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.

News And Views

Nothing much to report today – the first Willow Warbler nest of the year with youngsters, plus a few oddities at Pilling after the easterly winds: a fresh in Chiffchaff, an unseasonal Black-tailed Godwit and 3 Lesser Redpoll at Pilling Water. 

Willow Warbler nest

To fill the gap I compiled a post with photographs from the recent Menorca holiday, both birds and views. 

It sounded like a good deal to me; drop Sue off In Ciutadella at the Friday market for shopping and browsing around the swanky shops while I drive up to Punta Nati for birding before the midday heat. Later we would meet up for a spot of lunch at our favourite café bar The Aurora in Placa D’Alfons. 

The tiny roadside Little Egret colony just outside the second city prospers despite the passing traffic, with this year large young out of the nest while the adults repaired the damage caused by constant comings and goings. There are Turtle Doves here too. 

Cattle Egret

Cattle  Egret

 Turtle Dove

The road to Punta Nati is single track, and so as to avoid scratching the hire car it’s best to remember the correct side of the road if something suddenly appears from the opposite direction. There’s constant song and calling from three similar sounding birds, Thekla Lark, Tawny Pipit and Short-toed Lark, actually finding each made more difficult by the birds’ colouration blending into the rock strewn landscape; unless that is they perch up alongside the road. 

Punta Nati, Menorca

Punta Nati, Menorca 

Short-toed Lark

Tawny Pipit

Thekla Lark

Like most of the thrush family the Blue Rock Thrushes here are shy, keeping their distance from visitors who mostly spend 15 minutes wandering about the lighthouse then head off to the delights of Ciutadella. In the first week of May we saw Wheatears and Whinchats, both species on their way to Northern Europe, not to mention thousands of Swifts and Swallows.

Blue Rock Thrush

Whinchat

Birds of prey up here in the north of the island: Egyptian Vulture, Booted Eagle, Red Kite and Kestrel. Depending upon recent rainfall levels there may be tiny pool of water here which often has an unusual Menorcan bird or two, last year Golden Plover, this year Ruff. 

Ruff

Many years ago Ciutadella lost the crown of capital city of Menorca in favour of Mahon about 50 kilometres to the east where the harbour is bigger and more suitable for larger vessels, and in recent years cruise ships. We prefer magnificent Ciutadella any day, an intimate, working Spanish city where a labyrinth of tiny streets crowded with shops, restaurants and cafes buzz with the daily life of half the population of Menorca. 

Placa Pio, Ciutadella Cathedral

Placa Des Borns, Ciutadella

Placa Federico

The Aurora and Es Moli

Les Voltes, Ciutadella

 

Port De Ciutadella

Menorcan Lunch - Ensaimada and coffee

I hope everyone enjoyed today's trip to Menorca. More Birds soon.

 

Rougher and Ruff

This week is payback time for the last four weeks of dry, calm, and settled if sometimes cold weather that at least allowed plenty of birding and ringing. Following a rained off ringing session on Tuesday the week went from bad to worse, with rain, gales and generally unfriendly spells blowing in from the Atlantic.

As I waited for this morning’s downpour to stop, peering from the kitchen window that looks west, the sight of 3 Siskin, 6 Goldfinch and 5 Greenfinch taking turns at the portholes of the garden feeders certainly cheered me up. After a while the rain stopped and I set off for a few hours at Pilling which turned out not too bad at all when I found a few spring migrants to jot in my notebook.

Lane Ends was first stop. On the flood opposite the car park entrance that often holds little of interest or nothing at all, I counted 2 pairs of Lapwing, 16 Teal, 2 Redshank and a single Ruff.

Ruff

The trees around the car park were fairly well sheltered from this morning’s wild wind, enough to hear 2 Willow Warblers and a Chiffchaff in song. On the pools were pairs of Little Grebe and Tufted Duck with a Little Egret stood alone and unmoving in a sheltered bay of the west pool.

Little Egret

The wind hit the moment I left the shelter of the Lane Ends trees to walk west along the sea wall, so I ducked seaward, seeing nothing until I got to Pilling Water apart from the Kestrel that breeds at Damside.

Spring Redshanks are coming through, numbers building, roosting as they always do out of sight on the wildfowler’s pools where I counted a flock of 95 'shanks today sharing the pools with 4 more Teal, a pair of Mute Swan and several Shelduck. Below the wall again I made my way towards Fluke Hall and Worm Pool with overhead displaying Oystercatchers, Lapwing and the occasional Skylark singing against the whistling wind.

The pool is too full of water for waders, with just a few more Teal and Shelduck, but small birds feeding around the midden, 8 Meadow Pipit, 6 Pied Wagtail, a Reed Bunting and a couple of Skylarks. I sat on the stile waiting for something to happen, trying for a few Skylark pictures, when the Merlin dashed through and scattered the pipits and wagtails, then as quick as it came it left: over the sea wall and out onto the marsh it disappeared, as did my moment of excitement.

Skylark

It was a rough old morning, not very spring like, but hey it’s only April the first and there’s lots more birds to come yet.

Wild At Heart

Another cloudy, windy, showery, north-westerly morning with no chance of a ringing session led me to Conder Green where there is always a good selection of birds with not too many Sunday Morning grockles for the first hour or two. The alternative was a bout of bush bashing in search of little brown or green jobs, if I could find a sheltered warm spot on our eternally windy coast. I suppose that is the only downside of living so close to the sea, the isobars not only pack a bit closer, they often pack a punch on even the most innocuous looking morning.

It was the normal situation at CG, it seemed quiet with not a lot of birds immediately apparent, but I gave it time for the birds to show and a while for me to find them. The 7 Little Grebes were a bit more obliging this morning near the closest island with no need for me to go to the far end of the pool where they usually hang out, disinclined to venture very far. The 3 Wigeon were also reasonably close initially, but drifted off once they realised cameras and ‘scopes were about again; half a dozen Teal in the shallows also sloped off to a safer distance, but I had my doubts about how wild were the 4 Mallards.

Mallard
Little Grebe
Teal

I made the observation once before, but maybe it’s worth repeating. To wildfowl, and probably to waders with whom they frequently mix, a human pointing a telescope must look remarkably like one wielding a shotgun, a scenario which they remember and to which their instincts are attuned for an immediate response. Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised when at the first sight of the human form or noises associated with us, such birds flee from our presence. All the more reason then if we wish to observe and photograph birds is for us to learn and adopt fieldcraft, something so obviously lacking in many of the newer untutored birders who arrive hot foot from pager messages with expensive top of the range equipment but without an apprenticeship or the essential skills to acquire the best from their recent purchases.

Also on the pool, 1 Little Egret, 15 Lapwing, a Grey Heron and the Kingfisher doing a circuit of the pool before it disappeared to the furthest bank and out of sight. From the platform I watched a Wheatear that took a liking to the posts that mark the road during high tides, as it perched up on several of them in turn as passing cars made it favour one after the other. It’s not a bird I’ve ever seen much of just here, and they are much more likely to appear just up the road at Glasson.

In the creeks I counted 4 Greenshank, 3 Spotted Redshank, 6 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 7 Curlew, 18 Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, another Little Egret, 26 Teal and unusually, a Ringed Plover. I took some distance shots at ISO 800 in the poor light, but what a fine selection of waders all at close quarters and I asked myself why would anyone go elsewhere to see such birds?

Ruff and Spotted Redshank
Common Sandpiper

From the roadside I could see lots of Goldfinch in the hawthorns near the bridge so I drove round and checked them out. There was actually a flock of 120 birds flying between the marsh and the hedgerows near the viaduct, spooked a couple of times that I could see, by on the second occasion an overflying Sparrowhawk that obviously took a close interest in such a plentiful, easily caught supply of food.

I drove up to John’s set aside for a check on the finches using the plot. If it wasn’t so close to the road and passing traffic I am sure the numbers would increase from the 40 Greenfinch, 8 Chaffinch and 4 Linnet I saw today, but for now I am hoping there is a bit of a settled spell that builds up the flock followed by a windless, mist net suitable day.

Goldfinch
Chaffinch

Another Circus

It was too windy for ringing therefore I did the early run to Conder Green this morning where as is often the case from the screen, the pool looked devoid of birds but down in the creek everything seemed infinitely more promising. With CG it’s worth drilling down, looking hard and listening carefully to find the nuggets.

I hadn’t stood more than a few minutes looking through the waders in the bottom of the nearest creek when I just knew a raptor was near. Some birds froze, several called, others moved fractionally up the creek and a few more flew off quickly, but even the Mute Swans sensed something amiss and moved onto the higher bits of marsh. The birds had seen or sensed the Marsh Harrier a good 15 seconds before me as it came from the north and the Lune, over the viaduct but high then over the pool and the canal, sailing all the time south towards Lower Thurnham as quickly and serenely as it appeared. The harrier didn’t have the same effect as a Peregrine or a Merlin, a mass panic, more of a “watch out lads and lasses”, and I wonder sometimes if birds use different messages for the several types of bird of prey or if in fact they sensed the harrier wasn’t in true hunting mode but just drifting harmlessly south? In any case it was the most evident and certainly the largest vis migger this morning and whilst seeing this migration I also wonder just how many harriers are involved in Fylde Circus aeruginosus sightings this autumn, but I've definitely seen my share of them.

I went back to my search and noted 3 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 11 Snipe, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 22 Teal, 15 Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper and 1 Kingfisher in the creek. The pool was indeed quiet except for 8 Little Grebe and the 3 Wigeon again, with 15 Goldfinch and 8 Linnet about the thistles and hawthorn. I struggled for pictures this morning but as well as yet another distant shot of a receding Marsh Harrier I did an equally long shot of a Ruff, that most elegant of waders.

Ruff
Marsh Harrier
Snipe

I journeyed on to Cockersands to check out the finch flock and gauge the ideal wind direction for mist netting the field of set-aside, and took the opportunity for a count: 80 Linnet, 30 Greenfinch, 15 Chaffinch, 25 Goldfinch and a Whitethroat. It was a different total from a couple of days ago but the birds had just been spooked by a Kestrel, plus I know the flock size and composition will vary from day to day. Wind forecast for the week ahead – strong. Typical.

Kestrel

I looked at my watch and decided there was time for Lane Ends and Pilling Water/Fluke Hall. Between the car park and Fluke my count of Little Egrets came to 13, not unlucky for the egrets by any stretch of the imagination as they consolidate into their self-found niche. The wildfowler’s pools held about 400 Teal today, plus 2 Greenshank and the now ever present Green Sandpiper, while the Kingfisher beat me to it again as it shot off the parapet, around the marsh and into the pools. Two Kingfishers in a morning, that’s nice!

I’d noticed all morning that most of last week’s hirundines cleared out, and here where I see lots of Swallows and last week several hundred, today they were less than a dozen. It was similar with Meadow Pipits and wagtails, as I saw less than 10 pipits and zero wagtails today. The finch groups hadn’t changed much but remained separate here, with a flock of 35 Linnet then a further party of 20 Goldfinch. I thought the two Wheatears I saw were the same birds that have been around for a few days now, visiting a series of favoured spots, doing the same old things, just like me really. I finished on a high at the car park as I listened to the trilling Little Grebes with an ear open for a calling “phyllosc” or similar, when on top of a willow a Spotted Flycatcher sallied up and out then back again. I watched it for a while but my time was up.

Spotted Flycatcher
Meadow Pipit

What’s For Breakfast?

I thought to have a change from ringing today even though Seumus and Ian were going to the Nature Park again. I didn’t relish another 5am start because these mornings invariably turn into much earlier wake ups when I can’t sleep for fear of missing an early alarm call. So I had a moderately early breakfast then set off towards Pilling and Conder Green for a little gentle birding, rather than the hard work of ringing. Driving through Stalmine and Pilling I noticed several groups of Swallows gathered on overhead wires, a sure sign of impending autumn with "hirundine mornings" or even whole days of migration.

I wasn’t the only one taking an early breakfast as near Lane Ends I spotted a Barn Owl surveying a field dyke the energy efficient way by fence hopping rather than flying along and over the ditch. It worked of course as clearly the Barn Owl knew this stretch, and within a couple of minutes of scrutinising the rank vegetation it pounced upon a Brown Rat or a vole. The owl flew off with the animal because in late July hungry young will be waiting for a meal. I was glad I’d eaten my breakfast; I certainly didn’t fancy what the owls had on offer.

Barn Owl

At Conder Green the customary list ensued with 7 Common Sandpipers, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Wigeon, 1 Tufted Duck, 45 Redshank, 3 Curlew and 1 Grey Heron, but seeing the single Ruff made a change from the usual fare. There were lots of Lapwing on the pool, spooked by something unseen more than once before settling down again on the far islands where I estimated about 95 birds, plus 15 Oystercatchers dotted around.

Lapwing
Ruff

Lane Ends proved typically Julyish, there were birds about but hard to see in the thick growth. I managed to find 2 Reed Warblers, 2 Willow Warblers and a Reed Bunting with 4 Pied Wagtails on the shore. Here I counted another 70 Lapwings scattered across the marsh plus 30 or so Curlews, with other small groups dropping in from inland fields. The pools held growing numbers of Mallards with 3 Tufted Duck.

The walk up to Pilling Water was deathly quiet with just a couple of Skylarks a single Meadow Pipit and near Pilling Water, 2 more Pied Wagtails, 6 Linnets, and over near the wildfowler’s pools, a Reed Bunting.

In the distance towards Fluke Hall I could see Swallows feeding low over the crops, difficult to count as they whizzed haphazardly over and through the fields, but I think a minimum of 120 birds. Now and then small groups gathered on the field boundaries and as the wind blew from the south it came with a distinct touch of autumn cool in the air.

Swallow
Goodness me the forecast looks OK for the week ahead, ringing tomorrow and mid week!

1862 And All That

No birding or ringing now for a couple of days. That old problem of the unkind elements I’m afraid, but the less said about that the better for now.

In between times I like to browse through old bird books, so as the rain hammered down on the conservatory roof I opened up ‘British Birds in their Haunts’ by The Reverend C.A. Johns, first published in 1862, and my copy revised as late as 1948.

Often in these old books it’s the language itself that is intriguing, the use of long forgotten words or phrases, the rather stilted prose or often the realisation that not so many years ago birds were for collecting as trophies or for eating, not for looking at. Occasionally there is unique, long forgotten information that not only tells us about the bird but also documents social history. And of course there are the sometimes awful stylised plates, the sketches that were rather obviously usually drawn from the skins of shot birds or distant views obtained without the aid of binoculars or telescopes.

British Birds In Their Haunts 1862
In the book I happened upon the pages for Ruff. Below I quote directly from the book, and whilst I will leave readers to make up their own minds about the paragraphs, it all makes for fascinating history. For me it also brings back memories of the old Ruff leck that used to take place on the River Ribble at Warton Marsh every year in the 1980s, where I would sit out of sight on the embankment, spellbound by the Ruff’s antics.

Plate XXV
“Both the systematic names of this bird are descriptive of its quarrelsome propensities: philomacus is Greek for a “warrior”, pugnax Latin for “pugnacious”. Well is the title deserved for Ruffs do not merely fight when they meet, but meet in order to fight. The season for the indulgence of their warlike tastes is spring; the scene, a rising spot of ground contiguous to a marsh; and here all the male birds of the district assemble at dawn, for many days in succession and do battle valiantly for the females called reeves, till the weakest are vanquished and leave possession of the field to their more powerful adversaries. The attitude during these contests is nearly that of the domestic cock – the head lowered, the body horizontal, the collar bristling and the beak extended. But Ruffs will fight to the death on other occasions. A basket containing two or three hundred Ruffs was once put on board a steamer leaving Rotterdam for London. The incessant fighting of the birds proved a grand source of attraction for the passengers during the voyage; about half of them were slain before the vessel reached London. Ruffs are gluttonously disposed too, and if captured by a fowler will begin to eat the moment they are supplied with food; but however voracious they may be, if a basin of bread and milk or boiled wheat be placed before them it is instantly contended for; and so pugnacious is their disposition, that even when fellow captives, they would starve in the midst of plenty if several dishes of food were not placed amongst them at a distance from each other.

Many years have passed since these birds paid annual visits in large numbers to the fen countries, they were however highly prized as delicacies for the table, and their undeviating habit of meeting to fight a pitched battle gave the fowler such an excellent opportunity for capturing all the combatants in his nets, that they have been gradually becoming more and more rare. The fowler in fact has been so successful that he has destroyed his own trade.

Another peculiarity of the Ruff is that the plumage varies greatly in different individuals – so much so indeed that Montagu, who had an opportunity of seeing about seven dozen in a room together could not find two alike. These birds are now become rare, but occasional specimens are still met with in different parts of Great Britain, and at various seasons; but if they are ever served up at a table, they must be consignments from the Continent.”

What a shame I don’t have pictures of Ruff in breeding plumage. The ones below were taken at ‘CG’- Conder Green last autumn.

Ruff
Ruff

Do feel free to leave comments. Phil.