Sunday, April 20, 2014

Plan B

Plan A was to be a coastal walk soon after dawn to seek out more Wheatears and anything else lurking unfound by Spring birders. A bitingly cold north easterly wind soon put paid to that idea whereby I found myself in the car heading north with the heater and heated seat at “max”, but as usual the window turned down. It is somewhat mystifying but occasionally I see people apparently bird watching, sitting in their car with the windows up and the radio booming away; I wonder how they ever locate birds? 

Plan B found me at Conder Green for a look on the pool and the roadside creeks, with hopefully a few Spring migrants. The 2 Spotted Redshanks have wintered here. Now they are in the process of acquiring their summery black plumage it will be interesting to see when exactly they head off to Scandinavia/Asia to breed. 

Spotted Redshank

Spotted Redshank

There was a lot of long range birding today with over 200 Black-tailed Godwits feeding on the distant side of the pool for a while before flying off to the estuary. Not long after a similar number came back to the pool only to then do exactly the same by returning to the area of the River Lune. Mostly the godwits were in brick-red plumage with a small number of obvious second year birds and yet other intermediates. One fed in the creek for a while, distant as ever. One Grey Heron in the creeks also, with c15 Redshank and 1 Curlew. 

Black-tailed Godwit

The pool is pretty sparse for birds now, still suffering from excessive water levels caused by the wet, windy and tide-filled winter. As a diving species Tufted Ducks appear to like it, with 26 counted today as opposed to dabbling Wigeon with just a singleton noted. 

Tufted Duck

8 Oystercatchers are in residence seemingly paired up and waiting for good sized stretches of stones, pebbles and suchlike where their eggs can remain undetected. Not much chance of that on a favoured Oystercatcher island which is normally several times bigger than at present and so rather restricts their choice of a nest site. 

Oystercatcher

A “few” Swallows and Sand Martins headed north with other visible migration restricted to one or two Lesser Redpoll overhead. Singing Reed Bunting and Greenfinch along the hedgerow. 

A pit stop at Braides Farm gave 26 Golden Plover, 8 Linnet and 4 Swallows heading east. 

Finally it was Fluke Hall where the wind had not abated so I concentrated effort on the woodland. The male Kestrel was in the same location as normal and then I found out why. He dropped from the fence post to all of two yards away and then came back up with a good sized mammal. After taking a portion of the food for himself he flew off to the nearby nest box to present the animal to the female, the latter presumably now on eggs. It’s a big prey item for a smallish Kestrel and another long distance picture - 400mm x 1.4 converter. 

Kestrel

The woodland and hedgerow produced 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 20+ Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler, 1Chiffchaff, and the arrival of one singing Whitethroat fresh from Africa. 

Whitethroat

In the field nearest the sea wall there’s a build-up of spring Linnets and a few Meadow pipits, about 100+ Linnets and 4/5 pipits today, flushed in all directions by a marauding Sparrowhawk. 

So Plan B didn’t turn out too bad after all. Tune in soon to see what’s scheduled next for Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

19 comments:

  1. I hope all that my Plan Bs work out as well. I really like the kestrel picture, Phil. They are such gorgeous little falcons, whether on my side of the Atlantic or yours.

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  2. What a great set of pictures. Really like those Spotted Redshank. From Findlay

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  3. Phil, you Plan B looks wonderful to me. Great birds and wonderful sightings.. Neat capture of the Kestrel.. happy birding and enjoy your week ahead!

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  4. Great to live on the coast and beautiful views.

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  5. ...you make me feel cold when you write about birding in the bitter weather Phil, it makes me know that when I finish this message I'll be stepping out the back door into the lovely sunshine to hang some washing...and warm up! That was quite a pick-up seeing the Kestrel, but also to get the proof with photo! I'm assuming you might've taken it from your car window? Cheers from sunny east coast, Australia

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  6. Plan B looks pretty good to me. Great shot of the kestrel with prey. I'm thrilled to see the bluebirds have returned here this week.

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  7. I had to google Conder Green to have an idea where you are located :) So many birds here that I've never seen, and all beautifully photographed. it was a delight to visit. As many said, all plan B's should only work out that well!

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  8. You had many nice finds for plan B, Phil. That is a hefty looking animal the kestrel caught and shows the kestrel is doing well. I feel if I avoided birdwatchers in Japan I'd have to stay home as there are more of them than the birds where I go. Maybe I should just stay home and enjoy such blogs as this one.

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  9. Love the Kestrel with its breakfast!! The sunlight on its beauty truly enhances its dapper look!!!

    Oh, and must say I really LIKE the name Conder Green.

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  10. I'd say plan b worked out great! Lovely reflection of the Godwit, I always enjoy seeing a Oystercatcher, and the Whitethroat is a sweet little bird.

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  11. Lovely Photos! The Kestrel colors are beautiful!

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  12. Great photo of the Kestrel with the catch. Of course the shorebirds are beautiful! Wish I could see them as them gain their breeding colors.

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  13. Hi Phil Plan B certainly worked for you. Great selection of bird shots and the one with the Kestrel and fence would be a great entry for Tex's 'Good Fences' meme tomorrow.

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  14. Interesting observations and well-documented. Greetings

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  15. Sounds like an exciting day indeed with great documentation. I particularly like the little whitethroat.

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  16. Looks like a great plan to me. I love the kestrel.

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  17. I do enjoy seeing birds from other places. They differ so much!

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