The procure of Bramblings

Second half of April I gambled, and won. I had worried I wouldn't turn up any Brambling on my final Magpie roost count for the 2017-18 season, but about ten minutes before sunset a small group bounded into view. That view was through the 'scope, naturally; distant white rumps flashing among the branches and, unlike in true 'winter mode', when they would sit for long periods up in the tops to act as attractants to others, this late in the season, pre-migration, it was once around the block then down into cover.

And that's the birdy news over for this post. You can leave now if you want. The blog post is more about Berengrave LNR itself, and changes since the boardwalk closed.

Imagine the quarry paths as a (very rough) triangle. In the good old days (when I moved back in 2013), coming in from the estuary, you had two routes down either side to choose from to reach the third southern edge. To the west, an undulating walk along the quarry edge, with very few views down into the pit. To the east, a wonderful roller coaster of a boardwalk, rising and falling into the quarry depths until a final steep climb out of what one birder described as the nearest thing on planet earth to Dagobah. Colour me green and call me Yoda. Easy to guess which way I always chose.

In those days, the boardwalk was in good condition, but time was running out. The construction and repair work had, over the years, been carried out mainly by a support group, the Friends of Berengrave. Long story short, politics crept in and the rot set in; repairs were not allowed and the boardwalk was eventually closed off to the public by the Council.

What this meant was that any circular route around the reserve was no longer available. The number of visitors plummeted. Thankfully I could still get to my Magpie count spot and while I couldn't explore as much as in the past I was now keen to see what happened with the birds. Ever since the Foot and Mouth outbreak in 2001 and the 'closure of the countryside' I'd supported what was found by many back then; you stop the public from wandering the countryside and birds do better.

So, first thought had been 'this is going to be good'. The main users of this tiny local nature reserve were recreational dog walkers. A known disturbance. Here though, dogs had always been mainly on leads (there are some steep drops around the quarry), so not as much uncontrolled disturbance as elsewhere. Noise disturbance? Sure the odd yappy (and by that I mean the shouty owner), but usually fairly quiet. The main effect noticed in the past had been flighting. A noisy visitor would put up early roosters, with Woodpigeon and Magpie the most noticeable. About two thirds of the time, they would circle and resettle, otherwise they would move off, normally towards cover nearby (beyond the Berengrave Nurseries and towards the Bloors Community Woodland). The Magpies would then often work back, the Woodpigeon not so much. Harder to note the effects on smaller passerines, but small groups of finches would put up, and again, some species more prone to leaving Berengrave and not returning that evening; Goldfinches often appeared the most reluctant to stay, and they never roosted deep in the quarry anyway, preferring the edgelands; roost quality obviously played a part in any flight decision.

There were sometimes noisier human visitors of course. The reserve appealed to the younger element. The rising boardwalk was a good climbing frame, the paths, despite the no cycling signs, a nice little off-road workout.

I think during those first few years I met fewer than a dozen naturalists. And that would have been one botanist and eleven birders- we were never great users. A hard to work site, with minimal facilities? Birders were always likely to amble elsewhere.

Now?

Following the boardwalk closure local dog walkers still take the eastern route to and from the main Country Park, but in much smaller numbers. Many dogs don't get long walks in Medway. Fewer still dog walkers bother with the dead end of a  southern edge now it leads nowhere. During the 90 minutes of a count I see less than a quarter of the number of park walkers I had before. This southern edge is where my viewpoint is and it is certainly true contacts are up. Though for most common species my roost numbers are fairly similar, birds seem more likely to loiter along this top edge rather than hurry down in.

Fewer adventurous youth now as well. The boardwalk still does appeal though, being a big ol' scary climbing frame now. But the routine flushings of the pre-roost gatherings of Magpies and Woodpigeons are a thing of the past now.

All in all, I'd say the birds are enjoying the lower disturbance levels.

But there has been a growth in another area of human activity. Fewer recreational public, more recreational drug users.

Good and bad birders. Good and bad dog walkers. Good and bad potheads. The nice ones are really pleasant. They come to sit on one of the three benches along the southern edge, smoke their weed, take in the view and chill out. And they're pretty chilled about me if I turn up at the first bench to count. I explain what I'm about, and they go 'whoooah', have a look through the 'scope and then wander off to one of the other benches. I'm sure one of their number was behind the 'save the bees' graffiti that appeared on the barrier.

Good 'uns usually arrive in pairs. Stumble in upon a hazy cloud made up of more than half-a-dozen, and you know to tread carefully. Usually no more than a bit of verbal if you set up shop, normally never more than a loud verbal, especially if they're at the second bench just about five metres away.
I just think of the abuse being rather like adolescent chimps flinging faeces. Same old sh*t we've all had to put up with over the years. And they never actually threaten actual violence. T'was ever so.

But you know on the evenings you don't show, they're the ones setting the small fires, breaking the barriers. Throwing their beer cans down the bank. T'was ever so.

The third bench, the far bench? Well, that's another few hundred metres on, and only the most adventurous dog walkers venture that far. You have to want to be going there. So this spot appeals to those who like tablets a little stronger, the ones that come in teeny plastic bags with cheery little logos printed on them.

------

What the heck do the owners, the local council, do with an 'asset' like Berengrave? We nature lovers don't show the love enough enough, yet we expect our Councils to uphold our LNRs. Should they spend loads on replacing the boardwalk when it is so little used? Should they pull it down as it is no longer fit for purpose? Or do they close off all access as they did for a short time prior to my move back?

Never mind the human politics, what would the birds say?

Well, it is one of the few overgrown areas left locally. Roosts opportunities abound. For common 'town' species, the noisy humans never really had an effect on numbers in the past, and neither have their roosting numbers increased since it has become quieter. Too soon to say if the more 'sensitive' species have increased. Their numbers, like these Brambling I've watched this past winter, are up and down for other reasons. A lot of these species are usually the last into roost anyway, chances are they've always missed the noisier people by dropping in at last light.

Of course, summer and breeding are a whole different study but Berengrave remains a safe winter haven. Long may it stay so. With the amount of housing going up close by, the importance grows.

Me, personally? Well, I hope they never feel the need to completely close off again because of purely selfish reasons; I've loved my five winters of Magpie roost counting.

Who would want to be a Council employee/ Councillor responsible for making best decisions for all users of a site like this?

There's a price to pay for hanging on to sites like these, one that fewer birders seem willing to pay. We don't shop for our sightings at the Mom'n'Pop old style sites. We don't even go and browse at the out-of-town birding megastores so much. We browse the internet for good stuff, and buy in to what we're told are the must-haves this season.

Me? I've just resolved to make a few more visits than usual this breeding season, before the 'everything must go' signs appear..

-----

For more information on this LNR do check out the now sadly dormant 'Friends of Berengrave' website.

Berengrave present:

Sections of the boardwalk are closed off by simple planks..

..the adventurous just climb beside them..

..viewpoint barriers tend to disappear during school hols..

Bench three

Berengrave past: Views from the boardwalk

Points of views

The morning had started out as a Shelduck chase. Following a few twitter exchanges about the territories they use (which is a blog in itself) I decided a good morning to count some of the non-breeding flocks in the eastern basin.

Working back from the Swale station, I soon found myself up on Raspberry hill. Here, and Tiptree hill have long been known as the best viewpoints for the estuary islands by both birders and non-birders alike. In Helm's 'Where to watch birds in Kent, Surrey and Sussex', Don Taylor had long sung the praises of the viewpoints for 'scoping the distant creeks. They provide some of the best birding on the estuary (probably why I chose Chetney for my first blogpost here). Both viewpoints even have seats of sorts nowadays; the owners have put in a superb huge beam of a bench up on Raspberry hill, while broken chunks of concrete from one of the old wartime buildings have been piled up around the base of the telegraph pole on Tiptree. This is the busier of the two viewpoints, as the path here is one of the highest points of the Saxon Shore Way long distance footpath, although I am usually joined by walkers rather than birders. With my caveat that general birding remains much better on reserves, I've promoted both often enough in the past, but the distant birds views only appeal to obsessive birders (with my cakky old Bridge camera I never get a decent image, but they're fine for record shots of flock sizes, behaviour, etc., besides, heat haze for both 'scope and camera can be a pig). Walking from either Lower Halstow or Iwade appeals to few (leaving a vehicle anywhere at Funton can be problematic; break-ins are, sadly, routine). But they are worth the effort.

Taylor, Wheatley, James, 4th ed., 2003 Don't trust the 'P',
some footpaths are missing, but that Tiptree star is spot on

While I've tweeted and blogged plenty of pics from up there these past five years, another reason I haven't banged on about them these past couple of years because of the ongoing Coast Path discussions. Some stretches of new footpath are likely to arrive in the area, and during this time I'd been asked for information, mainly concerning on both roosts and general disturbance levels. Just a couple of months back I was contacted about one roost near here, when I heard that publication of the route through the estuary is looking likely to be in September (which will raise a few blogposts at that time). So, we're getting close enough not to have to worry about any impact from publicising the viewpoints to birders a little more on here (heck, the other month I was even tweeting the county Recorder saying it'd be worth while getting up and having a scan over Chetney). To date I've only published the first part of the shoreline site guide for the same reason; the remaining sections will come online shortly.

Today that Chetney viewpoint did me proud, and Shelduck numbers were high, higher than expected. (Numbers along the whole of south shore this spring are par; somewhere around the levels that used to get picked up on WeBS in the 90s, nothing that would excite anyone other than a local.)

Rather than take footpath along the ridge I followed the road west down to Bedlam's Bottom and then along to Funton Creek. I was soon distracted by Rooks. They were feeding manically among the saltings and cord-grass beds.

I cursed myself- another pet subject was playing out, and I had nearly missed it. The mini-heatwave we had just enjoyed meant the ground surface was solid in many fields nearby, making difficult feeding for corvids. You can often see three figure counts of Crows on the flats during the year, they have adapted to estuary feeding, but Rooks (and, to a lesser extent, Jackdaws) only join them in big numbers when feeding is tough. Only the day before I'd been impressed by how much like concrete my allotment beds had already become, but I hadn't sussed it was Rook time. Nearly a Rookie mistake.

Some local landowners control corvids, just as some North Kent nature reserves do. You can have a big debate on the merits of that, but what interests me is why some landowners spare Rooks, others cull. The texts are clear; Rooks will take both game bird eggs and wader eggs. But to what extent? 'Birds of the Western Palearctic' states the young are fed almost exclusively on insects, but that these are hard to obtain when fields are dry. So, perfect conditions for looking at a question I'd been interested in for years.

I took the bridlepath up Tiptree. I went to count my Shelduck flocks first, and found they were nearly all missing (explaining in part the raised Chetney numbers). Then I noticed the local Lapwings were agitated. Not just territorial interaction going on, but real agitation, birds even gathering in a 'mini-flock' sitting out in the middle of one of the pasture fields. Others were flight-distracting. These behaviour continued during all the time I was up there, and it was not going unnoticed by others; numbers of Rooks, as well as Crows, were coming off of the saltings and into the fields.

Now the land below Tiptree is no nature reserve. The land is worked, and workers are often out and about. But I then saw someone strolling slowly down the central counter wall and wandering through the centre of the small peninsula below me. Paperwork and behaviour gave away as a bird surveyor, and clearly noting the Lapwings.

Now of course there's an appeal to wandering fields, but any good surveyor should know better than most just how disturbance can happen during a survey. Whilst the published survey methods are clear about checking every field, at the same time they also stress disturbance must be kept to a minimum:

"Extensive open areas should be checked from roads tracks and footpaths without disturbing nesting birds. If birds are flushed, retreat as quickly as possible.. counts are most accurate when birds are undisturbed.. an observer walking through a field, or a crow flying over, will usually cause all the lapwings to fly up..'

All probably why the methodology states a telescope is the essential piece of kit for Lapwing surveys. This surveyor was diligently noting each bird that overflew them, or that they picked up in their binoculars. They just didn't appear to be noting what was happening behind them. From nearly a kilometre and a half off. I just had to sit and watch it happen. Easy for Lapwings to keep one or two Crows away, much harder to target a couple of dozen Crows among a hundred Rooks. And corvids are just as good as us at mapping out territories. They were watching.

That person could well try to justify, and you can justify any action. Justifications hold more weight when countering criticism, but the feedback was pure. In this instance the Lapwings were clearly disturbed, known predators were clearly gathering and published methodologies were not being employed. Why it is best to try to appreciate why the RSPB's Bird Monitoring Methods ask you to do certain things, and then apply.

Especially if in plain sight of any observer who happens to be up on what is acknowledged as one of the county's premier birding viewpoints, on one of the county's busier footpaths. Without fieldcraft, you will be seen. And local birders are already on the lookout for problems.

A couple of years back, after discussions with RSPB Investigations, I highlighted the plight of our gull colonies; reports of unauthorised landings were on the rise, and some satellite colonies within the island complex had deserted, some witnesses allegeding watching a gang of egg thieves out on the islands (taking the eggs for either for the restaurant trade, or for selling locally, private or otherwise. Sadly, with so much wildlife crime still happening, priorities have to be made and gull colonies come lower than birds of prey. So it has to be local birders who 'recognise, record, report' (the tagline of BAWC). The county ornithological society even kindly published some links to my pleas in here and in other county birding facebook pages.

As it is coming up for that time of year again, here's the link to my original 2016 appeal.

Of course, viewpoints out to these colonies are Godsends. 'Scopes and cameras necessary tools.

I'm told by some there are mobile phones with better cameras than I own. Don't doubt it (but still don't ever want to own a mobile). No-one should be naive enough to think they aren't able to be viewed on the marshes, and their actions, whether disturbance or criminal, recognised, recorded and reported. I know I'm often photographed or filmed by some landowners, and I'm more than happy with that.

We birders are being asked to set high standards to the general public when alongside our SPAs nowadays, as legally required initiatives to reduce disturbance, such as Birdwise, come into play. Studies have already proven birders to be one of the main disturbances to wintering wildfowl and waders. Often inadvertently, but disturbance all the same. Birders' egos bruise easily when called out on such things, but it really is time to put such sensitivities aside and for us all, birders and birdwatchers, professionals and 'citizen scientists', to acknowledge such feedback and keep raising standards in the field- because we know additional big pressures on our estuaries are coming, and we need to get the public, not just ourselves, 'birdwise'.

Finally, whether we like it or not, pics of poor birding behaviour appear nigh daily in our birding timelines, often with calls for outright 'naming and shaming'. My harsh tweet that day was deliberately general in details, and non-illustrated. The chair of the county's Conservation and Surveys Committee did reply pretty quickly asking for details, so I did provide clues needed by giving him enough to work out details and appreciate problem (which he did, even though I'd ensured the cropped pic I'd attached for positioning the incident had a nice anonymising blob added over much of the highly pixellated person).

Being on the receiving end of feedback can be painful, but we all have to face up to it from time to time. If we don't want to face up to it, we fall back on logical fallacies; appeal to emotion, claim false cause, personal incredulity or 'the strawman'. Or we can take on board, and improve. And that 'we' is why I've posted this; if a few birders think more about such things, then worth it.

A final thought. I normally veer away talking about Schedule one birds during the breeding season, but as the county's rep on the Rare Breeding Bird Panel recently talked about the estuary in an open Facebook group, I'll make the following point. If you were surveying an area with Schedule One nesting birds, are you committing 'reckless disturbance' (the legalese) if you fail to act in accordance with that species' proscribed methodologies once those methodologies have been pointed out to you? Tricky; why best to try to stick to the published methods in the first place.


-----


I'll say it again; if you can put up with a lot of the birds on show being specks, and you haven't yet been to either of these viewpoints, do go. On a rising tide, or over a full tide (especially a spring) at this time of year. On a winter's afternoon, any time of tide. You really won't be disappointed. Just remember to take your 'scope.

From Tiptree hill:

From Raspberry hill:

The lure of Bramblings

In 1951/52, attempts were made to count a winter roost of Bramblings in Switzerland. One stream into the roost was estimated to hold around 36 million birds. To quote from Newton's 'NN 'Finches', "..however, only about half the birds could be seen from the observation points, so the total number was probably at least 70 million.."

That is a lot of Bramblings. To a soft Kent birder, a three figure count would be impressive. This winter, I have been more than happy with a number going to roost somewhat under that. Of course, I knew, like the Swiss, I probably wasn't counting the whole flock from my viewpoint, but it was fun to dream it could have been millions. Or a hundred. I'd have settled for counting a hundred.

Berengrave Chalk Pit

Go back to the 1980s, a regular spot for Brambling in the run of hard winters back then. I still have fond memories of trudging through the snow to see them, standing under the ivy covered trunks watching birds sneaking in.

Since I moved back from East Sussex, I have been counting the Magpie roost at Berengrave. As mega-exciting as that sounds, I decided from the start to count everything that roosts (a series of links at the end of the blog will take you to past summaries for most of the more common species including Brambling). This year autumn passage on the estuary hinted at a small but slightly higher than usual passage and, sure enough, after a run of nigh-blank winters, I finally had some Brambling to look at. Not 70 million, not even 70, but it would do.

I must be one of the few birders who routinely takes a telescope into an overgrown quarry. Simple fact of the matter, the birds were always at the northern end, the only decent viewpoint at the southern.

Pre-roost assembly and roosting

The Magpie count period has always been a set timed count from 60 minutes pre-sunset to 30 after. The finches often start arriving before that so, on arrival, a scan of the distant tree line would often find a mix of species up on display. When I say mix, there tended to be a general clumping of one species over another. Chaffinch, in the largest numbers, were all through the higher trees but the Goldfinches and Bramblings would be in tens, twenties, both having favourite trees and both able to flight without taking any of the other flocks with them.

Unlike the Magpies, the finch show would be over by sunset. Usually roughly twenty minutes before when the various groups would drop into lower branches. Mainly without any fuss, only sometimes, especially later in the season, making a few circuits of the Pit before piling in. Another interesting difference was that during the coldest part of the year perching in the tree tops would still happen, but for much, much shorter periods. Any urge to advertise the roost to newbies was overridden by an urge to secure a good spot.

Arrival was almost always from the north, and mainly the north-east. This put the majority on a flightpath back to what I discovered to be their favourite local food source.


Bramblings along the Medway

Taking winter as December 1st to February 28th, sightings were clustered around the main early season food source before spreading to a later winter support system of gardens. The initial attraction was not, as the field guides would have it, beech mast, but brassica, in game cover crops. Looking at 'BWP', brassica is a source many switch to when the mast runs out. There was clearly enough good feeding on these local farms, with safe roosting nearby, to keep a few birds present all winter.

Sadly, I was hampered by my early December operation and did not get to search the eastern end of the shore as often as I would have liked; Brambling arriving at the other more easterly roost I did visit tended to fly from the north-west and north-east, so were also no doubt also taking advantage of local cover crops; another local farmer more to the east always has them in his cover crops when they are in the county. Another site for me to check up on in the next good winter.

The second coming

Many texts hint at late winter hard weather movements. My set counts might very well hint at such a thing, but I can't say for sure. I found myself asking another question instead.

Go back to that monster Swiss roost. The actual count was never the number of birds present. That had to be estimated. In no way do I think my counts were the true number present. Just a nice comparison of relative numbers throughout the winter. But because my site is a b*gg*r to view, and with birds dropping down much more quickly during the coldest periods, could it be I missed more birds in the cold than the mild? My primary reason for counting here is, after all, the Magpies, so I never kept my eyes glued to the finches' favoured pre-roost perches. Did more sneak in past me at this time? Was the drop as strong as suggested by the graph?

Which had me thinking on other aspects of Brambling wintering behaviour and movement where the texts tend to differ a little.

Unlike other finches, Brambling are not, in the main, diurnal migrants; many birds, some texts suggest the vast majority, actually move at night. (BWP makes an intriguing statement that most diurnal movement takes place overland, while more nocturnal movements are over large water bodies. Years later the Migration Atlas states '..Brambling movements are often nocturnal and may leave exhausted stragglers grounded at the coast during the day..') The best bet is that we often just pick up on early morning stragglers or daytime adjusting movements; why, on  a good autumn morning, we never have more than a handful in comparison to Chaffinches.

Those late winter second pushes into the U.K. from the continent; how much evidence actually exists? Why couldn't late winter peaks be birds adjusting from, say, already within the U.K.? Again, the Migration Atlas "..weather conditions may bring new arrivals from the Continent in mid-winter, often in substantial numbers.." referencing the Birds of Norfolk, but intra-seasonal ringing controls that back this up are lacking somewhat, plus, on reading that referenced species account the mid-winter flight directions are mentioned, but none suggest an 'in-off'; movements south through that county could just as easily be birds already in the U.K.

The probability is good, but there is still much to confirm.


Spring departure and some real experiments rather than my guessing games

A direct comparison of Chaffinch vs. Brambling shows a typical Chaffinch curve, albeit steeper than usual thanks to higher numbers. A continued rise into December as the migrants find the better roosts/feeding areas, a decrease after New Year as winter bites, then a drop from March onwards as the locals move out to set up territories and the winterers start to feel migratory restlessness setting in; Chaffinch move a few weeks before Brambling. Makes sense, Brambling being the more northerly breeder, no need to move off quite as quickly; those breeding in, say, northern Finland, can't really get started there until warm enough in mid-, late- May. Their diet becomes more insectivorous, why risk getting back there and finding everything still frozen if there's still food available further south? Why some texts hint at their peak departures from here being mid-April, a fortnight or so after the Chaffinch peaks.

Having a trawl around the internet, I found a couple of interesting papers on work on migratory cues for Bramblings.

In one experiment, birds were kept under artificial light set to short (winter) daylengths. These lights were switched abruptly to 14.5 hours. It was like turning the dial up to eleven. Within three days, the birds had developed migratory restlessness. Zugunruhe. Fat deposits grew. So, effectively by mid- to late-April, migratory condition in Bramblings should be well advanced. Doesn't mean they all move at once, the texts say they stay in some number throughout the month.So why do we see less and less? Migration Atlas hints at an answer. Large flocks may have short-hopped to the continent, or they may have dispersed. Diet again. Stalling an early arrival on snowy breeding grounds again.

A second, more technical experiment, supported the hypothesis that "changes in the amplitude and level of the daily melatonin cycle are involved in regulating migratory restlessness, by either allowing or inhibiting nocturnal activity.." "Nocturnal activity"- now that made me sit up. Despite those more recent texts hinting diurnal migration might well be as strong as nocturnal, this species has true nocturnal urges. Puts me in the camp standing by the theory we only ever see a fraction of the true numbers of Brambling in our viz mig efforts. All the guesses that there's probably a lot more Brambling mixed in a high-flying Chaffinch flock than we can pick out? Nah, there's probably just a similar percentage to those we pick out in the lower flocks; a handful in the hundreds. The majority arrived earlier. (Be interesting to see if I eat these words in the coming years as more birders take up 'noc mig'..)

So, we might not be able to see them go. Do we know when they really do leave?


Borderline differences

Newton, in New Nats, stated British winterers move early March to April. What have our county avifaunas said?

Norfolk (Taylor): "..April records are now not at all unusual and large flocks can occur.. can still be present in good numbers into early April.. most tend to have slipped away by the middle of April.. coastal passage in the spring is much less noticeable than in the autumn.."

Suffolk (Piotrowski): "..pre-emigrating flocks.. ..feeding flocks are frequently reported until early May.."

Essex (Wood): "..the status of those birds occurring in the county from March onwards is unclear. Many are probably wintering birds, but it is likely that from the end of March there is an increasing number of returning migrants involved..

London (Self): "..several influxes during the middle of winter.."

Surrey (Wheatley): "..some evidence of passage March and larger arrivals in January.."

Kent (Taylor) "..small, but often noticeable spring passage, usually indicated by the presence of temporary flocks, during March-April.."

Sussex (James): "..a small spring passage is evident from mid-February onwards.."
(Thomas): "..spring passage is much less noticeable than in autumn.."

Where specific, not exactly any consensus among the local counties then.

Nationally, the Migration Atlas goes for "..large wintering flocks have typically dispersed or returned to the continent by mid-April.." so, they may or may not have left. It also asks if late April/early May birds on the coast are late leavers or passage birds heading up from south-west Europe.

We really still don't know as much as we like to think we do.

Among the county avifaunas, as always, for me, Wood stands out (fnarr). It makes plain we don't really know, and hints at what might be going on. Why when anyone asks me what's the best text on birds for Kent, I always say 'Birds of Essex'. I've always stated outstanding for esturine birds, but it also really works for a lot more species as well.

Not much left for me to do now this season. Just the one Magpie count left, in second half of April, but I'm already geared up for a nil return on Brambling, if only because my allotment backs onto the northern edge of their assembly area, and this past week I've not been hearing any in the late afternoons- or will they prove me wrong? Who would guess forecasting negative data for a common species could be so much fun?

-----

Links to other Berengrave roost posts:
- Introduction
- Finches
- Thrushes
- Non-passerines
- Other passerines