Oh Dear, How Sad. Never Mind.

I made it to Pilling on Friday morning and met up with Will for a spot of ringing. Another quiet session saw a catch of just 9 birds - 6 Linnet, 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff and 1 Robin. 

The ringing was quiet but birding while sat in the warming sunshine proved immensely entertaining.  We saw two but possibly three separate Marsh Harriers, one in clear north to south migration, the other two patrolling the landscape. 

A Peregrine tried twice to catch Stock Doves and while the Peregrine failed to connect a Buzzard hung around just in case there were spoils to be had. 

A Sparrowhawk, 3 Little Egrets and 2 Grey Herons added to our sightings with small flights of both Wigeon and Teal in the mix. Linnet numbers are down with a low count of 50/60 made up of small parties between 3 and 8. 

The numbers are down in all respects from those of two and three weeks ago. We suspect that we have witnessed a juvenile dispersal of some magnitude and that there will now be a lull until the arrival of more Linnets when colder weather arrives.   

 

Chiffchaff

 

Sedge Warbler

Robin

Marsh Harrier

There are more birds, birding and photos to come.  Log in soon to Another Bird Blog.

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Meanwhile, there’s interesting and up to date news from Another Bird Blog’s Game and Sporting Correspondent. 

As a reminder and estimates vary, approximately 32 million Pheasants, 9 million Red-legged Partridges and 2.6 million Mallards are released into the countryside annually in the UK. The birds are released to provide ‘sport’ for people who live in or travel to the countryside. The released birds are subsequently killed during highly organised shooting occasions throughout the late autumn and winter months. 

This is known as Driven Game Shooting, a form of shooting more formal than simply walking with a dog alongside the hedgerows, and is usually confined to pheasant, partridge and grouse shooting.

On the shoot day, a team of shooters, or Guns, line out at numbered pegs. Meanwhile, under the gamekeeper’s instructions, a group of beaters and their dogs move through areas of woodland or covert, flushing the game ahead of them.

The aim is to get the birds to break cover and fly high over the line of Guns to provide sporting shots. Shot game is retrieved quickly by a picker-up who sends his/her trained gundog to where the shot game falls. Because of the organisation and number of people involved in a shoot of this sort, the financial cost to the Guns is considerably higher than in the other types of shooting.

Pheasant rearing

“Pippa, her posh pals, piles of dead pheasants and partridges... and some very pukka wellies” 

Daily Mail UK

The huge demand for the millions of young gamebirds (poults) reared for shooting in the countryside needs both home grown birds and imports from Europe. The largest exporters of gamebirds to the UK are France, Poland and Spain. France is by far the largest supplier of factory-farmed pheasants to the UK shooting industry with the Eurotunnel the main supply route for these birds. 

It seems that the price of Pheasant poults in particular is suffering from the same if not higher levels of inflation than the price of Waitrose avocados. Rearing birds requires labour, food, water, transport, husbandry, heating and energy, all of it getting more expensive by the day. 

In the early part of 2022 the industry worried that the price for a single poult might reach the dizzy heights of £5. 

During 2021/2022, France saw a high level of H5N1 Avian Flu outbreaks concentrated in the Vendee and Loire Atlantique regions - some of the main suppliers of game birds and eggs to the British game keeping market – as well as in French game birds themselves. 

The wave of cases in the southwest of France led to the culling of about 4 million birds, according to Reuters. There were 975 outbreaks of avian flu in the country between late November and March 2022. During this time France also experienced restrictions of movement and lockdowns of people and services due to Covid. 

This perfect storm of circumstances has seen the price of Pheasant poults imported to the UK rocket to near £10 a bird, a price that threatens the financial viability of UK shoots where attendance at even the smallest gathering may require a payment of £1,000 or more per person per day. 

It appears that some French producers who earlier in 2022 took orders from the UK have now reneged on deals or stated that they are unable meet new orders. The result is that as the shooting season of 1st September draws near, the price of a single UK grown poult for immediate supply was very recently quoted at £12.50 by a Lancashire supplier keen to fill the gaps in supply. 

A Gun

Organiser of shoots and their Guns worry they may have to cut down on the number of shooting days this winter.

Whatever happens from here on it seems likely that at the very least there will be less shooting this winter, with a corresponding lessening impact on the environment & countryside caused by the release of many thousands of factory farmed birds. 

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

 

Why did I bother?

If there is one word above all that describes birders and ringers my vote would go to “optimistic”. What else can explain why I went out birding this morning in a raging north westerly, rain clouds threatening?

I did one of my usual routes. Fluke, Lane Ends then Broadfleet, aka Pilling Water as the older locals insist on to calling it so as to confuse the grockles and birders they don’t recognise. Over Wyre folk can be very contrary when they want.

Along Fluke Hall Lane redlegs scattered in front of my car just in time to save their skins for the Guns of HiFly in a few weeks time. I can’t imagine how many Red-legged Partridge they released here but my best description of the numbers at one place would be “swarm”. Those chaps spend an awful lot of time and money making sure they have plenty to shoot at but I must say the game cover is so good it makes birding those fields difficult until the crops at least are cut. That is not a complaint, just an observation, because if I go along the sea wall from Lane Ends I no longer turn east to find birds as I sometimes did, but now always west. If you look at the fields heading east up to the River Cocker they are a sheep infested, barren, birdless, wasteland in comparison to the fields under stewardship near Fluke. Unlike many birders who expect their pastime for free, the shooting fraternity invest cash, hard work and lots of time in ensuring they can pursue a hobby, then by default we birders and the birds get the benefit of the habitat they create and maintain.

The fields closest to Fluke Hall were one of the few places I saw young Lapwings this year. I noticed the adult Lapwings took immediately to the newly ploughed fields in May and whilst I didn’t see many young, there were a few, unlike the opposite end of the old reclaimed marsh. I hear that plans are afoot to reintroduce good habitat near the River Cocker. Let’s hope it comes to pass and I can go Lapwing finding again.

West of Fluke a few local hirundines fought against the wind trying not to venture beyond the sea wall to be simply blown in again. I sympathised, sticking to the Ridge Farm track where the usual half a dozen Tree Sparrows hung about expectantly for Bob’s handouts. Not yet lads, be patient. A few Linnets and Goldfinch trying to avoid the worst gusts scuttled over my head before diving into the hedge. I gave up and moved on to Lane Ends.

Lane Ends car park was deserted save for the usual assorted cockerels abandoned there by misguided animal lovers. If ever we needed a friendly fox, the time is now. Not even the Red Indians were around this morning i.e. the chief and his squaw in the painted camper van who have taken to spending the odd night in the car park. I wonder if they know they will need more than bows and arrows to repel some of the cowboys who visit Lane Ends these days. None of the locals will warn them, best to let the campers find out for themselves during the first warm long night.

A lonely Willow Warbler “hoo-eeted” from a sheltered corner near the reedy ditch but otherwise, apart from the resident Woodpigeons and Woolworths Pick n Mix Mallards there was little to watch.

Again, birders are a resilient lot so I battled on to Pilling Water where I just know that one day soon I will find a first for Britain if not Europe, but not today as a brightly clad jogger beat me along the top. The Little Egret huddled in the creek as ever forlornly waiting for better company than the Common Sandpiper flicking over the still water. Where are all the Little Egrets this year? Must be the aftermath of the first cold winter they endured since the population explosion after the millennium, so they are vulnerable to something after all. Ah, a Wheatear also but a pretty poor show this year both spring and autumn. I managed to catch one of the few I saw in spring, but this autumn I left the traps unset at the prospect of the long odds on offer.

The Greylag numbers build up as they seem to like the location and although I didn’t see the 300+ as in recent weeks it all bodes well for creating a bit of fun and confusion come September and “pinkie” time.

At least my friends the House Martins and Swallows were around if only in small numbers but I couldn’t detect any vis mig this morning. No doubt it happened later in the morning after I returned home to a warming coffee.