Return To Ringing

The car headed east towards the hills of Oakenclough where I was meeting Andy for my first ringing session since returning from holiday in Lanzarote. There was a slight frost with both clear skies and the radio forecast promising a sunny day ahead. 

Andy had managed a successful catch of 40 birds in between bouts of wind, rain and mild temperatures before the frost and snow of late January; today would be our first opportunity to gauge the effect of a week or more of colder weather. 

Our four hours proved to be rather slow in both activity and numbers caught whereby we speculated that birds had moved from this high ground location to more urban locations a mile or three away where the temperatures would be more to their liking. We caught just 25 birds, 21 new ones and 4 recaptures, figures which support the idea of birds moving away from the site if only temporarily. 

New birds: 8 Blue Tit, 6 Great Tit, 3 Chaffinch and singles each of Goldfinch, Lesser Redpoll, Coal Tit and Robin. Recaptures: 2 Chaffinch and 1 each of Robin and Coal Tit. 

Lesser Redpoll - first winter female

Chaffinch - first winter female

The slow ringing left time to find a number of birds in and around the site. Brief but proper sightings of both female and male Sparrowhawk leaving the same stretch of woodland suggests a pair close by in coming weeks. A pair of Ravens flew overhead croaking as they went. A pair of Pied Wagtails stuck close together on a nearby roof, and on the neighbouring reservoir, 400 Greylags, 60+ Mallard, 7 Tufted Duck and 5 Cormorant. 

In the woodland 10+ Chaffinch, 3+ Siskin and 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker. 

Greylag

Cormorant

There’s more birding, ringing or photography or Lanzarote soon on Another Bird Blog.

In The Bag

Not a bad morning. A spot of birding, another Wheatear in the bag and I even nailed the reluctant Kingfisher.

The forecast was for a sunny day so I headed for Conder and Glasson but as the windscreen wipers drew back and forth I wondered if I’d made the right decision. The rain was quite steady at Conder Green where an initial look into the creek revealed the usual wader suspects and their by now consistent numbers - 2 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 5 Common Sandpiper, 4 Snipe, 28 Redshank, 4 Curlew. 

The Lapwings seemed flighty this morning, not just those around the pool but the ones hidden from view near the canal. Their regular eruptions into the air before settling back down allowed a count of more than 150. Herons and wildfowl remain the same with 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 5 Little Grebe, 2 Great Crested Grebe and 2 Wigeon. 

A Cormorant dropped in to feed, those are raindrops in the photo, the ISO at 800, and both I and the camera were getting wet. Time to head off to Glasson and bird via the car until the rain stopped. 

Cormorant

Seven Pied Wagtails and 2 Grey Wagtails near the Glasson car park with a Grey Heron on the far jetty and about 60 Swallows feeding over the water. 

I took a few rain spotted pictures of the resident but far from tame Tufted Ducks, their wary eyes watching my every move. I rather admire our commonplace and largely ignored UK Tufted Duck, a duck of town and city parks with ornamental lakes and ponds. But the Tufty is also a highly migratory beast whereby their numbers increase in the UK in winter as birds move here to escape the cold winters of Iceland and northern Europe. The numbers at Glasson Dock will swell from the present 15/20 to nearer 80/90 during the winter months. 

Tufted Duck

The sky was brightening a little so I made my way back to Conder Green. 

Looking North from Conder Green

At the pool a Kingfisher was surveying the scenery and fishing the waters. Don't forget to "click the pics" for close-up views of the Kingfisher.

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

There's nothing much to add to the earlier numbers of birds except that both Common Terns took their share of the tiny fish on offer and then returned to their nest on the island where they fed the hidden from view youngsters.

There was time for Pilling Marsh where I found Buzzard, Kestrel, Greenshank, 7 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and 5 Wheatears. One Wheatear, a juvenile of 96mm and 25.1 grams, succumbed to the temptation of a meal worm. 

Pilling Marsh

 Wheatear

Wheatear - juvenile

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Linking this post to Anni's Blog, Eileen's Saturday and Weekend Reflections.

Mainly Swallows

A bright and breezy morning coupled with an incoming tide meant a quick look at Knott End for me. The packed-like sardines Oystercatchers numbered about 1200 today, with a single Sanderling and 12 Knot for company. Just 8 Eider on the sea and several Swallows on the move. 

There was a Darvic ringed Greylag wandering about the jetty, the bird totally ignoring passers-by, and if a long time ago it was ringed as a free-flying wild goose it seems to have taken a shine to Knott End and doesn’t look like going anywhere soon. It had a BTO ring on the right leg, number 515221 if anyone wishes to claim ownership. I took the picture with my tiny Panasonic, that’s how tame the goose was. 

Greylag

At Fluke Hall lots of Dunlin, Ringed Plover and Lapwing were scattered along the shore, too distant to count. Through the woodland drive all I could muster were Kestrel, Great-spotted Woodpecker and Grey Heron. Lane Ends next where a male Sparrowhawk took exception to a Kestrel hovering over the plantation and after battling it out for a minute or two the tiny hawk let the Kestrel have the territory. On the pools, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron.

Sparrowhawk and Kestrel

At Pilling Water I found 80+ Goldfinch, 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Linnet and 6 Wheatears. After jumping around the shore rockery for ten minutes or so the gang of Wheatears had vanished, heading off in an unknown direction as I took my eyes off them - it’s what’s known as visible migration, or perhaps in this case, invisible migration. The wildfowlers pools were very quiet with just 3 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Cormorant and a wary Greenshank. 

There were a number of Swallows about, hawking insects over Broadfleet then taking it in turns to rest up in their customary sheltered spot on the sluice gates. I spent 30 minutes or so taking photographs of Swallows, so no apologies for featuring a number of new pics here. After all the Swallow (Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica) is a special bird which will soon wing its way back south and we won’t see them for some months, so let’s take a good look now. 

 Swallow

Swallow

Swallow

Swallow

Swallow

Swallow

 Swallow

Swallow

Swallow

There’s more heavy downpours promised for tomorrow, but with luck there will be no rain so more news and pictures on Another Bird Blog. Today Another Bird Blog is linking up with World Bird Wednesday - see  here.

Play It Cool

I think some birds are responding to the continuing cold weather because on my Knott End to Pilling round this morning I found a few changes to the usual scene. Although the mercury was in the red this morning, it isn’t yet down to the forecast for tonight of minus 10 degrees.

As I passed the abandoned building site at Knott End I could see a lady at the bus stop looking up at the steelwork next to the Bourne Arms, and I reckoned the Black Redstart was still about. After I parked up and went for a peek the woman had got on her bus but the redstart was still there, high up and partly hidden by the steelwork, but as I watched the bird bobbing about it flew across the road and landed on a bungalow roof opposite and then down into someone’s garden. A “good” bird for a garden list, but I don’t think you can count birds seen in other people’s gardens, unless someone knows otherwise.

Black Redstart

I found a couple of rooks in the car park, birds probably from the rookery above the village library. One of the Rooks bore a metal ring, but the bird with the ring proved too wary for me to read the inscription. I imagine there aren’t too many ringers who climb into tall rookeries in order to ring young rooks, so maybe someone has been ringing “branchies” in recent years; stand-by for one of Another Bird Blog’s occasional forays into things culinary. “Branchie” is an old name given to young rooks which leave the nest early and clamber about on nearby branches pending their fledging, until that is an unseasonal wind springs up and deposits them on the ground below the rookery. In some years I used to find a few young rooks under the Singleton Hall rookery and then ring them as 1Js before putting them back on the highest branch I could reach. “Branchies” were also the probable origin of the ancient verse, “Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye, Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” as young Rook meat is said to be very savoury with a similar taste to Wood Pigeon meat.

Rook
Ringed Rook

The stubble at Fluke Hall Lane is frozen solid, and apart from the Jackdaws, there’s nothing much to report, just the usual half a dozen Tree Sparrows and Reed Buntings around the Hi-fly track.

Reed Bunting

The east pool at Lane Ends is now frozen solid, with not a single duck there, just the Mallards on the small patch of unfrozen water on the west pool. A walk through the plantation, taking care not to flatten the Snowdrops, gave a count of 15 + Blackbirds, 2 Redwing, 4 Moorhen and 12+ Chaffinch.

Snowdrops
Lane Ends - Frozen
Chaffinch

As a change of scenery I walked east along the sea wall and logged 3 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, 18 Greylag, with 8 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron flushed from the inland ditches where drainage water still trickles. It was up here I found a party of 18 Meadow Pipits, and on the inland field, 80 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Golden Plover, 10 Dunlin and 300 Curlew.

Greylag

Opposite Gulf Lane was a huge concentration of Pink-footed Geese, maybe 7,000 in all, but alongside the stretch of road where to stop is dangerous, as I found out when I drove slowly along there later to the accompaniment of car horns and angry sideways looks. All these folk rushing about like there’s no tomorrow, why don’t they just relax, chill out and take up birding?

A Stint Of Birding

Four days on from Menorca and I finally managed to get to Pilling for a look at the regular patch and a stint of local birding which began at Lane Ends.

Each year I complain about the lack of Lapwing success so it was great today to see two broods of chicks in the field closest to Lane Ends, one of 3 healthy sized young and a second family of 2 marginally smaller chicks. If only all the attempted nests could produce 3 flyers, the Lapwings might be able to maintain a foothold in the area.

Further up the sea wall I found another pair of Lapwings but with only a single chick, which while delightful to see, is simply not productive enough to sustain a population. The adult birds were as protective as can be but I caught up with the youngster crouching in the grass to ring my first chick of the year. Luckily I had taken my “goodies” bag containing spring traps and “A” rings in the event of tardy Wheatears and “D” rings for any Lapwings I encountered; and of course a camera, pliers, an apple, spare lens, notebook and sundry essentials. That old bag of mine just gets heavier and heavier.

Lapwing
Lapwing chick

My morning had started well and improved with that rarity a Cuckoo calling from the trees at Lane Ends, a single bird that equalled my count of Cuckoos in two weeks of Menorca watching where in May many migrant Cuckoos should pass through the island. The Cuckoo’s decline is not just UK centered, but seems universal and related to problems in its wintering areas in Africa.

Also singing well were Blackcap, Reed Warbler and Willow Warbler. On the pools were hidden but trilling Little Grebes and a single silent Tufted Duck, no doubt waiting for the emergence of its mate with ducklings. Weeks ago a couple of Greylags sat tight on island nests but today revealed the extent of their subterfuge when I counted a crèche of 26 young of various sizes that on closer inspection obviously came from 3 separate broods such were the differences in their proportions.

Greylag
Greylag

Out on the marsh a single Whimbrel looked out of place with Shelduck and Lapwings for company but no Curlew for comparison. I plodded on up to Pilling Water with marsh dwelling Oystercatchers, Lapwings and Redshanks for company, the oyks and shanks yet to produce young as normally they are a week or two later than the Lapwings.

I flushed a couple of Pied Wagtails from near Pilling Water, and a Grey Heron that exploded from the margins of the ditch, hidden from my view but obviously more alert than I could be.

There were more Lapwings and Oystercatchers on Hi-fly fields, some clearly sat on nests but with green shoots emerging and no further ploughing on the cards I think and hope there may be a little more wader success soon.

Oystercatcher

I found a couple of Black-tailed Godwit on the pool, and a Redshank, and then running around their gigantic feet a tiny excuse for a proper wader, a Little Stint. Trying not to disturb the birds but get at least a record shot I manoeuvred into a spot where I might get a picture. Against the light and into the pool reflections the pics aren’t perhaps too bad considering the amount of cropping. The adult bird was naturally much more wary than any juveniles encountered in August and September.

Little Stint

A very enjoyable couple of hours and spring is wonderful, but I wish the wind would drop and let us get ringing soon.

How Do They Do That?

It’s only January 13th but this morning I saw a Collared Dove carrying nest material, a small twig, into a tall, dense roadside conifer. Just yesterday I swear a female Blackbird was weighing up the possibilities near the top of a garden conifer, a spot where Blackbirds built last year until a spring gale toppled the nest sideways. We know birds have in-built compasses that help them migrate, but they must also recognise the lengthening days as the North Pole tilts closer to the sun, then use their 365 day clock as a prompt to when they should begin the beguine with the opposite sex?

And I must admit, temperatures have climbed a bit in the last day or two, sufficient to activate the sap to rise perhaps, and definitely enough to finally thaw the pools at Lane Ends, even if that’s left us instead grey, gloomy and rain sodden. The pools held 3 Goldeneye today, the first I have seen there for some months, today a male and two females. I never ever see Goldeneye arrive or leave here, and if danger arrives they simply dive then surface further away, and they must come and go during darkness or near dark only.

Goldeneye

From the sea wall I counted 26 Whooper Swans heading off inland, and on the inland, now very wet field, 90+ Greylag and half a dozen Pink-footed Geese, several Curlew and 2 Black-tailed Godwits. A short walk along the wall revealed 2 Little Egret, 2 Reed Bunting and a single Meadow Pipit.

Greylag

I spent more time at Fluke Hall this morning, looking in the wet fields, the wood and the hedgerows and got pretty healthy counts, helped by the local Buzzard that flew a couple of sorties around its patch. As the Buzzard soared over, pursued by a posse of Jackdaws, even the ground hugging Red-legged Partridge panicked to such a degree that I managed to count 90+ heading for the safety of the Fluke Hall trees. Also here in the wet and partially flooded stubble, and flushed off during the Buzzard/Jackdaw fracas were 380 Lapwing, 70 Redshank, 450 Jackdaw, 135 Woodpigeon and 4 Stock Dove, with 2 Redwing and 3 Tree Sparrows pushed out from the roadside hedge. Rather strangely a single drake Wigeon sat on the Fluke Hall pool with the Mallards, but this may be the same injured bird I saw on the marsh a week or so ago that dived into the creeks to escape my rescue attempts.

Buzzard
Stock Dove

The fields behind Fluke Hall and up to and including Ridge Farm were awash with Pink-footed Geese, still finding old spuds down in the furrows where Lapwings hung about waiting for the geese to unearth animal goodies. I reckoned on something like 2000+ geese keeping out of range of guns and cameras, but with their comings and goings and general noise, it was the normal visual spectacle and aural treat.

Well I hope the weather picks up and allows a spot of ringing, but the BBC forecast for the next three days is dire, truly awful. But then last night’s prediction wasn’t too good, nor the one as late as 8am this morning, but in fact the morning was pretty bright with a hint of sun and not nearly as bad as the experts predicted. How do they do that?

Wheeling Around

I couldn’t get out ringing again this morning, but it looks like Sunday may be a good morning for another try. In the meantime I thought that a walk along the coast checking out a few spots would be the best bet, even though the visible migration of earlier in the week may have begun easing off for now, particularly with the overnight increase to virtually full cloud cover and a strengthening north westerly predicted tomorrow.

I wondered if the decision was the right one when I stepped out of the back door to see a Redwing at the top of the sycamore in my neighbour’s garden. As it turned out, that was the only Redwing I would see in the whole morning.

First I stopped at Wheel Lane for the geese spectacular; who wouldn’t? The early Whooper Swans were back on the scene with 9 of them plus a Mute Swan. The swans were surrounded by Black-headed Gulls and Jackdaws, but encircled by mainly Pink-footed Geese, with good numbers of Greylag, all of them drawn in by the food put down by the wildfowlers. In the massive feeding flock and constant movement it’s pretty nigh impossible to count out the Greylags from the pinkies, but with the numbers here and out on the marsh today my estimate remains at 20,000 geese. That includes 9 Barnacle Geese that were out on the marsh with the majority of the pink-feet.

Whooper Swan
Whooper Swan, Greylag and Pink-footed Goose
Barnacle Goose

The Barnacle Goose picture is by John James Audubon the great American naturalist, author of his life's work The Birds of America. This book contained life-sized portraits of 1,065 individual birds, and was published in four volumes between 1827 and 1838. He was a self-taught artist and naturalist, who became a legend for his paintings, which for the first time depicted birds in natural habitats and poses. In 1886 a bird preservation organization took his name and the body later evolved into the National Audubon Society. Audubon also began the first known bird ringing on the American continent: he tied yarn to the legs of Eastern Phoebes and found that they returned to the same nesting spots year after year.

The resident Kestrel hung about at the vantage points near Wheel Lane where I guess all that ground food leads to a more than a few unwary mammals and birds fit for a hungry Kestrel.

Kestrel

I gave Lane Ends a bit of a bashing but all I could find was a couple of Blackbirds, 11 Goldfinch, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, 6 Chaffinch, 6 Robin and from the call, a probable Scandinavian Chiffchaff. There was a second Kestrel here, hunting and hovering around the car park.

Robin

I walked towards Pilling but the “vis” was pretty much non-existent, with just a couple of Meadow Pipits and 18 Skylarks overhead and a single Snipe which came off the inland field.

At Pilling Water I counted 7 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron with 15 Teal and a Greenshank in the outflow channel. But out here on the sea wall were geese in all directions, geese to the left of me, geese to the right of me and geese flying constantly back and forth. Suddenly I remembered the stranger I saw at Lane Ends a few days ago who earnestly asked me about the whereabouts of Lapland Buntings and told me that most of the birders he had met there recently were “only looking at the geese”.

Teal
”The Geese”