Never A Dull Moment

The blog title today was nearly “Pinkies and Raptors” to sum up the highlights of a few hours birding at You Know Where, but after a superb morning’s birding filled with action and interest I renamed it to something more fitting. 

The “pinkies”, Pink-footed Geese seem to arrive from Iceland earlier each year. There were some flying over the house yesterday afternoon as I cut the lawn for the umpteenth time of this grass-growing-madly year, about 40 geese fairly high in the sky but calling to each other and heading towards South-West Lancashire and the area of Martin Mere. So I went to Pilling this morning expecting to encounter more pinkies and I wasn’t disappointed, even if it does mean that winter will soon be here. There were about 50 or so out on the distant tideline, with small groups taking off occasionally before climbing and heading south. 

Pink-footed Goose

Although the morning sun was up, the wind gusted quite strong from the south, and after seeing yesterday’s virtually zero migration in 100% cloud conditions, in contrast this morning there seemed to be a definite rush of birds and also lots of raptors about. Maybe the raptors had something to do with the release of several hundreds of non-native Red-legged Partridge in recent days, but I’m sure Hi-Fly won’t miss one or two partridge, which would still leave 998 on the loose but destined to be blasted from the sky pretty soon. 

Red-legged Partridge - gun fodder

I’d kicked off at Lane Ends with 5 roadside Wheatears, a hovering Kestrel and then Swallows and Meadow Pipits heading into the wind. I wasn’t particularly early at 0800 but the remnants of last night’s roost, 6 Little Egrets and 2 Grey Herons still congregated in the shelter and safety of the island. As I neared Pilling Water I counted 60 Lapwing and 4 Golden Plover on the wet fields and then from the stile watched as a Peregrine scattered them before it flew back over the wildfowler’s pools where 2 Grey Herons objected noisily to the falcon’s presence but left anyway. 

Grey Heron

There was a wary Greenshank feeding on the pool and I got distant views before 2 Buzzards appeared over the trees and scared it off into the less open ditches. The Buzzards saw me, keeping their distance until they flew off in the direction of Fluke Hall. 

Greenshank

Buzzard and Carrion Crow

Buzzard

From the gate I watched as 100+ Goldfinch fed along the wall and the edge of the plantation, with a couple of White Wagtails along the shore below. There were enormous numbers of Teal on the pools, roughly 650, with a dozen or so Pintail and I’d gone past looking for the Buzzards before the duck erupted from the ditches, flushed this time by a Marsh Harrier. The harrier kept a distance away, intent on searching the ground and ditches below and it’s another crappy record shot of a “Gold Top”. 

 Marsh Harrier

There’d been Meadow Pipits and Swallows heading east and by Fluke Hall I’d counted 50+ and 70+ respectively. With some grounded Meadow Pipits I found two newly arrived Wheatears here too, one of them posing for a picture, but when I’d finished the Kingfisher perched on the same rail but further back had by now sped off along the dyke. 

Wheatear

The morning wasn’t finished. As I headed back to Lane Ends a Merlin flashed by, low over the marsh and heading out to the tide, but then a few minutes later it or another followed the path of the earlier Peregrine by dashing across the field of Lapwings and scattered them into the sky, calling as they went. What with the Meadow Pipits, Wheatears, Merlin and the pinkies the morning had a definite Icelandic theme, and while they can keep the cold weather their birds are certainly OK. 

This week I’m linking Another Bird Blog with both id-rather-b-birdin and paying-ready-attention-gallery Australia .

It’s not a good birding forecast for the week ahead, but with luck there will be more posts soon from Another Bird Blog, so stay tuned. 

Size Matters

There’ a mixed bag of a report today – a small dead bird, a spot of ringing, a touch of birding and a brace of harriers. 

It all started at Pilling after a phone message from a lady with a dead bird which she didn’t recognise, but she would leave it on the dustbin in case the couple were not at home. Never knowing quite what to expect when Joe Public phones I considered all the possibilities from a Wren to perhaps a Sparrowhawk, the latter always a possibility where gardens are concerned. I was right, a young male from one of this year’s broods lay across the bin lid as promised. A Sparrowhawk is much smaller than people imagine, a male doubly so. 

Sparrowhawk

I was in Pilling anyway so needed no further excuse to hit the sea wall. After more heavy overnight rain a Greenshank had settled happily in a wet spot at Backsands Lane, until a very large bus clanked noisily by my parked car and the Greenshank spluttered off. 

Greenshank

Along the sea wall – 40+ Swallows heading slowly west into the stiff north westerly and 40+ Goldfinch on the thistle heads, and then 2 Ravens flying out to the distant tideline. 

There was a single Wheatear just beyond Lane Ends, quite unusual to see one here nowadays since the new planation developed into a wood, so removing the open spaces beloved of Wheatears. Further towards Pilling Water I found a Common Sandpiper and another 4 Wheatears ducking and diving over the rocks on the shore, so I laid a trap or two into the teeth of the cold northerly, hoping the meal worms could still wriggle. One obviously did, but it took a while today to catch a chunky juvenile bird, wing length 101mm so almost certainly an Icelandic bird, especially since there has been a noticeable influx of Wheatears during this week’s unsettled westerly weather. 

Wheatear

I found a partially sheltered spot to watch the traps and the tideline hoping for something to come along, which is exactly what happened when a Marsh Harrier appeared from the Cockerham direction and flew all along the tideline until it disappeared over the sea wall at Fluke Hall. In between the harrier had to shake off the attentions of two Ravens chasing it along the tide. I can’t recall ever seeing Ravens and Marsh Harriers in close proximity before, and when I looked it up in the books it seems the species have the same wing span. Sorry about the distant, heavily cropped picture, but you get the idea. 

Marsh Harrier and Raven

As the harrier flew across the wildfowlers’ pools it flushed 150+ Teal and a couple of Little Egrets from the water there. 

The other harrier, a “Gold Top” was yesterday when I went to do a little maintenance work on the net rides at Rawcliffe. One of these days maybe a Marsh Harrier will come close enough for a decent picture rather than a record shot?

Marsh Harrier

There’s a better forecast tomorrow with less wind and more sun so hopefully more news on Another Bird Blog.

Going Green

After initial drizzle and greyness this morning the skies brightened allowing me a couple of hours birding at Pilling, where the colour green featured in the form of two wintering waders plus the appearance of more Siskins.

Waders were plentiful along Backsands Lane and Fluke Hall Lane with combined totals of 450 Lapwing, 110 Dunlin, 70 Oystercatcher, 22 Golden Plover, 45 Redshank and 250 Curlew.

At Lane Ends I surveyed the pools and the car park with the resulting 3 Goldeneye, 3 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe, 18 Chaffinch and 2 Siskin. The Siskin were feeding in the alders, a sighting which continues the run of Siskins making an appearance in many places in the past week or so, and must relate to the early spring movement of the species, so very noticeable this time last year.

Siskin

There’s not much to report from my walk west to Pilling Water - 5 Little Egret, 4 Skylark, 1 Merlin and 40 Teal, but the pools turned up another 25 Redshank, a Greenshank and a Green Sandpiper. It’s some weeks since I walked this stretch but the Green Sandpiper was about then and I think today’s bird is one of the two birds present in late 2011.

Greenshank
Redshank

Walking the tideline I found evidence of a raptor meal, a neatly stripped breastbone plus the wings of a Redshank, probably the work of the aforesaid Merlin or a Peregrine, while a little further along were the remains of a long dead Whooper Swan. Otherwise nothing to report from a quietish walk.

Redshank
Whooper Swan

No proper birding tomorrow, just counting Buzzards when I take the Suzuki up the M6 for its annual service to Kendal in the South Lakes, a route that is a hot spot for Buzzards. The Lake District is the probable origin of the healthy Buzzard population that now inhabit the Fylde.

Buzzard

A Tale Of Two Halves

Another shower-dodging, breezy morning saw me try my luck at Conder Green where I bumped into PW on the windswept viaduct. We chatted briefly whilst both looking west at the incoming clouds and bemoaning the summer, watched the local House Martins battling over the salt marsh, then went our separate ways with better luck we hoped.

On the pool and creek I counted 1 Grey Heron, 9 Common Sandpiper, 2 Spotted Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 2 Black-tailed Godwits, 55 Redshank, 12 Oystercatcher and 5 Curlew before I headed south to more familiar territory of Pilling. If only our locally occurring Greenshanks were as accommodating as the few I saw in Egypt.

Greenshank
Oystercatcher

At Lane Ends the sky to the west looked dark to say the least as I set off to Pilling Water thinking the rain had moved around and north out over the bay; no such luck as I got the tail end of a heavy shower and a good soaking in exchange for 1 Reed Warbler, 40 Linnets, 1 Greenfinch, 2 Kestrel, 5 Pied Wagtail, 3 Common Sandpipers, 1 Grey Heron, 28 Curlew, 18 Redshank and 80 Lapwings.

A Pilling Sky

I called it a morning, drying out at home then did a little garden ringing pm when the wind dropped and the showers died out. Goldfinches are back in numbers for the irresistible Niger feed and I also caught 3 Blackbirds – adult female and 2 juveniles, one of them in the stages of growing its blacker male tail feathers. Also 2 Wrens and a juvenile Robin – the fault bar mid-way through the tail tells a tale of changeable food availability of late.

Goldfinch - adult
Goldfinch- juvenile
Blackbird - juvenile
Blackbird - juvenile male
Wren
Robin - juvenile
Robin- juvenile

Familiar Territory

It was another strange sort of day today; cool this morning with the same persistent north easterly wind so I decided to wait until lunch time to go out birding. The sun came out as promised and the temperature climbed to 22⁰ but now with a breeze from the east.

I checked out Lane Ends, Pilling with a sea wall walk to Pilling Water, followed by the Ridge Farm and the Fluke Hall circuit.

Lane Ends started quite well with three singing Willow Warblers, a Reed Bunting, a Reed Warbler in the patch of reeds next to the road and the frantic song of a Garden Warbler below the car park, but I wondered about all of their chances when I spotted one of the two now resident Jays searching about the undergrowth. Make no mistake about it, Jays may be attractive beasts but just like other crows they are fully paid up members of the bad guy’s brigade, and will take eggs, nestlings and even the adults of other bird species. A study in the south of England in 2005-2006 (Bird Study 2008/55, 179–187) found that woodland Jays were major predators of the nests of the red-listed Spotted Flycatcher.

Willow Warbler
Jay

I set off to walk to Pilling Water just as 12 Whimbrel flew over, fast and silent without their normal seven whistles but heading north across Morecambe Bay. My walk to Pilling Water produced almost zilch apart from a couple of Linnets, with no Meadow Pipits, no Skylarks, no Wheatears and no Wagtails, all birds that should be around in profusion by late April. The meagre highlight was a procession of Swallows heading across the bay, Heysham bound. As I sat on the stile the silence was remarkable, more like a mid-summer day with just the occasional local Redshank, Oystercatcher or Lapwing announcing their territorial presence from the maize stubble of the wildfowler’s pools, or the resident Shelduck pair taking to the skies. A Greenshank put in a brief appearance, calling and circling before dropping back into the deep dykes; my third siting here this spring but all different birds I think.

Greenshank
Lapwing

The Hi-fly tractor was busy ploughing in the few early Lapwing nests next to Fluke Hall, and added to the lack of rain on the already baked ground, it seems odds-on for zero young Lapwings in Pilling again this year.

On the other hand, I suppose Hi-fly would claim credit for all the Linnets, Tree Sparrows and Whitethroats that inhabit the hundreds of now healthy hawthorns planted along Fluke Hall Lane some years ago. A few days ago I counted 18 Whitethroats between Pilling village and Ridge Farm; today was similar with the difference being there are now females to double the score, with the emphasis less on the male’s incessant song flights but more on the churring calls that accompany nest building. To advertise their presence male Whitethroats often build up to 3 or 4 so called “cock nests” in readiness for the later arriving females, allowing one to choose a nest that suits her. After choosing one she strips it of his unsuitable, mediocre, DIY decorations and finishes the nest herself to a better specification before taking up residence and laying eggs. It all sounds a bit familiar chaps!

Whitethroat

Fluke Hall held lots of Blackcaps, several Willow Warblers, Chiffchaff, resident Tree Sparrows and softly calling Sparrowhawks at a nest.

It’s still only April but for most of this week’s unsuitable migration weather it has felt like spring is over, as we desperately await warm southerly winds to bring in the remaining migrants.

Leftovers

Two weeks later I finally finished going through my pictures from Egypt, so picked out a number that as yet have not performed on the blog. Some of the species have appeared before, but in the absence of any birding on a wet and windy Friday and promised same again for Saturday, the bit of blue sky and memory of warm, sunny Egyptian days may cheer everyone up.

There was a particular Western Reef Heron in Hurghada that hung around the main jetty where the local lads fished with hand lines, but to amuse the tourists fed the heron by hand with freshly caught fish. The creature was so used to being fed it would stalk up and down the jetty in the hope of scrounging a meal. The Striated Herons weren’t so obliging and I would have to seek them out in quiet beach or boat spots in the early morning. In the second week of the holiday when most of the tourists went home, the beach camels took a well-deserved rest, the lizards came out to play and early mornings were the best time for Greenshank and Greater Sand Plover.

Western Reef Heron
Striated Heron
Striated Heron
Striated Heron
Sleepy Camel
Egyptian Lizard
Greater Sand Plover
Greenshank

There were a small number of very wary Stonechats about the hotel grounds which kept their distance so well I only bothered to get one photograph. I am pretty sure the ones I saw were all European Stonechats, and none of them Siberian Stonechats, although both occur in Egypt. The common crow of the area is Hooded Crow.

Stonechat
Hooded Crow

I suppose the highlight of my photography time was getting the chance to take pictures of a close Osprey, and on a couple of mornings sitting near a Kingfisher, none of which happens too often here in the UK.

Osprey
Kingfisher

Shore Thing, Egypt

I sorted through my Egypt photos and came up with a selection of birds I found on walks along Makadi Bay, strolls that included the beach, shore and a couple of spots where there were boats of all shapes and sizes, all of which makes good shorebird habitat.

I had no preconceptions about anything I might see on the holiday, it was after all mainly a winter holiday to warm through our northern bones, with a bit of birding thrown in if time and circumstances allowed.

One morning while carrying my camera with long lens and taking pictures of a lone Greenshank on the beach, a local lad Mimo shouted after me “paparazzi”, maybe thinking I was taking an unhealthy interest in and pictures of the many bikinied Russian girls lounging on sun beds – as if I would!

Mimo surprised me by being fairly clued up about western birding, even though he had never seen the Kingfisher that perched every day above and next to his camel’s shelter, but asked if I had seen the “big white hawk that lives in the sand”. Alarm bells rang as I realised Ospreys frequented the area, and of course in the Middle East Ospreys do indeed nest on the ground, mainly on remote islands owing to the general lack of trees. I looked harder for the next few days and found the Ospreys as they came in and out of the bay to feed in the shallow waters, often resting and drying out from their plunge dives on top of the Princess Deha that seemed to permanently berth alongside the main jetty. Frustratingly the early morning sun was always behind the boat meaning I had to over expose every shot to get a decent picture, hence the white and not blue sky. Mostly the birds would spend several minutes in the area before heading off north, than intermittently return towards dusk.

Osprey
Osprey
Too Close Osprey
Makadi Bay

Most mornings I saw Greenshank, Common Sandpiper and Greater Sand Plover, with an occasional Ringed Plover, but just like the UK, waders here were difficult to approach.

Greenshank
Greater Sand Plover
Greater Sand Plover

The jetty was a good place to find early morning Striated Heron and Western Reef Heron, both species being quite common along the Red Sea coast. A Western Reef Heron is the same size as Little Egret and superficially the two species might be confused, but the Reef Heron has a stouter bill with a slightly curved culmen and as a whole the species is a little less elegant than Little Egret. Striated Heron is a small, rather skulking heron, most active at dawn and dusk, but one or two days I found single birds on the beach or roosting on boats or the jetty.

Western Reef Heron
Striated Heron
Striated Heron
Western Reef Heron

Rather strangely in view of the abundance of fish, literally teeming along the tideline and abundant offshore, gulls and terns were scarce, whereby I saw daily Caspian Terns, several overflying Baltic Gulls, but in two weeks of looking, just a single Slender-billed Gull.

And the shot below is the best I got of a Caspian Tern, all of whom kept their silent distance from me for two weeks.

Caspian Tern
Jellyfish

That’s it for now until I’ve sorted the Kingfisher and Slender-billed Gull pictures, but I also have a series of Chiffchaff pictures plus a spot of some nectarivory, which has absolutely nothing to do with Russian girls.