Friday, January 20, 2012

Back to Blog

“Welcome back to Manchester.” said the pilot’s voice as the 'plane taxied across the airport tarmac. “Please remain in your seats until the aircraft has stopped and the seat belt light is switched off.” the voice intoned. “The temperature outside is seven degrees, and it’s raining.” he advised, with just a hint of mischief and to the collective groans of 340 passengers. Effective come-uppance then for our daring to leave the January cold and spend two weeks in the 22 degrees sunshine of Lanzarote. I dozed in the back of the taxi to the swish of windscreen wipers, the blur of the rain spattered traffic of the M61, M62, M55 and then finally the calmer roads of the Fylde, until we unloaded the suitcases and back to reality.

After breakfast I’d taken a final stroll around the streets of Puerto Calero to the calls of Collared Doves, chattering Spanish Sparrows and the unmusical songs of Southern Grey Shrikes, making full use of the street lamps to proclaim their territories.

Southern Grey Shrike

Collared Dove

Spanish Sparrow

Lanzarote cactus

Lanzarote flowers

So home again, back to blogging and a quick post. I’ll catch up with friends and followers soon with more pictures and words from Lanzarote and try to get back into the real winter birding.

Monday, January 2, 2012

Getting Better

It was only this morning that my new shiny notebook received the first entry for 2012, so that means I’ve already lost one day’s birding – must do better. The weather hasn’t improved though, with strong winds and rain forecast for several more days which looks like limiting my activity to birding only, consigning the pliers to recent history.

Today’s visit to Rawcliffe Moss was enhanced by a flock of Fieldfares, the first ones I have seen in any numbers since November. The summer and autumn of 2011 produced a poor harvest of hawthorn berries, leaving none on the winter hedgerows for thrushes, Blackbirds or marauding Fieldfares from elsewhere, turning up for the feast that never was. Although we associate flocks of Fieldfares with stripping our hedgerows of autumn berries they have a very catholic taste in food, taking a wide range of invertebrates as well as flying insects and they switch easily between feeding on berries, fallen fruit or like today, probing the sodden fields on the lookout for earthworms and beetles. At this time of year Fieldfares also associate with Starlings, a species which is just as adept at probing wet fields. For the record the mixed flock I found contained 60 Fieldfare, 200+ Starling and just 3 Redwing, the latter as scarce as Fieldfares since the autumn.

Fieldfare

Fieldfare

Despite the showers and blustery wind my walk north, west and south turned up good numbers of passerines, with 130+ Tree Sparrow, 30 Reed Bunting, 4 Yellowhammer, 120 Chaffinch, 40 Skylark, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Song Thrush, 5 Yellowhammer and 15 Corn Bunting. More distant and over towards Pilling I reckoned on over 1500 Lapwing, 400 Woodpigeon and hundreds more Starlings in almost constant flight back and forth over the moss.

Yellowhammer

But brief sunny intervals helped me find 2 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard and 2 Grey Partridge, and then on the way home I finished off with a pm Barn Owl perched alongside Union Lane.

Barn Owl

The day seemed longer, with a little light remaining at 1630. Now that’s what I call progress.

Saturday, December 31, 2011

Where Did A Year Go?

It’s time for recalling the past year’s highlights of birding, ringing and photography. Now is the moment when we choose to forget the low points, the empty pages in a sodden notebook, netting a handful of birds on a seemingly perfect spring morning, or discovering that you set the aperture wrong after all. So here we go in rough chronological order with a selection of photos and personal highlights of 2011.

In the early part of the year we holidayed in Egypt at a time when the country was undergoing a revolution, but the confiding birds hadn’t joined in the turmoil and just behaved naturally for a visiting Brit. Egypt proved to be a wonderful place for bird photography and so difficult to select just a few pictures, apart from the Kingfisher which is just about my favourite photo of the year, taken with a decent choice of aperture for once.

Kingfisher - Egypt

Cattle Egret - Egypt

I’d left Will counting Siskins building up by the hundreds in his garden, together with a dozen or two Brambling and Lesser Redpoll. Within days of returning from Egypt I joined him for some memorable ringing sessions and notable breakfasts.

Brambling - Garstang

Lesser Redpoll - Garstang

Siskin - Garstang

Bacon Butty

Spring and autumn were great for catching and photographing Wheatears at Pilling. With the help of sacrificial meal worms I caught fourteen “Wheats” and clicked the shutter button a couple of hundred times on the beautiful chat, passing Meadow Pipits or the occasional Linnet.

Wheatear - Pilling

Meadow Pipit - Pilling

Linnet - Pilling

The annual ritual came along, May in Menorca, the island where birds are hard to find but fortunately more numerous than birders. This year a ringed Audouin’s Gull at the poolside gave me an excuse to find that extreme rarity, a Menorcan ringer.

Audouin’s Gull - Menorca

Audouin’s Gull - Menorca

Summer was warm and wonderful, ringing Swallow chicks, finding Skylark nests and stumbling upon young Lapwings or breeding Redshank.

Skylark - Pilling

Swallow - Pilling

Redshank - Pilling

Lapwing - Pilling

Then at the end of summer came a chance to take photographs of a species rapidly becoming a rarity, the unfortunately named “Common” Cuckoo.

Cuckoo - Nateby

Autumn and early winter was given over to ringing pipits, buntings, finches and thrushes “on the moss”, the satisfaction of working a regular patch with a job well done.

Reed Bunting – Out Rawcliffe

Tree Pipit - Out Rawcliffe

Yellowhammer - Out Rawcliffe

Many Thanks to Another Bird Blog followers and visitors for looking in throughout 2011 - here’s wishing you a Happy and Bird-Filled New Year.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Soggy Session

At last, a long-awaited ringing session when the BBC promised a drop in wind speed with a tiny window of dry weather, the first time Will and I had managed to get to Lee Farm since 20 November, when we caught 49 birds. In the meantime Will kept up the food drops for the local Tree Sparrows and for the Chaffinches which roost half a mile away.

The morning wasn’t nearly as good as promised, with heavy cloud from the off and little bouts of drizzle which turned to rain and then aborted the session at 10am. We caught just 14 birds, 11 new and 3 recaptures from 20 November. New birds: 8 Chaffinch, 2 Tree Sparrow and 1 Great Tit. Recaptures: 2 Chaffinch and a Blue Tit.

Tree Sparrow

Chaffinch

After the rain of recent weeks the track proved heavy going, even in wellies.

Wellies Recommended

On the way home I found 2 Buzzards sitting in the rain atop telegraph poles, so fired off a few shots - at ISO1600 again. One of the Buzzards had a comment about the less than ideal morning.

Buzzard

Buzzard

Sue tells me our friendly neighbourhood Sparrowhawk was back in the garden this morning, no wonder there are no small birds about.

Sparrowhawk

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Saved By A Sparrowhawk

No birding or ringing for me in the continuing bad weather but the local Sparrowhawk returned to the garden today. It must have caught prey in a neighbour’s garden and then still holding the meal, flown down onto our winter lawn to finish off the job. The prey wasn’t visible in the leaf strewn long grass but the hawk stood holding its lunch for a good five minutes, time enough for me to open the kitchen window and take a few pictures. Unfortunately the hawk was in the gloomiest corner of the garden, and the day so very dark that most shots are on ISO1600, the best available.

Sparrowhawk – adult male

Sparrowhawk – adult male

Sparrowhawk – adult male

I think the hawk was waiting for its prey to fully expire, and after a while it took off, carrying the victim, a by now lifeless Starling.

I last saw this carroty eyed adult male Sparrowhawk on 23rd and 24th November when it allowed me to walk down the garden towards it, most unlike a normally shy Sparrowhawk. At the time I assumed it wasn’t too well, especially with its plumage all fluffed up and the way it sat with one leg raised. I guess it must have been OK though and perhaps just having a bad day or a senior moment.

Sparrowhawk – adult male

The Sparrowhawk saved a potentially blog free day and if the wind ever drops I’ll get a net up and with luck catch the hawk as well as a few other birds.

Sparrowhawk – juvenile male

Sparrowhawk – juvenile male

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Famous Footsteps

I’m still busy with family things this week and birding naturally takes second place, but on a rough old morning Sue and I took some fresh air up at Knott End, with a walk along the Esplanade and up river.

There was no sign of the recent Black Redstart, however in its place at the slipway and near the Bourne Arms I found 6 Twite, 1 Rock Pipit and 1 Pied Wagtail. Shore birds: 220 Dunlin, 11 Turnstone, 20 Redshank and 1 Little Egret. Lots of Eider duck in the estuary, 41 in all, plus 3 Red-breasted Merganser braving the swell.

Eider

Pied Wagtail

Not everyone who reads the blog may know the following piece of trivia. The artist L S Lowry often visited Knott End and probably stayed in one of the boarding houses on the Esplanade, houses now turned into flats or private dwellings. There are paintings in existence which show that his favourite location for painting was a spot near the top of the ferry slipway, just where the Black Redstart hung about. It was from this spot Lowry produced typical scenes of crowds of matchstick people hurrying along the jetty to and from the ferry boat.

No more than a few of these paintings have ever been found but there must be more. If anyone has one of these canvases tucked away in the attic I am happy to swop it for a bird photograph of mine.

No crowds of matchstick people today, it was almost too windy to stand up.

Not “A Lowry”

Monday, December 26, 2011

Across The Moss

I set out for Rawcliffe Moss this morning, hoping it would be less windy than the Pilling coast, but as I arrived at the farm the wind whipped over the open fields, holding out little prospect of a productive birding walk. From the comparative shelter of the barn I surveyed west and then east where in the distance flooded fields held many Lapwings, Black-headed Gulls and a few Common Gull interlopers.

I think it was the passing Kestrel that disturbed both Skylarks and Corn Buntings from the nearby stubble, as parties of each of the similar sized birds flew over, 11 and 30 respectively; fortunately the species have different calls as well as different jizz, and Corn Buntings seem to make bigger flocks into the new year when food becomes tougher to find.

Corn Bunting

I turned into the farm track from where in the distance I could see Pheasants, 3 or 4 Blackbirds and 100 or more Tree Sparrows dropping in turn to their breakfast on the ground. Then almost within seconds it appeared that some wary sparrows chickened out of this apparently dangerous manoeuvre, and as if tied by a piece of elastic they sprung back to the safety of the dense hedgerow, there to await their next dash for a piece of the action. I must admit that a couple of times of late I have seen the Hen Harrier also take an interest in this corner of the farm, so the sparrows are wise to feed with caution. As I watched the sparrows I counted 3 Yellowhammer, 3 Reed Buntings, 2 Blue Tit, 3 Great Tit and a Great-spotted Woodpecker heading towards the feed.

The wind was pretty strong, so like the Sparrows I chickened out, turned the car round and headed off the farm for a run across Pilling Moss to Lane Ends, where although it would be equally windy, there would be guaranteed birds.

From the road near Lousanna Farm I could see Rawcliffe Moss, the fields where in recent days I’d watched the wintering Hen Harrier quarter the fields as it drifted or deliberately headed west in pursuit of a meal. Right on the cue today the harrier appeared here at Lousanna Farm just a harrier's flap-glide from its other favoured feeding spot. Continuing over the moss I noted 2 more roadside Kestrels before I hit Pilling.

Hen Harrier

A blog reader asked me “where is Pilling Moss?”, a question which stumped me a little because although I know exactly where the moss is, I’m not sure I could draw the vague-in-my-head boundaries on a map. Those frontier limits are very imprecise and bound up in the ancient history of other Fylde mosslands, some of which abut Pilling Moss – e.g. Stalmine Moss, Winmarleigh Moss and Rawcliffe Moss.

The “Moss” of Pilling refers to the area of peat land more or less south of the village of Pilling, an ancient settlement, founded at the hamlet of Eagland Hill on what was essentially an "island" with the sea on one side and marsh on the others. From artefact finds, there is evidence of spasmodic human activity here dating back to the Neolithic period.

“Pilling Moss - a strange dark tract of land with a history full of curiosity and interest, situated on the western side of Lancashire, between the Wyre and the estuary of Cockerham.

It was in the year 1813 or 1814 that James Jenkinson and Joseph Isles, who were natives of nearby Churchtown and Nateby, selected sites for cottages and farm buildings at Eagland Hill, a portion of the (Pilling) Moss. Eagland Hill was a natural mound of sand, slightly elevated, but surrounded on each side by bog and deep, broad tarns. There was at that time no approach to Eagland Hill by any road, save and except such as a vigorous sportsman in quest for game might risk with fear of occasionally sinking to his armpits in a swampy bog.

Many people have an idea that Pilling is a barren, swampy, dim and unfruitful part of the country, worth nothing, full of the hardest headed of clod hoppers, and given up to seagulls, curlews and uncivilised turf getters. But they are mistaken. In the centre, nay all round that monotonously level region, with its long lines of white smoke, burning from heaps of peat refuse, there are busy souls contending successfully against the rude natural obstacles of a long neglected locality, and turning the peat swamp and the wild bog into a fruitful garden. Enterprising landlords and industrious farmers have transmuted the incoherent waste, the almost chaotic imbroglio of old Pilling into a charming agricultural arena, sending its produce into the busiest markets and towns of Lancashire, and competing with goods of more favoured places.

To be sure, there are still in the district uncouth and unproductive tracts of ground - patches here and there of boggy, rush-grown and heather covered land; but viewed generally, industry, with its potent alchemy, has changed the scene into one of fertility and use. Meadow, pasture and arable land are visible in all directions; smiling farm houses and homesteads are dotted over its surface; a new railway will soon bring them into sharp communication with more distant localities; in the very centre of the moss the plough is busy doing its work, slowly, but well, and creating a new life in quarters which Fate seemed to have reserved for sterility and unending waste”.

After two hundred years of agricultural and drainage activity the moss is hugely changed, the railway been and gone, but the peaty black soil is much in evidence when driving over the moss along the modern Lancaster Road running from Little Eccleston to the hamlet of Scronkey then on to coastal Pilling. Essentially then, Pilling Moss lies east and west of Lancaster Road, it’s still a reasonable birding spot despite the change to winter crops, with often more than Curlews and gulls. History lesson over.

Pilling Moss

I didn’t see a lot at Lane Ends, instead got button-holed by an old shooting sort who complained in turn and with equal ferocity about the RSPB and younger shooters, but he certainly knew his stuff about geese. I nodded in agreement then headed up to Pilling Water where my sometimes distant counts arrived at 1000 Shelduck, 1200 Pink-footed Geese, 41 Whooper Swan, 800 Teal, 240 Wigeon 55 Pintail, 8 Skylark , 5 Little Egret, 1 Merlin and 600 Woodpigeon.

Teal

Readers may have noted how today's birding was a little quiet; I hope the blog post proved a little more entertaining and instructive.
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