Showing posts with label Carrion Crow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carrion Crow. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

August Time

After the relative quiet of birding of June and July, the first days of August sees many birders pick up their bins again. There’s hope that the new month will bring post breeding dispersal with signs of true autumn migration and a wealth of birds that may arrive with unsettled weather and cooling temperatures. 

Sunday morning at Cockerham was cool with a pronounced westerly breeze and ever changing bouts of sun and cloud. I had single panel nets in the four foot high seed plot where I hoped to catch the first Linnets of the autumn. Hidden in the lee of the car as protection from sun, the cool breeze and the threat of a shower I switched a couple of times from a shirt to adding a jacket and then back to jacketless as the sun returned.

All the while Linnets arrived from both west and east, individuals, small groups and even a flock of 25+ that eventually gave a count of 60 or more Linnets; a clear sign of the autumnal flocking behaviour of small finches. 

A couple of Linnets escaped as I walked to the net however I did capture six, 3 moulting adults and 3 juveniles of the year. There was also an adult female Blackbird. 

Linnet - adult male

Linnet - adult male

Linnet - juvenile/first summer

Blackbird - adult female
 
Perhaps and in view of the weather it was no coincidence that the morning produced a clear movement of Swifts heading south, singles and twos at first. And then rather suddenly about ten o’clock and directly above the nearby pool came a vortex of Swifts, 50 or more feeding below the billowing grey cloud. Within minutes they were gone, back on high and out of sight to continue their southerly flight. 

Swifts
 
Other species seen and heard – 190/200 Carrion Crow, 12 Curlew , 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Tree Sparrow, 15 Swallow, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Buzzard. 

The huge numbers of predatory Carrion Crows in recently cut fields suggests a very successful breeding season but does not bode well for small birds and breeding waders in 2022. 

Carrion Crow

In other news. It was here in Cockerham that a Great Egret lingered through May and well into into June 2021 and where earlier in the spring there has been two or even three individuals.  At one point I hoped that the egrets might join the Little Egret by becoming a breeding species of this part of Lancashire. It was not to be but now comes news of Great Egrets from the South West of England. 

Great Egret - Fylde, Lancashire
 
From Bird Guides.“Great Egrets have enjoyed a record-breaking year on the Somerset Levels, as the species continues its rapid colonisation of Britain. An estimated 50 chicks fledged this year on the Avalon Marshes. Nesting took place at 10 separate locations across Shapwick Heath, Ham Wall and Westhay reserves, with 25 of the 37 nests found going on to successfully fledge young. "

"Great Egret joined the list of breeding British birds as recently as 2012, when a pair nested at Shapwick Heath Somerset – the epicentre of the current population in the country. For much of the 20th century the Great Egret was restricted to the wetlands of Eastern Europe but, since the 1990s, the species made a comeback, nesting in increasing numbers across Europe and then spreading west." 

"Since 2012, numbers of breeding birds in Somerset increased steadily. In 2017, a pair of Great Egrets fledged three chicks at Holkham Nature Reserve Norfolk, marking the county's first successful breeding attempt.” 

In 2019, a single pair nested in Cheshire for the first time, at Burton Mere Wetlands, a flap and a glide into to Lancashire for a Great Egret. 

More news and views soon. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog. 

Thursday, January 23, 2020

An Unfunny Game

The release of non-native game birds and their impact upon the environment is in the news again this week. It is an issue mentioned several time on Another Bird Blog with the intention of alerting Joe Public to elements of the countryside that David Attenborough does not show. 

An estimated 40/50 million Common Pheasants and up to 10 million Red-legged Partridges are released into the countryside prior to the shooting season opening each 1 October.  

Red-legged Partridge 

Pheasant

The current pheasant and partridge shooting seasons draw to a close at the end of January 2020. The 2020 season opens on 1 October for Common Pheasant and 1 September for Red-legged Partridge. Releases of captive-bred birds occur prior to this, usually in July when trailer loads of pen-reared game-birds are transported to the shooting fields and released. Being pen-reared and regularly fed from leaving the egg the youngsters find most of their food from bins spaced at regular intervals throughout each shoot. 

Pen Rearing

 Off To The Shoot - Raptor Persecution Scotland

Feed Bin

The waste from transportation and feed bins provides rich pickings for predators of the crow family, mainly Carrion Crows. This easy availability of food throughout the winter months may have been a factor in the crows’ increased population since the 1960s, a trend associated with increases in nesting success/earlier laying. 

Carrion Crows take nestlings of small farmland birds and the eggs & chicks of waders, a fact of life easily witnessed by field workers. Some studies have found that crows along with their cousins the Magpie and the Raven have surprisingly little impact on the abundance of other bird species. I’m pretty certain those studies have not taken place in the Fylde Lancashire where it is not uncommon to see many hundreds of Carrion Crows on fields that are regularly shot and where lines of feed bins cross the landscape. 

A white Red-legged Partridge 

Carrion Crow 

Around 60% of game-birds released for shooting in the UK, an estimated 25/30 million birds, do not end up at their intended fate of being shot. This constitutes wastage, raising economic, environmental and ethical questions. There are four main reasons: predation, disease, starvation and dispersal into the wider countryside. Roadkill and agricultural operations contribute yet more often unquantifiable deaths. Early morning drives through areas of shoots will see many fresh corpses on carriageways where inexperienced and newly released game-birds meet the combustion engine. 

Pheasant Roadkill

The National Gamebag Census (NGC) records information provided by around 600 participating estates throughout Britain on shooting bags. There is no actual quantification of releasing as the NGC is a fraction of the actual shoots, many of which are on a small scale basis of individual and/or neighbouring farms. This I know because there are a number in this part of Lancashire and where gamekeepers are reluctant or evasive in revealing the number of game birds they “put down” (release). 

From "Birdwatch" magazine 21 January 2020. 

The non-profit legal entity Wild Justice revealed this week that it has sent a second letter to The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) about the effect of releasing millions of non-native game-birds into the British countryside. 

Last July Wild Justice challenged DEFRA's failure to assess the ecological impact on sites of conservation interest of releasing approximately 50 million game-birds into the countryside. The government department took two months to respond, but agreed that the Secretary of State would undertake a review of the release of such birds on or near protected sites. 

Since July 2019 DEFRA has failed to act. With zero progress, Wild Justice pursued the challenge and wrote again urging DEFRA to act quickly. 

In the letter, Wild Justice's lawyers Leigh Day stated that, with DEFRA having recognised the problem in September 2019, "it would be unlawful for those releases to take place in 2020 unless the possibility of them having detrimental impacts on the sites in question had been properly considered and specifically ruled out ahead of time".  As such, "the Secretary of State needs to initiate those processes now". The lawyers added: "To hold off doing that would lead to illegality later and so be unlawful now." 

Mark Avery, a co-director of Wild Justice columnist, commented: "We started this legal challenge last July, DEFRA took two months to respond (mid-September) and now we are past mid-January, only six months from the time when game-bird releasing might start again. DEFRA needs to get moving. This legal letter is designed to give them a very firm shove." 

It’s good news that Wild Justice should tackle this subject but I question their limiting the campaign to “sites of conservation interest”. The release of non-native game-birds is a problem that impacts the whole of the countryside, all of which is of conservation interest given the catastrophic decline of so many birds of farm and field during the last 40 years.

Linking this post to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni's Birding.



Thursday, May 3, 2018

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. 




Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Wading Through It.

It was early doors, 0530 or thereabouts, an unearthly hour when normal folk slumber away as crazy birders prowl the countryside. It was a morning without a plan but one which developed into something of a wader morning and then finished with an unlikely Yellow Wagtail. 

I stopped along Head Dyke Lane at Pilling, waiting for a Roe Deer to cross the road so as to reach a fellow deer which had found a route into a field to the left. It’s best for a car not to pick a fight with a panicking deer, and I hoped no cars would suddenly accelerate past at 60mph as they often do along here. One deer ran off in the direction of Pilling village while the other turned tail, slipped through the hawthorns and ran in the opposite direction. A good enough start but I was after birds not Bambi. 

Things improved near Fluke Hall when an Oystercatcher gave the game away; “kleep-kleep, kleep, kleep”, came the frantic warning. Down below were 2 good sized youngsters already legging it across the field for all they were worth. Too late - 2/2 ringed and the first ones for the year. 

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

After complaining a day or two ago of the lack of Lapwings locally I walked the sea wall and found two pairs with youngsters this morning, a brood of three plus a single and quite small chick tended by both parents. Lapwings generally start with 4 eggs so while the brood of three might be considered OK, to have one chick does not provide enough new blood for Lapwings to go forth and multiply. I thought back to the Red Fox of fifteen minutes before which I’d disturbed from the remains of a freshly killed Red-legged Partridge. The fox melted into the undergrowth but was soon replaced by an opportunist crow. 

Both the Fox and the Carrion Crow take their share of our few remaining Lapwings and their eggs and chicks. Local crows begin to have the air of the unchallenged while farmers find better things to do than chase the legions of corvids which throng the countryside. 

Spot the Lapwing

Lapwing

Lapwing

Carrion Crow

There was no success with finding Redshank chicks. When it comes to spotting predators from afar adult Redshanks are simply the best. From a good 75 yards away it was clear the Redshanks had young when the male took up guard on the gate and warned the female. The female took to the air and joined in the distractions with warning cries while circling overhead as the young slipped further away and out of sight. Not to worry, my old legs can’t chase sprinting Redshank chicks which run like the clappers and never stop for breath, unlike me. 
 
Redshank
 
Redshank

Bits and Pieces today - 1 Buzzard, 4 Whitethroat in song, 2 Reed Bunting in song, 1 displaying/singing Sedge Warbler, 1 singing Blackcap. 3 Grey Heron, 2 Little Egret. 

There was an unexpected sighting of a bright male Yellow Wagtail which flew in from the marsh and landed but briefly on top of the fresh midden pile. After a few moments the wagtail flew off south east towards Pilling; most strange as Yellow Wagtails are now simply birds of spring and autumn in these parts, the sighting perhaps best explained as a failed or completed early breeder bird from not too far away. 

Yellow Wagtail- Photo by Nicholls of the Yard / Foter / CC BY-NC

Unplanned mornings often turn out OK don’t they? Join in soon for more accidental birding from Another Bird Blog.

In the meantime linking to Theresa's Ranch.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Sunday Buzzards

Buzzards again I’m afraid. Well let’s face it a “big brown job” like a Buzzard is a lot easier to find, ID and photograph than those “little brown jobs” and I’m all for an easy life. 

The first Buzzard was at Braides Farm again, way out on the fence towards the sea wall; and in the photo below that’s Heysham Power Station in the far distance, 20 miles across Morecambe Bay. 

A mile or less along the sea wall are fields swarming with released Red-legged Partridges courtesy of the local shooters but the local Buzzards are too lazy to go chasing partridges which fly fast and close to the ground. Instead the Buzzards mostly prefer a “watch and wait” approach from a tree or fence, mainly for earthworms, amphibians and large insects plus the odd bit of carrion like road kill. 

Buzzard

What’s that old adage? “Give a dog a bad name and hang him” comes to mind. There’s another Buzzard photo later in this post for folk who appreciate this much maligned raptor. 

There was a Kestrel at Braides too, but little else to excite. 

I stopped at Conder Green where on the pool I found 18 Little Grebe, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 2 Goldeneye and 2 Grey Heron. In the creeks - 1 Kingfisher, 160 Teal, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Ruff, 1 Little Egret and 1 Goosander. 

At Glasson Dock there was a Black-headed Gull with a Darvic ring inscribed “6CY”. Anyone out there wishing to claim ownership please contact me, but in any case I will submit the record to the appropriate place. 

Black-headed Gull - 6CY

It wasn’t long after 9:15 am but both Conder Green and Glasson started to resemble a combined Bradley Wiggins Festival and Cruft’s Dog Show, so I drove to Pilling looking for peace and quiet. 

On the tideline a Pink-footed Goose flapped to escape me but with one wing smashed beyond repair it couldn't do so. I lacked the heart or the means to kill the poor bird, so shame to say left it to its own devices and hopefully quick death. How did this happen? Probably an unclean shot by a sportsman which left the bird ”winged” to later drift on the tide and eventually find its way ashore. 

Pink-footed Goose

On and around the pools, flooded fields and maize - 2 Ruff, 40+ Shelduck, 8 Oystercatcher, 3 Redshank, 2 Reed Bunting and 5+ Skylark. 

In the sunny wood there was a little activity around a few of the Tree Sparrow boxes, the autumnal display in evidence whereby this species is known to indulge in sexual activity and sometimes construct nests. 

Tree Sparrow

I was side-tracked by a party of tits moving through the trees, a good number of Long-tailed Tits, a Nuthatch, a Goldcrest and several Great Tits. Just then two more distractions arrived with a Grey Wagtail flying over followed by a Kingfisher flying across the woodland pool and landing in a tree situated in front of two Mallards and a pair of Teal. It’s very unusual to see Teal here so deep in the woodland.

Fluke Hall, Pilling

A Buzzard flew over the wood, the raptor pursued by Carrion Crows eager to see the bird out of their patch. It’s weird how Buzzards can sit around on fence posts for ages unmolested by other birds but as soon as they begin to resemble a hawk they attract unwanted attention. 

Carrion Crows and Buzzard

I'm out of action tomorrow but tune in soon for more large and small brown jobs.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Monday, March 31, 2014

Just A Wheat

A couple of hours after lunch proved all I could manage today, so apologies for the brevity and lack of pictures. Remember to “click the pics” for close-up views and/or click the “Crosspost” button to share a picture to Facebook and Twitter. 

A single Wheatear gave me the run around for almost an hour before he took the bait to become number eight ringed in March. And there are birders yet to connect with a Wheatear this year! 

Lots of adult males will already be on territory up in the hills, their migration taking them directly there rather than lingering along the coast, so I wasn’t surprised when this latest one was another second year male. It was of standard proportions with a wing length of 95mm and a weight of 25gms. The bigger, brighter and heavier “northern” Northern Wheatears are yet to pass through, normally arriving here in mid-April on their way to Iceland and beyond. 

Northern Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

The usual route took me from Lane Ends to Piling Water, Worm Pool, Fluke Hall and then back the same way. Lots of Meadow Pipits around again, mostly in one quite large grounded flock of 140+ birds taking flight occasionally and once again, heading east along the sea wall. Whether these were birds from the mass migration of recent days or this morning’s grounded arrivals it was hard to tell. 

There was a Merlin on a fence post directly behind the sea wall and even though I tried to sneak up for a better look, it was rapidly gone as soon as my head poked above the embankment. Two Ravens were making mischief in the back fields again, or at least the crows thought they were as they dive bombed and harassed the Ravens into flying somewhere quieter. The Carrion Crows usually have it their own way along here.

Carrion Crow

On the wildfowler’s pools I found 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Little Egret, 4 Teal and 15+ Redshank. At Fluke Hall a Kestrel, a Chiffchaff and a single Linnet, the latter worthy of special mention so scarce are they at the moment. 

Linnet

800 Pink-footed Geese still on the marsh and back at Lane Ends, a male Sparrowhawk, 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Little Grebe. 

Maybe I’ll get a half day or more in tomorrow. If so read the news here first with Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Doing It All Again

Saturday 15th March. Remember to “click the pics” for close-up views and/or click the “Crosspost” button to share a picture to Facebook and Twitter. 

It took a while to find the Northern Wheatear his morning. After a couple of hours plodding around Pilling in a stiff and cold north-westerly wind I’d more or less given up on seeing the safest bet of March. Boots off, hat and gloves back in the car I was ready for home but taking a last look along the sea wall when I spotted a lone Wheatear on a stretch of embankment I’d walked an hour or more before. It was too late to start unpacking a trap and warming up the meal worms; there will be more days soon.

Wheatear

At early doors the sea wall had been pretty devoid of bird life, and apart from 1000+ Pink-footed Geese most of the action took place on the maize field or in the Fluke Hall woodland. 

There was a goodish count of Golden Plover with 450+ birds early on until a Hi-Fly vehicle drove across the track to scatter many of the plovers out to the shore. At the moment Hi-Fly appear to be conducting a valuable amount of management of the Carrion Crow and Magpie situation, activities which inevitably means their people and vehicles are about the fields more than a mere birder would like. 

Carrion Crow

A number of the plovers are beginning to acquire their fabulous breeding attire, a plumage which allows them to blend into the summery tundra.

Golden Plover-  Photo credit: Jesusisland / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND 

Although large numbers of Golden Plovers are presently migrating through the area, Lapwings, Redshanks and Oystercatchers can now be counted as residents, either in pairs or display mode - in this case 15+pairs of Lapwing, 6 pairs of Oystercatcher and 6+ pairs of Redshank. 

Shelducks are scattered across the same areas in pairs or small groups with a total of 35/40 birds. Three Little Egrets about the fields with five more from the sea wall, 5 Dunlin in flight plus 18 Teal, a singing Reed Bunting and little else on the wildfowlers’ pools 

The comparatively sheltered woodland held a few species: 40+ Woodpigeon, 2 Stock Dove, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 8 Goldfinch, 4 Long-tailed Tit. 

There seemed very little bird song this morning; the air was cold, the wind too strong so I counted myself lucky to see a Chiffchaff as it called once from a gap in the roadside willows then showed itself briefly. 

In all a quietish morning whereby it would be nice to get a warm, sunny and wind-free morning tomorrow when I may just have to do it all over again. Join Another Bird Blog then for more news, views and photographs.

Linking this post to World Bird Wednesday, Camera Critters and Anni's I'd Rather Be Birding Blog.

Saturday, October 5, 2013

Saturday’s Selection

I started at Lane Ends this morning where as I arrived a Barn Owl was caught momentarily in the car headlights as it hunted over the sea wall; the owl paused on a fence post before flying off west towards Pilling. In the half-light I counted 42 Little Egrets out of the island roost but didn’t hang around to watch the pink-feet leave. Counting the geese off the marsh can be a couple of hour’s job, especially when there are so many. 

When I returned later after a quick look at Conder Green there were still 7 or 8 thousand geese about, so goodness knows what the total numbers are at the moment, but enough to attract the shooter’s cars to Gulf Lane. 

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese - "pinkies"

Conder Green has certainly gone off the boil with just 4 Snipe, 55 Teal and 2 Little Grebe this morning. An overflying Raven seems to be something of a regular sight just here lately. Two Reed Bunting, 2 Pied Wagtail and 7 Meadow Pipits added to the meagre haul. 

It was then back to Pilling for a walk to Pilling Water and Fluke Hall. There are good numbers of wildfowl on the wildfowler’s pools, a good spot to wait for the Teal spooking off, to watch their flying abilities and maybe get a picture of them. I didn’t get much of a chance today when all I heard was the rush of wings in hurried flight as hundreds of Teal came over my head, the ducks pursued by an equally rapid and determined Peregrine. 

The Peregrine didn’t catch, at least not in the few seconds I glimpsed it before it shot over the sea wall and out towards the marsh. I saw it again later getting a taste of its own medicine from Carrion Crows. Peregrines are a daily occurrence about here with the views for birders mostly distant and fleeting, the raptor sticking to the distant marsh and tideline where most of its food is found. 

Teal

Carrion Crow and Peregrine

Other wildfowl/waders - 300+ Wigeon, 3 Golden Plover, 400+ Lapwing with other raptors being a Sparrowhawk and a circling Buzzard. Small stuff today came in the shape of a Kingfisher fishing Broadfleet, 40+ Skylarks, 2 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Wheatear and a tiny number of Meadow Pipits, less than ten. 

The pipits and the chats are both near the end of their autumnal movement, the Skylarks perhaps continuing for a while yet. The Meadow Pipit picture I took earlier in the week, the Wheatear today, in the spot where both species can consistently be found. 

Meadow Pipit

 Wheatear

Wheatear

Another Bird Blog links today to Camera Critters and Anni's Blog. Check them out for more birds and All Creatures Great and Small. 

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