Half A Picture Post

I’m a bit stuck for time today so I’ll post a few pictures with the minimum waffle from me.

I was at the farm today hoping to get more pictures of the shy Yellowhammers and the equally timid Corn Buntings. They just wouldn’t come in to feed and then I realised why. The photographer’s nightmare, half a bird hidden by its surroundings.

Headless Little Owl
Well I didn’t want to disturb the Little Owl so waited while it sat and dozed, looked around, ignored the crows and a Chaffinch that spotted it, called a few times and then sat some more, all the while keeping birds from feeding on the pile of discarded grain.

After a while I drove round to the road where I had a distant view of the owl.

Little Owl
So there are a few other photos, mainly from earlier in the week. Until I took these pictures I hadn’t realised what striking ear marks Brown Hares have.

Brown Hare
Brown Hare
Corn Bunting
Collared Dove
Chaffinch
Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer
Roe Deer
Eventually the owl moved again. But as a precursor to the promise of rain for Saturday, the best light had gone which didn't make for the perfect photograph and the birds waiting to feed didn't return.

Little Owl

Change Tack

Today at Out Rawcliffe I altered my approach and looked out for singing birds and signs of spring rather than looking for wintering birds and winter flocks.

The Little Owl was there again, the usual spot. So although that's three times this week to take their portraits, who could resist another one even if this bird did insist on hiding partially behind a branch?

Little Owl
Just seconds after taking the owl’s portrait a male Sparrowhawk flashed over the hedgerow in front of me and out of sight as normal but at least it means they are about the farm somewhere.

Down on the moss scattered about the farm I counted 4 Corn Buntings and their “jangling keys” song, but they weren’t all thinking of spring song as a flock of 10 fed around some discarded barley near the barn, others waiting for me to clear off. Such a wary species, but good to get a few pictures. There was also a pretty accommodating Pied Wagtail finding food here.

















Corn Bunting
Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail
I walked the track towards Nateby and clocked up 8 pairs of Grey Partridge, 11 singing Chaffinch, 2 drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 2 singing Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows at 3 nest boxes and 4 Buzzards circling over the woods, mewing and displaying. Then flocks of 17 Linnets and 7 Goldfinch with 2 singing Skylarks.

From the fir wood I flushed a Peregrine from the tree tops but the crows also saw it and voiced their disapproval. Nailed to a tree the gamekeepers had shown their own displeasure of Carrion Crows – “to discourage the others” as they say.

Gamekeeper’s Warning

Towards the Conifer Copse

Through the Conifer Copse
I found a few lingering Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrows at the now run down feeding station, as well as an expectant Robin and a bunch of Roe Deer, now more tolerant since the shooting season ended.

Robin

Roe Deer
Perhaps as important as the things I saw this morning were the things I didn’t see: very few Wrens, not many Robins, 1 Song Thrush but about 8/10 Blackbirds, so perhaps a bit early to say the winter had a devastating effect but we’ll see.

A Little Consolation

On the way home from Will’s I stopped off at a Little Owl box to look for activity in the locality. Wonderful, the owl sat close to the box which it often does recently. But it has done the same in previous years without continuing on to actually use the box for nesting. At least I got a few shots in the sunshine and made a mental note to check the box contents in a month or two. It was something of a consolation prize for a slow morning’s ringing. Close to there was also a Yellowhammer in full voice, not at all surprising given the events in the earlier part of the morning.

Little Owl

Little Owl
After the catch of over 30 Siskins 10 days ago coupled with Will’s count of 70/80 in the garden 5 days previously we hoped for a good catch today. But even in that short period things changed so much that it was not only the numbers of Siskin that declined, but also the other finches and Blackbirds. In the last week lots of species have begun to sing as they moved from wintering localities, things pointing to the real beginning of spring.

A three hour session saw us catch 12 birds only:

1 Dunnock
1 Robin
2 Goldfinch
3 Chaffinch
1 Siskin
1 Coal Tit
2 Blackbirds
1 Blue Tit

The finches now sport brighter spring colours, particularly the 3 adult male Chaffinch that we caught with blueing heads and the bright as a button female Goldfinch.

Chaffinch

Siskin

Goldfinch
Will showed me his new Siskin feeder recycled from an old biro and the HP bottle featured on this blog recently, and whilst the Siskin like it, I personally favour the brown liquid on my butties rather than nyger seed.

HPSauce?
Other birds seen this morning included about 8 Siskin in total, 25 Woodpigeons, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Treecreeper, Sparrowhawk, 12 Jackdaw and 2 Grey Heron.

Grey Heron
Will lives close to the Claughton heronry where an estate worker said recently he counted a dozen Grey Heron rather than the normal 40 or so at this time of year. I found a dead Grey Heron just last week which didn’t surprise me given the severity of our winter, so the news from Claughton could prove ominous for recent Grey Heron survival rates.

A Light Lunch

I hadn’t been out to Rawcliffe Moss for a week or more but this lunch time presented an hour or two to fit in a quick visit. From the car I could see Seumus had been earlier because although fairly distant, the fresh line of bright seed mix stood out on the brown, muddy track as did the gaggle of 16 Wood Pigeons helping themselves.

Along the hawthorn and the wet ditch the count of customary diners revealed 120 Tree Sparrows, 14 Yellowhammers, 10 Chaffinch, a single Fieldfare, 4 Blackbirds and 2 Reed Bunting. Thrush numbers down then but resilient Tree Sparrows and Yellowhammers still abound.

Fieldfare

Tree Sparrow

Reed Bunting

Up on the big field 4 Roe Deer did their usual disappearing trick but twice, initially running from sight with stuck on tails, but then taking more determined evasive action by deerleaping the barbed fence.



Roe Deer

I checked out the stubble fields where I watched a circling Kestrel, but with tramping through the short stalks I put to flight 18 Skylark, then a tight flock of 80 Linnets that surprised me simply by being there after the recent weather events. More Woodpigeons up here in the woods and our plantation gave me an extra 110 to put in my notebook.

A few lines of distant Pink-footed Geese gave me the usual photographic dilemma of grey goose versus grey sky. But it’s nice to just see and hear them constantly without trying to get too scientific with counts or take the ultimate picture. If only they were that obliging anyway, but it’s strange how for instance some birders think they can just jump out of a car in front of a flock of feeding pinkies without the geese immediately taking to the air in panic.

Pink-footed Goose

Up near the plantation I saw a Buzzard over towards Nateby heading as usual even further away from me so I took the track through the trees. The wildfowlers pond was just about thawed; enough to hold a single Snipe on a little muddy bank but there were no duck. Of course the Snipe made off pretty sharpish, unlike the one at Pilling a few days a go.

Snipe

Two more noisy Blackbirds and several Goldfinch in the alders almost completed the picture here until a party of about 22 Corn Buntings appeared from the trees to then head off south, but I did catch up with them near the farm. I can only think that in the trees the buntings were feeding on some of the wildfowlers spilt grain intended for the absent Mallards.

In the lee of the birch wood I could see a couple of Blackbirds feeding in the soft grass but also 3 Song Thrush virtually together. Song Thrush, so scarce we need to note them all.

Song Thrush

Other odds and ends today – both Dunnock and Great Tit singing at the hint of extra daylight and warmth plus a Great-spotted Woodpecker on the same hole infested tree I saw it a week or more ago. Spring can’t be far away!

On the way off the moss a Little Owl in the barn was reluctant to hang around for a photograph. So I stuck here a picture of the same bird on a nearby tree on a previous but sunny day.

Little Owl

Ringing tomorrow, watch this space.