Home Birding

An extract from an email all ringers received this week.

“BTO SURVEYS IN THE WIDER COUNTRYSIDE”. 

“Following the Government statement on 23 March, our Senior Leadership Team has reviewed the BTO advice and is asking all volunteers to follow the guidelines presented by the Prime Minister. While the monitoring work undertaken by volunteers is extremely important, it must not compromise public health. 

To avoid this potential risk, we are requesting that all BTO surveyors, including ringers and nest recorders, refrain from undertaking survey work at sites to which they would need to travel by any means until this guidance is reviewed.” 

“All the best and stay safe”. 

Dave Leech, Head of Ringing & Nest Recording 
James Pearce-Higgins, Director of Science” 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's my contribution to "Home Birding", the newest buzz phrase for locked down birders with a post first published on Another Bird Blog on 31/12/2011 - New Year’s Eve 2011. Click the pictures for a close-up.

It’s time for recalling the past year’s highlights of birding, ringing and photography. Now is the moment when we choose to forget the low points, the empty pages in a sodden notebook, netting a handful of birds on a seemingly perfect spring morning, or discovering that you set the aperture wrong.

Here we go in rough chronological order with a selection of photos and personal highlights of 2011.

In the early part of the year we holidayed in Egypt at a time when the country was undergoing a revolution, but the confiding birds hadn’t joined in the turmoil and just behaved naturally for a visiting Brit.

Egypt proved to be a wonderful place for bird photography and so difficult to select just a few pictures, apart from the Kingfisher which is just about my favourite photo of the year, taken with a decent choice of aperture for once.

Kingfisher - Egypt

Cattle Egret - Egypt

I’d left Will counting Siskins building up by the hundreds in his garden, together with a dozen or two Brambling and Lesser Redpoll. Within days of returning from Egypt I joined him for some memorable ringing sessions and notable breakfasts.

Brambling

Lesser Redpoll 

Siskin 

Bacon Butty 

Spring and autumn were great for catching and photographing Northern Wheatears at Pilling. With the help of sacrificial meal worms I caught fourteen “Wheats” and clicked the shutter button a couple of hundred times on the beautiful chat, passing Meadow Pipits or the occasional Linnet.

Wheatear

Meadow Pipit

Linnet 

The annual ritual came along, May in Menorca, the island where birds are hard to find but fortunately more numerous than birders. This year a ringed Audouin’s Gull at the hotel pool gave me an excuse to search for that extreme rarity, a Menorcan ringer.

A Ringed Audouin’s Gull -

A Ringed Audouin's Gull

Summer was warm and wonderful, ringing Swallow chicks, finding Skylark nests and stumbling upon young Lapwings or breeding Redshank.

Skylark

Barn Swallow 

Redshank

Lapwing

Then at the end of summer came a chance to take photographs of a species rapidly becoming a rarity, the unfortunately named “Common” Cuckoo.

Cuckoo 

Autumn and early winter was given over to ringing pipits, buntings, finches and thrushes “on the moss”, the satisfaction of working a regular patch with a job well done.

Reed Bunting 

Tree Pipit

Yellowhammer

Don't forget to Spring forward tonight by changing all those clocks. Or not.

Back soon with Another Bird Blog.  Linking this post to Anni's Birding in Texas.

Catch Up

Birding and ringing took a back seat this week as school holidays and grandparent priorities came first. Thursday was the first available morning for me so I drove to Conder Green for a catch up before the main task of the day, Gulf Lane. 

The water margins are quite good for waders at the moment during what is peak migration time.  There’s good numbers of Greenshank Redshank and Lapwings. I counted 12 Greenshank, 230 Redshank, 140 Lapwing, plus 6 Common Sandpipers and a handful of Curlews. 

A pair of Avocets now has 4 large youngsters close to full size. 

Greenshank 

Greenshank 

Redshank 

Juvenile Avocet 

It’s been a troublesome season on the single nesting platform when Oystercatcher, Common Tern and Black-headed Gull all tried to nest in close proximity. The winners appear to be the Black-headed Gulls closely followed by the Common Terns but the Oystercatchers lost out completely and raised not a single youngster. Meanwhile the 6 Common Terns also used the natural island and today I counted 4 adults and at least 2 fledged but now flying juveniles  

At Gulf Lane our Linnet Project is about to enter the fourth winter. Unfortunately Andy could not join me for a spot of hard work cutting a ride through the vegetation as he too was on Granddad duty. That’s his story and he’s sticking to it. 

In recent weeks I paid a few visits and noted how groups of four to eight Linnets built to a small flock of 25+ on 4th August. Many of the plants are already dropping seed for the Linnets. 

Game Cover and Bird Seed Plot 

Fodder 

With luck the flock should build to 200/500 Linnets that will remain here throughout the winter months. We start the season with 577 Linnet captures and a number of phenomenal records from Scotland and the Northern Isles which prove that the Linnets here travel many miles to winter in this part of Lancashire. 

I recently contacted Oliver Seeds, the suppliers of the seed mix employed in the field. The mix is named WBS1 – “a winter hardy annual wild bird seed designed to provides cover and feed for small birds, mammals and game throughout the year. It is recommended for those parts of the UK where more frost hardy species are required. It provides shelter in “open” cover and deposits seed through the late Autumn and Winter period.” 

The constituent parts of WBS1 are: 

30% Spring Triticale

 25% Spring Wheat 

25% Spring Barley

 8% Linseed

 4% White Mustard 

4% Forage Rape 

3% Phacelia 

1% Fodder Radish 

I cut a ride through the 5ft high lush growth and then tested the length and width with a single net in readiness for the first ringing session. This shouldn’t be too far away once the Linnets increase their numbers and form a tighter flock. 

While taking a breather, a single Linnet found its way into the net and opened the account for winter 2019/20. A good omen for the weeks and months ahead I hope 

Linnet - Number One 2019/20 

Male Linnet - Number One 2019/20

There’s a poor weather forecast for the days ahead but stay tuned, there will be news and views of some sort. 

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Viewing Nature With Eileen.

Bowland Trip

At this time of year I enjoy a visit or two in the Bowland hills to see how things are and also to grab a few photos. The weather has been so poor with rain and cloud on most days that until now there was no point in that forty minute drive. Things were slightly better this morning but far from ideal with periods of cloud that blotted out the sun, but I managed a few pictures in the couple of hours without rain. 

Bowland, Lancashire - Wiki Commons

On the wader front I saw the expected numbers of Oystercatcher, Lapwing, Snipe and Common Sandpiper but rather worryingly, not a single Redshank. Normally the species is very noticeable up here in the boggy uplands. The weather made me a week or so later than other years but I would still expect to see and hear Redshanks watching over their growing youngsters. 

Oystercatcher 

 Oystercatcher

Snipe 

Snipe

Because of the scale of its decline and range contraction in many areas of the UK in the period 1988-1991 and beyond, the Redshank now qualifies for amber listing. The decline is not just in upland areas, it is also because of increased grazing pressure on saltmarshes where the Redshank also breeds. The picture below was taken in Bowland almost to the day on 16 June 2017 on a traditional and unchanging stretch of habitat where all was silence today. 

Redshank 

There was a young Lapwing by the side of the road and it didn't look too healthy. There seemed to be something wrong as it walked with a limp and also held one leg up. I decided to catch it and perhaps examine what the problem might be. There was sheep wool around both legs with the wool joined one leg to the other like manacles. 

Possibly the Lapwing had not been feeding too well as the wool had restricted its normal leg movements. It proved impossible to unravel the wool as it was so tough and also wrapped very tightly around the bird’s legs. 

Luckily I had my ringing box in the car for just such situations and where I keep a pair of scissors. Upon release the Lapwing flew off strongly and an hour or two later on the way back I saw it again, still limping but with an adult watching over its progress. 

Lapwing 

Lapwing 

 Lapwing

Lapwing 

Up here in Bowland where waders breed amongst the sheep it’s not uncommon to see chicks or indeed adults with wool wrapped around a leg, sometimes both. Occasionally it leads to a bird losing part or all of a foot or lower leg when the tight wool may restrict the blood flow and cause the limb to rot and fall off. 

The Oystercatcher below is also adorned with sheep wool; thankfully the bird appears unharmed. 

Oystercatcher 

A look at Marshaw found the usual flycatchers, Spotted and Pied, plus Grey and Pied Wagtail, Lesser Redpoll, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Mistle Thrushes and two male Cuckoos; the latter seen in flight only. 

I lost count of Meadow Pipits at 100 with now just the occasional songster and good numbers of youngsters lining the walls and fences. 

Pied Wagtail 

Meadow Pipit 

I chanced upon a party of Red Grouse, two adults and ten+ young. They all scurried off into the marsh before I could get decent pictures. 

Red Grouse 

Red Grouse

Red Grouse chick

The Red Grouse, a subspecies of the Willow Grouse, is a bird of heather moorland with a range restricted to areas of blanket bog and upland shrub heath. The Red Grouse differs by not developing white plumage during winter and having a diet almost exclusively of heather. 

Since the mid-1800s many areas of upland heather have been managed to produce grouse for shooting. Grouse shooting is one of the major land uses of upland ground and a source of income for many estates. That income, how it is derived, and the impact of shooting upon raptor species is the subject of considerable debate in the UK, but not all of it informed or dispassionate. Let’s not go there for now. Suffice to say that I saw no raptors today. 

Heading Home 

If the weather improves, as it is promised to do yet again, there may be another visit to Bowland in the offing. Stay tuned.

Linking today with https://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com. 

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?

Oh dear, the blog stats don’t look too good today after a week without a post. But Blogger tells me that “Page View All Time History” passed the one million mark at 1,008,401 from 1428 posts since August 2009, so all is not lost. Someone deserves a medal, probably faithful readers, a number of whom have followed the blog from day one. 

Migration time is pretty much finished here in Lancashire so unless something extraordinary takes place, for the next month or two it’s winter birds until the days lengthen in February and March. Birders forever wish their lives away to hurry along the next season and all that it brings, but somehow, winter seems to be the least favourite month for many birders. Or maybe even summer for those who take little interest in the breeding season? 

Saturday morning, and although there was a biting wind from the east a spot of welcome sunshine held out possibilities for a picture or two. I hit the lanes of Moss and Jeremy early, hoping for a few pictures of thrushes while the hawthorn berries are almost into their last days. Our winter thrushes consume the haw berry in huge quantities and if the weather turns very cold the hedgerows will very soon be stripped entirely of their already low yield of our dry summer. 

I found about 40 Fieldfares along the exact same stretch of road as a week ago, a handful of Redwings and the same of Blackbirds. Suddenly this week there are more Blackbirds around, even in our modest garden, as Blackbirds from Europe and Scandinavia move into the relative warmth of the UK. 

Fieldfare 

Fieldfare 

Fieldfare 

Blackbird 

It was watch and wait as passing cars sent the shy thrushes back and forth to escape the danger they sensed. While our garden Blackbirds can become used to humans, even in many cases, persuaded to trust us, the Blackbirds that live out in the sticks are as retiring as the very wary Redwing or reclusive Song Thrush.  If anything the larger Fieldfare is bolder than any and does occasionally let someone take a photograph. 

Redwing 

Redwing 

Blackbird 

The two Buzzards of a week ago were in the exact same spot, using a vantage tree to good effect in locating food in the adjacent field. 

I looked at Conder Green where following recent excavations and management, birds are beginning to return. Although returnees seemed to be mainly gulls I was in time to see a Great White Egret fly across towards the canal and to then count a raft of about 65 Wigeon against the far bank. Just recently a Great White has been seen at both nearby Aldcliffe and Cockersands, so possibly the same bird. 

Great Egret

Also here at the pool and in the creeks - a single Kestrel, 140 Teal, 22 Redshank, 8 Oystercatcher, 6 Curlew, 3 Little Grebe, 2 Little Egret and 1 Snipe. 

Redshank 

Redshank 

Oystercatcher

Excuse me now, I have to go to the shops and buy the Saturday night Lottery ticket. You just never know.

Linking this post to Anni's Birding Blog.