Mayday, Mayday.

Saturday morning. The First of May began bright and cold again. I waited an hour or two until the sun burnt off the frost and then drove north, hoping for a quiet walk in the warming sun and fresh air. 

They came along the private track, four adults and two dogs against the skyline. Urbanites on their May Day weekend. The egret saw them coming and flew off with loud protests. 

Hunkered down in the car and concentrating through the viewfinder, I'd not seen the intruders headed my way. Thankfully the townies took the other direction and left me in peace. Such are the joys of trying to bird now that lockdown is all but over when the countryside become a free for all again. 

Great Egret

 

I disturbed a Buzzard from the fence line but it made no sound as it slipped away perhaps thinking I'd not seen it in the exact same place for a couple of weeks. The local Carrion Crows gave the Buzzard a noisy send off . 

Carrion Crow and Buzzard

Along the track two pairs of Redshanks showed all the signs of having nests nearby. Oystercatchers too, piping and wary.  And a Lapwing called to youngsters to get their heads down - “Mayday, mayday”, and then circled and flapped to make sure the danger had passed. The young Lapwing were in the longer grass of a ditch, safe enough and hidden from a ringer's view. 

The sun came from the wrong direction. Overexpose the only way to get some sort of picture. 

Redshank

  

The Wheatear on the other side of the sun made for easier viewing even though it kept a safe distance.

Wheatear

 

The ditches also held 3 Little Egrets and a Grey Heron. On and in the reed fringed edges of nearby pools came 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Sedge Warbler and the snapping song of 4 Reed Warblers. A couple of Swallows whizzed by; so good to see a few at last. No House Martins seen but the farm hand reported seeing House Martins and a Whitethroat on Friday. 

Pied Wagtail

 

On the water - 4 Greylags with young, 2 Canada Geese with young, 2 Shelduck, 4 Moorhen, and then 2 Coot with their early brood. 

Coots

And now on Sunday morning we have a hailstorm. No kidding!  Help.

 

Late Owls

“Sun until midday and then rain from the west” advised the not always trusty weathercaster. This time they were spot on and I’m happy I made the effort to get up early and grab a few hours birding because while I’m blogging indoors, outside it may be about to start raining cats and dogs. 

A Kingfisher was the first bird I saw at Conder Green. Unfortunately it was a good distance away on the “nearest” but too far away island for a decent picture. Thank goodness for my archived pictures for readers who’d like to see a real Kingfisher. Our European Kingfisher occurs in Egypt too, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to that region any time soon. 

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

 

Those Avocets are still around and although the youngster has yet to fledge it was doing some serious flapping in readiness for the big day. The single adult remains ultra-protective in chasing anything and everything away from the corner of the pool the Avocets have called home for months now. 

Avocet

Other waders and wildfowl noted as 120+ Lapwing, 50+ Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 3 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Little Egret and 2 Wigeon, so few changes there. 

Little Grebe have increased to nine continuing their daily habit of adding one new member to the flock. New grebes appear as if by magic each day and while they can occasionally be seen pitter-pattering across the surface of the water, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Little Grebe fly, neither can I recall speaking to anyone who has. Many of our wintering Little Grebes are from the near-Continent with some arriving from Eastern Europe and Russia, so we must assume that they are able to fly? 

Little Grebe

I noted small birds as 6 Swift, 2 Stock Dove, 6 Pied Wagtail, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 4 Greenfinch, 10 Linnet and 15 Goldfinch. There is a good crop of thistles this year but I’m not sure there’s an equal number of Goldfinches to do justice to the seed heads yet. It’s early for huge flocks of Goldfinches with September usually the peak month. 

Goldfinch

At Glasson, 80 + Swallows feeding/resting around the boats and the basin, 4 Tufted Duck, 1 Great Crested Grebe and 12 Coot. 

Coot

 

Tufted Duck

On the way home I came upon two sibling Barn Owls hunting the same area of ground. The owls flew around a couple of roadside rough fields, quickly establishing a routine which centred on a ditch and a number of old buildings, places where both they and I would expect to find small mammals. 

Barn Owl

 

I stayed patiently in my car knowing that these young owls wouldn’t stray far and would also pass my way soon. Along comes a bloke in a car, who displaying not an ounce of field craft, decides to not only get out of his vehicle but to then walk up and down the road with his camera. This right next to the field the owls were hunting, but where the nutter perhaps expected that these wild birds would somehow fly or pose right next to him. I waited several minutes but needless to say to say the owls moved away from the immediate area. I left the clueless idiot wandering up and down the roads with the owls nowhere to be seen. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

No doubt this particular location will now be broadcast to all and sundry resulting in hordes of similarly enlightened folk harassing the same owls and annoying the farmer, not to mention continually disturbing the birds. That’s what always happens because most of these folk are so clueless and lazy minded they can’t think that there might just be Barn Owls elsewhere and then try to find others to watch instead.

Linking today to Run A Round Ranch.

It’s Not All Rubbish

At last the builders have gone. I swept the final dust from the driveway and set off north through Pilling village in the direction of Conder Green and Glasson Dock. 

Rubbish

There were no Barn Owls this morning but compensation came along Head Dyke Lane with a Blackcap in song and a roadside Kestrel atop a telegraph pole. At Braides Farm behind the sea wall and distant from the road was another Kestrel, this one taking exception to and then dive bombing a Buzzard generally minding its own business on a nearby fence. 

Kestrel

Damn. There was a wagon running its loud engine and parked up in the layby at Conder Green. As if this wasn’t bad enough the driver was having a wander both across and up and down the road to stretch his legs, all the while oblivious to birds scattering left, right and centre from the pool and the creeks. 

Adopting Plan B I drove the half a mile to Glasson Dock where a Common Sandpiper was busily feeding along the edge of the path which skirts the yacht basin. An unusual sighting here as there aren’t really muddy margins for wading birds. 

Common Sandpiper

There was a Common Tern searching the yacht basin and the dock for food. I watched it catch a fish and head off towards Conder Green - shades of 2014 when the male of the pair nesting at Conder Green regularly fished the same circuit to feed his mate half-a-mile away. Otherwise both the dock and the yacht basin seemed very quiet with just the regular Swallows, Mallards and Coot near the water and small numbers of Swift and House Martin overhead. 

 Coot

The canal towpath proved fruitful birding by way of 2 singing Blackcap, a singing Chiffchaff, a Song Thrush in loud voice, and several Reed Bunting flitting about the vegetation. Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers fed recent fledglings which hid in the reeds and umbelliferae which grow in profusion along the margins of the canal. Try as I might the little blighters wouldn’t cooperate. 

Reed Warbler

Conder Green was quiet again, the errant driver gone to create havoc elsewhere. Not many birds had returned although to be fair to our driver friend the pool has been rather devoid of birds and excitement all spring and summer except for the still resident Common Terns. Redshank and Lapwing numbers were quite healthy with 80+ and 30+ respectively, 10 Curlew, 15 Oystercatcher, 2 Common Sandpiper, and 2 Greenshank. Early July and the Greenshanks are dead on time as returnee migrants from their breeding sites way north and east of Lancashire. 

Greenshank

Oystercatchers

A walk of the circuit and the railway bridge produced 3 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Pied Wagtail, 3 Reed Bunting, 5 Whitethroat, 7 Greenfinch and 1 Sedge Warbler. 

So the moral of today’s story is that while we all know that mid-summer can be a quiet time for birding, we should also realise that it’s far from rubbish and infinitely better than DIY.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday.

Menorca Postcard

Another Bird Blog is in Menorca. So please excuse the brevity but here’s a picture postcard to be looking at until I’m home. 

Menorca view

Cattle Egret

Thekla Lark

 

Bee Eater

Rural Menorca

Turtle Dove

Hoopoe

Coffee time Menorca style

Ciutadella

Coot

Black-winged Stilt

Red Kite

Menorcan Panda

Tawny Pipit

 Goodnight from Menorca - Scops Owl

Many Thanks for your visit and comments. I’ll catch up with you quite soon.

Sunday’s Action

First stop this morning was Pilling and a check of the Little Egret roost from the quiet of the car where I counted 33 birds scattered through the tall trees. Leaving the car can cause the egrets to fly off prematurely as I’ve discovered when even in the half light of dawn doggie walkers are first to the car park where the slamming of their car doors and general noise makes the egrets head off for the day ahead. 

Just this week a lady telephoned to relate the story of how at Knott End two out of control dogs, a Jack Russell and a Springer type, grabbed hold of an unwary Little Egret feeding on the marsh and proceeded to tear the poor bird into two pieces. Result - one less Little Egret to grace our shores plus two hysterical and traumatised girls aged nine and eleven who had been walking the dogs without adult supervision. 

Little Egret

To more cheerful matters. 

A Kingfisher was on duty at its regular spot when I arrived at Conder Green. After ten or fifteen minutes there’d been little happening apart from the click of the camera and the Kingfisher peering into the water below, and then when the thing did eventually dive for a fish it surfaced with nothing and flew off to the right, out of sight. Out of the breeding season Kingfishers do spend a lot of their time just sitting around, watching and waiting, and that is why they can be relatively difficult to connect with. 

As usual there are a few heavily cropped photographs because there is no closer point at which the Kingfisher can sit. Nevertheless it is great to regularly watch this wondrous bird for many minutes at a time rather than the fleeting glimpses which many folk get. 

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

I told a lie as action was actually ongoing throughout the Kingfisher episode in the form of Common Terns on the island, the two well grown young being constantly tended by the two adults, the adults breaking off to noisily inspect or chastise anything which looked a possible danger, including me some 75/100 yards away. 

There are the usual waders and wildfowl to relate - 1 Snipe, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 5 Common Sandpiper, 4 Curlew, 55 Lapwing and 40ish Redshank. Also, 15 Teal, 6 Little Grebe, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Grey Wagtail and 12+ Alba wagtail. 

Curlew

There seemed to be more going on at Glasson Dock where around the car park, along the towpath and around the boats were 50+ Alba wags and 2 Grey Wagtails. The wagtails were very active with so many concentrated in such a small area that they had most likely vacated a roost, possibly in the bushes near the bowling green or in the area of the dock buildings. 

There seemed to be birds everywhere as a flock of 60+ Goldfinch and 30+House Sparrows joined in the confusion by flying between feeding spots in the car park, the bowling green trees and on the adjacent marsh. 

Pied Wagtail

I left the wagtails, finches and the sparrows to sort themselves out and instead concentrated on the yacht basin where once again there was a good gathering of mainly Swallows plus a smaller number of House Martins, about 300 birds in all. The Tufted Duck appear to have increased in numbers, possibly the Coot too with respective counts of 26 and 28. 

Coot

Tufted Duck

Glasson Dock

A walk along the towpath revealed more Swallows feeding over the canal, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3 Reed Warbler, 2 Reed Bunting, several Tree Sparrows and a Chiffchaff. On the return walk the chiffy was in full, almost-September song. 

The sun was a good way up, the air became warm and Joe Bloggs surfaced - time to go home. 

Guess Where, Guess What?

It’s a short post today because there isn’t too much to say from a visit to, yes you’ve sussed it, the usual spots. 

Yet another Barn Owl kicked off the morning as I had brief views of one flying across the road at Cockerham before it did the usual disappearing act over a hedgerow. Barn Owls are just as wary as most birds and aren’t going to stop their early morning hunting to pose on a fence post for camera wielding birders. They are surprisingly fast flyers too when trying to focus for an in-flight picture. 

Barn Owl

The returning wader theme continued at Conder Green with a good count of 10 Common Sandpiper and 140 Redshank but no sign of the Spotted Redshank of weekend. Another birder reported 15 Common Sandpipers here on Sunday and there’s every chance that each day sees new arrivals; there is after all a valid reason the species has the qualifying “common” in their name. 

Also new in were 2 Grey Wagtails feeding in the low-tide creek amongst the Redshanks, Common Sandpipers, 8 Oystercatcher, 2 Curlew, 1 Grey Heron and 7 Little Egrets. 

Little Egret

Otherwise, and with the risk of boring regular readers, there was little change to be had around Conder Pool in the way of 15 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon, 14 Lapwing, 1 Pied Wagtail, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Stock Dove and 75+ Swift. 

On a lovely sunny morning I hoped for a repeat of the Glasson Dock Otters of Saturday but now in good light, even though there’s some truth in the maxim “lightning never strikes twice”. No bolts from the blue and no Otters today. 

Compensation arrived in the form of a pleasant walk around the yacht basin and along the canal towpath with 2 Grey Heron, 8 Tufted Duck, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Song Thrush and 15+ Blackbirds, together with a Grey Wagtail to add to those of Conder. 

A Grey Heron was fishing from the remains of the boat sunk during last winter’s storms - that’s the old washing line in the background. When the heron had flown off towards the canal a Coot brought Junior Coot to the wreck for a wash and brush up. 

Grey Heron

 Coot

I’ve been watching the Swallows here and waiting for the young to emerge from under the road bridge but there’s no sign of any juveniles yet, just adults, so I think the nests have failed. 

Swallow

On the way home I called to see Chris who has a Sand Martin colony in his recently quarried fields. It looks like a good season so far with a total of 120+ Sand Martins on the fences and in the air, plus 10 or more Swallows. 

 Sand Martin

There are more guessing games on Another Bird Blog soon. Try to be here.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.