Swallows, Knots And Crimbles

The early morning weather was poor, far worse than the forecast, with spells of grey cloud, rain, and worse of all a strong wind. There were however a few interesting sightings and a couple of new photographs to share with blog readers. 

Good numbers of Swallows and Sand Martins were on the move soon after 6am. That may have been induced by overnight storms in other parts of the country, the cool, grey, overcast morning or simply by the normal seasonal urges. Mid-July often signals the beginning of Swallow roosts containing locally bred young together with migrants starting their long southerly journeys. 

After seeing just handfuls of hirundines in the area of Conder Green and Glasson for several weeks, this morning’s increase in numbers was very noticeable. At Conder Green hirundines could be watched arriving from the north-west and flying directly over the pool before continuing south. I skipped the obligatory look on the pool and motored on up to Glasson Dock where Swallows and Sand Martins were feeding over the yacht basin, all the time flying steadily east and south-east towards Conder Green. 

Swallow

It’s hard to put a guesstimate together but perhaps 150 Swallows and 30 Sand Martin. At Glasson it appeared that the Swallows breeding under the road bridge finally have youngsters to show for their efforts with 4 fresh youngsters waiting to be fed while exercising their wings. Those are spots of rain on the youngster’s back, the photo taken at an un-summery ISO800. 

Swallow

Swallow

 Swallow

On the yacht basin a Great Crested Grebe and 5 Tufted Duck, while on the towpath, 3 Pied Wagtail and 2 Grey Wagtail. 

Pied Wagtail

 Grey Wagtail

There are token counts from Conder Green as the strong wind put many waders out of sight in the lee of the island and kept passerines low: 120 Redshank, 26 Lapwing, 6 Curlew, 5 Common Sandpiper, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Little Egret, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Stock Dove. 

Lapwing

A real surprise was finding an adult Knot on the island. The Knot was some 100 yards from the nearest viewing point and hence the poor photo, but good enough to appreciate where the full title of “Red Knot” originates. The Knot is more strictly a winter-grey shore bird found in huge numbers in Morecambe Bay but rarely on a pool such as the one at Conder Green. So unusual is the record that I captured it for posterity. 

 Knot (and Lapwing)

There are still 2 Common Terns, a male and a female. I made some drawings of Common Terns via FotoSketcher by converting the original digital images to sketches. The photos were taken in poor light and not good enough to use as blog photographs but they work quite well in depicting the “jizz”, the aerodynamics and flight postures of a Common Tern. 

Common Tern

Common Tern

Common Tern

Blog readers from Wednesday will know I set about researching the local place name of Crimbles, part of the Cockerham area. 

Crimbles

It seems the name may be a derivative of very old (1300-1500) North of England words such as “cruma” or “crymel” meaning a small piece, a scrap, a small section of land. Both words also had plural forms. This particular part of land is split north and south by the River Cocker and historically subject to high tide floods from the marshes to the north and west. A description of how the land appeared on a daily basis all those years ago would appear to be the explanation as to how the name of “Crimbles” came about.  

Like I said, Crimbles is nothing to do with Christmas or food, unless of course the word “crumb” comes into play? 

There will be more crumbs of comfort from Another Bird Blog very soon. Book your place now.

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

Dim And Distant

It was yet another murky, grey and overcast start today, the third such day on the trot, conditions which are far from ideal for studying the autumn’s visible migration, so today's post definitely has something of a a grey theme about it.

In the past few days I’ve noted a trickle of Meadow Pipits, an obvious influx of Chiffchaffs and for me at least a noticeable movement of Skylarks. Today I gave Conder Green some serious stick without turning very much up and then finished off with a look at Lane Ends, Pilling. Through the gloom of Conder Pool I could see that the numbers of Little Grebe had increased to 11 birds; the site has become something of a winter stronghold for the species in recent years. There are six grebes in the photo below, the camera taking the picture at ISO4000 after I set the ISO speed to “auto” to account for the gloom. 

Little Grebe

Also on the pool, 4 Wigeon, 3 Cormorant, 5 Little Egret and 8+ Teal. I waited for the Kingfisher to appear and although it obliged, that picture was also taken at ISO4000 - not good. The second picture was taken in exactly the same spot on a much brighter morning some months ago. The moral is perhaps to forget photography on such dim and gloomy days. 

Kingfisher

 Kingfisher

The roadside creeks held a single Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Curlew, 1 Lapwing, 18 Redshank, 1 Ruff, and another 25 Teal. “Bush bashing” along the old railway path turned up a single Chiffchaff, several Robins and a couple of calling Chaffinch, not much evidence of new arrivals. It was good to find a large flock of Goldfinch, at least 140 birds along the edge of the marsh but very flighty between there and the tall trees beyond the car park. 

At Glasson I counted the wildfowl on the yacht basin - 80 Coot and 25 Tufted Duck, plus the obligatory Grey Heron. Two Grey Wagtails here were the only signs of new arrivals. 

Grey Heron

Grey Wagtail

I arrived at Lane Ends in time to see many noisy skeins of Pink-footed Geese heading back out to the marsh - no doubt disturbed from a feeding spot inland by farming activities. At least 1400 birds, without counting those distant on the marsh which didn't set off inland at dawn. 

On the east pool, the only open water now visible, 7 Shoveler and a single Little Grebe. Otherwise, 2 Meadow Pipits and a single Grey Wagtail below the sea wall plus a Great-spotted Woodpecker and 2 Jays in the woodland. 

Shoveler

More news and colourful pictures soon from Another Bird Blog. 

After The Jubilee

It was “cool” start today, but here I’m not referring to Cool Brittania, my state of mind, behaviour or general feeling of well-being, but as usual on Another Bird Blog, the poverty of the British weather. It was so unwarm this morning I reverted to a bobble hat and three layers on the top half of my body’s rapidly fading ex-Mediterranean tan. 

Thirty plus House Martins at Lane Ends kicked off the morning as they fed in the lee of the plantation and over the sea wall where they had found a glut of insects. Maybe the insects were leftovers from last night, where the creatures found themselves drawn to the flame of a beacon lit by the people of Pilling for Her Majesty. 60 years of travelling the globe to exotic destinations; what a bird list she could have by now if only she had taken her bins and a good set of field guides: as usual I digress to matters less important than birding, but 4 days without proper news on TV is enough, without the added affront of 30 minutes of Paul McCartney. 

June is when the Starlings begin to flock, and there must have been 170+ of a herd of those brown, unlovely things, squawking for food from parents too slow to send their kids off to fend for themselves. Two Reed Warblers singing this morning, with a Blackcap and now silence from the Willow Warbler. More squawking came from the Jays busying themselves in making trouble for the nesting birds. 

Up towards Pilling Water I got a trio of surprises in the shapes of 2 singing Corn Buntings and an unseasonal Grey Wagtail. In other Junes I’ve seen singing Corn Buntings along here and I reckon they are loser males from elsewhere that either failed to find a girl, or refugees from nests destroyed in early cut silage fields; trouble is they don’t seem to get a lot of joy along here and pretty soon they move on. Can’t explain the appearance of a Grey Wagtail but nice to see all the same, as was a singing Meadow Pipit, the first here since the migrants sang briefly in April. 

Grey Wagtail

Corn Bunting

This was as good as it got, so I made my way up to Cockerham, Braides Farm and the high tide. Lots of Skylarks here, with at least 8 singing males with 3 birds seen feeding young, unfortunately for me all of those in rough, cattle-filled fields where ringers fear to tread. 

 Skylark

 

Many of the young Lapwings are now large enough to run and even break into flight, with the first signs of post-breeding flocking being a gang of 15-20 birds doing so. A good count of Curlew here with a count of 45 birds, probably all adults as any young will still be on the fells or fields. A couple of oddities here too with a single Wigeon on the sea and 2 drake Teal hiding in the ditches until the tide moved them. I hardly ever count the Shelduck here, but looking through them in the distance revealed the Wigeon and also a posse of Eider, 2 males and 4 females, the colourful males displaying to more brown, unlovely things. 

Eider 

After the celebrations most folk go back to work tomorrow. I’m afraid that for me for me it’s just more birding, but someone has to do it.

Double Take

I took a look at a couple of places this morning, first Rawcliffe Moss and secondly the group’s ringing site near Myerscough where whilst I was away in Cyprus Will busied himself with putting seed out, altering a few mist net rides and clearing the remains of bramble stalks, the ringers enemy.

At least one Little Owl is pretty much guaranteed when I visit Rawcliffe Moss where this morning the most regular spot didn’t disappoint when a single bird sat puffed up the against the biting cold in the overhead trees.

Little Owl

A Kestrel hung about near the barn, no doubt looking for unwary mice and rats that scuttle about when things seem quiet. I parked up alongside the feeding track where 15 Woodpigeon and 2 Yellowhammers were the closest birds searching for spillage under the shooter’s seed hopper. Further along the hedge I could see 4 Blackbirds attacking the hawthorn berries as a couple more flew from there across to the wood. Slowly I walked the track, close to the hedge so as not to disturb the feeding Tree Sparrows, Chaffinches and bits and bobs that hang about with them. Eventually they flew in groups over to their refuge hedge, 130 Tree Sparrow and 10 or 12 Chaffinch only, with a couple of Blue and Great Tits and a Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Woodpigeon

I walked north disturbing 2 Brown Hare buried deep in the rough grass and they shot away over the embankment, until up near the plantation I could see 2 Buzzards being harried by the crows which always give the game away for the Buzzards who just like to wait in a convenient tree for a passing meal.

In the plantation where only a month or so ago we ringed many birds, the frosted net rides yielded 4 Chaffinch and 2 Wren but the pool was frozen solid. With so little doing I headed off towards Myerscough but stopped off to survey the River Wyre at Town End where it is partly tidal but ice floes reached across and along the water. As I stood taking a picture of the solid river a lone Fieldfare chuckled away from the hawthorns behind me and a lone Mistle Thrush watched proceedings.

River Wyre

Will had been energetic, the feeding station at Myerscough held 60 to 70 Chaffinch, 6 Tree Sparrow, at least 20 Blackbird, 3 Song Thrush, 5 Robin and 1 Grey Wagtail, with a couple of Goldfinch nearby, and an overflying Grey Heron.

Song Thrush
Tree Sparrow

Things are looking up for a ringing session, all we need is for the snow to stay away and the early morning roads to remain ice free - that’s not a lot to ask is it?.

It's Those Finches Again

I looked at some of the recent migration counts of Chaffinch and Brambling from Falsterbo Bird Observatory, Sweden, where to simplify the vast counts of two species that often travel together, the totals are lumped together -19th September 20,000 Chaffinch/Brambling, 20th September 24,000, 21st September 25,000, a count of 52,000 on 22nd September, and a huge 85,000 today. In recent days local observers and vis mig enthusiasts closer to home in both the Pennines and the Lancaster area have also picked up on the fact that Chaffinches are moving both on an earlier date but also in large numbers for the time of year, something first noted on Another Bird Blog on September 8th.

With for instance over 11 million pairs of Chaffinch in Sweden, and up to 20 million pairs in Finland we can be pretty sure that some of the Chaffinch we have caught in recent weeks are part of the huge movement of Chaffinches through Falsterbo. But it is only in the deeper months of the year, particularly during cold weather on the continent, that we tend to catch the longer winged birds of central and Eastern Europe that are more certainly separable from the current normal sized birds. In fact this autumn we have yet to catch a Chaffinch with a wing length bigger than 90mm and it is a little early for us to catch a Brambling, a species which gradually replaces Chaffinch in the northern parts of their combined range.

Brambling

Will and I hoped to explore this phenomenon a little more today so we arrived at Rawcliffe Moss in time to alter our net configuration with the intention of catching even more migrating Chaffinch. It’s important to say that our ringing site isn’t a baited feeding site, just a 7 or 8 year old plantation set alongside a track across the moss. We took a chance on the marginal weather forecast, and it wasn’t the best morning for diurnal migration with too much heavy cloud, spits of rain and a threat of heavy showers, but we set to with 4 x 18metre nets. Unfortunately we were rained off at 0930 by a heavy shower and black clouds but not before we managed to catch 29 new birds and once again, no retraps.

Our total, 18 Chaffinch, 6 males and 12 females, 4 Meadow Pipit, 3 Reed Bunting, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Wren and 4 Coal Tit. That is our first significant catch of Coal Tits this autumn and it will be interesting to see the numbers we catch in the next month or two of this irruptive species.

Chaffinch
Chaffinch – Adult female
Chaffinch – Adult Tail
Coal Tit
Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit

The birding was fairly slow this morning, again a result of the less than ideal conditions. Two Tawny Owls calling from the nearby woods vied with calling Grey Partridges to be first in our notebooks, while both female and a male Sparrowhawks hunted through the plantation but failed to find our nets.

Visible migration of our target species Chaffinch and Meadow Pipit was difficult to estimate with birds seemingly adapting to the rapidly shifting cloud and rain formations as they arrived and left to all directions, but we counted approximately 150 Chaffinch and 80 Meadow Pipits. Other “vis mig” came in the form of 275 Swallow, 25 House Martin, 3 Grey Wagtail, 4 alba wagtail, 4 Siskin, 1 Redpoll, 20 Snipe, 60 Golden Plover and 40 Skylark, but 60 Goldfinch, 15 Linnet and 3 Jays were local birds of the immediate area.

Grey Wagtail
Siskin

Arrivals And Departures

All my birding spots are a bit like a UK airport or train station at the moment, bodies everywhere, arriving from all directions and leaving generally in a southerly direction towards the Mediterranean, or alternatively just hanging around and feeding up until it’s the time is right to go. Or, more likely in the in the current clear days and night conditions, many are on the move but fly unseen and unheard at 30 thousand feet with no reason to break their journeys.

The Swallows were clearly building up for departure this morning when I counted many parties of them on my way through Stalmine and Pilling, gathered on overhead wires as they chattered away to each other before some set off in flurries of excitement in mock departures to nowhere in particular, circling around for a while and then joining back with the rest of the assembly. It must be the continued fine weather that gets them going, both the urge to migrate and the enthusiasm they display, but there is no doubt something was in the hirundine air this morning.

Swallow
Swallow
Swallow

I had an hour or two before babysitting duties so made my way to Lane Ends to walk the wall. There were Swallows and House Martins on the move here, with birds flying low over the salt marsh, heading west but pausing occasionally to rest up on the remains of a tree left on the marsh by recent high tides. I counted at least 140 Swallows and 25 House Martins, and whilst I half expected a Hobby to appear in the warm and calm conditions, the best I could muster was the usual Peregrine sat (or is that stood) a distance out on the marsh where it remained for the next hour or so. I guess the Peregrine had already eaten because it seemed in no hurry to eat again. The pools gave me 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Little Egret late departing the sometimes roost and the now resident but elusive Kingfisher. I had a couple of Grey Wagtails over plus 3 “albas” and 2 rasping Snipe as they flew high towards Cockerham.

Along the sea wall it was a Meadow Pipit and wagtail morning with 30+ Meadow Pipits seemingly off-passage for a while, feeding in the area of Pilling Water and the UU dump. Likewise I found three Pied Wagtails here with a single Grey Wagtail and 2 more calling overhead, plus a single Wheatear on the rocks. Finches today were 25 Goldfinch and 15 Linnet, and I almost forgot, one calling but hopefully more than a single Greenfinch at Lane Ends.

Meadow Pipit
Pied Wagtail
Grey Wagtail

A biggish count again of 11 Little Egrets here, plus the two earlier Lane Ends birds reflects the counts in North Lancashire and elsewhere this autumn as the species goes from strength to strength. Even the cold winter has not dented this bird’s growing population. I didn’t trespass to see the Greenshanks today, I didn’t fancy panicking 100 Red-legged Partridge, the numerous fattened-up Mallard and the wild and wary Teal, but even from the wall I clocked the Green Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and 2 Reed Buntings.

Reed Bunting

A very pleasant and productive hour or two, and even the babysitting wasn’t entirely without birds when “sans bins” I saw 3 Little Egrets on Knott End shore while waiting to treat Olivia to a ferry ride to Fleetwood. We certainly know how to live it up in these parts.

Random Resolutions

I guess I wasn’t the only one snowed and iced in today unable to get out birding. A good opportunity to deal with other birdy tasks whilst chucking seed out for the garden Chaffinch and the back door Robin. Also a chance to think about things I must do in 2010.

Icy Mallards

Snowy Chaffinch

I sent off to the BTO my end of year Nest Records for 2009 that included Tree Sparrows, a few waders and warblers, but mainly 20 Swallow nests. Those nests had 83 eggs which later led to 79 hatched young, of which 76 fledged. And that is a 95% success rate, the 5% failure caused by the comparative failure of one latish nest. My own Swallows obviously had a fairly good year, reflected elsewhere I believe. In fact it’s not that long before Swallows return, even less time before other species respond to the lengthening days and only a matter of weeks when I can start up my nest recording again. This year I set myself the objective of recording more nests than last.

The picture below is of fledged Swallows taken with my old Nikon Coolpix back in late July while checking some of those nests. Because the birds were barely fledged they were oblivious to my presence, enabling to me to get close with the standard 50mm lens, but what a pose they struck in trying to be invisible within the dark little room from where they fledged via the ledge on the door.

Fledgling Swallows

That Nikon, a bit of a stop gap while I waited for digital photography to evolve slower and in a slightly less expensive manner, was ok for landscape or family photography but really couldn’t cut the mustard for birds. For months I waited for the price of cameras and lenses to come down so that I could include some photography with my birding or ringing and begin a bird blog; Then in early August my new Canon arrived and within a day I photographed Swallows again when I was astounded by the speed and quality of the camera/lens combination and the resolution of the images. The picture below was one of the first I took with my new Canon when a whole bunch of mainly juvenile Swallows just perched up for me on a convenient metal rail at Pilling Water. If only I had this camera available for the previous shot!

Swallow

As you do, hoping to improve on the duff shots I later found, I went back in the coming days but the Swallows did not do the same thing again and as happens often, photo opportunities occur once.

So for the coming year I resolve to a) go out as often as possible b) always take the camera c) always have the camera ready for action d) take hundreds of shots just to be on the safe side, because most never ever turn out as good as you might hope.

This blog isn’t just about birding or photography. I have ringed birds for 25 years but the pleasure and privilege of doing so will remain with me for ever. It is not just the handling of the birds at close quarters; it is the real feeling that ringing contributes to our knowledge about birds. I had reason to look in The Migration Atlas the other day where once again I was astounded by the depth and scale of the information contained therein; a phenomenal achievement of the BTO and each volunteer ringer or bird recorder who contributed to it. If anyone out there doesn’t have this book I suggest they not only treat themselves with some of that left over Christmas cash, but importantly dip into this book often, as I intend to do in 2010.

The Good Book

With some of my Christmas cash I bought a portable USB Hard Drive to store my ever increasing number of pictures and give my sluggish PC a break. At 320 GB the HDD plugged into my PC tower is slimmer than a notebook and the size of a postcard. I’m told it will store enough pictures to keep me going for a while and I have resolved to now keep all my pictures in correctly labelled folders according to bird families or species groups etc. Impressed?

So in the course of transferring some files I found the next picture of a Sanderling as one I overlooked to post a week or two ago. Although similar to others and I did take dozens, this one captures a bird taking a morsel of food in its slightly deformed bill as the gale force winds fluff out its insulating belly feathers. It was a lucky find, a combination of circumstances, the cold and wind kept people indoors, the tide ran in to float the right food into the Sanderling’s path and I was there to watch them at close quarters. How fortunate is that?

Sanderling

Below is probably my most photographed bird of 2009 Grey Wagtail, mainly because of obliging birds that kept popping up in front of my camera in September and October. Who could resist taking more pictures of a Grey Wagtail? Therefore I’m not promising there will not be more Grey Wagtail photos this year.

Grey Wagtail

Today I also caught up with some Birdtrack records and keeping up with that input must be one of my New Year pledges, but I’m not daft enough to mention any others on here just in case someone holds me to them.