A Spanish Stopover

2023 was such a poor year for ringing birds that our site at Pilling yielded just 2 Common Whitethroats, one in July and one in August. Neither were caught after the initial day of ringing. They both moved on elsewhere. 

Imagine our surprise, a notification from the BTO this week told us that ACV6277 a juvenile we ringed on July 9th was caught in Spain later in the year. If only this particular recovery rate of 50% could be replicated with all ringed birds. 

Common Whitethroat ACV6277

 

ACV6277 was recaptured by Spanish ringers at San Roque-Darbo, Cangas de Morrazo, Pontevedra on September 1st 2023, some 54 days later. 

Whitethroat ACV6277 - Cockerham to Pontevedra

I looked up the place name of Cangas de Morrazo and discovered it to be a small coastal town in Northern Spain close to the city of Vigo and to the border of Portugal/Spain. It looks a great place for a September break, a traditional Spanish fishing village that is close to a nature reserve - Zonas de Especial Protección para las Aves (ZEPA). A pure guess but there is a good chance that ACV6277 was recaptured in this very place and soon afterwards set off to continue its first ever journey to Africa. https://www.mardeons.es/blog/observar-aves-en-cies-y-ons/ 

A summer visitor to the UK from Africa, the Common Whitethroat is small, brown warbler that frequents hedgerow and scrubby areas across Britain & Ireland from April to October. Its winter quarters in Africa occupy the dry Sahel just to the south of the Sahara. This area is subject to prolonged periods of drought which affect Whitethroat overwinter survival. Such conditions led to a crash of 90% in UK Whitethroat numbers in the late-1960s, from which this species is still recovering. 

Whitethroat

Whitethroat

Whitethroats breed throughout the UK and it can be found from Cornwall to northern Scotland, as well as across Ireland. The Whitethroat has suffered a 63% decrease in its population in the years 1967 -2020, hardly surprising given the way that the UK continues its desire to concrete over the entire landscape. 

No One Cares. Money speaks louder than wildlife.

For example.

“A holiday village and eco-park with up to 450 lodges, a hotel, market place, virtual reality wildlife experience and craftworkers’ pods is proposed for land south of Lancaster in a planning application.

Land at Home Farm, Ellel Grange, near Galgate, near the M6, is the proposed site for the scheme by applicants TNPG Sandeman Trust and Ellel Holiday Village Ltd.

But the outline application has prompted hundreds of objections along with some letters of support, according to Lancaster City Council planning reports”.

This really does beggar belief but many have seen for years where we as a nation are heading when wildlife and the countryside is to be destroyed and replaced by virtual wildlife and craftworkers' pods.

You really couldn't make this shit up if you tried.

Linking this week to Eileen's Blog.

 

Standard Autumn Fayre

Surprise surprise. We survived Storm Debi, a “storm” hyped up by the usual suspects quoting 70 mph gusts from well-known exposed sites on cliff tops and unprotected coastal locations. Here in flat windswept Fylde the gusts turned out to be nothing more than the typical weather we experience for days at a time every autumn. Strong winds with bouts of rain, before everything returns to normal a day or two later.  

We know of course why they do it – to crank up climate alarmism for people who have yet to realise that the “climate emergency” is one big scam designed to part them from their money. 

Clearing our garden of neighbours’ sycamore leaves is a yearly event come rain or shine but inventive doom mongers have yet to claim that the late falling leaves of 2023 are due to global warming. 

 

Autumn Leaves

Early this week we pencilled in the only suitable day, of Friday for a ringing session at Oakenclough near Garstang. Will visited a week earlier with moderate success that included the catching of four Common Crossbills, a few Redwings and other bits and pieces. 

Yours truly, Will and Andy met up at 0730 to rain but forecasts of brightening skies and afternoon sun; before planning a ringing session we make it a rule to check at least two weather forecasts as they hardly ever agree. About an hour later the rain relented and we set to the job in hand and landed a good variety of species, 18 birds before packing in about 1100 when things turned suddenly quiet. 

We caught no more Crossbills, a rarely encountered species that would have enlivened the usual autumn fayre of 4 Blue Tit, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Great Tit, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Siskin, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Goldcrest. 

Chaffinch

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Siskin

Siskin

 

Lesser Redpoll

As autumn turns effortlessly to winter, so do the birds, with little in the way of numbers that punctuate September and October ringing sessions. 

Noted today, small numbers of Jackdaws, Woodpigeons and Starlings. Otherwise let’s hope that some of the influx of Waxwings, & Short-eared Owls to Scotland and the east coast of England can find their way westwards. Both species pictured below from previous winters in the Fylde. 

Waxwing

Short-eared Owl

Enjoy your weekend folks. Stay safe, warm and sane then come back again to Another Bird Blog for news, views and photos.

Linking this Saturday to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Sunday Morning Twite

I changed the header. It’s a Twite Linaria flavirostris, a close relative of the Linnet Linaria cannabina, a bird featured many times here on Another Bird Blog. 

Most people wouldn’t notice a Twite - a small, streaky brown finch whose only colour is a bright pink rump and even that shows only in Spring. The rest of the year, it’s rather retiring and uncommon. Perhaps that’s why it’s disappeared from our uplands almost without us noticing. 

Here on the Fylde stretch of coastline in the extreme south of Morecambe Bay, the Twite is a winter visitor and autumn migrant. 

I was lucky this morning when two Twite put in an appearance out Pilling Way. Who can resist a few clicks when there’s Linnets and Twite around for direct comparison? A Twite has a distinctive and rather beautiful orange-buff ground colour to the face and the unstreaked throat. Brown streaking extends from the sides of the breast rather diffusely down onto the flanks, but the belly and undertail coverts are white. Unlike a Linnet, a Twite has an obviously yellow bill in winter, contrasting with the face. Twite have black feet and legs, a Linnet has paler brown/dark straw coloured legs.

Linnet

Linnet

Twite

 

Twite

Twite

Twite

The morning improved when a Kingfisher flew back and forth for several minutes and where I got the distinct impression there may have been two rather than the single bird that posed briefly. Here at this spot are hundreds of yards of ditches and dykes for Kingfishers and other water birds. Hence the Little Grebe, several Little Egrets and Reed Buntings flitting around the phragmites fringed ditches. 

Reed Bunting

Kingfisher

Could it get any better? Well yes when a Merlin flew past pursued by a Crow and then a few minutes later a Marsh Harrier going in the opposite direction. The raptors were the reason for so much Lapwing activity with many 300/400 hundreds flying around in a seemingly random fashion but all the while keeping their distance from danger. 

 

Lapwings

A drive out Cockerham way produced a count of six Cattle Egrets feeding amongst some pretty muddy cows. Of course the egrets are adept at exploiting the churned up ground in which to find their prey of insects and worms that cattle disturb with their feet. The egrets also will sit on cattle to look out for insects but I have only observed this behaviour in the Med and not in the UK. 

Cattle Egret

It seems that the six Cattle Egrets weren't the only ones today. Another ten were seen a couple of miles away near the coast at Cockerham. The species may have had a good breeding season in the east with many now heading our way to enjoy the milder Lancashire weather rather than the cold of Europe. 

The forecasts for the week ahead don't look too clever but as always where there's a will there could be a way. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog for the very latest news, views and photos.

 

Another Hobby

Tuesday 16 August. The forecast looked spot on for Wednesday morning so on Tuesday afternoon I drove out to Pilling way to check everything was in place for a ringing session the following morning. I saw five Common Snipe on the mucky pools and where wagtails usually outnumber waders but not on this occasion. Perhaps the time of day was not ideal for wagtails but I was confident there would be both Meadow Pipits and wagtails the next morning. 

Snipe

Pied Wagtail

As I drove off site I spotted the slow, lazy flight of a Marsh Harrier, quartering the ground like a Barn Owl, floating above the grassy fields and reedy ditches on long, V-shaped wings, looking and listening for movement below. The harrier was heading my way, but then veered off and I lost it as it headed north west. Not to worry, there was a good chance the same or another one would be around on Wednesday morning. 

Marsh Harrier

 

On Wednesday morning I met Will at 0630 with a net or two and with the walk-in pipit trap. the one we bait with wriggly meal worms.

Meal worms

Although we caught a few Meadow Pipits, the numbers for a larger total just weren’t around and neither were the wagtails of recent days. We caught 8 birds - 4 Meadow Pipit, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Reed Warbler,  1 Sedge Warbler. 

We rarely capture Meadow Pipits a second time because the species is extremely transitory in both spring and autumn. Therefore it was most unusual that this morning one of the pipits in the walk-in trap bore ring number ACV6545, previously caught and ringed here on 9 August. The lure of free meal worms had overcome any fear or memory that the bird may have had of the walk-in trap just a week ago. It seemed that the pipit is no hurry to migrate south. 

Reed Bunting

Reed Warbler

Meadow Pipit

Sedge Warbler

 

Our catch was a poor representation of the numbers of small birds and the species we saw, with highlights of 40 Meadow Pipit, 10 Reed Bunting, 8 Goldfinch, 30 Swallow, 15 Tree Sparrow, 3 Sedge Warbler, 15 Linnet and 8 Goldfinch. 

Better was to come when Will’s superior eyes caught sight of a Hobby heading our way. And then we watched as it changed direction upon spotting us and hurried off in the direction of Fluke Hall and Knott End some miles away.  It quickly became a speck in the hazy sky to the west.

It was not a surprise to watch a far off Marsh Harrier as it hunted out over the salt marsh but it was too distant to age or sex from some 100 yards away. Was it the same one as Tuesday? Unlikely since mid to late August is peak passage time for this now fairly common raptor of Northern England. 

We packed in early as numbers and the clear skies above did little for our catch. But we’ll be back soon so don’t go away good friends because there’s always news, views and photos on Another Bird Blog. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday. 

Hobby Times Two

The Hobby is still something of a scarcity in this part of coastal Lancashire known as The Fylde. The sighting of a Hobby adds more than a smidgeon of excitement to an often mundane day. Even better when a single sighting of the will o’ the wisp raptor becomes a double whammy. 

The Hobby, a Schedule One Species, breeds inland not too many miles away, just a car ride away, a location already subject to  interest from too many bird listers.  It would be easy to add to the database  of visitors and potentially draw attention to a breeding locality but how much better is it to meet and to enjoy a Hobby or two in the course of a normal day's birding?  

  

My latest encounter of this pacy raptor came about today while Andy and I were out bird ringing over Pilling way, catching the bits and pieces of a normal day.  A quiet spell had us sitting in the sun watching Meadow Pipits surveying a walk-in trap placed about 40 yards away on the farm track. We’d had some success with eight Meadow Pipits caught but frustrated by the sight of two Yellow Wagtails not finding their way into the metal maze while pipits had no such problems.

From the north and east came two Hobby (is that Hobbys or Hobbies?) in close unison, playing in the breeze like the juveniles they were as they drifted over the nearby sea wall and continued their leisurely way west. It was yesterday evening when the farmer Richard told me of his sighting while tending livestock of a “large swift” - “going like the clappers”, one of those sightings that goes into the memory hole to often resurface another day. 

Hobby

 

We caught other species in a single, slightly blowy mist net and ended up with 14 ringed – 8 Meadow Pipit, 3 Sedge Warbler, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Pied Wagtail. 

Meadow Pipit

Reed Warbler

Whitethroat

Pied Wagtail

Birds that got away or didn’t come near the nets included 70 or more Swallows,40 Meadow Pipits, 4 Wheatear, 25 Pied Wagtail, 4 Yellow Wagtail, 8 Goldfinch, several Linnets, Grey Heron, Common Sandpiper. 

Linnet

Wheatear

Wheatear

Goldfinch

Yellow Wagtail

Swallow

Swallow

Yes, it was a very young Wheatear that has quickly joined in the action, already setting off  on the long journey to Africa. 

While the sun shines I’m making hay too.

Weekend is not looking good but two more days of bright weather means more news, views and photos on Another Bird Blog. Don't miss it folks.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

 

More Pics

A few weeks ago I related the tale of my new Canon 90D camera which has been itching to get out and earn its keep but remained mostly at home because of the constant poor weather. Rain and poor light are the arch enemies of cameras, especially those with a Sigma 150-600mm lens attached. 

Sunny mornings together with a bird rich location near Pilling tempted me out on a couple of occasions. Almost all of these pictures were shot at ISO 800 or even ISO1000 at f7.1, a setting which seems to be the combination’s sweet spot. The extra megapixels of the 90D give a better result than my old 80D in allowing a bigger crop and an overall finer image. Some of the images are finished via GIMP, others treated to a touch of Microsoft Photos filtering. 

Click the Pics for the best effect.

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

Reed Bunting

The adult male Reed Bunting is undergoing a post breeding moult as can be seen in the median coverts and the upper tail. Meanwhile a second Reed Bunting is a juvenile i.e. born this year. 

A juvenile Sedge Warbler was very obliging for a second or two only before hopping along the fence and diving into the vegetation that meets the fence line. 

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Rain during the last few weeks has meant that wagtails stay around, but still no Grey Wagtail, just Pied Wagtail and Yellow Wagtails, both species 90% juveniles of the year. 

Pied Wagtail

Yellow Wagtail

 

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Even when ringing autumn Meadow Pipits it is not too often that an adult bird is encountered in the hand. The birds below are juveniles of the year where it is possible to see the remnants of the nestling yellow gape.  

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

Meadow Pipit

And now for a couple of juvenile Linnets, a species to which our attention will be turned in the coming weeks. The annual seed plot is coming on a treat thanks to the amount of July rain and its (very) intermittent sunny spells. 

Linnet

Linnet

 

Wagtails and pipits are not the only birds to find muddy pools attractive. As anticipated there have been Redshanks and Oystercatchers, and today a Common Sandpiper. 

There are limits to the reach of a digital camera and 600mm lens, more so when reflections from bodies of water seem to interfere with how the camera sensor interprets the scene. Best I could do with the small sandpiper 50 yards away. 

Common Sandpiper

 

Likewise the buck Roe Deer, some 100 yards away but in good sunny light. 

Roe Deer

More news, views and photos soon at Another Bird Blog.