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

 

A Mixed Bag

We took advantage of Friday's clear but frosty morning with a six-thirty start to the ringing session. Will arrived on site at Pilling from an easterly direction and was lucky enough to see a Barn Owl cross the road in front of his car. By then Andy and I who arrived from the opposite direction were halfway down the access road and missed seeing the owl in our haste to get the nets going. 

It was a shock to the system to discover that a number of the guy ropes we leave on for early speed were solid with a layer of ice. For the first time this autumn/winter we needed gloves to hand. 

More than 20 Little Egrets left the tree roost when the car lights disturbed their sleep and we heard Redwings flying over. We didn’t catch Redwings or Little Egrets and at first it seemed that there weren’t too many birds around in the minus temperatures. 

Things improved as intermittent sun arrived to give us a mixed bag of 21 birds of 8 species - 9 Greenfinch, 3 Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Goldcrest, 2 Wren, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Cetti’s Warbler. 

One of the first birds out was our second Cetti’s Warbler at this site, this latest a male, following the tiny female we caught on October 4th. 

Males are larger than females and some can hold large territories with up to three females. Consequently, the UK population of around 3500 territories is now judged on the number of singing males present rather than “pairs” with the population as a whole thought to be resident rather than migratory. 

The early morning sun enhanced the red/brown tints of the Cetti’s plumage.  

Cetti's Warbler

Although the number of Linnets around was not huge today (70/90 birds) we caught a couple of obvious Scottish types. The first winter female below was especially striking through the dark mantle and its dusky and heavily streaked breast feathers, quite unlike the softer tones of local Linnets. 

"Scottish" Linnet

 

At last there seems to be Reed Buntings around and of the seven or eight we saw, two new ones was an improvement on recent numbers. We think that our provision of winter supplementary food for all will see more Reed Buntings in the weeks to come.  

The Reed Bunting is one of the species that suffers from the "winter hunger gap". This is the time of year when winter is at its harshest and natural food like seeds, berries and insects are scarce or unavailable to farmland birds. Typically, it lasts from December until March. 

 

Reed Bunting

This date in November might be a little late for migratory Goldcrests. It’s a species that is in short supply through the winter months where overnight frosts can quickly kill off a tiny bird that weighs less than six grams. 

Perhaps these late Goldcrests are ones from northern Europe, like the similarly sized Pallas’s Leaf Warbler seen on Thursday just across the water in Fleetwood’s Mount Park? The Pallas’s had travelled over 3,000 miles from the mountain forests of southern Siberia, east to northern Mongolia and China. 

Goldcrest

 

Other birds seen today - Buzzard, Sparrowhawk, 2 Stonechat. Fifteen or twenty Meadow Pipits and several Skylarks. 

The weekend beckons. Back soon with more news, views and photos on Another Bird Blog.  

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

 

It’s An Ill Wind

Even the most enthusiastic birder needs an occasional rest day after too many bleary eyed starts so I took a few days off. Wednesday looked ok but forecasts for the rest of the week showed strengthening winds from the east so we decided on Wednesday and a less than ideal 8-12 mph. I met up with Andy and Will at the appointed 0630 and we turned our cars to face into the breeze so as to use the ringing offices of the combined hatchbacks. 

The surface of the Grizedale reservoir rippled east to west and we suspected a slow session to be on the cards whereby net rides adjacent to the private access road are open to the elements of an easterly. 

Unlike the southern counties of England we have had our share of rain with no need for hose pipe bans or panic stations following two weeks of hot weather. Here in the West, 2022 has been the most average of summers devoid of any climate catastrophes. Current water levels in the reservoir are equal to if not slightly higher than August 2018 as seen in the video below.  And any day now the pent up rains will begin, just as they always do.

  

Our early suspicions were confirmed with a catch of just 9 birds - 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Goldcrest and horror of horrors, two Blue Tits. 

Blackcap

Meadow Pipit

Goldcrest

Willow Warbler

 

There was a smidgeon of obvious and visible migration with both Swallows and House Martins on the move from north to south. About 25 Swallows fed around the trees for a short time before disappearing to the south as quickly as they arrived. Meanwhile, a gang of about 50 later arriving House Martins fed on high flying insects for around an hour before they too moved west. 

Other obvious arrivals consisted of a Marsh Harrier that flew towards the west, 12/15 Pied Wagtails and 4 Grey Wagtails. Three Buzzards and 2 Ravens were more locally based, one Buzzard especially searching for a meal above the skulking and recently released Pheasant population. 

There was excitement at Marton Mere, Blackpool on Tuesday evening when a “Hobby” was seen over two and three hours and then into Wednesday morning. On Wednesday morning it was correctly identified as a Red-footed Falcon and continued to give excellent views to all and sundry. A couple of days of easterly winds are enough to frustrate us ringers but can often produce infrequent and/or unusual goodies here on the West Coast. 

Red-footed Falcon

 

The photo of Red-footed Falcon above is from Menorca, Spain, 2019.

The winds need to both change direction and to drop in strength for me. Here’s hoping.

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

 

We knew it couldn’t last. Our two week heatwave of global warming just couldn't make the grade and turned out to be the familiar autumn of wind, rain, fallen apples and russet leaves. 

Autumn apples

 

My notebook remained pretty much empty until Thursday of this week with a journey to Oakenclough, a few miles from Garstang Town, west of the Pennines. Our location is in sight & sound of the North to South M6 Motorway that runs from Scotland to Middle England. From our vantage point and on clear mornings we can see down to Morecambe Bay, the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and treacherous sand in the United Kingdom. The whole area covers a total of 120 square miles. 

Morecambe Bay - Wiki

 

Ringing site location

We are sure that the geographical location, the proximity of the brightly lit motorway plus the north to south axis of the Pennines helps us to catch migratory birds in autumn and spring. This obvious and sometimes visible bird migration doesn’t always happen and is dependent upon weather conditions, but when it does we know within an hour of our arrival on site. 

Autumn starts are later now at 0630 but soon to shift back for the darker morns ahead. I met up with Andy, Bryan and Will to zero wind and greyish skies, a near prefect morning for ringing we thought.

Nothing much happened except for visible migration of more than 120 Swallows heading west in small groups together with several House Martins and a single Sand Martin. Invisible migration/new arrivals consisted of just 11 captures - 3 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Chaffinch.

Blackcaps have been hard to come by this year until the catch today of two males and one indeterminate, the cap still brown but potentially yet to moult to the black of a male.

Blackcap

Meadow Pipit

       

Goldfinch

Juvenile Goldfinches cannot be sexed with any accuracy until they acquire their adult colours. However, the size of the bill on the above example suggests it is a male.  

There was a roving flock of Goldfinches this morning with approximately 80-100 in the area of the site. With luck we might have caught more but had to settle for the two juveniles. 

Goldcrest

The weather is set fair for the next few days and maybe into next week. I'm setting the alarm clock for Friday morning and a trip to the very edge of Morecambe Bay. I'm sure we can catch more birds next time. Now where have I heard that before?

Too Many Questions Not Enough Answers

“Six-fifteen?” We agreed. It seemed like a good idea at the time until the alarm buzzed at five-fifteen when I went through the well-practiced routine of ablutions, clothes, breakfast and a flask of coffee for the day ahead. Minutes later I hit the road to Oakenclough and met Andy on the dot to a cloudy start and a light south-easterly. 

We heard the soft piping calls of a Bullfinch near to the first mist net and thought it highly likely we would catch a Bullfinch or two now that the species has returned to the site. Better still, a few recently fledged youngsters.

Within minutes of our arrival there was shower that lasted three or four minutes after which it remained dry until we left at 1115. It had been a while since our last visit here of 17 June Another Bird Blog when we had questioned the lack of newly fledged birds.    

Throughout the rest of June and through July we thought that with the exception of Sand Martins and probably Linnets, the breeding success of all species had been both late and/or poor. 

The next few hours might give more clues and develop a few theories. We finished with a better catch of 25 birds, 24 new and one recapture, an adult Bullfinch first ringed on 17 June. The only other adult caught was a male Goldcrest. 

The remaining 23 captures were all shown to be juvenile/first summer individuals, and thirteen of those Willow Warblers. We were seeing juveniles in larger numbers and in more species for the very first time this year, all to confirm our suspicions of a late breeding season here in the cool of North West England. 

In total - 13 Willow Warbler, 6 Blue Tit, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Blackbird, 1 Great Tit, 1 Bullfinch. 

The single juvenile Lesser Redpoll was a very young bird yet to begin any post juvenile moult or develop reddish tinges. We were sure it was part of a brood born quite close to the site. 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

 

Willow Warbler

Chiffchaff

 

A gentle blow of the crown feathers of the partly moulting “female” Goldcrest showed remnants of a male’s orange feathers.  A male quite quickly loses those orange centres used to attract a female at the start of the breeding season.

Goldcrest

 

The male Bullfinch remains in good breeding condition. It displayed an obvious incubation patch and a cloacal protuberance, plus that we did not catch the female suggest the pair may have a second clutch of eggs somewhere in the dense woodland. Like many species, the male Bullfinch does his share of incubating eggs, hence the need for a bare, warm belly. 

Bullfinch

 

Birding between bouts of ringing/processing produced the surprise sighting of a fly-by Kingfisher, only the second one ever seen here.  Also, 4 Pied Wagtails, a handful of Swallows, a Great-spotted Woodpecker and a couple of Chaffinches. 

As is often the case it’s the species not seen, caught or even heard caught that provoke the questions. Today it was “Where are the Blackcaps, the Whitethroats and the Garden Warblers”. Or, “Why only four or five Swallows and no Swifts?” 

And there’s always the perpetual one, “Why no Buzzards, on this fine morning for a circling raptor?” Well I think we all know the answer to that last one, especially when we noted young pheasants on the loose. 

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

 

Quality Not Quantity

There goes that old chorus again, the one that ringers use when numbers are low but there are a few goodies to shout about. 

Until today the week was a little breezy for the Pilling site where even a breath of wind blowing through the bare hawthorns wafted a mist net around and made it visible. This morning was slightly better with zero wind and by now, after a couple of sunny days, green leaves and blossom in place of bare branches. 

Although by the end of March there are migrant birds to see the main bulk of migration of insect eating passerines is still three, four and more weeks away. I hoped to catch a few Meadow Pipits, a species that migrates north in good numbers in March but there seemed to be few around and I thought maybe they were high up in the cloudless sky with no reason to landfall. 

In fact visible migration was rather poor with small numbers of Lesser Redpolls and Reed Buntings being the most numerous. Just 9 birds caught – 5 Reed Bunting, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Lesser Redpoll and 1 Brambling. 

The Brambling, the second one caught here this spring, was a subtle looking second year female without the black and bright orange shades of the male caught here a few weeks ago. 

 

Brambling

 

The redpoll likewise proved to be a second year female. A second Lesser Redpoll escaped the net before I could reach it when I was forced to deal with a Mallard crashing about in another mist net. The nets are not designed to cope with wayward Mallards. Fortunately the duck found a way out without damaging the fairly new £90 net. 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

 

Reed Bunting

  

Goldcrest

 

Other birds seen and heard - 20 Linnet, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Blackbird, 1 Kestrel and 1 Snipe. Wintering birds comprised over 300 Pink-footed Geese on nearby meadows where their stay will soon be ended by a flight to breeding grounds in Iceland. 

Kestrel

 

I disturbed the Snipe when crossing a still soggy field on my way to the seed plot and where over the winter we had caught Linnets. An escaping Snipe or two became a regular feature of most days when splashing across to the seed plot. The Linnets are no longer with us in any numbers with so many gone north, hopefully to the top of Scotland where with luck one or two will be recaptured by Scottish colleagues. 

Snipe

Back soon. Maybe even Saturday if these winds stay down and high pressure stays around.

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

 

A Numbers Game

November 26th was the day of the BTO notification that our bird ringing would cease with “immediate effect.” The now almost annual outbreak of bird flu in our geographical area had struck yet again in Preesall/Pilling, just a few miles from our coastal ringing sites in Pilling and Cockerham. 

Luckily we have our ringing site at Oakenclough on the edge of the Bowland Hills that is well outside the 10km control zone and so unaffected by the ban, except that until now inclement weather prevented ringing here too. 

This upland site is close to a reservoir, the water catchment placed strategically to collect the maximum amount of water from both rain and run off from surrounding land. The open situation of the site also means a fair amount of windy weather too; rain and wind, the nemeses of bird ringers everywhere. 

At last, a bout of high pressure promised a few days of settled weather and ringing, even though we knew that mid-winter catches at this site are small in numbers. I met up with Andy at 0700 in the blackness of morning, less than a week from the shortest day and the Winter Solstice of 21 December. Soon the days get steadily longer, lighter, warmer and may be even drier? 

The first net round brought a couple of always nice to see Redwing into the nets but none of the 50+ Fieldfares that stopped briefly before continuing to the east. 

Redwing

Fieldfares

Just as expected our catch was low in numbers with just eleven birds, 3 Coal Tit, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Redwing, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Wren. At least we managed a spot of ringing; and as a bonus the sun appeared. 

Goldfinch

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Birding was pretty quiet with Barn Owl, a single Siskin and the aforementioned Fieldfares the highlights.  

On the way home I noted near Nateby a pair of Kestrels at roadside poles. As I carefully stopped hoping for a photo the male flew across to a tree which held a good sized crow nest; a tree worth keeping an eye on in the coming months. Kestrels begin their courtship in the cold winter months to ensure their bond is secure before the breeding season begins. Pairs usually mate for life. 

Kestrel

 

Looking forward, we are on countdown, hoping to hear soon that the ringing ban is lifted at our coastal site. But in any case I will be visiting soon to top up the supplementary food.  

Failing that we will return to Oakenclough for another dozen or so birds. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog. 

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

 

A Frustrating Saturday

Friday evening became another of those “Yes” or “No” occasions when every weather forecast was different to the next. Saturday morning might be too wet & windy for ringing but the timings of any wind or rain couldn’t agree. Weather charts for the coming week looked equally scary by way of wind, rain and glimpses of sunshine. 

Saturday might be the single opportunity for a week or more to get a little ringing underway. A phone conversation with Andy left us agreeing about the possible window on Saturday, a last minute decision and a hurried breakfast. 

When I sent a text at 0715 Andy replied that he was already on site so off I went into cold, cloudy skies but a zero wind and no rain. I quickly donned jacket, wellies and woolly hat and we set off across the thoroughly wet and puddled field to the depleted but still functioning seed plot and then the tree nets. 

Soon we were up and running with first birds in the nets of a new Robin and yet another un-ringed Chiffchaff. 

Chiffchaff

Linnets were quickly on the move east to west along the strip of seed plot, helped along the way by a singing Linnet below that served to entice some in for a feed. A zero on the wind scale changed quite quickly to 5, 10 and finally 15+, when trying to catch Linnet in a ballooning net became impossible. We had already lost out on four or more Linnets that jumped out as we approached. We packed in at 1030 following a reasonable catch and the help of slightly sheltered tree nets that escaped the worst of the now blustery and cold morning. 

There seemed to be good numbers of Linnets around (up to 130), with a couple of long-winged females handled being contenders for ‘Northern’ Linnets. It was a shame that on this occasion the wind beat us again when another hour or two would have doubled our score of Linnets. 

18 birds caught, all new. 8 Linnet, 3 Long-tailed Tit, 3 Greenfinch, 1 Great Tit, 1 Goldcrest, 1 Robin, 1 Chiffchaff. 

Long-tailed Tit

 

Linnet

Goldcrest

 

Greenfinch

The blustery weather definitely didn’t help our birding but in no particular order we had sightings of 800+ Starlings, 100+ Linnet, 30 Greenfinch, 12 Long-tailed Tit, 8 Redwing, a single Buzzard, a male Sparrowhawk, 450+ Curlew, 250 Lapwing, 4 Whooper Swan, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret, 1 Raven. 

Whooper Swans

 

Recent local sightings suggest a Snow Bunting winter may occur along our Lancashire coasts, a habitat with similarities to the species’ breeding areas. 

The Snow Bunting is an Arctic specialist, with a circumpolar Arctic breeding range throughout the northern hemisphere with small isolated populations on a few high mountain tops south of the Arctic region, including the Cairngorms of Scotland. 

This is another species that may have benefited from two seasons of lockdowns and reduced footfall and associated disturbance over its breeding spots, landscapes popular with summer walkers. 

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

It’s a year or two since my last photographical rather than flyover Snow Bunting. The one above hung about one spot along Pilling shore for a few weeks in early November 2013.