Autumn Arrives

Friday produced my first autumnal Kingfisher of 2024, whizzing back and forth across farmland drainage ditches, enough stimulus to inspire another visit on Sunday morning where I hoped for more pictures. At the same place, and if the wind speed stayed low as predicted, maybe catch and ring a few other species. 

Kingfisher

 

As an early season  breeding species of inland waters the Kingfisher is a surprisingly early returnee to coastal Fylde where the tiny and seemingly fragile fisherman is able to make a winter living wherever there’s a spot to watch, wait and then plunge. 

August and September can be an ideal time to look out for their arrival. Warmed by The Irish Sea our coastal waters here remain ice and snow free during most winters when just 15/20 miles away near Preston or Garstang the reverse can be true. 

Almost four hours later there was neither sight nor sound of a Kingfisher; such are the vagaries of trying to predict migration or to second guess a species like Kingfisher, its habits or whereabouts. 

At first, and for an hour or so, the wind was non-existent. A single net in the open except for the minimal background of vegetated fence posts remained unwavering and strangely still, quite unlike our frequently blown away ringing sessions. It wasn’t to last but in the meantime I caught in double figures, 9 Meadow Pipits and a single Willow Warbler. 

Meadow Pipit - first summer

Willow Warbler - first summer

As the wind speed increased so did the birds with a rather sudden but splendid arrival of dozens of Meadow Pipit, Linnet and wagtails, as if they had all waited for a breeze to give them lift off from the runway. Bright morning sunlight gave photo opportunities whereby the strengthening breeze mattered not. 

By now Meadow Pipits poured through with a rough count of 100+, joined in their arrival with mainly Pied Wagtails (30+), Linnets (45+) and even a couple each of Great-spotted Woodpecker and Sedge Warbler. 

Click the pics for close-ups.

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Stock Dove

Linnet

Linnet

 

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Linnet

Meadow Pipit

Sedge Warbler

Back soon folks. Take care out there, it's a funny old world at the moment.

Another Bird Blog.

 

 

Making Hay

Our nearby fields are awash with cut grass drying out in readiness for winter storage. Summer finally arrived for now. Hay and silage are two common methods of preserving grass for livestock feed. Hay is made by cutting and drying grass while silage is made by fermenting the gather cuttings in an airtight container. 

Tractors fly across local fields as local farmers enjoy a long spell of warm sunny weather after the tortuous winter and equally wet spring that stopped their work for days at a time and caused a redrawing of plans. At last, fields of stunted maize gain height towards their 8/10 feet goal. Temperature is paramount for maize where the seed needs soil temperatures above 10°C to grow, temperatures that we rarely reached throughout a long, cold spring. 

Silage field

 

Maize

This is a quiet time for ringing but since my last post I too have been out and about in the sunshine, camera, long lens and bins at the ready. 

Ready Steady, Go!

 

Another Marsh Harrier came along, a silent dip and dive across the fields, looking for that elusive prize, a mammal scurrying through layered green. On its way it went, almost reluctantly in a south westerly direction as if drawn by some unknown force of nature. 

Marsh Harrier

 

Mid week saw the first of the returning Yellow Wagtails, a single juvenile amongst the dozens of Pied Wagtails. 

Yellow Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

And now I wait for comments about the grey wagtail, a Yellow Wagtail that is quite grey but assuredly a Western Yellow Wagtail, Motacilla flava, a scarce breeding species of the Fylde area that is so scarce it cannot decline further but simply disappear into the annals of history. But, always good to see, hear and recall that soft “seep seep”.  

Water at the feeding station attracted Starlings in their juvenile variations, a mixed coat of pinky grey softness with a layer of spotted insulation that for all the world looked as if it had been stuck on a belly as an afterthought.  For students of bird moult a Starling is one to tax a ringer’s entry of “age” on the BTO's DemOn database. Good subjects for a camera lens but thank goodness we don’t catch any of the noisy, forever squawking things. 

Starling

Starling

Little Egrets begin to build in autumn numbers while Grey Herons subside into single sightings, two species which one might think can sustain their respective populations but seemingly not when the heron is now “scarce” and the egret “common”. 

Grey Heron 

The feeding station is well situated to exploit the bokeh of the telephoto lens, where shades of vegetation green, brown and ochre compete with a spot of blue sky for an out of focus backdrop. 

Meadow Pipit

Linnet

That’s me for a day or two. Thursday Friday we have Brett in to paint our kitchen diner - spend some dosh before our new Government,  “party of the workers” take it all from us. 

Politicians tell lies to win over gullible fools so as to win elections. Who Knew? 

See you soon folks. 

 

Olympics Free Zone

The forecasts didn’t agree; now there’s a surprise, not. Maybe rain, maybe dry. So we decided to give it a go and I met up with Andy at 0700, far from the crack of dawn but best we could manage. 

Earlier in the week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I had seen small arrivals of the usual early birds, the species that breed fairly early and now more or less finished - Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits, plus small parties of Linnets numbering 10-20 individuals. Goldfinches at the feeders too, where many in their gingery brown plumage lacked the outnumbered colourful adults. Around the feeding station there is water that attracts the pipits and wagtails in their ever interesting autumnal plumage variations. Even hares stop by for a piece of the action.  

Click the pics for TV size views.

Pied Wagtail

Linnet

Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail

Brown Hare

Pied Wagtail

Meadow Pipit

Goldfinch

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

Woodpigeon

Pied Wagtail

In the week I saw the first autumnal returning Marsh Harrier, a male arriving from the east - dipping and diving, disappearing from view and then reappearing, eyes fixed on the ground in case of a slow moving target below. 

Marsh Harrier

 

He carried on flying west giving just a couple of chances for a picture before he was gone. 

The route is one that the Marsh Harriers always take. We spot them with increasing regularity from July and into November, as they meet the sea wall and the ditches, dykes and farmland of North Fylde after their journey from north and/or east of Morecambe bay. The harriers proceed mainly west , sometimes directly south before taking an inland scenic mostly farmland route south so as to avoid flying over the conurbations of Fleetwood, Poulton le Fylde or Blackpool. 

They are not looking for Big Macs, fish & chips or discarded sarnies, just fresh meat, a variety of prey including birds like Coot or Moorhen, frogs and mammals, especially rabbits. 

Eventually the harriers will meet the coast again around the River Ribble, all the while avoiding Preston City. 

Saturday morning ringing was uneventful, cool with spits & spots of rain and just 15 birds caught - 7 Goldfinch, 5 Reed Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler and 1 Sedge Warbler. 

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Sedge Warbler

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

The end of an absorbing week. And, dare I say, the weather forecast for the week ahead and into August looks very promising with warm, windless days to spend outdoors. 

Irritable Owl Syndrome

Back soon folks. I'd rather be birding than watching the telly. 

 

Slowly Does It

The ringing squad aka The Old Crocks could not make it this time. Too much beer/wine, baby sitting and/or too many aches & pains left me alone to seek birds. Better luck Friday when we hope to tackle the Cockerham Sand Martin colony for the first time this year. 

A sunny morning beckoned as I set off north along the notorious A588 through Stalmine, Pilling and Cockerham, FY, PR and LA respectively, not as far apart as those differing post codes might imply. The tortuous road is less dangerous since at great cost and much protest from late-to-work boy racers a large number of average speed cameras made everyone slow down; we are told the bright yellow devices work in the dark, can detect drivers using mobile phones and record a driver’s eye colour. 

A little late but 1984 is definitely here with Tory Boy followed seamlessly on by Starmergeddon; more taxation and then The Magic Money Tree to stoke inflation. More surveillance, nanny statism and nationalised services about to make everything worse. Wait until 80,000 new windmills sit proudly across every rural constituency in the cause of Joke Zero. What a coalition that will create - anarchists, useful idiots and environmental swampies, as middle class retirees fight for their property value with lumps of newly laid concrete. Sit back with the popcorn and enjoy the show. Only five years to go. 

Mind you, the A road is still dicing with death as I found out when slowing to an almost stop at double white lines and then a sharp bend at the sight of Barn Owls, first at Pilling and then at Cockerham. Some fool almost took my door mirror off! Hanging around for more pics was definitely dodgy so luckily the blog archive of circa 90/100 Barn Owls pics saved the day. 

Barn Owl

After a slow start with flooded fields and dykes in early 2024 it’s clear that the local and ever adaptable Barn Owls are now feeding young in a number of scattered locations. 

Barn Owl

A flash, a putative pool, some 60/70 yards distant at Cockerham held three brown Shoveler ducks, the species now quite scarce, distinctly wary & unfriendly to those bearing a camera (or a gun). Some weeks ago I saw the male alone on a different flash of water from where he flew in the direction of this latest sighting, thus making a record of likely breeding for this overlooked species. 

Shovelers

Shoveler

Nearby were a couple of Golden Plover, a colourful adult and a spangled individual; a rather unusual time of year but a species which may still breed on high ground inland not  too many miles away in the Pennine Hills. 

Golden Plover

Golden Plover

Lapwings are beginning their autumn gatherings with 40/60 on Conder Pool, the once peaceful area of water loved by birders, now transformed by experts and renamed Gull Hell in homage to the several hundred Black-headed Gulls that now call it home. 

To be fair the gulls give protection to a number of Common Terns that nest on rafts where no raptor worth its salt would want an onslaught of hundreds of Black-headed Gulls.  

Common Tern

We gained a cacophony of noise - gulls, terns and Avocets while losing breeding Lapwings, Redshank and Tufted Duck but left Oystercatchers hanging by a thread. Such is progress. 

Oystercatcher

 

I drove to a quiet spot and took a few pictures of common birds in the bright light of morning. 

Linnet

Woodpigeon

Reed Bunting

Pied Wagtail

The forecast looks good for Friday and Sand Martins. Take a look soon and see how The Old Crocks performed. It may not be pretty or at a fast pace but we try hard.