Doom And Gloom

A Happy New Year to all my readers, regular or new. Apologies for a lack of recent posts and there being few pictures today. I have been on a short sabbatical or as Sue might say, "What are you thinking about?" 

In the coming year of 4,500,000,001, we approach a new scientific age and leave behind Old Religion to embrace a new age of enlightenment. We must realise that The Earth is 4.5 billion years old (give or take several million) existing within a cosmos of unimaginable dimensions where other planets are many, many light years away. 

(Part of) Our Universe 

Year 2020 is but an arbitrary date invented by Man, a fantasy of ideas, myth and religious stories. For now in 4,500,000,001 and as a climate catastrophe engulfs our tiny world we must prepare and survive by adopting the New Religion of Climate Change. 

Fortunately we have a new god to replace the old - Doom Goblin, a child” activist”, together with a band of vocal preachers in the form of the secular BBC and mainstream media to constantly remind us of impending disaster and the coming of the Extinction. Whether the last day arrives via a flood of biblical proportions or as a bolt from on high they have yet to reveal, but it all sounds remarkably similar to stories in the now obsolete Bible.  Apparently the BBC Environment Editor Roger Harrabin “reports what he thinks is true” and is “a journalist”. He is clearly not a scientist, nor is he willing to entertain discussion or debate about climate change alarmism. 

The BBC and other media is unapologetic and well-practised in telling people what to think and how to go about their lives. Their bias against Brexit is still plain to see, so too their diversity and political correctness policies that make TV programmes unwatchable and leaves newspapers redundant. Unless of course you think that Strictly Come Dancing, Eastenders, Channel Four "News", and the Daily Mirror are cultural highs while waiting for Noah’s Ark to arrive? 

But what goodies we enjoy via this new found religion as we await The End. Electric cars that glide silently London to Glasgow (one way only) or Smart Meters that cut off the gas and electric should a householder over-consume. Or rotating Bat and Bird detectors that litter our once green and pleasant land with corpses; blades that kill but which if the wind doth blow, can produce enough electricity to make a few cups of tea? And what of the advance that Northern Hemisphere Solar Energy provides during gloomy winter days in The Northern Isles?  Or maybe you fancy a pair of hemp slippers (£29.99 free delivery) that when worn out (very quickly) can be a light snack or a crafty smoke, whichever takes your fancy. 

The list is not endless, unlike the uninterrupted propaganda and marketing of overpriced “green” goods. Now if I was a cynic, I might conclude that someone somewhere is making a tidy sum out of Climate Change.  Including the BBC. 

The changes in climate, formerly known as Meteorology is the study of climate that is in a constant state of flux on a day-to-day, monthly or yearly basis; sometimes micro sometimes macro, but always unstable. 

Even a tiny search of the Internet reveals that modern climate global record-keeping began roughly 140 years ago, in 1880 only. That's because earlier available climate data doesn't cover enough of the planet to get an accurate reading. The computation of many types of records, including personal, financial, climate and anthropogenic records didn’t begin until the late 1960/early 1970s with increasingly sophisticated computers. 

There is evidence that the changes we see are due to a 1,500-year climate cycle, a phenomenon which produced more than a dozen global warmings similar to the current circumstances since the last Ice Age, and that such warmings are linked to variations in the sun's irradiance and solar energy. 

If only George Orwell were alive today to cut through the lies, deceit and crap we are fed and to ferret out the countless omissions to which we are not privy. He might deduce by some strange quirk of the time machine that he’d arrived at Animal Farm in the year of Nineteen Eighty Four. He wouldn’t be wrong. 

“Do not imagine, comrades, that leadership is a pleasure. On the contrary, it is a deep and heavy responsibility. No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?” 

George Orwell 

Dear Reader.  Do not worry unduly. I'm thinking the end is not nigh and that I may be back soon in the real world with birds, bird photos and bird news. Stay tuned but if you see a large vessel arriving at your door, dial 999 and ask for Police Constable Noah.

Not More Bramblings?

The BBC’s promised fog and frost didn’t materialise this morning so after a couple of quick texts at 0730 I set off to meet Will near Lancaster for a short ringing session where we hoped for a Brambling or two and more winter Blackbirds.

Sunday morning roads are fairly quiet at 8am so I wasn’t entirely surprised to see a roadside Barn Owl sat on a post along Burned House Lane at Stalmine. Trouble was I was alongside before I saw the owl, and had I stopped the car to wind down the window the bird would surely have flown off. In any case although I had my camera on the passenger seat, it had the short lens attached in readiness for birds in the hand, and fiddling changing lenses by the roadside would also result in the owl flying off. So at Lane Ends I pulled in to the lay-by and changed lenses in the hope that another Barn Owl might show between there and Lancaster. Amazing luck, half a mile down the road I spotted ahead a second Barn Owl sat on yet another roadside post, as Barn Owls are inclined to do on undisturbed mornings. Yet again the light was pretty dismal, and a sunny morning would make a change, but I rattled off a shot or two at ISO800 then dashed off to meet Will for 0815.

Barn Owl

A couple of nets sufficed for the short session and we caught 16 birds, 13 new and 3 recaptures. Birds caught: 6 Blackbird, 4 Brambling, 2 Great Tit and 1 Goldcrest, plus 3 other Blackbirds the recaptures.

Our Blackbirds still carry visible fat, but perhaps a little less than recent cold weeks, with the eight birds today varying between a more normal 97 grams and somewhat overweight 121 grams.

Blackbird

Goldcrest

Apologies then for yet more pictures of Bramblings, but this winter has seen the group catch more than 70 individuals, many more than we catch during the average mild UK winter. This has been a chance to get to grips with ageing and sexing birds on a regular weekly basis, with all ages and sexes in direct comparison on the same day, rather than ones and twos caught on different occasions. And let’s face it, a “Brambling Winter” may not happen again for several or more years, and they are simply stunning birds.

Brambling – juvenile male

Brambling – adult female

Note the broad and rounded tail feathers on the adult female above and below, plus the well-defined, orange edged tertial feathers, compared to the paler edged tertials of the juvenile female.

Brambling – juvenile female above, adult female below

A juvenile female has more pointed tail feathers and less well-defined edges to the tertial feathers.

Brambling – adult female

Brambling – juvenile female

Brambling – adult female left, juvenile female right

Other birds seen this morning, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Jay, 3 Bullfinch, 1 Sparrowhawk, 15 Redwing, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker.

The weather forecast for the week ahead suggests the wind may prevent us getting another crack at Bramblings or indeed much else; but as ever we’ll see.

No Sweat, No Tears

It wasn’t a difficult decision for me this morning. At the height of spring migration time with a bit of overnight rain that cleared early combined with breaking skies and southerly winds, exactly as the BBC forecast for once, it doesn’t take much imagination to know what to do and where to do it. I headed for some coastal cover that just happened to be Lane Ends and Pilling Water where I hoped to locate a few bits and pieces. For luck I threw in Ridge Farm hedgerows and the line of east to west gorse and hoped for a result.

There were yet more new Greenland Wheatears near Pilling Water where I counted 6, all of which quickly flew east in the direction I had just walked. Or at least I thought that’s what happened whilst I laid the traps and hoped the "white arses" would return, but one female lingered long enough to locate the meal worms and I caught my sixth Wheatear of the spring. They are just amazing how they locate a single wriggling meal worm amongst the tide line debris, grass and rocks: the needle in a haystack syndrome I think. But they must have incredible eyesight not to mention inconceivable powers of navigation to undertake the journeys they make.

Greenland Wheatears make one of the longest transoceanic crossings of any passerine. In spring most migrate along a route (commonly used by waders and waterfowl) from Africa via continental Europe, the British Isles, and Iceland to Greenland. However, autumn sightings from ships suggest that some birds cross the North Atlantic directly from Canada and Greenland to southwest Europe. Birds breeding in eastern Canada are thought to fly from Newfoundland to the Azores before flying onwards to Africa. The Greenland Wheatear may be the only regularly breeding passerine bird of North America that migrates to wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa, crossing either the Atlantic Ocean or the continent of Eurasia.

”Greenland” Wheatear
”Greenland” Wheatear
”Greenland” Wheatear Migration Routes and Wintering Area
I found this quote on the Internet - “The Greenland Wheatear arrives in the later part of April. It is in a hurry to reach its breeding sites on the other side of the Atlantic, so doesn’t stay for long.” That is a slight understatement of my experience of the species this week when the rapid ongoing migration was very noticeable. Maybe it has a little to do with the fact that they were later arriving here than in most years.

Other than the Wheatears, things were quieter this morning on the wildfowler’s pool and out on the marsh. Perhaps with the change in wind direction of the last day or two both the flock of Redshank and the many hundreds of Pink-footed Geese had left for Iceland with suddenly low counts of 25 and 150 respectively today. Naturally I saw a Little Egret, but one only.

At Lane Ends the warblers treated me to a selection of song. Sedge Warbler was new in, singing in the reeds below the cark park with trilling Little Grebe nearby, and at least 2 Willow Warblers, a Blackcap and a Chiffchaff joining in the chorus. I saw 2 Jays this morning and feel sure that the villains have a nest of their own somewhere close by.

As I walked to look on the west pool I saw a Lapwing mobbing a larger fast flying bird which when I binned it turned out to be the large pale Peregrine of recent weeks, now heading quickly inland. I have no doubt the direction took it to one of a number of distant pylons, far-away to my eyes, but a flap and a glide to a Peregrine. Below is the same Peregrine, different Lapwing and a different day about a month ago, but some scenarios don’t change.

Lapwing versus Peregrine
Over Wyre I don’t expect to get the number or variety of fresh migrant birds that the peninsula of Fleetwood attracts, or even the numbers of pairs of eyes that might look for the birds, unless that is the birders choose to stare out to sea instead of searching for little brown jobs. So very often I can be the only person doing the rounds of LE, Ridge and Fluke as my notebook shorthand denotes their names, but not to worry I quite like it that way.

Vey obvious this morning was the influx of Whitethroats, with snatches of song and visible birds along the tree line of Fluke Hall Lane and the hedges of Ridge Farm, with twos and threes here and there. In fact I counted a minimum of 15 birds and imagined that if I had found that number, then Fleetwood and Heysham would at least treble my meagre total. I watched a steady stream of Swallows and House Martins follow the sea wall east, as did a couple of calling Redpoll. The local Linnets are now in some cases paired up, with territories along the gorse, but others still flock, like the party of 16 close to the sea wall. I did see an extra couple of Willow Warblers along the hedge at Ridge Farm, and another Blackcap singing along the inward track. But it looks like all the excitement was across the water at Fleetwood this morning with nice sounding birds like Cuckoo, Ring Ouzel, Redstart and even Hen Harrier added to growing lists.

Blackcap
Willow Warbler
Oh the joys of lonesome birding Over Wyre with all the fun and excitement we expect but without the tears and heartbreak of missing a few year ticks. After all, it's only a bit of fun isn't it? Oh well I’ll just have to make do with a picture this time.

Hen Harrier