Down But Not Out

Well that's it then. We are in lock down for a month or two with no birding or ringing. Life must go on and luckily I have an archive of pictures and experiences to draw upon. In the garden there are Goldfinches without rings so I can do some ringing in the days ahead when the wind drops. 

For now here’s a post with pictures from way back in 2009. 

It was in November 2009 that Sue and I spent two weeks in Cyprus. Black Redstarts were absolutely everywhere and it proved impossible not to take lots of photographs of these welcome migrants from Europe.  

Black Redstart 

For anyone who isn’t aware, the Black Redstart is a surprisingly scarce UK species and where the breeding population may be about 100 pairs only. Since about 1900 the UK population grew to include urban habitats that resembled their ancestral habitat of mountainous stony ground. Both during and after World War Two this included bombed areas, and then in subsequent years the species also colonised large industrial complexes that have the bare areas and cliff-like buildings it favours; in the UK, most of the small breeding population nowadays nests in industrialised areas. 

Black Redstart 

Black Redstarts appeared very numerous in Cyprus, not entirely surprising as the species is a common winter visitor from October through to February. These birds are mainly of the European race Phoenicurus ochruros gibraltariensis which breeds in the bulk of Europe and east to Ukraine and Crimea. The area of the Mediterranean Sea is the main wintering area with a small number of birds as far south and east as Egypt and the Middle East. 

Black Redstart

During the latter part of November of the dozens of Black Redstarts I saw, all were of similar appearance: upperparts of grey-brown with brown, smoky/dusky washed underparts from the throat that merged gradually into a paler washed belly and a whitish vent area. It was often surprisingly difficult to see the orange-buff of the undertail, but easy to pick the actual birds out from way off due to their characteristic jizz, shimmering tail and sometimes surprisingly loud alarm calls. 

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart

Of course by November juveniles greatly outnumbered adults, and I thought that on most occasions I was watching a bird of the year. Additionally, from about August first year males have an almost identical appearance to the duller female, and the whitish wing panel of this western subspecies does not develop until the second year. In one or two photos there are the visible remains of a nestling’s yellow gape, and in the extended summers of parts of Europe this feature is perhaps to be expected in November. 

Black Redstart 

Black Redstart 

Unfortunately, with one exception, a confiding hotel garden bird seen above, the redstarts weren’t too easy to approach, like almost every other bird species on this over-hunted, infamous island. 

Back home in sunny Stalmine, this morning I went out to the shops for essentials, our local small shopkeepers, not the rip-off Co-op supermarket. Ten minutes from here at Knott End village is a wonderful array of shops; butcher, fishmonger, baker, cheese & delicatessen, fruit & veg. 

As we all cope with the current disruption to everyday life there is one thing that all of us can do that will help - shop local, shop UK, with YouK. 

Our society depends on farms, manufacturers, fishing boats, and UK businesses big and small. Without them there are no jobs, no income, no money for schools and hospitals. 

Home deliveries of household essentials from small companies will help support them, take pressure off supermarkets, and support delivery workers. Breakfast cereal, soap, tea, shampoo, jam, wine, hand cream, meat, cleaning products, face moisturisers, there are UK companies covering all of these everywhere. 

Pubs are closed - so let’s keep the brewing industry going so that things can start up quickly again with home delivery of UK craft beers - over 700 brewing companies across the UK. Most people will have many local options including ourselves with a local brewery, Farm Yard Ales along Gulf Lane, Cockerham - Farm Yard Ales.   

We are powerful together – help UK business, keep our jobs, and let’s get through this.

First The Fish

Thursday morning – a fish day. So I called at Jamie’s shop at Knott End for supplies of brain food - haddock and salmon then spent a while birding around the shore and the jetty. 

Knott End and Fleetwood

Oystercatcher numbers are in decline as many move north and inland to breed, but still 220+ on the incoming tide with a single Curlew and a few Redshank for company. Nine Turnstone fed below the jetty with 32 Shelduck and 15/20 Black-headed Gull on the shore. The wintering Black Redstart was in the usual spot, darting around the area of the residential flats where it seems to find plenty of food and not too much competition from aggressive Robins. 

Black Redstart

Turnstone

At Fluke Hall the local Tree Sparrows are getting a little noisy and very active around the nest boxes in the trees. I clocked the Grey Wagtail that has wintered in the paddock amongst the horses and their churned up ground and where there’s always two or three Blackbirds; a least a couple of Goldfinch singing, plus 2 Song Thrushes also in good voice. 

Along the roadside was a single Stonechat and in the still flooded field, 24 Pied Wagtail, 8 Meadow Pipit, more Blackbirds, a couple of dozen Curlews and displaying Lapwing. 

Curlew

Near the wood I disturbed a Buzzard from the trees where a Grey Heron played doggo until the Buzzard flew at it. The heron flew off complaining loudly and left me with half a picture. 

Grey Heron

The Linnet/Avian Flu saga continues with still no ringing allowed despite two ringers desperate to mark a few Linnets that will soon go elsewhere. I put out more seed in the hope of a ringing session soon and where with luck we may just catch one or two of the Skylarks that are sticking around. 

Skylark

I stopped at Braides Farm where wader numbers are down but where 34 Teal, 2 Shoveler and a single Grey Heron linger. Skylarks were in good voice and very visible here with upwards of 10 around. It has been a very mild winter where the inconspicuous Skylark can pick a living and hopefully come back strong in the coming weeks. 

At Conder Green the incoming tide filled a good half of the creeks and where the wintering Spotted Redshank is always to be found in exactly the same spot. The “spothank” begins to acquire a little colour, mostly in its primary feathers. Soon it will be off north towards Northern Russia and Scandinavia where it will breed. 

Spotted Redshank

The Spotted Redshank was first described in 1764 by Peter Simon Pallas, a German zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between about 1767 and 1810. A number of animals and birds were described by Pallas, and his surname is included in their common names e.g. Pallas' Glass Lizard, Pallas' Viper, Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler, Pallas’ Reed Bunting, Pallas’ Leaf Warbler. 

The current high water level makes the pool hard going for birds and birders alike. But still to be found – 2 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret, 95 Teal, 24 Shelduck, 18 Oystercatcher, 22 Redshank, 18 Wigeon, 3 Snipe and 2 Little Grebe.

Linking today to Wild Bird Wednesday , Anni's birding and Eileen's Blog.

Diversion Day

A grey old start to Friday saw me out birding at Pilling for a good three hours. While I saw a decent number of birds I didn’t get many pictures. Never mind there are sunny pictures towards the end of the page.

I set off from Fluke heading east and along the edge of the marsh, where if the Hi Fly blokes see anyone walking they will tell them it’s private. But it’s just a ten minute walk to join up with the public footpath and then two digits to Hi Fly. 

On the flooded stubble still lots of Black-tailed Godwits at 85+, Lapwings at more than 240, 18 Redshank, 6 Snipe, 22 Linnet, 60 Skylark and a single Curlew Sandpiper. It’s getting a little late in the year for Curlew Sandpipers, a species which is a spring and autumn migrant. 

On and around the Hi Fly pools were 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Green Sandpiper, 35 Shelduck and 5 Teal. On the marsh, 35 Whooper Swans and 11 Little Egret.

Reed Bunting

Back home Sue and I started to research a winter break in the sun in 2014, including looking at previous years’ adventures. There are pros and cons for each place whether that is cost, journey time, time of year to visit, previous experiences, Trip Advisor reviews, shopping, sight-seeing, and of course quality and quantity of birds or the lack of. 

So I’m sharing some pictures from recent years with blog readers for their consideration and/or advice as to where the next foray should be. What is perhaps surprising is the birds shown in these pictures also occur in the UK, the single exception being Southern Grey Shrike, however the closely related Great Grey Shrike is an autumn and winter visitor to the UK. 

I actually rather enjoy seeing familiar birds in unfamiliar places as it gives a perspective on the universal commonality or scarcity of a species, so while it can be stimulating to see new birds it isn’t the be all and end all of a sunshine holiday. Here we go in no particular order. I hope everyone enjoys looking at these touristy pictures. There might be a few reruns but there are also new ones. 

Don’t forget to “click the pics” for close-up views.

Fuerteventura

Little Egret - Fuerteventura

Bamboo - Fuertventura

Fuerteventura

Black Redstart - Cyprus

Lizard - Cyprus

 

Cyprus

House Sparrow - Cyprus

Egrets - Egypt

Cattle Egret - Egypt

Lanzarote

Southern Grey Shrike - Lanzarote

Woodchat Shrike - Greece

Skopelos - Greece

Skiathos - Greece

Red-backed Shrike - Skiathos, Greece

Menorca

Hoopoe - Menorca

Heerman's Tortoise - Menorca

 Tawny Pipit - Menorca

I just realised - the sun seems to be shining in each of those pictures. Fingers crossed for better weather soon on Another Bird Blog. 

Linking today to Camera Critters and Anni's Blog.

Knott Again?

I was at Knott End this morning, enjoying ten minutes of sunshine before the clouds rolled in from the west. By 1030 when the promised snow arrived as hail, sleet and then rain I had switched the camera to ISO800 for the overcast skies.

The bitterly cold easterly wind had kept many punters in bed, leaving the jetty and the Esplanade reasonably free from walkers and four-legged friends, resulting in a good selection of waders to be seen at close quarters and a few wildfowl on the more distant water: 2500+ Oystercatcher, 270 Knot, 145 Dunlin, 16 Ringed Plover, 24 Turnstone, 50 Redshank and a single Sanderling. On the estuary I noted just 4 Eider and 30+ Shelduck. Passerines came in at just 2 Pied Wagtail, 3 Goldfinch and 60+ Starling. I saw the Black Redstart flying through the gloomy, unfinished rooms of the building site, but didn’t hang about to get more photographs, it was simply becoming too cold.

Sanderling
Turnstone
Ringed Plover
Dunlin

The redstart is getting quite attached to the confines of the incomplete building but if it finds a mate there may be complications as the builders have stated their intention to restart work on the site soon. I wonder if they know about the Black Redstart and are aware of the fact that the species is classified as a Schedule 1 and so afforded Special Protection? In other words, if the redstart finds a partner and begins a breeding attempt within the building site, legally that should stop any disturbance to the birds, including commencement of building work. We shall see.

Black Redstart

Although by now the sleety rain was closing in I drove up to Pilling where along Backsands Lane I found about 500 Pink-footed Geese, 7 White-fronted Geese and in the same field, 2 Snipe crouched in the grass. There was also a Lapwing, probably a male with that elongated crest, and also ringed on the left leg; perhaps one from recent or not so recent years, as Lapwings can live 20 years, almost as long as I have ringed Lapwings about here.

White-fronted Goose
Snipe
Lapwing
Lapwing

Play It Cool

I think some birds are responding to the continuing cold weather because on my Knott End to Pilling round this morning I found a few changes to the usual scene. Although the mercury was in the red this morning, it isn’t yet down to the forecast for tonight of minus 10 degrees.

As I passed the abandoned building site at Knott End I could see a lady at the bus stop looking up at the steelwork next to the Bourne Arms, and I reckoned the Black Redstart was still about. After I parked up and went for a peek the woman had got on her bus but the redstart was still there, high up and partly hidden by the steelwork, but as I watched the bird bobbing about it flew across the road and landed on a bungalow roof opposite and then down into someone’s garden. A “good” bird for a garden list, but I don’t think you can count birds seen in other people’s gardens, unless someone knows otherwise.

Black Redstart

I found a couple of rooks in the car park, birds probably from the rookery above the village library. One of the Rooks bore a metal ring, but the bird with the ring proved too wary for me to read the inscription. I imagine there aren’t too many ringers who climb into tall rookeries in order to ring young rooks, so maybe someone has been ringing “branchies” in recent years; stand-by for one of Another Bird Blog’s occasional forays into things culinary. “Branchie” is an old name given to young rooks which leave the nest early and clamber about on nearby branches pending their fledging, until that is an unseasonal wind springs up and deposits them on the ground below the rookery. In some years I used to find a few young rooks under the Singleton Hall rookery and then ring them as 1Js before putting them back on the highest branch I could reach. “Branchies” were also the probable origin of the ancient verse, “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” as young Rook meat is said to be very savoury with a similar taste to Wood Pigeon meat.

Rook
Ringed Rook

The stubble at Fluke Hall Lane is frozen solid, and apart from the Jackdaws, there’s nothing much to report, just the usual half a dozen Tree Sparrows and Reed Buntings around the Hi-fly track.

Reed Bunting

The east pool at Lane Ends is now frozen solid, with not a single duck there, just the Mallards on the small patch of unfrozen water on the west pool. A walk through the plantation, taking care not to flatten the Snowdrops, gave a count of 15 + Blackbirds, 2 Redwing, 4 Moorhen and 12+ Chaffinch.

Snowdrops
Lane Ends - Frozen
Chaffinch

As a change of scenery I walked east along the sea wall and logged 3 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, 18 Greylag, with 8 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron flushed from the inland ditches where drainage water still trickles. It was up here I found a party of 18 Meadow Pipits, and on the inland field, 80 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Golden Plover, 10 Dunlin and 300 Curlew.

Greylag

Opposite Gulf Lane was a huge concentration of Pink-footed Geese, maybe 7,000 in all, but alongside the stretch of road where to stop is dangerous, as I found out when I drove slowly along there later to the accompaniment of car horns and angry sideways looks. All these folk rushing about like there’s no tomorrow, why don’t they just relax, chill out and take up birding?