The Extra Hour

Yahoo 24 October 2013 - A thrifty couple will not be putting their clocks back this weekend - because it saves money on their energy bills. Retired John and Janys Warren, from Somerset live 'in the future' an hour ahead of everybody else and save a third on their gas and electricity bills. The couple stopped putting their clocks back five years ago when they realised the darker and shorter days were triggering John's headaches. Living on British Summer Time all year round meant his headaches eased, they could enjoy an extra hour of daylight and save money. Janys said: "We have lower fuel bills and far more usable daylight hours with evenings not seeming endless. We don't put the heating on until we get up and by then it is warmer anyway. We've saved about one third on our heating and lighting bills.” 

For what it's worth here’s my advice you stingy, sad, and foolish people - get up early and go for a brisk walk outdoors with a warm coat, a hat and scarf and a pair of binoculars. In the evenings J and J, complete your notes from the day’s birding and update your birding blog - simple. Not only will you save money, you will be healthier in mind and body and maybe get a life into the bargain. 

I put my clock back. The extra hour of birding proved warming, time consuming, energising and very enjoyable despite the frequent showers and strong winds. 

My start was early enough to see if the Little Egrets at the Pilling roost had remembered to turn their clocks back last night. The answer was that they got up at first light as normal dispersing in various directions, all 24 of them. 

Red-breasted Mergansers turn up on Fylde coastal waters at this time of year where they can be seen throughout the winter, often drifting in towards the shore with incoming high tides. They also favour a very few coastal and spacious marine lakes, so imagine my surprise to find one in a ditch behind the sea wall. Even better, Red-breasted Merganser is a species which normally keeps a very respectable distance from birders or photographers. 

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

The Latin name of this duck Mergus serrator is highly descriptive, Mergus being the genus of typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the seaduck subfamily (Merginae). The “serrator” refers to the long, serrated bills used for catching fish. Their diet of fish such as salmon and trout brings them into conflict with anglers and fish farmers whereby the species is often classified as a pest and may be shot. Those folk with guns, they don’t miss many opportunities to attach a label do they? 

When I got to Conder Green there was a family party of Goosander Mergus merganser in the roadside creek, an adult pair and 2 first winters. The male stayed apart from the others just too far to include in a picture but the female has the darker head, the juveniles noticeably paler. Out of interest, and to limit any possible misunderstanding here, this member of the Mergus family of birds is known as Common Merganser in North America and Goosander on this side of the Atlantic. Like the smaller Red-breasted Merganser, the Goosander is also subject to persecution by anglers and fish farmers. 

Goosander

A Spotted Redshank was in the creek again perhaps the same bird of late, more likely not and just one the many thousands passing this way in the autumn en route to winter in Central Africa? 

Spotted Redshank - Breeding, Migration and Wintering from Wetlands.org

Spotted Redshank

I walked along the railway path and over the bridge and found a Common Sandpiper feeding along the edge of the creek below, so too a Grey Wagtail and a Little Egret. Along the same path was a party of 18+ Long-tailed Tits with a couple Greats and Blues, plus a single Chiffchaff. 

A flight of 3 Pintail heading west was perhaps slightly out of the ordinary just here. On the pool and creeks, 90+ Teal and just 10 Little Grebe, as grey and drab as the winter months decree, and no requirement to display that little white beauty spot until the clocks go forward in March 2014. 

Little Grebe

There’s a sleepover tonight, no not me but our two lively granddaughters Olivia and Isabella.

Wish me luck as I’ll certainly be woken up early on Monday morning and may well lose an hour or two of sleep.

Sneak Peek - Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

I couldn’t resist more than a peek at the new Crossley, and the chance to tell Another Bird Blog readers about this exciting book, plus share my initial impressions of it, even though the regional blogathon isn’t until November. 

The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

This new work follows the same format as the previous two published for the North American market, volumes which received an enthusiastic welcome for their innovative, almost revolutionary style. The Crossley ID guides use photographic techniques to display a species as it looks in the field and in a typical environment, rather than the more usual artistic but ”flat” portrayal found in traditional field guides. 

The first thing to note is that this new Crossley is aimed mainly at a UK market of “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels”. This qualifying note explains why some 300 species are covered rather than the 598 or so species on The British List, the number that might be encountered in half a lifetime of determined birding rather than the 300 or so which the average birder might see in a series of normal years. Because of the stated target audience this would seem an eminently logical and sensible way of selecting the species featured. 300 species alone is quite challenging to a novice birder and the only issue I have found with the species featured is the authors potentially confusing treatment of the redpolls. 

Species are displayed by “proportional representation” i.e. the more common a species is the more space it takes up, typically a full page for very common birds, half a page for scarce species and a quarter page for rarer species. 

The next thing to note is that the book doesn’t use a traditional taxonomic sequence, which as the authors (Richard Crossley and Dominc Couzens) point out, does not always makes sense in the field. Instead the book splits species into just seven groups based on habitat and physical similarities so that they can be more easily compared. Again, the authors make the point that a bird’s appearance is largely influenced by its environment and therefore the taxonomic order is not necessarily broken too often. 

So the species accounts use two simple main headings of Waterbirds or Landbirds. Sub-headings break these down into Swimming Waterbirds, Flying Waterbirds, Walking Waterbirds, Upland Gamebirds, Raptors, Miscellaneous Larger & Aerial Landbirds and finally, Songbirds. This proves a simple but effective innovation, helped by a corresponding opening section where all the species are displayed at their relative size. These pages are a handy quick reference for a novice birder struggling with for instance, a beach full of waders or a freshwater packed with wildfowl. 

I picked out just a couple of double page plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland to whet readers’ appetite. The first one, Flying Waterbirds, is taken from the opening sequence of pages which show birds at their relative size, structure and shape, that element of “jizz” so vital to the “mystery” of bird identification. 

Flying Waterbirds - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The second shows Goosanders and Red-breasted Mergansers in absolutely typical, accurate and realistic scenes. Those Goosanders could well be on Conder Pool, and the Red-breasted Mergansers look for all the world to be ensconced on  Fleetwood  Marine Lake.

Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The third plate shows Purple Sandpipers with Turnstones, a characteristic situation which will help new birders to find and identify Purple Sandpipers in their strictly coastal environment. Ruffs are shown in many of their distinctive changes of both size and appearance, a wader designed to trap the unwary or inexperienced. With this page in front of them I would hazard a guess that many “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels” birders would quite happily put a name to the strange looking bird in front of them. 

 

Purple Sandpiper and Ruff -  The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

I just realised, I didn’t mention the textual description and explanation which accompanies each species. The accounts are accurate, concise and more than adequate to aid identification, especially since on turning to a species the text is relegated to second place as the eye and the brain automatically focus on the birds. It’s reality birding where visual learning is the norm and seeing is believing. 

I wish I had time and space to feature many more plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland as many of them are quite superb, especially the wildfowl and waders. Maybe the best way to experience and enjoy them is to beg, steal or borrow this book for yourself as soon as it is available; however I’m sure that Princeton University Press would prefer that you buy it. To help you decide they have published a selection of plates of common garden birds to download at Princeton University Press.

Princeton's timing of release for this book is either fortuitous or a master stroke because the book will make a superb Christmas gift for a youngster, a kid of a certain age showing an early interest in the real world rather than the electronic domain. Also I can see this book being a huge hit with folk of an older generation, maybe those who leave work with newly found time on their hands but with a desire to learn about birds. This book is an ideal companion with which to both absorb and enjoy their new found love. 

There’s more about Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland in early November. Meanwhile I’m putting my copy in the car, then if I get stuck in a downpour at least I can carry on birding by browsing the pages of this splendid book.

Turned Over

The Infamous Five met up at Fleetwood this morning hoping to catch more Turnstones, but despite there being the usual couple of hundred about, we waited in vain for any to come in the catching area as most of them stayed roosting on the island of the Marine Lake. The few that came near the net proved reluctant to enter the catching area.

If there is one thing that ringing birds has taught me it is that birds are lot cleverer than we humans perhaps like to admit, and there's many a time when birds outwit our supposed superior intellect. So for the next Turnstone Time we may have to invoke Plan B when we have worked one out.

The Turnstone, as its name suggests, feeds mainly on rocky shorelines, searching for food by probing into cracks and crevices with its short, stubby bill. But here at Fleetwood they learnt many years ago to find food in a very different way. Here they wait for the locals to throw out food onto the grass for gulls and ducks then follow in the larger bird’s footsteps picking up whatever is on offer, often stale bread, fish and chips or the remains of a half-eaten burger.

Turnstone
Seumus adjusting his tension
Craig looking busy

On the lake were a few Red-breasted Mergansers, with a couple of Pied Wagtails and several Linnets whizzing about. After being turned over by the Turnstones the thought of calling in at Poo Corner to see a Ring-necked Duck didn’t inspire me much so with the sky brightening I journeyed to Out Rawcliffe for a while.

Red=breasted Merganser

An entertaining couple of hours on the moss realised a few good counts but nothing out of the ordinary, except maybe the 120+ Fieldfare feeding in a wet field with a couple of hundred Starlings. In most years Fieldfares do turn up in early spring, even when they have been absent earlier in the winter as they were this time. Also feeding on the soggy, partly flooded fields were 85 Woodpigeon, 6 Stock Dove, 3 Curlew, 9 Shelduck, 3 Snipe and 180 Lapwing.

Passerines and others: 2 Kestrel, 70+ Chaffinch, 140 Linnet, 14 Yellowhammer and 3 Goldfinch.

Linnet

As I drove off the moss at 4pm a Sparrowhawk was following the droves of Starlings towards a distant roost. I hope the hawk caught better than we did today.

Happy Haircut

It’s OK this not working lark but the problem is that there aren’t enough days in the week. What with family, birding, ringing, blogging and writing a monthly column for the Green Book, I never have time for a haircut; until today that is, so I made tracks for Roger’s at Norbreck, then for afters planned an hour or two with the camera at Fleetwood.

Before I left home I checked the garden for yesterday’s Sparrowhawk, and there it was again in the same damson tree, trying to look inconspicuous. The bird let me get really close, too close for my 400mm, until it hopped across to next door’s fence but hidden by a holly tree. It’s obviously a male, and probably a fairly old one judging by the eye colour which verges on red. Maybe it’s a little sick or like me just slowing down in old age, but there’s few garden birds about, and it may just be playing a crafty game waiting for dozy Long-tailed Tits to come by.

Sparrowhawk

The birding was quiet along Rossall and then the Marine Lake, and with the high tide reaching the sea wall many waders may have flown elsewhere: 360 Turnstone, 60 Sanderling, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Dunlin, 4 Pied Wagtail, 4 Meadow Pipit, 13 Red-breasted Merganser. As ever, double click the pic for a larger version.

Turnstone
Oystercatcher
Sanderling
Turnstone
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Sanderling
Turnstone

What an enjoyable morning, and just as well I got those jobs done today; the forecast for the next few days is not good for birding, ringing, photography or getting a haircut.