The Extra Hour

Yahoo 24 October 2013 - A thrifty couple will not be putting their clocks back this weekend - because it saves money on their energy bills. Retired John and Janys Warren, from Somerset live 'in the future' an hour ahead of everybody else and save a third on their gas and electricity bills. The couple stopped putting their clocks back five years ago when they realised the darker and shorter days were triggering John's headaches. Living on British Summer Time all year round meant his headaches eased, they could enjoy an extra hour of daylight and save money. Janys said: "We have lower fuel bills and far more usable daylight hours with evenings not seeming endless. We don't put the heating on until we get up and by then it is warmer anyway. We've saved about one third on our heating and lighting bills.” 

For what it's worth here’s my advice you stingy, sad, and foolish people - get up early and go for a brisk walk outdoors with a warm coat, a hat and scarf and a pair of binoculars. In the evenings J and J, complete your notes from the day’s birding and update your birding blog - simple. Not only will you save money, you will be healthier in mind and body and maybe get a life into the bargain. 

I put my clock back. The extra hour of birding proved warming, time consuming, energising and very enjoyable despite the frequent showers and strong winds. 

My start was early enough to see if the Little Egrets at the Pilling roost had remembered to turn their clocks back last night. The answer was that they got up at first light as normal dispersing in various directions, all 24 of them. 

Red-breasted Mergansers turn up on Fylde coastal waters at this time of year where they can be seen throughout the winter, often drifting in towards the shore with incoming high tides. They also favour a very few coastal and spacious marine lakes, so imagine my surprise to find one in a ditch behind the sea wall. Even better, Red-breasted Merganser is a species which normally keeps a very respectable distance from birders or photographers. 

Red-breasted Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

The Latin name of this duck Mergus serrator is highly descriptive, Mergus being the genus of typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks in the seaduck subfamily (Merginae). The “serrator” refers to the long, serrated bills used for catching fish. Their diet of fish such as salmon and trout brings them into conflict with anglers and fish farmers whereby the species is often classified as a pest and may be shot. Those folk with guns, they don’t miss many opportunities to attach a label do they? 

When I got to Conder Green there was a family party of Goosander Mergus merganser in the roadside creek, an adult pair and 2 first winters. The male stayed apart from the others just too far to include in a picture but the female has the darker head, the juveniles noticeably paler. Out of interest, and to limit any possible misunderstanding here, this member of the Mergus family of birds is known as Common Merganser in North America and Goosander on this side of the Atlantic. Like the smaller Red-breasted Merganser, the Goosander is also subject to persecution by anglers and fish farmers. 

Goosander

A Spotted Redshank was in the creek again perhaps the same bird of late, more likely not and just one the many thousands passing this way in the autumn en route to winter in Central Africa? 

Spotted Redshank - Breeding, Migration and Wintering from Wetlands.org

Spotted Redshank

I walked along the railway path and over the bridge and found a Common Sandpiper feeding along the edge of the creek below, so too a Grey Wagtail and a Little Egret. Along the same path was a party of 18+ Long-tailed Tits with a couple Greats and Blues, plus a single Chiffchaff. 

A flight of 3 Pintail heading west was perhaps slightly out of the ordinary just here. On the pool and creeks, 90+ Teal and just 10 Little Grebe, as grey and drab as the winter months decree, and no requirement to display that little white beauty spot until the clocks go forward in March 2014. 

Little Grebe

There’s a sleepover tonight, no not me but our two lively granddaughters Olivia and Isabella.

Wish me luck as I’ll certainly be woken up early on Monday morning and may well lose an hour or two of sleep.

Date With A Needle

For 1300 I had an appointment for a dose of ‘flu vaccine to look forward to, but at last a bright, wind and rain free morning in which to enjoy a few hours birding. 

From Fluke Hall I set out towards the sea wall across the maize and wheat fields where there’s a reasonable path which avoids slushing through the soggy stubble. There are always birds to see about the shooter’s fields, ditches and pools, as long as you take care to miss the actual shoot days when there are no birds about and steel shot will fall on your head. 

Pilling, Fluke Hall fields

On the edge of the wood I could see 4 Jays moving through the trees calling as they went. There were a number of Chaffinches about but too far to count, although I found 5 or 6 Tree Sparrows and a couple of Reed Buntings near the gate again. Skylarks weren’t as obvious today with none passing overhead just 4 or 5 resident ones on the sea wall and stubble, plus another 2 Reed Buntings along the ditch. 

The Red-legged Partridge still number in the hundreds, so I’m thinking there haven’t been too many shoots just yet. From the stile I even managed to get close to one of the white ones which are as wild and wary as the normal brown ones. Close to they are actuallly quite smart looking. Pity they end up in a cooking pot.

Red-legged Partridge

From the fresh 4x4 tracks on the mud I knew the guys who feed the pool had beat me to it, so no Teal or Black-tailed Godwits to enjoy today, just the usual single call and then brief views of the back end of a Kingfisher whizzing along the dyke and over the sea wall. So I thought to check where the blue flash had gone and also count the Whoopers as well - no sign of the majestic fisher from the wall but 74 Whooper Swans, 2 Greylag and 8 Mute Swan to count. So more pictures of Whooper Swan to follow, and a Mute Swan for size comparison. 

Whooper Swan and Mute Swan

Whooper Swan

With not much else doing I realised I’d missed out on Conder Green for a week or two so motored towards there. 

Interestingly a Spotted Redshank is still there in the main creek, as is a Common Sandpiper and it’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that both might winter on site, the latter species the favourite to do so. Just 12 common Redshank and a single Curlew in the near creek with circa 60 Teal and a Grey Heron. 

Spotted Redshank

Common Sandpiper

Two Tufted Duck on the pool together with yet more Teal to make a total of more than 80 of the tiny duck. Looking for a fishy meal were a Little Egret, 7 Little Grebe and 2 Cormorant. 

A walk along the railway track produced odds and ends like 5 Long-tailed Tit, 15 Chaffinch, 3 Goldfinch, 4 Meadow Pipits, 2 Skylark and 2 Pied Wagtail. 

But I was running out of time and my appointment with a large, unfriendly needle beckoned. Log in soon to see how Another Bird Blog survived the ordeal and whether pain killers were required.

Linking today to Camera Critters and Anni's Birding Blog.

On The Up….

Are the numbers of Spotted Redshanks at Conder Green. There were three this morning, 2 juveniles and 1 still dusky adult bird, all three feeding together in the roadside creeks where 30/40 Common Redshanks also fed. 

The overall Common Redshank numbers are harder to fathom since there’s a constant movement of birds to and from the marsh where distant Redshanks numbered 4/500 when I looked along the river from Glasson. The picture shows part of the flocks along the river where 2000+ Lapwings outnumbered Redshank by a ratio of 5 to 1, and where 5 Curlew and a single Dunlin were clearly outnumbered.

Curlew

Lapwings and Redshanks

Below is a nicely shot video of a Spotted Redshank by Luuc Punt.

A Spotted Redshank feeds in noticeably deeper water than is the case with the Common Redshank, a difference which shows a distinction in the ecology of these two closely related species. The Spotted Redshank often feeds with the bill at a small angle to the water and the bill swept rapidly from side to side, also feeding by probing with a nearly vertical bill in a similar manner to Redshank. The bill of a Spotted Redshank is noticeably thinner and longer than that of a Common Redshank. While both species have bright red legs, the Spotted Redshank has the longer of the two. 

 

Redshank

Similar number of other waders and wildfowl with 2 Common Sandpipers, 3 Greenshank, 10+ Snipe, 10 Teal, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and 3 Cormorant. No sign of Little Grebes today.

I paid Lane Ends a visit where a slow walk to Pilling Water and back revealed 20+ Goldfinch, 1 Skylark, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Green Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and 10 Little Egrets.
  

Sparrowhawk

The Sparrowhawk was a young female and taking an unsuccessful pop at one of the recently released white Red-legged Partridge. HiFly have released lots of birds in recent days with hundreds of normal red-legs and dozens of the white variety now swarming through the fields.

Red-legged Partridge

Flying against wintry clouds the white birds may be difficult for shooters to target but for birds of prey like Peregrine, Marsh Harrier, Buzzard and female Sparrowhawks the white blobs in the green and brown landscape must provide a tempting and easy target.

More blog and more birds soon. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog. Linking today to Anni's Blog.

More Fishy Tales

The fishy bit comes during post-birding grandparent duties, but first the bird news from a couple of hours Wednesday, later than desired due to BT being down on Wednesday afternoon. 

I don’t know why the sign warns of ducks crossing at Conder Green because the road is far too busy for birds to walk across the road. Mostly they fly above the road to and from the creeks, the pool and the more distant Lune marshes. 

Ducks crossing?

There were lots of Lapwings, a combined count of 300 on the creeks and pool but more like a couple of thousand out on the marsh beyond the railway bridge. I was walking the old railway track when it became obvious a Peregrine was about from the mass of Lapwings suddenly in flight, but it’s not always easy to spot a hunting Peregrine which might fly below, above or through the flocks of birds it panics into flight. Eventually I picked it up, the anchor shape cruising down river towards Lancaster and moving steadily away. Oh well, there will be other days with the magical raptor when wintering Peregrines are an almost daily occurrence in these parts. The Lapwings are very wary at the moment but I managed a half decent shot of a juvenile bird at the poolside. 

 Peregrine

Lapwing

The railway path was quiet with a single Whitethroat seen, a rather loud and emphatic “hweeting” Chiffchaff from the trees at the car park and a couple of overflying Goldfinch. Near the pool I at last found a decent flock of Goldfinches with 35 or more feeding on the extensive clumps of thistles, the number of plants enough to support a much bigger number of finches if only they were about. There was an addition to the regular waders with the appearance of a Ruff, too distant for a picture and constantly in and out of view as it walked behind a grassy bank. Two Spotted Redshank again plus 3 Greenshank, 10 Snipe and 40+ Common Redshank. 

Redshank

Spotted Redshank

A Kingfisher put in a brief appearance by flying at head height across the pool from direction of the canal and off towards the road bridge of the A588. Just one Little Grebe and 2 Cormorant, 12 Teal, 2 Tufted Duck and 2 Wigeon. 

Time allowed a quick look at Glasson where Coot numbers are now circa70 and Tufted Duck close on 15. Swallow numbers are down everywhere now that September beckons and I could find less than 10 here and similar numbers at Conder Green. 

There was a Buzzard circling over Thurnham on my journey back south and lunch time. 

Buzzard

Grandparenting duties took us to Knott End with Theo and to Knott End Chippy, a friendly little establishment which also happens to serve probably the best traditional fish and chips in the Fylde. 

The pictures of Knott End are for blogging pal Kay, a lady who enjoys Adventurous Travel yet has never visited the village of Knott End. Shame on you Kay. 

 

Knott End

 

 The Esplanade at Knott End

 

GranPa's Toy Shop

Knott End Chippy

 Haddock, Chips and Mushy Peas

More tales and more birds soon from Another Bird Blog.

Searching Them Out

Through Pilling this morning I noticed how a number of farmers have taken a cut of the silage, leaving at last somewhere for Lapwings and Curlews to feed, even though the land is very dry at the moment. There was a good number of Curlews at Gulf Lane with 60 or more on the field nearest the road and another 30+ at Braides Farm but Curlews not ones to hang around for a portrait when a car slows down so the camera remained switched to “off”. 

I was on the way north to Glasson and Conder hoping to see a few birds and to grab new pictures. The regular wildfowl and egrets all stay clear of the well visited viewing spot so it’s a case of look long and look hard for the birds - 1 Goldeneye, 2 Wigeon, 2 Teal, 2 Little Grebe, 5 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, and 1 Cormorant today. 

 

Grey Heron

A variety of observers have christened the long staying Goldeneye as “female”, “male” or, perhaps to be on the safe side, an “immature”. Months ago I initially thought it a male and although it hasn’t advanced its plumage too much, today it definitely appeared to be of the masculine variety.

Goldeneye

The wader count followed that of late, with just 2 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Spotted Redshank, 30+Redshank, 2 Oystercatcher, 5 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 30+ Curlew and 90+ Lapwings. Of the latter species, 40ish on the pool, the remainder fly-overs from beyond the canal and out to the marsh. 

Spotted Redshank

Not much in the way of passerines except for 3 Pied Wagtail, 4 Linnet, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Tree Sparrow and a party of 7 Long-tailed Tits.

Pied Wagtail

Early doors had seen a roost dispersal of Swallows, some 70+ perhaps from reeds nearby, but less than 10 House Martins in all and just 2 Swift. I took a quick ride to Cockersands where most birds were at the distant tide line so I clocked the nearby 3 Whimbrel, 6 Linnet, 8 Greenfinch and single Wheatear below the car park. 

Wheatear

Whimbrel

On the strength of the Wheatear I decided to go to Lane Ends looking for more and hopefully to catch a couple. No luck, although I found 3 juveniles and had a “near miss” when the net snagged on the mechanism, the birds then keeping their distance from the supposedly enticing meal worms. 

Otherwise quiet with just a Buzzard, a single Pied Wagtail and 15+ Swallows for company. 

By the way, visitor from Windsor and Maidenhead and your search question of 10th August via Google “is it ligal (sic) to have a goldfinch?” the answer is almost certainly “no” in your case and your IP address has been passed to the appropriate authorities to further investigate your whereabouts and reasons for asking. Likewise the Google searcher from Berkshire looking for “goldfinch traps”, you too have been clocked.

Keep looking blog readers. We'll find them one way or another.

Linking today to Stewart's Gallery.

Sunday Morning Sights

A bird wasn't the initial sighting this morning. Instead it was a hitch-hiker heading home from a Saturday night party. He didn't appear to be carrying bins and 'scope so I gave a cheery wave then stepped on the gas.

Next was a Roe Deer standing in a field alongside Head Dyke Lane, the main A588, where on a quiet Sunday morning I would normally expect to see a hunting Barn Owl. I slowed the car, wound the window down and reached for the camera but the deer had turned and already hi-tailed it towards a small copse. There was a Barn Owl near Cockerham but it too turned tail and disappeared over the fields before the camera could be readied. 

A good selection of waders awaited at Conder although it took some time to round them all up from the pool and the creeks. The Spotted Redshank of late continues to change its dusky coat into something more suited to blending with the greys of winter, the present mix of new and old feathers a study in wader moult. What a puzzle bird this could be for an inexperienced watcher without a field guide? Apologies for the poor picture, water reflections and digital cameras don't work well together.

Spotted Redshank

Common Sandpipers reached a round dozen today, most of them in the roadside creek where they vied for attention with 4 Dunlin, 1 Greenshank, 50+ Redshank, 3 Curlew, 20 Lapwing and 6 Oystercatcher. 

Oystercatcher

The elusive Green Sandpiper reappeared briefly on the far side of the pool while 3 Snipe worked their way around the muddy edges. Two Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron were in residence with an increase to 8 Teal and the now ever present Goldeneye. 

Little Egret

There were 4 Stock Doves feeding at the roadside again this morning. The species is something of an early morning speciality here, unlike the closely related and commonplace Wood Pigeon and the less so Collared Dove, the two never making it into notebook entries for here. 

At Glasson village there seemed to be more Coot than of late, my count of 32 pointing to an autumnal and post breeding influx to a site which regularly holds 150+ of the species. I found some recently fledged Swallows, youngsters via the invisible-from-above nest lodged under the road bridge which crosses the keepered lock. Boats regulalrly pass to and fro between the yacht basin and the dock, eventually into the River Lune or Morecambe Bay beyond. 

The Swallows were so young I can only think they fledged from the nest this morning while sleepy Glasson slumbered.

Glasson Dock

 

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Don't forget to "click the pics". Join Another Bird Blog very soon for more sleepy town news and pictures.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday.

Sunny Survey

It was the Cockerham round today - Conder Green, Glasson and Cockersands.

Common Sandpipers continue to pass through with 11 today, joined in the creek by 25+ Redshanks, 1 Curlew and a summer plumaged Spotted Redshank.

Spotted Redshank - Lorenzo L M. / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenzo-l-m/3646591077/ 

At this time of year adults spot-reds look totally different from their autumn and winter cold-grey plumage. Although July seems early for returning migrants from relatively cold northern climes, female Spotted Redshanks leave breeding sites first. Exhausted from producing eggs, it is an advantage for them to arrive at staging areas early and have first pick of the food. Males usually leave next, and juveniles later. These waves are not due to the lack of food on the northern summer grounds, but because there is more food at the staging area for those that arrive first. Female Spotted Redshanks sometimes leave up to a week before eggs hatch, leaving males to look after the youngsters, a breeding and survival strategy adopted by other wader species.

It is a number of years since a mid June outing to the then undisturbed River Ribble found 14 of the black beauties on a tidal pool that was also the site of a Ruff leck. Oh Happy Days.

I counted just 10 Lapwings this morning plus the usual number of Oystercatchers, a pair with 2 well grown chicks and other adults still behaving territorially. And here's proof if any were needed that Oystercatchers eat more than oysters.

Oystercatcher

The juvenile male Goldeneye is still around but a long lonely wait for more to join him in October with for now just 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon and a few Shelduck for company.

Goldeneye

Small birds and others – 1 Reed Bunting, 4 Tree Sparrow, 2 Whitethroat, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Linnet, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, and it's hard to get any passerines into double figures at the moment. Two Stock Dove, 30 Swift and 8 Sand Martin and 1 Grey Heron.

Two Sedge Warblers in song this morning, one at the lay-by the other towards the Stork, the pub that to be strictly accurate should be renamed “The Grey Heron”. The pub dates from 1660 when any large wading bird with long legs, a long bill and long neck would be referred to as a stork.

It was a lovely sunny morning for a look at Glasson Dock and a walk along the canal towpath. I found a single Great Crested Grebe, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Whitethroat, a Chiffchaff in song and 2 Willow Warblers feeding in a sycamore tree although not much else unless you count a Song Thrush, and I guess we really should.

Glasson Canal

Mallard

Cockersands was quiet too with 2 Grey Plover, 6 Curlew, 1 Reed Bunting and 2 Grey Heron moved on by the incoming tide.

Looks like a sunny weekend ahead - hooray.

Linking this post to Camera Critters and id-rather-b-birdin .

Opening The Account

Although still windy from the east it was a touch warmer today, so much so that not only did I see my first Wheatears of the year, I also opened my yearly ringing account of the species. Pilling Lane Ends was the venue where a loose party of six or seven very mobile Wheatears were feeding behind the sea wall with 35+ Meadow Pipits. 

Wheatear

At least five of the Wheatears were bright, colourful males, so trust me to catch the only female I saw, a second calendar year. In the cool breezy conditions the males weren’t for hanging about my favoured catching spot on the stretch of rocky shore and seemed to prefer the grassy slopes behind the sea wall where they make it much harder for me. There’s sure to be other days soon to catch up with a few males. 

Wheatear

Wheatear

Just as a few days ago the pool here held singles of Spotted Redshank, Greenshank and a common Redshank. 

Spotted Redshank

Redshank

And there’s nothing much else to report for what proved to be a quick and windswept outing: 3 Little Egret, 400 Pink-footed Geese, 2 Kestrel and small numbers of wildfowl - 10 Teal, 8 Pintail and 6 Shoveler. 

Look in soon to Another Bird Blog for pictures of Little Owl plus news of a brand new essential reading bird book.