No Merlins Thank You

On Friday the catching and ringing of Sand Martins didn’t go too well; but then in 10 years of working this quarry site, a morning often doesn’t go to plan when Sand Martins have alternative ideas to combine with their instincts for survival. Before this latest visit and since 2015 we had caught 997 Sand Martins here, not a huge number considering that in most years the colony can hold up to 400 individuals on any given day at peak periods  April to August. 

The quarry and its exposed face is of varying degrees of often loose material – sand, gravel and stones of all shapes and sizes where the returning Sand Martins excavate in situations that suit their own requirements rather than those of bird ringers. Mostly the birds choose a high elevation to minimise disturbance and to deter predators. This year’s nesting chambers are high on the quarry face. The positioning of the holes is such that the ground yards below and upon which we have to erect nets is treacherous underfoot and not ideally placed to catch many of the 250+ martins returning to or leaving the nest holes some 20 yards above. Sand Martins also have incredible eyesight that combines with their unerring accuracy to fly above, below or parallel to a mist net placed to intercept a flight path. 

Sand Martin

Sand Martin

Sand Martin

 

After three hours we called it a day but delighted in just 5 new Sand Martins to take us over 1000 captures here. Hard work but someone has to do it. The bonus is a few photos when the martins rest up between bouts of hawking insects from the surrounding farmland. 

Sand Martin

 

We had visits from both Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel, the Kestrel hovering directly above the quarry face so as to spot unwary birds around entrance holes and thus vulnerable to attack rather than hiding in the darkness. The martins saw both raptors off by a noisy rush of wings and in the case of the hawk, chasing it into the near distance whilst giving out warning calls. 

Kestrel

Other birds seen consisted of Buzzard, 4 Common Tern, Pied Wagtail, Grey Heron, Tree Sparrow. 

Buzzard

 

Grey Heron

In other news and thought for the day I am told that the popular magic eye/ear of the Merlin App for lazy birders is not all it is cracked up to be. This piece of whizz-bang technology struggles to ID the quiet squeaky birds like Robins, Flycatchers, the Regulus family and probably others too. 

Earlier this year the app caused a local frenzy by telling a user that a Blackbird was a much rarer Golden Oriole. The AI software will surely struggle with bird mimicry from species like the Common Starling, thrashers, catbirds and the aptly named mockingbirds (family Mimidae, Latin for mimic). I also doubt that the technology is advanced enough to analyse a song/call in conjunction with the relevant season of the year and/or a location's habitat  so as to give useful advice or reach meaningful conclusions.  

The “magical” Merlin app requires access to a user’s location and to a phone's microphone where the software employed may be more advanced than the listening device already installed, rarely turned to "off" on most Smartphones. 

I know of people who take their Smartphones literally everywhere, allowing the machine to track and listen in to their sometimes very personal daily activities and conversations wherever they may be. Go to “Settings” and click your buttons to “off”, preferably "FO". 

Rather than signing up to more of Google’s Big Brotherly love it may be better for budding birders to learn their birds another way. Find the bird then ID it through watching & listening in conjunction and comparison with the entries in a book? 

Books, remember those? 

Back Soon. Don't go away. I will be tracking you.

 

A Boiling Kettle

Saturday 2 September with the full team out at Pilling, Will, Andy and Yours Truly. Better still, and after another breezy week, the wind had dropped and the sun shone bright for our 0630 start. 

In the week I dropped additional seed and windfall apples into the varied seed plot where I thought the natural is not quite ready. A flock of more than 70 Goldfinch testified that their favourite sunflower seed needs more time but that they are well prepared by warming up on the lesser stuff. 

Goldfinch

 

Along the sea wall were eight Little Egrets, two Grey Heron, a couple of Pied Wagtails, a single Kestrel and 2 Wheatears. The chats avoided the steady north westerly wind and found hiding insects by ducking in and out of the sea defences.

Wheatear

Wheatear

The Saturday session came with a small mixed bag, one that once again lacked both numbers and the warbler species that are simply not around this autumn. The Experts have no evidence as yet but there is a real possibility that avian flu virus has passed in some degree to passerines via the known and now well documented death toll upon many sea bird species during 2022 and 2023. 

Our catch of 14 birds comprised 3 Linnet, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Wren, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Blackbird and 1 Sedge Warbler. 

Goldcrest

Sedge Warbler

Linnet

Reed Bunting

During the morning we saw 20 or more Swallows on the move south but little else obvious in the clear blue sky save for a couple of Meadow Pipits plus a number of finches we didn’t catch. 

As we packed up the ringing gear about 1100 hours Richard, Eyes-Like-The-Proverbial, drew our attention to a number of Buzzards at great height and slowly moving west. 

In all we counted sixteen, yes 16 Buzzards taking advantage of thermals of the warm morning by “kettling” together, swirling and spiralling like objects being stirred or boiled in a pot. 

Such a large number of Buzzards together represents an autumnal dispersal of sorts. Some Buzzards, probably younger and less experienced individuals, move south and west from their northern strongholds into more favourable areas for the winter before returning north in the early part of the following year. 

Buzzard

A few minutes later a Marsh Harrier flew west, spotted by six Ravens who drew noisy attention to the large predator in their midst. It was a good morning for raptors and where we had seen both Kestrel and two Sparrowhawks during our ringing session. 

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday

 

Good Saturday

Following my 0525 alarm clock and the inland drive Saturday dawned bright if a little cold at 2.5°C. No problem because the sun would soon rise to bathe us bird ringers in the morning sun of Oakenclough where I met up with Andy and Will. 

Until this point England had seen its wettest March in more than 40 years. Met Office data up to 30 March showed 111.3mm of rain fell during the month, 91% more than the average. So far April has been little better but fairly normal, less rain but quite cold, therefore not helpful to the arrival of large numbers of migrant birds from southern climes. 

And whisper it quietly so as not to be “cancelled” but the Northern hemisphere may be entering a temperature cooling phase until the 2050s with a decline up to 0.3°C. Arctic summer sea ice stopped declining about a decade ago and has shown recent growth. The Greenland surface ice sheet grew by almost 500 billion tonnes in the year to August 2022, and this was nearly equivalent to its estimated annual loss. 

Of course, climate alarmists have not caught up with these recent trends because there’s more money to be made by frightening Joe Public that the world is about to end unless they subscribe to such patent nonsense.

Back to the job in hand and Saturday’s ringing. The morning was slow with 11 birds caught. Although migrant warblers were in evidence in the shape and sounds of 3 Willow Warblers, 2 Chiffchaffs and a single Blackcap we caught none of those, instead 7 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Robin, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Long-tailed Tit. 

Three male Willow Warblers stuck to their chosen song posts all morning without venturing the very few yards to our mist nets. It was as if they were reluctant to vacate the perfect spot for even a minute or two to let an interloper grab the prime location together with a passing female. 

Willow Warbler

 

Lesser Redpolls were much in evidence with at least 20 seen and heard in small parties throughout our 4 hours stay. Unusually all of the ones caught were females. Perhaps many males have already travelled further north in their search for territory? 

 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

Goldfinch

Long-tailed Tit

 

With eyes peeled for birds on the move a single south bound Swallow was potentially going in the wrong direction unless it changed its mind upon hitting the cold that we too felt. Otherwise, three Buzzards, but not together, a single Pied Wagtail and a passing Mistle Thrush completed a good Saturday morning. 

Buzzard

Back soon with more news, views and pictures from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni in Texas.

Down To Zero

“Crisp” might be the best description of the start to Wednesday's birding.  At -3º a layer of white frost covered everything in sight at 0730. The several forecasts all agreed, sunshine by midday. This was another day for five or more layers of gear. 

There was a good start to the morning with a ghostly Barn Owl along the farm track and then a Great Egret that left the roost with 15/20 Little Egrets. 

Barn Owl

The three of us set about our usual routine as we tick-boxed the extra work we now carry out as precautions against HPA1 avian flu - disinfection of all of equipment: nets, bags, pliers, weighing scales and clothing. 

The chances of us handling a small passerine with avian flu seem quite remote, especially since the prevalence of HPAI in asymptomatic birds is currently unknown. However, while minimising the risk of transmission should diseased birds be encountered, our continued ringing activities carried out with suitable precautions provide a net benefit in terms of data collection and spotting anything untoward.

As we erected nets we flushed a couple of Snipe from nearby wet areas. This Snipe rush continued through the morning as 20 or more Snipe arrived in ones, twos and threes to feed in areas of grass that remained unfrozen from the overnight temperatures. 

The Snipes' arrival coincided with the incoming tide out in Morecambe Bay where the secretive Snipe are common but mostly unseen feeding in salt marsh ditches and pools. The ones we saw had arrived to roost where they would likely stay until the tide receded and darkness fell. 

Snipe

Not surprisingly the ringing was off to a slow start with just a couple of birds every now and again. We finished with 14 birds of 7 species: 4 Chaffinch, 3 Linnet, 2 Robin, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Wren, 1 Reed Bunting,1 Greenfinch, 1 Blackbird. 

Reed Bunting

Greenfinch

In addition to the earlier Barn Owl and white egrets more to look at arrived in the form of a 'cream top' Marsh Harrier, a Buzzard, and good numbers of Golden Plover, Lapwing & Whooper Swans. 

Buzzard

When I went yesterday to drop supplementary seed I counted approximately 400 Whooper Swans out Cockerham way. 

Whooper Swans

Stay tuned folks. There's more to come and we are due to get real snow. We'll see.

Linking this week to Eileen's blog and Anni in Texas.

 

Balmy Army

The week has been warm but breezy and showery with few chances for meaningful birding so there isn’t a lot of bird news. A couple of visits out Pilling Way produced poor catches with just eight to show for several hours in the field. 

After a very cold dry spring and a dry, warm, occasionally hot summer, there's a dearth of small birds this year which seems especially so here in our little corner of North West England. Only now in September am I beginning to see more normal numbers of insects. It could be that the unusual but not unknown weather and food availability factors, coupled with the ongoing decline of a number of especially farmland bird species is more evident this year to those who spend time outdoors with eyes and ears open. 

Citizen Scientists and bird ringers in particular have a vital part to play in feeding their thoughts and observations into systems of data collection. Incomplete and short-timescale data sets are increasingly being used to fit the false narrative of anthropogenic climate change. 

With Will unavailable and Andy packing for his holiday the Friday Barmy Army was me alone. The early morning arrival disturbed the local Buzzard that promptly flew down the field to continue its ground hog watch a safe distance from me, the potential predator. Sometimes I just want to shout out to Buzzards and many other species - “Hey, don’t worry. I mean no harm I just want a photo”. But of course their experience and inbuilt suspicion of the human race tells them otherwise. 

Buzzard

 

The week produced two birds new to the site,  Treecreeper and a Spotted Flycatcher, the first we captured, the second admired from a distance when it stayed out of net range. 

Treecreeper

 

Spotted Flycatcher

 

Meadow Pipits are now on their way south after what appeared to be a reasonable breeding season; when I journeyed into the Bowland Hills during the summer I saw good numbers of roadside pipits scatter ahead of oncoming vehicles. We are still a week away from Meadow Pipit peak migration but I will not be here to see the numbers passing through. I will be in Greece where I may see Red-throated Pipits or the occasional Richard's Pipit. 

Meadow Pipit

 

Red-throated Pipit

And of course September mornings of half-light inevitably start with the plaintive song of autumn Robins, a species which is highly migratory across Europe and into Africa. How often do we hear our neighbours say that “their” Robin is “back in the garden”? In fact a Robin, or more correctly a European Robin,  has a very short life span of two or three years so the Robin in an average suburban garden is most likely to change on a regular basis. 

 

European Robin - Erithacus rubecula

No visit would be a complete without a couple of Linnets. And although the post breeding dispersal seems over for now the regular 30/40 continue to give us new birds and zero recaptures. Once again, if only more ringers south of Lancashire would catch Linnets we might be able to add to existing knowledge. 

Linnet

That’s me done for a day or two. Back soon with news, views and photos from here, there and everywhere. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni in Texas.

 

A Handful Of Martins

After the windswept week it was Friday before our second visit of the season to the small House Martin colony near the village of Dunsop Bridge, Forest of Bowland. The last visit here was 7 June 2022 when we caught 11 adult House Martins, the objective today being to catch more adults together with juveniles of the year. 

Andy picked me up at 0600 in his mobile ringing office and me met up with Will about 55 minutes later at the low office building that sits alongside the River Dunsop. 

"Click the pics for full size images."

The great majority of House Martins build their nests under the eaves of houses, (and other low buildings, as here in Bowland) but a few colonies can still be found on cliffs. The famous Malham Cove just over the hills into the White Rose county of Yorkshire and about 20 miles away from Dunsop is one such example - or it was the last time I was there several years ago. With the population decline of House Martins I suspect that the species has gone from that site, as it has from so many others. 

Malham Cove, Yorkshire

 

The House Martin is one of the most widespread birds in Europe, occurring from the Mediterranean all the way north to the Arctic. They are rare breeders in Iceland. Though almost all Europe’s House Martins go a long way south for the winter, a few remain in southern Spain and Portugal throughout the year. 

It is possible to attract new House Martin colonies by erecting boxes in suitable sites (as here), but beware House Sparrows will often take over martin nests, frequently ousting the rightful owners. 

Around 86% of House Martins nesting in Britain attempt to rear two broods. Though the same pair will usually remain together for a single breeding season, it is rare for the two to pair again the following year, even if both survive. A House Martin diet is almost exclusively flying insects, caught on the wing. House Martins typically feed at a higher altitude than Swallows, so the two species do not compete with each other. The House Martin’s furry legs of tiny feathers are thought to be an adaptation to protect the birds from the cooler air of higher altitudes. 

 

House Martin

We’d set off from the coast into Friday morning into a fine morning with zero wind. Upon arrival at the upland site we were greeted by low cloud with a cool, stiff and sometimes swirling wind around the building. Such conditions are far from ideal in which to catch keen-eyed martins but after the long drive we persevered. 

Five birds caught, 2 adult House Martins recaptured from 7 June, 2 new adult House Martins and a Pied Wagtail. Rather surprisingly we caught no juvenile House Martins of the year, although it soon became clear that adults going under the eaves were in the process of feeding youngsters still in the nest.  

House Martin

 

Pied Wagtail

We’ll leave it for a week or two then try to find an ideal weather morning when we hope to see more House Martins on the wing. 

This morning saw a selection of raptors in Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Merlin and Buzzard. 

Into the stiff headwind a Common Buzzard soared around as normal but also “hovered", much like a Kestrel does. It’s relatively uncommon to see Common Buzzards perform this type of hover, and it rarely lasts for more than a few seconds at a time, unlike a Kestrel that can be stationary in the air for minutes at a time. The most likely time to see a Buzzard 'hovering' is when there's a headwind that they can use that makes them appear fixed or barely moving in the air.  It seems that some individuals develop more of a habit of doing it than others. 

Common Buzzard

 

Other birds seen - 3 Pied Wagtail, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Red Grouse, 2 Meadow Pipit.

Meadow Pipit

 

Linking this weekend to  Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Ireland.

I think next week will see an improvement in the weather and more visits to the Great Outdoors. 

Log in then to see news, views and photos from Another Bird Blog.

 

Where Are The Kids?

Thursday - what a strange morning. We met at 0600 up at Oakenclough - Andy, Bryan and me - a sunny morning in mid-June when we might expect good numbers of both breeding adults and newly fledged juveniles. 

However, and against all expectations our catch of birds in four hours totalled a paltry twelve - 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Robin, 2 Blackcap, 1 Goldfinch, 2 Wren and 1 Dunnock. Only three of those twelve birds, the resident Robins and the single Dunnock, were juveniles of this year. 

A surprising aspect of the morning was the lack of juvenile Willow Warblers as opposed to the fifteen or so males still in full song in the planation. Spring 2022 was so cold, late and lacking in the timely arrival of both males and females that we suspect many Willow Warblers are still at the nesting/incubation stage where males sing while females attend to their nest. Alternatively there may be many nest failures but either way is bad news. 

Female Bullfinch AKN3608 was a recapture from the last visit while the male was new to us. Both were in prime breeding condition that suggested a nearby nest. 

Bullfinch

 

Bullfinch

Both Blackcaps were male but we saw no females or newly fledged young.

Blackcap

The two juvenile Robins were offspring of resident birds rather than summer returning warbler species. 

Robin

 

On the water and along the grassy banks we saw an unseasonal Whooper Swan, one that by rights should now be in Iceland. 

 

Whooper Swan

Quite why and how a Whooper Swan is up in the hills of Lancashire in mid-June is something of a mystery, but it could be the same one that summered in the Cockerham area 15 miles away in 2021 but then joined Greylags returning inland to breed. During the northerly winds and cold of May 2022 the Whooper probably felt quite at home. 

A single Buzzard soared around for a while before performing a display dive to distant trees. 

Buzzard

Buzzards are now scarce up here on the edge of Bowland where raptors must still take their chances against tech-savvy gamekeepers. In contrast to this certain and continued persecution there is informed talk of a very successful breeding season for both Hen Harriers (40+ young fledged) and Merlins on private land where the species are well watched and soundly protected. 

From nearby trees, mixed and conifer, we saw Siskin, Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker and a party of 15-20 Long-tailed Tit. Thankfully, and for the second time on the trot we retained a clean sheet for the timice family. By all accounts it would seem that they too have experienced a poor season due to a lack of caterpillar food in April and May. Our pet name for Oakenclough is "Coal Tit Central", but not on Thursday.

Nuthatch

Siskin

Others seen - 3 Grey Heron, 1 Grey Wagtail, 3 Pied Wagtail, 4 Swallow , Oystercatcher with one young. 

Back soon with more news, views and photos.

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni in Texas.