Slowly Does It

As I drove slowly along Head Dyke Lane I heard a singing Chiffchaff and then saw a Kestrel watching over a field from an overhead line. At Gulf Lane the sitting Oystercatcher raised her head above the crop to see what the stopped vehicle was up to. She sounded a warning but the rapidly growing crop has already outpaced any tiny youngsters and I couldn’t see them. A pair of Skylarks circled and then dropped into the same area of the field and I made a mental note of the spot for another day. 

All I saw from the Braides Farm gateway was a single Roe Deer, 400 yards from me but just a few yards from the sea wall with not a tree in sight; a strange beginning to my journey of Cockerham to Conder Green. 

Roe Deer

There are still 3 pair of Avocets at Conder Pool and one pair have two youngsters that scurried along the water’s edge at their parents’ behest. 

Avocets

Meanwhile the Oystercatchers with the roadside nest still play chicken with each car that passes by. It’s a weird routine they have; I watched them do the same thing over and over. The female stays on the nest for passing vehicles but if one slows or stops she walks off the nest, crosses the road to the edge of the creek, calls, and then waits until the male joins her. There’s a crow continually trying to rob the nest so one of the Oystercatchers is tasked with chasing off the villain. When all returns to normal, cars and crows, the female crosses the road again and sits back on the nest. If the “oyks” pull this one off they deserve a medal for perseverance. 

A second pair of Oystercatchers that nested to the left of the screen now has two tiny youngsters, with at a guess still three to five other pairs yet to hatch their young. 

Oystercatcher

 

Oystercatcher chick

Black-tailed Godwit numbered 120+ again feeding in the creek or the very far side of the pool. It’s late in May for so many lingering godwits when by rights they should be well north of here, especially since a good number are in adult-like plumage. Of course each day could see different birds passing through but who’s to know for sure? They are a colourful and welcome addition to the usual year round waders and I imagine a few non-breeders may actually spend the summer here. 

Black-tailed Godwits

On the pool and close by – 1 Little Grebe, 6 Tufted Duck, 8 Shelduck, 10 Redshank, 2 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 4 Whitethroat, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff and 1 Reed Warbler. 

Shelduck - male

 Shelduck - female

There was another Reed Warbler on the Jeremy Lane circuit where the roadside ditches are in great shape with their mix of bramble, nettle, scattered hawthorn bushes and fine stands of phragmites reed. 

On the leisurely circuit up to Cockersands and back I counted 10+ singing Sedge Warber, 8 Whitethroat, 8+ Skylark, 4 Reed Bunting and 1 Blackcap as i stopped here and there to take a closer look. 

Sedge Warbler

 

 Sedge Warbler

In the fields nearest to Cockersands where Lapwings and Skylarks were ploughed out by spring farming I noted at least three Lapwings sat in new nests. After the recent drought the earthis now almost bare and very dry. Let’s hope the Lapwings have better luck this time. 

Lapwing

For weeks I’ve tried to get half decent pictures of a Brown Hare.  Today the roadside growth partly hid the car as it slowly edged along the road allowing me to stop and turn off the engine. When soon another, taller vehicle came along the hare dashed off across the field into the distance. 

Brown Hare

Brown Hare

Those long and powerful hind legs allow a Brown Hare to run at up to 35mph - pretty useful if you don’t fancy being “jugged” or roasted.  On the other hand we all know the story of The Tortoise and the Hare, the best-known of Aesop's Fables where the hare loses a race through being over confident of its speed. 

Maybe there’s a lesson for some birders?  Slow down, you will both see and learn more by travelling at a nice steady pace, stopping and starting where necessary, instead of dashing around like a headless chicken and seeing bugger all.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday and Anni's birding.

More Owls

I was tempted to do a spot of ringing at Oakenclough but it was just a little too breezy from the north and the forecast was less than perfect with “showers” which might be snowy. In any case it would be a solo effort and a bit of a chore while Andy is still sunning himself in Morocco. 

So I did a food drop only while noting a single Lesser Redpoll and still good numbers of Chaffinch and Goldfinch about the feeders and a couple of Siskin “over”. 

Goldfinch

Lesser Redpoll

I drove back to the coast via Garstang and landed up at Cockerham and then Conder Green. The pool and creeks hold few bird surprises now as we wait for spring to arrive with the early migrants. Around the pool and in the tidal creeks – a Reed Bunting in song, 2 Little Grebe, 45 Wigeon, 18 Shelduck, 8 Oystercatcher, 2 Tufted Duck, 40 Curlew, 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Pied Wagtail and a handful of both Chaffinch and Goldfinch. Both Redshank and Teal numbers may be down with respective scores of 28 and 30. 

Turned 0900 and in broad daylight arrived yet another Barn Owl, probably the regular one which is seen almost daily now and has a winter roost nearby. The owl was busily hunting both the inner and outer marshes and while I didn’t see it catch any prey it was out of sight for minutes at a time. After a while it flew back towards its daytime hideaway. 

Barn Owl

At Braides there was a Buzzard searching the rough grass, on the flood 30 or more Lapwings plus a couple of Skylarks on fence posts. Skylarks were in song today with a number of Lapwings showing territorial behaviour through snatches of aerial display. There was nothing doing through Cockerham/Pilling and just a couple of Linnets at Wrampool with no sign of any Stonechats. 

It was now turned 1030 and as I drove through Pilling village a Barn Owl flew directly over the car and out of sight into a building complex on the left. In reading local web sites and blogs in the past week or two it is remarkable but also worrying how many Barn Owls are being seen during daylight hours. Good that there seem to be numbers around but not good that they are all obviously having difficulty in surviving these lean times by spending inordinate amounts of time searching for food. The birds are also exposing themselves to the extra risks posed by dodging busier daytime traffic. 

Barn Owl

I was on my way across the mosses of Pilling and Out Rawcliffe. I stopped to watch a gang of Roe Deer saunter into a small copse and simply melt into the trees and out of sight. Roe Deer are smaller than many people might imagine – look at their size in comparison with the bales of fodder. 

Roe Deer

I found a good selection birds feeding in the stubble fields of the mossland – 80 Fieldfare, 80 Linnet, 40+ Corn Bunting, 21 Yellowhammer, 20 Chaffinch, 10 Reed Bunting, 3 Song Thrush and 1 Grey Heron. Accompanying raptors were noted as 2 Buzzard and 2 Kestrel. 

Yellowhammer

As on the coast an hour or two before both Skylarks and Lapwings were in display mode with pairs of Oystercatchers noted at three or more locations. There’s snow forecast for the weekend. But come rain or shine Another Bird Blog will hopefully bring, news, views and birds. Log in again soon.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday and to Run A Round Ranch.

Better Late Birding

The morning started well with a 7 o’clock Kestrel and then a Barn Owl alongside the A588 road at Pilling, the main route between Pilling and Lancaster City. It’s a road infamous for traffic accidents. Sue’s hairdresser’s father was a recent victim, a fatality following a car and motorbike collision at the notorious junction of Head Dyke Lane and Lambs Lane. 

It’s best not to linger along this road as vehicles rush past full of folk desperate to reach their place of work, early or late. There’s a saying of “It's better to be late in this world than early in the next”, sound advice which few seem to heed. Luckily the owl stayed adjacent to the road and wisely decided not to tangle with the headlong traffic. 

Barn Owl

I was heading up to Conder Green for a look-see at a place I’d not visited for some weeks.

There’s been recent talk of a pair of Common Terns returning to breed again after their success in 2014 and following an absence from the Lune of several years. Best not to count the chickens or terns too early because there was no sign of Common Terns this morning and no surprise following the horrendous weather of last week, in particular the storm of Sunday evening and the official start of Summer. Maybe the terns will return with the warm weather promised soon? 

Species looking to breeding in the area of the pool and creeks this year seem to be mainly Oystercatcher with 8/10 individuals, 6+ Redshank, 3 pairs of Shelduck, 2 pairs of Tufted Duck and the obligatory Mute Swans. 

Oystercatcher

A male Shelduck has a female on a nest somewhere on the marsh. He took great exception to a Goosander feeding in the channel, the Goosander feeding quietly away until the Shelduck dived into the water to aggressively chase the interloper away. 

Goosander

In the stiff breeze passerine activity was low with just Reed Bunting, Sedge Warbler and 2 Pied Wagtails noteworthy. Swifts and House Martins have been late this year so it was good to note better numbers of both this morning in upwards of 15 Swifts over the hedgerow and 20+ House Martins together with 2 Sand Martins over the marsh.

Some of the House Martins were collecting construction materials and prospecting their regular breeding spots under the eaves of the house and café adjacent to the railway bridge. 

House Martin

Time will tell whether the House Martins are welcome this year following pitiful attempts to frighten them off by some rather mean spirited folk. It’s a café I once visited where the coffee was tepid and undrinkable. I never returned there anyway so am in no position to impose a boycott should the residents decide to harass the martins. 

A few hours later I drove back to Pilling and Fluke Hall when the morning traffic had moderated. There’s an extra danger to incautious drivers along this road in recent years by way of wild deer spreading from inland to take up residence nearer the coast. As I walked alongside Fluke Hall wood two Roe Deer erupted from the field margin, sprinted across the field and vaulted over a fence some 50 yards away. There’s no point in trying to follow wild deer after such an encounter; they just melt away again. 

Roe Deer

In and close to the woodland - 4 singing Whitethroat, a Nuthatch, 2 Song Thrush, 3 Stock Dove and legions of Blackbirds and Goldfinches. Somewhat strangely there was no sign of the Kestrels and Buzzards so active before my recent time away in Menorca. Judging by the mess around the Mistle Thrush nest there had been some success. 

More birds were along the stretch of seawall and marsh.  A late female Wheatear, a single Icelandic brick-toned Black-tailed Godwit, a singing Reed Bunting and a feeding flock of about 20 House Martins. 

Black-tailed Godwit - by Koshy Koshy [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

These House Martins were intent on feeding and ignored the many muddy area nearby where they might collect nesting materials so I thought they could well be very late arrivals. But better late than never.

So far there are no House Martins in our avenue where in a normal and warm year five or six pairs of House Martins set up home. Such is the late and poor start to Summer we have endured in coastal Lancashire. 

There will be more news and views soon from Another Bird Blog. 

Weighing It Up

The new feeding station near Garstang was due a top-up this morning and it was time to see how many birds have found the foodstuff in the last ten days. Depending upon the numbers present and the species mix there could well be a ringing session soon. 

It’s a thirty minute car journey inland heading in an easterly direction towards the Bowland hills, through countryside where I glimpsed more than a few interesting birds but no time to linger - Kestrel, Buzzard, Tawny Owl and Mistle Thrush. 

Mistle Thrushes often start singing from early November, December and into the New Year, from a treetop or other elevated spot. The male is most vocal in the early morning with its tendency to sing after, and sometimes during, wet and windy weather, a trait which led to the old English name of Storm Cock or stormcock. 

Mistle Thrush

As I neared the wooded uplands I noted several Jays, many crows plus dozens of pheasants and Red-legged Partridges. Yes, it’s sporting countryside within a stone's throw of where Hen Harriers are sought out for special attention. 

As I arrived there was a Roe Deer rushing up and down, trying to find its way over the barbed wire fence and back to where it came from, away from vehicles and humans. After a while the animal found the open gate just down the hill. Linking today to Run-A-Round Ranch.

Roe Deer

Birds are no different to us humans in being able to find food, and just as we can see and smell a takeaway shop along the high street, so are birds able to quickly locate a new buffet table laid out near their homes. 

Around the bird feeders and from a standing start just over a week ago, I found a good mix of 12+ Coal Tit, several Great, Blue and Long-tailed Tit, 4 or more Goldcrest and single Chiffchaff and Nuthatch. The number of conifer trees in the area accounts for the good numbers of Coal Tits and Goldcrests. 

Blue Tit

Coal Tit

The general idea is to catch finches so good news arrived in the form of 20+ Chaffinch, 3 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Bullfinch, 2 Goldfinch, and then 1+ Siskin overhead. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

 Chaffinch

Other birds in the vicinity - 2 Kestrel, 4 Pied Wagtail, 6 Blackbird, 4 Mistle Thrush, 40 Lapwing. 

Pied Wagtail

I was out a good four hours this morning with no sight or sound of thrushes from Europe, the Redwings and Fieldfares now well overdue for their annual arrival in NW England. The wet and generally westerly weather, often overnight, has not been conducive to the birds setting off from Scandinavia. 

The prospects look bleak for the rest of the week as the forecast is for more of the same. Oh well, not to worry. If there’s half a chance Another Bird Blog will be out looking and reporting in here. 

Don’t miss it.

Sunday Shanks

First off and for all my blogging pals especially Wally in Florida who knows a good British pub when he sees one, here's a picture of The Stork at Conder Green with their sign depicting a heron. Confused? - Read the last post on Another Bird Blog or click the pics below for close-up views of The Stork and this morning's first Grey Heron spotted just yards away from the inn. 

The Stork at Conder Green

Grey Heron

Yes I was there again this morning hoping for pictures and more than a few birds in the bright sunshine. That dusky stunner Spotted Redshank was still in the creek, the naked eye all that was needed to pick it out from the centre of a gaggle of 20+ Redshanks. At least 8 Common Sandpipers noted today as the birds moved up and down the creek according to pedestrian traffic over the bridge or vehicles heading to the car park. Oystercatchers still have two young, the chicks now very mobile in exploring all parts of the pool edges. 

Less obvious was a single Greenshank hiding away at the back of the pool, sometimes in view, mostly not. 

Greenshank

The Canada Geese have quite big youngsters now, the goslings looking for all the world like tiny versions of their parents. The young Shelducks are getting there and it is obvious who they belong to especially when the female is so attentive because dad has done a runner. The drake Goldeneye still there with 8 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon and now 1 Little Grebe 

Canada Goose

Shelduck

The warm sun definitely helped but there appeared to be more passerines about this morning with small groups of calling finches, mainly long the old railway line. Into the notebook went 15 Linnet, 12 Goldfinch and 10 Greenfinch as a clear improvement on recent counts and hopefully the start of larger flocks of each. Good numbers of Whitethroats too with 3 singing males, a couple of family parties and additional churring adults lifting the morning count to 15. Others – 3 Sedge Warbler, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Tree Sparrow, 3 Stock Dove. 

Greenfinch

Linnet

Also along the railway path, 2 Pied Wagtails and a Grey Wagtail flying over. It was from the old railway line that I saw a Roe Deer out on the marsh, the animal crossing from north of Conder and heading all the time to Glasson until it bounded up the embankment and disappeared from view; it's quite normal to see cattle out on the marsh or river mud at low tide, but not wild deer. 

Roe Deer - River Lune

Cattle - River Lune

I made it to Glasson where as I shaped to photograph another Grey Heron a Kingfisher flew up and landed on the jetty beyond the heron. It was good to see a Kingfisher after such a hard and prolonged winter even though the tiny bird was too distant for a photo. I settled for yet another heron shot, a Black-headed Gull and a juvenile Starling. 

Grey Heron

Black-headed Gull

 Starling

A blog reader asked where my bird ringing has been lately. The explanation is that after ringing over 25,000 birds home and away during 20+ years I decided to wind down a little from general mist netting to concentrate on smaller ringing objectives, bird watching and photography.

So stay tuned to Another Bird Blog for the same mix as before with perhaps less frequent ringing news and views.

Blown Off Course

Morning rain put paid to any huge ambition today, so when the rain cleared about midday leaving little wind but with a grey sky I decided to head to Rawcliffe where I could check the feeding station. 

There seemed to be a decent number of Chaffinch and Brambling about again, all scattering from the seed drop zone as I approached, so I put up a couple of nets before leaving a couple of litres of seed. I caught just three Bramblings, 2 new and a recapture from recent days before the wind sprung up unannounced causing me to take the nets down again. It was very annoying again after a similar episode last week, but the few Bramblings pushed my total here to 51 new ones during the full winter period. 

When I looked at the data on IPMR these birds split as 42 juvenile/second calendar year and 9 adults roughly 50/50 each sex.

Brambling - second calendar year male

Brambling - second calendar year male 

It stayed dry but very overcast so a little birding was in order. Finches around the feeding area totalled 10 Brambling, 10 Chaffinch, 14 Goldfinch and 4 Reed Bunting, a reduction in recent numbers. I note that after the recent dry spell many fields which remained as stubble throughout the winter have now been ploughed, thus leaving less fields for finches and others to feed in. If only we could have such stubble fields every winter, as we used to do before farmers took to winter crops. 

Buzzards are a permanent fixture here on the moss with the 4 individuals I saw today in the overcast skies representing 4 breeding sites I know of, with many more not too far away. Other raptors pm were a Sparrowhawk molesting one of the above Buzzards and a Peregrine which came from the direction of Pilling and scattered roughly 90 Woodpigeons from the tree tops of the nearby conifer plantation. 

Over towards Lancaster Lane the Lapwings and Starlings indulged in periodic panic with many hundreds in the air together at times giving rough counts of 280 and 600 respectively. A couple of Lapwings have now taken up residence on the farm in the same areas used in previous years. 

Other sightings: 60+ Curlew heading north, 2 Yellowhammer, 18 Corn Bunting, 40+ Tree Sparrow, 4 Song Thrush (2 pairs) and 9 Roe Deer. 

The nine deer were in separate groups of 4 and 5 animals. As an aside, and from the national newspapers today - “There are currently around 1.5million deer in the UK, and experts say that unless numbers are managed, the deer population will escalate out of control and they will soon be considered vermin”. I wouldn’t say deer are a major problem around but I know they break through electric fences causing valuable livestock to wander and to occasionally get lost. 

Roe Deer

Back to the birds. The Corn Bunting picture was taken on a sunnier day than today but it’s the tree the buntings always fly to when they have been disturbed from their favoured feeding spot. 

Corn Bunting

A bit of a short day and a rather undersized post but please tune in to Another Bird Blog soon for the better birding experience.

On Target Again

There was a little frost at home in semi-rural Stalmine and with the promise of sunshine there was nothing to deter an early start for a spot of ringing. Out on the wide open and exposed Rawcliffe Moss seven miles inland the frost was more obvious. 

I waited in the car with a cup of coffee and the engine running until the sun came up and the Roe Deer had run in the opposite direction. A rampant Roe Deer can destroy a £100 mist net in the split second it takes the animal to crash straight through it. 

"Frosty"

Roe Deer

The rising sun brought warmth and bird movement as they began to arrive for a breakfast of mixed seed - wheat, sunflower, niger, kibbled maize and red dari. Whatever is in the bag certainly works well enough with another 22 birds caught, all of the target species: New birds - 8 Brambling, 4 Goldfinch, 4 Reed Bunting and 3 Chaffinch. Two others were a Brambling recapture from recent weeks and a Chaffinch from 2012. 

F

Field Sheet

Reed Bunting

The eagle eyed may have noticed on the photograph of the field sheet a Goldfinch “control” - “control” being ringers’ jargon for a bird bearing a ring from elsewhere, in this case D137544, a second calendar year female. I knew it wouldn’t be mine. The ring was on the left leg and I ring on the other. 

Goldfinch D137544 

This is the adult male Brambling which carried a little fat, weighing in at 26.6 grams. 

Brambling - adult male

Brambling - adult male

Most of today’s Bramblings were second calendar year females. 

Brambling - second calendar year female

The morning’s birding was rather subdued with 50/60 Fieldfare and 200 Starlings still in the stubble field, 25 Goldfinch, 18 Reed Bunting, 10+ Brambling, 10 Chaffinch and 2 Yellowhammer. Overhead came 3+ Siskin, 15 Curlew flying west, 1 Buzzard and 2 Kestrel. 

Further down the farm track the Little Owl sat warming up in the bright sunshine but I couldn’t linger. Lunch beckoned. 

Little Owl - Athene noctua

Please put Another Bird Blog on your target list then call by soon and see what’s occurring.