Thursday, February 17, 2022

A Bad Case Of Wind

Storm Dudley is here, closely followed by Storm Eunice, the two courtesy of westerly gales  from the Atlantic Ocean. Thank you America, but don't send us any more, we have  plenty of wind generation from our UK politicians. 

Oh how we laughed when in Wales and at the first puffs of Dudley, a 2 megawatt 300 ft wind turbine fell over like a fading Welsh daffodil.   A two megawatt windmill is made of 260 tons of steel that require 300 tons of coking coal, all mined, transported and produced by hydrocarbons. A windmill could spin (but only on windy days) until it falls apart and not generate as much energy as that invested in building it. Some things never add up do they? 

Windless Turbines

Regulars will by now have guessed that bird ringing news is non-existent, waiting as I am for the weather to subside and for APHA/DEFRA to pull fingers from their collective backsides and allow us bird ringers to collect urgently needed data.  

There's little to report from this week's grey affairs. A trip with pal Andy to a new Linnet site down South and out of the 10Km zone centred on Pilling produced a whacking count of 500/600 Linnets and permission from the farmer to catch said birds whenever we liked. We explained that time is of the essence and that as early as 1st March many Linnets will be heading back from whence they came.  Andy followed up a day or two later by cutting rides through the seed plot for the day that warming sun-spots might allow us a visit. 

The day we visited there was a Kestrel targeting the field, perhaps not entirely for the Linnets which move pretty fast at the sight of any raptor. More likely is that the Kestrel sat motionless in the tree was on the lookout for mice and voles. 

Kestrel

Farmer P showed us the Barn Owl's barn and then pointed us in the further direction of low buildings where Swallows and even Little Owls return year after year. 

Barn Owl

Little Owl

Mr P shared our view that the cold spring of 2021 had resulted in less Swallows than normal but agreed that Spring 2022 could hardly be colder and more unsuitable for insect eating Swallows than the last.  
     
Swallows

This is a traditional farmyard with oily rags and rusty tractors where the daily traffic of cattle plus gallons of now standing rainwater creates an insect rich sludgy mess irresistible to wagtails.  Two or three Pied Wagtails and a single Grey Wagtail flitted around the yard, not minding our close proximity when so much food was on offer. 

Pied Wagtail

Tractor

A winter farm hereabouts pretty much guarantees Pied Wagtails will be around with the occasional bonus of a Grey Wagtail. As an early breeding species the Grey Wagtail will likely head off in March whereas Pied Wagtails will nest on the farm in more than one or two pairs.    

Grey Wagtail

Even now I’m reading of bird watchers, probably new to the game, who confuse Grey Wagtail with Yellow Wagtail. But while Grey Wagtails are present all year round in the UK, Yellow Wagtails spend the winter in deep Africa and not the cold wet windy days of Lancashire.   

There's a reminder here here of the differences in the two species. 

Back soon we hope. Stay tuned.

Linking today with Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni in Texas.



19 comments:

Mike Attwood said...

Hi Phil,
Lovely blog, interesting to know how it has affected you. I've got Eunice to look forward to in the next couple of hours, not sure that I'm going to get much sleep tonight. Take care,
Mike.

Angie said...

Phil - love the owls. I know we have owls here in the "wilderness", but we rarely see them. So, I think it is amazing that you get so many pictures in a much more populated area!

Breathtaking said...

Hello Phil,:=) Great post! All your captures of the raptures, are stunning, and posing nicely on posts and tree branches, not wires! Farmer P was generous to show you where you were likely to see the Little Owl, Barn Owl, and Swallows. Sweet capture of the two swallows. I learned how to identify between a Grey Wagtail and a Yellow Wagtail by going to an earlier post of yours. I will never be confused about these two different species again. Thank you Phil. :=)

The Padre said...

Love All These Bird Photos And I Believe The Little Owl Is My Favorite Of The Bunch - Crazy Cool Old Tractor There As Well - Saw The 100mph Costal Winds - Enjoy Your Weekend Brother Man

Cheers

Malindha Erba said...

Hello! The Swallows looks like only one bird in a mirror ^^

eileeninmd said...

Hello Phil,
It is wonderful to have access to the farmer's barn and fields. Love the cute Barn Owl and the Little Owl. Great captures of the Kestrel, Sweet Swallows, Pied Wagtail and the Grey Wagtail, they are all beautiful birds. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a happy weekend.

Jenn Jilks said...

Such storms. It's not great birding weather here, either.

Amila said...

All these are wonderful bird captures,specially the owls!

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

The Swallows are very sweet but of course I like the owls and Kestrel. In fact I'll go right back up and look at those owls again. I don't see owls very often here. I need to learn where to look I guess!

Linda said...

That is a superb shot of the swallows.

Veronica Lee said...

Love the awesome bird captures.

The owls are stunners!

Happy Sunday, Phil.

Anni said...

I was reading about the high winds in the UK...by now, the front has passed you by?!! Not fun for birders & ringers alike....but, you DID find some. Let's just hope things improve before it's too late.

Thanks for linking up this week.

betty-NZ said...

How awesome to get these pretty owls!

Thanks for sharing your link at My Corner of the World this week!

Taken For Granted said...

Love seeing your owl photos. They are such beautiful birds. The 9N Ford tractor may be rusty, but I'll bet it still runs and is being used. This is the most successful tractor ever built. It put plow horses out to pasture.

Carol @Comfort Spring Station said...

I love all owls but I really love the barn owl's face. Hope you didin't suffer any destruction from the storms - stay safe.

Wally Jones said...

Again, sorry about all the wind. We simply had no idea our conjuring spells to move the storms off our coast so we could have a nice birding day would end up sending them all the way to Lancashire!

Good news on finding a friendly farmer! That sort of resource is becoming more scarce it seems. You ended up with a pretty good bird report!

The wind turbine collapse due to - wind - well, it's hard to make up some of these events! It certainly seems the immense cost of a turbine to produce a puff of air is very similar to the cost of a politician to produce the same thing.

Spring migration! Native bird nesting! Cool mornings! Warm days!

Wish you were here.

Gini says "Hi".

Einari Sinappi said...

That little owl is one angry bird. :) Mighty power of mother nature to knock that mill down.

Villrose said...

Lovely owl photos!

Lowcarb team member said...

Must admit these storms have not been welcome, I will be glad once they have cleared. I've never known so many ...
Dudley, Eunice, Franklin and apparently Gladys is not far away either!!!

A joy to see your owl photographs (and others too).
That looks a lovely old tractor.

Enjoy these last days of February, the month has passed by quite quickly.

All the best Jan

Related Posts with Thumbnails