Sunday, December 20, 2015

Another Plan B

Plan A was a drive to Oakenclough where it was my turn to top up the feeding station. There had been another overnight deluge but all was well until close to Garstang where at Moss Lane I came upon the road flooded ahead, abandoned cars and folk looking for a way through. A couple of phone calls quickly established that alternative routes via Churchtown village or Gubberford Lane were both similarly impassable. The birds would have to wait for a top-up. 

 Moss Lane, Garstang

On the way over Pilling Moss I’d seen a huge number of birds concentrated on a couple of flooded stubble fields and vowed to look in on the way back from Oakenclough. For Plan B the fields seemed a good place to start a spot of birding and in fact I spent an hour or more just watching from the car and ended up with a great selection of birds and fairly impressive counts. 

In the raptor line 3 Buzzards and 2 Kestrels entertained while being kept on their toes by dozens of corvids, mainly Carrion Crow and Jackdaw. 

Kestrel

Readers will note that the following counts are approximated as all the species were highly mobile due to disturbance factors of passing traffic, Kestrels, crows and sheep, but also a steady wind blowing across the open fields:

500+ Starling, 200+ Linnet, 120+ Chaffinch, 30 Goldfinch. 140+ Fieldfare, 40 Wood Pigeon, 2 Redwing, 15 Meadow Pipit, 14 Pied Wagtail, 5 Skylark, 1 Grey Wagtail, 3 Yellowhammer, 3 Reed Bunting, 3 Whooper Swan. 

Skylark

Fieldfare

Pied Wagtail

Plan B turned out pretty well after all. With luck I should get to implement Plan A when the water subsides and maybe even fit in a spot of ringing before Christmas. If so read all about it here with Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.


13 comments:

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Wow, those floods are monumental. Stay dry and have a wonderful, Christmas, Phil.

Linda said...

Beautiful, Phil. Merry Christmas! :)

eileeninmd said...

Wow, I hope the flood water has receeded by now. The road looks awful. Wonderful variety of beautiful birds. Your photos are awesome. Have a happy week ahead.

Merry Christmas to you and your family.

carol l mckenna said...

You definitely lucked out! Gorgeous photos!

Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to all,
artmusedog and carol

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

I'll take your Plan B anytime! It's better than any Plan A I've ever experienced ;))! Pretty skylark. And kestrels are always fun to see, except when one used to visit our backyard where our feeders offered it a choice of small bird morsels.

Merry Christmas ... And I do hope your weather clears up quickly ... That's an ominous amount of rain there!

Fun60 said...

What a great photo of the skylark. Merry Christmas.

Neil said...

Looked like a great plan b Merry Christmas.

Silver Parrot said...

Glad your Plan B worked out so well. That Pied Wagtail is a darling!

A Colorful World said...

You had a gully-washer! :-) Glad you were able to get out finally and get such great photos!

Rohrerbot said...

Love the rain and i love plan b's. Sometimes they can be the most rewarding. The Skylark reminds me of the Lark or Vesper Sparrow....just a bit. Have a wonderful rest of your year and we'll "see" you back next year! Happy birding! Chris

Mary Howell Cromer said...

I am just so taken by the beautiful Fieldfare... such beauty...I have been so busy with my daughter who was very ill, following surgery and only had phone use for many days and one day I used the hospital pad to log onto my blog, and it scared me so bad. I had logged on and within a few minutes the whole thing shut down and I got so concerned I could not get back on to log out. I am back to half normal days, but now getting ready for Christmas and the hustle and bustle to the girls homes for celebration. Happy Holidays to you and yours~

Les Fous du Cap said...

Merry Christmas
Céline & Philippe

Gerald (SK14) said...

love the pied wagtail - take care in the floods

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