Sunny Start, Rain Later.

We have 0900 starts for now until the days lengthen but amazingly or not, our garden Dunnocks and Great Tits are already in song? How do they know? 

Great Tit - CC-BY-SA-3.0

There was sunshine this morning so I kicked off at Linnet Square and dropped yet another bucket of seed at the catching spot where dummy poles mark the line of our whoosh net. Tracks and holes in the soil told me that our seed had been found by small mammals and deer.

Trouble is, the mild, wet weather and the Linnets themselves have conspired to make catching impossible since August. The past three winters have seen a number of counts around the 400/500 mark but this season’s average is around 130 only with and a total catch of just 28, way below our target. The count this morning was 150/160 very mobile Linnets and several Chaffinches, none of which stopped to use our seed while natural food seems still plentiful. The sowing mix the farmer uses is so good that the resultant seed seems to last right through the winter until the flock disperses in March. 

Linnets 

Linnet Square 

There was the usual Kestrel, 2 Stock Dove and a single Little Egret. 

When fifteen minutes later I stopped at Conder Green the effect of the continued mild weather was noted again by way of a female/first winter Marsh Harrier. A "Gold Top", circling over the back of the pool and behind the bund, pursued all the way by a complaining Magpie. 

Marsh Harrier  

It was roughly 20/25 years ago that Marsh Harriers were something of a rarity in this part of Fylde, central Lancashire. It was around that time that Marsh Harriers began to breed in the northernmost part of the county at Silverdale, since when the species has never looked back by increasing its spread and numbers into more southern parts of the county. 

In recent years the  harriers seem able to survive through the winter months by preying on the abundant wildfowl in their chosen wetlands. There have been sporadic attempts to breed on farmland here in Fylde but with very limited success. 

The harrier was the highlight of the pool with little else to cheer except the continued and consistent presence of 140+ Teal in the tidal creeks. Otherwise it was 15 Redshank, 4 Curlew, 24 Wigeon and singles of Little Grebe, Little Egret and Grey Heron. 

Little Egret

Grey Heron  

Teal 

There was a second Grey Heron at Glasson Dock along with 25 Tufted Duck but zero Goldeneye. The Goldeneyes tend to fly into Glasson Dock at the onset of ice and snow. Our wintry days with zero temperatures have so far been counted on one hand. 

I looked for the harrier in the fields beyond the pool with no luck except for two quite separate gaggles of geese, 20 Greylags and 19 Pink-footed Geese. Never the twain shall meet. 

Glasson Dock 

Greylags 

Pink-footed Geese

By 11am clouds rolled in and rain began to fall. I reluctantly headed home after an interesting few hours and a forecast for Tuesday of a decent day. 

Andy thinks we should try for a catch of Linnets but I’m not so sure. 

Linnets Minus One

As a light sleeper I’m often awake early.  A look at the breaking dawn of Sunday revealed clear skies and no wind - a morning to revisit those darned Linnets that are up to their old tricks of playing hard to get. 

If anything the Linnets are proving more difficult to catch than last season. There is such an abundance of food in the plot that the birds are free to land and to feed anywhere and it is not often they feed very close to the double net ride we established. The count was between 150 and 200 very flighty Linnets and a catch of just four, all males but including the first adult male of this winter’s project. To date we have 24 captures - 18 first year males, 5 first year females and 1 adult male. And to date, and as we might expect, no larger “Scottish” Linnets yet with all 24 birds recorded as wing lengths of 83 mm or less. 

Linnet- adult male 

At one point a male Sparrowhawk appeared and panicked the feeding Linnets into flight. The hawk seemed to have no trouble in identifying a Linnet to chase. After a brief flight the hawk caught the Linnet on the wing, dropped to the roadside, subdued the Linnet and then flew off carrying its meal. We lost a Linnet to a hawk and it’s for sure that this and similar flocks of birds will always attract predators.  Such is the balance of nature. 

Soon after the Sparrowhawk had flown the flock of Linnets panicked again when a Marsh Harrier appeared, flying slowly from the sea wall in the east and then over the busy A588 next to Gulf Lane. It followed the ditch, circled the seed plot once, flew lazily across the road, out towards the sea wall and on a direct path towards the plantation at Pilling Lane Ends.  The harrier was all dark with no hint of grey in the wings and little or no cream crown - a youngster of the year.  

Marsh Harrier

Less than two minutes later came another raptor following the same flight path alongside the still wet ditch that lines the seed plot. This bird was much paler than the previous and at first glance I assumed it would be a local Buzzard. But no, as the bird slowed, twisted, and held its wings in that diagnostic shallow “V”, it became another Marsh Harrier, this one a tri-coloured type with a cream crown, paler underneath and a well-marked area of grey in each wing. 

This additional harrier was probably a second year male, perhaps even a family traveller in the company of the first bird a minute earlier.  Within a few seconds it had drifted over the farm buildings and off in the general direction of Pilling village.  

The Marsh Harrier is best described as “scarce” in this part of Lancashire so a sighting is always welcome, two even more so.   

Marsh Harrier

The Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus is typically illustrated in field guides as a sexually dimorphic species, with several age classes identifiable by differences in plumage pattern and colour. In some populations, however, such as one studied in west-central France, (British Birds March 2013), the species can show extreme plumage variability in adult males and, to a lesser extent, in adult females. 

The study population was markedly polymorphic, with highly distinct patterns of coloration and almost continuous individual variation between those different morphs. Barely a single adult male looked like a typical ‘field-guide male’. Since this plumage variability was independent of age and sex, the authors considered it almost impossible to age birds solely from their plumage, which contradicts the established view. The authors advocated the recognition of this species as polymorphic, at least in some parts of its range.

Back soon with more news and views on Another Bird Blog.

Change Of Plan

The forecast for Wednesday was decidedly “dodgy” but with it being the best for several days ahead, we decided to chance a ringing session up at Barnacre. The problem was when I got up at 0530 and looked out of the window the trees were wafting around so I sent Andy a text and said I’d go birding instead. 

I was early so stopped at Pilling Lane Ends to count the Little Egrets at the roost. Thirty-five was my total but I suspect many were hidden from view in this so called “amenity area” that is now just a neglected wilderness. 

At Braides Farm - 80+ Curlews and a roosting Buzzard. 

At Conder green Once again Lapwings proved the most numerous bird with at least 240 scattered around the site, on the island, the grassland and in the tidal creeks. Other waders were few and far between with just handfuls of Curlew, Redshank, and a single Common Sandpiper. Fishing the pool was a single Goosander, 4 Cormorant and 4 Little Egret. Two Little Grebe have moved to the creeks where I also found 8 Teal. 

Lapwing

Little Egret

It was on a circuit of Jeremy Lane that I stopped to look through a flock of 600-800 Black-headed Gulls. Almost on cue I found an adult Mediterranean Gull I had hoped to see. There have been lots of “med gulls” sighted along the coast in recent weeks and the best way to find one by searching through flocks of Black-headed Gulls. While it’s nice to see one, the “med gull” is no longer a rarity. 

Mediterranean Gull - adult winter by M. Jackson, Mull Birds

The Mediterranean Gull is the most recent addition to the species of seabirds breeding in the UK. By 2010, there were over 600-700 nesting pairs, mostly on the south and south-east coasts of England. 

The range of the Mediterranean Gull expanded markedly over the last 50 years. A westward expansion started in Hungary, where it was breeding regularly by 1953, then into Germany and Belgium during the 1960s and the Netherlands by 1970. Range expansion also occurred in an eastward direction during the 1970s and 1980s. The first breeding occurrence in Britain was in 1968, at Needs Ore Point (Hampshire). Thereafter, a pair bred at Dungeness (Kent), in 1979, increasing to two pairs by 1985. A site in north Kent was colonised in 1983, which later became established as one of the major colonies in England. Also during this period, a handful of other breeding attempts were made, including pairings with Black-headed Gulls.  

I wasn’t finding much around Jeremy Lane until I stopped to watch a Kestrel hovering over the footpath at Cockersands. There was a Marsh Harrier again, this one hunting the fields behind the old abbey, seen off in turn by Carrion Crows and Lapwings. After a while the harrier did a disappearing act, something they are good at for such a large bird. 

Marsh Harrier and Lapwings

I stopped at Gulf Lane where I dropped seed at the Linnet field and did a spot count for the week of about 100 finches - 50/50 Linnet/Goldfinch again. The weather forecast for the week ahead, wind above 15mph every day, will put paid to plans to ring any time soon. A couple of Stock Doves have found our food drop. 

Stock Dove

I was on the way to Knott End to grab some shopping but stopped along the promenade to watch the incoming tide. Recent days have seen good numbers of Sandwich Terns roosting on the sands at high tide, migrant terns that feed in Morecambe Bay while passing through the area on their way south to winter off West Africa. My minimum count was 250 with many roosting for a short period and then as the tide arrived, flying off over the jetty, south-west and up the River Wyre. 

Sandwich Terns

Sandwich Terns

 Sandwich Tern

Sandwich Tern - Range by CC BY-SA 3.0 Wiki 

Knott End Ferry

 Back soon with more birds on Another Bird Blog.  In the meantime I'm linking to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Cream Top Etc.

Conder Green was quiet as quiet can be this morning. I was a little late as I waited for the rain to stop, but even so, rarely have I seen the water and the immediate area so devoid of birds. There was a solitary Lapwing on the island and the usual handfuls of Cormorant, Little Grebe and Little Egret, but no sign of the regular Kingfisher. 

A dozen or so Pied Wagtails skittered around the margins, joined briefly by two loudly calling Green Sandpipers. The sandpipers flew off towards the canal and in the direction of Glasson Marsh.

Cormorant

Little Egret

I followed the Green Sandpipers and stopped overlooking Glasson Marsh where I hoped to see a Marsh Harrier. There have been good numbers about in recent weeks and one of my contacts tells me that a pair bred successfully in The Fylde. That’s the River Lune on the horizon. 

Glasson Marsh

Out on the marsh I could see a couple of Little Egret and Grey Heron, 2 Ravens, a Kestrel and a gang of about 30 Swallows. I found many Lapwings in the fields adjoining Jeremy Lane with upwards of 600 where the pastures are still sopping wet after the rain of recent weeks. One field had 5 Stock Dove as well as wagtails, gulls galore and a Grey Heron. 

I was side-tracked by a large bird flying inland, a Marsh Harrier. It stayed very distant as Marsh Harriers tend to do. As strong and fast flyers they have a knack of avoiding roads and people as the two pictures long-range of the female “cream top” show. For almost an hour the harrier stayed distant or completely out of sight and I think that at some point it flew out to Cockerham Marsh. 

Marsh Harrier

Marsh Harrier

The Marsh Harrier is typically illustrated in field guides as a sexually dimorphic species, with several age classes identifiable by differences in plumage pattern and colour. In some populations however it is known that the species can show extreme plumage variability in adult males and, to a lesser extent, in adult females. Populations may be markedly polymorphic with highly distinct patterns of coloration and almost continuous individual variation between those different morphs with few adult males resembling a typical ‘field-guide male’. Since this plumage variability is independent of age and sex, it is almost impossible to age birds solely from their plumage. This contradicts the established view and questions the claims of birders who age and sex Marsh Harriers from hundreds of yards away. 

Marsh Harriers are a still scarce, possibly declining breeder in Britain with just a few dots on the map in comparison to Europe. Their UK stronghold is East Anglia with a few pairs in NW England and others in locations withheld. 

Western Marsh Harrier - Circus aeruginosus 

At home Goldfinches are back in the garden with a good number appearing to be recently fledged youngsters. Goldfinches have been absent for weeks now as they feed on the plentiful seeds in the countryside. I will catch and ring some very soon. Last evening a young hedgehog paid us a visit. 

As with most small mammals living around humans, vehicles pose a great threat to hedgehogs. Many are run over as they attempt to cross roadways. It is suggested that peaks in road deaths are related to the breeding season and dispersal/exploration following independence. 

Hedgehog

From Wiki – “In 2006, McDonald's changed the design of their McFlurry containers to be more hedgehog-friendly. Previously hedgehogs would get their heads stuck in the container as they tried to lick the remaining food from inside the cup. Then being unable to get out, they would starve to death.” 

McDonald’s have a lot to answer for.  I went there once.

Linking today with Anni's Birding Blog.

Yes or No. Touch and Go.

Text messages flew back and forth at 5am this morning. There’d been rain most of the night with a forecast that was a little “iffy”, especially so for a site on the edge of the Bowland fells. There seemed just a small window of opportunity for a ringing session. 

“Let’s go for it” was the final message, so I met up with Andy at 0615 at Oakenclough. The morning remained grey with the camera set at ISO1600 but in between an odd light shower or two we managed a respectable 33 birds. 

Our total included one or two warblers and our second Tree Pipit of the week. 34 birds - 11 Goldfinch, 7 Goldcrest, 6 Coal Tit, 3 Robin, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Chiffchaff and 1 Tree Pipit. 

Tree Pipit

Goldfinches were around in some numbers today. As noted earlier in the week, there are Goldfinch flocks beginning to appear in a number of localities. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

One of our two new Willow Warblers was a tiny individual. The juvenile female had a wing length of 60mm and a weight of 7gms, much on the lower limits of Willow Warbler size and more equivalent to the biometrics of a Chiffchaff. 

Willow Warbler

At 1030 we packed in when a strengthening wind brought a heavy shower. 

Other birds noted this morning – 1 Jay, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 10 Swallow, 30+ Goldfinch. 

Finally, and having the delight of seeing magnificent Marsh Harriers in action this week I was appalled to see the video below. There truly are some disgusting individuals at large in the British countryside.

Please watch it and if you feel as aggrieved as I do, write to your Member of Parliament about what is happening to raptors in upland Britain.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday. Take a look.

Dead As A Dodo?

The Dodo Raphus cucullatus is extinct. But is the Latin I used there a dead language? Well if you’re a birder the answer is a resounding “No”. Read on. 

On this blog I sometimes include the Latin name/scientific name of a bird species. This is to add interest for the reader or to illustrate a particular feature of the bird. But for many birdwatchers the Latin names of birds found in books is a waste of space or a puzzle to be ignored. I rather like studying the scientific names I encounter, wondering about their origins and then often find myself Googling for an answer to satisfy my innate curiosity. 

A reader recently thanked me for explaining the use of the Latin name when relating my sighting of a Marsh Harrier, Circus aeruginosus, the scientific name that means “a rusty coloured hawk which flies in a circle”. So for Sallie in Canada and other readers who may be intrigued, puzzled, or simply curious about scientific names, here is a brief explanation of their usage and beginnings, mostly in relation to birds. 

Circus aeruginosus

Think back many years, before modern communications like the Internet, the telephone, widely available books, newspapers and magazines, or beyond that even, when the spoken word was the only way to describe a bird, plant or animal and when many names might be in use for the same thing. 

A solution was proposed by the Swedish biologist Carl van Linné, usually known by the Latin version of his name Linnaeus. He proposed that all species of plant and animal should be identified by a unique Latin name in a standard form. Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae was first published in Latin in 1735. The most important version, the tenth edition of 1758 is still considered as the starting point for modern day zoological nomenclature. Linnaeus helped future research into the natural history of man by describing humans Homo sapiens just as he described any other plant or animal. The question of the origin of man may have begun with Linnaeus and later continued by Alfred Wallace, Charles Darwin and others in the early 1800s. This later culminated in the publication of The Origin of Species in 1859. 

Linnaeus’ naming system consists of two parts: the name of the genus, or group of organisms, followed by a name identifying the species within the genus. So for example the Mallard is allocated to genus Anas “fresh-water duck”, and is called Anas platyrhynchos - broad-billed duck. The Latin generic name is a noun and the specific name an adjective, just as in English, except that in Latin the noun comes first. 

Anas platyrhyncos

In the written form we italicise scientific names so as to separate the species from the common name and also to show we are using Linnaeus’ system. Using the Latin or scientific name in text, discussion or debate avoids ambiguity between different continents, cultures and languages. For instance, and by using a familiar species to illustrate the point, in Great Britain Pluvialis squatarola is known in modern English as Grey Plover. In North America the exact same species is known as Black-bellied Plover but retains the Latin/scientific name. 

A few scientific names are original Latin as used by the Romans for their everyday birds. These are usually their Latin generic names, such as Cygnus (swan), Columba (pigeon), Passer (sparrow) or Ardea (heron). In Roman times people were familiar a few dozen species of birds only, but over the next hundreds of years bird names both stuck and became more specific by the use of the Latin genus together with Latin identifiers - e.g. Ardea cinerea, Grey Heron, Columba palumbus, Wood Pigeon, or Passer domesticus House Sparrow. 

Ardea cinerea

Other scientific names come from classical Greek where the choice of names gives the impression that Linnaeus used Latin as much as possible and then resorted to Greek when the Latin ran out. Linnaeus and other early naturalists used these mainly Greek words to apply to otherwise anonymous birds, having turned the Greek into a Latin form. In the case of harriers, and to return to the second paragraph above, the Greek “kirkos” became the Latin “circus”. The word was applied to a hawk which flew in a circular manner, Circus aeruginosus, the Marsh Harrier, as well as to a similar but blue-coloured hawk Circus cyaneus, the Hen Harrier. Both species were probably familiar to Linnaeus and other naturalists of the time who recognised the need to differentiate these two as well as many other birds. 

Nowadays there are about 10,000 bird species on Earth, plus millions of other forms of life, either now extinct, very much alive, or yet to be discovered. All need classification through a naming system able to identify them as uniquely separate and where with a little invention, imagination, and knowledge of the species, Linnaeus’ system comes into its own. 

Here are just a few birds that readers will recognise together with the species’ scientific names, meaning and a brief explanation of its origins. 

Birds named for their appearance:

• Common Coot  Fulica atra  - a black coot
• Velvet Scoter Melanitta fusca  - a dusky black duck

Birds named for their behaviour: voice, display, feeding preferences or habitat, etc: 

• Hoopoe Upupa epops - the Latin is onomatopoeic, a bird named for its repetitive call of  “hoop-hoop-hoop-hoop” 
• Mistle Thrush Turdus viscivorus - a mistletoe-eating thrush

Bird names based on geography:

• Bar-tailed Godwit Limosa lapponica - Lapland godwit 
• Fulmar Fulmaris glacialis - a northern seabird, an icy fulmar 

Birds named after or people, usually the person, mostly an ornithologist, who first identified the species to be scientifically different from a closely related one: 

• Baird’s Sandpiper Calidris  bairdii - a grey-coloured waterside bird named after Spencer Fullerton Baird a 19th century naturalist
• Hume’s Warbler Phylloscopus humei - a "leaf watcher" named after the ormithologist Allan Octavian Hume 

Upupa epops

Taxonomy, the branch of science that encompasses the description, identification, nomenclature, and classification of organisms is a large and varied topic full of sometimes complex ideas. It’s a subject that will crop up from time to time on Another Bird Blog but Wikipedia is a good and recommended starting point for readers who wish to explore further.

Now forgive me. I'm off to Greece for a while where I'm hoping to brush up on my Greek, grab a few birds and to top up my sun tan.

Circus Time And A Prickly Subject

The flood at Rawcliffe Moss came good this morning with a Marsh Harrier, a species that is still something of a speciality in this part of Lancashire. 

I set off early through Hambleton and Out Rawcliffe where an early Barn Owl proved a good omen the birds to come on the moss. The light was far from perfect but the owl was the ideal subject matter. 

Barn Owl

On my last post there was a picture of the flood out on Rawcliffe Moss. The water is still there, topped up by recent downpours. 

Rawcliffe Moss

Today the majority of the birds on the flood were circa 400 gulls, split along the ratio of 5:1 Black-headed Gull and Common Gull with 20 or so Lesser Black-backed Gulls. A telescope earned its keep by locating in the distance 30 Mallards, 80+ Lapwing, 18 Black-tailed Godwit and 9 Snipe. There was single Spotted Redshank too, first located by the “tewit” call as it flew from left to right but then distinctive with its all dark wings and oval shaped whitish back and rump. 

There was a Buzzard watching on from the fence line on the right. After a while the Buzzard flew across to the distant treed with a gang of crows in hot pursuit when I noticed a second raptor. This one circled with the deeper and more distinctive “V” shaped wing formation typical of the harrier family rather than the flat profile of a Buzzard. During August we don’t see the Hen Harrier around here, just its relative the Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus , a spring and late summer migrant. Even at a distance the harrier seemed to have a very creamy head, a feature which might mark the bird as an adult.

Marsh Harrier

The Marsh Harrier's scientific name Circus aeruginosus emanated from the Greek "kirkos", a hawk or falcon that flies in a circle, while "aeruginosus" is Latin for "rusty coloured".

When the harrier disappeared from sight for a while I decided to drive up to Cockerham and Conder Green. 

The major highlight here was a Kingfisher but unfortunately a call and a fly by again rather than a photographic pose. Otherwise Lapwings were in good numbers but not necessarily on the enlarged pool with 200+ birds in flight both taking off and landing in the region of the canal and out of immediate sight. 

Other waders on the pool/creeks were 2 Common Sandpiper, 12 Curlew, 15 Redshank plus singles of Greenshank and Snipe. Meanwhile a survey of wildfowl gave 1 Goosander, 8 Little Grebe, 2 Wigeon, 24 Mallard and 2 Teal. 

Teal

Nothing much to report from Glasson Dock with the usual 5 Tufted Duck, 5 Cormorant and now down to 40+ Swallows around the yacht basin.

Cormorant

Back home there was a Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus in the garden. I’m no expert but the animal appeared to be a young one, especially since it was out in broad daylight when the Hedgehog is supposed to be a nocturnal animal. There was a noticeable parasitic tick above one eye. Apparently hedgehogs are susceptible to these ticks which are generally harmless to them; larger numbers of such parasites are indicative of sickness. 

Hedgehog

 Hedgehog

That's all for now folks. Back soon with more birds and things to keep you entertained.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog in Texas and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

  

Back Birding

Two weeks had passed since my last pure birding trip. The fortnight was consumed by lots of bird ringing during a settled spell of weather. Not quite “making hay” but very similar. With this morning’s weather in a more ambivalent grey and undecided mood I decided to take a rest from ringing to devote the morning to bird watching. 

Fluke Hall was first stop. Looking west from the sea wall the shore was jam-packed with Pink-footed Geese yet to leave their overnight roost on the flat sands. It was turned 8am but in the grey morning of late October the geese were yet to head off for a daytime feed. In parties of dozens and then many hundreds they lifted off from the sands as most of them travelled just a few hundred yards to fields south of Fluke Hall and yet more fields close to Ridge Farm.

Within half an hour the sands were clear of geese apart from a few hundred stragglers. It’s hard to describe the spectacle and noise of 8-10,000 Pink-footed Geese, and equally hard to visualise the experience so here’s a video of what is now a daily occurrence at Pilling. 

There wasn’t much doing in the woodland, hedgerows or immediately below the sea wall. In the hedgerow I found 6 Greenfinch and 4 or 5 very active and perhaps newly arrived Blackbirds, and in the field beyond 4 Stock Dove mixed with 40+ Woodpigeon. On the shore was a single Meadow Pipit and in the woodland the highlight was the customary Nuthatch and a single Goldcrest.

It was time for a look at Glasson Dock and Conder Green. A circuit of the yacht basin via the coastal and canal paths produced 15 Tufted Duck, 16 Coot, 4 Cormorant, 1 Grey Heron and the resident family of Mute Swans. Close to the bowling green I found a couple of Blackbirds, 3 Redwing, 15 Goldfinch, 4 Long-tailed Tit and 2 Reed Bunting. 

Glasson Dock

I was looking along the River Lune towards Conder Green, where Redshanks, Lapwings and herons littered the now outgoing tide when distant activity spurred me to look closer. It was a Marsh Harrier leaving the river marshes and gaining height as it flew south. It was distant and in very poor light so a “record shot” of what appears to be a “cream top”. 

Marsh Harrier

Late October is indeed rather late to see a migrant Marsh Harrier although the species now winters in the North West of England. 

Conder Green gave up several species, most notably singles of Ruff, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper and Spotted Redshank. Amongst 80 + Common Redshank were 12 Black-tailed Godwits, the latter one a species I really enjoy watching when they turn up here. 

Black-tailed Godwit

From the roadside lay-by I mopped up the morning with 80+ Teal, 2 Snipe, 3 Goosander, 2 Little Egret, 6 Curlew and 2 Pied Wagtails. 

Goosander

A very enjoyable and productive morning. And see what the weekend brings by logging into Another Bird Blog very soon.

Linking today to I'd Rather b Birdin and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Pilling Circus

Pilling wasn't too productive yesterday but I thought to give it another go in the hope that the Marsh Harrier might show again, especially after overnight downpours probably influenced the bird to stay around. 

On Wednesday the harrier was out beyond the tide line halfway to Heysham, today a little closer but still miles away. It stayed high, drifting and circling to the west in the direction of Knott End and Fleetwood where some other birder would surely see it a few minutes later. This species, Circus aeruginosus, wherever I see it in the world is a real bogey bird as far as my photographs go, today's effort as poor as ever and yet another "record" shot.

Marsh Harrier

The harrier interrupted my attempts to get photos of Skylarks feeding their second (or third) brood. The adults were dropping to different spots in some long grasses and by the size and quantity of the grubs they carried it was clear the youngsters were out of the nest. 

Skylark

Skylark

The high tide produced a few bits and pieces but mostly my sightings proved unremarkable again. A few waders arrived with the incoming tide – 60+ Lapwing, 22+ Dunlin, 10 Knot, 8 Redshank, 2 Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 12 Oystercatcher and 300+ Curlew. Curlew numbers build rapidly here once the breeding season is over, so while 300 is a good number the final autumn and winter total will be many more. 

Snipe

Three Grey Heron again today and rather surprisingly, a zero count of Little Egret at this their Over Wyre stronghold and nearby roost site at Lane Ends. 14 Shelduck and 3 Great Crested Grebe on the full tide as 4 Common Terns came in from the west, headed east to Cockerham and then disappeared from view. 

Small numbers of Swift, Swallow, Linnet, Goldfinch and even Greenfinch completed the picture for another day. 

Don't forget, "click the pics" for a close up view and come back soon.