Out And About

Blackbirds took every single cherry in garden and didn’t bother waiting until the fruit was red ripe. And then they came back for the next tree along, the rowan berries just turning from green to orange, nowhere near the final glossy red that completes a winter landscape. 

Blackbird

Thursday evening was warm and sunny in our sheltered back garden. I watched a male Blackbird drop down from the rowan tree into a dried up patch below where thirsty berry trees had made for a  dusty piece of ground. 

The Blackbird spread its wings and tail, opened its bill and settled down into the dusty ground and began to sunbathe and perhaps to also “ant”. I have seen this behaviour on a number of occasions from different species of birds and this time managed to both observe and to photograph the activity. 

Blackbird

Blackbird

Blackbird

Birds in various climates all around the world indulge in sunning. This can be anything from simply standing with their backs to the sun, with feathers rustled up to expose the skin below, to a full sunbathing posture with wings and tail feathers spread out to maximize the area open to the sun. Obviously, in many cases the birds get warmth from the sun, which reduces the amount of metabolic energy they have to expend in order to maintain a constant body temperature of around 40 degrees C. However, some birds sunbathe in spots which can be quite hot. In such circumstances, sunbathing appears to leave them over-heated as they can be seen panting. 

From Wiki - “Anting is a maintenance behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin. The bird may pick up the insects in its bill and rub them on the body (active anting), or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements (passive anting). The insects secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid, which can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, or bactericide. Alternatively, anting could make the insects edible by removing the distasteful acid, or, possibly supplement the bird's own preen oil. Instead of ants, birds can also use millipedes. More than 200 species of bird are known to ant " .

This week has been quite windy with no chance of a ringing session. During Thursday a quick runaround a local patch resulted in a few expected birds and a Green Sandpiper.  Green Sandpiper is a shy species, one of the earlier returning migrant waders and can be seen in a variety of muddy margined places like ditches, farm middens and similarly secluded locations.  For these early returnees from north and east it is autumn, even though for us in England it is still summer.

 

Green Sandpiper

 

The same stream held 3 Little Egrets, a Grey Heron and 2 Redshanks. 

Little Egret

 

The waterside margins seemed quiet except for a couple of Sedge Warblers and a single Reed Bunting both of which have been in their same spots for weeks now without any sign of having youngsters out of nests. Not so the pair of Moorhens with 5 youngsters in tow and probably their second brood by now mid-July. 

Moorhens

Reed Bunting

Sedge Warbler

 

I recently heard that the dry spring and lack of moisture of 2023 has not been good for egg production or breeding success of both Barn Owls and Kestrels. Whether this is the same for other bird species we do not know: it is a subject for research probably beyond the average birder, me included. My own observations at least are that local Swallows have had a better year, and not before time. There was a single youngster on a gate, waiting for a parent to arrive with food. 

Swallow

 

I called at our Sand Martin colony to see 100+ Sand Martins still around, despite the quarry face suffering from a degree of natural erosion, a combination of the Sand Martins’ own constant toing & froing combined with the vagaries of weather. The gulley left of centre formed by water run-off from above is a concern for the remainder of this year and next year when the martins return from their winter in Africa.  Imagine having to move home every 12 months! 

Sand Martin colony

Sand Martin

 

Friday morning. Rain arrived bang on the XC Weather forecast of 1000. The decision to leave the Sand Martins for another day was the correct one. 

Join Another Bird Blog soon to find out what happened next. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Anniversary Blog.

Mink Encounter

With a dry sunny morning but a 20mph stiff northerly there was no chance of a ringing session at our exposed ringing sites. 

I set off for the usual birding spots with the car heater turned to ‘max’ and four layers on top. Summer had turned to autumn with a vengeance. 

Braides was first stop where an unplanned pool appeared during summer rains after the farmer’s levelling went awry. Fifty-five Curlews were dotted around the margins of long grass with a couple of Swallows hawking for early insects. Along the track in the distance I saw 3 Little Egrets and a single Grey Heron. 

Curlew

 

I pulled in at the lay by at Conder Green and almost immediately heard Green Sandpipers – in the plural. In fact there were four together in the creek and not the more usual, a single one on the pool margins or a dark, almost black, white-rumped bird flying fast and furious. The morning was already becoming a reprise of a visit here 9 days ago when I saw two, possibly three ‘green sands’. 

The sandpipers were very skittish, a trade mark behaviour of the species. Within a minute or two they had flown noisily around the creek out of sight. They took a feeding Common Sandpiper along too.  

Green Sandpiper

I stood quietly at the viewing screen hoping that something would come close. A Kingfisher flew up to the top of the marker post, now a favourite spot with water of the preferred depth for fishing. It didn’t linger more than a minute when something spooked the 150+ Lapwings dotted around the islands.  In turn the Lapwings spooked the Kingfisher.

Lapwing

 

Kingfisher

The early hour saw many hirundines feeding in the shelter of the hawthorns; approximately 120 Sand Martin, 30 Swallow and 15 House Martins. Pied Wagtails fed on the early insects too with 20/30 dotted around but highly mobile. 

Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a sizeable animal moving around the base of the platform and below the screen. First thoughts were of the most likely, a rat or a ferret but as the animal turned, stopped and stared up at motionless me I realised it was a mink, just a yard or two from my feet. Damn, it was too close for a picture from a 600 lens so I borrowed a pic from Wiki. 

Mink - Wiki

The animal slipped away into the hedgerow that borders the site and I didn’t see it again. I’d never been so close to a mink before but saw now that they are of a similar size to a ferret or polecat. Smaller than an otter and of an overall nondescript brown colour except for a softer, paler face. 

After that encounter everything seemed an anti-climax, but for the record books; 2 Little Egret, 15 Redshank, 12 Curlew, 8 Tufted Duck, 6 Little Grebe. 

Two weeks of bad weather has meant no ringing, but there’s a session pencilled in for Monday at Oakenclough.  Log in Monday evening to see Another Bird Blog’s next encounter.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni in Texas.

 

Green For Go

Wednesday morning - “The Met Office has issued an 18-hour warning for strong winds in Somerset as Storm Ellen batters Britain and the West Country. The storm contains the remnants of Tropical Storm Kyle and will bring gales as it hits Ireland, before striking the rest of the UK all week.” 

With that gloomy forecast in mind I set off for a spot of birding and maybe even a ringing session if the wind held off long enough. 

I was an early bird at Conder Green where the sun shone and the threatened storm seemed far away. The shy and wary Green Sandpiper is one of those species we often hear before we see. Their unmistakable, sharp, high pitched crazy calls alert us to their presence, like someone stepped on their toes and made them fly off cursing. Often, all you see is their pure white rump disappearing into the distance. Listen to their call to hear the wildness within.

          

I saw at least two ‘green sands' but thought there may have been three because one flew off calling loudly towards the creek and didn’t return. 

Green Sandpiper

In total contrast the Common Sandpiper can be quite amenable, just bobbing along the water margins without a care in the world. I saw two Common Sandpipers. In these parts it is most unusual to see more Greens than Commons in a morning’s birding. On the other hand the Common Sandpiper is an early migrant both coming and going with the peak of their autumn migration in early July whereas the Green Sandpiper is later by two or three weeks. 

Common Sandpiper

Early doors saw the Lapwing roost on and around the islands as 150 plus departed noisily for the River Lune at some unknown prompt. In the creeks were 3 Greenshank together and just singles of both Curlew and Redshank. 

Lapwing 

Teal are back in small numbers with 25 in the roadside creek as a Kingfisher flew through. The Kingfisher, or another, was on the pool soon after where it used the level marker from which to hunt the shallows below. Apologies for the long-distance shot; 600mm is as near as the Kingfisher comes when water levels remains low, even after the voluminous rains of June, July and now August. 

Kingfisher 

Little Grebes numbered eight with Tufted Duck the same. Two Stock Dove and 8 to 10 Pied Wagtail fed around the pool margins. One Grey Heron and one Little Egret completed an hour or so of looking before I headed for Cockerham and Sand Villa. 

By now 1000 the breeze was too stiff for a net through the seed plot. I birded for a while. Fifty or more Linnets along the sea wall joined with a gang of Swallows to mob a passing Sparrowhawk while in the copse a Willow Warbler, 3 Greenfinch and 4 Goldfinch. Richard’s midden with its puddles, rotting vegetation and hive of insects is popular with Pied Wagtails. 

At least ten wagtails around today but no sign of the recent Corn Bunting or the Grey Wagtail of late. 

Pied Wagtail

On dear. Looks like I won't be going anywhere on Thursday. Or Friday.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

A Saturday Sandpiper

At last, the dogged Jet Stream that brought three weeks of wind and rain has finally moved north and left things looking more settled. 

Saturday morning was indeed a “cracker” for birding or ringing with a clear sky, little wind, and no rain in the forecast.  I was up and about early so after a piece of toast and a mug of Tetley Tea I drove to Gulf Lane, Cockerham for a crack at the Linnets as part of Project Linnet 2019/2020. 

Cockerham Dawn

In the week there had been 60/80 Linnets and several Tree Sparrows feeding in the field of seed crop but it had been far too wet and windy for other than a count. 

Soon after first light and 0630 heading through the crop I noted how 50/60 Linnets were already in there. Either they had roosted in the thick cover so as to get an early breakfast or they had roosted very close-by, perhaps in the thick bramble that lines the adjacent ditch. 

By 0830 the flock had grown to between 160/185 birds, 99% of them Linnets with one or two Goldfinch and Tree Sparrows. This is a good number for so early in the autumn. 

It was a reasonable catch of 11 birds, 10 Linnets and a single Goldfinch. Of the Linnets, eight were male and two female. The Goldfinch could not be sexed as it was clearly a youngster from a second brood of July or August rather than a spring chicken. 

All eleven birds proved to be juveniles/birds of the year - Aged “3” in ringers’ data code. 

Field Sheet 

Linnet - first year male 

Goldfinch - juvenile/first year 

Linnet - first year/juvenile male

Linnet - first year/juvenile female 

It was about 0830 when without warning, a Green Sandpiper flew calling from the adjacent ditch that lines the western edge of the plot. The sandpiper flew off over the farm and I didn’t see it again. This was an unexpected interlude and a “first” for the site. Every record is helpful in proving the worth of this plot and its value as a feeding place for what may prove to be a surprising number and range of species. 

Green Sandpiper 

Other species noted this morning – 6 Tree Sparrow, 4 Stock Dove, 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Reed Bunting. 

A reminder from the BTO as to why we are continuing with the Linnet project, now in its fourth winter. 

“A Red-listed bird of mainly farmland, the Linnets’ abundance fell rapidly in the UK in the late 1960s, and again between the mid 1970s and mid 1980s, but this decrease has been followed by a long period of relative stability. Numbers have fallen further since the start of Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) in 1994. The BBS map of change in relative density between 1994-96 and 2007-09 indicates that in both Britain and Northern Ireland there has been decrease in eastern regions and increase in the west. There has been widespread moderate decline across Europe since 1980.” 

Linnet 1966 - 2017 Courtesy BTO

And while we are on the subject of farmland, there's an interesting and revealing article here about the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy of which Britain is a part. Hopefully for not much longer - The CAP doesn't fit.

Back soon with more news, views and pictures if the weather holds.

Linking this post to Anni, who's birding in Texas.

West Is Best

I was back home at 10am after rained off after just a couple of hours of birding. Despite the curtailed session I managed to clock up a couple of “goodies” but nothing to compete with the Siberian Accentor that turned up on the east coast and where several hundred, possibly thousands of birders and others are expected to flock this weekend ("2000 viewers filed past on 13thOctober"). 

A week or so ago when we when catching Linnets a shooter mentioned that he’d seen a Great White Egret out on the marsh. A day or so later I’d seen almost 30 Little Egrets on the marsh just out from the plantation where many egrets spend the night hours. I guess it was those two bits of information in my head this morning that made me turn off the road in the half-light of dawn to check out just how many egrets are currently using the site. 

The egrets were beginning to wake up. Their barking calls rang out from the trees and I’d counted 70+ scattered across the treetops when a whole gang of them erupted into flight. There was a big one amongst the Little Egrets, a Great White Egret which circled a little before heading along the sea wall towards Cockerham. A great-white is half as big again as a Little Egret with a bill shape that resembles a dagger rather than the stiletto of a Little Egret. For such a large and apparently conspicuous bird a great-white has the ability to “disappear” from prying eyes: I suspect that this particular one spends its days in the deep, tide-washed creeks of Pilling and Cockerham marsh. 

Great White Egret by cuatrok77 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I stopped off at the set-aside plot where I added a little ground feed of millet and Niger to the natural seeds on offer in the expectation that a few Twite and more Tree Sparrows will join Linnets in the daily feast. A flock of 50+ Linnets were around the area together with a number of Tree Sparrows in the bushes near the farm. 

Linnet

Twite

The grey morning and 100% cloud cover didn’t bode well for visible migration so I wasn’t surprised to see little in the way of recent arrivals at Conder Green. A rather noisy Chiffchaff, several “pinking” Chaffinches and a dozen or so Blackbirds proved the best from both here and following a look in Glasson churchyard. 

On the pool and in the creeks – 110 Lapwings, 55 Teal, 15 Redshank, 11 Little Grebe, 6 Snipe, 4 Wigeon, 2 Shelduck, 2 Little Egret and 1 Green Sandpiper. The Green Sandpiper spent all of its time searching for food through the rocks, pebbles and vegetation an island some 70/90 yards away. Best I could do below. It's there - honest!

Green Sandpiper

Apologies for the somewhat short post today but I’ll try harder next time on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's blog.

Green Theme Birding

The last week has seemed autumnal rather than mid-July. There’s been wind, rain and then more rain and I’ve done little in the way of birding or blogging. Finally on Wednesday the skies improved and I set off birding into something of a green theme. 

The weather may feel like autumn, but many waders that breed around the Arctic Circle like Dunlin, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank are already flying south towards their winter quarters in Africa. It seems just a few weeks ago that these same birds were flying north to grab the brief Arctic summer which provides 24 hours of daylight and an abundance of food. There’s enough time to raise a family and then off they go to Africa. 

I was reminded of all this when the first bird I heard at Conder Green this morning was a Greenshank, probably fresh in from the Arctic or maybe even the wilds of the Scottish Highlands where a number of Greenshank breed. For anyone who has never read the book, I recommend “Greenshanks” by Desmond and Mamie Nethersole - Thompson, a classic Poyser book that relates the couple’s lifelong work studying Greenshanks in Scotland. 

Greenshank

 

"Greenshanks"

When disturbed by a gang of squabbling Redshanks the Greenshank flew off towards the railway bridge and the wider creeks that open out into the River Lune. Redshanks numbered 40+ and already an incoming tide pushed them off the creeks and over towards Conder Pool. 

Conder Green - Lancashire

The Redshanks joined the many Lapwings, 130+, scattered loosely around the islands and pool margins. With their dark green colouration Lapwings can be surprisingly difficult to pick out when they roost with head tucked in, motionless in a green landscape. Many of the Lapwings are birds of the year like the one below with a tiny tuft of a crown and flight feathers edged with the buff colours of a juvenile. I counted the Lapwings when a Sparrowhawk flew low along the hedgerow, turned a sharp right through the roosting waders and scattered them in all directions. 

Lapwing

Meanwhile while the ever vigilant pair of Avocets flew directly at the intruder, twisting and turning so as to have more than one go at seeing it off in defence of their single half-grown chick. Within what seemed just seconds of the Sparrowhawk departing in the direction of Glasson, everything returned to normal. Having missed the action two adult Common Terns returned with food from an expeditions out to the Lune or Glasson Dock. Although still being fed their two chicks appear to be of sufficient size to fend for themselves. 

I returned to studying the landscape where I spotted a Green Sandpiper bobbing along the far side of the pool, a tiny wader when compared to an adjacent Lapwing. 

Green Sandpiper - Ferran Pestaña from Barcelona [CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons]

The Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus is a small wader of the Old World. The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the Green Sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. It’s a bird of the coniferous forest belt or taiga of the high Northern Hemisphere. Quite remarkably it usually lays its eggs in old nests such as those of Fieldfare, Redwing and Woodpigeon, as well as in disused squirrel dreys.  On migration in Europe Green Sandpipers avoid strictly coastal waters and are almost always found on wetland habitats, very often tiny ponds or streams.

Also on the pool/creeks – 20 Oystercatcher, 5 Common Sandpiper, 4 Tufted Duck, 3 Wigeon, 1 Teal, 4 Pied Wagtail, 1 Goosander, 2 Little Egret, 15 Swallow, 3 Sand Martin, 15 House Martin. No Swifts today. 

Along the roadside hedgerow I counted 6 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and two family parties of Greenfinch numbering 8+ birds. Now there’s a novelty, to see the once abundant Greenfinch. 

Greenfinch

Reed Bunting

 
I note that despite the best efforts of the the cafe owners to deter House Martins making nests under the eaves of the building at the Conder bridge, the martins persevered and constructed nests anyway. The nests are at the front of the building where walkers and cyclists congregate and where they might be perceived as more troublesome to the owners than had they simply left the birds alone in the first place at the side elevation. Birds are both determined and persistent in their urge to breed, something of which these people have no understanding. 

House Martin

Now, local birders, let’s keep or eyes and ears open and make sure the nests remain where they are. To interfere with the nesting martins as they build nests and sit on eggs would be to break the Wildlife and Countryside Act.  Perpetrators should be reported to the authorities.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog and  Run A Round Ranch .

Green With Envy

A wholly frustrating couple of hours at Lane Ends today when birds wouldn’t come close and there didn’t seem to be much happening anyway in the grey and overcast light. 

Masses of Pink-footed Geese out on the marsh - several thousand at least, possibly into five figures now. Little Egret numbered 9, with just 2 Grey Heron, one on the marsh and one along Broadfleet. Skylarks were much in evidence again, and I totalled up 60+ on the marsh and around the Hi-Fly fields, the birds at one time scattering at the appearance of the local Kestrel. Just a single Meadow Pipit seen/heard!

Skylark

The incoming tide brought a number of waders off the marsh, most noticeably a pack of 21 Black-tailed Godwit, 35 Golden Plover and 20+ Snipe. 

Snipe

The Teal weren’t for moving much from the tideline today, my count of 250+ from the wildfowler’s pools only. Also on the wildfowler’s pools, three Green Sandpipers, two departing the moment I set foot over the stile on the sea wall, the third as I explored the flooded ditches. No chance of photographs of the Green Sandpipers, a species frustratingly difficult to approach in the field, always seeing and avoiding a birder either before or just as binoculars are raised. It’s my most frequent encounter, a series of frantic, liquid calls and the rapidly disappearing white rump of an apparently black bird. 

I am indebted to Sergey Pisarevskiy for the superb photograph of a Green Sandpiper which shows the true colours of this beautiful bird. Oh to get a photograph of a “green sand” even approaching the quality of this one. 

Green Sandpiper - Photo credit: Sergey Pisarevskiy / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

For anyone who doesn’t know the call, turn up the volume on the PC and click on the xeno canto button to hear a Green Sandpiper flying away from a bird watcher.


From Birdlife International "Green Sandpipers have an extremely large range across Europe and Asia, the global population estimated to number c.1,200,000-3,600,000 individuals (Wetlands International, 2006). In the UK the species is a common passage migrant in spring, but more so in autumn".

Range of Green Sandpiper

"Green Sandpipers are wholly migratory and move overland on a broad front with European populations making well-documented stop-overs in Saharan oases. Southward movements to the wintering grounds occur between June and early November, with the species present in the north and equatorial tropics from late-August to early-April, and in southern Africa from October to March.

The return passage to northern breeding grounds occurs between late-February and mid-May. In mild winters the Green Sandpiper is a fairly common sight in the UK, and some birds may also remain in the breeding grounds of southern Scandinavia. The species generally occurs in low concentrations during passage and at stop-over sites, although it may occur in small scattered groups of up to 30 individuals.

During the breeding season this species inhabits damp areas in swampy, old pine, spruce or alder woodland and montane forest with many fallen and rotten tree stumps, marshy forest floors and heavy carpets of lichens and mosses, generally in the vicinity of rivers, streams, swamps, ponds, lakes and bogs.

Outside of the breeding season Green Sandpipers show a preference for a wider variety of inland freshwater habitats such as marshes, lake edges, sewage farms, small dams and ponds, ditches, riverbanks and forest streams. It is also found in intertidal areas such as creeks and the channels of saltmarshes This species is unusual for a wader by frequently nesting high in trees in the abandoned nests of passerine species such as Woodpigeon, thrushes, crows, jays and shrikes, but may also nest in squirrel dreys or on natural platforms up to 20 m high."

More soon from Another Bird Blog. In the meantime I'm linking to Stewart's Gallery of birds .