Birding Rerun

The Common Terns at Conder Green had me well and truly fooled on Wednesday when all seemed silent and deserted on their nesting island and around about. There was no sign or sound of the pair for the thirty or so minutes I was there and neither was the male at Glasson Dock, one of his regular fishing spots last year. 

The female must have been hunkered down against the cold wind and out of sight of prying eyes because when I looked again on Thursday morning there she was as large as life, stood just a metre or so from where clutch of eggs lie. Two minutes later the male flew in and joined his mate. I guess things are OK after all, especially if the weather improves as promised. 

Common Tern

On the pool things were much the same with most of the noise and action coming from the several pairs of Oystercatchers and Redshanks. By contrast the few pairs of Tufted Ducks here are less obvious in their low-key courtship and breeding rituals. The males are in fine condition at the moment with splendid pony-tails of feathers falling from their crowns of glossy purple. I watched as one called quietly to a nearby female which had floated off from the shore; I swear he was trying to coax her back to a nest.

 

Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

There was a Grey Heron along one bank, a displaying Meadow Pipit and a single Stock Dove, a dove which seems to be a summer visitor only here but a species which breeds in tree holes and woodland close-by. In contrast to the day before there was just a handful of Swifts and House Martins. 

A walk along the canal proved fruitful for warblers by way of 3 Reed Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 1 Chiffchaff and not quite a warbler but a “brown job” in the shape of male and female Reed Buntings.

Mute Swans breed here every year, this year at least two pairs along the canal. 

Mute Swan

Swallows are nesting under the road bridge again this year, a dark and dismal place with a steady flow of traffic trundling a few feet above the hidden nests. The Swallows are still at the construction stage, collecting nesting material from the nearby car park where there are muddy edged puddles-a-plenty. A few House Martins joined in harvesting the mud, the martins flying back to houses in Glasson village 50 yards away. 

House Martin

Barn Swallow

The Swallow in the picture below is an adult male singing and not a juvenile begging for food. There will be no fledglings for about 3 weeks if all goes to the Swallows’ normal timetable. 

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

On the way home through Pilling and Cockerham were a Buzzard and 2 Kestrels plus a male and a female Sparrowhawk flying close together and on the same heading. The male carried food but from the road it was impossible to see where they were bound.

I was headed home, my limited time up, but there’s more news and views soon from Another Bird Blog.

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

Better Late Birding

The morning started well with a 7 o’clock Kestrel and then a Barn Owl alongside the A588 road at Pilling, the main route between Pilling and Lancaster City. It’s a road infamous for traffic accidents. Sue’s hairdresser’s father was a recent victim, a fatality following a car and motorbike collision at the notorious junction of Head Dyke Lane and Lambs Lane. 

It’s best not to linger along this road as vehicles rush past full of folk desperate to reach their place of work, early or late. There’s a saying of “It's better to be late in this world than early in the next”, sound advice which few seem to heed. Luckily the owl stayed adjacent to the road and wisely decided not to tangle with the headlong traffic. 

Barn Owl

I was heading up to Conder Green for a look-see at a place I’d not visited for some weeks.

There’s been recent talk of a pair of Common Terns returning to breed again after their success in 2014 and following an absence from the Lune of several years. Best not to count the chickens or terns too early because there was no sign of Common Terns this morning and no surprise following the horrendous weather of last week, in particular the storm of Sunday evening and the official start of Summer. Maybe the terns will return with the warm weather promised soon? 

Species looking to breeding in the area of the pool and creeks this year seem to be mainly Oystercatcher with 8/10 individuals, 6+ Redshank, 3 pairs of Shelduck, 2 pairs of Tufted Duck and the obligatory Mute Swans. 

Oystercatcher

A male Shelduck has a female on a nest somewhere on the marsh. He took great exception to a Goosander feeding in the channel, the Goosander feeding quietly away until the Shelduck dived into the water to aggressively chase the interloper away. 

Goosander

In the stiff breeze passerine activity was low with just Reed Bunting, Sedge Warbler and 2 Pied Wagtails noteworthy. Swifts and House Martins have been late this year so it was good to note better numbers of both this morning in upwards of 15 Swifts over the hedgerow and 20+ House Martins together with 2 Sand Martins over the marsh.

Some of the House Martins were collecting construction materials and prospecting their regular breeding spots under the eaves of the house and café adjacent to the railway bridge. 

House Martin

Time will tell whether the House Martins are welcome this year following pitiful attempts to frighten them off by some rather mean spirited folk. It’s a café I once visited where the coffee was tepid and undrinkable. I never returned there anyway so am in no position to impose a boycott should the residents decide to harass the martins. 

A few hours later I drove back to Pilling and Fluke Hall when the morning traffic had moderated. There’s an extra danger to incautious drivers along this road in recent years by way of wild deer spreading from inland to take up residence nearer the coast. As I walked alongside Fluke Hall wood two Roe Deer erupted from the field margin, sprinted across the field and vaulted over a fence some 50 yards away. There’s no point in trying to follow wild deer after such an encounter; they just melt away again. 

Roe Deer

In and close to the woodland - 4 singing Whitethroat, a Nuthatch, 2 Song Thrush, 3 Stock Dove and legions of Blackbirds and Goldfinches. Somewhat strangely there was no sign of the Kestrels and Buzzards so active before my recent time away in Menorca. Judging by the mess around the Mistle Thrush nest there had been some success. 

More birds were along the stretch of seawall and marsh.  A late female Wheatear, a single Icelandic brick-toned Black-tailed Godwit, a singing Reed Bunting and a feeding flock of about 20 House Martins. 

Black-tailed Godwit - by Koshy Koshy [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

These House Martins were intent on feeding and ignored the many muddy area nearby where they might collect nesting materials so I thought they could well be very late arrivals. But better late than never.

So far there are no House Martins in our avenue where in a normal and warm year five or six pairs of House Martins set up home. Such is the late and poor start to Summer we have endured in coastal Lancashire. 

There will be more news and views soon from Another Bird Blog. 

Birding Menorca Style

Two weeks in Menorca have flown by with just a rehash of old pictures and pre-scheduled postings for regular blog readers, a lapse for which I apologise. But blogging cannot be a priority when faced with Mediterranean sunshine, places to see and birds to find. So after returning home on Friday I found time to reinvigorate the blog with hopefully a return to near normality. Soon I’ll hit the local patch here in Lancashire again but in the meantime here are some fresh photos from Menorca 2015. 

We based ourselves on the south coast of the island at our preferred resort and favoured hotel where familiar and friendly faces gave the customary Menorcan welcome of hugs and kisses. No wonder we return year after year to this beautiful island. The early season beach was deserted, the sky as blue as can be with familiar birds around the beach and the hotel grounds. 

Menorca in May

Kestrels in Menorca seem much darker than our own, as do the Woodpigeons, Goldfinches, Linnets, Chaffinches and Greenfinches, and one or two other species. It must be something to do with all that sunshine. Taking pictures of the finches is well-nigh impossible after Mediterranean Man’s preference to see and hear the birds in cages. 

Kestrel

Woodpigeon

Newly arrived House Martins were busy collecting strands of sticky, wet seaweed from the beach to use in repairing last year’s nests near the hotel entrance. 

House Martin

The common lizard seen all over the island is the Italian wall lizard Podarcis siculus although they do not easily pose and run for cover if approached, even in the hotel garden. 

Italian wall lizard Podarcis siculus

From the beach bar it’s possible to make friends with one or two Audouin’s Gulls which reappear about 1st May to take advantage of the goodies on offer from the early tourists. Gulls are the same the world over in learning to adapt to man’s waste and untidiness except that this particular rare and endangered gull is especially beautiful. The gull presents something of a challenge to anyone with a camera in capturing the bill of many shades of red in the strong light of a Menorca day. 

Audouin's Gull

Audouin's Gull

Normally there are lots Spotted Flycatchers nearby, our early May visits coinciding with the species main migration time. Not this year, whereby the species seemed rather absent, perhaps early, late or just in smaller numbers from their wintering grounds in southern Africa. 

Spotted Flycatcher

Too soon our first day was all but over with just the Scop’s Owls to entertain us as they always do, regular as clockwork. It’s just a shame that Canon’s red-eye reduction system not doesn’t quite live up to the claim on the box. Not with owls anyway, but we’ll try again tomorrow night. 

 

Scop's Owl

There will be more from Another Bird Blog in Menorca soon when we hit the road in our little Panda.

Menorcan Panda

Also, there’s news from the local patch just as soon as I recover from Mediterranean sunstroke.

Linking today to I'd Rather-b-Birdin and Eileen's Blog.

Swallows And Martins

There's no ecaping the sport today. It's granddaughter Olivia's school Sports Day and all  good innocent fun. So no birding until tomorrow for me. In the meantime here's a few pictures of Swallows and House Martins from Pilling on Monday afternoon.  

Not much to report from a quick visit. A build of post-breeding Lapwings at 60+, and similarly with Curlews at more than 40. Three Grey Plovers made an appearance over the shore where 7 Eider ducks sat out the incoming tide. The usual Kestrels now feeding quite large young and a Tawny Owl at Fluke Hall.

At Pilling Water I found a family of Swallows so spent a while with them. There were 2 adults and 4 recently fledged youngsters, the juveniles reluctant to explore while the adults kept returning with food.   

Barn Swallow

 

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

 Barn Swallow

House Martins do not often settle on the ground but have to do so when collecting material to construct their nests. The incoming tide left patches of muddy sand, an ideal buiding material for House Martins to shore up their mud dwellings. Everywhere is pretty dry at the moment with not many puddles around so the House Martins must have travelled a good 800 metres or more from their nests in Pilling village to collect the sticky stuff. 

House Martins sometimes nest on ships. A pair once nested on board a ship travelling eight times a day between Copenhagen, Denmark and Malmo, Sweden. The crossing between the two ports was 15 miles long.  

House Martin

 

 House Martins

House Martin

Join Another Bird Blog on Wednesday for more birds.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Hard Graft?

I bumped into another birder - PH, at Pilling this morning, who asked me how I managed to bird this stretch of coast from Cockerham to Pilling so often as he found it “hard work”. I suppose the answer is that I’ve been bashing it a long time, know the nooks and crannies, the regular spots where regular birds turn up plus the places where something more unusual might just occur in the range of habitats the patch encompasses. It’s also a good stretch for doing a spot of ringing of waders, Wheatears, sometimes larks and pipits, and just once a brood of Yellow Wagtail chicks. 

Over the years the walk has been kind to me with the occasional icing on the cake of commonality, things like Dotterel, Temminck’s Stint, Lapland Buntings, Firecrest, Avocet, Osprey, Hobbys and recently Montagu’s Harrier to add to the many sightings of Marsh Harrier and the occasional Hen Harrier. Today wasn’t one of those scarcity days, just a common or garden morning and a grand one to be out and about working the local patch, armed of course with a pair of bins and a camera. 

I kicked off at Fluke Hall where a Buzzard was out on the marsh again, presumably the male, and roosting on his customary fence post, well away from the trouble and strife plus growing kids. 

Buzzard

The bright sunny morning induced Blackcaps into song, with three in the Fluke woods and another at the junction of Wheel Lane. Along the same stretch were 4 Whitethroat in song plus plenty of “churring” and “tacking” from the depths of other hawthorn bushes. 

The fields around here are indeed “hard to work”, especially since local farmers appear to have given up growing anything but grass to feed to animals. Nowadays it’s hard to find a field with any kind of vegetable, never mind an expanse of spuds for which Pilling is justly famous. When the silage is cut birds will use the fields to some degree but here’s nothing quite like the turned over soil of a recently harvested crop to get birds interested. 

Past Damside the male Kestrel was in his normal spot, with no sign of the female or young just yet at the nearby nest box. Lane Ends gave up a crèche containing 37 Greylag, 3 Tufted Duck, 1 Cormorant,3 Reed Warbler, 1 Grey Heron and 1 Whitethroat. Lane Ends to Pilling Water produced 2 Corn Bunting, 4 Pied Wagtail, 6 Greenfinch, 7 Goldfinch, 4 Linnet and 1 Meadow Pipit. 

 Greenfinch

18 Swift fed along the sea wall, a good count for recent years, whilst at Pilling Water I watched 6 or 8 House Martins collecting shore mud for their nests some 500 yards away. Now that is hard graft, and birding just a doddle.

House Martin

House Martin

Stay tuned for more birds soon.

Back To Normal

Following a couple of weeks of relaxation and a bit of Med birding today was “goodbye” sunny Menorca of 24⁰ at 11am then “hello” rainy Manchester, 12⁰ at 2pm; from the sublime to the ridiculous.

After sorting through the pile of doorstep mail an early task was switching on the computer, paying online a few urgent bills like my BT Internet, checking emails and then downloading the many photographs I took in Menorca, most not as good as I hoped, for but some passable after a little help from Dr Photoshop.

So until I can get back to normal and catch up with fellow bloggers and followers, here’s a small selection from the last two weeks.

The Bee Eaters are always there, in the same spot, but for such a gregarious species, it is so reluctant to be captured by camera. We saw or heard Bee Eaters every day we went out, small groups mostly, often feeding high overhead in the clear sunny days.

Bee Eater

Menorca had enjoyed an early and hot spring, the wild orchids of April completely finished by early May with seemingly many birds feeding young. We saw many Thekla Larks taking food to young, found Sardinian Warbler nests, watched the House Martins at Galdana collecting mud from the only pool of water, and then in the evenings watched the local pair of Scops Owls mating on several nights.

Sardinian Warbler
Sardinian Warbler
House Martin
Thekla Lark

The Thekla picture didn’t turn out too bad considering I accidentally left the ISO at 3200 after trying for Scops pictures the night before, but my limited skills with Dr Photoshop don’t extend to completely eliminating the obligatory red-eye of close-up owls. Having said that, the owls themselves were absolutely stunning this year, so obliging, regular and predictable that we planned our evenings about their regular 2100 hours timetable and sound show that lasted until 4am.

Scops Owl

So it’s an early night for me too with no photography of nocturnal owls, no wandering the isle of Menorca for bird exotica and instead very much back to the regular UK birds soon; but watch this space for Red-footed Falcon, Audouin’s Gull, Egyptian Vulture, Red Kite etc eventually.

More Spring

It was another cool and breezy morning but I went to Pilling armed with spring traps and mealworms. There was a little gang of 7 Wheatears this morning, more or less together in the usual spots, so I set about trying to catch a few. Just like Saturday, I caught two birds, but this time a male and a female, both juvenile, second calendar year birds.

Wheatear – male, second calendar year
Wheatear – female, second calendar year
Wheatear – female, second calendar year

I didn’t see much else along the sea wall, just the expected handful of Linnets, 2 Little Egret, 2 Kestrel, 55 Redshank and at Lane Ends itself, 3 Willow Warbler plus pairs of Tufted Duck and Little Grebe.

I left Pilling and made my way to Out Rawcliffe to perform a quick top up of the bird feeders. When the winds subside Will and I hope to get out ringing and catch up with more Lesser Redpolls, so we decided to maintain the nyger feeders a little longer for both Redpoll and Goldfinch still coming through the site. I topped up the feeders that swayed from branches in the stiff breeze whilst counting 10 Goldfinch, 4 Lesser Redpoll and a couple of ground feeding Chaffinch. In the plantation were at least 5 singing Willow Warblers and a single Chiffchaff, and as I drove off site, 3 Buzzards and the Little Owl sheltering from the threatening showers and the ever present wind of recent days.

Lesser Redpoll
Little Owl

Back at home the sun broke through, the wind dropped and the recently arrived House Martins circled above. I first saw them two days ago surveying their annual nest site at the big house on the corner- April 4th was a good early sighting for me, just a day behind Swallow on 3rd April.

House Martin

Struggling

Not so much with a bit of local patch news but rather a dilemma to find new photographs after a torrid few hours fighting in the face of a strong westerly with a heavy shower or two thrown into the mix. So the camera stayed in the bag, my baseball hat blew off more once then headed towards Cockerham without me, whilst my notebook had wet, blotchy, blue entries instead of neat pencilled items because I am an adult and don’t use pencils.

A 2pm tide beckoned even though at just over 28ft it was almost certainly a bit of a short arse and wouldn’t reach the necessary height to concentrate any decent numbers of waders. Out from Lane Ends there wasn’t much point in ear birding, listening for birds in competition with the blustery head wind that drowned out all but the nearest sound, but I did note a couple of brave Meadow Pipits. I found a semi sheltered spot and waited, and waited, taking a break by wandering over to the pools when I heard the Green Sandpiper. It was a bit strange when I watched the Green Sandpiper chased off a pool margin by the much smaller Pied Wagtail that continued to dive bomb the wader as it sought refuge in the middle of the pool. As the wagtail continued, the sandpiper flew off further down the pool where it was left in peace. Maybe the almost black and white colouration of the sandpiper combined with its bobbing feeding action led the wagtail to think it had to chase off a very large wagtail?

Teal came in with the tide; I counted 400 flying in, rather than out from the wildfowler’s pools from where they probably spend the darker hours on the easy food menu. Also on the tide, flying about briefly were my first Pintail of the autumn, but only 10. Returning Shelduck plus birds of the year now number more than 60, still way off the eventual winter numbers of course.

I made a special effort to count the Little Egrets today but I don’t think the mediocre tide helped my mediocre count of 6 birds, with a single Grey Heron only. The incoming tide pushed in 2 Greenshank to add to the one I had already seen on the wildfowler’s water, where I won’t be welcome come 1st September unless I carry a gun rather than a telescope.

I’d sat for some time watching Swallows, every single one arriving from the east, north east or south east before they fed either over the outflow of Pilling Water or on the inland side before leaving to the west and Fluke Hall. I also counted House Martins arriving and leaving in a similar fashion with eventual migration totals of 350+ Swallows and 40 House Martins, which confirmed my on-going thought ratio of 10:1 in favour of Swallows.

Linnets abounded today with 22+ but smaller numbers of Goldfinch at 9 and a single windswept Wheatear scratching a living near the United Utilities bits and pieces, the training ground for budding earthmovers and timewasters. The Kingfisher put in an appearance when it flew from behind me, out along the channel, over the marsh and back again towards the pools, Teal City and Mallard Heaven. I think it wants to sit on the parapet at the channel but if it spots a human form, does a circuit then disappears out of sight and waits for another occasion.

So, as now becomes obvious there are too many words and not enough pictures, repetitive shite perhaps as a fellow blogger accused me of? The problem is that when someone works a local patch it can be monotonous, maybe even boring but at least I’m out there looking, not a slave to a pager or a phone call and when I do find the big one or even a teeny weeny little one on my local patch, it will give me the greatest satisfaction in the world. Maybe I’ll delete the link to his blog, deplete any readers he ever had and consign him to clicking his counter to inflate his visitor numbers, right hand man.

Pintail

Swallow and House Martin
Teal
Wheatear

The weather forecast doesn’t look much better for tomorrow so perhaps I’ll watch the GP instead of birding, but then you never know.