Showing posts with label Fylde. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fylde. Show all posts

Friday, December 30, 2016

Last Post

Just one day to bird before the end of 2016, and I finished on a reasonable high. 

There seemed to be Lapwings everywhere I went this morning. In virtually every field I passed I heard the calls of Lapwings and saw their black and white patterns against the sky, or when I stopped to scan, found more hidden amongst the black peaty fields. 

Lapwing

It’s not too surprising as mid-winter is when widespread counts reveal the UK and Ireland winter population to be between 2 and 3 million individuals. That number includes a high proportion of birds from Scandinavia, Denmark, Holland and North Germany that join Lapwings from Northern Britain that move to more coastal and warmer locations.

If here in Lancashire we have one of our rare sustained spells of ice and snow many of these same Lapwings will move even further west over the Irish Sea to spend the winter in Ireland. But for now there are many, many thousands of Lapwings in this small part of Lancashire we call The Fylde, a coastal plain in west Lancashire, England. It is roughly a 13-mile (20-kilometre) square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble Estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the Bowland Hills to the east. The eastern boundary is approximately the location of the M6 motorway. 

Fylde, Lancashire

Flat Fylde

My early route took me over Stalmine Moss, Union Lane, Lancaster Lane and then Skitham Lane towards Garstang and then the same in return mode. Stopping here and there I clocked up brief views of a Barn Owl which at least made me pause and look harder. It was then I started to count 1000+ Lapwings in many fields as well as to discover 60+ Fieldfare, 25+ Chaffinch, 2 Yellowhammer, 8 Stock Dove, 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Grey Heron and 1 Little Egret.

It’s a good bet there’s not been much traffic, motorised or pedestrian, if there are Pink-footed Geese in roadside fields. As usual and for weeks the geese have hid themselves away from the prying eyes of both shooters and birders so I was surprised to see 500/600 in the field closest to Lane Ends and the A588. Needless to say at the first sign of pedestrians and birders standing up beside their car, heads lifted and the geese stopped their feeding to go walkabout in the opposite direction. 

Pink-footed Geese

For goodness sake birders. The geese need to feed after spending the previous 14 hours of a dark and cold winter’s night out on the saltmarsh. These geese are shot at on a daily basis. They are extremely wary and will take flight at the first hint of trouble, more so if folk leave their car to clatter about with tripods and then stand in full view when they could just as well stay in the car and observe the geese from a wound down car window. It’s called “fieldcraft”.

After watching the geese move to a quieter spot I tackled the A588, Murder Mile, where good numbers of Lapwings fed in the roadside fields but where it’s too dangerous to stop a car at almost any time of the day. 

At Gulf Lane I counted 200 or more Linnets finding natural food while a single Stock Dove helped itself to our millet/niger mix. We’re adding rape seed any day now to hopefully make a difference to the Linnets’ feeding routine. 

Linnets

At Braides Farm and hung over the gate was a Christmas gift, a meal of roast goose waiting for collection. "Pluck it yourself". there's no fast food in Pilling and Cockerham.

Pink-footed Goose

Also - 800 Lapwing, 400 Golden Plover, 80 Black-tailed Godwit, 40+ Redshank, 30 Wigeon, 15 Teal, and 9 Shoveler. 

 Lapwing

Redshanks

The tide was in at Conder Green where the wintering Spotted Redshank “showed well” among 120 Teal, 30+ Redshank, 6 Curlew, 6 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret and then 1 Jack Snipe which didn’t show at all well. 

Spotted Redshank

The “half-snipe” had been moved by the rising water and then flew across my line of vision, landed near a Redshank and tucked itself into a clump of marsh grass from where it failed to show again, despite me watching the exact spot for several minutes. That’s what Jack Snipe do best, squat down and stay dep in cover until something or someone disturbs them. Even then one will fly fly just a short distance before dropping back into vegetation. 

Snipe and Jack Snipe - Henrik Grönvold - wikimedia commons

This is the last post for 2016 from Another Bird Blog. Tomorrow Sue and I prepare for the invasion of New Year’s Day and a house full of eight adults and five grandchildren. If I survive there will be more news soon from Another Bird Blog. 

In the meantime here's wishing every one of my readers a Happy, Prosperous and Bird-Filled 2017.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Saturday.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

What To Do?

What with the legacy of rain puddles, showers, and then overnight frost and ice the roads didn’t look very enticing this morning. Anyway at the weekend there are far too many birders about. It’s getting very popular this bird watching lark, so I pondered where to go, where to look and what I might see.

The onset of frosty nights has brought better numbers of birds to the garden, increased Blackbirds, Goldfinches and even a Mistle Thrush, the latter attracted by the apples straight from the freezer, microwaved and then chucked on the grass. So up went a mist net for a while resulting in a reasonable catch of 19 birds but not including any of the thrush family: 9 Goldfinch, 2 House Sparrow, 3 Coal Tit, 3 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit and 1 Robin.

Goldfinch

Robin

House Sparrow

The day wasn’t over. Sue and I took to Shanks’s Pony for a walk through Staynall via Height O'Th Hill and then down towards the River Wyre, a few bits n’ pieces of birds on the way there and on the way back.

Most of the action was between Corcas Lane’s brine fields and the river at The Heads, namely a Buzzard, 10+ Fieldfare, 6 Redwing, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 6 Goldfinch, 15 Chaffinch, 2 Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting and 200+ Woodpigeon. Down at the river embankment we disturbed a Little Egret and 4 Snipe from the ditches, and then watched a Short-eared Owl hunt but briefly before it settled down again in the marsh grass.

On the stubble fields towards "Hillbilly" Farm we counted 40+ Curlew, a flighty group of 30 or so Golden Plover and one of the local Kestrel pair.

Curlew 

The landscape is pretty flat in this part of The Fylde, Lancashire, and just occasionally do the contours reach the dizzy heights. The word “Fylde” is of Scandinavian origin and descriptive of this flat, coastal part of western Lancashire, a roughly 13-mile square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the Bowland hills to the east.

Fylde - looking east to Bowland

 Height O'Th Hill Farm

The BBC reckons there’s a chance of snow and sleet tomorrow. We’ll see, but come rain, snow, or sun you can bet Another Bird Blog will find ways to bring a few birds your way.

This week Another Bird Blog is linking to I'd Rather Be Birding, Stewart's Photo Gallery, and Weekly Top Shot, so be sure to check them out. 
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