A Barny Start

It’s always good to begin the day with a Barn Owl although the light at dawn or soon after is mostly imperfect for photographs. I tried 400, 800 and then ended up with ISO1600 for a few shots as the owl used a fence post from which to launch itself into the rough grass below. The owl didn’t get much in the way of food and I didn’t get too much in the way of pictures, so we both went our separate ways. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

I made my way to Fluke Hall where things seemed quiet, so perhaps the overnight clear skies had sent Thursday's birds on their way? Slowly along the road I reached similar counts of the now apparently resident Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps. The Mistle Thrushes and Song Thrushes are still feeding young, and although I’ve narrowed down the possibilities, both nests remain secret. 

Song Thrush

At the car park were 2 Whitethroats in song and in the ploughed field 5+ Wheatears and 8 or more White Wagtails, both species feeding in and out of the deep furrows effectively so as to ruin any chance of accurate counts. A dozen or more Linnets plus a couple of both Meadow Pipits and Skylarks completed the picture. 

White Wagtail

I was ready for leaving when a Grasshopper Warbler began its reeling song from somewhere along the back of the hedgerow. The skulking and secretive Grasshopper Warbler is most infrequent here at Fluke Hall, but is in any case more likely to be glimpsed or heard in brief rather than seen in regular performance of its insect like song. Try as I might I didn’t see the “gropper”, it went silent and I suspect it slipped off unseen to try its luck at a more suitable location. 

Grasshopper Warbler - Photo credit: Sergey Pisarevskiy / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Things were fairly quiet at Conder Green too, to all intents and purposes the wader and wildfowl count identical to Thursday, with c200 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Oystercatcher, 2 Lapwing, 15 Redshank, 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Common Sandpiper, 20 Tufted Duck, 8 Shelduck and 2 Wigeon. Just like Thursday there was a single black-tail in the creek and another one closer to my usual  viewing spot.

 Tufted Ducks

Black-tailed Godwit

In the “little brown jobs” line I couldn’t do any better than 3 Whitethroat, 3 Sedge Warbler, 4 Reed Bunting, 6 Linnet and 2 Greenfinch. 

I’ve stopped counting Swallows because they now seem to be well and truly “in”, as usual arriving  under birders’ radar but to turn up knocking at most farmers’ barn doors. What a welcome sight after a truly awful winter.

There’s a pair or two already nest building under the lock gates at Glasson Dock, the birds resting up on the rusty old handrails while giving each other advice on how best to get the job done. There's no rush boys and girls, you’ve got all summer. 

Barn Swallow

The weather forecast for the weekend isn’t suggesting much in the way of balmy Summer days. 

Never mind, if it’s at all possible Another Bird Blog will be birding and report here in due course.

Linking this post to Camera Critters and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Early Doors And Late Gropper

We spotted a break in the wet weather for this morning so Will and I met up at 0600 hours for another crack at Out Rawcliffe. Maybe it was too much to hope for another big push of finches and Meadow Pipits and another “mega” catch as no two days are ever alike, but we didn’t do too badly. Our interesting and absorbing five hour session reached a total of 39 birds, 38 new and 1 recaptured Dunnock.

The 38 new birds were 19 Chaffinch, 9 Meadow Pipits, 4 Reed Bunting and 1 each of Dunnock, Blue Tit, Robin, Great Tit, Lesser Redpoll and Grasshopper Warbler. By 20th September it’s quite late to find skulking Grasshopper Warblers up here in the north west of the UK, as in most years “groppers” are not seen beyond mid-August. For readers not familiar with Grasshopper Warbler the name refers to their reeling, insect-like song and not any part of the species’ appearance.

Grasshopper Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler
Meadow Pipit

Unlike the past week the visible migration of most species during the 5 hours was down on the past week’s high numbers but still evident from north to south: Meadow Pipit 120, Chaffinch up to 170, Lesser Redpoll 40+, Siskin 10+. Our catch of 4 Reed Buntings indicates the beginning of their movement south, always apparent here during September but more so in October. The sight of two early morning Song Thrushes departing the planation and then heading strongly south may also herald the beginning of the thrush season.

Reed Bunting
Lesser Redpoll

More in evidence today were Skylarks, with upwards of 60 birds flying from east to west, particularly noticeable as a bank of cloud spread to the south about mid-morning. The fields on the moss are pretty wet by now, a fact which led to us seeing about 45 Snipe this morning as they were disturbed off their puddles and then flew off and around in various directions, at one point pushed off a wet patch by a wandering Roe Deer.

Snipe
Roe Deer

Other birds and “locals” seen this morning included 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Peregrine, 2 Kestrel, 5 Buzzard, 1 Tawny Owl, 2 Golden Plover, 60+ Goldfinch and 60+ Linnet.

At dawn we had seen a Wheatear perched on one of the hay bales after which it disappeared from view. It was only as we drove off site hours later that I saw it again some fifty yards away from our ringing station.

Wheatear

Worth The Wait

Three days of grotty weather finally gave way to a decent wind and rain free morning so Will and I met up on the moss at 6am for yet another bash at catching some migrant birds. In the dawn light Will spotted a Roe Deer not too far away from our net rides so we deliberately made a bit of noise as we put the nets up, not wanting a repeat of the last visit when a deer ran through a net.

We caught steadily from the off, five or six birds on each round until we finished at 11am with a final tally of 41 birds of 11 species, 36 new and 5 recaptures. New birds: 11 Chaffinch, 11 Linnet, 3 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Goldfinch, and then one each of Blackbird, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Chiffchaff, Tree Pipit and Grasshopper Warbler. Recaptures: 3 Whitethroat, 1 Blackbird and 1 Blackcap, all five of them ringed quite recently.

Although we have seen and heard the occasional Grasshopper Warbler here, today’s juvenile was the first “gropper” ringed at the site since we began work here in 2003.

Grasshopper Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler

We didn’t catch a single Blackcap here in April or May but since mid-June we have ringed 32 individuals, with one of today’s birds a fine, recently moulted, glossy headed, adult male.

Blackcap

Today's Chiffchaff made just 8 for the year, but we didn’t catch a Willow Warbler to add to the current total of 118 for that species here in 2011.

Chiffchaff

Today’s Tree Pipit was in the “finch net”, with the Grasshopper Warbler in the “pipit net”. We had at least two other Tree Pipits close to the nets without catching them, and in all a minimum of 6 birds “over” and heading south.

Tree Pipit

We targeted Chaffinch and Linnet today, Linnet because of the 200+ birds feeding in nearby fields, and Chaffinch because of their now growing numbers taking part in visible migration. In our five hour session we counted a minimum of 100 Chaffinch overhead and headed south, together with just a few Greenfinch. Today also proved to be the first signs of Meadow Pipit migration here, with just tiny groups and single birds on the move but those numbers added up to c35 birds arriving from the north or north east before they continued south. Now that "mipits" are on the move they will be added to target species for the next and subsequent visits.

Linnet

Other birds seen today: 3 Raven, 1 Peregrine, 1 Kestrel, 3 Buzzard, c150 Swallows, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Alba wagtail.