Birding Around

With a cool, clammy mist and the temperature gauge showing 6⁰ the morning had a definite autumnal feel but one which promised sunshine. At Braides Farm the Buzzard sat along the fence posts waiting for the off. 

Dont forget to "click the pics" for a better birding experience.

Morning Glow - Cockerham

Buzzard

The mist cleared quickly in the strong sunlight and Conder Green was haze-free. There are good numbers of Lapwings feeding and roosting around the pool margins now, some 150 birds, part of the large numbers which commute between here and in the fields on the other side of the canal. A later drive around Jeremy Lane found a further 150+ Lapwings as well as similar numbers of Curlews. Good numbers of Brown Hares in evidence with sometimes just their ears visible in the silage fields. 

Lapwing

 

Brown Hare

Back at the pool I counted 1 Meadow Pipit, 4 Pied Wagtail, 4 Little Grebe, 1 Wigeon, 4 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. Otherwise most of the action was in the creeks with 3 Greenshank, 6 Common Sandpiper, 70 Redshank, 4 Curlew and a single Shelduck. 

Greenshank

Eight or ten Swifts hawked above the hedgerow again as a handful of Swallows and Sand Martins circuited the pool, but the morning here was mostly House Martins. Feeding around the railway bridge and the dwellings were approximately forty. Perhaps not all were from the small number of nests on the few houses here although some martins were still busy collecting building materials from the roadside. A Sparrowhawk appeared from above the houses but the martins were onto it instantly as the hawk took a few flaps and a long glide and headed off towards the pool. 

House Martin

I called at Glasson to enjoy the light and to see 20+ Swallows, 3 Swift, 3 Pied Wagtail and 1 Grey Heron. 

Grey Heron

Glasson Dock

Next I checked a couple of ringing sites for possible visits. First the quarry and 90+ Sand Martin, 20 Linnet, 15+ Tree Sparrow, 4 Pied Wagtail, 1 Curlew, 1 Oystercatcher and 1 Golden Plover. 

Then came Oakenclough, the ringing site destined for a visit pretty soon. Although it’s only early August Andy and I have put up a few feeders to see just when birds begin to use them. At the moment there is lots of natural food but there seemed to be a small number of Chaffinches, a couple of Siskin, and a single Lesser Redpoll in the area of the feeders. 

In the wider plantation to where we erect mist nets - 5 Willow Warblers, 2 Pied Wagtail and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker. On the water- 2 Tufted Duck, 1 Great Crested Grebe and 120+ Greylags. 

Tufted Duck

The weather looks marginally better for the weekend so there should be more birds on Another Bird Blog. Log in soon for more birding around.

Linking today to Theresa's Ranch , Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday.

It’s Not All Rubbish

At last the builders have gone. I swept the final dust from the driveway and set off north through Pilling village in the direction of Conder Green and Glasson Dock. 

Rubbish

There were no Barn Owls this morning but compensation came along Head Dyke Lane with a Blackcap in song and a roadside Kestrel atop a telegraph pole. At Braides Farm behind the sea wall and distant from the road was another Kestrel, this one taking exception to and then dive bombing a Buzzard generally minding its own business on a nearby fence. 

Kestrel

Damn. There was a wagon running its loud engine and parked up in the layby at Conder Green. As if this wasn’t bad enough the driver was having a wander both across and up and down the road to stretch his legs, all the while oblivious to birds scattering left, right and centre from the pool and the creeks. 

Adopting Plan B I drove the half a mile to Glasson Dock where a Common Sandpiper was busily feeding along the edge of the path which skirts the yacht basin. An unusual sighting here as there aren’t really muddy margins for wading birds. 

Common Sandpiper

There was a Common Tern searching the yacht basin and the dock for food. I watched it catch a fish and head off towards Conder Green - shades of 2014 when the male of the pair nesting at Conder Green regularly fished the same circuit to feed his mate half-a-mile away. Otherwise both the dock and the yacht basin seemed very quiet with just the regular Swallows, Mallards and Coot near the water and small numbers of Swift and House Martin overhead. 

 Coot

The canal towpath proved fruitful birding by way of 2 singing Blackcap, a singing Chiffchaff, a Song Thrush in loud voice, and several Reed Bunting flitting about the vegetation. Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers fed recent fledglings which hid in the reeds and umbelliferae which grow in profusion along the margins of the canal. Try as I might the little blighters wouldn’t cooperate. 

Reed Warbler

Conder Green was quiet again, the errant driver gone to create havoc elsewhere. Not many birds had returned although to be fair to our driver friend the pool has been rather devoid of birds and excitement all spring and summer except for the still resident Common Terns. Redshank and Lapwing numbers were quite healthy with 80+ and 30+ respectively, 10 Curlew, 15 Oystercatcher, 2 Common Sandpiper, and 2 Greenshank. Early July and the Greenshanks are dead on time as returnee migrants from their breeding sites way north and east of Lancashire. 

Greenshank

Oystercatchers

A walk of the circuit and the railway bridge produced 3 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Pied Wagtail, 3 Reed Bunting, 5 Whitethroat, 7 Greenfinch and 1 Sedge Warbler. 

So the moral of today’s story is that while we all know that mid-summer can be a quiet time for birding, we should also realise that it’s far from rubbish and infinitely better than DIY.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday.

More Canaries

Rained off today so here are more news and views from our recent holiday to Lanzarote 18th January to 1st February 2015. 

It was fairly blowy on the day Sue and I set off south to the working salt pans, Salinas de Janubio and the little lunch-stop village of El Golfo. It is often breezy or even windy in the Canary Islands which lie in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kms off the coast of Africa. During the times of the Spanish Empire the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas because of the prevailing winds from the northeast. There is compensation for the breezes in the islands’ subtropical climate with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. 

The Canary Islands

Not far from our base of Puerto Calero and just off the LZ2 we stopped off to look for Lesser Short-toed Lark and perhaps more Houbara Bustards in a location they are reputed to use. No luck with the bustards however we did see Lesser Short-toed Lark, Berthelot’s Pipit and Kestrel, as well as finding a good crop of huge watermelons and strawberries growing in a seemingly inhospitable but well irrigated place. 

The Lesser Short-toed Lark is a bird of dry open country which is fairly common in Lanzarote and breeds in Spain, North Africa and eastwards across the semi-deserts of central Asia to Mongolia and China. It prefers even drier and barer soils than its close relative the (Greater) Short-toed Lark. As far as I know the Short-toed Lark is but a scarce passage visitor to the Canaries, and a species I am familiar with in the Mediterranean. 

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Watermelon, Lanzarote

From the high approach road the salt pans down at sea level often appear tranquil enough. There can be a different story at ground level where the wind whips the water into a frenzy of white as a display of how the salt pans create their valuable product. 

Salinas de Janubio

Greenshank

Greenshank

Berthelot's Pipit

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Turnstone

What with the wind and lack of places to approach birds, this is a difficult place in which to birdwatch and take photographs. Unfortunately I didn’t manage any pictures of the also-present Whimbrel, Kentish Plover, Grey Plover, Redshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper or Black-necked Grebe but it was good to see so many species in this one place.

A short drive away from Janubio is the famed Green Lagoon, something of a tourist hot-spot and a destination for crowded buses. It is easy to see why and to join in the endless photography which takes place. 

The Green Lagoon, Lanzarote

The beach itself is of pebbles and the cliffs behind the lagoon equally dramatic, having been wind eroded into fantastic shapes over the course of the centuries. The scenery is further enhanced by the large finger of rock which sits just off the beach and causes the sea to crash around it. The landscape here is so wild filmmakers used it as the backdrop for Raquel Welch wearing her animal skin bikini in the classic movie One Million Years B.C. 

El Golfo, Lanzarote

The weathered cliffs extend all the way along the walkway which goes in the opposite direction to the village of El Golfo, revealing different bands of rock smoothed and shaped by the forces of nature. 

Just along from the Green Lagoon is the village of El Golfo which has possibly the highest concentration of fish restaurants on the island. The morning’s catch is gutted and cleaned on the beach to a watchful audience of many dozens of Yellow-legged Gulls and the inevitable Common Sandpiper scurrying through the rocky pools. 

El Golfo, Lanzarote

Yellow-legged Gull

Common Sandpiper

We stopped off in the pretty town of Yaiza before heading back to the Hotel Costa Calero and a pre-dinner glass of Cava. 

Yaiza, Lanzarote

 

Hotel Costa Calero

Another successful day of exploration in Lanzarote. Previous posts about our holiday to Lanzarote can be found at "A birding-day Lanzarote style" and at Birding Lanzarote.

More birds soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Skywatch Friday and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

 

Do It Again

Monday was almost a rerun of Sunday’s birds except that I managed a few pictures today without resorting to beg, steal or borrow them. 

In the half light of Burned House Lane a Barn Owl flew across the car’s path, the owl illuminated in the headlights for a second or two until it veered off over the fields and left none the worse for dicing with death. Next came 2 Kestrels on roadside telegraph poles, one at Head Dyke Lane, and the other near Horse Park Lane. Our local place names are mostly ancient and often very descriptive, but please don’t ask me the meaning of Scronkey, a hamlet near Pilling. 

In a tree next to the road at Cockerham was a Tawny Owl in exactly the same spot as Sunday morning. It’s just a stand of old trees and perhaps not where anyone might look for a Tawny Owl but as the owl flew back into the dark canopy I made a mental note of the exact location. It’s handy to know regular spots for regular birds which aren’t necessarily easy to see or photograph. 

Tawny Owl

 

Maybe there was a miscalculation or perhaps it was the morning mist which led to a count of only 200 Swallows at Glasson on Sunday. They were back in force this morning by way of a minimum of 1000 birds congregated around the moored boats and pontoons. In the cropped picture below, just part of a large yacht, are approximately 80 Swallows, so it not difficult to imagine ten or twelve times that number. The Swallows loaf around and feed over the water for about an hour before they begin to disperse in small groups and head off in all directions. There was a Common Tern fishing the water again, the one which does a circuit and then heads off towards Conder Green. 

Swallows

The Common Terns were very active at Conder Green where the adults still take food to a youngster on the island, its bigger sibling now almost independent and flying off to fish the creeks with mom or dad or resting up on the island amongst the Lapwings. 

Common Tern and Lapwings

 Juvenile Common Tern

Sunday’s Ruff was still about, feeding in the far creek and then later on the pool. The other waders today - 4 Greenshank, 4 Snipe, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 30+ Redshank and 70+ Lapwing. Below is a distant and far from best-ever picture of a Greenshank which shows how the species eats small fish as well as invertebrates. 

Greenshank

Needless to say the Kingfisher put in an appearance although if people need to see it at close quarters it is best not to wear bright clothes and to approach the screen with caution. Birds have eyesight far keener than our own. Ears are their second most important sense with a range similar to that of humans. 

Kingfisher

Six Little Grebes, 2 Little Egrets, 2 Grey Heron and 3 Wigeon completed the count here so I walked the railway path to Glasson and back looking for finches and warblers while breakfasting on the plentiful Blackberries. At one point the noisy complaints of Swallows pointed me to a Peregrine coasting towards Glasson, the Swallows had broken off from feeding high to gang up on the raptor; their highly tuned senses had spotted the Peregrine before me. The raptor carried on flying; the Swallows lost interest and returned to base, their forewarning to others had done the trick. 

There was a good sized flock of tits roaming up and down and across the hedgerow, Long-tails, Great and Blue, a flock which held three or more Chiffchaffs. There were no Coal Tits amongst the flock and it’s a species I’ve not seen lately, and as far as I could tell no warblers other than the Chiffchaffs, although lots of Robins.

Robin

A gathering of 50+ Goldfinches also held several Linnets but neither species is especially good at sitting still for cameras. 

Linnets

Goldfinch

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday and Our World Tuesday in Australia. Oh no, is it Tuesday already? Looks like I will have to do it all over again soon.

One Of These Days

Conder Green was pretty good this morning by way of an excellent selection of waders which included another Wood Sandpiper to follow the one I found here on August 7th, the day after one at Pilling on 6th August. Three Wood Sandpipers is a mighty big August count in this neck of the woods. 

I started at Lane Ends, Pilling with a look for the Little Egret roost which breaks up soon after dawn as the birds head off in all directions from the tall trees on the island. The egrets were there with some already leaving the roost but none daring to fly over the car as it headed into the car park. There was a count of 23 and less than thirty seconds later a big zero as the egrets flew mainly west and north. Later I was to walk to Pilling Water where I counted just 2 Little Egret! 

Little Egret

Conder Green looked and felt pretty bleak this morning, hat and coat for me, an autumnal nip in the air and apparently not much doing on the birding front. Thankfully and with the usual perseverance both the temperature and the birding picked up somewhat. 

There’s a Kingfisher here which isn’t too obliging as it flies off at the first hint of a human being. Today it appeared at the edge of the nearest island, flew to the sluice gate, took a look around and then promptly flew off over the pool towards the canal - its behavioural pattern of late. One of these days….. 

Kingfisher

At the back of the pool below the dividing bank was the head of a sandpiper, clearly a Green or a Wood, and when it came into full view the scope confirmed it as a Wood Sandpiper. It fed around the margins for 10 or 15 minutes, even surviving the close appearance of three loudly calling Greenshank before it flew off in a south easterly direction. I did get a shot of sorts of the 3 Greenshank but the smaller sandpiper was even more distant and partially hidden too. One of these days…. 

Greenshanks

Five Little Grebe and 7 Teal continues their respective autumnal build-up, unlike the 2 Wigeon which have been resident all summer. Just 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Great Crested Grebe and 1 Cormorant this morning. There were a good number of wagtails about the margins of the pool and the islands with a count of 12+ Pied Wagtails, a few distant and hidden ones becoming “albas”. 

The tide was on the run and moving a number of birds around the creek with an impressive party of 7 Goosander fishing the slight bore of the incoming tide. In the wader stakes I saw 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Snipe, 6 Common Sandpiper, 4 Curlew, 24 Redshank, 2 Dunlin and 2 Oystercatcher. 

The Common Terns are now busy feeding their unseen but clearly hungry young with both parents arriving with food in quick succession. One of the adults made several trips to the marsh just beyond the railway bridge, returning to the island with small fish and then mercilessly chasing off a nearby Black-headed Gull; all the signs of good parenting. 

Glasson Dock was pretty uneventful unless you count the usual early morning gathering of 130 Swallows. Otherwise - 1 Swift, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Grey Wagtail, 6 Pied Wagtail. As usual a few Swallows sat along the fence rail of the dock gates, a quick launch point towards the many insects feeding over the water.

Barn Swallow

There was time for a look at Pilling where there might be new Wheatears to catch. No such luck as when I found three together none were interested in my meal worms and then I spotted a ring on the right leg of one - a bird I ringed on Monday. Birds are quick learners. 

 Wheatear

 Just another day on Another Bird Blog. There will be more soon if you log in and look.

Linking today to Theresa's Texas Ranch.

Forget The Weekend

If the rain of both Friday and Saturday was bad, Sunday’s was far worse, so no bird watching until Monday. At last today there was a half decent list of birds and so a little news to relate. 

On the way to Glasson Dock there’s a tiny, reed-fringed pool where a Grey Heron often stands. Not today, there was a Red Fox instead, so I whizzed the car round the mini-roundabout hoping to park up for a photo. Just as the car slowed almost to a halt the fox melted into the hedgerow. 

At the dock a Kingfisher flew to the favoured Noggers Ark ropes and then just as quickly disappeared towards the estuary without taking the plunge. 

Kingfisher

A Common Tern was fishing the dock waters but I didn’t see it fly off towards Conder Green with the catch as he usually does. When I looked at Conder Green later there was no sign of the female so I reasoned that the sometimes torrential rain of the weekend caused the nest to fail at almost hatching point. 

Maybe the poor weekend weather cleared out some of the recent Swallows too because I counted less than a hundred today feeding across the water, some of them resting on various parts of various boats. When the Swallows leave the local deck hands will have to get cracking with the old spit 'n' polish to clean up their shiny boat fittings. 

Swallow

Swallow

 

Swallows

 Swallows

There were 2 Grey Wagtails flying around the moored boats looking for insects, so restless that they hardly settled at all and I don’t know where they ended up. On and near the water, 55 Mallards, 15 Tufted Ducks, 22 Coot and 1 Cormorant.

Glasson Dock

At first glance Conder Green at high tide appeared very quiet whereby a certain amount of perseverance and waiting for the tide to drop was required in order to find any birds. I thought there might be 2 Spotted Redshanks but then decided it was just a single bird doing a full circuit of the creeks. It helped that it was an adult bird now in almost complete winter dress with just a hint of the black plumage of the summer months. Below is the best picture I could get of the distant and wary “shank”, however it does show the remnants of black adult plumage. 

Spotted Redshank

There were definitely 3 Greenshanks, all three feeding virtually together, almost running through the shallow water with the distinctive side-to-side sweep-feed action that Greenshanks employ. 

Greenshank

There were 6 Pied Wagtails and single Grey Wagtail here too; at one point the Grey Wagtail walked along the mid-creek bare tree that I’ve seen a Kingfisher use recently. Good numbers of Redshank scattered through the creeks and beyond the bridge with a conservative count of 190 individuals. Just 3 Common Sandpipers, 5 Curlew, 3 Dunlin, 12 Oystercatchers and 40 Lapwing with herons represented by 2 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron. 

 Grey Heron

Wildfowl - just 15 Shelduck, 2 Wigeon, 2 Little Grebe. 

It was certainly a weekend to forget and a relief to get outdoors today. New news and more birds quite soon on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday in Australia.