Thursday, December 24, 2015

The Last Post?

Here’s wishing Seasonal Greetings to readers old and new of Another Bird Blog. The blog is taking a few well-earned days off to join in the festivities before returning soon. In the meantime there are a few highlights and favourites from the year gone by with words and photographs by way of illustration. 

In January 2015 we left the grey skies of England and escaped south for a few weeks to the warmth of Lanzarote, Spain. One thousand eight hundred miles from home on the island of wide blue skies the weather was spring-like with many birds engaged in the throes of breeding. 

 Berthelot's Pipit, Lanzarote - January 2015

The Desert Grey Shrike is very common on Lanzarote. It is also very vocal and fearless, as proven when I watched one attack and chase a feral cat from an area where both of the adult shrikes fed youngsters out of the nest. 

Desert Grey Shrike

The centre of a thorny bush in the desert like landscape makes for a secure nesting site; this female had yet to lay eggs but was pretty insistent on staying put just yards from the car window. 

Desert Grey Shrike

Lanzarote - January 2015

During February and March Andy and I began to catch both Lesser Redpolls and Siskins at the ringing site near Oakenclough, where to their credit United Utilities invested a large amount of cash in improving the site by removing rhododendron and then replanting. The redpoll passage was more noticeable than the number of Siskins, but by early April the less than spectacular movement of both was virtually over. 

Siskin

Lesser Redpoll

Replanting at Oakenclough

March and April saw the usual spring arrival of Wheatears, coupled in March with a very noticeable arrival of Stonechats whereby to see at least half-a-dozen Stonechats lined up along a barbed wire fence is fairly unusual. Meanwhile the cool, windy spring restricted opportunities for catching Wheatears with a measly three my sum total for the year. 

Stonechat


Wheatear

The wet and cool spring didn’t help Skylarks much. At Pilling two out of four Skylark nests failed at the egg stage when heavy rain washed out the nests, a third proved inconclusive, with only the fourth nest being successful at “ready for fledging” stage.

Skylarks

Skylark

“Travel broadens the mind” goes the well-worn phrase so the month of May found Sue and I widening our horizons by spending a couple of weeks in Menorca. When we come back to Earth next time we both want to be landed on this beautiful island and sit in the plaça drinking coffee all day - in between birding (and shopping!) of course. 

Alaior - Menorca 2015

Audouin's Gull

Egyptian Vulture

Back home during June and July around the local patch were a few unexpected Lapwing chicks. Rather perversely the wet spring for farmers and birders proved to be something of a blessing to the beautiful bird which likes wet meadows but struggles to survive the modern world of intensive farming. 

Lapwing - 2015

Lapwing - 2015

During late May, June and July just four timed visits to a local Sand Martin colony produced reasonable early season catches without proof of a good breeding season in the way of many youngsters. We suspect the cool and wet year played havoc with the martins just as it did with many other species during 2015. 

Sand Martin

It might seems strange to mention the common Bullfinch as a highlight but the single bird I caught at Oakenclough on the 28th August was the first I’d handled in almost thirty years. Yes, the Bullfinch is that scarce in this part of Lancashire. 

Tree Pipit was top of the pops at Oakenclough on 16th August when during a quiet ringing session four of the striking pipits found their way to the mist nets. Meanwhile the other fifteen birds of the day divided between a few each of Willow Warblers, Lesser Redpolls, Goldcrests and titmice. 

Tree Pipit

Bullfinch

September saw Sue and me adventuring in Skiathos, Greece, yet another beautiful sunny island. There’s a definite island theme going on here. 

 Skiathos - 2015

Skiathos isn’t a famed birding spot, thank goodness. But it may well be the best place on Earth to watch Eleonora’s Falcons in action. On other days I managed to find a good mix of species during and after a particularly violent and historic thunderstorm which wrecked the neighbouring island of Skopelos. Who says it only rains in Britain? 

Yellow Wagtail

 Eleonora's Falcon - Skiathos 2015

October proved a fine autumn month for birding and ringing before the downhill slide which brought major floods to North-West England. By the end of October our ringing sessions at Oakenclough had provided 60 Redwings, a handful of Fieldfares, continued redpolls and even a couple of bonus Sparrowhawks to enliven unwary fingers. 

Sparrowhawk

Redwing

There’s not much to say about November and December other than I wish it would stop raining and blowing a Hooley. We’ve managed three ringing sessions while the birding has been dire. 

BBC Weather Forecast, NW England - 24th December 2015

Roll on 2016 for longer days, brighter weather, birding and blogging. And SUNSHINE.

Linking today with Eileen's Saturday.



12 comments:

eileeninmd said...

Hello, Phil, wonderful recap of your trips and the beautiful birds. I do hope you weather is better in 2016! Enjoy your break and family time.

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Linda said...

Beautiful series, Phil. Merry Christmas to you, dear friend. :)

Jo said...

Hi Phil, I love the recap of all your wonderful birds which you shared during the year. LOVE the nestlings especially. Merry Christmas to you and yours. Greetings, Jo (another birder...)

Stuart Price said...

Some pretty good birds in 2015 there Phil..........

said...

Feliz Navidad, querido Phil.
Abrazos para ti.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Not a bad year, huh? Enjoy your break (well-earned you say) and keep on blogging in the new year. All the best to you and your family.

eileeninmd said...

Hello Phil, I am just stopping back to say thank you for linking up your beautiful birds and post. Have a happy weekend!

Lea said...

Wonderful bird photos!
A great way to commemorate the year.
May you be blessed with wonderful birding experiences in the New Year!
Lea

David M. Gascoigne, said...

I just heard more tales of horror about the flooding in northern England.I hope you are safe, Phil, and not being put in peril by these forces of nature. Stay warm and dry and don't take any foolish chances. The birds will be there when the floods subside. Happy New Year my friend.

Powell River Books said...

I miss all of the birds of spring and summer. All that's remaining are the resident ravens, an occasional great blue heron, a lone female merganzer, and a small sparrow the flits by once in awhile.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Your birdie pics are so awesome, Phil.

Here's to a Happy New Year!
~

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Darn that ran....what what a wonderful ten months you had before it hit! I think you should plan a Christmas get away next year ... But you are younger than we are (I assume, almost everybody in the world is) .. And your grandkids are probably not all grown up like ours are!

I loved all your birds, the one I would especially love to see and probably never will is the lapwing ... So unique.

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