Whistler In The Wind

There was snow this morning. Looking north over Morecambe Bay it was obvious the Lakeland hills had taken a hit. Down here on the Fylde coast I was thankful the white stuff had barely coated the roads. 

There's Snow In Them Thar Hills

I stopped off at Cockerham’s weedy field to see that the recent Linnet flock still numbers circa 120, and although there was no sign of Stonechats, there were 2 Reed Buntings. 

Linnet

There was a Kestrel near the farm buildings with four wildfowler’s cars parked up, the occupants already ensconced out on the marsh but the geese flying high above the guns and out of range. Many geese must have circled and then dropped back near the sea wall because less than a mile away at Sand Villa/Braides were upwards of 1500 geese feeding in fields immediately behind the embankment. 

Pink-footed Geese

At Braides Farm the extensive flood held several hundred each of Lapwings, Golden Plovers and Starlings and alongside the seaward path a Buzzard on the distant fence. 

Buzzard

It had been many weeks of rain and bluster since my last visit to Conder Green where by all accounts the pool would be full to overflowing. So it was, with the almost submerged islands and the broad sweep of deep water holding 38 Wigeon, 6 Little Grebe, 35 Lapwing, 3 Snipe, a single Goldeneye and 30 or more Teal. Many more Teal were in the nearby creeks to give a respectable total nearer to 140 of our smallest dabbling duck. There was no sign of the recently reported and wintering Spotted Redshank and Common Sandpiper, hidden from view today in the meandering creeks. 

Teal

A few bits and pieces enlivened the railway bridge walk. Namely - 2 Pied Wagtail, a single Rock Pipit, a singing Greenfinch accompanied by a second bird, a Reed Bunting and 8+ Chaffinch around the car park/café. How strange it seems that the once abundant Greenfinch is now so scarce that a sighting of a single one should be both noted and applauded.

 

Greenfinch

I parked up at Glasson Dock with a count of 1 Grey Heron, 15 Tufted Duck, 8 Cormorant and 15 Goldeneye, 13 males and 2 females. A couple of the Goldeneye whistled overhead and out to the Lune estuary. The whistling sound of a Goldeneye’s wings in flight is quite unique and the reason why North American shooters in particular call the species “The Whistler”. 

Male Goldeneyes

Now here’s a question for all the bird experts lurking out in blogosphere. And let’s face it there are lots ready to pounce, as anyone who sweats blood and tears to produce a regular blog while inviting comments will testify. 

Why do male Goldeneyes cruise mob handed around our winter waters? OK, by looking carefully you may find a dowdy looking female sailing on the far edge of the eye-catching black & white jamborees, but the general impression is that guys rule and don’t they know it. In fact the reason for the mostly all-male gatherings involves that old fashioned word “courtship”. (Readers below the age of forty might wish to consult a dictionary). 

Goldeneyes indulge in communal courtship where gangs of males with one or two females in attendance are a precurser to the male Goldeneyes’ elaborate displays designed to snare a willing member of the opposite sex. These presentations include much throwing, shaking and stretching of the head and neck together with over-egged wing fluttering. As we near the end of winter the elaborate but highly ritualised displays should begin any day now. 

Log in to Another Bird Blog soon for more news, views and pictures of tuneful birds.

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

Birding Back Home

If a couple of weeks in sunny Greece and a spot or two of birding is rather good so is returning home and hitting the local patch to see what’s changed, even if the temperature is halved and the sun doesn’t shine so bright. Two weeks is a long time to be absent when migration is underway. 

At breakfast I watched a silent Jay in the garden as it examined the apple tree thinking there was still no one at home. Overhead the calls of Pink-footed Geese reminded me of missing two weeks of the UK's autumn arrivals. I set off for Pilling. 

Three raptors in the space of five minutes at Fluke Hall with the resident Kestrel, Buzzard and a Sparrowhawk, the latter as elusive as ever, drifting silently through the trees to a place unknown. There was a Jay or two in the wood here and I glimpsed them in the tree tops as they melted into the greenery. For such a brightly coloured bird our often shy European Jay can be very hard to observe, due in no part to its reputation as a killer. 

Jay

A Red Fox sauntered across the dried up pool and although its departure seemed incidental I think the animal spotted me long before I touched the camera. I have it on good authority that “lots” of foxes have been shot in the Pilling area this year, mostly by “lamping” in the hours of darkness. 

The wheat has been cut, the maize sprouted to a good height with a couple of fields partly ploughed. The wildfowlers were out on the marsh, digging and then emptying sacks of wheat as a pump filled their scrape from the water filled ditch. It’s all looking good for plenty of birding birds and many birds to shoot. Maybe the Woodpigeons have sussed out the wheat already as I counted 80+ on the roadside field. 

Last week in hard-to-bird Skiathos there were no larks, pipits or even waders, so along the Pilling sea wall I retuned my ears to the calls of Meadow Pipits and Skylarks, 40+ pipits and 90 or more Skylarks, some of the Skylarks definitely heading south as others stayed flitting about the marsh. Two Wheatears, one at Fluke Hall and the other at Pilling Water, neither of them especially catchable even though I went armed with worms and traps. 

There were Wheatears In Skiathos, the one below flycatching from a roof. Don’t you just love seeing familiar birds in unfamiliar places? 

Wheatear

It’s rather nice to see and hear Pink-footed Geese again even though it does signify that dark nights and a long winter looms. "Make the best of it" as they say, so I sat on the wall and tried to photograph some of the 1400 pinkies as they sallied back and forth across the marsh or headed inland. Very soon, and once the lookalike guns begin, a 400mm lens won’t touch these magnificent creatures. A Snipe landed on the marsh a little way out so there’s a record shot of that to fill the post. 

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese

Snipe

The wildfowlers’ pools hold good numbers of wildfowl, mainly Teal at 800+ with smaller numbers of 40 Wigeon, 15 Pintail and 30+ Shelduck. The Teal fly back and forth from the marsh to the pools seemingly unable to resist the food the shooters leave out, the other species less so with many more Wigeon, Pintail and Shelduck out on the marsh. 

Teal

There seemed so few Swallows about today unlike two or more weeks ago with now less than 20 in total and very unlike Skiathos where thousands of both common Swallows and Red-rumped Swallows suddenly appeared on the few cloudy or thundery days we experienced.

Isn’t that just one tiny example of what makes birding at home or abroad so fascinating? It is good to be back though.

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

March Madness

I hope this isn’t getting monotonous for blog readers but there isn’t much to thrill today after a quiet morning up Conder and Cockerham way. It’s just that time of year, early March when the winter birds thin out but before the arrival of the first true spring migrants in mid to late March. 

We enjoyed an awful lot of heavy overnight showers, a couple of sleepless spells as windswept rain lashed the bedroom window. When driving this morning there were lots of new roadside muddy puddles through which to splash. I made a mental note to leave time in the day for yet another bucketful of car shampoo, my unvarying chore of the past three months. 

When I arrived at Conder Green the River Conder was flowing towards the estuary both fast and high, filling the creeks to way above low water level, a sure sign of a night’s deluge. 

The regular birds were there, some in now smaller numbers as winter finally abates: 28 Redshank, 70 Teal, 4 Little Grebe, 3 Goldeneye, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Grey Plover, 4 Curlew, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Little Egret, 4 Shelduck, 6 Wigeon and 4 Oystercatcher. The Oystercatchers comprised two pairs, each taking up residence on the topmost points of the almost submerged islands where both Oystercatchers and Lapwings nest. After the winter rain and storms and using the sluice wall as a reference point it looks as though the water level of the pool is now higher by some 18 inches or more. 

Oystercatcher

Grey Plover

Teal

It remained pretty windy this morning whereby the often serene Glasson Dock had waves a plenty to hide the wildfowl. Receding numbers but still 30+ Tufted Duck, 7 Goldeneye and 8 Cormorants, the Cormorants lined motionless along a single landing stage, waiting for the signal to dive in if the photographer moved closer. 

Cormorant

Goldeneye

The fields at Jeremy Lane were stacked with mainly smaller gulls and Starlings. When I stopped to look closer I estimated 750 Black-headed Gull, 75 Common Gull, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 1 Little Egret and 1500 Starlings. 

Little Egret

Every so often there was a “dread” as all the birds took to the air before settling again to resume feeding on the saturated fields. It wasn’t until the third time that I saw the cause of their panic, a female Merlin dashing low and fast close to the throng of birds but failing to take anything. 

Somewhere in the distant fields was a flock of Black-tailed Godwits too, at one point about 300 of them flying around together before settling far away. 

It was good to see Brown Hares about this morning, just 3, but two of them engaged in their March Madness, chasing through the fields in the near distance. 

Brown Hare

There’s more Insanity in March very soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Camera Critters, Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni's birding blog.

Staying Warm

I sprayed defroster on the windscreen and then started the old girl up to see the temperature indicator flashing a “1°” warning. Definitely a morning for the heated seat and not hanging around on street corners, so stand by for a mixed bunch of stuff from this morning’s rapid transit whereby I managed five different birding spots in four hours. 

In the half-light there seemed to be good numbers of Little Egrets in the Pilling Roost so I stopped to examine the ghostly shapes in more detail. After two counts the best I could get was 36 and by then the early risers were already on their way out of the trees, others stirring as if to go. Early Whooper Swans, 30+, were flying over from their roost way out on the marsh and then heading south towards the fields of Eagland Hill where counts of 300+ Whoopers are now an everyday occurrence. 

Soon I headed back to Knott End and a check of the 0830 tide. The biting south-easterly wind made for a brief but bitterly cold look, with 1300 Oystercatcher, 6 Turnstone, 85 Dunlin, 60+ Redshank, 70+ Shelduck, 15 Curlew, 140 Lapwing, 12 Twite and 2 Pied Wagtails. 

Shelduck

On passing Lane Ends again I could see a flock of mainly Lapwing which upon closer inspection revealed 6 Redshank, 80+ Starlings and 320 Lapwings. There were more Lapwings and also 120+ Golden Plovers on the Cockerham flash floods and then as I scoped the sea wall, 2 Buzzards again, the birds on foot prospecting both along and up & down the embankment.

I’m not having much luck finding the unseasonal Common Sandpiper at Conder Green, but the 2 wintering Spotted Redshank are ultra-reliable in the creeks below the road, as they were again. 

Spotted Redshank

Also there today and as combined pool and creek counts, 280+ Teal, 30 Wigeon, 6 Curlew, 5 Little Grebe, 15 Lapwing, 4 Goldeneye, 3 Goosander, 1 Tufted Duck. Below is not a very good and also rushed Goosander shot with the equally wary Teal somewhat distant. 

Goosander

Teal

It was here that a walk around the block produced most of the Teal count, also 18 House Sparrow, 1 Tree Sparrow, 1 Reed Bunting, and on the outer marsh 20+ Linnets. 

A wildfowl count at Glasson Dock gave 55 Tufted Duck, 20 Goldeneye, 4 Cormorant, 1 Pochard, 1 Grey Heron and 4 Mute Swan. 

Tufted Duck

I know for sure that next week’s birding will heat up considerably, so stick around Another Bird Blog to see why. 

Linking today to Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday.

The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland - Looking North West

This is it folks, and if you reached here today via Princeton University Press Blog or Birding Frontiers you will know what this is all about. For regular readers of Another Bird Blog today’s post is a little different in the form of a whistle-stop on a tour of UK birding blogs which features Richard Crossley’s new book The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland. Also today, blog readers can enter a free draw at the bottom of this page to win a signed copy of the book.

 The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

Following on from a sneak peek from Another Bird Blog in October, it’s time for another look at The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland, this time featuring waders and wildfowl, the staple diet of North West birders. 

For readers who don’t know, Another Bird Blog is based geographically just a mile or two from arguably the two most important wetland sites of the whole of the UK & Ireland, Morecambe Bay and the Ribble/Alt estuary complex. Both are Special Protection Areas, Special Area of Conservation, and Ramsar sites which support high densities of waterbirds including swans, ducks, geese and waders. In this region of England waders and wildfowl form a backdrop to daily lives, where a simple road journey or an unassuming walk inevitably leads to encounters with wild and wonderful birds. 

However, not everyone who lives in these parts knows their birds, and in recent years it has become something of a mission of my life that more people should appreciate the wildlife that surrounds them. Hence my interest in discovering if this latest Crossley can appeal to not only those already hooked on birding, but to anyone with barely a casual or passing curiosity about birds.

I am reminded of a morning at Knott End-On Sea when I overheard two people discussing the black and white "penguins" walking ahead of the fastly approaching tide. Should I stop and explain about Morecambe Bay and its importance to Oystercatchers, then show them a picture of an Oystercatcher in my traditional field guide with drawings of 600 species, in the hope it might inspire them to learn about the birds literally on their doorstep? More likely the complexity of the book with its numbers of birds in seemingly identical pages would simply overwhelm them, so to my shame I did nothing. 

The new Crossley claims to be directed at novice and intermediate birders. Perhaps if at the time I had carried a copy of this book I could have used it to good advantage in winning over converts? Here are those Oystercatchers at Knott End-On-Sea again, this time in a scene from The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland. Well it’s not really Knott End but a near perfect match for it with the Wyre Estuary in the background, the sand-lined shingle and mussel beds, the tidal pools, and on the shore the ever present Oystercatchers. 

Oystercatcher from The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

Now wouldn’t sharing that page be a near perfect way to explain about Oystercatchers and encourage Jill and Joe Public to think about the birds they had just seen? 

To continue this theme, I selected more plates from the latest Crossley with a view to seeing how they stack up as an ID guide and/or as a way to help people learn about British and Irish birds and how to identify them.

This new book covers more than 300 species by way of a user friendly approach based upon habitat and physical similarities rather than the more usual taxonomic approach of a traditional field guide. For instance a couple of plates which face each other in the book are Sanderling and Dunlin, placed side by side as the two most common and widespread small shore birds of the UK and Ireland, two species which novices may struggle to separate. Look closely and not only are the birds true to life but the backdrops to both images are entirely realistic. This look and learn technique helps to reinforce the similarities and differences in the reader’s mind of the two species behaviour and environment. 

 Dunlin from  The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

Sanderling from The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

At Page 114 are a number of Grey Plovers in various stages of black, white and grey, feeding in the shallow water of an estuary situation, the ones in flight showing their diagnostic white rumps and black armpits. It’s a highly accurate scene and one which is repeated on a daily basis here in Lancashire and also in the many estuaries of the UK and Ireland. 

Facing the Grey Plovers at Page 115 are some first-rate Golden Plovers. The picture shows the species at different stages of their sparkly gold and brown plumage, some birds with a hint or two of black, others much blacker, just as they occur in springtime. The distant ones are still recognisable as Golden Plovers, as are the ones just taking off. There’s a Lapwing or two in the field with the goldies as well as a couple of Starlings and cattle. Spot on Mr Crossley. 

For a novice birder faced with IDing a dumpy plover, and apart from the obvious colour differences, studying the side-by-side pages gives an immediate pictorial distinction by way of the different habitats the two species use. Here lies the strength of the Crossley guides, the look and learn, the visual experience whereby the mental image stays in the mind to be retrieved later and where habitat is often the key to clinching the final ID. 

 

 

Grey Plover from The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

Golden Plover from  The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

The wader pages of The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland are admirable, space limitations meaning it’s not possible to show here many of the other excellent and full page spreads given to the likes of godwits, sandpipers, shanks and stints. Uncommon birds like Pectoral Sandpiper, Buff-breasted Sandpiper and White-rumped Sandpiper make it into the 300 species, even though limited to one third of a page each. 

Major rarities of the wader family do not qualify for an appearance in the book, but then after all this is a volume aimed at beginner and intermediate birders, not those likely to hop on a plane to Ireland or the Northern Isles to see a one-off disorientated stray. 

I know that novice birders struggle with wildfowl, “brown” ducks in particular which for many people are a bit of a turn off. Along their migration routes and in the winter months ducks are so subject to the constant attention of human beings with guns that their sheer wildness makes them a difficult subject to study at close quarters. So I explored the ducks in The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland so as to find a couple of common species to examine, species which upon closer inspection might also reward a yet to be convinced novice birder of the value of learning our beautiful wildfowl. 

I found the Wigeon at Page 51 to be the sort of true representation I was looking for. A mass of Wigeon on the far bank of the water, a multi-coloured mowing machine moving across the sward, and in the middle distance the orange foreheads of the males with their entourage of “nondescript” females. It’s the classic advice for an experienced, intermediate or novice birder in how to identify a brown duck - take note of the male it accompanies. One thing missing from this scene are the pure and haunting whistles of Wigeon, unmistakeable sounds which alert birders to the presence of the species. Now there would be a truly interactive innovation for a future Crossley or any other guide - press a button on the page to hear the species call or sing. 

 Wigeon from The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

I next studied Teal at page 53, to the uninitiated another “brown job.” There they are at my local patch of Rawcliffe Moss, the farm buildings behind, the flooded field, the tight flock of tiny, wader-like duck already twisting and turning off at my approach. Equally, the scene is almost any winter wetland or flooded salt marsh anywhere in the UK or Ireland not just here in the North West. It’s another truthful and winning scene and one guaranteed to make someone study and absorb the finer detail.

Teal from The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

 

The multi-image scenes of wildfowl in The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland are especially praiseworthy and I would pick out the pages for Pintail, Shoveler, Pochard, Tufted Duck, Scaup, Eider, Long-tailed Duck and Goldeneye for special mention. 

There really are very many exceptional pages in this whole book, especially so in the pages of wildfowl and waders discussed here. While it would be easy to nit-pick through a few pages of the passerines I have nothing but overall praise for the book and its authors Richard Crossley & Dominic Couzens and the way that their product does exactly what it says on the packaging. I heartily recommend it to anyone looking for an introductory guide and learning tool to British and Irish birds, and at £16.95 or less, it’s a steal.

 The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

Read about the rest of the UK and Ireland blog tour  at Princeton's blog tour schedule, but next on the tour is Friday's visit to The Biggest Twitch in North Wales and a look at some of that region's speciality birds as portrayed in The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland. 

Finally, I saved the best for last. Publishers Princeton University Press are offering five signed copies of The Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland in a free to enter draw at the bottom of this page. There's  also a live Internet video chat presentation at Shindig on Thursday 21st November at 19.00-20.00 hours  GMT where all are invited as Richard & Dominic discuss the book and take questions from the audience.

I also have a spare copy of this splendid book for a blog reader to win in a draw in the next week or so, actual day yet to be decided. Keep logging in to Another Bird Blog for details. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Rare Visit

The continuing strong winds have made for a birder’s lazy week, so today I thought I’d pay one of my rare visits to the RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve a fifty minute drive up the M6. With a bit of luck I’d see a few birds in shelters spots and get a few photographs to share with blog followers.I ended up with an enjoyable few hours birding, a good list of birds, but not too many pictures. 

The “summer visitors” Marsh Harriers are still in residence and with three birds this morning, it seems likely that at least one may spend the winter here. It’s not so long ago that Marsh Harriers reappeared in the North West, now they are a common enough sight in most seasons. At first light two harriers were hunting across the reeds, one of them taking a Coot from the water and then flying off with the hapless bird.

Little Egrets were leaving the roost some distance away, and later on I would see at least nine throughout the reserve. Several Grey Herons at first light too. 

With being a wetland reserve Leighton Moss holds lots of wildfowl, with today many Wigeon and Teal together with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Shoveler, Pintail and Shelduck. 6 Whooper Swan were my first of the autumn. 

Teal

Teal

Pintail

Shoveler

Wigeon

Wigeon

Out from the salt marsh hides were plenty of rather distant and “into the light” waders. All the better to promote some of the very expensive optical equipment on sale at the visitor centre a cynical birder might say! 

There were high numbers of Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank, with 1 Knot and 3 mostly sleeping Curlew Sandpipers. A Kingfisher gave a double flypast, not stopping to pose. Raptors out here were the third Marsh Harrier, a Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel, and passerines a couple of Grey Wagtails, Linnets and Skylarks. 

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

 

Redshank

So that's probably my annual visit to Leighton over for another year. Join Another Bird Blog soon for more far far away adventures. 

Saturday’s Selection

I started at Lane Ends this morning where as I arrived a Barn Owl was caught momentarily in the car headlights as it hunted over the sea wall; the owl paused on a fence post before flying off west towards Pilling. In the half-light I counted 42 Little Egrets out of the island roost but didn’t hang around to watch the pink-feet leave. Counting the geese off the marsh can be a couple of hour’s job, especially when there are so many. 

When I returned later after a quick look at Conder Green there were still 7 or 8 thousand geese about, so goodness knows what the total numbers are at the moment, but enough to attract the shooter’s cars to Gulf Lane. 

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese - "pinkies"

Conder Green has certainly gone off the boil with just 4 Snipe, 55 Teal and 2 Little Grebe this morning. An overflying Raven seems to be something of a regular sight just here lately. Two Reed Bunting, 2 Pied Wagtail and 7 Meadow Pipits added to the meagre haul. 

It was then back to Pilling for a walk to Pilling Water and Fluke Hall. There are good numbers of wildfowl on the wildfowler’s pools, a good spot to wait for the Teal spooking off, to watch their flying abilities and maybe get a picture of them. I didn’t get much of a chance today when all I heard was the rush of wings in hurried flight as hundreds of Teal came over my head, the ducks pursued by an equally rapid and determined Peregrine. 

The Peregrine didn’t catch, at least not in the few seconds I glimpsed it before it shot over the sea wall and out towards the marsh. I saw it again later getting a taste of its own medicine from Carrion Crows. Peregrines are a daily occurrence about here with the views for birders mostly distant and fleeting, the raptor sticking to the distant marsh and tideline where most of its food is found. 

Teal

Carrion Crow and Peregrine

Other wildfowl/waders - 300+ Wigeon, 3 Golden Plover, 400+ Lapwing with other raptors being a Sparrowhawk and a circling Buzzard. Small stuff today came in the shape of a Kingfisher fishing Broadfleet, 40+ Skylarks, 2 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Wheatear and a tiny number of Meadow Pipits, less than ten. 

The pipits and the chats are both near the end of their autumnal movement, the Skylarks perhaps continuing for a while yet. The Meadow Pipit picture I took earlier in the week, the Wheatear today, in the spot where both species can consistently be found. 

Meadow Pipit

 Wheatear

Wheatear

Another Bird Blog links today to Camera Critters and Anni's Blog. Check them out for more birds and All Creatures Great and Small.