Morning Post

A calm clear night promised a morning of ringing without the nagging wind of recent weeks. But the temperature dropped so much overnight that when I switched on the wipers to clear the dew laden glass the blades were in a semi-frozen state and dragged slowly across the windscreen. Thirty minutes later at 0530 Ian and I had our nets up at Out Rawcliffe but with me still in a jacket and woolly hat, waiting for the sun to rise and warm the air.

Our catch was very similar to last week, with yet more adult Willow Warblers in stages of their full moult, a number of 3J Whitethroat and Goldfinch, but with the season now into July there was a further lack of juvenile Willow Warblers and no sign of any Sedge Warbler success.

We processed 24 birds, 15 new and 9 recaptures. New: 3 Whitethroat, 4 Goldfinch, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 1 Great Tit. Recaptures: 3 Whitethroat, 3 Goldfinch, 2 Sedge Warbler and 1 Great Tit. So, a good range of species but lacking any substance to the overall total for our 2 x 5 hour effort.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
Blackcap
Goldfinch - adult
Goldfinch - juvenile

The birding morning was similarly quiet with 2 Grey Heron, 2 Buzzard, a female Sparrowhawk, 4 Skylark, 2 Corn Bunting, 1 Mistle Thrush, 18 Goldfinch and several Tree Sparrow, with a single overhead Raven heading east again. A nearby field held a flock of post-breeding Lapwings with a minimum of 130 birds. A slight oddity of the morning came in the form of 3 Siskin high overhead but heading south.

Lapwing

My trips to the moss wouldn’t be complete without sighting of a Little Owl. Sometimes they are not in the expected spots and it may take a little extra looking to locate one, like today when I passed likely looking but vacant corners then spotted a familiar round blobby shape on a distant telegraph pole.

Little Owl

A Middling Morn

Will and I finally got to Out Rawcliffe for a spot of mist netting on a fine morning with just an early breath of wind that left the nets motionless in the cover of the planation. As expected for early to mid-June we didn’t get a mega catch, just 19 birds, with 13 new and 6 recaptures. New birds: 5 Great Tit, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Blackbird and 1 each of Goldfinch, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler and Willow Warbler. Recaptures were 4 Sedge Warbler, and 1 each of Great Tit and Willow Warbler.

We hoped we might catch several fresh juvenile (3J) warblers today, but it was not to be. The only juveniles caught were 3 Great Tit and 2 Blackbird so we must wait a few more days for an indication of breeding success as more youngsters appear.

Blackcap
”3J” Blackbird
”3J” Great Tit
Willow Warbler

By 1015 hours the ever present 2011 wind sprung up to 15-20mph again which caused us to take the nets down.

Other birds seen this morning, most from the well positioned coffee chairs on the sun-deck of the moss: A Raven flying inland and then later (if the same one) back out towards Pilling Moss; 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Jay, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Corn Bunting, 2 Skylark, 2 Buzzard, 2 Oystercatcher, 20+ Lapwing, 6 Goldfinch, 1 Yellowhammer, 12 Tree Sparrow, 4 Swift, 6 House Martin, 4 Mistle Thrush, 2 Stock Dove, 30+ House Sparrow. And not forgetting 25+ Brown Hares which entertained us as they rushed and chased around the nearby fields in groups 8 and 10 at times.

Driving home through Town End, Out Rawcliffe I heard roadside Chiffchaff, Sedge Warbler and Whitethroat and then stopped to snap a Great-spotted Woodpecker doing a Woody Woodpecker impression on a telegraph pole.

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Yes, it was just an average sort of morning but don’t we sometimes take even those too much for granted?

Brambling And Barm Cake

A busy couple of hours in Will’s Garstang garden gave us a catch of over 50 birds again, fifty-one in fact. 41 new birds were: 33 Siskin, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Great Tit, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Wren and 1 Brambling. Recaptures: 6 Siskin with 1 each of Tree Sparrow, Nuthatch, Great Tit and Wren – an interesting and worthwhile selection of species.

As normal the Siskins arrived early and noisily from the nearby roost, perhaps 125 individuals this morning, coming for a feed on the plentiful Niger. The 33 new ones trapped lifted our total of Siskin in the garden to 258 birds ringed this year, and we are fairly sure there are more to come, for a week or so at least. After our success here with Bramblings in December and January, the single juvenile male today was the first caught here since 16th February, and whilst there have been low numbers about, including 3 or 4 today, the one we caught may well be the last until autumn.

Brambling
Brambling
Siskin

So while the Siskins kept us busy, huge entertainment ensued for Will and Peter when the male Great-spotted Woodpecker gouged lumps from my finger and drew blood as I took a portrait of it; whoever said ringing birds was for softies? The recaptured Nuthatch was a male, probably the one that may stay to breed in the garden.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
Great-spotted Woodpecker
”peckered”
Nuthatch

Peter joined us today and enjoyed his encounter with lots of Siskins but found time to share in a compulsory Ringer’s Breakfast - bacon butties with tomato or HP.

Barm Cakes

For whatever reason, probably entirely accidental by mistakenly clicking incorrect buttons on their computers, this blog has a number of readers from the US who struggle somewhat with the strange colonial terminology occasionally found herein. So for their benefit I can translate the previous references to bacon butties as – “bacon sandwiches with ketchup or brown sauce”. The bread in question is often a barm cake as seen in the photograph.

“Barm cake is an unusual term with a surprising amount of meanings. In England, it is a term for a bread roll similar to a hamburger bun, often filled with French fries, sausage or more usually, crispy fried bacon. Barm cake has also come to use in slang, to refer to a stupid or idiotic person, as in “I’m such a barm cake when it comes to maths.” The slang use of barm cake is of uncertain origin, but likely is a reference to the blandness of the British roll. The simple plainness of barm cakes may relate to other British slang terms for stupidity, such as simpleton. In any case, this term is an excellent piece of obscure slang for those who enjoy insulting others in a way they likely will not understand”

Siskin

By 10am the scene quietened a little as the feasting Siskins moved on, so the breakfasting ringers packed their gear into the car boot for another day. "Don't you mean 'trunk'? you barm cake!”

Low Key

With a touch of south easterly breeze promised Will and I decided to ring at our somewhat sheltered, part woodland Lancaster site and save the anticipated session in his garden and the guaranteed Siskins of late for another, calmer day.

In contrast with our catch of Siskins on Wednesday, today’s was a slow session with just 18 birds caught, 11 new and 7 recaptures. New: 5 Chaffinch, 4 Blackbird, 1 Brambling and 1 Wren. Recaptures; 4 Blackbird and 1 each of Goldcrest, Dunnock and Chaffinch.

Brambling
Brambling

Most of today’s Blackbirds still carry a certain amount of fat with one large male tipping the scale at 130 grams, but two birds had zero fat scores. Bramblings remain in the area with 4 or 5 birds this morning, but low numbers also of Chaffinch. Other birds seen this morning: Sparrowhawk, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Bullfinch, Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit.

Long-tailed Tit
Great-spotted Woodpecker

Coming soon, Kingfishers and the promised nectar sippers – watch this space.

Mostly Finches

Will and I were back to his Garstang garden this morning in the hope of another catch of finches as we had on Tuesday. We knew that just a few days later, the turnover of birds using the garden is such that most, if not quite all of today’s birds would be different individuals.

It turned out that the overall numbers caught today were similar to those of four days ago, but in differing proportions. At 0815 it was obvious we would catch Siskins because as we put up our single 60 net across the far side of the garden, many were arriving for an early feed, with our first catch consisting of 9 Siskin and a Robin, with many other Siskins still calling from the overhead alders.

In our 4 hour session we caught 53 birds, 42 new plus 9 recaptures from our own previous ringing sessions here, and an additional 2 Siskins bearing unfamiliar ring numbers, i.e. ringed elsewhere by other ringers. The two Siskins involved are X343298 and T879956, both adult males, and I suspect ringed last winter, but not necessarily in the North West of the UK. Obviously these will be entered on IPMR and the details eventually come to light, but if there is a ringer out there who reads the blog and recognises these numbers, please let me know.

New birds: Siskin 18, Chaffinch 12, Brambling 1, Goldfinch 2, Great-spotted Woodpecker 1, House Sparrow 1, Coal Tit 1, Dunnock 2, Robin 2, Blackbird 2.

Recaptures: Chaffinch 4, Robin 2, Blackbird 2, Siskin 1.

Siskin – adult male “T879956”
Great-spotted Woodpecker
House Sparrow
Blackbird
Brambling – juvenile male
Brambling – juvenile male

The changeable nature of the recent weather (frost and fog today), coupled with the dynamic nature of finch flocks almost certainly accounts for the drop in numbers of feeding Brambling and Chaffinch from a few days ago, with this morning less than 10 Brambling and perhaps 120 Chaffinch, but a rise in the Siskin count to approximately 80 individuals.

A catch of four Robins today was notable and may represent the first signs of birds new to the locality prospecting for, or setting up garden territories. The 3 Blackbirds we caught continue to hold good fat reserves with weights of 105, 112 and 121 grams. An adult male Chaffinch with a wing length of 95mm was a recapture from 13th April 2010 but not in the intervening period, and it may be a larger continental bird.

Robin

Other birds seen from the garden this morning, a female Sparrowhawk, 60 Redwing, 4 Fieldfare, 8 Greenfinch, 4 Collared Dove. So it was very much another morning of finches, but who would ever grumble about that?

In The Beginning

After the excesses of the season I was ready to put 2010 behind me with a fresh air walk and my first birding of 2011, so set off from Nateby to cross Rawcliffe Moss. As I pulled out last year’s notebook I remembered that my pristine 2011 diary and notebook was back home in the “office” drawer, so I made a mental note that my car was to the north of the track, and not the usual spot a mile away to the south, just in case I forgot that too.

Away from the road and into the dark land-dip masses of Pink-footed Geese were coming into the fields to feed and although those on the ground were packed tight, the newcomers turned into the breeze, whiffled down, then found unclaimed spots in which to settle. I was 100 yards away; any closer and the wilder than wild geese would raise their heads as one, and then walk away before breaking into a short take–off and mass panicked flight. Even at that distance I could hear their chatter and murmurings, the volume so loud it was a sure sign of high numbers and several thousand birds. I carefully went on my way so as not to disturb them, a precise or even approximate count impossible unless the whole lot were to be disturbed for my benefit alone.

Pink-footed Geese
Pink-footed Geese

Perhaps attracted by the noise of the feeding geese, 4 Whooper Swans flew quickly over but veered off towards Pilling Moss where they would surely find wetter areas on which to feed. I jotted 3 overhead Lapwings in my notebook, a bird so scarce in recent weeks that even a handful of birds are noticeable. Towards the small copse of pines I found a single Mistle Thrush, and in the wood itself several Redwings mixed with 15 or so Fieldfares. Blackbirds were noticeable today, with not only paired up birds around the farm buildings that have early and secure nest sites, but better numbers than I have seen for a week or two. From my 2 hour walk I counted at least 35 individual Blackbirds and in various hedges and trees totted up 24 Redwings and 32 Fieldfare plus a circling Kestrel, and a rather distant Buzzard. Along the track a couple of Roe Deer heard me coming, one of them running off into the expanse of the moss as the other, a doe I think, watched me from a safe distance.

Roe Deer

I reached the fields and hedgerows where the small stuff hangs out and counted 8 Corn Bunting, 14 Reed Bunting, 7 Skylark, 8 Yellowhammer, 200+ Tree Sparrow, another Kestrel and 2 Grey Partridge, wild ones. It seems that in recent months a nearby farmer released a number of captive bred Grey Partridge, which explains my sighting of 18 birds around a Pheasant feeder weeks ago. At the time I didn’t enter those birds in my notebook, it just seemed a highly unlikely sighting until I could quiz the gamekeepers on the likely origin of the partridge. Not quite as unlikely was sight of 2 Little Owls and 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers, all in clearly separated locations, but even at the beginning of the year worth noting territories.

Little Owl
Great-spotted Woodpecker

It was a highly enjoyable couple hours blowing away the Christmas cobwebs. Another year of birding was only just beginning.

He Who Dares

With ringing in mind it was a marginal, less than perfect weather forecast last night, a chance of rain and 10mph easterlies. Will persuaded me that we should go to Rawcliffe Moss and not for the first time, ignore the BBC’s prediction with their tendency to over-egg the pudding.

As I opened my back door the morning was dark with obvious cloud overhead and signs of recent rain but it stayed dry until I parked up on the moss when a few spits of rain hit the windscreen. As Will arrived the rain quickened a little and we debated the pros and cons of continuing with the possibility of erecting nets only to take them down almost immediately if rain proper started. Even as we put the first few nets up the spots of rain eased off, the Tawny Owl flew off ahead of us calling loudly as above us in the still black sky, Redwings and Fieldfares were on the move.

The rain stayed away and we experienced a very successful morning in catching 48 birds of 11 species, 46 new and 2 recaptures, with northern thrushes and Reed Buntings dominating the catch.

New birds: 12 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing, 1 Blackbird, 19 Reed Bunting, 9 Chaffinch, 1 Brambling, 1 Starling, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker. Recaptures: 1 each of Wren and Robin.

Brambling
Brambling
Great-spotted Woodpecker
Redwing
Fieldfare
Reed Bunting

Once again we experienced a good catch of Reed Buntings with juvenile birds of the year outnumbering adults 17 to 2; We missed at least three Reed Buntings that escaped from the nets before we could reach them, and in total we think that up to 80 or 90 Reed Buntings must have moved through or over the site during the 5 hours we were there. In a similar manner 3 Blackbirds escaped whilst we took early morning Fieldfares from the nets, and there is no doubt that there were more Blackbirds about this morning than on recent visits. In total we counted approximately 275 Fieldfares overhead, but less than 50 Redwing, observations in line with sightings elsewhere that point to this being a Fieldfare rather than a Redwing autumn.

The finch movement was very pronounced this morning with many audible Bramblings amongst the Chaffinch, especially later in the morning. Our overhead/passing through counts came to 200 Chaffinch, 30 Brambling, 2 Greenfinch, 13 Siskin and 6 Goldfinch.

Other birds seen this morning included 8 Snipe, 1 Kestrel, 60 Skylark and several thousand Pink-footed Geese flying overhead from the Pilling direction and heading inland toward the St Michaels area.

Out Of The Rain

The rain woke me up last night when it hammered on the bedroom window. It relented a while before starting up all over again just as I got out of bed and full of optimism that the day would brighten. It didn’t, so I walked up to Top Shop for a newspaper then back down the hill in the rain before I settled down in the conservatory to read for a few hours.

There were Fieldfares and Redwings again this morning, a mixed flock of 60/80 over the house early on, some Fieldfares settling in the top of next door's sycamore, others flying away but vocal all the time, as Fieldfares tend to be. I watched the garden where windfall apples lay in the mess of autumn leaves, but the thrushes aren’t ready for apples yet, not while there are so many berries about.

I found a stranger in the garden though in a Hedgehog - European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), an animal that often leaves evidence of its nocturnal feeding under the bird table, and occasionally shows itself. Hedgehogs are one of the first mammals, having changed little in 15 million years, and whilst they are found in Europe, Asia, Africa and New Zealand, there are none in Australia or North America.

European Hedgehog
Fieldfare

By lunchtime I strained at the leash and although it still showered and remained grey overhead I took myself off to Rawcliffe Moss to check out our ringing site just in case of a session for Sunday.

Because the rain still spotted my windscreen I decided to check out the barn where the Little Owl sometimes resides, on the premise that the owl might use the structure as somewhere to keep dry. It was there on the metal beam, huddled against the wall of the barn, a bit far off but I gained a record shot with a somewhat tricky exposure for the distance, the grey day and a partly enclosed building. There were 3 Pied Wagtails around the barn, alternately feeding in the puddles or on the recently harvested field. Also here, 2 local Jays flew over heading for the nearby tree line.

Little Owl

From ahead of my car 5 Grey Partridge scurried off into a field then merged into the stubbly, stony earth, too far for a photo or for the naked eye.

Next were Fieldfares and Redwings again with a couple of large parties that at the merest hint of danger or disturbance flew back and forth between a berry-laden hedgerows and the safety of the tallest trees in the nearest wood - these huge flocks of migrant thrushes are so skittish at the moment. Nevertheless I counted approximately 300 Fieldfare and 40 Redwing following the pattern of this week of the larger thrush showing in better numbers.

Along the track were 45 Tree Sparrow, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Reed Bunting, 3 Blackbird and 6 Chaffinch, and beyond the hedge in the very wet field, 400 Starlings.

Tree Sparrow
Great-spotted Woodpecker

I walked the top field and the 97 hedge, quiet except for the Tree Sparrows and Reed Buntings I had disturbed from the other track, but 8 Skylark, a patrolling Kestrel and a more distant Buzzard gave me a few lines in my slightly soggy notebook.

Trying

I finally got to grips with the shy Great-spotted Woodpecker that visits the garden when it thinks I'm not looking, but I couldn’t get a full pose away from the peanuts. I will just have to try again.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
As it rained this morning I spent a while reinstalling a slide show for the RH column of the blog after the previous one broke for no apparent reason. I hope readers new and old like the new version; all the pictures at higher resolution can be found somewhere on previous posts.

The rain fell most of the morning and then kept showering as I ate a sandwich while looking hopefully west through the conservatory windows for a hint of brighter stuff. Then after lunch I risked the continuing showers for a walk along Pilling shore where I received a little soaking but at least I got out for a while, but with not much to report I’m afraid.

At Lane Ends the Tufted Duck recently bred successfully and today the female looked after three young while the young Greylags are now as big as their parents.

Greylag
Tufted Duck
I heard the Blackcap singing again plus two Reed Warblers today, one alongside the road and the other below the car park, and whilst Reed Warblers are able to breed in just small patches of phragmites reed, I’m afraid the unmanaged woodland is about to engulf the few patches of reed left. Little Grebes were around because I heard their trill but there are so many hiding places I rarely see them.

I walked towards Fluke hall to the sound of two singing Skylarks and the displaying, singing Meadow Pit I saw a few days ago, the one that carries a BTO ring.

Skylark
I sat on the wet stile at Pilling Water and surveyed the shore and inland towards Pilling village. Three Common Sandpipers hugged the outlet ditch together with a couple of Redshank, a still brightly coloured single Black-tailed Godwit and a couple of Oystercatchers. There are still a number of Pied Wagtails on the marsh, today I counted just six, plus the comings and goings of several Linnet, and just below me two Greenfinch.

Linnet
I watched as an overflying micro light put to flight the waders further out on the marsh, 130 Curlew and 60 Lapwings. As this happened I think an opportunistic Kestrel took advantage of the disturbance and confusion to snatch a small Redshank chick from underneath the noses of the parents, and the falcon flew past me and over the wildfowler’s pools out of sight with its dangling prey. Hirundines and Swift numbers were more normal today with about 60 Swallows, 20+ House Martins and 25 Swift feeding over the marsh, sea wall, and about Pilling Water itself.

Kestrel
My mammal highlight today was a brief sighting of a Stoat closely pursued by a youngster, a “kit”. My views were very brief as the animal stood up momentarily to look at me then ran off, still followed by the youngster and I had no chance of a picture. Trying to watch wildlife can be very frustrating sometimes, trying to photograph it even more so.

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