Well Terned Out

From the bedroom window at 5am dawn appeared as grey skies and rain spotted puddles. I went back to bed for another sleep vowing to try later. 

I've neglected Knott End birding for weeks of mid-summer. So with a late start, a freshening wind and high tide due at midday I decided to spend an hour or two at the estuary in the hope of seeing returning waders and terns; it’s here where the River Wyre meets the huge expanse of Morecambe Bay. People and vehicles sometimes come to grief here when they fail to appreciate the speed of the incoming tides, the softness of the exposed beach or the whereabouts of patches of quicksand. 

Motoring - Knott End style

It's barely mid-July but already there are good numbers of post-breeding Oystercatchers and I counted 340+ leaving the shore, most heading up river to roost, the remainder flying towards an alternative roost at Pilling. The 35 Curlew and 12 Dunlin flew up river too, the Dunlin split 50/50 black- bellied adults and plainer juveniles. I thought it odd not to see a single Redshank today in contrast to the good numbers there have been a few miles up the coast at the River Lune. 

Dunlin

Curlew

A walk up river didn’t produce much apart from a single Lapwing, a lonesome Eider, a Pied Wagtail and 30/40 Black-headed Gulls. As I walked the Oystercatchers kept coming in their tens and twenties flying south to their roost a mile away at Barnaby’s Sands/Burrows Marsh. 

By now the wind was quite blowy and cool so I donned a jacket to sit at the jetty where the ferry leaves to cross for Fleetwood, all of four hundred yards away. A Peregrine coasted by not too far out, the bird in no hurry as Peregrines mostly are. It was headed Pilling way flying so lethargically that I failed to appreciate what it was until too late - fooled, no picture. 

Fleetwood and The River Wyre viewed from Knott End

A couple of Sandwich Terns came in from the north with the tide, searched around for a while and then left towards the Fleetwood side of the river just as quickly as they appeared. 

Sandwich Tern

There wasn’t an awful lot doing and I was about to call it a morning when a Black Tern appeared from somewhere out in the bay; a most unexpected arrival. The tern wasn’t feeding but flew and high over the water towards Fleetwood and then up river until of sight. From the fairly brief and overhead views the bird appeared to be an adult in full or mostly full summer plumage. 

Black Terns breed in good numbers in the Low Countries of Europe from where this one may have originated and then travelling overland to reach North West England. Just like many wader species at this time of year many adult Black Terns leave breeding colonies in July before the juveniles follow suit in August and September.

Black Tern - Photo credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service / Foter / (CC BY 2.0)

A rewarding end to a few hours of birding, and I’m pleased I turned out instead of sitting around the house! 

No apologies for the excruciating puns. Let’s hope they won’t deter anyone from revisiting Another Bird Blog soon.

Year Ticking

I got out early to try and catch up with Leach’s Petrels at Knott End where the early morning dropping tide might harbour a few stragglers coming out of the bay after the overnight storm.

The light was poor and the rain threatened but I got a Leach’s for my non-existent year list as one followed the tideline towards the jetty then crossed the river to Fleetwood. I got a second year tick in the form of a Bonxie, a Great Skua, that steamed across the water much faster than the petrel did, but luckily the petrel journeyed a few minutes before the Bonxie, otherwise there may have been a meal in the offing for the bigger bird. It seems that the word Bonxie comes from the Norse Bunksi, meaning an untidy old woman. I found this great web site for fans of this super aggressive animal.

Great Skua - Bonxie

With the atrocious forecast of more wind and rain that looked every bit like coming to a wild and wet fruition, I decided that it is possible to have too much of a good thing but also that discretion was the better part of valour, so headed north to spend some time at Leighton before my appointment in Kendal. What’s more there was a chance for my incredible third year tick in the shape of Black Tern as three juvenile birds had been there yesterday. Leighton Moss looked bleak as the rain, the wind and dark clouds hurled in from the west without any respite. I set my camera to ISO800 and it stayed there until I left about 2pm.

Black Tern

I had time to walk the public footpath of the causeway where 3 Black Terns moved between the areas of open water but they didn’t come close and often disappeared from view at the far end of the reserve or melted into the grey of continuous heavy showers. As the showers came and went the hirundines did the same with at one point hundreds of House Martins, hundreds of Sand Martins and dozens of Swallows feeding over the open water. Roosting on the reserve were hundreds of Redshank, dozens of Black-tailed Godwit and at least 10 Greenshank, but impossible to count with much certainty as they were distant, bunched tight and huddled down against the wind and driving rain.

I also got a few photographs of common or garden stuff but it wasn’t the best morning for a camera.

Shoveler
Cormorant
Snipe
Snipe
Red Deer

That’s enough year ticks for a year, next I need to do some serious birding and ringing.