The Times They Are A Changin’

Here I am showing my age in quoting Bob Dylan from 1963. I’m off the road for a few days but Thursday and Friday look hopeful for my first ringing since arriving back from Greece. 

Meanwhile, here’s a topic tackled previously on Another Bird Blog right back to 2013. Some might accuse me of “banging on about it” - the subject of so called “game shooting”. Below are just five links to previous posts dedicated to the subject in attempts to draw attention to what is a national scandal – the killing for fun of many millions of birds. 

https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2020/01/an-unfunny-game.html

https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/buzzards-here-we-go-again.html

https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/these-sporting-times.html 

https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2014/06/buzzard-update-birding-update.html

https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2017/03/theres-still-no-ringing-allowed-near.html 

But now this weekend comes what is described as an “existential challenge” to the industry as none other than the RSPB takes sides in the ongoing debate. This from an article in The Sunday Times of 10 October 2020. 

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“Pheasant shooting is facing an existential challenge as the RSPB prepares to end its neutrality on the sport by demanding reforms to protect native wildlife. More than 50 million non-native game birds are released each year by shoots, and conservationists say this has a devastating impact on other species. 

Only about a third of 47 million Pheasants and 10 million Red-legged Partridges released are shot and retrieved as the remainder become food for scavengers such as foxes, crows and rats, boosting their numbers. They in turn prey on threatened species such as Curlews and Lapwings. 

Reptile experts have also blamed the rise in pheasants for the decline in adders as the birds kill adult snakes and swallow young ones whole. Another concern is that some shoots secretly dump dead pheasants because the number killed far exceeds the demand for game meat. The Times revealed footage of dozens of dozens of dead Pheasants being dumped into a pit by a digger on a farm in Leicestershire last year, 2019. 

Pheasant

There are more than 5000 shoots and customers often pay thousands of pounds to kill hundreds of birds each day. The RSPB Royal Charter, granted by Edward VII in 1904 describes game bird shooting as “legitimate sport” and the charity has previously resisted calls from members for it to campaign against the mass release of birds. 

The charter says “The society shall take no part in the question of the killing of game birds and the legitimate sport of that character except when such practices have an impact on the objects”. The objects include “conserving wild birds and other wildlife”. Mounting evidence of the harmful impact of the mass release of game birds, which has risen tenfold since the 1970s , prompted the RSPB last year to order a review of its policy. The results of that review are due to be presented at the charity’s annual meeting today. 

This summer the charity quietly adopted a set of “conservation principles” on game shooting which pro-shooting groups feared would place severe restrictions on the sport. Under the principles, game bird shooting “must not adversely affect the population of any native species”. Shoot practices should be “assessed for their environmental impacts and regulated, enforced and in some cases stopped”. Eight out of ten RSPB members strongly supported those principles in a survey conducted by the charity in February and March. 

Shooting groups fear that the RSPB which has 1.2 million members will use its influence to persuade the government to require shoots to obtain licences which could be withdrawn if problems were found. The charity has been calling since 2014 for driven grouse shooting to require a licence because of evidence that gamekeepers kill protected birds of prey. 

Tim Bonner chief executive of pro-shooting Countryside Alliance said he disagreed with some of the principles, which “had no basis in international treaties or other conservation thinking that we can find”. He added “The RSPB has increasingly been influenced by a small clique of people who are obsessive about their dislike of shooting”. 

Chris Packham, the wildlife broadcaster is a vice –president of the RSPB and also co-founder of the group Wild Justice, which is bringing a legal challenge against the government, accusing it of being in breach of the EU habitats directive by allowing the mass release of game birds without assessing the impact on wildlife sites. 

A survey of shoot owners, managers and clients commissioned by the RSPB found that many saw the charity’s principles as “the start of a slippery slope towards restricting or banning shooting”. A report on the survey results said there was a lack of trust in the RSPB’s “underlying motivations” with some feeling “let down by the RSPB… for example a lack of acknowledgement of the benefits it can bring”. 

The British Association for Shooting and Conservation and Natural England co-funded a review of the environmental impact of game bird releases and found that releasing large numbers could have negative impacts on habitats and wildlife. However, it concluded - “The evidence suggests that at least some of these effects can be ameliorated by following best practice relating to sizes and densities.” 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/game-shooters-fear-for-their-sport-as-rspb-chiefs-take-aim-vc9jpqkxg

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The decision of the RSPB to now take sides in this long going debate could well be a game changer. 

Red-legged Partridge

Watch this space for more news of the ongoing saga plus birding, ringing and photographs on Another Bird Blog.

 

An Unfunny Game

The release of non-native game birds and their impact upon the environment is in the news again this week. It is an issue mentioned several time on Another Bird Blog with the intention of alerting Joe Public to elements of the countryside that David Attenborough does not show. 

An estimated 40/50 million Common Pheasants and up to 10 million Red-legged Partridges are released into the countryside prior to the shooting season opening each 1 October.  

Red-legged Partridge 

Pheasant

The current pheasant and partridge shooting seasons draw to a close at the end of January 2020. The 2020 season opens on 1 October for Common Pheasant and 1 September for Red-legged Partridge. Releases of captive-bred birds occur prior to this, usually in July when trailer loads of pen-reared game-birds are transported to the shooting fields and released. Being pen-reared and regularly fed from leaving the egg the youngsters find most of their food from bins spaced at regular intervals throughout each shoot. 

Pen Rearing

 Off To The Shoot - Raptor Persecution Scotland

Feed Bin

The waste from transportation and feed bins provides rich pickings for predators of the crow family, mainly Carrion Crows. This easy availability of food throughout the winter months may have been a factor in the crows’ increased population since the 1960s, a trend associated with increases in nesting success/earlier laying. 

Carrion Crows take nestlings of small farmland birds and the eggs & chicks of waders, a fact of life easily witnessed by field workers. Some studies have found that crows along with their cousins the Magpie and the Raven have surprisingly little impact on the abundance of other bird species. I’m pretty certain those studies have not taken place in the Fylde Lancashire where it is not uncommon to see many hundreds of Carrion Crows on fields that are regularly shot and where lines of feed bins cross the landscape. 

A white Red-legged Partridge 

Carrion Crow 

Around 60% of game-birds released for shooting in the UK, an estimated 25/30 million birds, do not end up at their intended fate of being shot. This constitutes wastage, raising economic, environmental and ethical questions. There are four main reasons: predation, disease, starvation and dispersal into the wider countryside. Roadkill and agricultural operations contribute yet more often unquantifiable deaths. Early morning drives through areas of shoots will see many fresh corpses on carriageways where inexperienced and newly released game-birds meet the combustion engine. 

Pheasant Roadkill

The National Gamebag Census (NGC) records information provided by around 600 participating estates throughout Britain on shooting bags. There is no actual quantification of releasing as the NGC is a fraction of the actual shoots, many of which are on a small scale basis of individual and/or neighbouring farms. This I know because there are a number in this part of Lancashire and where gamekeepers are reluctant or evasive in revealing the number of game birds they “put down” (release). 

From "Birdwatch" magazine 21 January 2020. 

The non-profit legal entity Wild Justice revealed this week that it has sent a second letter to The Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) about the effect of releasing millions of non-native game-birds into the British countryside. 

Last July Wild Justice challenged DEFRA's failure to assess the ecological impact on sites of conservation interest of releasing approximately 50 million game-birds into the countryside. The government department took two months to respond, but agreed that the Secretary of State would undertake a review of the release of such birds on or near protected sites. 

Since July 2019 DEFRA has failed to act. With zero progress, Wild Justice pursued the challenge and wrote again urging DEFRA to act quickly. 

In the letter, Wild Justice's lawyers Leigh Day stated that, with DEFRA having recognised the problem in September 2019, "it would be unlawful for those releases to take place in 2020 unless the possibility of them having detrimental impacts on the sites in question had been properly considered and specifically ruled out ahead of time".  As such, "the Secretary of State needs to initiate those processes now". The lawyers added: "To hold off doing that would lead to illegality later and so be unlawful now." 

Mark Avery, a co-director of Wild Justice columnist, commented: "We started this legal challenge last July, DEFRA took two months to respond (mid-September) and now we are past mid-January, only six months from the time when game-bird releasing might start again. DEFRA needs to get moving. This legal letter is designed to give them a very firm shove." 

It’s good news that Wild Justice should tackle this subject but I question their limiting the campaign to “sites of conservation interest”. The release of non-native game-birds is a problem that impacts the whole of the countryside, all of which is of conservation interest given the catastrophic decline of so many birds of farm and field during the last 40 years.

Linking this post to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni's Birding.

Back On The Road

I have to say, the weather has been more like April showers than flaming June. At last this morning, a spot of sunshine where I’d arranged to meet Andy to see if we could come up with a cunning plan to catch any of the Sand Martins nesting at the Cockerham cliff face. 

There are huge numbers at the colony where we estimated 400+ individuals, most if not all of which appeared to be adults. This is now a huge colony that some 10/12 years ago began with just a couple of pairs breeding in a tiny face of exposed sand above a fishing pond. 

Looking up at the nests, most of which are at 30/40ft high in soft strata of the dig we decided on a plan of action for the week after next. That will involve staying away from the nesting holes but catching the martins at lower feeding levels before the sun lights up the quarry face.  

Sand Martin 

Sand Martin colony 

Andy was off to the hills to ring some Pied Flycatchers so I drove up to Conder Green. I stopped for a roadside Red-legged Partridge, a non-native partridge of the modern countryside. I have to say that despite their unwelcome status as an introduced species gone wild, the things are rather photogenic. 

Red-legged Partridge 

Red-legged Partridge 

We are into the doldrums of June when migration is over and birds spend all their time and energy in actual breeding or breeding attempts. That much was clear at the pool with identical counts and similar action to a week ago. Counts were of 40 Swift, 18 House Martin, 15 Swallow and 2 Sand Martin hawking for early morning insects over the marsh and hedgerows. 

On the pool - a pair of Oystercatchers with just one youngster plus at least three other pairs without young. 10 Redshank, 2 Avocet, 2 Shelduck, 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Lapwing, 3 Little Egret and 6 Common Tern. Four of the terns seem to be now resident, the others interlopers from the Lune Estuary 100 yards away. 

Passerines were also reminiscent of last week with 4 Reed Buntings, 8 Sedge Warbler, 6 Whitethroats and 2 Reed Warbler in song, plus a number of young Skylarks and Pied Wagtails with adults close by. 

Pied Wagtail 

Skylark 

Reed Bunting 

In the “office” earlier in the week I’d watched a Dunnock circle around the wing mirror of a neighbour's car. It was raining, hence the fuzzy pictures.

Dunnock 

Dunnock 

 Dunnock

Was the Dunnock hunting around the edge of the mirror for spiders which often disappear into the gaps of the movable glass, hide in the dark recess but give the game away with their webs decorating the surface? Or had the bird spotted another Dunnock in the mirror and being more than a little fired up by romance or territorial rights, decided to take a closer look? After three or four minutes of this behaviour it flew off into the garden. 

There's heavy rain forecast for Friday. See you soon.

Linking today with Anni's Blog and https://viewingnaturewitheileen.blogspot.com.

Saturday Sortie

Almost three weeks of cold easterly winds has meant not much ringing. There have been a few migrants arriving but not in any great numbers. Until today I had seen a single Swallow and just two House Martins, the latter back on territory at the big house on the corner on 12th April. 

Saturday morning and the dashboard read 1°C as I set off birding in winter woollies. 

There was a fine start at Pilling by way of a couple of rarities followed by the customary Barn Owl. At Lane Ends, Pilling I watched a couple of Little Egrets on the marsh just as a larger egret flew east towards Cockerham. Something made me lift my bins to look closer at the Grey Heron sized bird, upon which it turned out be a Great White Egret – same jizz, same size as a grey, but definitely all over white and with a large yellow bill. Four Swallows flew east as both Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler sang from the trees. 

Great White Egret 

Not far away a pair of Grey Partridge fed in a weedy field where the mild winter has produced a second crop of oilseed rape. As noted here on the blog many times, the Grey Partridge is now exceedingly uncommon in this part of Lancashire, so scarce that it is difficult to see how even with environmental schemes designed to help the species can ever reach its former status as a common farmland bird. 

Grey Partridge 

Compare the sad state of out native partridge with the introduced and now ubiquitous Red-legged Partridge. This is now the common partridge of the UK courtesy of the shooting fraternity who release many millions into the countryside each winter for “sport”. The birds left from the winter slaughter go on to breed in the same countryside that is now devoid of our native partridge and many other farmland birds. Such is the topsy-turvy way that we in the UK are governed by hopeless politicians and disinterested administrators whose loyalties are given to anyone but the people who pay their wages. 

Red-legged Partridge 

The Barn Owl, a poster boy for Wyre Council, was one of two I saw this morning, the other around Jeremy Lane when on the way to Cockersands. 

Barn Owl 

Barn Owl 

At Braides Farm there was a Merlin, a single Wheatear, 8 Linnet, 4 Pied Wagtails, 1 Little Egret, and three more Swallows flying into the easterly breeze. 

At Conder Green the principal species at the moment is Oystercatcher and where just as a week ago I counted 50+, most of them still in the throes of sorting out their forthcoming family life. If these numbers stay the same we should end up with 10-12 pairs breeding on habitat now highly suitable to their requirements. No Avocets today, or at least none in sight or heard, so perhaps the dozen or more individuals seen this year have all gone elsewhere. Otherwise - 12 Greylag, 4 Canada Geese, 12 Shelduck, 8 Tufted Duck and 2 Little Egret. No Swallows, Sand Martins or House Martins seen but there was 1 Willow Warbler in brief song. 

Oystercatcher 

A drive up to Cockersands proved uneventful apart from a single but elusive Barn Owl that twice escaped closer inspection as it hunted a wide expanse of fields. Barn Owls are pretty easy to see just now if you know where to look. I suspect that a good number of hunting birds are feeding young, their sitting partner, or both. 

I found a lonely Swallow on the way to Cockersands. A single bird was sat above a traditional farm’s doorway, waiting for someone to open the door. The poor thing had not long arrived from scorching Africa to a familiar UK greeting of cold easterly winds and daytime temperatures of less than 10° C. 

Swallow 

There was a lovely flock of about 800 Golden Plovers on the fields at Cockersands. A flock has been thereabouts all through winter but it is only now that many begin to show their black and gold-spangled plumage. The Golden Plover is a truly beautiful bird that unbelievably, in 2019 and for the foreseeable future, can be legally shot in this country and many others. 

Golden Plover 

It is very difficult to get photographs of our Golden Plovers, hunted as they are throughout Northern Europe by homo sapiens.  

I watched as the flock spread out across two large fields, feeding as they went, stopping occasionally to crouch in unison as an unseen threat emerged. Their spangled plumage serves them well, even in the winter when they might become the target of an overhead Peregrine.  

Gradually, after a minute or more and when the coast was clear, they would stand one by one, two by two, and then continue feeding at a walking pace until all were at 80 yards or so from the field edge. And then soon after, at some unknown signal or perhaps when they sensed they were too close to the road where people and vehicles pass by, they would rise and fly as one back to the far edge of the field 400 yards away. Very quickly they started again their slow crossing of the field in search of food.      

Although the forecast is for yet another week of cold, easterly winds, back soon with more news.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Blogspot.

Mixed Results

Bird ringers around the country report mixed results with Barn Owls this year. Some say productivity is down while others say “normal” and yet others think the season is late. The Pilling owls were at it again this morning, hunting in bright sunshine for all to see. Maybe they are struggling to find food? 

One owl appeared to want to hunt the roadside where the car was parked so after a few snaps I motored off and left them to the job in hand. 

Barn Owl 

Barn Owl 

Barn Owls are highly dependent upon a healthy population of their main prey voles, both water vole and field vole, but they also take mice, shrews and rats. The abundance of voles in particular fluctuates strongly with peaks occurring at intervals of three to four years. 

The peculiar feature of voles is that autumn population densities can attain a couple of thousand individuals per hectare in peak years whereas during population lows the numbers may decrease to virtually zero. This lack of food puts extra pressure on owls and raptors that feed on small animals. 

In contrast to owls which prey on animals, Sparrowhawks, as their name implies, feed entirely upon birds mostly smaller than themselves. At Cockersands I came across a blotchy young Sparrowhawk sat upon a handy wall from where it surveyed the immediate scene of feeding Starlings, Tree Sparrows and House Sparrows. A veritable bundle of nerves, when it sensed the click of the camera might pose a threat, off it shot, pursued by Swallows. Later in the morning I saw another Sparrowhawk, this one chased away from farm buildings by a posse of Swallows. 

Sparrowhawk 

A circuit of the lanes between Conder and Cockersands gave a fairly healthy count of small farmland birds which included at a minimum, 12 Sedge Warbler, 10 Whitethroat, 10 Skylark, 8 Reed Bunting, 6 Tree Sparrow, 4 Reed Warbler and 3 Pied Wagtail. The fields around here are drained by a network of ditches, conduits which eventually feed into coastal waters. At this time of year the channels overflow with the likes of common Phragmites reed and similar plants which provide linear wetlands for the species mentioned above. 

Reedy Ditch

Sedge Warbler 

Pied Wagtail 

It’s a couple of years since I’ve seen our native UK Grey Partridge in this part of Lancashire known as The Fylde, an area bounded to the North, South, East and West respectively by Morecambe Bay, the River Ribble, the Pennines and the Irish Sea. That’s an awful lot of landmass in which to confidently state that the Grey Partridge is now completely absent, but I believe it be so. It seems we have to accept the inferior, introduced and now feral Red-legged Partridge as a substitute. Sad to say the red leg is here for all the wrong reasons and stands as a testament to the dreadful state of our once thriving bird populations. They're photogenic but I hate the damn things. 

Red-legged Partridge 

No change on the pool at Conder, the highlight being 175+ Redshank. And I’m not mentioning Common Terns, Avocets or Common Sandpipers today. 

I called in to our Sand Martin quarry and where unfortunately we have not been able to reach just lately for a ringing session. There are still 200+ martins around, numbers swelled of late by the first flush of young from the nest. Hopefully we may get there soon and catch up with our catching. Around the area of the pool and in nearby field were 40+Curlew, 150 Starling, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Tree Sparrow and a single Linnet. 

Linnet 

The Linnet may be either poorly recorded in our area or the lack of summer records an indication of its decline. I suspect it is the some of the first but mainly the latter so will give impetus to our Linnet ringing project due to commence again on 1st August. This has already shown that the Linnets wintering alongside our marshes are from further afield, sometimes considerably so.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Eileen's Blogspot.

Change Of Scene

With a forecast of a good sunny morning I decided to have a drive up to the hills to see how things were going in this belated spring. With luck I’d have three hours of birding before the parades of wannabe Bradley Wiggins’ showed up in their day-glow clothing and very loud voices that scare the birds away.

It’s a forty minute drive and a bridge over the northbound M6 before I hit the beginnings of the Trough of Bowland.

"Click the Pics" for a closer look. 

Bowland, Lancashire 

Bowland 

The quiet of early morning was broken mostly by the sounds of displaying Curlew and Lapwing. To lesser extent were the calls of Oystercatcher, Redshank and Snipe, all in the throes of establishing their breeding territories but the last three tend to be later breeders. 

Redshank 

Oystercatcher 

Snipe 

I lost count of the Mistle Thrush seen and/or heard. From every bit of suitable woodland or copse came their loud, fluty song. 

Mistle Thrush 

If Meadow Pipits have been rather thin on the coast they were around in large numbers this morning flitting around on every stretch of fence or dry stone wall for miles. Again, I lost count, or rather made no attempt at a total as they were just everywhere.

Pied Wagtails were numerous but not nearly so many as pipits. I found a couple of pairs of Grey Wagtail along Marshaw and Tower Lodge streams. It was at Tower Lodge that I both saw and heard Siskins, Lesser Redpolls and a single male Redstart. 

Meadow Pipit 

Meadow Pipit 

Pied Wagtail 

I saw at least 4 Wheatears on the journey. They seemed very mobile and were probably migrants. 

Wheatear 

Not so the Red-legged Partridge, in loud song from a dry stone wall. Our Red-legged Partridge is not native to Britain but instead are feral or left overs from autumn shoots of released birds. Altogether it is an attractive bird that is able to hack it in the English countryside, unlike our native Grey Partridge which has become a rare sight in modern Lancashire. 

Red-legged Partridge 

Bowland, Lancashire

And while we are on the subject of Bowland, here’s an udate on the case against Bleasdale Estate gamekeeper James Hartley. Previous post here.  Mr Hartley faced 9 charges as follows:

1. Disturbing the nesting site of a Schedule 1 wild bird (13/04/2016) 
2. Killing a Schedule 1 wild bird (13/04/2016) 
3. Killing a Schedule 1 wild bird (14/04/2016) 
4. Setting trap / gin / snare etc. to cause injury to a wild bird (between 13-14/04/2016) 
5. Taking a Schedule 1 wild bird (14/04/2016) 
6. Possessing a live / dead Schedule 1 wild bird or its parts (14/04/2016) 
7. Possessing an article capable of being used to commit a summary offence under section 1 to 13 or 15 to 17 (13/04/2016) 
8. Possessing an article capable of being used to commit a summary offence under section 1 to 13 or 15 to 17 (between 12/04/2016 – 27/04/2016) 
9. Causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal – Animal Welfare Act 2006 (between 14/04/2016 – 15/04/2016) 

The case collapsed last week after District Judge Goodwin ruled the RSPB video evidence inadmissible at a hearing at Preston Magistrates Court on 28 March 2018. 

The only bird of prey I saw while driving through Bowland on Saturday was a single Kestrel. The killing goes on.

Log in soon to see more birds on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday with Stewart.

Legging It

There was excitement at Conder Green at the weekend when ringer and birder Ian Hartley, found a North American Lesser Yellowlegs feeding in the tidal creeks. Nice one Ian. 

These same creeks are home to many common migrating waders at this time of year (see recent posts on Another Bird Blog), but just occasionally a vagrant and therefore rarer wader appears. It’s a good few years since I put my name to both White-rumped Sandpiper and Pectoral Sandpiper here so it is very enjoyable to connect again with another North American wader on a local patch. 

I wasn’t able to get to Conder until today but worked on the assumption that the bird had probably crossed the Atlantic ocean very recently so wouldn’t be inclined to go anywhere else for a while, and would at least feed up for a day or two. 

Lesser Yellowlegs - picture  courtesy of USFWS

I hear that many folk twitched the yellowlegs on Sunday although not everyone had luck when their target disappeared for a while. Today a dozen or so people were pulled up at the roadside viewing the “legs”, a slimmed down, daintier but long-legged version of our own common and widespread Redshank. Usefully, and for comparison purposes at one point, the yellowlegs fed in the loose company of 3 Ruff, a Common Sandpiper, a Greenshank and Redshanks. It was noticeable that in the pecking order of the creek the yellowlegs was equal to Common Sandpiper, Ruff and the larger Greenshank but Redshanks were able to bully the stranger away when their feeding desires clashed. 

This now lost bird may soon get the urge to continue south, but equally and on past occasions, Lesser Yellowlegs have been known to winter in Britain. 

The following is by courtesy of Birds of North America Cornell University - http://bna.birds.cornell.edu/bna. 

“Lesser Yellowlegs usually travel in small, loosely structured flocks, but concentrations of thousands are seen at preferred foraging sites during migration and at their main wintering areas in Suriname. The species is a widespread migrant in North America, with primary movement through the interior (spring and fall) and along the Atlantic Coast (fall). Across their wintering range and in the southern portion of their breeding range, Lesser Yellowlegs are often found in the company of their larger congener, the Greater Yellowlegs.” 

Of the two species the Lesser Yellowlegs turns up more often in the UK than its larger cousin the Greater Yellowlegs, mostly in the autumn but occasionally in spring. 

Range of Lesser Yellowlegs in North America

The following disturbing information is also from Cornell University. 

“Lesser Yellowlegs were avidly sought by sport and market hunters in the late 1800s. High harvest levels during this period were partly due to this species’ propensity to return and hover above wounded flockmates, making them easy targets for gunners. Many observers of the day speculated that populations declined during this period but subsequently recovered once hunting in the USA was outlawed. As recently as 1991, however, several thousand Lesser Yellowlegs were still being shot annually for sport in the Caribbean, and this shooting continues. Recent (2012) estimates suggest that 7,000-15,000 individuals may be shot each fall in migration at wetlands constructed by shooting clubs on Barbados; perhaps half that many may be shot each fall on Guadeloupe and Martinique, with a potentially significant take also on wintering grounds in Suriname and Guyana. See details in Clay et al. (2012). Clearly this is a significant threat to the species and requires continued monitoring.” 

There was sun above so I decided to motor back to Fluke Hall for a walk around. There was a Grey Heron fishing in the wood where it seemed to find what it was looking for. Above the wood - 3 Buzzards, a pair and a flying juvenile. 

Grey Heron

Grey Heron

Buzzard

Along the sea wall was quiet except for the usual handful of Little Egrets and Linnets but noticeable numbers of Swallows heading west along the marsh. A Kingfisher flew along the same ditch where I’d seen 3 Green Sandpipers at the weekend, but no sign of the waders today. 

Kingfisher

The guy from Hi-Fly said he’d seen the Kingfisher too and recounted again the story of last winter’s Grey Phalarope so I made sure he had my mobile number. 

He was busy filling feed bins for the already released Red-legged Partridges. Gangs of the little game birds had legged it across the fields as I approached (they don’t fly much) and I knew that pretty soon birders would be reporting high numbers of the loathsome creatures. 

  

Red-legged Partridge

There are more birds soon on Another Bird Blog - a few flying, one or two just sitting around, maybe one or two feeding but some just legging it.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.