Blog Post

I suddenly realised I had not blogged for ten days or more and mentioned to Floridian friends that I currently lacked inspiration for the task. It’s OK for them living in a 365 day sunshine state where a single nature reserve like Withlacoochee River State Forest consists of nearly 60,000 acres to explore! If there is anywhere here in the UK with a spare 60,000 acres, brown paper envelopes change hands and the said acres disappear under concrete in the blink of an eye. 

Gini who is wise in all things, advised me to “just slap the keyboard until a few words pop onto the screen, call it a “blog post” and her and Wally would supply the enthusiasm.” Here we go then Gini. 

The week began with good numbers of Swallows on the move. On Tuesday, an overcast mizzly morning, we drove to Garstang for food shopping and bacon butty day when it became quickly apparent that Swallows had hit their pathways south. They whizzed back and forth, left to right, feeding like mad but with a certain southerly slant. Four hours later and on the same road back there was hardly a Swallow and by this Saturday morning’s patch visit, none. Autumn had begun in earnest. 

 

Swallow

Most, about 90-95% of those migrating Swallows off to South Africa would be birds of the year, born this summer and now heading off into the unknown with just their DNA and the company of others to guide them. Magical. 

There was no ringing this week. Sidekick Andy was indisposed and mostly windy days meant that camera days came into play. 

The Common Kingfisher is an autumn and winter visitor to this part of coastal Fylde where sheltered ditches and dykes sustain a surprising number of easily missed birds. A flash of disappearing pale blue is often the view that many people experience. I snapped one midweek on a habitual gate post that is located alongside said dykes. 

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

I photographed a Little Egret in a couple of unlikely poses. Maybe it was drying out in the sunshine rather like a Cormorant or simply watching the water and reeds below and hoping for a meal? 

Little Egret

Little Egret

A young Yellow Wagtail quite liked the farmer’s midden, one of a number of wagtails on the move this week.

  

Yellow Wagtail

More than a couple of Marsh Harriers came my way. A once scarce migrant the harrier is now well established in parts North, South, East and West of here and from where its spring and autumn migrations mean it is now regularly spotted. I hear that this year a pair bred in the uplands of the Bowland Hills, an area more famous (or infamous) for the trials and tribulations of the persecuted Hen Harrier. 

The young Marsh Harrier seen here was hunting fields close to 13th Century Cockersands Abbey.

Marsh Harrier

Cockersands Abbey

 

It’s a good spot to see a Marsh Harrier or watch Wheatears using the ancient rocks as look out posts or listen to the wild cry of Curlews, much like the monks of old in around 1200AD. 

Wheatear

Saturday morning saw large numbers of Buzzards kettling as they dispersed south, a not unknown phenomena in the Fylde but made noticeable in recent years by the downturn in our local and somewhat persecuted population of Buzzards. 

The Buzzard is not a species ringed in any great numbers and one that in a dead or dying condition is probably unlikely to be reported, more so if the finder is a person with a mind to harm the species.; therefore we know little about these individuals but it seems likely they originate from less populated parts of Northern England & Scotland and disperse south & west for the approaching winter. 

Buzzard

 

Although Buzzards are known to eat mammals, birds, carrion, even earthworms and large insects when other prey is in short supply, their propensity for taking leverets and game birds released for shooting makes the species unpopular with some communities. 

The week ended badly on Friday as wine o’clock drew close we realised that the Portuguese bottle on the dining table had a cork stopper and our trusty waiter’s friend had gone missing. Panic set in until we found an Italian screw top bottle. We followed on with a quick search on Ebay to find and order a bright yellow replacement friend just in case we require a bottle opener later in the week.  

Waiter's Friend

Sue and I are not fans of most screw tops, metal closures invariably found on cheap wines with meaningless, made-up labels that try to hide the fact that it is bulk wine sloshed around in a rusty container for months on end to be eventually bottled at a Warrington post code adjacent to the Manchester Ship Canal. No thanks. 

Cork has centuries-old tradition behind it, a little like us. 

How did I do Gini?

Back soon if Wally and Gini OK this post.

 

Click Bait

OK, due to a combination of factors I have somewhat neglected posting on the blog. That doesn’t mean that I have been sat at home twiddling my thumbs or watching daytime telly. Does anyone still watch daytime telly to be entertained or informed? Definitely not the latter. Sources of news and entertainment on the Internet are more varied where by hitting the right buttons, the actuality & truth, as opposed to mainstream media who like to tell us what to believe, is there for all to discover. BBC, ITV, C4, Sky – they are all liars with biased and well-oiled axes to grind. 

Today there's a selection of pictures shot in-between bouts of bad weather that hit the North West from January and into May when I ventured out with bins and camera if the sun appeared and winds subsided. I felt so sorry for our local farming community when days and weeks of rain swallowed their crop fields; more knocks to a hard-working fraternity who receive little or no credit for their contribution to our British Way of Life. 

My mostly mornings with camera, plus a couple of ringing sessions confirmed that all is not well with birds. Where this year are Swifts, Sedge Warblers, Blackcaps, Swallows, Whitethroats, House Martins and Willow Warblers? - to name but a handful of supposedly “common species”. Luckily, Wheatears and ever curious Pied Wagtails  seemed in good supply with the jury out on seemingly low numbers of finches and buntings.

Adult Swallow

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Wheatear

Pied Wagtail

Linnet

Reed Bunting

Pied  Wagtail - looking for the other one 

While saturated fields held no joy for farmers, a few waders took advantage by managing to rear chicks on fields into which a tractor would sink. Out Cockerham way a pair of roadside Lapwings I watched for weeks managed to grow all four chicks to adult size. All the time with crows looking on but chased off by sharp eyed parent Lapwings.

Lapwing

Lapwing chick

Carrion Crow

At another field nearby a pair of Shoveler took up residence where a male left his mate in an adjacent ditch while he stole minutes alone at a water flash. . 

Shoveler

Finally and into June the ground in parts dried out by which time both Oystercatchers and Lapwings could search the recently ploughed and now drying clumps of earth.

Oystercatcher

Male Lapwing - dig that crest!

And then in late June for a week and a day Sue and I ate out in the garden, enjoying the evening sunlight. A chance to try our own versions of Greek classics, Lamb Kleftico, Baked Feta and souvlakis together with a bottle of Ampelicious that too quickly ran out, the bottle courtesy of our lovely friends, Family Karaboula at Maistrali. 

 

Maistrali Taverna, Skiathos, Greece 

Ampelicious  Red

Bouyiourdi - Baked Feta

The first week of July. There's more rain in the forecast but I will be out whenever I can. 

Did you click the pics to receive the correct message and see the full picture? 

Thank You.  Another Bird Blog is back soon.

Hobby Times Two

The Hobby is still something of a scarcity in this part of coastal Lancashire known as The Fylde. The sighting of a Hobby adds more than a smidgeon of excitement to an often mundane day. Even better when a single sighting of the will o’ the wisp raptor becomes a double whammy. 

The Hobby, a Schedule One Species, breeds inland not too many miles away, just a car ride away, a location already subject to  interest from too many bird listers.  It would be easy to add to the database  of visitors and potentially draw attention to a breeding locality but how much better is it to meet and to enjoy a Hobby or two in the course of a normal day's birding?  

  

My latest encounter of this pacy raptor came about today while Andy and I were out bird ringing over Pilling way, catching the bits and pieces of a normal day.  A quiet spell had us sitting in the sun watching Meadow Pipits surveying a walk-in trap placed about 40 yards away on the farm track. We’d had some success with eight Meadow Pipits caught but frustrated by the sight of two Yellow Wagtails not finding their way into the metal maze while pipits had no such problems.

From the north and east came two Hobby (is that Hobbys or Hobbies?) in close unison, playing in the breeze like the juveniles they were as they drifted over the nearby sea wall and continued their leisurely way west. It was yesterday evening when the farmer Richard told me of his sighting while tending livestock of a “large swift” - “going like the clappers”, one of those sightings that goes into the memory hole to often resurface another day. 

Hobby

 

We caught other species in a single, slightly blowy mist net and ended up with 14 ringed – 8 Meadow Pipit, 3 Sedge Warbler, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Pied Wagtail. 

Meadow Pipit

Reed Warbler

Whitethroat

Pied Wagtail

Birds that got away or didn’t come near the nets included 70 or more Swallows,40 Meadow Pipits, 4 Wheatear, 25 Pied Wagtail, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 8 Goldfinch, several Linnets, Grey Heron, Common Sandpiper. 

Linnet

Wheatear

Wheatear

Goldfinch

Yellow Wagtail

Swallow

Swallow

Yes, it was a very young Wheatear that has quickly joined in the action, already setting off  on the long journey to Africa. 

While the sun shines I’m making hay too.

Weekend is not looking good but two more days of bright weather means more news, views and photos on Another Bird Blog. Don't miss it folks.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

 

Out And About

Blackbirds took every single cherry in garden and didn’t bother waiting until the fruit was red ripe. And then they came back for the next tree along, the rowan berries just turning from green to orange, nowhere near the final glossy red that completes a winter landscape. 

Blackbird

Thursday evening was warm and sunny in our sheltered back garden. I watched a male Blackbird drop down from the rowan tree into a dried up patch below where thirsty berry trees had made for a  dusty piece of ground. 

The Blackbird spread its wings and tail, opened its bill and settled down into the dusty ground and began to sunbathe and perhaps to also “ant”. I have seen this behaviour on a number of occasions from different species of birds and this time managed to both observe and to photograph the activity. 

Blackbird

Blackbird

Blackbird

Birds in various climates all around the world indulge in sunning. This can be anything from simply standing with their backs to the sun, with feathers rustled up to expose the skin below, to a full sunbathing posture with wings and tail feathers spread out to maximize the area open to the sun. Obviously, in many cases the birds get warmth from the sun, which reduces the amount of metabolic energy they have to expend in order to maintain a constant body temperature of around 40 degrees C. However, some birds sunbathe in spots which can be quite hot. In such circumstances, sunbathing appears to leave them over-heated as they can be seen panting. 

From Wiki - “Anting is a maintenance behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin. The bird may pick up the insects in its bill and rub them on the body (active anting), or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements (passive anting). The insects secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid, which can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, or bactericide. Alternatively, anting could make the insects edible by removing the distasteful acid, or, possibly supplement the bird's own preen oil. Instead of ants, birds can also use millipedes. More than 200 species of bird are known to ant " .

This week has been quite windy with no chance of a ringing session. During Thursday a quick runaround a local patch resulted in a few expected birds and a Green Sandpiper.  Green Sandpiper is a shy species, one of the earlier returning migrant waders and can be seen in a variety of muddy margined places like ditches, farm middens and similarly secluded locations.  For these early returnees from north and east it is autumn, even though for us in England it is still summer.

 

Green Sandpiper

 

The same stream held 3 Little Egrets, a Grey Heron and 2 Redshanks. 

Little Egret

 

The waterside margins seemed quiet except for a couple of Sedge Warblers and a single Reed Bunting both of which have been in their same spots for weeks now without any sign of having youngsters out of nests. Not so the pair of Moorhens with 5 youngsters in tow and probably their second brood by now mid-July. 

Moorhens

Reed Bunting

Sedge Warbler

 

I recently heard that the dry spring and lack of moisture of 2023 has not been good for egg production or breeding success of both Barn Owls and Kestrels. Whether this is the same for other bird species we do not know: it is a subject for research probably beyond the average birder, me included. My own observations at least are that local Swallows have had a better year, and not before time. There was a single youngster on a gate, waiting for a parent to arrive with food. 

Swallow

 

I called at our Sand Martin colony to see 100+ Sand Martins still around, despite the quarry face suffering from a degree of natural erosion, a combination of the Sand Martins’ own constant toing & froing combined with the vagaries of weather. The gulley left of centre formed by water run-off from above is a concern for the remainder of this year and next year when the martins return from their winter in Africa.  Imagine having to move home every 12 months! 

Sand Martin colony

Sand Martin

 

Friday morning. Rain arrived bang on the XC Weather forecast of 1000. The decision to leave the Sand Martins for another day was the correct one. 

Join Another Bird Blog soon to find out what happened next. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Anniversary Blog.