Going Nowhere

The breeze was just too strong for a ringing session. Even at 10 mph we are blown off course at Oakenclough.  I set off instead for a spot of birding in what would prove to be a quite productive and eventful morning. 

At Lane Ends Pilling I was early enough to see the Little Egrets depart their island roost. The site is now so overgrown that it’s impossible to see the egrets from any direction, the only option being to count them in at dusk or count them out at dawn.  In the morning they signal their imminent departure by their barking calls after which they fly in ones, twos and threes from the trees to the marsh below. I counted 28 heading out and landing on the marsh before they gradually scattered in all directions to later spend their day in Morecambe Bay. 

Little Egret 

There was a flight of Greylag Geese off the marsh and heading south over my head. I counted 70+ in just ten or fifteen minutes. By the time I reached Braides Farm Greylags were still on the move with another two parties of 40+ birds, they too heading south. There was a Kestrel here, a young bird and one of very few juvenile Kestrels I've seen this year. 

There was a very good selection of waders at Conder Green by way of 270 Lapwing, 44 Redshank, 7 Greenshank, 4 Dunlin, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Curlew, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Snipe and 1 Oystercatcher. 

Dunlin 

Other “water” birds appeared as 12 Little Grebe, 3 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Shelduck, 1 Common Tern and 1 Kingfisher. The Kingfisher didn't come close and I was forced to watch it hovering and then plunge-diving across the pool and in front of the far island. This where the grebes hang out and where there are lots of small fish to be had. 

Little Grebe 

A single Whitethroat and 6 Goldfinch was the sum of the passerine count although 120+ Swallows was a welcome sight. 

At Glasson the Tufted Duck numbers are building with 22 there today plus a single Great Crested Grebe, but otherwise a decent number of uncounted Common Coot and a single Grey Heron. 

Tufted Duck 

There were more Swallows along Jeremy Lane where the good folk of Gardner’s Farm seem not to mind their roof and TV aerial being decorated by Swallows and House Martins. 

Swallow 

Swallow 

House Martin & Swallow 

Further up the lane I had to turn around and head back. A recovery truck was on its way to rescue an Asda delivery van from the roadside ditch. Someone near Cockersands would wait in vain for their Internet shopping bags. 

Going Nowhere 

Asda Delivery 

The lanes up here are often single track where a driver unfamiliar with local niceties like giving way to large tractors may find they are off-road with nowhere to go. 

Back near Pilling again I found 4 Buzzards in the air and a Little Owl sat in the sun but sheltered from the now stiff northerly wind. 

Little Owl 

More soon. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog.

Shakespeare And Stroganoff

There was no ringing planned today so instead I had a scoot around Cockerham way. It’s guaranteed to produce a good variety of species and sometimes excellent numbers of birds. 

I kicked off at Conder Green, where for an hour or more the place was alive with Swallows and Sand Martins taking breakfast. The cool morning produced a hatch of thousands of insects above the hedgerows and close to the water’s edge. 

The birds took full advantage as many took insects on the wing while others fed on the ground, almost as if they were collecting nesting material.  It was hard to estimate the mass of birds, especially as some perched up in the straggly hedgerow briefly before returning to the bonanza. My best guess was 350 Swallow, 25 Sand Martin and 15 House Martin. 

Some of the House Martins were from across the way where they nest on the sides of at least two buildings close to the tidal creeks, the ditches that provide food and also mud for nest building. 

Swallow 

House Martins 

The House Martins here seem to have enjoyed a very productive year with upwards of 60 in air around the said buildings earlier in the week. Similarly, the colony of House Martins on a single house on our road in Stalmine-with-Staynall have done really well this year with more than 40 individuals on some days. At the end of the season the UK breeding bird stats will make for interesting reading to gauge the effect of the longest, hottest summer for many, some say fifty years. 

Despite the numbers of both swallows, martins and air-borne insect food, I didn't see a single Swift this morning; it would seem that many have now left for Africa. 

The midday tide began to run about 10am where it pushed a good number of mainly Redhanks into the creeks and onto the pool: 280 Redshank, 80 Lapwing, 3 Greenshank, 3 Curlew, 1 Oystercatcher, 3 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. 

On the pool otherwise were noted 12 Little Grebe, 6 Common Tern, 5 Greylag and 5 Pied Wagtail. 

Those dabchicks are so elusive. One second it’s there, the next it’s gone, made no splash or noise but slipped into the water as if its plumage were lubricated with WD40. As suddenly as it dived to leave just a ripple of water, so it reappeared, but never in the exact same spot, as if to tease the amateur cameraman. 

Little Grebe 

“A di-dapper peering through a wave, 

Who, being looked on, ducks as quickly in.” 

William Shakespeare 

You must excuse me. I have a beef stroganoff to make and a bottle of wine to uncork. But never fear there’s more soon from Another Bird Blog. 

Stroganoff

See you soon. Cheers.

Linking this post to World Bird Wednesday and Anni's Birding Blog.

Sunday’s Plan

They do say the British weather is unpredictable. Well not this year because there’s a definite pattern emerging in this the worst one for many a year. There’s a day of dry, then the next day of rain, and then a mixed up day when there’s sun for half of the daylight hours and rain during the remainder. Mostly it has been breezy or windy come rain or shine. 

So in a strange way, it is possible to plan birding, ringing and a spot of photography by looking out for the good days, ignoring the rest and planning accordingly. Luckily Sunday’s forecast of wall-to-wall sunshine looked to be one of the better days so I set off early with camera and bins at the ready. 

The regular as clockwork Kingfisher opened the account at Conder Green. The bird wasn’t for hanging around though and after it quickly flew off I soon saw it again going in the opposite direction. This time it carried a small item of prey. Kingfishers can have more than one brood of chicks. 

I turned my attention to the water where 10 Little Grebe ducked and dived for the same thing the Kingfisher wanted. Four Cormorant were after bigger stuff to eat but they quickly come and go from the estuary 100 yards away where they find the bigger prey. The grebe count should double before the year is out on this a very regular winter gathering place. Meanwhile a Tufted Duck still chaperones 4 growing youngsters - quite an improvement on recent years of zero success. 

Cormorant

 Little Grebe

 

I saw my first Snipe of the autumn with 2 in the creeks and a single on the island. Redshank numbers are on the increase with 65 today, a single Greenshank, a couple of Curlews and 4 Common Sandpiper. Most of the Curlews and Lapwings are on the estuary and inland fields, exampled by a later count of 270 Lapwings in a single field on Pilling moss. 

Apart from the above the pool and margins are very quiet with 4 Little Egret, 6 Pied Wagtail and 3 Stock Dove to add to the above. I found a good flock of circa 50 Goldfinch along the hedgerow where a couple of Whitethroat can still be heard churring. I did a circuit of Jeremy Lane to get a male Sparrowhawk, a few Swallows, a good flock of juv Starlings, a very tatty Kestrel and a very obliging Wheatear.  Don't forget to "click the pic".

Don’t you just love ‘em when they perform so well? 

Wheatear

Wheatear

Wheatear

Kestrel

Swallow

Swallow

Juvenile Starlings are comical this time of year in their mix of adult and baby feathers. They behave in a rather strange way as if they are partly lost, looking around for where to go and what to do without a guiding adult. Then all of a sudden they spook for no reason and off they go in a blur of noise. 

Starlings

I stopped off at the moss where for the third time this week I saw a Marsh Harrier; a little distant as usual. Also, the aforementioned 270 Lapwings, 2 Buzzard and 12 Pied Wagtail. 

So what's in store next week on Another Bird Blog?  Well Monday is baby sitting. After that it's anyones guess but I dare say there will be birding or ringing soon, so stay tuned.

Saturday 22nd July

What a rotten week it’s been. Rain most days, often windy and nothing like summer. Saturday promised slightly better so I set off on the usual trail over the moss and in the general direction of Conder Green. 

I hit upon a young Kestrel and then a singing Yellowhammer, the latter not quite as rare as hen’s teeth but certainly getting that way. It took me a while to locate from where the male proclaimed his “little bit of bread and no cheese” until I spotted him 30ft up a roadside post. 

Yellowhammer

Seems there was a Cattle Egret at Conder Green during the week, a one-day wonder on Thursday that a good number of people saw but perhaps not enough to ensure the species figures on everyone’s British List. 

Just as well I saw one there on April 2nd, part of  a small invasion of the species to the UK. But the Cattle Egret is still an elusive species to many a birder. Not so in many countries I’ve visited including Egypt where Cattle Egrets are as tame as church mice. 

There was no Cattle Egret today so I made do with 4 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron as part of the 40 species I saw. A Kingfisher put in two brief appearances in between flying across the water to try its luck on the other side of the pool – afraid the light was poor again at ISO1000.

Kingfisher

I guess the Kingfisher is after the same tiddler prey as the five Little Grebes. It was most unusual that one of the grebes came in fairly close today, a juvenile bird but one that arrived from elsewhere in the last two or three weeks. On the raft today were two Common Terns, birds seemingly uninterested in the tiddlers in Conder Pool, but heading off to the estuary where they might find something more substantial. 

Little Grebe

Waders are back in some numbers now, mostly Lapwings with a count of 180+ and many more on the fields beyond the canal. In the week and during a rain aborted look, I counted 900 Lapwings and 400 Curlews in two fields not far away. 

Back to today and in addition to the Lapwings, 48 Redshank, 10 Oystercatcher, 7 Common Sandpiper, 2 Dunlin, 2 Curlew, 1 Greenshank and 1 Whimbrel "over". The Oystercatchers on the island still have one chick, now growing nicely thanks to two attentive parents. 

Oystercatcher

"Odds and ends" amounted to 2 Stock Dove, 8 Greylag and 2 Cormorant, but not forgetting the Tufted Ducks, mother proudly in charge of four tiny ducklings and father nowhere to be seen. 

Along, around, and over the roadside hedgerow proved pretty good with 10+ Swift, 40 Sand Martin and several Swallows. There was a Sparrowhawk carrying small prey but I lost it as it flew over and behind the trees at the rear of the Stork Hotel. 

Passerines along the hedgerow: 6 Goldfinch, 3 Linnet, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Reed Bunting and 1 Meadow Pipit. 

Linnet

 

Reed Bunting

The weather is looking better for next week. Let’s hope the experts are right for once?

Linking today to Anni's Birding.

Dodgy Days

I was desperate to go birding and experiment with my new 80D, preferably at a sensible ISO. All I needed was a decent spell of sunshine but that wasn’t to be. On Wednesday the sun appeared in spasms as 30mph westerlies and 50mph gusts pushed grey clouds across the sky. I ventured forth more in hope than expectation, but with yellow weather warnings I was due for a day or two of dodging the showers. 

Across the windswept moss I’d clocked up a pair of Kestrels, one of four territories noted in recent days. 

There’d been reports of several White-fronted Geese and even a Red-breasted Goose with the pinkies at Cockerham. Chances were the geese had already departed; seen off by the farmer or deterred by the day long procession of people keen to see the colourful goose, star of pager buzz but of dubious origin. 

Red-breasted Goose

I stopped off at Gulf Lane to feed the Linnets and where a shooter advised that the farmer had indeed moved the geese from his fields. A drive down his track in a Land Rover would send the geese into the air and seek out new grazing on a neighbouring farm. Farmers around here stick together - even to the extent of letting each other see the wild geese. Birders see a wild goose chase as fun sport, but for a farmer his livelihood goes down the drain when several thousand geese poop on his pasture. 

The shooter also advised that a birdwatcher had told him the flock of birds flying around the set-aside were Twite; that’s a major problem with these twitches - they bring out dodgy, part-time birders as well as suspect birds. I checked – yes, definitely Linnets, all 200+ of them; and a Little Egret sheltering from the wind in the dyke. 

Along Lancaster Lane is a major flood. Lapwings fed in their thousands with dozens of Redshanks, 30 Black-tailed Godwits, and then good numbers of Curlew and Golden Plover in the far distance. Skylarks appeared from the black stuff when flighty Lapwings caused temporary panic and mass flight of the assembled crowd. About 80 Fieldfares fed close to the hedgerow, partly sheltered from the wind but close enough to dash back should danger threaten, as they did more than once. Along the lane, and for the second time lately, I found another Kestrel hanging about a likely looking barn 

Mostly Lapwings

 

Fieldfares

Fieldfare

The wind raged across Braides Farm where many Lapwings hunkered down against the gusts that made their feeding hard work. 

I drove on up to Conder and Glasson where the high tide coupled with strength and direction of the wind would surely make Goldeneye and Tufted Ducks appear as if by magic? It did, with tightly packed counts of 45+ Goldeneye and 60+ Tufted Duck bouncing across the usually calm marina that now resembled a wave packed sea and made photography difficult. 

Tufted Duck and Goldeneye

 

Goldeneye

 

Goldeneye

At Conder Green the high tide had almost reached the road. From there and on the pool I managed to count about 200 Teal, 30+ Redshank, 4 Little Grebe, 15 Wigeon and 1 Sparrowhawk fighting against the wind to find something to eat.

Teal

Little Grebe

The weather isn’t much better today although there’s no sign yet of the predicted snow, but I ain’t going nowhere just yet.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday.

Tuesday Morning Birding

I arrived early at Conder Green where the birding seemed rather slow despite a good, bright start. My expectations were quite low today as the long staying Avocets looked to have departed, the breeding Common Terns left weeks ago, nesting Oystercatchers are reduced to a single bird, and the tiny family of Tufted Ducks vanished without trace soon after hatching. 

As summer turns to autumn the resident birds of recent weeks and months are now gone and there’s a gap until northern migrants arrive in numbers. But as usual a little perseverance and patience rewarded a more than a cursory look. Don't forget, "click the pics" for a closer look.

Predictably the Little Grebes added another one overnight and they now number twelve with more to come soon. It’s quite usual to see seven or eight closely grouped in the centre of the pool and then singletons scattered around the rest of the water where their constant diving and resurfacing coupled with their identical appearance makes for conflicting counts. Our wintering Little Grebes are impossible to approach with the slightest movement sending them into a dive under water or a swim in the opposite direction. There was no problem counting the remaining wildfowl as these were just 2 Wigeon, 3 Teal and the ever present Mute Swans which numbered 21+. The Mute Swan, our most conspicuous and year-round swan gets hardly a mention on this and other webs sites, remedied today with a photograph below. 

Little Grebe

 

 Mute Swan

Once again a Kingfisher put in a brief appearance by resting momentarily on the edge of the sluice gate before flying off to the nearest island and a perfect but distant pose of several minutes until it headed off towards the canal. 

 

Kingfisher

The Lapwing count was 200+, birds roosting around the island joined by others from the estuary as the tide rose to push them off the river. Perhaps their numbers alone made them very unsettled as on several occasions the Lapwings spooked off in unison as if a raptor was close by or approaching. After a few circuits the Lapwings settled down again and returned to either feeding or roosting. I looked in vain for something that could put so many Lapwings into panic mode but a single Kestrel overflying at speed and chased off by a gang of twittering Swallows failed to meet the requirements. 

Lapwing

 

Lapwings

Other waders on the pool and in the immediate creeks - 4 Greenshank, 4 Common Sandpiper, 40+ Redshank and 3 Little Egret. 

While walking the old railway path 2 Avocets flew from the direction of the estuary, calling in unison as they flew above me. They headed straight across to the pool and their stomping ground of summer. When I returned to the pool about 30 minutes later to look for the Avocets they were nowhere to be seen but probably out of sight on the far side of the and out of view behind an island. 

From the railway path I could see 2 Common Sandpiper, several Redshanks and a couple of Curlews in the long creek which heads directly into the estuary. Small birds noted along here - 2 Whitethroat, 12+ Linnet, 8 Goldfinch and 1 Willow Warbler in quiet sub-song. 

At Glasson Dock about 600 post-roosting Swallows fed and rested around the moored boats. One Grey Heron and still 4 Tufted Duck around the yacht basin.

Linking today to  Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Late Owls

“Sun until midday and then rain from the west” advised the not always trusty weathercaster. This time they were spot on and I’m happy I made the effort to get up early and grab a few hours birding because while I’m blogging indoors, outside it may be about to start raining cats and dogs. 

A Kingfisher was the first bird I saw at Conder Green. Unfortunately it was a good distance away on the “nearest” but too far away island for a decent picture. Thank goodness for my archived pictures for readers who’d like to see a real Kingfisher. Our European Kingfisher occurs in Egypt too, but I don’t think I’ll be going back to that region any time soon. 

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

 

Those Avocets are still around and although the youngster has yet to fledge it was doing some serious flapping in readiness for the big day. The single adult remains ultra-protective in chasing anything and everything away from the corner of the pool the Avocets have called home for months now. 

Avocet

Other waders and wildfowl noted as 120+ Lapwing, 50+ Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 3 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Little Egret and 2 Wigeon, so few changes there. 

Little Grebe have increased to nine continuing their daily habit of adding one new member to the flock. New grebes appear as if by magic each day and while they can occasionally be seen pitter-pattering across the surface of the water, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a Little Grebe fly, neither can I recall speaking to anyone who has. Many of our wintering Little Grebes are from the near-Continent with some arriving from Eastern Europe and Russia, so we must assume that they are able to fly? 

Little Grebe

I noted small birds as 6 Swift, 2 Stock Dove, 6 Pied Wagtail, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 4 Greenfinch, 10 Linnet and 15 Goldfinch. There is a good crop of thistles this year but I’m not sure there’s an equal number of Goldfinches to do justice to the seed heads yet. It’s early for huge flocks of Goldfinches with September usually the peak month. 

Goldfinch

At Glasson, 80 + Swallows feeding/resting around the boats and the basin, 4 Tufted Duck, 1 Great Crested Grebe and 12 Coot. 

Coot

 

Tufted Duck

On the way home I came upon two sibling Barn Owls hunting the same area of ground. The owls flew around a couple of roadside rough fields, quickly establishing a routine which centred on a ditch and a number of old buildings, places where both they and I would expect to find small mammals. 

Barn Owl

 

I stayed patiently in my car knowing that these young owls wouldn’t stray far and would also pass my way soon. Along comes a bloke in a car, who displaying not an ounce of field craft, decides to not only get out of his vehicle but to then walk up and down the road with his camera. This right next to the field the owls were hunting, but where the nutter perhaps expected that these wild birds would somehow fly or pose right next to him. I waited several minutes but needless to say to say the owls moved away from the immediate area. I left the clueless idiot wandering up and down the roads with the owls nowhere to be seen. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

No doubt this particular location will now be broadcast to all and sundry resulting in hordes of similarly enlightened folk harassing the same owls and annoying the farmer, not to mention continually disturbing the birds. That’s what always happens because most of these folk are so clueless and lazy minded they can’t think that there might just be Barn Owls elsewhere and then try to find others to watch instead.

Linking today to Run A Round Ranch.