; this is a match for their records! In fact, this guy was rung by Dave himself in August 2020. Having this information confirmed is super high value, showing how these birds use sites across Sussex for breeding as well as migration stop-overs. As Penny put it, this is a fantastic link between our two projects.

A check of wing length and plumage condition

What a beauty....

A Knepp-rung Nightingale on the River Mole at Gatwick (photo by Penny Green)

A bonus Lime Hawkmoth extracted from the mist net

Two Nightingales, a luxury pack of chocolate digestives, and a group of very happy ecologists at Gatwick Airport on two nights in June.

Photo by Dave Green

Himalayan Balsam (short video)

An introduction to the invasive plant Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera), found along the River Mole at Gatwick.

 

Mink raft cam - Part 1

This Mink raft has been sitting at the back of our storage shed for years (I got bored with it as it never seemed to turn up any signs in the tracking pad). After recently seeing trail camera footage online of the another raft, it showed a range of riverside species taking quite an interest. I thought I'd give it another try, leaving it anchored to the bank for now rather than floating.

Testing.... still can never tell whether it is on.

A curious European Robin (Erithacus rubecula)

This rather annoying Grey Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) became obsessed, filling up most of the memory card. It had a good chew on the raft corners.

Grey Wagtail (Motacilla cinerea) - one of my favourite waterside birds; also a red-listed species

Eurasian Jays (Garrulus glandarius) always seem interested by the advanced technology. 

You can hear the Grey Wagtail calling in the background

An indecisive Wood Mouse (Apodemus sylvaticus), or might be a small Yellow-necked Mouse

The weather takes a turn for the worse. Meanwhile I'm away in London, completely oblivious to the storm...

Uh oh, really should have brought the camera in on the Friday!

Phew, got away with it this time - the water has receded quite a bit.

Now something WAS just on the right hand corner of the raft in that final clip; you can hear as it splashes into the water. What could it have been, a Mallard? Moorhen? A mystery wetland mammal?!

I'll put this camera out again when the weather improves, although perhaps aim for a wider angle (and safer height).

Early Winter Bird Survey - North West Zone 12/12/18

This morning was the start of a real cold snap here in Sussex, which always seems to tie in with our North West Zone bird survey transect. Tom F. and I set off along the northern side of the airfield fence a little after sunrise, giving the birds some time to get moving and active. Tom commented right away that this was a spookily quiet morning...

A group of Meadow Pipits are typically the first birds we come across, bouncing along the airfield fence. A Robin and several Dunnocks called sporadically, hidden away along the banks of the River Mole. Our first red-status species was a Song Thrush, giving it's subtle 'tseep' alarm call as it fled, nipping down into the river bank vegetation.

Song Thrush - RSPB

Down on the floodplain it truly felt bone-achingly cold. The reed beds seemed devoid of life, then a fiesty Wren struck up an alarm call as it faced us off from the top of a reed. Finally, a Reed Bunting called, although only faintly and with no replies forthcoming. It really felt like the birds hadn't got out of bed yet.

Further along the floodplain, we caught the distant calls of Water Rails. These secretive birds seem to be more vocal in winter, and their call is highly weird. If you happen to be standing right next to one when it sounds off, it's pretty alarming!

Water Rail - RSPB

Over to the scrub west of Brockley Wood, a few Blue Tits and Long-tailed Tits were foraging together on the woodland edge. A sole Green Woodpecker headed off calling and a group of Wood Pigeon broke from the trees. Over in woodlands, a distant Nuthatch called.

This sheltered patch of grassland is one of my favourite spots in summer, dense in long herbaceous vegetation and absolutely humming with invertebrates. In winter however this tends to be the favourite patch of another highly-secretive and red-status bird; the Woodcock. We flushed one from the low scrub; its low, whirring flight really does give the appearance of a giant bat. 

Woodcock - RSPB

Poking our heads into the north of Brockley Wood, we were hoping for some Redwing activity, however the flocks were conspicuously absent from the site this morning. The collective alarm calls of  Blackbird, Magpie and Wren indicated the presence of an avian predator, likely a perched-up Tawny Owl or Sparrowhawk. Whatever it was then moved off, as the alarm calls rapidly followed it through the wood.

Our final section of grassland along the River Mole turned up two Common Snipe, which had been well hidden in the rushes. One put on an amazing display, flying a wide loop over the environment bund and then skimming low past us at about waist-height. This whole transect was again peculiarly quite, and surprisingly one of the most numerous birds was Bullfinch; we counted a total of 6.

Bullfinch - RSPB

At the very end of the transect we had a buzz of excitement in the form of a perched Sparrowhawk, apparently causing upset with the resident Ring-necked Parakeets. It casually took off over the trees, leaving in its wake a string of songbird alarm calls.

Final species count = 34

Common name	Species
Blackbird	Turdus merula
Blue Tit	Cyanistes caeruleus
Bullfinch	Pyrrhula pyrrhula
Buzzard	Buteo buteo
Carrion Crow	Corvus corone
Chaffinch	Fringilla coelebs
Coal Tit	Periparus ater
Dunnock	Prunella modularis
Goldcrest	Regulus regulus
Goldfinch	Carduelis carduelis
Great Spotted Woodpecker	Dendrocopos major
Great Tit	Parus major
Green Woodpecker	Picus viridis
Grey Heron	Ardea cinerea
Jackdaw	Corvus monedula
Jay	Garrulus glandarius
Long-tailed Tit	Aegithalos caudatus
Magpie	Pica pica
Mallard	Anas platyrhynchos
Meadow Pipit	Anthus pratensis
Moorhen	Gallinula chloropus
Nuthatch	Sitta europaea
Reed Bunting	Emberiza schoeniclus
Ring-necked Parakeet	Psittacula krameri
Robin	Erithacus rubecula
Siskin	Spinus spinus
Snipe	Gallinago gallinago
Song Thrush	Turdus philomelos
Sparrowhawk	Accipiter nisus
Treecreeper	Certhia familiaris
Water Rail	Rallus aquaticus
Woodcock	Scolopax rusticola
Woodpigeon	Columba palumbus
Wren	Troglodytes troglodytes

Mole Valley Bird Race 2014

What's that? Not had enough sleep? Pulled a tendon from so much walking? It's a Bank Holiday weekend? Never mind eh, let's have a bird race!

Gatwick Greenspace Goshawks

A bird race is when teams of slightly odd, but mostly alright people run around the countryside, identifying as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. This event was organised by Viewpoint Outdoor in aid of the Gatwick Greenspace Youth Rangers, to promote this fantastic group and to raise money towards their equipment costs.

Four crack-teams went head to head for this challenge. The tradition is to name your team after a bird, so we were the Gatwick Greenspace Goshawks. As we are all Sussex-based and interlopers into Surrey, this was mostly unknown territory for us.

Introducing our team...

Tom 'Caffeine-power' Foward

Tom 'pretend map reader' Simpson

Laurie 'What do you mean, I'm competitive?' Jackson

James 'Let's have a nice sit-down. Ooh look, a pub...' Chapman

And last but not least, Rachel 'Can I sleep now?' Bicker

These were the basic rules:

• The Race officially started at 0.00am, on Sunday 25th May 2014.
• Sightings submitted by 20:00 at Leith Hill Place.
• Teams can consist of 2-6 people.
• A bird species cannot be claimed as seen or heard if it was not verified by at least two members of the team.
• No domestic exotic pet birds or “obvious escapes” may be counted.
• The use of playback and lamping of birds is prohibited.

Start: Newdigate Brickworks

We began just over the border at the Newdigate Wildlife Trust reserve, making sure we got the obligatory group photo... 

#Twitter-tarts

We had a pretty intense start with everyone calling species out as soon as we arrived: Canada Goose, Moorhen, House Sparrow, Nuthatch, Song Thrush, Common Whitethroat, House Martin. A sudden burst of loud, incessant piping gave away a Kingfisher. We checked the woodland clearings carefully, trying to drum up an elusive Spotted Flycatcher, but sadly no luck there.

Newdigate Brickworks lake

After some time, we were also rewarded with a couple of difficult-to-tick species; a singing Bullfinch and a lone, soaring Red Kite. We left the site at 38 species and in good spirits.

A quick coffee break

Hammonds Copse and Ewood Farm:

We had a muddy trek through the woodlands...

Firecrest? Or just a Goldcrest....

On the way to the farmlands we ticked Goldcrest, Pheasant, Tree Creeper and Greenfinch.

Yet another bloomin' Red Kite! At first we tried convince ourselves it was a Common Buzzard (yet to be ticked), but to no avail.

   The tantalising, distant call of a Yellow Hammer had us all straining our ears. Then, as a group of cyclists meandered past us, something popped out on the path....

Yellow Hammer (If you were expecting good birding photos, you will be sorely disappointed).

Other species we mopped up here were Barn Swallow, Linnet and a group of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Futilely, we spent some time with Tom F's scope, trying to turn a distant Carrion Crow into a Rook. It stayed a Crow. Finally, a cheeky Pied Wagtail made an appearance on one of the farm buildings.

Lost satellite reception. Recalculating

Once we had finally made it out of Ewood, it was on to Capel:

Our first Cuckoo of the day popped up here with its unmistakable call. They are only brief summer visitors and will soon be hitting the road back to warmer climes.
A non-birding interlude...

Fat-legged Beetle (Oedemera nobilis) male

Longhorn Moth (Nemophora degeerella)

A type of orchid...

Heads back in the game!
Another bloomin' Red Kite soared overhead, doing its best to make sure all other birds of prey stayed well away from us.

Soon after, a couple of Nightingales, invisible in the scrub, treated us to snippets of their song. A lone Reed Warbler also piped up in a pond screened by hedgerows.

There was a a conspicuous silence from the Lesser Whitethroat, despite the lovely, welcoming scrubby habitat. No matter though, as we had hit 50 species!

Moments after this, there was a loud clatter and an emergency stop; a pair of binoculars left on the car roof had luckily jammed in the roof rack. 

   On hearing about Dave Stubbs' team being over the 60 species mark, we started getting desperate (and lazy) for ticks....

Brockham:

We pretty much drove up to the first bridge we found by the River Mole to look for a Grey Wagtail... and by jove, we got one!

I didn't get a photo of a Grey Wagtail, so here's Laurie instead

Some more bad news from the Twittersphere...

...They nabbed our Spotted Flycatcher!

Buckland Sandpits:

It was time to step up the effort, so here the scope came back into play. We ticked Willow Warbler and a lone Little Grebe, aka 'Dabchick', which was on the water.

Getting only a couple of ticks at each location begins to take its toll on morale. This was where the term 'law of diminishing returns' really started to kick in.

Headley Heath:

This site provided a good mixture of both heathland and chalk grassland, so surely we could turn up some interesting species here...

A distant Marsh Tit called, but everything else was just the already-ticked warblers: Blackcap, Willow Warbler and Common Whitethroat.

Another non-birding interlude...

This male Brown Argus Butterfly cracking on to a female Grizzled Skipper. Silly.

Wild Strawberry and Germander Speedwell

Green Hairstreak Butterfly

By now, my contact lenses were making my eyes feel like they were about to pop out. So, with no more lenses and without any specs, I resigned as a look-out. A group of Swifts were swooping high above the pines; Tom S. and Laurie were then both lucky enough to catch a glimpse of an elusive Hobby as it shot over head, pursuing its Swift prey!

   The day was drawing on and we had a long overdue pub stop to work out some tactics. We had only a couple of hours left, it was then that we heard the other 3 teams had all topped 70 species.

Hysteria?

Once again it was back on the road, with little time left we headed to some fishing lakes for more wetland stuff.

Walking yet another woodland path to some distant ponds

 ...which had nothing on them

Time (and energy) was now really running short, so it was up to Leith Hill to at least try to pick up a few more heathland species.

Birding from the ground

Amazing views...

The silent summer

We got sweet nuthin'! Our last bird was the Hobby at around 5pm and we'd had no new species in over 2 hours.

   We made it back to Leith Hill Place just in time to submit the results (by my watch it was more like 20:05 but no one seemed to notice). All the groups had arrived back and were tucking into some much needed food and caffeinated beverages.

And the results are in... 

We lost... And pretty badly, too!!

Dave Stubbs and his team came in at the top with 83 species, a full 20 species more than us! The two other teams came in at 74 and 75 species.

Collectively we recorded 89 species of bird, not bad for a land-locked county!

Well done to all! Though I'll just mention again that only our team got a Hobby. 

Somehow, GGP Goshawks were not quite 'all-birded-out', so we headed back out onto the heath at dusk. We were rewarded with a Woodcock which flew over head, squeaking loudly. Also, the beautiful and bizaare sound of European Nightjar, their strange silouettes flitting from tree to tree... 

We'll be back next year, and it's going to get tactical!!