Out And About

Blackbirds took every single cherry in garden and didn’t bother waiting until the fruit was red ripe. And then they came back for the next tree along, the rowan berries just turning from green to orange, nowhere near the final glossy red that completes a winter landscape. 

Blackbird

Thursday evening was warm and sunny in our sheltered back garden. I watched a male Blackbird drop down from the rowan tree into a dried up patch below where thirsty berry trees had made for a  dusty piece of ground. 

The Blackbird spread its wings and tail, opened its bill and settled down into the dusty ground and began to sunbathe and perhaps to also “ant”. I have seen this behaviour on a number of occasions from different species of birds and this time managed to both observe and to photograph the activity. 

Blackbird

Blackbird

Blackbird

Birds in various climates all around the world indulge in sunning. This can be anything from simply standing with their backs to the sun, with feathers rustled up to expose the skin below, to a full sunbathing posture with wings and tail feathers spread out to maximize the area open to the sun. Obviously, in many cases the birds get warmth from the sun, which reduces the amount of metabolic energy they have to expend in order to maintain a constant body temperature of around 40 degrees C. However, some birds sunbathe in spots which can be quite hot. In such circumstances, sunbathing appears to leave them over-heated as they can be seen panting. 

From Wiki - “Anting is a maintenance behavior during which birds rub insects, usually ants, on their feathers and skin. The bird may pick up the insects in its bill and rub them on the body (active anting), or the bird may lie in an area of high density of the insects and perform dust bathing-like movements (passive anting). The insects secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid, which can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, or bactericide. Alternatively, anting could make the insects edible by removing the distasteful acid, or, possibly supplement the bird's own preen oil. Instead of ants, birds can also use millipedes. More than 200 species of bird are known to ant " .

This week has been quite windy with no chance of a ringing session. During Thursday a quick runaround a local patch resulted in a few expected birds and a Green Sandpiper.  Green Sandpiper is a shy species, one of the earlier returning migrant waders and can be seen in a variety of muddy margined places like ditches, farm middens and similarly secluded locations.  For these early returnees from north and east it is autumn, even though for us in England it is still summer.

 

Green Sandpiper

 

The same stream held 3 Little Egrets, a Grey Heron and 2 Redshanks. 

Little Egret

 

The waterside margins seemed quiet except for a couple of Sedge Warblers and a single Reed Bunting both of which have been in their same spots for weeks now without any sign of having youngsters out of nests. Not so the pair of Moorhens with 5 youngsters in tow and probably their second brood by now mid-July. 

Moorhens

Reed Bunting

Sedge Warbler

 

I recently heard that the dry spring and lack of moisture of 2023 has not been good for egg production or breeding success of both Barn Owls and Kestrels. Whether this is the same for other bird species we do not know: it is a subject for research probably beyond the average birder, me included. My own observations at least are that local Swallows have had a better year, and not before time. There was a single youngster on a gate, waiting for a parent to arrive with food. 

Swallow

 

I called at our Sand Martin colony to see 100+ Sand Martins still around, despite the quarry face suffering from a degree of natural erosion, a combination of the Sand Martins’ own constant toing & froing combined with the vagaries of weather. The gulley left of centre formed by water run-off from above is a concern for the remainder of this year and next year when the martins return from their winter in Africa.  Imagine having to move home every 12 months! 

Sand Martin colony

Sand Martin

 

Friday morning. Rain arrived bang on the XC Weather forecast of 1000. The decision to leave the Sand Martins for another day was the correct one. 

Join Another Bird Blog soon to find out what happened next. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Anniversary Blog.

Testing Times

The thunderstorm of Saturday moved north and east from here in coastal Lancashire and headed across the Pennines to disrupt the Headingley Test Match. There was less cricket to watch on TV but the Sunday forecast was unimpaired; a dry, bright morning with 2-5 mph and the prospect of a ringing session following weeks of inactivity. 

The rain was gone when I met up with Will for a brutal 0600 start but high hopes of catching a few warblers. Viewing visits in recent days saw seven or eight singing Reed Warblers and pairs of both Reed Bunting and Sedge Warbler with plenty of feeding activity around their reed bed of choice. Surely by now, early July there would be fresh juveniles aplenty? 

Our own scoreboard saw an improvement with 16 birds caught – 2 recaptures (Wren and a Reed Warbler from 2021) and 14 new birds. 6 Reed Warbler, 2 Blackbird, 3 Great Tit, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Robin and 1 Whitethroat. 

Score sheet

 

Of the seven Reed Warblers just two were juveniles, the other five adults, numbers that meant we had scratched the surface, with more juveniles yet to fledge following the very slow start to breeding during the cold weeks of May. Reed Warblers need dense and tall reeds in which to hide their nests suspended between solid reed stems, growth that was sluggish and not to anyone’s liking. 

 

Great Tit

Wren

Blue Tit

Reed Warbler

A single Whitethroat was the other representative of the warbler family with no sight or sound of hoped for Blackcaps, Willow Warblers or Chiffchaffs, never mind more exotica like Lesser Whitethroats or Garden Warblers. The singing Reed Bunting stayed out of range and we never got to see the female buried somewhere in the edge of the reeds on her precious eggs,  

Reed Bunting

Whitethroat

It looks as though we will have to wait a week or two more for post juvenile wanderings to begin in earnest. 

Bird watching in between the ringing provided scant rewards with handfuls only of Goldfinches, Linnets and Swallows plus flybys of Grey Heron and Little Egret. 

Later,  I caught up with the cricket. England beat the Aussies in the Third Test. Now it’s all to play for in the following two games, Old Trafford next and then The Oval for the decider. 

It’s a little like ringing. Playing to win and not giving up. You can’t keep a good team down. 

 

Stuck For Time

I am a little stuck for time this weekend. Therefore here’s a selection of recent photos but previously unpublished on the blog. A few from the recent holiday to Skiathos, Greece and some from local visitations to the hills north of Garstang, and an obliging Grasshopper Warbler from Pilling.

The Grasshopper Warbler was seen May 2nd, the day before we set off for Manchester Airport at 2am Wednesday 3rd May. The morning was grey and windswept and not the best for pictures.

Grasshopper Warbler

Grasshopper Warbler

A few birds ringed the same day as the "gropper" - adult Reed Warbler, adult female Chaffinch and a rather nice adult male Reed Bunting. 

Reed Bunting

Reed Warbler

Chaffinch

Here's a few from Skiathos. 3-17 May. 

Before the grey shrike came close the long range views below helped separate out Great Grey Shrike versus Lesser Grey Shrike. A Lesser Grey Shrike shows long wings (long primary extension), relatively short, rounded tail, and stubby-looking bill. It was probably 25 years since my last LGS and 5 years since a GGS. 

Lesser Grey Shrike

 A spectacular European Roller made for a brilliant hour or so until it presumably flew off north, across the Aegean Sea to Europe, perhaps mainland Greece itself. It lived up to the book descriptions of "favouring open country with scattered trees and woodland patches. Mostly seen singly or in small groups perched on prominent spots such as bare snags or wires". 

European Roller

European Roller

Skiathos has both Red-rumped Swallow and Barn Swallow as resident breeding species and also as migrants spring & autumn. Both species seemed to be at similar stages of nest building by collecting mud from tracks and rain filled puddles. 

Red-rumped Swallow

The photo below shows how a Little Owl was able to play hide and seek. If it wasn't in the mood for posing it would walk down under the corrugated roof and disappear from sight until later. 

Visitors to Skiathos always hear the nightly monotone calls of the common Scops Owl even if they hardly ever see one. Meanwhile the less vocal Little Owl, a perhaps unlikely member of the birds of Skiathos, stays out of the limelight.

Little Owl

Bringing everything up to date here are some photos in the hills near Garstang from this week.

Red-legged Partridge

Redshank

Lapwing

Curlew

Back soon with Another Bird Blog. Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot.

Windy Week, Sunny End

Last week was a little wild and very unlike April. Here in coastal Lancashire high winds toppled trees, wrecked fencing and blew sea ducks inland as far as Preston and probably beyond. 

Andy phoned to say friends had a Common Scoter on their garden pond for a day or more and would I like to go and “grab a picture or two”? You know the rest. The wind subsided, the Scoter decided that Poulton -le-Fylde wasn’t quite so nice after all and did a moonlight flit. 

Common Scoter

Not to worry, Saturday morning looked a goer for ringing at Oakenclough so I met up with Andy and Will at the appointed 0630. When I arrived on site the dashboard read 1.5°, a major improvement on the -0.5° when setting off from home 35 minutes earlier. 

The sun was on the rise and gave way to a pleasant enough morning with a good mix of species to ring but not many birds on the move in the clear blue sky. Fifteen birds caught – 6 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Dunnock, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Great Tit, 1 Siskin. 

Click the pics for close up views.

The most unexpected bird of the morning was a Reed Bunting, a species quite scarce on site and at the elevation here of about 700ft above sea level. It’s a species more generally thought of as a lowland farmland dweller. 

Reed Bunting

 

The single Siskin caught was a fine adult male. 

 

Siskin

 

Six new Lesser Redpoll added to recent catches of the species while the two Coal Tits came from previous visits here in the winter of 2022/23. 

 

Lesser Redpoll

Coal Tit

 

Goldfinch

Other species seen – 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Swallow, 5 Sand Martin, 3 Jay, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Buzzard. 

Great-spotted Woodpecker

All three Jays flew overhead, unusually silent as they disappeared into nearby trees. Jays are normally noisy when they are around as their Latin name of Garrulus glandarius would suggest. Garrulus is a Latin word meaning "chattering", "babbling" or "noisy". The specific epithet glandarius is Latin meaning "of acorns", a woodland fruit in which the Jay specialises. 

Jay

 

See you in the week folks. 

“It’s warming up” said the BBC weatherman. If it's on the BBC it must be wrong. You heard it here first.

At Last

At last, a cause for celebration via a ringing session at Pilling planned for Friday morning. The one prior to recent foul weather was more than 6 weeks ago, back in early December 7 of 2022. That six weeks of zero ringing is something of an unwanted record breaker. 

Whilst the lack of ringing meant we caught no birds it was essential to continue the supplementary feeding regime set up in November, a system designed to help wild birds negotiate the winter. However the weeks of wet, windy and occasionally cold weather also caused birds to leave and seemingly not return. 

During December hungry sheep had stripped the seed plot of remaining growth whereby the few Linnets that remained had departed wholesale along with the few Reed Buntings, Chaffinches and Meadow Pipits that began to use our open buffet. 

Last week we took the opportunity of a frosty morning of minus 4° to conduct maintenance work – cutting stray branches, widening net rides and constructing skulk piles in readiness for the coming spring. A few hours on site gave optimism with sightings of Reed Bunting, Chaffinch, Blackbird and even thirty or so Fieldfares that stopped by briefly to chuckle at our endeavours. 

 

Fieldfare

Blackbird

On Friday I met up with Andy and Will for the 0745 start and a slight improvement in the temperature to -1°. 

As expected the ringing was quite slow, the birding interesting, but not thrilling apart from a lightning fast Merlin. We caught just 13 birds – 4 Robin, 3 Reed Bunting, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Blackbird and 1 Blue Tit. 

Three of the Robins were seen to be recaptures, individuals that have survived the winter so far and probably now in the business of sorting out territories for the coming weeks. 

Robin

 

All three Reed Buntings were new to us birds in what is prime wintering habitat of farmland with reed and woodland edge. 

 

Reed Bunting

Chaffinch

A female Merlin appeared as if by magic when a handful of Meadow Pipits lingered around the remnants of the game cover crop, the pipits split up and scattered by the speed of the Merlin’s approach and their own panic attack. The Merlin singled out a pipit to chase but didn’t catch, flew off out of sight and then came back, as if to see if the pipits were still around. When the pipits were not to be seen the Merlin flew off into the distance before settling in a bare branched tree some 200 yards away. The raptor stayed in the tree for twenty minutes and more before departing at some speed. 

Merlin

Other birding gave us a single Grey Heron, 2 Little Egret, 1 Mistle Thrush, 13 Linnet, 8 Reed Bunting, 12 Meadow Pipit, 65 Whooper Swan. 

 

Whooper Swans

Grey Heron

 

A good if cold morning was had by all. And it was simply so good to get outdoors again. 

Join me soon at Another Bird Blog for more birding, bird ringing and bird photos.  

Linking this weekend to Anni in Texas and Eileen's Saturday.