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OK, due to a combination of factors I have somewhat neglected posting on the blog. That doesn’t mean that I have been sat at home twiddling my thumbs or watching daytime telly. Does anyone still watch daytime telly to be entertained or informed? Definitely not the latter. Sources of news and entertainment on the Internet are more varied where by hitting the right buttons, the actuality & truth, as opposed to mainstream media who like to tell us what to believe, is there for all to discover. BBC, ITV, C4, Sky – they are all liars with biased and well-oiled axes to grind. 

Today there's a selection of pictures shot in-between bouts of bad weather that hit the North West from January and into May when I ventured out with bins and camera if the sun appeared and winds subsided. I felt so sorry for our local farming community when days and weeks of rain swallowed their crop fields; more knocks to a hard-working fraternity who receive little or no credit for their contribution to our British Way of Life. 

My mostly mornings with camera, plus a couple of ringing sessions confirmed that all is not well with birds. Where this year are Swifts, Sedge Warblers, Blackcaps, Swallows, Whitethroats, House Martins and Willow Warblers? - to name but a handful of supposedly “common species”. Luckily, Wheatears and ever curious Pied Wagtails  seemed in good supply with the jury out on seemingly low numbers of finches and buntings.

Adult Swallow

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Wheatear

Pied Wagtail

Linnet

Reed Bunting

Pied  Wagtail - looking for the other one 

While saturated fields held no joy for farmers, a few waders took advantage by managing to rear chicks on fields into which a tractor would sink. Out Cockerham way a pair of roadside Lapwings I watched for weeks managed to grow all four chicks to adult size. All the time with crows looking on but chased off by sharp eyed parent Lapwings.

Lapwing

Lapwing chick

Carrion Crow

At another field nearby a pair of Shoveler took up residence where a male left his mate in an adjacent ditch while he stole minutes alone at a water flash. . 

Shoveler

Finally and into June the ground in parts dried out by which time both Oystercatchers and Lapwings could search the recently ploughed and now drying clumps of earth.

Oystercatcher

Male Lapwing - dig that crest!

And then in late June for a week and a day Sue and I ate out in the garden, enjoying the evening sunlight. A chance to try our own versions of Greek classics, Lamb Kleftico, Baked Feta and souvlakis together with a bottle of Ampelicious that too quickly ran out, the bottle courtesy of our lovely friends, Family Karaboula at Maistrali. 

 

Maistrali Taverna, Skiathos, Greece 

Ampelicious  Red

Bouyiourdi - Baked Feta

The first week of July. There's more rain in the forecast but I will be out whenever I can. 

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Thank You.  Another Bird Blog is back soon.

Conder And How Not to Bird

Things have sure moved on since last I was at Conder Green. There are now two pairs of Avocets breeding plus a pair of Common Terns showing all the signs. I was there this morning and somewhat surprised to see two Avocets flying from the pool to feed in the creek and to then see two pairs on the far island – six Avocets in total. 

The ones on the island are very distant but the two in the creeks gave a half decent chance for a picture. Early on I’d counted 170 Black-tailed Godwits, split 100/70 in favour of the creek. 

Avocet

Avocet and Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Also on the pool, a pair of Common Terns spent time and energy around the metal pontoon and fishing out towards the River Lune. I watched the male bring in small fish with which to entice the female to stay around; it looked like she was impressed. 

Common Terns

A couple of pairs of Redshank were in display mode plus several pairs of Oystercatcher, Mute Swan and 6 Tufted Duck as 3 pairs. In the creeks I saw a Grey Heron, a single Little Egret and 12 Shelduck. 

There’s a pair of Oystercatchers breeding very close to the road, so close that they think nothing of playing “Oystercatcher Chicken” with oncoming traffic as they casually walk to the verge when a vehicle approaches. The Oystercatcher is a very common bird and also a very handsome one I think you will agree. 

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

 Oystercatcher

Good thing I was there early as a “birder” arrived, dressed in suit, shirt and tie for the office party and pretty clueless as to how to bird. He proceeded to walk down into the creeks with apparently no thought to the fact that wild birds have eyes, ears and the ability to fly away from predators like man. I guess when he got to the office he explained how he went bird watching but didn’t see much, just birds flying away? 

How Not To Bird

I pretty much cleaned up on singing warblers with 2 Blackcap, 2 Sedge Warbler, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, and 1 Reed Warbler. In the same patch as the Reed Warbler was a singing Reed Bunting. Over and around pool the main hedgerow - 2 Stock Dove, 4 Swift and a handful of Swallows. 

I took a drive around Jeremy Lane and up to Cockersands to find a day-flying Barn Owl and a good number of Sedge Warblers, Whitethroats and Skylarks – a minimum ten of each. 

While Sedge Warblers mostly sing hidden in the depths of a roadside ditch they do sometimes like to use a high point like telegraph poles from which to launch into their song flight.

Sedge Warbler

I saw good numbers of Brown Hare, Lapwings young and old and stopped to picture at Swallow waiting for to farmer open up the barn. 

Lapwing chick

Lapwing

Swallow

Please look in tomorrow when there’s news of a Siskin, a Lesser Redpoll and a Goldfinch.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Sunday Surprises

I don’t ring many Lapwings nowadays. The species is so scarce in this part of coastal Lancashire that finding a brood of young Lapwings is something of a surprise and an occasion to boot. 

On the outskirts of Cockerham this morning I found 2 pairs of Lapwings and both had two youngsters each. So once the female had sent the chicks off to feed I located them quickly because the field was so close-cropped. 

Lapwing

Lapwing chicks

Lapwing chicks are nidifugous i.e.animals which leave the nest shortly after hatching or birth, a term derived from Latin nidus for "nest" and fugere meaning "to flee". The terminology is most often used to describe birds and was introduced by Lorenz Oken in 1816. The term "nidifugous" is sometimes used synonymously with "precocial", as all nidifugous species are precocial - that is, born with open eyes and capable of independent locomotion, and in the case of waders, able to feed themselves soon after birth. (Wiki).

In wader chicks the legs and feet are well developed at a very early stage, a natural adaptation which helps their early locomotion and thus the ability to find their own food. 

There were 4 Mistle Thrushes, a family party feeding in the same field as the Lapwings. It’s a pretty poor picture but then Mistle Thrushes are generally as shy as the rest of the thrush family. 

 Mistle Thrush

Alongside the nearby wood was a Willow Warbler nest with just 3 young, one of which had recently died, the small and poor brood almost certainly a result of the recent weather. 

Willow Warbler chick

It’s something of a wildfowlers’ wood and one that is not without the remnants of last autumn’s shoots by way of a good number of Pheasants. There was also a Reeve’s Pheasant today, a rather good looking and photogenic creature which made a nice change from our ubiquitous Pheasant. 

Reeve's Pheasant 

The Reeves's Pheasant (Syrmaticus reevesii) is a pheasant of the genus Syrmaticus. It is endemic to China. It is named for the British naturalist John Reeves, who first introduced live specimens to Europe in 1831. 

 

This pheasant is kept as an ornamental species, easily reared in captivity by placing eggs under domestic chickens or by buying adult birds. As always happens in such cases a certain number escape from captivity and breed in such numbers that a feral population becomes established. Reeve’s Pheasant is not on the main British List which birders use to count their ticks as the feral population is so small it is not yet recognised as being self-sustaining. 

Nevertheless they seem to be becoming increasingly easy to find in the Norfolk Brecks where they are targeted by rather sad twitchers. There are a number of other locations around the country where this species seems to be gaining a foothold, so perhaps it won't be long before they are recognised as a “British Bird”. 

In the meantime if you have a broody chicken or two and fancy having a Reeve’s Pheasant in the back garden, eggs guaranteed to hatch are available through Ebay. Alternatively by rearing a few, releasing them onto a private estate and then charging twitchers ten quid a time could generate a tidy sum towards that new camera. 

A male Pied Wagtail carrying food wasn’t unexpected but it gave the pheasant a slice of competition in the good looks department. 

Pied Wagtail

There were no more surprises this morning. But you never know, there could be more soon on Another Bird Blog so keep looking in.

Linking this post to  Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Chick Time

There’s not much to report today, but a few pictures nonetheless. 

A bright and breezy start at Fluke Hall gave a few warblers i.e. Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and 2 Common Whitethroat. There are a small number of finches in the area with 8+ Goldfinch and 4 Linnets today, with 4 - 6 pairs of Skylark. 

A check of Hi-Fly fields gave 30+ Swallows, 4 Swift and a single Sand Martin, with the pools and sea wall revealing 30+ Lapwing, 8 Oystercatcher, 25+ Redshank and a single Curlew wader-wise. A lone Kestrel from the Fluke Hall pair and on the lookout for an easy meal caused some panic amongst the waders when it flew across the fields, and then stopping to search the ground below. Like me the Kestrel knows there are small chicks about, but they are not easy to find with so many protective parents on watch. 

Kestrel

Redshank

Lapwing

One pair of the 3+ breeding Redshank had just one chick. Thankfully and with it being just a few days old it was a “croucher” rather than a “runner”, nature giving wader chicks well developed legs and feet from an early age, partly to allow them escape from predators. 

Redshank chick

I found just one Lapwing chick today, the wind on the exposed seaward side of the wall making watching extremely difficult. 

Lapwing chick

Not much doing at Lane Ends - 2 Reed Warbler, Long-tailed Tits, with Tufted Duck, Teal and Greylags on the pools. 

Log in soon to Another Bird Blog for a bird’s eye view and more cool chicks.

That’s Better

A fine, dry morning at last, and even the wind had dropped. Springtime here seems to have passed me by due to a combination of poor April weather, going on holiday, and then even more rubbish weather just when we needed it least. Now we are almost in June when migration ends and resident birds fall more silent. 

I set off from Lane Ends, packing a few rings into my bag - A size in case of late Wheatears, B for Skylark nests and D2 for any Lapwing chicks left after the crow assault and Hi-Fly’s farming activities. Lane Ends had singing Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler, and on the way to Pilling Water, the male Corn Bunting again, singing from a gate post. Out on the marsh were 3 Whimbrel, with a scan across revealing still 30+ Shelduck and 10+ Redshank in calling pairs. 

Corn Bunting

It was beyond Pilling Water where I found the Lapwing chicks, three of similar size but from separate broods. The grass up there is pretty long to find whole broods unless there is a “finder” and a “guide”, the latter to watch through binoculars and direct the finder to a spot where the Lapwing chick crouched to the ground. If only it was always that easy. 

Lapwing chick

The adults stay close, protesting loudly and keeping one eye on the intruder.

Lapwing

Lapwing

 Excitement over I walked towards Fluke Hall where I found more adult Lapwings but no observable chicks. In the area of Worm Pool I saw a couple of Redshank, 8 Oystercatcher, a Black-tailed Godwit, and perched up on the poolside vegetation a fine, male Whinchat. 

Whinchat

From the stile I counted a dozen or so Swallows and several Swifts hawking insects, my eyes diverted by a Buzzard leaving the trees of Fluke Hall, the raptor followed mercilessly by the obligatory crows. The crow shook them off just before it reached Pilling Water plantation. 

Buzzard and Carrion Crow

Small numbers of Goldfinch and Linnet flew over, with a single Pied Wagtail and several Skylark about. The Skylark weren’t for giving much away apart from singing and I think a few nests may have been lost after Hi-Fly’s recent bout of rolling and tidying. 

I headed back, a good morning’s work and a wonderful walk in the sun.

Stay tuned for more walks in the summer sun with Another Bird Blog with this post linking to Anni who would also rather be birding and Stewart in Australia where you can see a whole gallery of birds.

I’d Sooner Be Birding

Almost a week without a post on Another Bird Blog whereby the weather has been unfit for birding, ringing or photography and the month of June heading for records highs of wind and rain. So this Sunday morning I vowed to get out birding and let the weather do its worst. 

It started off the same, heavy threatening cloud and windy, but just good enough for birding. I set off early for Pilling and immediately noticed a Police helicopter circling overhead, then just down the lane I came upon the boys-in-blue examining an abandoned car which blocked the road ahead. Seemingly the joyriders had escaped to vanish somewhere over the horizon, no doubt to then spend the morning playing hide and seek with the cops. Me, I’d sooner be birding. 

I turned the car around and made a detour over Stalmine Moss then across Union Lane towards Pilling, a route which proved fortuitous when alongside Union Lane I saw Kestrel, Buzzard and then a breakfasting Barn Owl. The cold, miserable morning didn’t help any Swallows to find food and I photographed one on a roadside fence where I employed ISO1600. 

 Barn Owl

Swallow

Eventually I reached Fluke Hall Lane and Lane Ends for my usual circuit just as the clouds began to part, the light improved and I switched to ISO400. Lane Ends to Pilling Water: Blackcap, Reed Warbler, 3 Grey Heron, Reed Bunting, 3 Corn Bunting, 5 Greenfinch, 6 Linnet, 3 Pied Wagtail, 1 Sparrowhawk. 

Whitethroats were out in force with 14 singing males between Lane Ends and Ridge Farm to the south of Fluke Hall. A pair of roadside Lapwings had 2 large chicks, from their size probable flyers. Some of the Lapwings which suddenly appear with young have brought them from fields just inland so as to gradually make their way out to the marsh. 

Whitethroat

Lapwing - Juvenile

Along Fluke Hall Lane Tuesday’s Oystercatcher stood sentinel on the same roadside telegraph pole where it but not I had a good view of youngsters in the next field. 

Oystercatcher

Burned House Lane now, not far from home, where the police, the helicopter, the smashed-up car and the bad boys had long gone but a Lesser Whitethroat in song provided a fitting end to my few hours of birding.