Saturday Sun

The morning didn’t look too with heavy cloud, spots of rain and a northerly breeze. Luckily I’d spoken to Andy on Friday night to cancel plans to catch Linnets. 

Then suddenly about 0915 the sky cleared to leave a bright blue sky. Later than normal I set off birding, new camera at the ready. 

At Gulf Lane I counted 150+ Linnets in the set-aside as well as 11 Stock Dove. Looks like the doves have found the seed mix but when I took a closer look there seemed to be lots on the ground so I’m still not sure if the Linnets are taking much. Holes and pathways through the crop suggest that voles, moles and rats may be having a beano during the hours of darkness. There was a Kestrel hanging around and at one point it dived into the grass as if to grab a bite to eat but came away with nothing. 

Kestrel

At Gulf Lane/Braides/Sand Villa birds pushed from the rising tide and into the inland fields were very distant with best estimates of 1000 Lapwing, 600 Pink-footed Goose, 500+ Golden Plover,250 Curlew, 150 Redshank, 60 Wigeon, 25 Teal, 8 Whooper Swan, 4 Shoveler and 2 Shelduck. 

I decided to take drive down towards Cockersands but stopped first on Moss Lane where a small herd of mixed swans fed, 10 Mute, 12 Whooper and 8 Bewick’s. There have been 400/500 Whooper Swans in the extensive fields around here, almost a full day’s work to locate and count them all. Even then the counts come with a health warning because of the swans’ constant mobility. 

Whooper Swan

At Cockersands I stopped to watch a flock of about 80 Twite feeding quietly in and out of the marsh grass and tide wrack. It proved to be a good move as an hour or more later I was still there after a series of birds appeared. 

First came a Barn Owl which suddenly appeared from over the caravan site and where at the back are tumbledown farm buildings ideal for a winter roost. Like the Kestrel before, the owl dropped into the grass, did a quick about turn and disappeared from whence it came. There was just time for a few snatched shots. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

It wasn’t just Twite feeding in the marsh, also 10+ Greenfinch, 3 Reed Bunting, 6 Linnet, a couple of Blackbirds, several House Sparrows, 2 Collared Dove and dozens of Starlings. In the paddock: 3 Fieldfare, 1 Redwing, 1 Song Thrush, 4 Goldfinch, 6 Tree Sparrows and more Blackbirds.

Twite

Linnet

 

Greenfinch

Blackbird

Starling

Robin

Collared Dove 

What of the new camera? Well a little sun makes all the difference for sure. I have to work on the intial exposure setting as well as getting used to a different set of buttons and changed menu, but so far so good. With 24 megapixels the crop factor is pretty good, ideal for those long range pictures that birds often demand.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday and Anni's Birding.

West Is Best

I was back home at 10am after rained off after just a couple of hours of birding. Despite the curtailed session I managed to clock up a couple of “goodies” but nothing to compete with the Siberian Accentor that turned up on the east coast and where several hundred, possibly thousands of birders and others are expected to flock this weekend ("2000 viewers filed past on 13thOctober"). 

A week or so ago when we when catching Linnets a shooter mentioned that he’d seen a Great White Egret out on the marsh. A day or so later I’d seen almost 30 Little Egrets on the marsh just out from the plantation where many egrets spend the night hours. I guess it was those two bits of information in my head this morning that made me turn off the road in the half-light of dawn to check out just how many egrets are currently using the site. 

The egrets were beginning to wake up. Their barking calls rang out from the trees and I’d counted 70+ scattered across the treetops when a whole gang of them erupted into flight. There was a big one amongst the Little Egrets, a Great White Egret which circled a little before heading along the sea wall towards Cockerham. A great-white is half as big again as a Little Egret with a bill shape that resembles a dagger rather than the stiletto of a Little Egret. For such a large and apparently conspicuous bird a great-white has the ability to “disappear” from prying eyes: I suspect that this particular one spends its days in the deep, tide-washed creeks of Pilling and Cockerham marsh. 

Great White Egret by cuatrok77 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I stopped off at the set-aside plot where I added a little ground feed of millet and Niger to the natural seeds on offer in the expectation that a few Twite and more Tree Sparrows will join Linnets in the daily feast. A flock of 50+ Linnets were around the area together with a number of Tree Sparrows in the bushes near the farm. 

Linnet

Twite

The grey morning and 100% cloud cover didn’t bode well for visible migration so I wasn’t surprised to see little in the way of recent arrivals at Conder Green. A rather noisy Chiffchaff, several “pinking” Chaffinches and a dozen or so Blackbirds proved the best from both here and following a look in Glasson churchyard. 

On the pool and in the creeks – 110 Lapwings, 55 Teal, 15 Redshank, 11 Little Grebe, 6 Snipe, 4 Wigeon, 2 Shelduck, 2 Little Egret and 1 Green Sandpiper. The Green Sandpiper spent all of its time searching for food through the rocks, pebbles and vegetation an island some 70/90 yards away. Best I could do below. It's there - honest!

Green Sandpiper

Apologies for the somewhat short post today but I’ll try harder next time on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's blog.

Pilling Surprises

Pilling proved very interesting this morning with one or two migrant birds on show followed by a complete revelation. 

I kicked off at Fluke Hall where along the sea wall a mixed flock of about 60 finches greeted me. They were very flighty but I could hear the distinct calls of both Linnets and Twite. Eventually the flock split up with an approximate count of thirty of each of these closely related species. 

Twite

Linnet

It was while trying to get to grips with the finches that at least 4 Wheatears came into view. The Wheatears were very mobile with some flying into the current “no-go” area where contractors are repairing the sea wall. There seemed to be equal numbers of female and male Wheatears today with the single bird I caught proving to be a second year female, obvious from the generally worn plumage. 

With a wing of 93 mm and a weight of just 22.9 grams it was also of the nominate race Oenanthe oenanthe. 

Wheatear - second year female

Wheatears

Along the hedgerow was a single Reed Bunting, a singing Greenfinch and of all things a single Fieldfare chattering away, and now somewhat late to be setting off to Northern Europe or Scandinavia. It wasn’t the thrush I was hoping to see this morning and although a Ring Ouzel might be a good find, a common Fieldfare is a pretty stunning bird which takes some beating. 

Fieldfare

From the woodland a Chiffchaff sang amongst the chattering of Tree Sparrows and the loud songs of three Song Thrushes. The Nuthatches are still about and continuing with their secretive nesting. I’m not sure if the birds are using a nest box or in a natural site but all should become clear once they begin to feed the youngsters. 

I walked the stretch from Lane Ends to Pilling Water and back. The Environment Agency recently installed a shiny new gate so that the lazy ones have easy access to the shore and now don’t need to climb over the stile to let their dogs chase sheep or wreck the wader roost. Amazing! 

There was a Willow Warbler singing from the plantation and a few chatterings from Lesser Redpolls flying north towards Heysham. At Pilling Water the pool held 3 Black-tailed Godwits in their summer finery, 4 Teal and a Little Egret. Along Broadfleet a single Grey Heron and down on the shore 3 more Wheatears.

It was at Lane Ends I found a pair of Moorhens with 3 chicks which made me consult the books about this common but neglected species. There it was in black & white - Egg laying starts in spring, between mid-February and mid-May, incubation lasts about three weeks. 

Moorhen

Moorhen chick

So while we have all been waiting for Spring, complaining about the wind, rain, snow and goodness knows what, our plucky old Moorhens have been busy raising a family. There’s commitment and perseverance for you.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and  run-a-roundranch.blogspot.

Grey Wednesday Birds

There was more rain and dreary skies today but by 11am the rain eased even though the grey was set in for the day. 

Determined to get some birding in I headed towards Pilling where the geese have been fairly obliging this week. At Damside and Backsands Lane there’s been anything up to 4500 Pink-footed Goose and where two days ago I spotted a lone Barnacle Goose amongst the legions of pinkies. 

Initially today I counted 250 geese, the Barnacle amongst them; when I looked an hour or two later the count had risen to about 2500 with the Barnacle still there. After “grilling” the geese for in total a couple of hours this week the Barnacle Goose is the only oddity discovered although a darvic marked pinkie proved too distant to read the inscription. Whilst the Pink-footed Goose is a very abundant winter visitor to this part of Lancashire, the Barnacle Goose occurs fairly commonly but in very small numbers only. 

Pink-footed Goose

Pink-footed Goose and Barnacle Goose

I set off for Fluke Hall on Monday only to discover the shoot day had changed and saw 4x4s littering the road alongside the flooded fields. Hi-Fly charge £500 for a full day’s shoot at three locations with breakfast, lunch and dinner included in the day’s entertainment. That’s the problem with us tight birders. Although we think nothing of spending four or five grand on camera gear and optics we expect the actual birding provided for free whereas other folk invest money in their chosen pursuit.

Today the same roadside fields were stacked with waders with a count of 650+ Lapwings, 130+ Redshank, 30 Oystercatcher, 14 Curlew and 2 Black-tailed Godwit. The unseen Whooper Swans out on the marsh were very vocal with I suspect many more than the seven I saw flying out that way. In the trees and at the car park - 1 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard, a single Jay and 40+ Twite. 

This autumn’s Twite seem to have split into three or four flocks, spending their time roaming the coast and likely to be encountered anywhere between Knott End and Pilling Lane Ends, a distance of three or four miles. Twite can be hard to locate just feeding quietly on the salt marsh and it’s often only as they fly off in a tight buzzing pack that they are noticed. 

Twite

I drove to Conder and Glasson for a check of the usual spots and to make sure I’d missed nothing in recent days. The Glasson ducks were distant across the basin requiring a scope whereby the apparent “lots” realised a good count of 72 Tufted Duck but only 2 Goldeneye, a single Little Grebe, 8 Cormorant and a lurking Grey Heron. 

Grey Heron

At Conder Green I found the regular Spotted Redshank, failed miserably with Common Sandpipers and a big fat zero but gained 8 Black-tailed Godwit and 25 + Curlew by way of fly arounds. 

Also, 2 Little Egret, 90+ Teal and a little flock of 25+ Chaffinch towards the car park. 

Tomorrow there’s a ringing session with Andy pencilled in for Oakenclough where up in the hills it can often be raining when down below all is fine. 

Fingers crossed for a bright day for a change. 

Roundabout

Faced with where to go this morning, I realised I’d neglected Knott End of late, what with Christmas, then the poor weather followed by two weeks in Spain, so off I went for a look around the village hot spots. 

The tide was on the way in, pushing a small selection of waders to the shore: 250 Curlew, 145 Oystercatcher, 60+ Redshank, 8 Turnstone, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit and 4 Dunlin. Shelduck were scattered across the sands and I counted 40+, although not a single Eider duck again. When I walked along the esplanade I found 15 Twite, 2 Pied Wagtail and 1 Rock Pipit below the sea wall, and on the shore near the village a good count of 40+ Common Gull (Mew Gull - Larus canus) all in one spot. Common Gulls are rather handsome beasts which us bird watchers tend to forget about or ignore. 

It wasn’t snowing today although it is forecast for Sunday and the picture below was taken at Knott End a year or two ago with a layer of snow on the sea wall. 

Common Gull

Twite 

A visit to Fluke Hall and a perusal of the usual stubble field close to the road gave counts of 18 Pied Wagtails, 18 Blackbirds, 8 Goldfinch, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Redwing, 40 Oystercatcher, 40 Lapwing, 22 Redshank and 15 Curlew. The fields at Damside held 85 Golden Plover, 300 Lapwing, 40+ Redshank, 60 Curlew and a single Dunlin. 

The Rawcliffe feeding station beckoned where it’s not just the top up which is important, it’s also weighing up whether a ringing session might be worthwhile soon if there are a decent number of birds about. I travelled over the Pilling Moss road where at my usual viewpoint there was a glimpse of a Hen Harrier, a frustrating view of a fast flying bird which even as I raised the camera was hundreds of yards away. I also had the camera set to over expose from a previous shot. It’s an excuse for a record shot, the bird looking away too. 

Hen Harrier

The jury is still out on a ringing session for tomorrow, with 50+ Chaffinch, 2 Brambling, 15 Goldfinch and 10 Reed Buntings there or thereabouts the site but none of the birds exactly piling into the mixed seed left for them. There’s been a few returning north Fieldfares about this week, with another 20 or so today, mixed in with a small flock of Starlings in the hawthorn tops. 

Reed Bunting

A look around the wider area found 4 pairs of Buzzards circling in the afternoon sun, 14 Stock Dove and 300+ Woodpigeon on the stubble, and a remarkable and noisy flock of about 1500 Jackdaws exploiting the last of a nearby maize field. 

With rain and even snow forecast for the next three days there could be a lull in activities for Another Bird Blog, but please log in soon to find out. In the meantime log into Nature Footsteps http://nfmemes.blogspot.co.uk/  and  Anni's blog for more winged creatures.

Mixed Bag update

This is a little update from yesterday and today, a mixed bag of birding with a spot of ringing thrown in.

Today we had to travel up to Lancaster City so first called in at Knott End followed by a quick look at the geese at Lane Ends, Pilling before heading north up Death Row/Biker’s Mile towards Lancaster.

The tide was pretty much in at Knott End, all the better then for a quick count of stuff beyond the Bourne Arms, on the jetty itself or along the water’s edge, passerines and shore birds: 23 Turnstone, 9 Sanderling, 18 Redshank, 45 Shelduck, 2 Pied Wagtail, 9 Twite, 1 Black Redstart, 45 Shelduck

Twite
Eider

At Lane Ends 7 Eurasian White-fronted Geese were the nearest of a pack of about 300 geese at Backsands Lane. It’s difficult to get a shot of more than 3 or 4 of the white-fronts together because not only are they strung out across several yards, but like all crowds of geese some feed heads down while others stay heads up on the lookout for predators, until after a few minutes it’s time to reverse roles when “feeders” become “sentinels” and vice versa.

Eurasian White-fronted Goose

Back home I’ve caught more Goldfinch and a couple more new female Blackbirds; in the continuing cold, both thrushes carried fat scores of 3 and weighed in at 111 and 110 grams respectively.

As might be expected male Goldfinches continue to outnumber females; the sex ratios in Britain and in Spain suggest that that a greater number of females migrate than do males, and also that females tend to winter further south (Newton 1972, Asensio 1986, Migration Atlas 2002). There does seem to be a steady changeover of Goldfinches through the garden at the moment, perhaps just locally wintering birds so it will be interesting to note when the proportion of females increases. No sign of Siskins yet.

A young female I caught today still had traces of buff, juvenile crown feathers - compare with the fully coloured male, the extent of red behind the eye and the depth of red below the bill.

Goldfinch- first winter female
Goldfinch - adult male

It’s No Secret

It’s just birding at the moment with constant blustery weather making a ringing session out of the question at our wind-sensitive winter sites. The November totals will be dire but Will tells me he added one Robin to the figures when one flew into the van through an open door.

I wanted to go to Out Rawcliffe for a look around this morning before I realised today is a shoot day. A local told me there’s yet another feasibility study taking place into the siting of a “farm” of 125 metre high wind-turbines on the moss. On several occasions in the last year or two Will and I had seen the bird surveyors, birders who do the leg work of the consultants by spot counting every month. If you ask, they claim they don’t know why they are counting and what the final counts will be used for! It’s all too political for me, but I hope the same individuals have declared possibly conflicting interests to in turn, their employee and local natural history groups they represent.

This grandiose scheme is the latest attempt after an earlier proposal was chucked out a couple of years ago on the grounds of harm to the area's huge wintering flocks of Pink-footed Geese, wildfowl and breeding birds in general. Rawcliffe Moss is also a Biological Heritage Site. Don’t these companies ever give up in wanting to cover the countryside in concrete and visual eyesores? In the last month up to 15,000 geese have flown in to the moss to feed in the half light of early mornings, some of which were murky, misty, even foggy, the type of morning when geese in particular are known to lose their bearings. Fresh minced Pinkie anyone?

Pink-footed Goose
Goose Mincing Machine

There was time for a look at Pilling this morning where I found my glove from last week without finding a lot different on the bird front. Pink-footed Geese were to the fore, the foreshore in fact with circa 1500 at Fluke Hall and c2500 at Lane Ends.

Passerines proved difficult to find again with 8 Tree Sparrow, 6 Greenfinch, 11 Linnet and 22 Twite at Fluke Hall, the latter two species in separate flock as ever, but also separated by their jizz and their habitat choices. Rarely if ever do I see these closely related species together. On this occasion the Linnet were along Ridge Farm hedgerow, the Twite on the salt marsh.

Twite
Linnet

Just 18 Whooper Swans behind the sea wall with a Merlin giving a splendid fly past, but it was a Peregine that constantly spooked a couple of thousand Lapwing and 600 Teal at Broadfleet. Just 4 Little Egrets today, with 2 Goldeneye and 2 Tufted Duck on the pools.

Teal

An Early March

There was a thick frost this morning, reminding everyone that the price of clear overnight skies in March may be a sunny day but an unwelcome cold start. So after de-icing the car for the second time this week I called in Damian’s shop at Knott End for supper time fish then I turned my attention to a little gloved and hatted birding for an hour or two.

The medium tide of about 10 am was just turning, heading into the Wyre from Fleetwood and Morecambe Bay but bringing a little mist that the weak sun could barely shift. But it wasn’t so bad that it stopped a count of sorts and even a few pictures of the assorted waders, or at least those that stick to the close shore and are more tolerant of early morning passers-by: 550 Oystercatcher, 32 Turnstone, 105 Redshank, 110 Knot, 90 Dunlin, 11 Curlew, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit and 2 Grey Plover.

Knot
Turnstone

The wildfowl numbers are quite low now after a number of Shelduck and Eider departed to breeding sites, so my count of 15 Shelduck on the water and 3 Eider loafing on the jetty was not unsurprising. I’d parked in the car park where early mornings there are always 2 Pied Wagtails tottering about, and then lining the car park wall, numerous Black-headed Gulls that arrive in waves with each new car, but quickly lose interest if no food appears from wound down windows.

Eider
Black-headed Gull
Pied Wagtail

Along the promenade the Twite flock on the seed numbered approximately 30 very flighty individuals today: they took to the air at the passing of every one of the numerous pedestrians, who in the main seem not to notice the nondescript little brown birds that grace their village each winter. There were 2 more Pied Wagtails on the frosted foreshore below the railings plus 2 Rock Pipits.

Twite

I took a run up to Lane Ends where the tide was full but distant in the now partially sunny haze. From here and the trek to Pilling Water and back the best I managed were 3 Little Egrets, a distant and predictably perched Peregrine, and a bunch of about 15 Skylark, not counting the one that rose singing above the nearest field. The inland fields held about 60 Lapwing and 95 Curlew, whilst way out on the marsh the sight of 700 Pink-footed Geese told me that it it’s still only March 3rd and I’ll have to wait a week or so yet for spring migrants and the chance of catching Wheatears again.

On Ice

With any plans for ringing literally "on ice" there were two places on my keep moving itinerary this morning, a look at Lane Ends followed by a walk along Knott End promenade for the incoming midday tide.

I didn’t hang around at Lane Ends, where standing around for more than few minutes invited hypothermia, but walked the sea wall to Pilling Water then back to the car park on the lookout for just about anything that still survives the extreme weather. Whooper Swans this morning, about 140, then quick, rough counts of 550 Shelduck, 400 Teal, 180 Wigeon, 40 Lapwing, 25 Curlew and 15 or so Redshank. Of the small birds I still found 40 or more Skylarks and 5 Meadow Pipits braving the elements but nothing else save the Blackbirds, Robins and Dunnocks that survive around the car park.

It was a good bright morning and I thought I might have better luck with the tide and waders at Knott End where the ice and snow covered the beach, foreshore, the walkways and the jetty. It didn’t take long to find a good but not especially numerous selection of waders either roosting or feeding, but I was careful not to disturb them nor venture too far onto the treacherous icy surfaces.

Ringed Plover
Knot, Turnstone
Grey Plover, Redshank, Dunlin, Turnstone, Knot
Redshank
Turnstone
Knot
Redshank

For the record my counts were 30 Turnstone, 1 Grey Plover, 48 Redshank, 22 Knot, 14 Ringed Plover and 3 Oystercatcher.

A few Shelduck in amongst the ice floes sailed past the end of the jetty, as they looked for food at the tide edges.

Shelduck

Also along the foreshore were approximately 45 Twite and a single Rock Pipit.

Twite

I’d spent an hour or more taking pictures and I was pretty much frozen to the core so headed home for a hot drink and a sit down in the warmth, unlike the birds I’d just seen.