Wheats About?

A wander out Pilling way on Sunday saw activity of mainly egrets, pipits and Linnets along the sea wall. Two identical looking Wheatears caught my eye so I stopped for a closer inspection.

The tidal defences here keep Morecambe Bay tides at bay with a high raised earth bank, (a bund) interspersed with sections consisting of large rocks and stones. The rockery is an attraction to migrant birds where crevices and holes out of prevailing winds provide a sanctuary to insects attractive to Wheatears and other insectivores. 

Over many years I have ringed over seventy Wheatears along Pilling shore, until taking a break in recent years when human and canine disturbance made the job impossible. Having recently found a new private spot, and even in the limited possibilities of September when their numbers decline,  the desire to catch Wheatears resurfaced with the appearance of these two Wheatears. I suspect the two were siblings so closely did they resemble each other and to follow in each other’s movements. 

Luckily mealworms were at hand together with a couple of spring traps that caught one bird quite easily as the other scooted into the distance upon seeing its companion compromised inside a tent of netting. 

Wheatear

Wheatear

Wheatear

Wheatear

After a few days off I met up with Will and Andy on Thursday at 0630 for a go at the Linnets and anything else linked to the month of September. Thirteen birds caught/ringed -  6 Linnet, 5 Meadow Pipit, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Robin. 

We have to remind ourselves that male Linnets are normally a touch larger than females but this is never the decider between male or female. The most reliable method is the amount of white on the outer web of the primary wing feathers numbers 7 to 9.  A gap of less than 5mm from the white feather to the centre shaft tells us the bird is a male, more than 5mm a female. In other words, males have more white in the wing, a feature that is sometimes discernible with Linnets in flight, more easily picked out ina large flock rather than isolated birds.

Very often autumn males show brown/rufous rounded markings on the breast, unlike a female which is more streaked. 

Linnet male September

Linnet female September

 

Linnet male September

Linnet female September

It is not surprising that about 80/90 % of autumn Meadow Pipits we catch are first summer/juveniles as the species is able to raise two broods of youngsters in a normal summer. The juvenile below is already part way through its post-juvenile moult. 

Meadow Pipit

Other birds seen and not caught - 50+ Linnet, 50+ Meadow Pipit, 8/10 Tree Sparrow, 2 Blackbird, 1 Kingfisher, 1 Marsh Harrier, 1 Peregrine overhead.

Kingfisher

Fifteen Pink-footed Geese arrived from the north and landed on the salt marsh. The first of the Autumn.

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In The Bag

Not a bad morning. A spot of birding, another Wheatear in the bag and I even nailed the reluctant Kingfisher.

The forecast was for a sunny day so I headed for Conder and Glasson but as the windscreen wipers drew back and forth I wondered if I’d made the right decision. The rain was quite steady at Conder Green where an initial look into the creek revealed the usual wader suspects and their by now consistent numbers - 2 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank, 5 Common Sandpiper, 4 Snipe, 28 Redshank, 4 Curlew. 

The Lapwings seemed flighty this morning, not just those around the pool but the ones hidden from view near the canal. Their regular eruptions into the air before settling back down allowed a count of more than 150. Herons and wildfowl remain the same with 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 5 Little Grebe, 2 Great Crested Grebe and 2 Wigeon. 

A Cormorant dropped in to feed, those are raindrops in the photo, the ISO at 800, and both I and the camera were getting wet. Time to head off to Glasson and bird via the car until the rain stopped. 

Cormorant

Seven Pied Wagtails and 2 Grey Wagtails near the Glasson car park with a Grey Heron on the far jetty and about 60 Swallows feeding over the water. 

I took a few rain spotted pictures of the resident but far from tame Tufted Ducks, their wary eyes watching my every move. I rather admire our commonplace and largely ignored UK Tufted Duck, a duck of town and city parks with ornamental lakes and ponds. But the Tufty is also a highly migratory beast whereby their numbers increase in the UK in winter as birds move here to escape the cold winters of Iceland and northern Europe. The numbers at Glasson Dock will swell from the present 15/20 to nearer 80/90 during the winter months. 

Tufted Duck

The sky was brightening a little so I made my way back to Conder Green. 

Looking North from Conder Green

At the pool a Kingfisher was surveying the scenery and fishing the waters. Don't forget to "click the pics" for close-up views of the Kingfisher.

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

There's nothing much to add to the earlier numbers of birds except that both Common Terns took their share of the tiny fish on offer and then returned to their nest on the island where they fed the hidden from view youngsters.

There was time for Pilling Marsh where I found Buzzard, Kestrel, Greenshank, 7 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and 5 Wheatears. One Wheatear, a juvenile of 96mm and 25.1 grams, succumbed to the temptation of a meal worm. 

Pilling Marsh

 Wheatear

Wheatear - juvenile

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Linking this post to Anni's Blog, Eileen's Saturday and Weekend Reflections.

Snow Good

Yes, it’s an awful pun but very good to catch up with that wanderer from close to the Arctic Circle, the elusive Snow Bunting. Still no northern thrushes, but all week there’s been Snow Buntings dotted around the UK, even a flock of more than 30 on the North East coast. 

Last week’s high tides left lots of tide wrack, an environment which Snow Buntings often exploit, and I’ve been half hoping to see the whitish buntings along local shores. It was the early morning walk at Pilling which turned up trumps when I recognised the clear “tew” calls and watched a party of eight arrive high from across Morecambe Bay to then settle down on the tideline ahead. 

Within minutes a jogger had sent the birds into the air, calling as they went, me cursing as I watched the birds fly off. Luckily I found a single one further along the walk, possibly a returnee of the original party or a ninth bird. This one hunkered down from the westerly wind and buried itself in the tidal debris where it rapidly found lots of seeds. It ate so fast and continuously that I had to use ISO400 to stop the action. The tide wrack is very deep, the bird so submerged in it that I couldn’t get a single shot to show its shiny black legs, but viewers will get the overall picture. 

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

It’s a number of years since I watched Snow Buntings at the top of the Cairngorms in Scotland, one of the species’ few UK breeding sites. For readers yet to see a summer Snow Bunting below is a photograph courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service which shows the species in its summery but snowy surroundings and wearing seasonal dress. 

Snow Bunting - courtesy of USFWS

After taking a number of shots I wished my Snow Bunting good luck, left it searching through the tideline and continued my walk west to Pilling Water. 

Kingfishers are the most frustrating bird, so tiny and inconspicuous, sitting silently on a featureless bit of the landscape where their fine-tuned eyesight can spot a human being from 100 yards to allow a quick escape. I was beaten again when one circled ahead of me at Broadfleet and then flew back in the direction I’d just travelled.

Sea Embankment - Pilling

Godwits were in force at the flooded stubble fields with 80 Black-tailed Godwits, plus 15 Redshank, 200+ Lapwing, 60+ Skylark, 1 Golden Plover, 6 Snipe, 2 Linnets, 3 Greenfinch and 8 Meadow Pipits. 

Meadow Pipit

Mute Swan

Out on the marsh, 35 Whooper Swan, 6 Mute Swan, 6 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Raven. Raptors seen: a pair of Kestrels together and a Sparrowhawk mobbed by the usual crows. 

That’s all for now but don’t forget that it’s not too late to enter the free draw for a signed copy of The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland here on Another Bird Blog via Wednesday's posting.

Linking today to Stewart's Bird Gallery .

Thursday On Friday

I’m posting for Thursday because I didn’t get chance to do a write up from my usual trip out to Pilling. 

There’s nothing better than getting out birding after being marooned indoors for a few days by inclement weather, especially when there are stories of thousands of thrushes heading south and west from Norway. Apart from the mad rush of early October the autumn has been a poor one for thrushes whereby I’m not seeing any Redwings, Fieldfares, extra numbers of Blackbirds and certainly no Song Thrushes. Yesterday drew another blank, even after I checked the hedgerows of both Ridge Farm and Fluke Hall, hawthorn highlights there just several Greenfinches. 

The fields at Ridge Farm are as wet as I’ve ever seen them, as evidenced by 250+ Black-headed Gulls, 12 Black-tailed Godwits and even 10 Snipe rising from the stubble and upwards of 25 Skylark. There was a hovering Buzzard, soon pestered by the local crows, the Buzzard then heading off back inland. I found more Black-tailed Godwits on the Fluke Hall fields with another 60 or so together with 18 Redshank, 90 Lapwing, 6 Curlew and several more Snipe. A couple of shoots have reduced the number of Red-legged Partridge but still 150+ to see in place of any native partridges. 

There are a lot of Shelduck about at the moment, with a count of 500+ along the shore where a concentrated effort could almost certainly have doubled the guestimate. Unlike most of the UK’s wild duck population Shelducks are protected by law from shooting. But as a species they are far from easy to approach, being just as wild as the “permissible quarry” of Teal, Wigeon and Pintail which also spend most of their time out on the shore and marsh. 

Pilling Marsh, distant Heysham

 

I managed to place myself in a handy spot to get a few pictures as a dozen or two Shelduck came in from the marsh heading for the shooter’s pools where wheat is put out to attract wildfowl in. The wind was just strengthening, making the Shelduck slow down their approach flight, some almost vertical before they landed, others applying the brakes perfectly in time, yet others miscuing and then having to go round again for another landing attempt. Their circlings reminded me of a flight to India some years ago where we spent an hour or more viewing Dabolim Airport from a great height, going around in circles and wondering if we’d ever land, until eventually we scraped home by the skin of our nervous fingers and a holiday in Glorious Goa.

There’s a close-up of a Shelduck being ringed at the Wildfowl Trust winter catch of a few years ago. 

Shelduck

Shelduck

Shelduck

Shelduck

 Shelduck

A walk along the sea wall produced another 30+ Skylarks and a welcome if brief Merlin in the usual low dash over the marsh. I say usual but it was my first autumnal Merlin, the species appearing slow to return to its coastal haunts this year. The Merlin had appeared from near Pilling Water the spot where I found 15 or so feeding Meadow Pipits, these birds so late in the autumn as to be potential winterers. One sat up on a fence post and watched my progress along the path.

 

Meadow Pipit

Just 7 Whooper Swans today so it appears the Icelandic swans have left Pilling for more appealing places: no worries, I’ll make do with a picture of Mute Swans. How do swans fly so close together without causing a major pile-up in the airways?

Mute Swan

There was a headless Pink-footed Goose behind the sea wall, a spot I don’t often see a Red Fox but the decapitated evidence suggests one may have been along quite recently, leaving the crows and gulls to follow on. I can’t imagine a pinkie being nabbed by a fox unless the goose was injured in some way, perhaps as a result of a recent shoot on the marsh.

ex Pink-footed Goose

That’s all for now but don’t forget that it’s not too late to enter the Free Draw for a signed copy of The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland here on Another Bird Blog via Wednesday’s post.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and  Camera Critters

Date With A Needle

For 1300 I had an appointment for a dose of ‘flu vaccine to look forward to, but at last a bright, wind and rain free morning in which to enjoy a few hours birding. 

From Fluke Hall I set out towards the sea wall across the maize and wheat fields where there’s a reasonable path which avoids slushing through the soggy stubble. There are always birds to see about the shooter’s fields, ditches and pools, as long as you take care to miss the actual shoot days when there are no birds about and steel shot will fall on your head. 

Pilling, Fluke Hall fields

On the edge of the wood I could see 4 Jays moving through the trees calling as they went. There were a number of Chaffinches about but too far to count, although I found 5 or 6 Tree Sparrows and a couple of Reed Buntings near the gate again. Skylarks weren’t as obvious today with none passing overhead just 4 or 5 resident ones on the sea wall and stubble, plus another 2 Reed Buntings along the ditch. 

The Red-legged Partridge still number in the hundreds, so I’m thinking there haven’t been too many shoots just yet. From the stile I even managed to get close to one of the white ones which are as wild and wary as the normal brown ones. Close to they are actuallly quite smart looking. Pity they end up in a cooking pot.

Red-legged Partridge

From the fresh 4x4 tracks on the mud I knew the guys who feed the pool had beat me to it, so no Teal or Black-tailed Godwits to enjoy today, just the usual single call and then brief views of the back end of a Kingfisher whizzing along the dyke and over the sea wall. So I thought to check where the blue flash had gone and also count the Whoopers as well - no sign of the majestic fisher from the wall but 74 Whooper Swans, 2 Greylag and 8 Mute Swan to count. So more pictures of Whooper Swan to follow, and a Mute Swan for size comparison. 

Whooper Swan and Mute Swan

Whooper Swan

With not much else doing I realised I’d missed out on Conder Green for a week or two so motored towards there. 

Interestingly a Spotted Redshank is still there in the main creek, as is a Common Sandpiper and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that both might winter on site, the latter species the favourite to do so. Just 12 common Redshank and a single Curlew in the near creek with circa 60 Teal and a Grey Heron. 

Spotted Redshank

Common Sandpiper

Two Tufted Duck on the pool together with yet more Teal to make a total of more than 80 of the tiny duck. Looking for a fishy meal were a Little Egret, 7 Little Grebe and 2 Cormorant. 

A walk along the railway track produced odds and ends like 5 Long-tailed Tit, 15 Chaffinch, 3 Goldfinch, 4 Meadow Pipits, 2 Skylark and 2 Pied Wagtail. 

But I was running out of time and my appointment with a large, unfriendly needle beckoned. Log in soon to see how Another Bird Blog survived the ordeal and whether pain killers were required.

Linking today to Camera Critters and Anni's Birding Blog.