Garden Top Ten

Thanks to the Wuhan Flu and house arrest it seems we are all to become garden birdwatchers until further notice. 

Just in time then to read of the latest results from the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch, an event held over the weekend of 25-27 January 2020 when nearly half a million people counted almost eight million birds. It made this year’s Birdwatch one of the biggest ever. 

The RSPB even produced a Top Ten, a list that depending upon a particular location may not equate to all gardens but represents a combined average result from the whole of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales. 

Here they are in one to ten order; a list to bring tears to eyes of WhatsApp “bird news” groups. Not a single “scarce or rare” among them. In the archives of Another Bird Blog I found a picture for each of the species, useful ID pointers for those who have little or no time for common birds. 

The figure in brackets is a guesstimate of the top ten in my own garden for an average January day. In our garden, Magpie is replaced by Dunnock, a much nicer prospect. Magpies aren’t around because I chase them off as soon as they appear:

1. House Sparrow (10)
2. Starling (8)
3. Blue Tit (5)
4. Woodpigeon (2)
5. Blackbird (3)
6. Goldfinch (1)
7. Great Tit (4)
8. Robin (6)
9. Long-tailed Tit (9)
10. Magpie (0)
10. Dunnock

House Sparrow 

Starling 

Blue Tit 

Woodpigeon

Blackbird

Goldfinch 

Great Tit 

Robin

Long-tailed Tit

Dunnock

The RSPB Top Ten of the changes little from 2019, with the top three birds the same as last year. Again, the Number One spot is taken by the House Sparrow, making it first for seventeen years running. Meanwhile the House Sparrow is nowadays an uncommon visitor to our ample sized semi-rural garden. Here the House Sparrow struggles to even hit the charts, despite the RSPB report suggesting that their numbers appear to have increased by 10% in the last ten years. 

The RSPB detect movement at fourth and fifth, with the Woodpigeon moving up to four and, last year’s number four the Blackbird falling to five. This is not surprising given the highly adaptive pigeon’s abundance here in Stalmine that gives the species an easy runner-up place in our garden list. This commonality is explained by a nearby mix of farmland, many trees, thick hedgerows, tolerant residents and few shooters. 

Small birds like Long-tailed Tits (up by 14% on 2019), Wrens (up 13%) and Coal Tits (up 10%) counted well during a mild, wet winter that came with very few frosts and little snow. The 14% for Long-tailed Tits also accounts for it remaining high on our local list as a past breeding species in the berberis bush; and a regular visitor likely to nest again. 

The report showed that Chaffinch dropped from the top ten down to number 11. This placing reflects very recent news that this once abundant farmland bird is the latest species in trouble through agricultural changes and over-building on green land and woodland edge. Sadly the Chaffinch is no longer a regular in our own garden. 

Losers out this time included Song Thrush way down at 20th in 2020, seen in just 9% of all gardens. Compare this to earlier Big Garden Birdwatches of 1979 -2009 when the Song Thrush made a top ten appearance in every year. In our garden, the once common Song Thrush is both "scarce and rare".  

It's a surprise the Goldfinch doesn’t even make the RSPB top five when here in Stalmine it is far and away the most common garden bird at any time of year. Perhaps the Goldfinch is not yet a city bird where many of the Big Garden Birdwatchers reside? 

Greenfinch is another big loser over the span of the Big Garden Birdwatch, a reflection of a major nationwide decline in its population. It came in at 18th and was seen in just 14% of gardens, this itself a worrying drop of 8% on 2019. We have a pair of Greenfinches in the garden so we count ourselves rather lucky in many ways. 

And the cherry blossom smells just wonderful. 

 Cherry Blossom

Stalmine

At least the good weather means we don’t sit in in the house and watch TV.  I’m told there are still people who pay a TV Licence fee for the privilege of having their intelligence insulted!   

Meanwhile, the Government is in a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” situation.  A relaxation of the lockdown advice will be pounced on by TV and newspaper media and used to whip up even more public hysteria.  The effect this media-generated madness is having on an already browbeaten population has been leapt upon as an excuse for a monumental power grab by the illiberal left, forever eager to bring down an elected Government.  

Back soon with Another Bird Blog and tales of The Great Escape.

Keep Your Distance

Birds are well practised in social distancing; in fact they are experts. When was the last time if ever you were closer than two metres to a wild bird? The long lens on a modern digital SLR camera can play tricks with our understanding of a bird’s tolerance of being too close for comfort; many a togger has fallen foul of the cardinal rule of “keep your distance”. 

Bird Photographers

There’s a good reason birds stay away from man. Man is the apex predator, top of the food chain. Ever since Neanderthals roamed the earth with stone-tipped spears, birds have been there for the taking once nuts, roots and leaves fell out of fashion. Stone-age man could hunt and kill anything they wanted to eat. From small birds up to the largest mammals. Their world was but a meaty oyster.  

Birds became a source of food, literally “fair game” in every part of the world. Birds were used as clothing adornments, jewellery, status symbols, or pets in a cage to sing for their supper. Birds are both “sport” and a gourmet meal to the present day shooting fraternity - geese, ducks, grouse, snipe, woodcock and even gold-spangled plovers to be enjoyed with a glass of the finest chateau. You name it, they shoot it.

Nestlings of wild falcons, hawks, eagles and owls are partially tamed and manipulated to become man’s slaves, for amusement or to hunt other lesser animals for their only master. But as the falconer may discover later, when the beast slips the jesses and flies far away, “you can take a bird from the wild, but you can’t take the wild from a bird”. 

Golden Eagle

Small songbirds can be "habituated" to the presence of humans. They may not immediately fly away when a human appears but they are still wild. The human becomes a part of the background of the bird's environment and for now they accept the close proximity of a human as normal and non-threatening. 

In North America a number of common songbirds become so habituated with close human interaction that they can be eventually "trained" to take food from the hand at an arm’s length. Some of the "braver" birds accustomed to the presence of humans include Tufted Titmouse, Chickadees, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Nuthatches and House Sparrows. 

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Chickadee

N.B. Trying this on with a street-wise UK House Sparrow will get you absolutely nowhere. 

Here in the UK the crow family of Ravens, Carrion Crows, Jackdaws and Jays are well known for their propensity to forget social distancing. Blackbirds, Robins, the tit family and European Nuthatches will occasionally join in the fun and leave aside the rules of engagement. I once lost a shiny biro to an inquisitive Magpie when testing the theory that the crow family are entranced by man’s glossy baubles, if not necessarily by man’s proximal charms.

Great Tit

Man with Magpie - Real Fix Magazine

There’s not a lot we humans can teach birds about social distancing but maybe we can at least respect their reasons for mostly wishing to be distant from us. We must always remember that there is no such thing as a naturally tame wild bird. We are their greatest enemy. 

    

"Birds are the most popular group in the animal kingdom. We feed them and tame them and think we know them. And yet they inhabit a world which is really rather mysterious."  David Attenborough.

Here in Lockdown Britain Sue and I are staying well and sticking to the rules to avoid the Wuhan virus.  But with the best spell of weather for six months or more, many of the natives are getting restless, setting off for the seaside, heading for the hills or lying in the park.  

Grey Squirrel

We’re content to stay at home for now if even the garden birds are somewhat limited. Meanwhile a local squirrel tries to lift the lid and find out what is really in there.

     

Curry Night

There was good birding to be had today, the only problem being that I came back home with 300+ pictures on my camera. This meant more time in the “office” when I should have been making a curry for supper. Looks like a late meal again after the essential blogging. 

The glut of pictures came mostly from a rather smart and obliging Black-tailed Godwit at Conder Green. There were approximately 200 of them again this morning across the far side of the pool, out of camera reach and very flighty as usual. I don’t think experienced adult birds would have been as accommodating as the second year shown here. 

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Other waders today were 4 Common Sandpiper, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 12 Redshank, 10 Oystercatcher and 3 Lapwing. It was good to see Lapwings back on site and with luck they should breed again. 

Wildfowl; 16 Tufted Duck, 2 drake Wigeon, 1 Canada Goose. If this is the Canada Goose which bred here last year with one of its own kind there might be some weird and wonderful offspring this year as it is now paired up with a white, domestic Greylag; an incongruous pair indeed. 

Wigeon

Canada Goose

Magpie!

For a change of scene I drove to Bank End, Cockerham Marsh which can be ok for birding provided the parachute centre isn’t open for business with the constant road and air traffic it entails. Apart from sheep, I didn’t see a lot of stuff - 2 Wheatear, 1 Little Egret, 3 Whitethroat, 4 Tree Sparrows and several Swallows, but by now I was keen to reach Fluke Hall. 

Bank End - Cockerham marsh

Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa

After yesterday’s Willow Warblers today it was the turn of the related Wood Warbler to show. It’s something of a scarce bird around here in in Spring, always late April/early May and agreeable to catch up with on a yearly basis, even if it's usually a single bird. One was in the tree tops and I managed to get a couple of distant shots at the wrong camera setting but the main features are there - striking lemon yellow and white underparts coupled with a noticeably yellow supercilium; altogether a more colourful bird than its cousin the Willow Warbler. 

Wood Warbler

Willow Warbler

There were Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps in song and Lesser Redpolls in the tree tops. A Tree Pipit flew over, but after spending too much time elsewhere my Thursday ticket was almost out of time. In any case after Wednesday's huge fall of Wheatears in parts of the Fylde and Lancaster I was busting a gut to do my own Wheatear walk. 

Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa

I found a gang of 12/13 Wheatears along the sea wall, eminently catchable until in their eagerness for a meal worm they set off traps but failed to get caught. Most birds are far cleverer than us humans give them credit for, so the experience of the moving parts of the traps had made them more wary the second time around, even as they returned to the lure of an easy meal. 

After a while I did catch two, both definitely of the “Greenland” type, one a male the other a female. 

Northern Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa

Northern Wheatear- Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa

Northern Wheatear - Oenanthe oenanthe leucorhoa

An excellent morning of birding for Another Bird Blog. But now if you’ll excuse me, there's a lamb curry to prepare.

"Click the pics" and come back soon.

Linking this post to Anni's bird Blog.

500 Up

After the busy days of the last two weeks, Monday was a bit of rest day, apart that is from inputting the many records from recent ringing into the Integrated Population Monitoring Reporter (IPMR) database. Will worked on Monday, but borrowed a few hours “flexi” this morning for another morning of ringing on Rawcliffe Moss before he heads off or a break in Scotland and a bit of lazy salmon fishing.

So after the IPMR task we began today with a running September total of 442 new birds of 22 species here, which included 135 Meadow Pipits, 188 Chaffinches and 39 Goldfinches. Our recent catches have been very consistent in terms of numbers and species, a trend which continued this morning with another 63 new birds, the majority of which proved to be even more of those diurnally migrating Meadow Pipits and Chaffinches.

New birds: 37 Chaffinch, 15 Meadow Pipit, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Dunnock and 2 Blue Tit with 1 each of Great Tit, Blackcap and Reed Bunting.

Blackcap
Dunnock
Blue Tit

One of the juvenile Lesser Redpoll looked particularly young and speckle faced, perhaps from a late nest, as a pair of adults can have three broods.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll

Although we counted 12 + Reed Buntings over today, it was slightly disappointing to catch just one. Reed Buntings are very much a bird of visible autumn migration, with the annual movement through Rawcliffe Moss probably related to their withdrawal from upland areas of the Pennines and Scotland as a preparation for the winter period.

The visible diurnal migration of Reed Buntings is less obvious than other species e.g. Chaffinches or Meadow Pipits, both of which use lots of contact calling to stay in touch with other individuals during their overhead flights. In contrast Reed Buntings call less and although they travel or join in with other species movements and feeding parties, often Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits, the less numerous buntings can easily be missed by observers not tuned into their calls.

Reed Bunting
Reed Bunting

Our visible migration counts today, all from the north but heading south from 0700 to 1145 came in at 160+ Meadow Pipit, 400+ Chaffinch, 70+ Lesser Redpoll, 30+ Siskin, 12+ Reed Bunting, 3 Yellowhammer, 25+ Alba wagtail, 2 Song Thrush and 1 Mistle Thrush.

Other birds this morning: 1 Barn Owl, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel, 4 Buzzard, 15 Snipe, 1 Corn Bunting and 2 Magpies. We rarely see Magpies out here, but for a week or two a couple of birds have escaped the attention of the gamekeepers. I can’t see them lasting through the winter shoots – the birds that is.

Magpie

Today cracked the 500 mark in September here but with a couple of “iffy” weather days remaining in the month, that could be it until October.

Patience Is A Virtue

I held fire through the constant rain of Saturday, lasted out this morning’s downpour, and then ate lunch in the conservatory to the torture of more rainfall on the glass roof. Finally at 1330 the rain eased a little, the battleship sky turned a lighter shade of grey and I got out birding for an hour or two. I suppose I could have gone out in the rain, birding of sorts, driving around likely spots with all the other dudes looking for the “stakeouts”, the Bradshaw Lane buntings, the grebe in genteel St Annes, the diver diving in the dock, the Preston Gull, the plastic goose, etc., etc., but what’s the point of that?. It’s much better to do your own thing, that’s my philosophy: or as Thomas Edison is reputed to have said as he waited patiently for his electric light bulb to shine out – “Everything comes to he who waits”.

I got to Rawcliffe Moss via several flooded dips in the road but nothing too dramatic, except that near both Town End and Cartford Bridge the level of the River Wyre looked on the high side. The farm road was also pretty wet but nothing the Suzuki couldn’t handle.

Already the Little Owl had broken cover and sat in the usual spot even though the rain still spat out its final drops. Then almost immediately I got onto a little party of 5 Grey Partridge walking alongside the road towards the car, only to be frightened off by a Merc hurtling through the spray towards them, but just time to grab a photo of one in the grass.

Grey Partridge
Little Owl

Down the main track through the flooded potholes there wasn’t much to see but I parked up, donned wellies and struck out. Across the fields and over the wood Jackdaws battled it out with a Buzzard, and together they put to flight 70 Fieldfare, 5 Stock Dove and about 130 Woodpigeon. Down the track and 90+ Tree Sparrows, 5 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Buntings, 2 Blackbirds and perhaps 10 or 12 Chaffinch, so difficult when they all fly off more or less together, but the soft flight call of the yellow bunting stands out from chippy calls of the finches and sparrows or the wheeze of the Reed Bunting.

Yellowhammer

At the big field I found the flock of Chaffinch that have used the same spot through the winter, but only 45 today, plus a couple of Linnets and one more Reed Bunting. Over towards the houses I located a Mistle Thrush, in the holly tree they always commandeer despite it now bearing almost no fruit – maybe they will build a nest in it in a week or two like the early nesters they are. I hadn’t seen the next Buzzard sat on the distant trackside post, not until it lifted off and flew west towards Pilling Moss and the safety of its regular wood and unvarying tree. The little plantation was quiet with a couple of Chaffinch and 4 Magpies, then 4 Roe Deer startled into action by me when they shot off at great speed, through the tree cover then over the adjacent field.

Magpie
Roe Deer

It wasn’t a bad couple of hours birding, a bit of a bonus while having withdrawal symptoms for a day or two and suffering in silence, just as blokes do.

Out And About

This morning I explored a part of Rawcliffe Moss I don’t often visit, to get a taste of what is going on in places not well watched or worked, and I deliberately avoided the nearby plantation where we do our ringing. Fortunately I have permission from the farmer to explore away from the public footpath that crosses the land with the obvious but unspoken understanding that I follow the country code wherever I go. Farmers are often misunderstood and maligned by Mr Average Joe Public, who cares little about where the food on his plate comes from, only that it should be cheap. But without exception I always find the farming fraternity good-natured, friendly, helpful to a fault, and interested in what I am doing.

I was pleased I ventured out because I found both flock and gangs of birds, post breeding groups, using the set asides and the margins, feeding on the abundance of insects on a warm, muggy, rain threatening morning. Hirundines were in evidence with a minimum of 70 Swallows and 20 House Martins, and unusually so far away from known colonies, about 20 Sand Martins. At times, as they do at this time of year, in between hawking insects over the crop fields, the flock gathered to rest on fences with a distant Bowland backdrop. I tried to get closer to the birds on the wire but a deep almost overgrown ditch, a trap for the unwary, blocked my progress. Alongside the ditch I found three pairs of Whitethroat “tacking” away, plus 2 Corn Buntings, one in song the other collecting large beakfuls of food and flying away from me over the impassable ditch.

Swallows and Bowland
Whitethroat
Corn Bunting

On some weedy margins I found a flock of 60 Goldfinches, with over 20 Linnets, and on a bare field being prepared for late sowing, 6 Skylarks, 5 Pied Wagtails, 5 Mistle Thrush, 3 Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 7 Stock Dove and 8 Wood Pigeon. A Kestrel patrolled over the fields, flushing the finches into the air and attracting the attention of the martins and Swallows that chased after it until the Kestrel made off. I get the feeling that this autumn we will see some huge flocks of Goldfinch, they are now such a successful species in both town and country.

Stock Dove
Goldfinch

I called in at Hambleton to check out my Swallow population with another single nest to ring, these four with flight feathers very short and recently emerged from sheaths, code “FS” for nest recording purposes. There’s another pair with tiny young that require a visit for ringing in a further week, with two nests containing very large young ringed a week ago, and one pair on eggs. But all in all despite the good weather it seems a below average year for my Swallows. I do wonder what effect the loss of two early nests to predators had on the colony, as the Larsen crow trap remains set but the Jackdaws and Magpies continue to search around for food.

Swallow
Swallow
Magpie

Oh, “The Tandoori”?, you ask of last night. The guy that owns the restaurant was previously the chef at Fayez Tandoori for 17 years so he should know how to make a curry. There was a rather long and daunting menu but once we sussed it out no problem. We enjoyed a really nice meal at a reasonable price. We both tried the chicken with lamb with Maya Rice which with a light touch of lemon and coriander was absolutely superb. The naan bread was so fluffy and lightweight it reminded me of the finger scalding bread straight from the tandoor in the beach shacks of Goa. The takeaway menu is here but I think there may charge be an extra delivery charge for some readers of this blog who live a few miles away.

http://www.eatitnow.co.uk/order/takeaway/poulton-le-fylde/themayatandooribaltihouse-fy67bx/menu