Standard Autumn Fayre

Surprise surprise. We survived Storm Debi, a “storm” hyped up by the usual suspects quoting 70 mph gusts from well-known exposed sites on cliff tops and unprotected coastal locations. Here in flat windswept Fylde the gusts turned out to be nothing more than the typical weather we experience for days at a time every autumn. Strong winds with bouts of rain, before everything returns to normal a day or two later.  

We know of course why they do it – to crank up climate alarmism for people who have yet to realise that the “climate emergency” is one big scam designed to part them from their money. 

Clearing our garden of neighbours’ sycamore leaves is a yearly event come rain or shine but inventive doom mongers have yet to claim that the late falling leaves of 2023 are due to global warming. 

 

Autumn Leaves

Early this week we pencilled in the only suitable day, of Friday for a ringing session at Oakenclough near Garstang. Will visited a week earlier with moderate success that included the catching of four Common Crossbills, a few Redwings and other bits and pieces. 

Yours truly, Will and Andy met up at 0730 to rain but forecasts of brightening skies and afternoon sun; before planning a ringing session we make it a rule to check at least two weather forecasts as they hardly ever agree. About an hour later the rain relented and we set to the job in hand and landed a good variety of species, 18 birds before packing in about 1100 when things turned suddenly quiet. 

We caught no more Crossbills, a rarely encountered species that would have enlivened the usual autumn fayre of 4 Blue Tit, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Coal Tit, 1 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Great Tit, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Treecreeper, 1 Siskin, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Goldcrest. 

Chaffinch

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Siskin

Siskin

 

Lesser Redpoll

As autumn turns effortlessly to winter, so do the birds, with little in the way of numbers that punctuate September and October ringing sessions. 

Noted today, small numbers of Jackdaws, Woodpigeons and Starlings. Otherwise let’s hope that some of the influx of Waxwings, & Short-eared Owls to Scotland and the east coast of England can find their way westwards. Both species pictured below from previous winters in the Fylde. 

Waxwing

Short-eared Owl

Enjoy your weekend folks. Stay safe, warm and sane then come back again to Another Bird Blog for news, views and photos.

Linking this Saturday to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Reasons To Be Cheerful

Yay. We’ve gone beyond the shortest day with many reasons to be cheerful. From now on each and every morning and evening will see increased daylight as temperatures climb and winds subside. Birds will sing and flowers bloom. We will say goodbye to news & media doomsters and their visions of apocalypse around every corner. The viruses avian and human will fade into distant memory. My gold shares will rocket as crypto crashes, again.

Happy 2022 everyone. May all your days be bird filled.

Here’s a post I knocked up earlier while waiting for the rain to stop.

It was quite recently and not for the first time that a reader in the US thought that a UK Coal Tit was one and the same species as the North American Black-capped Chickadee. Their  respective scientific names are Periparus ater and Poecile atricapillus, two related species of the same bird family known in the US as "chickadees" and in the UK as "tits". The two species are remarkably similar but where similarities occur in other species of animal or bird, confusion is avoided by understanding and/or investigating the respective scientific or Latin names.

Black-capped Chickadee

Coal Tit

For many birdwatchers the use of scientific names is boring or inconsequential, at best a riddle and of interest only to ornithologists who speak Latin. But as well as a means of allowing people throughout the world to communicate unambiguously about birds, the name give an insight into the origins of the scientific nomenclature and hence the bird itself. Here are some examples and a few pictures from Another Bird Blog archives.

There’s a question that often crops up on TV quizzes, one designed to trap the unwary. Which bird has the Latin name Puffinus puffinus? The correct but perhaps perplexing answer is of course Manx Shearwater. In days gone by the word “puffin” was a synonym for a shearwater and not the unrelated seabird Atlantic Puffin, hence it was the shearwater and not the puffin which earned the Latin title of Puffinus puffinus. 

The “manx” refers to the species’ former abundance on the Calf of Man a small island lying to the south of the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea, while "shearwater” describes the birds’ mode of flight which skims or shears the water. 

Manx Shearwater - Puffinus puffinus

The scientific/Latin name for Wigeon is Anas penelope. I’m somewhat disappointed that the Anas part of the name for such a creature should simply mean duck-duck. It’s from the Latin anas and the Greek respectively, a duck that in Greek mythology was reputed to have rescued Penelope when she was thrown into the sea. 

Eurasian Wigeon - Anas penelope

Would anyone who has slept under a duck down duvet that contains feathers plucked from an Eider duck Somateria mollissima disagree with the Latin meaning “very soft woolly body”? 

Eider -  Somateria mollissima

Now for an easy one, Barn Owl. Tyto alba simply means white owl. I think we can all agree on that one for the often ghostly apparition that will sometimes allow a photograph or two.

Barn Owl - Tyto alba

One might think that the rustica element of the Latin name Hirundo rustica refers to the reddish forehead, throat or the often pink underparts of our common Swallow. In fact it means a rural or rustic swallow. The Swallow is a bird which graces our countryside for a few short months of the year. Long may it continue to do so until the politicians succeed in concreting over the entire landscape of England. 

Barn Swallow - Hirundo rustica

I’ve not heard of any Bohemian Waxwings Bombycilla garrulus finding their way to the UK this autumn and winter but if they are around soon I’ll be looking out for the “chattering silk-tails” that their Latin name describes. The Bohemian part of their common name tells us the species’ wandering habits were reminiscent of tribes of gypsies or Bohemians. The silk tail is self explanatory when an observer or lucky bird ringer receives close views of this beautiful species. 

Bohemian Waxwing -  Bombycilla garrulus

The Phylloscopus collybita of Chiffchaff translates as Phylloscopus a leaf-watcher, and collybita originating from a word meaning money-changer. The clicking, repetitive sound of the Chiffchaff’s song "chiff-chaff, chiff-chaff" was thought to resemble the sound of coins being clinked together. 

That’s a really interesting if somewhat esoteric explanation which may or may not be the truth. Readers should think about that one in the Springtime while watching and listening to a Chiffchaff in the tree canopy.

Chiffchaff -  Phylloscopus collybita

There was a Jay Garrulus glandarius in my garden just this this week, taking a break from raiding the young oak tree in a neighbours garden. Jays are often silent but “acorn-eating chatterer” would apply on many occasions. 

Jay - Garrulus glandarius 

Please excuse my bout of name dropping today. It's not something I normally do or even like to hear from others, but hopefully there will be more posts and news soon. 

In the meantime here's wishing readers, new or old a very Happy Christmas.

Indoor Post

Looks like I won’t get out birding or ringing for a few more days. To put it mildly, the weather is crap by way of the usual wet and wind. 

But hopefully 2018/19 may turn out to be a “Brambling Winter”, an irruption year for this close relative of the much more common Chaffinch. Migration watch points and Bird Observatories are reporting abnormally large numbers of Bramblings when in more typical years the numbers of Bramblings seen is low in comparison to other autumn migrants and to species that overwinter. 

Trektellen shows a clear spike in UK numbers in late October early November 2018 with three or more days of 2000+ Bramblings at Hunstanton Cliffs, Norfolk and at Spurn Bird Observatory. There are also several days of counts in the high hundreds. 

Brambling 2018 - https://www.trektellen.nl

Brambling 

Brambling 

However, sightings here on the west coast are not nearly as high which is not unusual given that the range of the Brambling is biased towards the east by stretching from Scandinavia and then east through an enormous swath of taiga forest across to Sakhalin and Kamchatka. This area is at the most extreme eastern edge of the Russian Federation at the Pacific Ocean and very close to the northern tip of Japan. 

In "Brambling winters" it is often into the extremes of January and February and icy temperatures before Bramblings find their way to the warmer west coast of England. Such irruptions in a number of birds of Northern Europe most often involve species like Hawfinch, Brambling, Chaffinch, Waxwing, Bullfinch, Siskin, Coal Tit and Crossbill. The common factor is each species’ reliance upon the various seeds of trees found in northern taiga, also known as boreal forest. 

Crossbill 

Waxwing 

These irregular migrations are difficult to study because it is hard to predict when they will happen or where the birds will go each year. In each case, however, irruptions follow some type of boom-and-bust cycle of food sources. It is important to note that many winter birds will gather in flocks for the season, but that does not mean they are irrupting. An irruption is characterized by a distinct shift in the birds' typical winter range, with many birds appearing well outside the normal boundaries of their winter homes. 

Waxwing

The most common cause of this phenomenon is called “masting,” which occurs when a single tree species produces a large number of seeds across thousands of miles of forest in the same year. When the conifers in the boreal forests of Northern Europe experience a masting year, the abundance of seeds gives some species of bird a boost. The birds begin breeding earlier than usual and produce more offspring, resulting in a population boom. When autumn arrives, the bird population has doubled or even tripled, but the available habitat hasn't. Many birds move south, and young birds in particular may be pushed further and farther south and west in search of both food and somewhere to spend the winter. 

Other causes for bird irruptions include unduly harsh cold or severe weather that may force birds to find more temperate wintering grounds, or over-breeding that may deplete even plentiful food supplies. No matter what the cause of the irruption, however, it is difficult to predict where or when irrupting species may appear.

It is known that the Brambling’s strategy during winter, to roost in large dense flocks, is superior to those of other passerines. Also during summer Brambling densities can be very high even at breeding sites when food is abundant. Thus the Bramblings seem to prefer wintering in flocks as large as the available food supply allows permits. 

This may explain why flocks estimated at between 2 million and 5 million Bramblings are sometimes recorded in Scandinavia, Central Europe and Japan. Such flocks can even occur in good years for beech mast, a favoured food of the Brambling. 

Take a look at the video below. At first glance it appears to be a video of a murmuration of Starlings, but in fact all of the birds are Bramblings. The video was shot in Japan, sometime during the winter of 2015/16.  

Back soon with an outdoor post. Until them linking this post to Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday.

Owls About And Not Much Else

The outside temperature read minus 1 °C again, and as I took the frost guard off the windscreen the local Tawny Owls were busy making a fair old din. They called away to each other, tempting me to go and take a look, but it was too dark. Anyway I’ve tried it before and they just fly to their other spots where they continue their canoodling duet. 

Through Hambleton village a Little Owl flew across the highway ahead of the car and towards the darkness on the other side of the road. I was on the way out to the moss again hoping to kick off the migrant year with a Chiffchaff, maybe even a Willow Warbler. As I walked into the plantation I could see the local Barn Owl plugging away again in the distance but when I got back to the car the owl was gone, hopefully back to the barn with a vole or two from the frosty fields. 

Don’t forget to “click the pics” for a light box show, I think Blogger have sorted the problem for now. 

Barn Owl

I caught the Chiffchaff but not much else during an extremely quiet couple of hours. Just seven birds caught from the bare, leafless and insect free plantation - 2 Goldfinch with singles of Brambling, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Robin and Blue Tit, all from the feeding station. 

Chiffchaff

Of over 400 Bramblings ringed by the ringing group in almost thirty years today’s is only the second one ringed in the month of April and an indicator of how Bramblings are very late in returning north this year. 

Brambling

Goldfinch

The birding was equally as quiet as the ringing, almost non-existent in fact with 4 Fieldfares and similar numbers of Meadow Pipits high overhead in the clear morning sky the only real signs of bird movement. Otherwise all was local stuff once again with 2 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel, 2 Mistle Thrush, 3 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3 Corn Bunting, 4 Yellowhammer, 15 Tree Sparrow and 40+ Curlew. 

On the way home I stopped to check out the Little Owl pair where I found them both on the lookout for daylight food, and like me puffed up against the still cold air. 

Little Owl

I had to stop the car on the way home when the mobile rang from a lady in Knott End who’d seen a single Waxwing in gardens near the promenade. 

Waxwing

I thanked the lady for the info but there was no time for a Waxwing twitch after I’d spent a good fifteen minutes with the owls. I needed to get home, sort the pictures and grab a bite to eat myself - a birder’s work is never done. 

Log in soon for more news and views and find out if the Little Owls pics got sorted.In the meantime take a look at Stewart's Photo Gallery on the other side of the world down in Aussie.

Back To Pilling

There’s been a lot to do Rawcliffe way so it has been weeks since I went in the direction of Pilling, especially since the road was closed and the sea wall out of bounds from Boxing Day until the end of the shooting season. This morning was too breezy for ringing so with a couple of hours to spare I turned left at the main road, Pilling bound. 

The berry-laden bush at the Fordstone Road junction has lain untouched by birds most of the winter. The hawthorn is smack bang on the corner of the busy junction, where pedestrians and/or cars are virtually non-stop, enough to scare off the local Blackbirds, and now into March the berries have nearly all dropped to the ground with any that remain turned now to a dark red colour. There must be some goodness left in the berries because there were two Waxwings there this morning, even as the local kids trooped noisily past on their way to school; the children could almost have reached out and touched the birds had they noticed them. I grabbed a couple of shots of the Waxwings as they moved around the other side of the hawthorn, intent on staying near their breakfast. 

Bohemian Waxwing

Bohemian Waxwing

Lambs Lane had 2 Kestrels, so more pictures to add to my recent run of Kestrel shots. The local population of Kestrels seems very high this winter and things are looking good for the breeding season. 

Kestrel

From Backsands Lane I walked up to the sea wall, just to check it was still there after my enforced absence. Out of sheer habit I peered down at the Wheatear rocks where in two or three weeks the Wheatears will be; none today and no passerines either but there was a Greenshank, a Redshank and an Oystercatcher on the wildfowlers pool. There was a Greenshank in December, and I’m guessing it’s the same one wintering here. 

Greenshank

The flood at Backsands held a good number of geese and waders: 900 Golden Plover, 350 + Lapwing, 40 Curlew, 45 Dunlin, 14 Redshank, 5 Teal, 1500+ Pink-footed Goose and 10 Greylag. Overflying or in the United Utilities compound I noted 4 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Mistle Thrush and 2 Pied Wagtail. 

Pink-footed Goose

Synchronised Landing - Pink-footed Goose

Greylag Goose

Not a bad result for a couple of hours work. Log in soon to Another Bird Blog for more news and views of birds and birding. 

Today the blog is linking to Stewart's Photo Gallery .

What Waxwings?

Everyone is seeing Waxwings at the moment. All except me that is, even though I’ve been looking and listening most days this week and last. The answer could be to go chasing the ones being seen in regular spots miles away but that rather takes the fun, excitement and skill out of finding birds for oneself doesn’t it? No worries, I’ll see a Waxwing or two before the winter’s out, just like last year when I got a few photos near home. 

Bohemian Waxwing

It’s doubtful any Waxwing will be eating out of my hand like they do on Fair Isle. Nice jumper - just the job for winter birding at Knott End. 

I went looking at for Waxwings at Knott End this morning, a little coastal village with a distinct lack of trees bearing red berries, or fruit of any sort really. So I didn’t find any Waxwings, just the similarly shaped Starlings and un-waxwing like Pied Wagtail, Linnet and Goldfinch. The shore does have lots of grey undistinguished, boring waders though: 950 Oystercatcher, 140 Knot, 125 Redshank, 15 Turnstone and 8 Curlew. 

Knot

Turnstone

Couldn’t find any Waxwings out on the moss either, just an early morning movement of 20+ Redwings, 30+ Fieldfares and 4 Lesser Redpoll chattering overhead. Even the nets didn’t turn up a Waxwing, just darned Lottis and Blutis, but a bonus couple of male Reed Buntings. Now there's a real bird in the hand. 

Reed Bunting

Long-tailed Tit

 Another Reed Bunting

There no option really, everyone’s gone Waxwing crazy, so that’s where Another Bird Blog will be on Sunday - looking for Waxwings. Log in later to see more Waxwings or not.

This next week I'm linking to The View From Right Here, and I'd Rather Be Birding so I hope there's some Waxwings.

Who’s A Twitcher?

Throughout the winter I read Internet blogs and bird watching sites where the whole of the UK seemed to be Waxwing paradise. Too busy with other things, too tight to spend my meagre income on petrol money, or some might say holding vainglorious thoughts of moral superiority, I resisted the temptation to dash off and see the hordes of bohemian wanderers.

Bohemian Waxwing

Finally my wait was over, patience rewarded when 15 turned up in Hambleton village on April 2nd, a couple of miles away from home alongside a route I travel almost daily. “Definitely not twitching then” I reasoned, exempting myself with the excuse that I had spent the afternoon catching Wheatears on a local patch. The car found its own way to Hambleton, “Waxwing and Wheatear, a good April double” I fantasised.

It was late in the sunny day as the Waxwings sat in tall trees alongside the busy road, intermittently launching themselves into a dark garden on the opposite side of the road, where a single Cotoneaster sat close to the front door of the property. It was the same species of Cotoneaster I planted in profusion in my garden 10 years ago, the trees the Blackbirds strip bare by September, leaving no berries for Waxwings. But in Hambleton in the shady seclusion of someone else’s front garden, their Cotoneaster had lots of still red, edible berries.

Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwing
Bohemian Waxwing

The evening was clear; I think the Waxwings continued north that night as I readied my ringing gear for another early start.

Its Over…....

No, not the blog but the C word, thank goodness. Three days of immobility, no birding, no swimming with the pool full of seasonal grockles, no decent weather even in which to go for a bracing fresh air walk, plus the added imposition of an oversupply of well-meant but ultimately unhealthy food when doing the compulsory seasonal visits to friends and family.

Sue and I broke the turkey tedium today with a visit in the pouring rain to Pisces at Fleetwood , the best chippy in the world, where the deep fried haddock comes out Dulux brilliant white beneath the coating of crispy, russet batter, the fishy feast complemented by the red hot, light-as-a-feather chips that scald the inside of unprepared cheeks - a £5.99 “special” that includes tea, bread & butter and mushy peas? I’d say that is pretty special in rip-off Britain. So, instead of yet another bird list, why not start a foody list and tick this establishment next time you visit Fleetwood?

http://www.piscesfishandchips.co.uk/index.asp

The birding hasn’t been quite as special, and whilst we birders live in hope everlasting, a bit of good luck does help. You see on the way back home from Fleetwood at lunchtime, windscreen wipers set on on “fast-as-hell”, I seemingly drove past a tame or intoxicated Waxwing eating berries next to a bus stop whilst it waited for the C2 to Knott End.

Waxwing

Now if I had invested in a pager, switched my mobile on instead of wasting time in the company of my darling wife, been a proper birder or joined in frenzy birding and in the past showed enthusiasm for dropping everything for a year tick, I might just have found out earlier, like Sunday when there were a dozen or more at the same location. But, such is life for a dummie like me, and maybe in the New Year I should get my act together, become a real birder, start a list or two, buy an infernal buzzing machine and stop pratting about with a camera and a pair of ringer’s pliers.

Waxwing