Another Bird Blog: Mainly Chats and Pipits

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Mainly Chats and Pipits

Because it is possible to see Stonechats in the winter we almost don’t think of the species as a migrant but it is, or at least a partial migrant.

I was reminded of this at Pilling this morning as I watched a party of six Stonechats fence hopping while feeding fervently along the ground below. There may have been as many as eight in the locality because an hour before and 250 yards away I’d watched a male and a female Stonechat behaving as if they might be intent on setting up home together.

Stonechat

In February and March Stonechats begin to find their route back to often traditional territories in preparation for their extended breeding season. A single pair of adults may have three broods of youngsters, a strategy often employed by species that are susceptible to the ravages of winter.

Many Stonechat territories are occupied all year round while more exposed sites are mostly deserted in the colder winter months when many Stonechats, especially young ones, move to France and Iberia. Some Stonechats travel as far as North Africa.

A Stonechat is so named because both sexes have a clicking call like stones knocking together, a call they use to good effect as a warning.

Stonechat

Apart from the Stonechats things were pretty quiet this morning with the exception of 15+ obviously new-in Meadow Pipits feeding along the same boundary fence. I looked hard but couldn’t find that other harbinger of Spring the Wheatear, despite some being seen not far away in North Wales during recent days.

Meadow Pipit

At Fluke Hall I counted 190 Pink-footed Geese, 12 Curlew, 2 Pied Wagtail and a pair of Oystercatchers in the car park field. There was the usual Buzzard and Kestrel knocking around the trees, with upwards of 45 Woodpigeon in evidence and 3 Song Thrush in good singing voice.

A closer look revealed 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 12 Goldfinch, 4 Tree Sparrow and another Pied Wagtail walking along someone’s roof.