Birds Before The Rain

Although the BBC's prognosis was for a wretched morning it wasn't nearly so bad as they suggested, the increasing wind speed slowly clearing the grey skies to make a half decent if somehat rain-speckled morning. 

It was 9 am before I reached Conder Green where noisy panicking waders greeted me. A Barn Owl was hunting the marsh where Redshanks and Oystercatchers have young tucked away, the adults' noisy warnings serving as a cue for others to join in. From the lay-by I could see the owl patrolling about ten or twelve feet above the tidal ditches, every so often dropping lower and out of sight. Now if I had been on the other side of the marsh and in the front room of the house alongside the road I think better pictures might have ensued. Anyway Barn Owl is certainly a good bird to get on someone's “house list”. But by now traffic was building up and the owl quickly forsook the marsh and flew off to a daytime roost. 

Barn Owl at Conder Green

The muggy morning and a healthy crop of insects had brought hirundines and Swifts down to eye level with 12 Swift, 14 House Martin, 6 Swallow and 4 Sand Martin noted. An hour or so later the Swifts had increased to 20+ with most of the Swallows and all of the Sand Martins gone. 

Passerines seen and/or heard comprised 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Reed Bunting, 4 Tree Sparrow, 1 Sedge Warbler and 6 Goldfinch. There are young but not yet independent Goldfinches about now, the fledglings staying all the time with the parents and making lots of noise as they beg for food. The young Goldfinches are in our own garden too and as soon as the wind drops I'll be able to catch a few for marking. 

Goldfinch

A few more waders today in the shape of 6 Curlew and 5 Black-tailed Godwits in addition to the expected 15 Redshank,10 Oystercatcher and 6 Lapwing. Wildfowl remain at 2 Canada Goose with young, 12 Shelduck, 14 Tufted Duck, 1 Teal, 1 Pochard 1 Great Crested Grebe and 1 pair of Mallard with 4 young. Now is a good time of year to see the "tufts" on a drake Tufted Duck.

Mallard

Tufted Duck

A quick scoot around Jeremy Lane found 15 Lapwing, 6 Oystercatcher, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Linnet and 12 Skylark. Some of the Skylark are youngsters and others singing adults moving on to second broods I guess. 

Skylark

By now the rain was returning so I headed home, on the way passing Lane Ends Pilling where a singing Blackcap and a single Jay were close to the road. 

Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog for news, views and more new pics.  Meanwhile "click the pics" for a grandstand view.

Linking today to Anni who like me would rather be birdin.

Tuesday Tour

Cockerham is always good for the resident Little Owls and when I turned up there today one of the pair was searching the peaty soil for a meal. When the bird spotted me with the car window wound down it flew back up to the nest box and just glared at me for interrupting the planned meal. Except for a number of Lapwing and 50+ Curlew there wasn’t much else on Moss Edge, there never is nowadays since the change in agricultural practice to silage and spring sowing. In the old days Moss Edge was THE place to see the early year wild geese, sometimes from the hay loft of a birder-friendly farmer’s barn as the geese picked over the remains of the previous year’s potato crop.

Little Owl
Little Owl

Having toured Moss Edge the main road back to Pilling alongside the wet fields was more bird friendly, but being biker mile/death row, a little too dangerous to stop apart from being able to pull into the junction of Gulf Lane. Along here I picked up 1 Merlin, 1 Kestrel, 30 Golden Plover, 900 Curlew, 14 Oystercatcher, 40 Dunlin, 300 Lapwing and 25 Redshank.

At Lane Ends the pools are now thawed with the result that 2 Tufted Duck have reappeared but not much else unless you count the Mallards of dubious origin. At least 20 Chaffinch here, 6+ Blackbirds, 2 Little Egret and 1 Cormorant.

Mallard

Both Backsands Lane and Fluke Hall Lane proved bird productive, with a second Merlin, 2 more Kestrel, 300+ Lapwing, 18 Golden Plover, 95 Dunlin, 45 Redshank, 2 Snipe, 25 Oystercatcher, 10 Eurasian White-fronted Goose, 3 Skylark, 1 Pied Wagtail and 190 Shelduck. With 50+ additional Curlew it took todays count to over 1000 for the species. The light was poor again today, hence the ISO400 and resulting noise on the Curlew picture.

Oystercatcher
Curlew

With more grey skies and breezes promised for tomorrow, I may take a day off, but you never know – stay tuned.

Short And Sweet

At last I was out to the old patch for a couple of hours where it really felt like the two weeks and more since my last visit, not just the elapsed time but the fact that while I was away the weather changed from autumn to winter; and now on December 1st the shortest day beckons. Fortunately the Fylde coast still has no real snow, just a smattering this afternoon to remind us that it is almost everywhere in the UK except around here where the sun shone brightly for me, if only for an hour or two.

Luckily I remembered the way down Wheel Lane, past a watching Kestrel to the stubble field, where the “Beware Flooded Road” sign should now read “Beware Ice” but it didn’t. I think the Whooper Swans have been around the whole time I was away and their numbers didn’t disappoint today at about 125 somewhat distant birds where their constant social activities keep the shallow water from freezing completely. I stepped out of the car to get a better look across the field and flushed a single Snipe from a sunny, thawing spot in the grass, but apart from the swans and a few dozen Pink-footed Geese, the entire fields seemed devoid of much else.

Kestrel
Whooper Swan

At Damside I stopped to clock the regular Little Owl near the sewage works where I also counted over 350 Curlew and 40 Lapwing, the Curlew using the longer grassed field, but the Lapwings split equally between that and the sheep grazed field opposite.

Lapwing

Lane Ends was quiet with both pools almost completely frozen, with just enough open water to allow the mixed ethnicity Mallards breathing space. Smaller birds were few and far between, with just 5 Robin, 4 Blackbird, 8 Moorhen and a single Pied Wagtail entered in my notebook. From the car park I counted 3 Little Egret out on the marsh and a male Sparrowhawk leaving the trees behind me before it continued along the sea wall. The sun still shone out so I continued up to Pilling Water where many hundreds of wildfowl fed in the partly frozen channel and others murmured along the grazed marsh. There were so many, packed so tight, some very distant, and with my reluctance to scare them off, my count is more a guesstimate; 500 Wigeon, 600 Teal and 300 Mallard, but if anyone cares to do a recount from the partial view below the figures may be different.

Wildfowl
Wigeon
Wigeon

Also up here, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Grey Heron flying inland, another Little Egret, plus 4 Snipe in the partially frozen ditches.

Snow clouds rolled in from the darker south and east as light flurries of the white stuff broke out, and at 1430 the light began to fade. Oh for the Cyprus light and sun! But instead I rode to Gulf Lane hoping for a winter afternoon Barn Owl or maybe a second frosty day Little Owl. Not quite, but I did get winter thrushes, 40 or so Fieldfares and 2 Pied Wagtails. Soon it was over, the weak snow persisted enough to keep the sky dark and by 1530 gulls and geese headed for their roosts, as did I.

Fieldfare

Wild At Heart

Another cloudy, windy, showery, north-westerly morning with no chance of a ringing session led me to Conder Green where there is always a good selection of birds with not too many Sunday Morning grockles for the first hour or two. The alternative was a bout of bush bashing in search of little brown or green jobs, if I could find a sheltered warm spot on our eternally windy coast. I suppose that is the only downside of living so close to the sea, the isobars not only pack a bit closer, they often pack a punch on even the most innocuous looking morning.

It was the normal situation at CG, it seemed quiet with not a lot of birds immediately apparent, but I gave it time for the birds to show and a while for me to find them. The 7 Little Grebes were a bit more obliging this morning near the closest island with no need for me to go to the far end of the pool where they usually hang out, disinclined to venture very far. The 3 Wigeon were also reasonably close initially, but drifted off once they realised cameras and ‘scopes were about again; half a dozen Teal in the shallows also sloped off to a safer distance, but I had my doubts about how wild were the 4 Mallards.

Mallard
Little Grebe
Teal

I made the observation once before, but maybe it’s worth repeating. To wildfowl, and probably to waders with whom they frequently mix, a human pointing a telescope must look remarkably like one wielding a shotgun, a scenario which they remember and to which their instincts are attuned for an immediate response. Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised when at the first sight of the human form or noises associated with us, such birds flee from our presence. All the more reason then if we wish to observe and photograph birds is for us to learn and adopt fieldcraft, something so obviously lacking in many of the newer untutored birders who arrive hot foot from pager messages with expensive top of the range equipment but without an apprenticeship or the essential skills to acquire the best from their recent purchases.

Also on the pool, 1 Little Egret, 15 Lapwing, a Grey Heron and the Kingfisher doing a circuit of the pool before it disappeared to the furthest bank and out of sight. From the platform I watched a Wheatear that took a liking to the posts that mark the road during high tides, as it perched up on several of them in turn as passing cars made it favour one after the other. It’s not a bird I’ve ever seen much of just here, and they are much more likely to appear just up the road at Glasson.

In the creeks I counted 4 Greenshank, 3 Spotted Redshank, 6 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 7 Curlew, 18 Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, another Little Egret, 26 Teal and unusually, a Ringed Plover. I took some distance shots at ISO 800 in the poor light, but what a fine selection of waders all at close quarters and I asked myself why would anyone go elsewhere to see such birds?

Ruff and Spotted Redshank
Common Sandpiper

From the roadside I could see lots of Goldfinch in the hawthorns near the bridge so I drove round and checked them out. There was actually a flock of 120 birds flying between the marsh and the hedgerows near the viaduct, spooked a couple of times that I could see, by on the second occasion an overflying Sparrowhawk that obviously took a close interest in such a plentiful, easily caught supply of food.

I drove up to John’s set aside for a check on the finches using the plot. If it wasn’t so close to the road and passing traffic I am sure the numbers would increase from the 40 Greenfinch, 8 Chaffinch and 4 Linnet I saw today, but for now I am hoping there is a bit of a settled spell that builds up the flock followed by a windless, mist net suitable day.

Goldfinch
Chaffinch

Shore Thing

After a swim at the gym this morning I hoped to get out for some photographs for a while after lunch once I dropped Sue at the Fleetwood shops – what’s new then?

I took a quick look at pools on the Nature Park where I counted the waterfowl, 14 Tufted Duck, 28 Coot, 4 Gadwall, 2 Shoveler and 2 Little Grebe. The Gadwall stayed out of camera range but the tufties weren’t too bothered about having their picture taken. We are all guilty of it. Taking photographs of the resplendent drakes whilst ignoring the females who advertise their presence and desirability with a little more subtlety of plumage. So today to redress the balance I took a picture of the drake but also a picture of just one of the females that accompanied him everywhere he went.

Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

Shoveler

Up at Rossall shore the weather closed in quickly with heavy windswept drizzle – nothing new there either. But I switched to ISO 400 and found some birds to picture before I returned to my car 30 minutes later where I put the heater on full blast to dry specs, bins, telephoto lens and camera. The rain blasted across from the North East so much that I didn't even get chance to walk along the shore and count the waders. At least there are a few pictures I managed to take before the drenching.

Knot

Redshank

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Turnstone

Black-headed Gull

Slip Sliding Away

To quote Simon and Garfunkel “Slip sliding away, slip sliding away
You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away”

And positively dangerous, that is the state of all minor roads and most footpaths around here, a little foolhardy to attempt any birding destinations. More to the point, the effect that this prolonged severe weather may have on bird populations is very worrying.

So I slipped up the hill to Top Shop then slid back down in the course of buying supplies for us and a bag of apples for the garden birds.

At the local park the full of bread Mallards have hung on but I wouldn’t be surprised if they too visit my garden soon for a bit of food variation.

Mallard

My news today is simply garden pictures, the star of which is the single Fieldfare that found the Bramley baking apples and the damsons that I rescued from the freezer. Well we’ll just have to make our fruit crumble another day.

Blue Tit

Pied Wagtail

Chaffinch

Starling

Robin

Fieldfare

But if the northerly breeze relents a bit overnight we might get a bit of ringing in tomorrow.

Duck Days

I really didn’t think I would get out today what with the grey dawn that precludes much camera work, the cold easterlies, a lack of general enthusiasm and a promise to look after Little Paul that would take up our afternoon.

After I missed the Ring-necked Duck yesterday I must admit I wasn’t in a great hurry to get out to Fleetwood to catch up but when a phone call told me the said bird had relocated to this side of the river within a mile from home at Preesall Flashes, I motored down Back Lane. In fact I am ashamed to say it was almost a trip down Memory Lane as I visit the flashes very infrequently nowadays, and whilst I found the car park, the other paths were less familiar.

The duck was there of course, in the deep unfrozen waters of the long expired salt pits amongst a flotilla of other related but less exotic athyas, 4 Tufted Duck and a dozen or so Pochard, but so easy to pick out it is such a striking drake.

Ring-necked Duck

Tuftede Duck

Pochard

I guess that the open water has also increased the Coot count lately. Therefore a count of 200+ was good to see even if they all kept their distance, unlike the normal suburban park example.

Coot

Likewise the several hundred Mallard, with an enormous concentration on the whole flashes, but most of them are of the “released for sport” variety. Exotica appeared again in the form of 2 drakes and 1 female Mandarin, origin unknown but I must check with my pal Graham who has/had a couple in a plastic pool at his back door a few weeks ago.

Mallard

Mandarin

More legitimate was the sight of two Great-crested Grebe, several Teal and a couple of female Goldeneye, all long standing visitors to the flashes.

Great-crested Grebe

Teal

Goldeneye

Back at home I still have a dozen Chaffinch and a dozen Blackbirds in the semi frozen garden. And today a male Sparrowhawk that put in a brief but noticeable appearance that scattered all and sundry.

A trip around some of my more usual haunts tomorrow I think.