Not Quite Cyprus?

The weather wasn’t as good as the forecast promised this morning with spits and spots of the dreaded stuff from the off, although it was infinitely better than of late allowing a spot of birding. Knott End was first the port of call for a walk up river and a look at the rising tide due to peak at 10 o’clock. 

There was a good selection of waders with 1900 Oystercatcher and 250+ Knot mixed in the flock, 18 Redshank, 6 Turnstone, c300 more distant Curlew and a single Grey Heron along the tide line. Wildfowl numbers are much lower and yet to build: 90 Shelduck, 3 Red-breasted Merganser and just 3 Eider. 

Red-breasted Merganser

There was very little evidence of any visible migration this morning, the highlight being a Lesser Redpoll which seemed to arrive from the North West before continuing south and up river followed by a few calls of high-up Meadow Pipits. There’s a gang of finches which hangs about near the Bourne Arms and the salt marsh, today numbering c 60 Goldfinch and c15 Linnet. It was a quiet walk up river with no shouts of golfers today, just the silence of the flooded fairway and the noise of Black-headed Gulls and Herring Gulls, Oystercatchers and a couple of Redshank taking advantage of the new feeding opportunity. 40+ Jackdaws feeding here too. 

Redshank

Knott End Golf Club

The brightening sky sent me up to Pilling and Lane Ends, avoiding some flooded roads which are passable with care only. A couple of hours of walk and watch produced a lot of very active Pink-footed Goose, coming and going between the marsh and Hi-Fly fields with an estimate of 5500 +. In addition to these there are many birds feeding inland, with the best time to complete a full count either at dawn when the geese fly from their marshland roost in search of food, or in the evening when they fly back out to the marsh to roost for the night. 

It’s never easy to get a photograph of the pinkies: they are so wild and wary that the slightest movement of a lens sends them up and away from the device pointed in their direction, and where the birds pack so tightly that inevitably one or more birds are obscured by others. In the last sentence substitute the word “gun” for “lens” to explain why our pinkies are so wary throughout the winter months. But then we aren't as wicked as the people in some Mediterranean countries - are we?

Pink-footed Goose

 Pink-footed Goose

A few bits and pieces at Pilling Water, namely the now resident Kingfisher, 4 Wheatears moving rapidly west, 1 Grey Wagtail, 4 Skylark, 1 Kestrel, 15 Linnet and 2 Red-breasted Merganser. The Peregrine was having fun out on the marsh, constantly harassing the masses of Teal and Wigeon, very distant after the only medium tide dropped, but in excess of 800 Teal and 200 Wigeon. 

Wigeon

Today I noticed a distinct lack of Swallows, my count from Pilling being completed on one hand as October draws near. 

There’s more from Another Bird Blog soon. In the meantime and  to finish on here’s a petition that every birder should sign  End The Slaughter . 

Look Back Not In Anger

What with the festive season and the impact of ice bound Britain it looks like I may not get out birding for a day or two. So until then and in order to keep Another Bird Blog simmering I have picked some highlights of 2010, dug out pictures old and new, mainly of warmer days and relived a few memorable moments, the odd notable day, with a few personal favourites. I scanned through photographs that I keep in folders in alpha order; Animals, Buntings, Chats, Ducks etc - you get the idea. The problem was I found so many to share that I may have to do this in two or more stages.

The year kicked off with a windy spell and an Eider that got blown onto Knott End foreshore but recovered well enough for a photo shoot on release as it sailed majestically for the safety of the open sea. What a gorgeous duck!

Eider
Knott End

2011 had its share of cold weather too, and being into birds isn’t just about our feathered friends but also an appreciation of all animals and the natural environment. Stoats are such magical little wild creatures that when a photographic opportunity presents itself it becomes a privilege to capture their image.

Stoat

I seemed to spend most of the spring, summer and autumn getting up at silly times to go ringing on Rawcliffe Moss where our ringing efforts contributed to a record finch year for the Ringing Group of Redpolls, Siskins, Chaffinches, Goldfinches and Greenfinches, then later in the season, Reed Buntings.

Dawn - Out Rawcliffe
Roe Deer at dawn
A Ringer’s Work Is Never Done
Siskin
Lesser Redpoll
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Reed Bunting

A spring break in Menorca was a chance to photograph a few local specialities with a Turtle Dove posing, puffed up on a cool Mediterranean morning, or a Scops Owl surprised by a flasher in the darkness.

Turtle Dove
Scops Owl
Menorca
Back home it was already the breeding season and time to ring a nestling or two.

Little Owl
Curlew

Before we knew it a busy autumn arrived, birding bonanza time when waders, warblers, pipits and chats abound and when I enjoyed a few memorable photography sessions in wonderful light with Swallows, Wheatears, Meadow Pipits and others.

Sedge Warbler
Little Egret
Wheatear
Swallow
Meadow Pipit

That’s all for now and it is a small selection, but if anyone has any favourite species for the next or indeed any time, I am open to requests.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who contributed to the success of my blog this year – critics, supporters, contributors and commentators. I hope that everyone who joined in so gained as much interest and enjoyment as I did from simply keeping the blog alive.

To end here is a sad but true tale - I spoke to a bloke the other week who recently retired from work and is bored, doesn’t know what to do, just follows his wife around like a lost puppy and thinks he might look for a job; I offered to take a couple of days a week off his hands.

PS, I wish everyone a Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year, but remember................

Happy New Year

Knott The Arctic

This morning the Knott End pack ice resembled a scene from a Spitsbergen travelogue. From the esplanade I pencilled 1100 Oystercatchers in my notebook but wasn’t entirely sure if I should be on the lookout for Polar Bears too.

Oystercatcher

The Twite flock was bigger this morning at 80+ mobile birds, unable to find the seed put out for them that now lies buried under the ice and snow. The Rock Pipit was around near the jetty again, plus a Song Thrush, a refuge from the café garden, and then 6 overflying Skylark closely followed by a single Lapwing looking for something green and unfrozen. As the tide ran in I counted 135 Shelduck on the water, plus 4 Wigeon.

Shelduck

Wader numbers were similar to yesterday with 60 Redshank, 30 Ringed Plover, 13 Turnstone and 35 Knot.

Knot
Knot
Ringed Plover

In places you do have to tread carefully because the cryptically feathered Turnstones can go unnoticed and fly off before they are spotted. Even their white belly is useful in the snowy terrain.

Knot, Turnstone
Turnstone

There were the usual gulls hanging around for a free meal from the parked cars. There is simply no unfrozen fresh water about now, and I watched a Common Gull scoop up snow as a substitute.

Common Gull
Common Gull
Common Gull

Here's a picture of the Black-headed Gull from yesterday, the new temporary header that I have vowed will stay there until the arctic weather goes elsewhere.

Black-headed Gull

Blue Morning

It was a bright blue sky this morning after clear overnight and when I looked across the estuary from Knott End and out towards the Wyre Light all was calm serenity save for the hoot of the 8am ferry. All right I exaggerated the blue a little but not the flat water as the east wind was barely perceptible, leaving the river like a mirror.

River Wyre from Knott End

I struggled to find many birds, even the 2 drake Eider hidden at the base of the jetty half way to Fleetwood so far was the tide out. A couple each of Linnets, Goldfinch, Meadow Pipits and "albas" flew from up river but I couldn’t be certain if they were migrants or not. Apart from the actual beautiful morning, the weather conditions hadn’t been ideal for migrants again so I headed for Pilling and my favourite walk in search of the mythical, elusive Wheatear.

Eider

At Lane Ends I saw my first “mallard” ducklings of the year, seven multi coloured bundles of fluff scooting across the pool with mum when a dog got too close to the water’s edge. Also on the pools were 2 pairs of Tufted Duck, the Little Grebes and a drake Gadwall, no sign of the female from last week! What I took to be the same Kestrel from Wednesday hung around but didn’t perform for me as it did the day before. Just as well I took plenty of pictures, because I didn’t today apart from a Chaffinch and a Woodpigeon – well someone has to. In the plantation I didn’t see or hear a single Willow Warbler or Chiffchaff, only the still present Reed Buntings represented the little brown jobs.

Chaffinch
Woodpigeon
Authentic Mallard
Kestrel

Towards Pilling Water I had the usual smattering of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks, now only 800 Pink-footed Geese, 4 Little Egrets and on the wildfowler’s pools, 90 Redshank. Apologies but it’s yet another Little Egret picture.

Little Egret

I was sat at the stile at Pilling Water when I received a message that IG had seen a Marsh Harrier over his Fleetwood house; so I looked both west towards the river then north towards Heysham and south over Pilling itself, but couldn’t pick up on anything that big heading my way. Sometimes I think the harriers on hitting the coast at Fleetwood follow the course of the Wyre up river and thence across to the mosslands. That’s my excuse for not refinding this one but I did have a single Whimbrel again, the highlight of my sea wall vigil.

Wheatears? None! But better luck tomorrow I hope with a ringing session elsewhere.