Morning Edition

Our Rawcliffe Moss morning started just perfect for a ringing session, no wind, 100% cloud and no rain. All that Will and I needed to complete the picture was a decent number of birds of a good variety; by the time we packed in at 11am after a six hour stint we had met or even exceeded our target, with one or two favourite species like Reed Bunting, Sedge Warbler and Garden Warbler included in the overall catch.

In all we caught 52 birds of 9 species with a good selection of warblers and finches, 44 new birds and 8 recaptures. New birds: 12 Whitethroat, 12 Goldfinch, 8 Willow Warbler, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Blackcap, 2 Blackbird, 2 Sedge Warbler, 2 Great Tit and 1 Garden Warbler. Recaptures: 3 Sedge Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Whitethroat and 1 Great Tit.

After a few weeks of waiting for fresh juveniles to appear we made up ground today with 34 of the 52 captures being birds of the year. However, as in recent weeks juvenile Willow Warblers remain scarce, with upon closer examination just three of our ten today proving to be juveniles, and the remaining seven adults each in a stage of their full feather renewal.

Blackcap - juvenile
Reed Bunting - juvenile
Reed Bunting - juvenile
Garden Warbler - juvenile
Sedge Warbler - juvenile

It’s still early July so migration for small passerines is somewhat invisible, more post breeding dispersal than true “vis mig”, but we added to recent sightings of moving Siskins with a party of 17 birds flying high and south about mid-morning.

Otherwise our sightings were: 100+ Swallow feeding over nearby fields, 10+ House Martin, 2 Swift, 30+ Lapwing, 3 Oystercatcher, 2 Corn Bunting, 2 Skylark, 4 Stock Dove and 2+ Buzzard.

Stock Dove

Buzzin’

I have long thought that our local Buzzards, or at least some of them, move south and west for the winter and return unseen in the spring, but it’s only in more recent years when the species has spread into the Fylde and become quite numerous that their comings and goings have become more obvious. This is especially true in autumn when there are lots of youngsters around and their diurnal dispersal flights are both frequent and obvious.

The BTO Migration Atlas tells me that UK Common Buzzards aren’t truly migratory, but dispersive and a nice phrase this, “winter sensitive”, as to a large extent they depend upon earthworms as a winter staple food and are more likely to move from a location in hard weather. This afternoon I took a walk around Out Rawcliffe and over 4 woods counted a minimum of 14 Buzzards and possibly 16 where in the same area over the winter months I counted between 2 and 4 Buzzards only on most visits. Today, over one wood there were eight circling birds yet to settle which pair takes possession, with four birds debating the same over another wood, then a further two pairs above two other woods, with all the birds indulging in much calling and chasing behaviour.

Buzzard
Buzzard

The other very conspicuous bird today was the unexciting Stock Dove, another species that comes and goes in spring and autumn almost unseen. Today I saw two flocks, one of 28 birds and another of 12, plus at least 7 others as singles or doubles moving around a spot that has several suitable holey and ivy clad trees, where I also saw the Kestrel today.

The Buzzards and the Stock Doves rather distracted me from my walk over the moss but I had a good enough count of most of the regular stuff at the winter feed; 200 Tree Sparrow, 6 Yellowhammer, 4 Reed Buntings and several Chaffinch, with a couple of Blackbirds and a single Song Thrush shooting off ahead of me. Meanwhile a Peregrine came from behind me, not very high but too fast to photograph as it headed across to the neighbouring farm and the couple of thousand Starlings I could see milling about.

Most of the Stock Doves were on the big and now soggy field, with a flock of 70 Lapwings and 22 Skylarks also joining in, while 2 Roe Deer and several Brown Hares headed off at my arrival, long before the birds, a little reluctant to fly into today’s strong westerlies. I had a good count of Grey Partridge today, with 14 birds, probably all leftovers from the autumn releases, but at least they survived the winter shoots and may breed to augment any truly wild stock left.

Skylark
Stock Dove

I took a walk through the plantation where apart from a few willow catkins, spring growth has yet to threaten our ringing rides still thankfully bare from the winter but waiting for the first Chiffchaff two weeks from now and Willow Warbler in four. Equally the trees were devoid of much birdlife save for a little flock of alder feeding Goldfinch, a couple of Blackbirds, the obligatory Wren, several chuckling Red-legged Partridge.

From the plantation I watched the next pair of Buzzards dive over and into the nearby wood where there was a nest for the last couple of years. It won’t be long now and things really will be buzzing.

Buzzard

Out And About

This morning I explored a part of Rawcliffe Moss I don’t often visit, to get a taste of what is going on in places not well watched or worked, and I deliberately avoided the nearby plantation where we do our ringing. Fortunately I have permission from the farmer to explore away from the public footpath that crosses the land with the obvious but unspoken understanding that I follow the country code wherever I go. Farmers are often misunderstood and maligned by Mr Average Joe Public, who cares little about where the food on his plate comes from, only that it should be cheap. But without exception I always find the farming fraternity good-natured, friendly, helpful to a fault, and interested in what I am doing.

I was pleased I ventured out because I found both flock and gangs of birds, post breeding groups, using the set asides and the margins, feeding on the abundance of insects on a warm, muggy, rain threatening morning. Hirundines were in evidence with a minimum of 70 Swallows and 20 House Martins, and unusually so far away from known colonies, about 20 Sand Martins. At times, as they do at this time of year, in between hawking insects over the crop fields, the flock gathered to rest on fences with a distant Bowland backdrop. I tried to get closer to the birds on the wire but a deep almost overgrown ditch, a trap for the unwary, blocked my progress. Alongside the ditch I found three pairs of Whitethroat “tacking” away, plus 2 Corn Buntings, one in song the other collecting large beakfuls of food and flying away from me over the impassable ditch.

Swallows and Bowland
Whitethroat
Corn Bunting

On some weedy margins I found a flock of 60 Goldfinches, with over 20 Linnets, and on a bare field being prepared for late sowing, 6 Skylarks, 5 Pied Wagtails, 5 Mistle Thrush, 3 Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 7 Stock Dove and 8 Wood Pigeon. A Kestrel patrolled over the fields, flushing the finches into the air and attracting the attention of the martins and Swallows that chased after it until the Kestrel made off. I get the feeling that this autumn we will see some huge flocks of Goldfinch, they are now such a successful species in both town and country.

Stock Dove
Goldfinch

I called in at Hambleton to check out my Swallow population with another single nest to ring, these four with flight feathers very short and recently emerged from sheaths, code “FS” for nest recording purposes. There’s another pair with tiny young that require a visit for ringing in a further week, with two nests containing very large young ringed a week ago, and one pair on eggs. But all in all despite the good weather it seems a below average year for my Swallows. I do wonder what effect the loss of two early nests to predators had on the colony, as the Larsen crow trap remains set but the Jackdaws and Magpies continue to search around for food.

Swallow
Swallow
Magpie

Oh, “The Tandoori”?, you ask of last night. The guy that owns the restaurant was previously the chef at Fayez Tandoori for 17 years so he should know how to make a curry. There was a rather long and daunting menu but once we sussed it out no problem. We enjoyed a really nice meal at a reasonable price. We both tried the chicken with lamb with Maya Rice which with a light touch of lemon and coriander was absolutely superb. The naan bread was so fluffy and lightweight it reminded me of the finger scalding bread straight from the tandoor in the beach shacks of Goa. The takeaway menu is here but I think there may charge be an extra delivery charge for some readers of this blog who live a few miles away.

http://www.eatitnow.co.uk/order/takeaway/poulton-le-fylde/themayatandooribaltihouse-fy67bx/menu

A While Away

After a morning at the gym I had a few hours to show my new wheels around the patch. Nothing too muddy yet to spoil the newness and anyway it’s still a bit cold for buckets of water and a chamois leather.

By the time I arrived at Lane Ends the tide was well in, right up to the sea wall in fact and I had been remiss in not checking either tide heights or time for the past few days leaving myself out of sync. I decided to just walk to Pilling Water in the hope of seeing some evidence of springtime in the shape of bird behaviour or new arrivals. Firstly I walked to the east pool to check on the duck but noticed a couple of male Pied Wagtails along the tide line that I am sure were newly in. The pool was quiet, even the “mallards” were down in numbers and I counted more Goldeneye than I did bread hungry Mallard, with 4 Goldeneye drakes and 3 ducks. A male Goldeneye certainly thought it spring as I watched it display to females with a variety of comical head throwing, neck stretching plus other posturing and calling, with a female positively encouraging him at times. Now there’s a novelty chaps.

Goldeneye

Goldeneye

Goldeneye
In the trees surrounding the pool I saw a pair of Long-tailed Tit and heard a couple of Wrens, Dunnocks and Robins singing so they at least survived the winter. Heading towards Pilling Water I counted over 200 Redshank along the tide line and on the lower levels of the sea wall, plus several Oystercatcher, 1 Snipe, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Little Egret and 18 Curlew.

Up at the pool I sat in the still biting south easterly for a while where on the higher part of the marsh towards Fluke I counted more Redshank, 2 more Little Egrets, 170 Dunlin, 40 Lapwing and that elusive Ruff, still about but seemingly spending time both out here and on the inland stubble at random. On the edge of the lapping water were 2 Meadow Pipits, 1 Skylark and 1 Rock Pipit. There was a report of a Snow Bunting here about four days ago but no sign of it today.

The walk back to Lane Ends was uneventful but brisk as a means of warming up again. Back in the motor I switched on the heated seat and the blower before I headed off towards Damside and Fluke Hall Lane. I would never describe my birding as desperate but March can be a cruel unrewarding month; the winter birds thinning out when flocks break up and birds head back from whence they came some months ago. Meanwhile I wait for the first Chiffchaffs and Wheatears and the bulk arrivals a few weeks and miles away in Africa or the Med with no incentive to fly into a cold UK spring.

It must have been quiet, I even counted the gulls on the Fluke Hall stubbly wet, 135 Black-headed Gull and 40 Common Gull. There were 45 Dunlin, 70 Golden Plover and 120 Lapwing, but several Lapwing now displaying and paired up across the wider area away from the general flock. No excuses for having a picture of a Lapwing again, they really are a true sign of spring and just wonderful to watch and listen to.

Lapwing
Also on the stubble with the Lapwing and Redshank was a Stock Dove, not a species we see a lot or hear much about, but a first for my camera.

Stock Dove
I stopped at Knott End to put out Twite food following the cleansing of the recent high tides that washed all the previous food into oblivion. Better luck tomorrow.