Fifty Up

All week we had Friday pencilled in for a trip to Oakenclough where the hillside location a mile or two above Garstang requires a still and preferably sunny day. The Autumn/Winter weather of 2022/23 had kept us away for months. 

Fortunately for us and any birds still around the area, Will had kept the feeding regime going with good numbers of finches in attendance. He confidently predicted a catch of 20 plus birds. 

We met up at 0730 to a cold but fairly bright start. The morning improved, cloud broke and the sun arrived following a spot of drizzle and a rainbow to the north that lit up distant Morecambe Bay.

Will’s prediction was off the mark when we finished at 1130 with 54 birds in the bag. Goldfinches formed the majority of the catch - 37 Goldfinch, 9 Chaffinch, 4 Blue Tit, 3 Coal Tit and a single Lesser Redpoll. 

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Lesser Redpoll

It wasn’t too obvious that so many Goldfinch were around, they just arrived in fours and fives all morning. We counted about 15/20 Siskins flying over while the Lesser Redpoll seemed to be the only one of their kind. 

Otherwise a quiet morning with a single Grey Wagtail at the water’s edge and a distant Raven. 

Grey Wagtail

Morning Rainbow 

There's more birding, ringing and photos soon here on Another Bird Blog.

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

We knew it couldn’t last. Our two week heatwave of global warming just couldn't make the grade and turned out to be the familiar autumn of wind, rain, fallen apples and russet leaves. 

Autumn apples

 

My notebook remained pretty much empty until Thursday of this week with a journey to Oakenclough, a few miles from Garstang Town, west of the Pennines. Our location is in sight & sound of the North to South M6 Motorway that runs from Scotland to Middle England. From our vantage point and on clear mornings we can see down to Morecambe Bay, the largest expanse of intertidal mudflats and treacherous sand in the United Kingdom. The whole area covers a total of 120 square miles. 

Morecambe Bay - Wiki

 

Ringing site location

We are sure that the geographical location, the proximity of the brightly lit motorway plus the north to south axis of the Pennines helps us to catch migratory birds in autumn and spring. This obvious and sometimes visible bird migration doesn’t always happen and is dependent upon weather conditions, but when it does we know within an hour of our arrival on site. 

Autumn starts are later now at 0630 but soon to shift back for the darker morns ahead. I met up with Andy, Bryan and Will to zero wind and greyish skies, a near prefect morning for ringing we thought.

Nothing much happened except for visible migration of more than 120 Swallows heading west in small groups together with several House Martins and a single Sand Martin. Invisible migration/new arrivals consisted of just 11 captures - 3 Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Goldcrest and 1 Chaffinch.

Blackcaps have been hard to come by this year until the catch today of two males and one indeterminate, the cap still brown but potentially yet to moult to the black of a male.

Blackcap

Meadow Pipit

       

Goldfinch

Juvenile Goldfinches cannot be sexed with any accuracy until they acquire their adult colours. However, the size of the bill on the above example suggests it is a male.  

There was a roving flock of Goldfinches this morning with approximately 80-100 in the area of the site. With luck we might have caught more but had to settle for the two juveniles. 

Goldcrest

The weather is set fair for the next few days and maybe into next week. I'm setting the alarm clock for Friday morning and a trip to the very edge of Morecambe Bay. I'm sure we can catch more birds next time. Now where have I heard that before?

Sunday Monday

Sunday morning. Even in the half-light the garden trees and bushes stood motionless against the clear sky. I grabbed a piece of toast, stuffed some fruit into a bag and set off to have a few hours out Pilling Way.

There were 50 or 60 Swallows around with possibly the remnants of an overnight roost in nearby reeds. I made a mental note to keep any eye on the possibility. The Linnet flock is always dependable and although the numbers on the move, 70/90, didn’t approach recent counts, seven more found their way into the single panel mist net in the seed plot.

That’s 30 Linnets ringed here since June, twenty nine of them juveniles of the year and just one adult. Those thirty give us a head start for the bigger numbers of later autumn and winter with better catches. We just wish that ringers nationwide would try and catch more Linnets so as to gather more data and thereby help this Red Listed farmland species.

Although the soft-focus juveniles present no problems in assigning male or female because their size, the respective plumages are different.

Linnet juvenile/first summer

Linnet male

Linnet female

The overnight clear skies and morning produced little in the way of other new birds except for singles of Robin, Wren and at last, a juvenile Reed Warbler.

Excitement came in the form of the now regular juvenile Peregrine, this time carrying small and dark prey beneath its belly, possibly a Starling.

Not to be outdone, along came a “cream top” Marsh Harrier heading purposely south towards Pilling Village and beyond in the direction of The River Wyre. It was 27 July when we recorded the first of Marsh Harrier of the autumn on the same north to south east trajectory, a route that the species seems to always follow.

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Monday was a day with grandkids M and S. We drove up to Knott End village to await the tide dependent ferry for the two hundred yards journey across the Wyre where they could sample again the delights of the ancient fishing port of Fleetwood Town - 2p slot machines followed by a picnic and ice creams. The midday high tide would stay around long enough to take the return ferry in a few hours’ time. Missing the last ferry back to Knott End would entail a tortuous 18/20 miles never ending bus journey.

There are lots of pics below with little or no commentary. Click the pics for a bigger and better trip to West Lancashire.

Follow the fun starting at Knott End, crossing the River Wyre on the ferry, a walk in Fleetwood including the two penny slot machines and then take the journey back to Knott End. The morning was grey with later drizzle and rather spoiled the photos but not the fun.

LS Lowry and Knott End Café

The jetty

Knott End slipway

Here it Comes

The Excitement Builds

Cleaning tidal mud

First Arrivals - Off to Explore Knott End on Sea

Health And Safety 

Emergency Exit

Little And Large

Fleetwood Esplanade

Kingfisher

Herring Gull

"Welcome Home" for the trawlermen

Fleetwood fish

Slots

More Slots

Even More Slots 

The Sands of South Morecambe Bay

Back on dry land

Riverside Walk - Knott End 

Riverside Walk - Knott End

Grilled Plaice with veg

What better way to finish the day with a couple of grilled Plaice fresh from those Morecambe Bay sands?

Back soon with more news vies and Lancashire treats.