Coming To Rocks Near You

Local birders have been reporting good numbers of Wheatears all week. There have been singles and good sized little gangs of them all along the coast and just inland with as few as one or two or up to 20 together. With the help of the trusty mealworms I decided to spend the afternoon on the Pilling patch to try and locate more Wheatears and maybe catch, ring and measure a few.

Mealworms

Near the sea wall at Fluke Hall was a gang of 7 or 8 Wheatears, all of bright colouring, large in stature and also highly mobile in their search for food. The rocks and stones of the sea wall have lots of crevices, nook and crannies where insects abound and where the high boulders provide great vantage points from which to survey the scene. The barbed wire fence and posts provide additional places to keep a lookout. 

Wheatear

Wheatear

Within a minute I’d caught a large handful of a second-year female, one with a wing and weight of 100mm and 26gms respectively. The measurements immediately put her into the category of a “Greenland” type. I released her and she re-joined the other members of the gang by now some 50 yards west and heading towards Knott End. 

Wheatear

I walked towards Pilling Water and where as a contrast to the Wheatear of Spring were 700+ Pink-footed Geese feeding on the marsh, still reluctant to head north to Iceland. A Buzzard flew from the wood and like me headed towards Pilling Water. It was about 1300 hours when a handful of Swallows arrived from the south and headed directly north across Morecambe Bay - diurnal migration in action. 

Lapwings alerted me to something wrong. There was a Stoat carrying a tiny mammal, probably a vole, and running across the ploughed field which holds a couple of Lapwing nests. The Lapwings weren’t happy. The Stoat ran down into a wet ditch carrying the prey and disappeared from view.  

Memo to self for later Googling - do Stoats eat their prey immediately? In mid to late April would they have the customary 6-10 kittens waiting for food in a nearby den? 

Stoat

There was a Kestrel and 2 Little Egrets at Pilling Water and not much else save for a few Linnets and a single Wheatear moving up and down the usual line of rocks. This Wheatear wasn’t so easy and gave me the run-a-round for a while until succumbing to temptation. Being quite grey on the mantle and crown and with wing and weight of 97mm and 22.4 respectively I suspect it was a second year male nominate Oenanthe oenanthe. But birds in the hand can be deceiving, even more so at large in the field. 

Best to let the experts out there decide next time they spot those Wheatears clambering over the rockery. 

Wheatear

Please join Another Bird blog soon. There’s sure to be more rocking and rolling with Wheatears.

Linking today to Anni's Birding and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Birding Saturday Morn

This morning’s three hours birding at Pilling found a few bits and pieces but after continued Northerly winds new-in migrants were hard to find. 

I stopped first near the sewage works where a Stoat appeared as if from nowhere, took a look around and then crossed the track and out towards the Broadfleet, or Pilling Water as the locals know this ditch that drains into Morecambe Bay. 

Stoat

There was a single male Wheatear along the fence line and it too watched the Stoat sneak down the bank and out of sight. In the sewage works compound a pair of Pied Wagtail and the male Kestrel from the nearby pair.  Like many Spring migrants, the male Wheatears arrive before the females, a strategy which allows males to claim and set up territories for when the females arrive. 

Wheatear

Wheatear

Fluke Hall was quite sheltered, even warm but lacked the now overdue Spring song of Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler or Blackcap. Instead came the chattering of Tree Sparrows, Goldfinches and Greenfinches and the loud song of four Song Thrushes, the number a welcome improvement on recent years. I caught a glimpse of one of the Nuthatch pair, the birds having gone very secretive almost to the point that until this week when they collected nest material, I thought they had left the area. 

Another Kestrel sat high in the tree tops close to the nest box where by now the female has probably laid at least some of her clutch of 5 eggs. The resident Pied Wagtails were on their usual rooftop feeding spot along the lane, and about 40 or more Woodpigeons clattered their way through the wood. 

There was nothing at the car park so I followed 2 Little Egrets along the sea wall towards the seaward end of Pilling Water. Along here were a pair of Reed Bunting, 7 Meadow Pipit, 7 Skylark, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Snipe, 2 Teal, 18 Shelduck, 43 Redshank, 20+ Lapwing, 12 Oystercatcher, 2 more Little Egret and a single Whooper Swan. The swan flew up and out into Morecambe Bay where on a clear day it’s possible see Walney Island to the North West, the route the swan should soon take towards Iceland. 

Pilling sea wall

Whooper Swan

A pair of Greylags have set up territory about here and I found them lording it over their patch where there’s not much competition save for a pair of Mute Swan. Who’s going to argue with these two heavy weights? 

Greylag Goose

Greylag Goose

Back home there seems to be more Goldfinch about the feeders, perhaps a sign of new birds and warmer weather? I also saw a pair of Treecreepers searching up and down our largest apple tree. That’s quite a good but not unprecedented sighting for the garden so let’s hope it’s a good omen for Another Bird Blog. 

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday and Anni's Blog.

Birding Friday Fun

Following a spot of bird ringing inland on Wednesday it was good to go birding along the familiar coast today. However the weather wasn’t too friendly with wind and intermittent showers so there’s not a lot to report. 

I started off at Knott End for the incoming tide where the stiff north westerly made for cold hands and shaky optics. A far from complete count gave minima of 18 Eider and a single great Crested Grebe on the incoming tide. On the shore and near the jetty a mix of 1700 Oystercatcher, 700 Dunlin, 290 Redshank, 180 Knot, 145 Bar-tailed Godwit and 42 Turnstone. The jetty hugging Turnstones can be relied upon to provide a few pictures, the other species out on the shore proving much harder to approach. 

Turnstones

Knot

There was a flock of approximately 45 very flighty Twite. The birds were disturbed by a walker and then settled back down in the grassy marsh and out of sight. Two Pied Wagtails, 10 Goldfinch and 1 Rock Pipit also. 

At Damside, Pilling approximately 1800 Pink-footed Geese occupied the same fields they recently adopted. I searched through the scattered flock for the oddities that occur, the best I could find today a rather obvious partly leucistic bird. Leucism which differs from albinism is caused by a reduction in pigment of a bird’s feathers. This particular pinkie seemed to be leucistic on one side of the body only and so much more obvious when facing one way rather than the other. 

Pink-footed Goose

In the same field were approximately 120 Curlew, a couple of Oystercatchers and a single Black-tailed Godwit. 

Black-tailed Godwit

I parked up at Fluke Hall and walked the wood and shore circuit. Through the wood a Nuthatch called and a Jay shrieked off as I interrupted its feeding time. Along the shore, 12+ Little Egrets, 6 Whooper Swan, more Curlews, 140+ Shelduck, a Rock Pipit and a Stoat, Mustela ermine.

The Stoat was in an area where lots of Red-legged Partridge hang around. There’s no doubt a wily Stoat will help itself to more than a few of the shooters’ partridges in the course of the winter months. 

Stoat

The human race often interferes with the natural world without fully studying the possible or likely consequences. In the 19th century, Stoats were introduced into New Zealand to control rabbits but the Stoats had a devastating effect on native bird populations. New Zealand has a high proportion of ground-nesting and flightless birds, due to the long geographical isolation and the lack of natural mammal predators. The introduced Stoats took full advantage of the bounty. 

That’s all for today. Look in soon for more birds, birding and other tales from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday.

Quiet Morning, Suffering Seabirds

After an hour or two at Pilling there are a few birds to report today. 

My casual birding pales into insignificance when I relate bad news about the effect upon seabirds of the endless Atlantic storms of recent months - vital reading for all bird lovers. Worse still an established and proven method for monitoring the same seabird populations in Britain is being thrown on the scrapheap by a new Welsh quango. Read on. 

First my Pilling news from the maize floods, Fluke Hall Lane and surrounding fields, a good two and a half hours stomp around on a bright but very cool morning. The wood held my first Goldcrest of the springtime, a pair of Long-tailed Tits, several Goldfinch and a pair of Mistle Thrush. 

Less good news was sight of a bird predator, a Stoat running across the road at the edge of the wood. I’ve seen Stoats in the same spot for many years, the animals having traditional places where they live and breed, just like many animals and birds. I had my small lens today, so took a picture of the long dead fox left in the same spot where it was most likely poisoned or shot. 

Common Stoat

Red Fox

Two Buzzards were about and over the trees again, the third time in a week of noting them here. A walk to the wet fields and sea wall revealed more than a hundred Redshank, 38 Dunlin, 15 Curlew, 12 Oystercatcher, 30+ Shelduck, 22 Pied Wagtails, 4 Little Egret, 15+ Skylark, 10 Twite, 8 Meadow Pipit, 1 Reed Bunting and 450+ Pink-footed Geese. 

Similar daily goose counts are the best I can muster at the moment as the geese fly north to Iceland in good numbers and leave Lancashire until September. A feature of the morning was the huge numbers, perhaps several thousands of Starlings heading north across the bay. We often forget that Starlings too return North and East about now. 

Pink-footed Goose

Starling

Now for the news I mentioned at the start of this post. 

Tens of thousands of birds particularly auks such as Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills have died as a result of the raging and endless gales of the winter. The remains of these birds are now being washed up on the coasts of Wales, Cornwall and the Channel Islands, even more so on the Atlantic coast of France and the beaches of the Bay of Biscay where large numbers of British Puffins and their auk cousins spend the winter. 

Atlantic Puffins - Photo credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service

Latest estimates from Wildlife Trusts partnership suggest a confirmed death toll of around 25,000 birds, which is expected to rise steadily as more corpses are washed ashore. This natural disaster makes us realise how vulnerable our seabirds are to other threats, such as the oil spills and other dangers such as climate change and overfishing. 

Seabird colonies in Scotland are faring especially badly. In some only a fifth of breeding birds are raising chicks, mainly because their food, largely sand eels, has disappeared. Perhaps because of too much trawling or rising water temperatures the sand eels have moved north making them less available to British seabirds. 

Common Guillemot -  Photo credit: Foter / CC BY

As this potential disaster waits to unfold a new Welsh quango is abolishing the measly funding of £12,000 a year for the long-term monitoring of a large Guillemot colony of more than 20,000 birds on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire. The quango Natural Resources Wales was set up last year to incorporate the old Countryside Council for Wales with the Welsh sections of the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission. 

Please read this story in more detail at The Independent, and particularly if you live in Wales write to your Member of Parliament expressing your shock and displeasure at what you read.

I am grateful to Professor Tim Birkhead for bringing this to our attention.

More from Another Bird Blog soon. Stay tuned.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Less Lessers

Will and I met up on the moss again today hoping the past week’s abundance of Lesser Redpolls might continue so we could attain the magic 100, but it wasn’t to be. The continuing northerly wind didn’t help our cause with just a small catch of new birds to reward 4+ hours in the field. 

We may have to wait for a change in wind direction before the next wave of redpolls, and at March 31st surely there will be more on the move during April? This morning we managed just 15 birds, 11 new and 4 recaptures. The new birds comprised 8 Goldfinch, 2 Chaffinch and a single Lesser Redpoll. Recaptures: 3 recent Goldfinch and 1 Chaffinch from 2010. 

 Lesser Redpoll

If it hadn’t been for the Niger feeders doing their stuff in attracting Goldfinches and ground feeding Chaffinches our catch would have been abysmal, with very little in the way of visible migration. In comparison to earlier in the week redpolls were conspicuous by their absence with less than 10 birds noted. Meadow Pipit movement was similarly negligible with 10+ birds heading north in 4 hours. 

“Otherwise” sightings: 6 Yellowhammer, 5 Linnet, 1 Corn Bunting, 4 Grey Partridge, 1 Fieldfare, 1 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard, 5 Snipe, 65 Golden Plover flying south, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Ring Ouzel briefly. Mammals: 1 Stoat, 20 + Brown Hares. 

 Brown Hare

 Yellowhammer

Stoat

The BBC promised a change in wind direction overnight together with a less than 5mph wind, so the results tomorrow could be different again. And as we always remind ourselves “You don’t know until you try”. 

Harried Again!

After the moss marathon yesterday it was almost a relief to return to normal today with breezy, cloudy south-easterly weather that dictated a Pilling walk rather than more ringing. It wasn’t much of a morning for the camera either so apologies in advance for mainly archive pictures today, but there are a few interesting sightings I hope.

Lane Ends car park was full of sportsmen looking longingly at approximately 350 Pink-footed Geese, newly arrived from Iceland. Already the pinkies are wary; as well they might be, but with experienced birds and Pilling regulars amongst the flocks they will hopefully have some success in staying away from the guns.

Pink-footed Goose

Two noisy Jays reminded me that it is September, the time of year when the coloured crows take up residence here in search of acorns from the small number of oak trees. On the pools I found the 2 Little Grebe again as a number of Swallows hawked around the water and grassy spots, but later in the morning I was to witness a sizeable movement of Swallows heading south-east.

Setting off to Pilling Water along the embankment I clocked 4 Little Egret, 55 Curlew, 2 grounded Meadow Pipits, 40 Goldfinch, 14 Linnet and 2 Skylark. It’s best to tread warily around the stile, not to peer over the fence too obviously because there may be a few bits and pieces on the pool if first there. I knew I was the first when 2 Green Sandpipers exploded noisily from the water’s edge, despite my careful approach. They flew off to the quiet of the wildfowler’s pools, with c 20 Teal only today after the recent increase in water levels. Below the sea wall were 2 White/Pied Wagtail with behind me somewhere the contact call of Reed Bunting, and then another, but I couldn’t see the birds and they may have been overflying.

Linnet

Near the Wheatear rocks I sat for a while on the damp grass but sadly there were no Wheatears to look at today, nor the Stoat.

Stoat
Stoat

The Peregrine stood out there on the marsh, in a direct line to Heysham Power Station, and easy to pick up again should I let my bins venture left or right. A Marsh Harrier came into view from the left, so far on the edge of the marsh that it was barely discernible with the naked eye when I lowered my bins. As the bird traveled east the views in slightly better light made me think it was the same bird from a week ago Friday 9th September, but I can’t be sure. When the harrier disappeared into the distance the Peregrine was still rooted to its same spot with nothing much to chase save for distant Curlew and Shelduck.

As the rain approached from the south I decided there was time for a quick look at Ridge Farm. It was here where Swallows were very visibly on the move, coming from the west and off the sands, then over the embankment and heading markedly into the south-easterly breeze. In an hour’s walk I counted more at least 130 Swallows doing exactly the same thing. There was nothing much else here except for a few Meadow Pipits, 18 Linnet, a single Siskin overhead, a handful of migrant Chaffinches “pink-pinking” from the hedgerow, and a Buzzard, a little inland and over towards Duck Lane, the way home.

Chaffinch

The Whole Shebang

There was a bit of everything today, as might be expected after the wind and rain of recent days. Even well into Morecambe Bay at Lane Ends there were a few wind-blown seabirds, together with a good selection of waders and wildfowl, an unexpected owl and good views of an elusive mammal.

The morning started quiet enough at Lane Ends where a look on the pools didn’t produce stranded phalaropes or gulls, just 2 Little Grebe and a gang of Swallows feeding low over the pools and in the lee of the windswept trees. Many of the Swallows were also headed west, into the still strong westerly: during the next couple of hours I counted 80/100 flying steadily west. Just here I also found 6 Wheatears on the marsh, another migrant blown in from the west by the constant winds of the past week.

The tide wasn’t due for an hour or more so I walked to Fluke and Worm Pool then back to Pilling Water where I sat for a while. The Green Sandpiper of recent weeks was tucked into the edge of the pool again, with another 4 Wheatears along the wall in their usual spot, and 40 Goldfinch, 12 Linnet and a patrolling Kestrel. I’d seen a Stoat amongst the rocks too, and as I watched to see where the Stoat might pop up, a Wheatear landed on the rock furthest away. So I took pictures of both, although the Stoat wasn’t for allowing a full frame, and the Wheatear didn’t hang around just to finish up a as Stoat’s breakfast.

Stoat
Stoat
Wheatear

By now the tide was just about beginning to run, allowing a count of 6 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron, with many Shelduck and Curlew arriving from the west. The Shelduck count came to 280 birds, a much higher count than recent ones, with the 170 Curlews about par.

Redshanks have been scarce in recent weeks and it is somewhat strange to report today’s 5 as a high count, but there was a single overflying Spotted Redshank that I tried to capture. More waders arrived with the tide, 4 Black-tailed Godwit, 18 Grey Plover, 1400 Knot, 35 Golden Plover, but only 18 Lapwing.

Spotted Redshank
Golden Plover

Perhaps the strangest sighting of the morning came at midday when calling Starlings alerted me to a Barn Owl flying over the rough pasture adjacent to the wildfowler’s pools. Maybe the rough weather of the past week stopped the owl from feeding as much as it should and it was simply taking advantage of a spot of sunshine? I walked back to Lane Ends, stopping here and there to count the wildfowl, 70 Pintail, 190 Teal, 40 Wigeon, 18 Cormorant and 2 Great-crested Grebe.

Cormorant

The well up tide revealed a few sea birds, 4 Gannet, 1 Sandwich Tern and a distant "Bonxie", a Great Skua chasing down a few gulls towards distant Cockerham.

Great Skua
So ended an eventful and bird filled morning.

Double Report

There’s not an awful lot to mention from this morning’s birding except returning waders stealing the limelight, as they often do in July, when they are usually more obvious and easier to seek out than skulking, moulting warblers hiding in thick, summery vegetation.

The morning started with a Barn Owl again at 0730, one of the Burned House Lane birds patrolling the fields next to the Z bends with the double white lines; so I daren’t stop, but instead glanced left then motored on to Pilling for my morning walk.

At Pilling Water I approached the wildfowler’s pools with care as birds are often tucked below the bank, unseen until a body is too close, and then as if to prove it, 11 bright-plumaged, fresh in from Iceland Black-tailed Godwits flew noisily off before I could drop any lower onto the open ground that surrounds the pools. The godwits caused 5 Oystercatchers and 3 Redshanks to fly off, but a single Little-ringed Plover stayed on the pool, together with a Common Sandpiper and a couple of Lapwings. We associate Little-ringed Plovers with the stony margins of water courses but on migration they aren’t that fussy.

Black-tailed Godwit
Little-ringed Plover

On the outer part of Broadfleet and the surrounding marsh I counted another 4 Common Sandpiper, 70+ Lapwing, 22 Redshank, 40+ Curlew and 2 Grey Heron. My passerine count was almost identical to recent days with 8 Goldfinch, 6 Greenfinch, 8 Pied Wagtail and 2 Meadow Pipit, with still the Linnet flock but their numbers now increased to a healthy looking 60+ birds.

Linnet
Meadow Pipit

I’ve been looking for a Wheatear for a week now without any success but finally found one today on the stones below the sea wall but it didn’t hang around the spot to take my meal worm, and instead carried on in the direction of Fluke Hall.

I just sat quietly on the stile minding my own business when three Carrion Crows pointed me in the direction of a Stoat, running towards me on the landward side of the sea wall. The crows harried the Stoat from above, calling and drawing attention to the little predator, but when it spotted me it turned tail then ran back to where it had come from, before eventually disappearing into the long grass. Stoats are fairly frequent along here, making a living from bunnies and other small animals, carrion and probably ground nesting birds. I’ve missed a few photo opportunities lately when the creatures have spotted me on their route ahead, and I hope one day soon to meet face to face again with the engaging little creature.

Stoat

In contrast to my lack of numbers birding, the latest totals from our Fylde Ringing Group is that we ringed another 265 birds in June, more in fact than in both January and February, but a lesser total than the migration months of March, April or May. More than half of June’s 265 birds were accounted for by 110 Tree Sparrow youngsters from nest boxes and 36 Swallow chicks. Pied Flycatchers came in third place with a total of 27 birds, a small number of adults but mainly nestlings. Now we are all looking forward to the birds of autumn time!

Skylark

Just like yesterday it rained most of the morning which fitted in quite well with our child minding duties, so I left it until lunch time before I went out in search of Skylarks at Pilling. I didn’t find a single nest today; I actually found two, one nest with four good sized young, just ready to ring, and a second nest in the course of construction.

Skylark nest
The Way In

Young Skylarks grow down that is superb camouflage when viewed from above, whereby the keen eyes of crows and Kestrels might just find them.

Skylark
Skylark chicks

As yet there were no eggs in the second nest I found so I’ll keep an eye on it and do BTO Nest Records for both nests.

Under Construction

The story of the Skylark is a pretty sorry one. In the UK Skylark numbers have declined over the last 30 years, as determined by the Common Bird Census started in the early 1960s by The British Trust for Ornithology, and there are now only 10% of the numbers present 30 years ago. This massive decline is thought to be mainly due to changes in farming practices and only partly due to pesticides. In the past cereals were planted in the spring, grown through the summer and harvested in the early autumn. Cereals are now planted in the autumn, grown through the winter and are harvested in the early summer. The winter grown fields are much too dense in summer for the Skylark to be able to walk and run between the wheat stems to find its food. We are fortunate in this area that we have coastal nesting Skylarks, the two nests today I found alongside the sea wall in the grass that lines the sea wall.

Skylark

Over the centuries the Skylark has inspired an abundance of writing and poetry, due mainly to its song. But considering that from earliest times Skylarks have given man so much pleasure, we have treated them appallingly. The French song Alouette, gentille Alouette, familiar to children the world over, goes on to describe in great detail how the lark is to be plucked; over the centuries millions of Skylarks have been killed and eaten. Fortunately we in the UK have moved on from these practices, but some Mediterranean people still eat larks and other small birds despite the “might” of the EU.

I spent a few hours seeking Skylarks today so didn’t see much else save for a passing Stoat that fortunately was some way off the Skylark nests, but an animal that is always a danger to ground nesters. At Lane Ends I could hear singing Reed Warbler and Blackcap, and then briefly, a large Peregrine overhead.

Stoat