It’s All Going To Pot

Yes, It’s been over a week since a post from me with nothing of note to share since the last outing produced over fifty birds ringed but very little since. It seems that just lately our ringing has "gone to pot”. 

Visits to the ringing site/supplementary feeding spot between bouts of rain and wind produced small numbers and tiny catches of the usual suspects of Chaffinch, Reed Bunting and Blackbirds. 

 

Blackbird

Reed Bunting

Chaffinch

Regular sightings of both Sparrowhawk, Buzzard and once or twice a ring-tail Hen Harrier suggested that they at least were having some luck in catching birds. Nonetheless I stuck to the feeding regime and hoped as ever that bird numbers would improve. 

Sue and I motored up Glasson Way on a couple of occasions where after the secret bacon butty shop brunch (2 barms and 2 teas for £9.50), I took a peek at Conder Green. 

Bacon Barm

 

For a week or two and depending upon the state of the tide in or out of the creeks, there’s been a wintering Ruff, one or two wintering Greenshank, the ever present but always numerous Redshank and tidal Little Grebes. 

Greenshank

Ruff

Distant across the far side of the pool were two Stonechats a species that is not common here but one that will now appear with more regularity as an early spring migrant. 

Again ,and depending upon the tides were anything from 50 to 200 Teal plus the expected build up of noisy assertive Greylags looking to start their breeding season. Last Wednesday morning I counted upwards of 100 Greylags but where only three or four pairs are likely to eventually breed here. 

Teal

Greylags

It’s at this time of year that numbers of Canada Geese appear and I was not pleased to see more than 50 of this species, a bird more problematical than Greylag. 

Canada Goose

The main issue that many people experience with Canada Geese is the sheer amount of noise that a group of them will make  This problem has grown increasingly serious as time goes on since there are few natural predators of the Canada Goose in the UK. This has allowed their population to grow unchecked, and develop from as little as 2200 in 1953 to more than 100,000 by the millennium. Not only are the geese noisy, but they can also be highly territorial, especially when guarding their goslings. It is far from rare for members of the public to be attacked by Canada Geese in parks and along riverbanks. 

Just today I was chatting to a wildfowler who told me that while a Greylag for the pot makes a pretty good meal, a within range Canada Goose is not worth wasting a pot-shot as the meat is not nearly so good as a Greylag. We had an interesting conversation about his gun, an old 1878 model that he likes to use  sometimes together with his hand made powder and bismuth cartridges.

Lets finish with music from Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. Two old dudes laying down a track better than any modern day 20 something’s can via a song title that sums up the world of today. This folks, is what talent looks like.  They don't make them like this anymore. RIP Merle.

 

Enjoy the song. Back soon with Another Bird Blog.

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

Catch Up

Birding and ringing took a back seat this week as school holidays and grandparent priorities came first. Thursday was the first available morning for me so I drove to Conder Green for a catch up before the main task of the day, Gulf Lane. 

The water margins are quite good for waders at the moment during what is peak migration time.  There’s good numbers of Greenshank Redshank and Lapwings. I counted 12 Greenshank, 230 Redshank, 140 Lapwing, plus 6 Common Sandpipers and a handful of Curlews. 

A pair of Avocets now has 4 large youngsters close to full size. 

Greenshank 

Greenshank 

Redshank 

Juvenile Avocet 

It’s been a troublesome season on the single nesting platform when Oystercatcher, Common Tern and Black-headed Gull all tried to nest in close proximity. The winners appear to be the Black-headed Gulls closely followed by the Common Terns but the Oystercatchers lost out completely and raised not a single youngster. Meanwhile the 6 Common Terns also used the natural island and today I counted 4 adults and at least 2 fledged but now flying juveniles  

At Gulf Lane our Linnet Project is about to enter the fourth winter. Unfortunately Andy could not join me for a spot of hard work cutting a ride through the vegetation as he too was on Granddad duty. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. 

In recent weeks I paid a few visits and noted how groups of four to eight Linnets built to a small flock of 25+ on 4th August. Many of the plants are already dropping seed for the Linnets. 

Game Cover and Bird Seed Plot 

Fodder 

With luck the flock should build to 200/500 Linnets that will remain here throughout the winter months. We start the season with 577 Linnet captures and a number of phenomenal records from Scotland and the Northern Isles which prove that the Linnets here travel many miles to winter in this part of Lancashire. 

I recently contacted Oliver Seeds, the suppliers of the seed mix employed in the field. The mix is named WBS1 – “a winter hardy annual wild bird seed designed to provides cover and feed for small birds, mammals and game throughout the year. It is recommended for those parts of the UK where more frost hardy species are required. It provides shelter in “open” cover and deposits seed through the late Autumn and Winter period.” 

The constituent parts of WBS1 are: 

30% Spring Triticale

 25% Spring Wheat 

25% Spring Barley

 8% Linseed

 4% White Mustard 

4% Forage Rape 

3% Phacelia 

1% Fodder Radish 

I cut a ride through the 5ft high lush growth and then tested the length and width with a single net in readiness for the first ringing session. This shouldn’t be too far away once the Linnets increase their numbers and form a tighter flock. 

While taking a breather, a single Linnet found its way into the net and opened the account for winter 2019/20. A good omen for the weeks and months ahead I hope 

Linnet - Number One 2019/20 

Male Linnet - Number One 2019/20

There’s a poor weather forecast for the days ahead but stay tuned, there will be news and views of some sort. 

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Viewing Nature With Eileen.

The Friday Feeling

Thinking that Friday morning might be OK for birding wasn't a great decision. The broken rainbow that fell from black clouds above made a pretty good pointer to the never ending showers that followed. It was windy too, much more than the Granada forecast and the whole morning felt like September had well and truly arrived. 

A Cockerham rainbow 

It was two weeks since I last visited Conder Green (25th August) so I headed there first. I'm not sure where the wagtails had roosted overnight but the first stop for many of them was Conder Pool where I counted a remarkable 80+ Pied Wagtails and 2 Grey Wagtails along the far bank. The wagtails were so far away that I'm pretty sure more were hidden out of sight over the bank and behind the pool. 

This last week saw a push of Swallows headed south and it was noticeable today how few were around with 70+ feeding over and around the early morning hedgerow the best count by far. Otherwise there were just twos and threes along the lanes towards Cockersands where last broods are still about the farms buildings. 

Swallow 

The grassy margins of Conder held large numbers of Lapwings, so numerous and so mobile that a count is of 450+ is but an estimate. Once or twice the loose flock erupted into a cloud of flight as if all of those present received the same message of danger at precisely the same moment. Birders call the spectacle a “dread”. The more scientific term for the phenomenon is “Swarm Intelligence” or SI. 

“Although there is no centralized control structure dictating how individual agents should behave, local, and to a certain degree random, interactions between such agents lead to the emergence of "intelligent" global behaviour, unknown to the individual agents. Examples in natural systems of Swarm Intelligence include ant colonies, bird flocking, animal herding, bacterial growth, fish schooling and microbial intelligence.” 

Other waders and wildfowl today – 32 Redshank, 5 Greenshank, 3 Snipe, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Common Sandpiper, 14 Teal, 3 Little Egret. 

Greenshank 

Very evident today was the number of Starlings. This is the time of year when we have an influx of Continental Starlings that spend the winter here in the UK rather than colder parts of Europe. Twice I saw newly arrived Starling flocks pursued by raptors – firstly by a Sparrowhawk and then later by a Merlin. Neither raptor caught their breakfast. 

Sparrowhawk 

I stopped off at Gulf Lane where I saw the earlier mentioned Merlin. The Merlin had scattered a field full of Lapwings, Starlings and Curlews which is no mean feat for a bird hardly bigger than a Mistle Thrush. The Merlin flew towards the junction and left a dread of waders in its wake as it inspected the field of set-aside where I’d just counted 35 Goldfinches and 20 Linnets. 

We have cut a ride for when finch numbers build.  We think that the good summer, a glut of natural food together with a prolonged breeding season may have delayed the arrival here of  both Linnets and Goldfinches. But when they arrive in numbers we are ready with an already cut catching area to build on the 400+ Linnets ringed during the last two winters. 

By now it was raining again, more heavy showers, grey skies and quite windy. I called it a day and headed home to catch up with news, birds and the “real” world. 

We seem to have left summer behind but my pal David in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada tells me it was 35 degrees there on Wednesday. You can read about his weather, birds and bird ringing, together with his liking for coffee and cake on his blog Travels With Birds.

Linking today with Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Three Of A Kind

We had a drop of rain on Friday; the first here for several weeks, just a few showers that barely wet our parched, straw coloured lawn and briefly dampened the roof tiles. By Saturday morning we were back to sun and blue skies but I rather hoped that the scattered showers had produced a different bird or two as the birding of late has been rather predictable.

So I hit Micawber Road at the usual unearthly hour in the hope that something might turn up.  Naturally I headed for Conder Green, one of the most productive of local birding sites and where a couple of extra places are but a stone’s throw away to make for an often satisfying circuit.

It was good to see up to 20 Swifts hawking insects over the surrounding hedgerows this morning. That’s probably as good a count as anyone has had this year.

July sees the first Kingfishers returning to the pool. They breed close by along the canal or the associated River Conder. “River” is something of a misnomer since the waterway resembles the final throes of a babbling brook rather than a mighty river. I was more than pleased to see three Kingfishers today, a family group that stuck close together but stayed distant from the camera. Sorry for the poor images. Today wasn't the most productive in the picture stakes but you get the idea.

Kingfisher 

Kingfisher 

Kingfisher and Common Tern

Kingfishers

Like many other species, Kingfisher families stay together for a week or two after the youngsters fledge so that the inexperienced birds learn from the parents about growing up and how, where & when to feed. It’s rather like a human family except that kids and teenagers are very slow to learn, always think they know best, and if they ever leave home will likely be back.

The single pair of Avocets still have three good sized chicks ably looked after by their aggressive parents. In turn I watched both adults chase off a Grey Heron, a Little Egret and any number of Redshanks and Oystercatchers.

Avocet 

Grey Heron 

Other waders noted as 120 Redshank, 18 Oystercatcher, 15 Lapwing, 4 Common Sandpiper, 4 Curlew, 2 Snipe, 2 Greenshank. Smaller stuff – 6 Pied Wagtail, 2 Blackcap, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Whitethroat and 2 Reed Warbler.

Greenshank 

Pied Wagtail 

Six Common Terns still around as they vied with the Kingfishers for the prime launch pad into the water below. Three Little Grebes on the water and now just 8 Tufted Duck and another mostly unproductive year for the persistent tufties.

Common Tern

There's still a pair of Common Terns hanging around Glasson Dock and here’s where I found a flock of 18/20 Goldfinches and a healthy number of House Martin nests right in the village centre. The martins fly down towards the dock gates for their building materials and where the tidal flow leaves exposed mud in this driest of summers.

Common Tern

House Martin

I called into Gulf Lane where a small party of 6/8 Linnets plus 2 Whitethroats suggested it will soon be time to cut that ride for project Linnet.

That’s for another, cooler day.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday and Anni's Birding Blog.

That Foxy Feeling

I was due to meet Andy at 0630 for a go at catching Sand Martins. But first there was an hour or so in which to take a look at Conder Green. 

I heard the first Greenshank of the autumn and then saw it fly across the pool towards the east side. As usual two Avocets were on the far side and out of sight but I guessed they had a youngster in tow when all hell broke loose as they and other birds took to the air in protest at something or other. 

A gang of Oystercatchers joined in the melee as did Shelducks, Lapwings,  a single Black-tailed Godwit, a couple of Redshanks, two Little Egrets and also the two Common Terns from the floating island. Three Common Sandpipers dashed across the water as for safety one of them stood alongside a Common Tern on the floating pontoon. Four Tufted Duck panicked across the pool as the single Little Grebe kept a safe distance in the deeper part of the water. 

Greenshank

I looked hard in the sky and on the ground but saw nothing until a Red Fox strolled out from behind the far island and made its way through the lengthy grass and off towards the main road. All returned to normal, the fox's cover well and truly blown by the concerted efforts of the Conder Pool Residents Association. 

My sighting probably explains the poor showing of ground nesting birds here this year with very low numbers of Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Redshank and Avocet chicks. Studies show that foxes take a large number of wader eggs and also wader chicks that have yet to fly. The relatively shallow water between the landmasses here means that a fox could probably wade or swim through water to reach most of this or any year’s nests and/or to find ground hugging chicks.

A major reason for the Red Fox's success is its varied eating habits. They are omnivore which means they eat virtually anything they come across. They have a major a reputation for taking poultry, but very often undesirables such as rats and slugs. They will also eat fruit, berries, roots and carrion, plus in cities, discarded takeaways in the shape of chips, pizzas and kebabs, with their particular favourite a KFC or McDonald’s. Rather them than me. 

Red Fox

That was about all I saw apart from a few Sand Martins and a passing Kestrel. It was 0620 and time to meet Andy a mile or so away at Cockerham Quarry. 

There seemed to be plenty of martins around, 270+, as well as a Grey Heron, Common Sandpiper, several piping Oystercatchers and Chris’ gaggle of farmyard geese. By now the previous almost zero wind had picked up to 8 or 10 mph and although not ideal we set a net away from the colony holes but where the martins pass through. We caught another nine to add to our first effort of two weeks ago, 5 adults and 4 juveniles. 

Sand Martin

This afternoon the sun emerged from hiding, the first in four days. Now that’s more like it.

Linking this post to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday and Anni's Birding Blog.

Thursday’s Birding

More birding this morning as I headed over the moss road into a glorious sunrise, one eye on the lookout for early morning owls. It’s best to keep the other eye fixed on the single track road where the unwary might find their car sliding off the road into a field 15ft below should a tractor appear from nowhere. I wouldn’t see a Barn Owl until I arrived at Conder Green. After a good number of sightings throughout the early part of the year our local Barn Owls are now harder to find. 

The Moss

First I pulled into a farm gate at Crimbles to count the flock of feeding Curlews. On Tuesday I estimated more than 450 in the field. This morning, and after the torrential downpours, thunder and lightning of Wednesday, the Curlews numbered more like 700. The rain had freshened up the grass, puddled tractor tracks and no doubt brought more worms to the surface for the Curlews to take their fill. 

At Conder Green a Barn Owl hunted all over the marsh, ducking and diving into the long grass, stopping just occasionally to take a breather on a fence post. The owl had such a circuit that it disappeared from view for minutes at a time but then to reappear at times from an unexpected quarter. Unfortunately the bird didn’t come very close, hence the “rangefinder” shots. When a Barn Owl appeared from over the far side of the canal and flew around the margins of the pool I wondered if there might be two in action, but probably not. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

 Barn Owl

“Greens” appeared again with the single Greenshank and Green Sandpiper while both Redshank and Lapwing numbers are lower than of late with about 40 of each. Just 5 Common Sandpiper today, the peak of their autumn return already passed. 

Greenshank

 

The young Avocet now ventures away from the adults by exploring the further edges of the pool but looks to be a week or more from first flight. The usual wildfowl still present by way of 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon and 1 Goosander with the addition today of 4 Canada Goose. Also on the pool – 3 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. 

A piece of excellent news is that I counted 5 active House Martin nests at Café de Lune and it is obvious that the martins prefer this building to others very close by. There’s no doubt that birds in general know exactly what they require in any given situation and that second best will rarely do. 

There are mobs of noisy Starlings about now, the flocks comprised of mostly juvenile birds like the one below. Juveniles of the year soon moult many of their brown feathers and start to take on the spotted appearance of an adult like the one standing along a wooden gate.  

Starling

At Glasson I found 2 young Moorhen with no sign of an adult nearby. A Common Tern fished the water of yacht basin at Glasson with 60+ Swallows feeding over the still water and 2 Pied Wagtail feeding exploring the towpath and the moored boats. There are lots of young wagtails around at the moment and they outnumber adults by seven or eight to one. 

At Bank End, Cockerham I found 20+ Pied Wagtails, a Wheatear, 2 Stock Dove and 50+ Sand Martins. We have not been able to catch and ring any the Sand Martins this year as their nest holes are far too high up the quarry face. 

Moorhen

 

Pied Wagtail

A trip around Jeremy Lane and Moss Lane found more gangs of Starlings as well as family parties of Whitethroat, Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting. It was time to head home, job done until next time on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Birding , Eileen's Blog and to Run A Round Ranch.

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 .