Another Bird Blog: Lancaster Canal

Sunday, July 6, 2014

Mainly Kingfisher

I’m hoping that blog readers like to see Common Kingfishers because that’s virtually all the pictures on show today when other birds failed to play ball with the camera. Don't forget to click the pics for a Kingfisher feast.

There are many boats of all shapes and sizes at Glasson Dock, the vessels tied with all manner of ropes and chains. The moorings and the boats make for great perches where a Kingfisher can watch the water just a few or several feet below. From across the water I spotted one doing just that.

Glasson Dock

A Kingfisher has eyesight with polarising filters which cuts out reflections and enables the bird to see their underwater prey better. When they plunge into the water, the eyes are protected by a membrane, so they actually catch their prey blind, relying on touch to snap their bills shut. A Kingfisher prefers to hunt in shallow water because it gives them better accuracy.

Kingfisher

Just like the owl family, the kingfisher family of birds bring up the indigestible parts of their food as pellets. In the case of kingfishers they regurgitate tiny pellets of indigestible fish bones. The pictures below show today's Kingfisher doing that.

Kingfisher

I walked a good way along the towpath towards Conder and then back to Glasson with reward in the shape of an unexpected Nuthatch, the bird calling loudly from the tiny wood alongside the path.

Nuthatches have been somewaht scarce in recent years, although they may still be a mile up the road at Thurham. It's a Nuthatch haunt of many years standing but not a particularly good summer birding spot. The Nuthatch below is from 2011.

Nuthatch

Otherwise, a good count of 12+ Reed Warblers, made up of three singers and other birds scuttling through the waterside vegetation to feed or be fed. Also, 2 Chiffchaff in song, 4 Tree Sparrow, 3 Reed Bunting and 3 Whitethroat.

A good number of Moorhens use the thick waterside vegetation, some feeding their likely second broods.

Lancaster Canal - Glasson

Moorhen

Two whistle stops at Conder Green revealed 50+ Swift, 120 Redshank, 12 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Spotted Redshank.

The usual herons, 4 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

More soon from Another Bird Blog.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Come Rain Or Shine

Well it’s been mostly shine for three or four weeks now so a bit of a bummer on waking up today with 100% cloud and grey skies. Then bang on cue at about 10am, rain with a strengthening breeze.

Not before I’d done the rounds of Glasson and Conder though, a circuit which found little change from Monday or Wednesday. The highlight of a common enough Greenshank might give some clue as to the other birds seen.

The Greenshank was in the tidal creeks with 150+ Redshank, 9 Common Sandpiper, 3 Curlew, 12 Oystercatcher, 2 Grey Heron and 2 Little Egret.

A Greenshank Tringa nebularia is somewhat larger than the related Common Redshank Tringa totanus, and perhaps surprisingly, the Greenshank’s closest relative is the Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca, its North American cousin. Greenshanks are beginning to appear on their return journeys from their breeding sites of sub-Arctic Europe, although a number of pairs do breed in northernmost Scotland, a country which can be quite Arctic like.

The Greater Yellowlegs does turn up in Britain occasionally but not yet at Conder Green.

Greenshank

Redshank

Greater Yellowlegs - Photo credit: Henry McLin / Foter / (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Common Sandpiper

On the pool, and this beginning to sound more than a little monotonous, 2 Little Grebe, 14 Tufted Duck, 4 Shelduck, 3 Little Egret, another 20+ Lapwings and a Grey Heron.

Grey Heron

Quiet and breezy at Glasson where a walk along the canal towpath and the yacht basin produced a tiny flock of 14 Goldfinch, 5 Reed Warbler, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap and 1 Grey Wagtail. In the cool of the morning Swallows were restricted to 10+ and Swifts to just two.