More Of A Circus

Andy and I were due to go ringing this morning but then he cried off because of an emergency baby-sitting request. Grandparents come in useful sometimes, even if the old fools do vote the “wrong” way in referendums and generally don’t do as they are told. 

Not to worry, I decided to go birding instead of ringing. I was at the car putting on a jacket when I heard a Tawny Owl hooting from nearby gardens, a reminder of autumn and that today is the first day of September. 

The main times to hear Tawny Owls call is during the breeding season which runs from February/March to May, and then again in the autumn when the adults have finished their moult. In June and July the adults tend to go silent and only the young may be heard, squeaking for food throughout the night from dusk. August, September and October can be very active times vocally for adults as they set about reaffirming their territories in preparation for the next breeding season. 

Tawny Owl

As usual I drove over the moss road towards Pilling. It’s a more productive bird route than the main road although in the half light of this morning the best I managed was a Kestrel on the usual roadside post. Near Pilling village I saw a Barn Owl on a fence post so slowed the car in preparation for a possible photographic encounter. Not this time. The owl was away and across the fields before I could even lift the camera. 

I made for the flood at Out Rawcliffe where on Saturday 27th August I’d seen the Marsh Harrier and a few waders. Today was also the first day of the inland shooting season, something I remembered when from across the fields I heard the sound of gunfire but saw no people carrying shotguns. 

The parish of Out Rawcliffe is one of the largest in England. It takes more than a couple of hours to walk north to south or east to west over the mossland, so I wasn’t too worried that the guns would be on me soon; there was time to scope the flood for birdlife. 

Out Rawcliffe, Lancashire

On the water I counted the wildfowl as 150+ Mallards and 24 Teal. So many Mallards indicated the recent release of captive-bred birds and another reason for the sound of gunfire. By contrast the Teal are truly wild birds and recent arrivals from north and east. Waders today comprised just the two species, 220 Lapwing and 4 Black-tailed Godwits. 

Lapwings

There was a single Kestrel about plus 3 or 4 Buzzards, and then as a bonus 2 Marsh Harriers in the air together over the trees and the distant water. There was some interaction between the two harriers when I could see that both were “cream tops”, juvenile/female types with noticeable and extensive creamy foreheads. Local Swallows instinctively mobbed the pair of raptors but I can’t imagine the circling harriers were any real threat to the Swallows. 

Marsh Harrier and Swallows 

Soon a line of a dozen or more sportsmen appeared on the horizon, spread right to left at regular intervals over the maize field dotted with blue feeder bins that sate the released partridge and pheasant. The shooters were headed slowly towards the flood so it was time for me to head in the direction of Conder Green. 

In the wildfowl stakes I counted 19 Little Grebe, 5 Shoveler and 3 Wigeon on the pool, 4 Goosander in the main creek and 20+ Teal in all. Just 3 Little Egret today but a zero count of Grey Herons and a species that continues to disappoint in the numbers seen at expected and traditional locations. 

Waders obliged with 105 Lapwing, 24 Redshank, 3 Greenshank, 3 Snipe and 1 Common Sandpiper. A Kingfisher put in the usual fly-by appearance as did a passing Kestrel. 

Over near the railway bridge the nesting House Martins numbered 20+, a similar quantity to the Swallows hanging around the nearby farm buildings. Otherwise - 15 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Reed Bunting. 

House Martin

I was saddened today to hear of the passing of a fellow blogger and ringing pal Lew/Errol Newman, a name that blog readers will know from reading the “Under Rydon Hill” link in the right hand sidebar.

Like me Lew was a regular visitor to Bardsey Island, Wales where our paths sometimes crossed. Lew almost singlehandedly built the main Heligoland trap in the central withy beds. It was a trap that worked like as dream and I had cause to thank Lew on a number of occasions when his construction presented me with bags full of birds and several ringing “ticks”. Lew will be greatly missed by friends, colleagues, family and his partner Jenny.


Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Blogspot.

Green Theme Birding

The last week has seemed autumnal rather than mid-July. There’s been wind, rain and then more rain and I’ve done little in the way of birding or blogging. Finally on Wednesday the skies improved and I set off birding into something of a green theme. 

The weather may feel like autumn, but many waders that breed around the Arctic Circle like Dunlin, Wood Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Greenshank and Spotted Redshank are already flying south towards their winter quarters in Africa. It seems just a few weeks ago that these same birds were flying north to grab the brief Arctic summer which provides 24 hours of daylight and an abundance of food. There’s enough time to raise a family and then off they go to Africa. 

I was reminded of all this when the first bird I heard at Conder Green this morning was a Greenshank, probably fresh in from the Arctic or maybe even the wilds of the Scottish Highlands where a number of Greenshank breed. For anyone who has never read the book, I recommend “Greenshanks” by Desmond and Mamie Nethersole - Thompson, a classic Poyser book that relates the couple’s lifelong work studying Greenshanks in Scotland. 

Greenshank

 

"Greenshanks"

When disturbed by a gang of squabbling Redshanks the Greenshank flew off towards the railway bridge and the wider creeks that open out into the River Lune. Redshanks numbered 40+ and already an incoming tide pushed them off the creeks and over towards Conder Pool. 

Conder Green - Lancashire

The Redshanks joined the many Lapwings, 130+, scattered loosely around the islands and pool margins. With their dark green colouration Lapwings can be surprisingly difficult to pick out when they roost with head tucked in, motionless in a green landscape. Many of the Lapwings are birds of the year like the one below with a tiny tuft of a crown and flight feathers edged with the buff colours of a juvenile. I counted the Lapwings when a Sparrowhawk flew low along the hedgerow, turned a sharp right through the roosting waders and scattered them in all directions. 

Lapwing

Meanwhile while the ever vigilant pair of Avocets flew directly at the intruder, twisting and turning so as to have more than one go at seeing it off in defence of their single half-grown chick. Within what seemed just seconds of the Sparrowhawk departing in the direction of Glasson, everything returned to normal. Having missed the action two adult Common Terns returned with food from an expeditions out to the Lune or Glasson Dock. Although still being fed their two chicks appear to be of sufficient size to fend for themselves. 

I returned to studying the landscape where I spotted a Green Sandpiper bobbing along the far side of the pool, a tiny wader when compared to an adjacent Lapwing. 

Green Sandpiper - Ferran Pestaña from Barcelona [CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons]

The Green Sandpiper Tringa ochropus is a small wader of the Old World. The genus name Tringa is the New Latin name given to the Green Sandpiper by Aldrovandus in 1599 based on Ancient Greek trungas, a thrush-sized, white-rumped, tail-bobbing wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. It’s a bird of the coniferous forest belt or taiga of the high Northern Hemisphere. Quite remarkably it usually lays its eggs in old nests such as those of Fieldfare, Redwing and Woodpigeon, as well as in disused squirrel dreys.  On migration in Europe Green Sandpipers avoid strictly coastal waters and are almost always found on wetland habitats, very often tiny ponds or streams.

Also on the pool/creeks – 20 Oystercatcher, 5 Common Sandpiper, 4 Tufted Duck, 3 Wigeon, 1 Teal, 4 Pied Wagtail, 1 Goosander, 2 Little Egret, 15 Swallow, 3 Sand Martin, 15 House Martin. No Swifts today. 

Along the roadside hedgerow I counted 6 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and two family parties of Greenfinch numbering 8+ birds. Now there’s a novelty, to see the once abundant Greenfinch. 

Greenfinch

Reed Bunting

 
I note that despite the best efforts of the the cafe owners to deter House Martins making nests under the eaves of the building at the Conder bridge, the martins persevered and constructed nests anyway. The nests are at the front of the building where walkers and cyclists congregate and where they might be perceived as more troublesome to the owners than had they simply left the birds alone in the first place at the side elevation. Birds are both determined and persistent in their urge to breed, something of which these people have no understanding. 

House Martin

Now, local birders, let’s keep or eyes and ears open and make sure the nests remain where they are. To interfere with the nesting martins as they build nests and sit on eggs would be to break the Wildlife and Countryside Act.  Perpetrators should be reported to the authorities.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog and  Run A Round Ranch .

Back To The Grey Stuff

Keen to see what I had missed while on holiday in sunny Menorca, I spent most of the morning up Cockerham way. It was good to get out and do some local birding again, even in the grey May skies. 

At Wrampool and where I expected to see the Lapwing pair of three weeks ago, there’s a pair of nesting Oystercatchers instead. The female sat tight on the eggs while the male patrolled silently nearby, both trying to be inconspicuous. For such an obvious nest it will be interesting to see how well the birds do. 

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

Conder Green was quiet although it was good to see 2 Common Terns back on site. It must have been the male I saw at Glasson Dock soon after. It caught a tiny fish and flew immediately back towards Conder Green a quarter of a mile away where it would present it to the female. This is exactly the initial feeding pattern for last year which might suggest the male at least is one and the same bird. 

Common Tern at Glasson Dock

On the pool and in the creeks I found 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 12 Oystercatcher, 12 Redshank, 14 Shelduck, 6 Tufted Duck 25 Mute Swan, 3 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. The stretch between Conder and Glasson Dock found a good number of birds in song - 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler and 2 Chiffchaff. 

Whitethroat

I saw handfuls only of Swifts, Swallows and House Martins on a cool morning with not many insects on the wing. The five or six House Martins were busily collecting mud from the roadside and flying up to this year’s preferred building. I noted that the wretched human occupants of the House Martin’s often used gable end of the café have installed strips of plastic under the eaves to keep the martins out. 

House Martin territory 

House Martin

What a joy it would be to have House Martins around my own house each year. No such luck with a bungalow.  A neighbour has 6/8 pairs each year under the eaves of a large house and doesn’t mind sweeping the path when the martins are in residence. 

A circuit of Jeremy Lane and Moss Lane proved very rewarding. In a stubble field were 18+ Stock Doves, 30+ Wood Pigeon and several Lapwings, some of them with largish youngsters. Brown Hares were conspicuous if rather distant with a combined count of 15+ scattered across several fields. 

 Brown Hares

The ditches, fences and hedgerows gave counts of 6 Sedge Warbler, 5 Whitethroat, 5 Reed Bunting and 8+ Skylark, the male Sedge Warblers in particular giving some virtuoso performances and showing themselves to good effect. 

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

There was a Barn Owl in the distance. I watched from the car as it sailed along the ditch coming ever closer, stopping occasionally to take a closer look below. The last shot is taken through the car windscreen, hence the fuzziness. I must learn to clean the windscreen!

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Oh well, as a birder you can’t win them all. But as a morning goes, it was pretty damn good. 

I’ll post new pictures from Menorca soon. Don’t miss them, so remember to look in to Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Run A Round Ranch.

Hare Today - Sorry

28th April. This was the sight that greeted me on the driveway. Not the most enticing start to a spring morning. 

Spring in Lancashire

Birders don’t give up that easily. I scraped the screen and set off over the moss roads. Needless to say there was a hunting Barn Owl but I’ve so many Barn Owl pictures of late that I clicked a few shots and then carried on driving. 

Barn Owl

At Wrampool Creek the farmer has ploughed the weedy set-aside and already there’s a pair of Lapwings showing an interest. As the female looked on the male was busy with his “scrape display”, tilting down into his proposed hollow and then showing his rear end to the female. If she is impressed by his skill and devotion she will join him in completing this or one of a number of other scrapes nearby, but she has the final say. 

Lapwing

There was a single Stock Dove on the same field, plus a few Woodpigeons, a Pied Wagtail, 4 Linnets and 4 Goldfinch along the wire fence. A Kestrel flew off from near the farm buildings. 

Goldfinch

Linnet

I found the resident Buzzard at Braides Farm. It was in the usual spot about 150 yards away sat atop a fence post. I counted 20 + Lapwings scattered across the fields where a number of them clearly have young as shown by their desire to chase not only crows but other Lapwings that strayed into the wrong territory. There are still Golden Plovers to be seen with circa 75 today, many of them wearing full summer, spangled plumage, a wondrous if somewhat distant spectacle. 

Lapwing

Golden Plovers

Golden Plovers

I came away from Conder Green with a good list of birds but not a single photograph of waders and wildfowl which totalled 10 Black-tailed Godwit, 18 Redshank, 14 Oystercatcher, 3 Common Sandpiper, 1 Spotted Redshank, 10 Shelduck, 2 Tufted Duck and 3 Little Egret. 

House Martins are back on territory with two about the café rooftop and the under eaves. The nesting Pied Wagtails remain very close by. In the immediate area I clocked up Blackcap, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Greenfinch, Goldfinch and Linnet, all of them in song. 

House Martin

A drive up and around Jeremy Lane and Moss Lane proved to be hare raising with large numbers of Brown Hares both visible and highly active. In one field alongside Jeremy Lane were 8 of the animals with 5 or 6 of them at a time taking part in chasing around the field at high speed. I saw more hares towards Cockersands where my final count of 18/20 was if anything, on the conservative side. 

From Wiki - Nocturnal and shy in nature, Brown Hares change their behaviour in the spring, when they can be seen in broad daylight chasing one another around fields and meadows. During this spring frenzy, they can be seen striking one another with their paws ("boxing"). For a long time, this had been thought to be competition between males, but closer observation has revealed it is usually a female hitting a male, either to show she is not yet ready to mate or as a test of his determination. 

Brown Hares

Brown Hares

Birds on this circuit – 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 1 Whitethroat, 10 Skylark, 10 Tree Sparrow, 8 Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting. 

Reed Bunting

Log in soon for more hair raising adventures with Another Bird Blog.

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

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.

Same Old Birding?

It’s a well-worn birding route of mine from Stalmine to Conder Green and then back again, often with a detour or two. Alongside the flat coastal road there are many birds to be found at almost any time of the year. How remiss of Google in not showing the legendary birding spot which goes by the name of Conder Green. For blog readers not in the know but itching to get there, I am sworn to secrecy so cannot divulge the exact location. However it could be worth a look below the letter “o” of “Dock”. 

Birding Route

On the way north this morning I missed out a chunk of Head Dyke Lane and traversed Stalmine Moss instead, hoping for a Barn Owl coping with the extra responsibility of youngsters at home. There was one criss-crossing the fields and the road ahead but sods law prevailed and by the time I reached the spot, the owl had fled. I made do with a Kestrel or two and then a Buzzard content with the distance between us. Our local Buzzards don’t usually sit around for a picture and regular readers will know that in the UK this much maligned creature is as likely to have a gun pointed its way as it is to see the business end of a lens. 

Buzzard

Down from the hills a good number of Curlew have found their way back to the coastal fields of the A588 and while I didn’t stop to count the scattered birds, a couple of hundred seemed likely. At Braides was yet another Buzzard along the regular fence doing not much except waiting for the sun to rise and warm the air. I stopped for a while and found small numbers of Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Swallows and Skylark song. 

At Conder Green the Common Terns have at least two youngsters with adults back and forth for food, one out to the marsh, the other towards Glasson Dock. The terns don’t stand for others near their youngsters and I watched as the pair mercilessly chased off a Grey Heron and then a Shelduck. Luckily for them the 5 Little Egrets stayed in the creeks away from the aggressive terns. 

Although now part way into July and with well grown young in tow the Oystercatchers here still indulge in loud and frequent piping whereby aerial bouts of “piping parties” display in the air as well as on the ground. “Piping parties” are made up of pairs of birds which are often joined by birds from neighbouring territories. The Oystercatchers taking part in such displays maintain the open-billed posture they use in their ground displays. An Oystercatcher “piping party” can consist of a handful of birds or as many as twenty or thirty. It’s quite a sight and a fair old din. 

 Oystercatcher Piping Party

In the creeks and around the pool - 80+ Redshank, 35 Lapwing, 5 Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and then 4 Black-tailed Godwit flying west. 

A walking circuit to find the “small stuff” revealed a singing Blackcap plus a Lesser Whitethroat still on territory along the railway line. Meanwhile Meadow Pipit(s), Reed Warbler(s), Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting(s) all fed young. 

The House Martins near the bridge had a late start this year with a number of them still in the throes of nest building and a handy roadside puddle all they require for a proper job. 

House Martin

House Martin

The final stop Glasson Dock where I found one of the Common Tern from down the road, 15+ Swift, 1 Grey Heron and the adult Swallows yet to fledge their chicks from beneath the road. 

Swallow

Yes the route and the venues may be the same but where birding is concerned no two days are ever exactly alike on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Theresa's Ranch  and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.