Food For Thought

Saturday was cool, blustery and showery just like the week gone by when there was no birding and no ringing. Hopefully the showers would not turn to rain and I could at least get a little birding done. 

With so few Swallows of late one could be forgiven for thinking they had all left for Africa with a cold arctic wind up their backsides. Not so, because at Conder Pool many hundreds of mainly Swallows converged on the morning hatch of insects. My approximate count was of 450 Swallows, 40 Sand Martins and 30 House Martins which swarmed along the north bank in the lee of the hedgerow, across the water and over the island’s vegetation for two hours or more. 

This feeding frenzy is a regular autumn occurrence now the waterside hedgerow is mature enough to hold large numbers of midge and mosquito type insects - little critters that we call ‘gnats’ or ‘flies’, some of which are actually mosquitoes. 

Yes, I heard them this morning and “mozzies” are definitely in Lancashire. I’ve seen, heard and then squashed enough mosquitoes in Africa, Asia and the Med to recognise the sound of their landing approach.  It was so satisfying to hear the snap of the Swallows’ bills as another enemy bit the dust a yard from my face and to watch as thousands more perished in the birds’ onslaught. 

Swallow

 

Buoyed up by the merciless carnage I periodically turned my attention to other birds present and their less obvious need to eat at the pace of early morning hirundines, creatures who spend dark nights balancing on draughty reed stems. 

In 1981 in North Lancashire I saw my first Little Egret, a species that very quickly found a niche, swelled in numbers and is now so ubiquitous that it can be seen 365 days of the year, winter, spring, autumn and summer.  This species should by now be renamed as Common Egret, rather like Common Man - the average citizen, as distinct from the social, political or cultural elite. 

These delicate little diners eat mainly fish, with at times amphibians, small reptiles, mammals, crustaceans, molluscs, insects, spiders and worms. There were three egrets today, and as I watched they seemed to prefer the tiny fish that inhabit the pool, but mostly the prey would be swallowed in the blink of an eye before it could be named. 

Eight Little Grebes took their prey under water but when one emerged carrying a ready meal it was invariably the same minnow the egrets take. 

 “Minnow is the common name for a number of species of small freshwater fish, belonging to several genera of the family Cyprinidae.” 

Little Egret

 

To their credit, our local Mute Swans appear to be vegetarian. But, like many a “veggie” they occasionally, and entirely by accident, when no one is looking, have been known to sneak the odd meaty mollusc or worm. 

Mute Swan

 

Waders and wildfowl were of the usual variety and numbers with 40 Lapwing, 20 Redshank, 15 Curlew, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 6 Tufted Duck and 40 Teal. 

Those Curlews can be missed when they feed amongst this year’s grasses, grown tall and lush in record rains. I suspect that beneath the puddles lay soft soil containing goodies that curved, probing bills could easily find. 

Redshank

 

Common Sandpiper

 

Curlew

It was good to see a flock of 50/60 Goldfinches feeding in both the marsh grass and on the dandelions and thistles. Good to see because Goldfinches have been strangely absent from my own garden for weeks, not unexpected when there is much natural food about. 

Goldfinch

That’s all for now.  I’m off to prepare a chicken tandoori with salad. There's more food for thought soon on Another Bird Blog. 

 

Home Birding

An extract from an email all ringers received this week.

“BTO SURVEYS IN THE WIDER COUNTRYSIDE”. 

“Following the Government statement on 23 March, our Senior Leadership Team has reviewed the BTO advice and is asking all volunteers to follow the guidelines presented by the Prime Minister. While the monitoring work undertaken by volunteers is extremely important, it must not compromise public health. 

To avoid this potential risk, we are requesting that all BTO surveyors, including ringers and nest recorders, refrain from undertaking survey work at sites to which they would need to travel by any means until this guidance is reviewed.” 

“All the best and stay safe”. 

Dave Leech, Head of Ringing & Nest Recording 
James Pearce-Higgins, Director of Science” 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's my contribution to "Home Birding", the newest buzz phrase for locked down birders with a post first published on Another Bird Blog on 31/12/2011 - New Year’s Eve 2011. Click the pictures for a close-up.

It’s time for recalling the past year’s highlights of birding, ringing and photography. Now is the moment when we choose to forget the low points, the empty pages in a sodden notebook, netting a handful of birds on a seemingly perfect spring morning, or discovering that you set the aperture wrong.

Here we go in rough chronological order with a selection of photos and personal highlights of 2011.

In the early part of the year we holidayed in Egypt at a time when the country was undergoing a revolution, but the confiding birds hadn’t joined in the turmoil and just behaved naturally for a visiting Brit.

Egypt proved to be a wonderful place for bird photography and so difficult to select just a few pictures, apart from the Kingfisher which is just about my favourite photo of the year, taken with a decent choice of aperture for once.

Kingfisher - Egypt

Cattle Egret - Egypt

I’d left Will counting Siskins building up by the hundreds in his garden, together with a dozen or two Brambling and Lesser Redpoll. Within days of returning from Egypt I joined him for some memorable ringing sessions and notable breakfasts.

Brambling

Lesser Redpoll 

Siskin 

Bacon Butty 

Spring and autumn were great for catching and photographing Northern Wheatears at Pilling. With the help of sacrificial meal worms I caught fourteen “Wheats” and clicked the shutter button a couple of hundred times on the beautiful chat, passing Meadow Pipits or the occasional Linnet.

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit

Linnet 

The annual ritual came along, May in Menorca, the island where birds are hard to find but fortunately more numerous than birders. This year a ringed Audouin’s Gull at the hotel pool gave me an excuse to search for that extreme rarity, a Menorcan ringer.

A Ringed Audouin’s Gull -

A Ringed Audouin's Gull

Summer was warm and wonderful, ringing Swallow chicks, finding Skylark nests and stumbling upon young Lapwings or breeding Redshank.

Skylark

Barn Swallow 

Redshank

Lapwing

Then at the end of summer came a chance to take photographs of a species rapidly becoming a rarity, the unfortunately named “Common” Cuckoo.

Cuckoo 

Autumn and early winter was given over to ringing pipits, buntings, finches and thrushes “on the moss”, the satisfaction of working a regular patch with a job well done.

Reed Bunting 

Tree Pipit

Yellowhammer

Don't forget to Spring forward tonight by changing all those clocks. Or not.

Back soon with Another Bird Blog.  Linking this post to Anni's Birding in Texas.

One Each

The Sand Martin Saga continues. 

Even though our catches this year have been very poor, we don’t give up that easily. So I met Andy today for another go at the Sand Martins that live on the high cliffs of Cockerham Quarry. We thought there to be less martins today - c250 compared with our last visit of 23 June when we counted about 400 birds and caught five. 

It could be that some have left already as Sand Martins are known to use different colonies in the same season. This happens often due to the transient, almost temporary nature of many colony sites which may deteriorate through erosion and other weather factors, or even via ground predators like Badgers destroying the tunnels.  

Also, previous studies have shown that both adults and juveniles regularly visit colonies other than their own, especially during post-breeding and post-fledging. Adults may breed at different colonies in the same season. 

Our two birds today were both juveniles, so we ringed one each but we couldn't tempt any more to the nets. 

Sand Martin - juvenile 

On the way home I stopped to photograph young Swallows. 

Swallows 

Swallow 

Swallow 

 Swallow

There’s more ringing and more birds news on Friday.

Boxing News

A few weeks ago I mentioned how Andy’s contacts had invited him along to see progress in two nest boxes installed at their home. At that time a pair of Kestrels occupied a box located on a building and a pair of Barn Owls occupied a box not too far away in an open fronted barn. By using a nest box camera it was possible to see that the Kestrels had laid 5 eggs and the owls had 8 eggs. 

Barn Owl

Armed with our Barn Owl Schedule One Licence and ringing gear we went along on Monday in the hope of catching the youngsters at an appropriate age to fit their rings. Our general ringing licence covers the ringing of Kestrels but extra protection afforded to Barn Owls requires stricter rules.

Andy went up to the Barn Owl box and brought down 3 chicks. One small one proved too tiny for a “G” ring while the other two were about right, each with well-developed legs and feet. 

Barn Owl Box

Barn Owl - too small for a ring 

Barn Owl

Barn Owls begin incubation as soon as the first egg is laid and lay additional eggs over a period of around 8-21 days. After 31-32 days' incubation the eggs hatch every 2-3 days, usually in the order they were laid. This is termed “asynchronous” hatching. The age difference between the oldest and youngest nestling can be as much as three weeks. This age variation reduces the peak in food demand and spreads it over a longer period. The female does all the incubation and the male provides all the food until the young are around 3 weeks old. 

Research shows that Barn Owls regularly let their nest mates know whether they plan to compete for an incoming meal or not. The delivery of usually a rodent of some sort is fed only to a single offspring at a time, chicks queue up based on their hunger level. This approach prevents arguments (in the form of beak stabbing and stealing) from breaking out when the food arrives, thus ensuring the maximum survival of the brood. 

It will be several more weeks before our two young owls are old enough to leave the box and fend for themselves. Meanwhile the camera should let us know how they all develop, including the runt. 

Meanwhile, four juvenile Kestrels were of an ideal size and age to take an “E” ring. From their size we estimated they should fledge in about a week or ten days. 

Kestrel  

Kestrel 

We also took advantage of a brood of five Barn Swallows that were at the ideal age for ringing. 

Swallow 

Swallow nest

All in all, a successful and productive few hours.

There's more news, views and photographs soon by logging in to Another Bird Blog.

Linking today with Anni's Birding and World Bird Wednesday.

Petition

UK citizens - Please sign this petition. 

Grant legal protection to Swallow, Swift and Martin nest sites not just nests. Live bird nests have legal protection, but nest sites do not. Swallows, Swifts and Martins return to the same nesting site year after year. If these nesting sites are destroyed, with few alternatives available, local extinctions are likely. 

Swallows, Swifts and Martins are already in severe decline, in part because of fewer insects, reduced habitat when they live abroad, and because their nesting sites are being destroyed. Addressing habitat loss and insect declines are very important, but require long-term resolution. This makes it all the more vital to prevent existing nest sites being destroyed - something which can be legislated on straight away. 

Link to the petition here- Petition Parliament  

Barn Swallow 

Barn Swallows 

Barn Swallows 

Barn Swallows

Thank You.

If At First You Don't Succeed

For once there was no early morning Barn Owl. I motored past a couple of sentinel Kestrels but no ghostly owls crossed my path. I guess the owls must be sat tight on eggs by now, early May. 

The morning was to be pretty quiet for new migrants but there was evidence that the recent cold weather had not held up some birds’ urge to procreate. 

I soon found myself at Gulf Lane where Richard the farmer has tilled and then seeded the set-aside field, the scene of our winter Linnet project. A pair of Oystercatchers moved in pretty smartish with the female already sat on eggs and the male on sentry duty just yards away. The sitting female is highly visible in the bare field and already the focus of attention for marauding crows with their eyes on the eggs. Hopefully the seed will sprout and grow quickly to give some element of cover and camouflage to both the female and the eggs. The incubation period for the eggs will be between 25-30 days; it’s a long time to keep those determined crows at bay. 

Oystercatcher 

Oystercatcher 

Carrion Crow

There were 6 Stock Doves and a handful of Woodpigeons picking over the ground as well as four of our Linnet friends. 

At Conder Green the high water level dictates the presence of five pairs of Oystercatcher as the sole representatives of wading species with no sign of the several Avocets that in recent weeks took a passing interest. There are signs that Tufted Duck and even Shelducks will breed again with three pairs of the former and two or more pairs of Shelduck. 

Along the hedgerow here was at least one each of Willow Warbler, Whitethroat and Reed Bunting. 

I’m still not seeing many Swallows although it was good to note about 10/12 of their House Martin cousins at Conder Green. The martins were in their usual place at the houses and the café that overlook the muddy creeks of the River Conder. Having arrived only in the last day or two they were already collecting mud for their homes on the sides of the buildings. A Goldfinch came to see what all the fuss was about and perhaps thought the martins collected food rather than mud. 

House Martin  

House Martin 

Goldfinch 

The Jeremy/Moss/Slack lanes circuit proved quiet with little out of the ordinary. It does seem that the two species most lacking in numbers this year are two small warblers, the Whitetroat and the Sedge Warbler. These are just two of the many bird species that winter in the Sahel region, the south side of the Sahara Desert shown in orange on the map. 

It is here that birds and people literally live on the edge and  where both rely on the same natural resources of trees, water and land. It’s a landscape that is often plunged into a prolonged drought and subject to other threats such as expansion and intensification of arable & livestock agriculture, and the cutting of trees for fuel. 

If such species can survive the Sahel winter they must then embark on the long and perilous journey to and from Northern Europe. No wonder then that so many do not make it back to the UK. 

The African/Palearctic Bird Migration System

Sedge Warbler 

Whitethroat 

Along Moss Lane was a Lapwing with four tiny youngsters, so small that that they probably hatched just today. There are good numbers of Lapwings on eggs that may get the benefit of the late spring as farmers delay their usual ploughing due to several still saturated fields. The same goes for Skylarks with good numbers displaying and chasing over the rough grass where hopefully the young can soon hide from the crows. 

Lapwing & chick 

The Tree Sparrows were noisy at Cockersands where loud “chip,chip” calls gave away their nesting intentions, not to mention one or two locations. Along the shore - a few Goldfinch and singles of Pied Wagtail and Whimbrel but it was time to head home and pack for warmer days. 

Tree Sparrow 

Tree Sparrow 

Back home a pair of Collared Doves aren't having as much luck. They spent all of Wednesday building a nest in the apple tree. Today the sticks were all over the grass and I suspect the doves need a bit more practice at building a home. It's bit like birding; repetition and training makes for a better job.

Log in soon for some summer sunshine and colourful birds with Another Bird Blog.