A Little Willy Morning

When I arrived at Fluke Hall this morning it became obvious that some overnight rain had dropped in a few migrants. 

The trees and hedgerows fairly dripped Willow Warblers and there was a Sedge Warbler in loud and steady song from a very un-Sedge Warbler like spot. It is mornings like this when you wonder as much about the birds you are not seeing as the ones you are. 

Willow Warbler

 Willow Warbler

“Bush bashing” revealed at least 12 Willow Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, 2 Chiffchaff, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Sedge Warbler and 15 Linnet. On the nearby ploughed field were 2 Wheatears, and on the local circuit 2 Mistle Thrush, 2 Song Thrush, 2 Great Spotted Woodpecker, and 24 + Blackbird. 

Blackbird

Blackbird

The Willow Warbler theme continued at Conder Green with birds present at the pool hedgerow, the car park and then at Glasson Dock, with total sightings of 8+ more. Also at Glasson Dock, a Wheatear on the towpath plus 2 Blackcap and 2 Chiffchaff in song. 

 A Lesser Black-backed Gull was also in good voice with its territorial song of sorts. 

Lesser Black-backed Gull

The stop at Conder Pool gave 200+ Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 18 Tufted Duck and 8 Oystercatcher. Non-waterbirds included 1 Raven, 2 Reed Bunting and 2 Whitethroat. 

Common Sandpiper

I stopped at Cockerham and found 2 Buzzards near the sea wall. The pair of Buzzards were together and fence-hopping, feeding along a path, a rough area of grass and in a midden. (midden - a word used by farmers in Britain to describe the place where farm yard manure from cows or other animals is collected). 

The Buzzards remained unmolested by other birds until one of them decided to fly off, prompting Carrion Crows, Lapwings and six or seven Swallows in turn to give them a good send off. 

Buzzards

Buzzard and Lapwings

Carrion Crow and Buzzard

Although the wind had picked up yet again I thought to give Lane Ends a try for Wheatears. It was no good as although there were 2 Wheatears they weren’t interested in stopping for a meal worm and I quickly gave up. 

Out on the marsh were still 160+ Pink-footed Geese, birds destined for Iceland, as were the 4 newly arrived Whimbrel I saw feeding quietly and not too far out from the sea wall. A cursory glance from a local Pilling person might invite the identification of “Curlew” but birders know that the Whimbrel is a rather special member of the curlew family. 

Whimbrel

In the plantation/pools here, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap 2 Jay, 1 Reed Bunting and 2 Little Grebe. 

Willow Warbler

It was a very enjoyable morning of birding again, and new pictures for blog readers to enjoy. 

Don’t forget to “click the pics” for close up views, and log in to Another Bird Blog soon.

Linking today to The Run "A" Round Ranch's Good Fences.

Was That a Year?

Now’s the time when many birding bloggers stuffed with turkey, bloated by booze or besieged with once-a -year visitors make excuses as to why there’s a lack of posts on their blog. I’m no exception to the general festive rule so my excuse is the identical to the above. Added to that we are now in the middle of yet more gales with both power cuts and 70 mph winds last night, so no prospect of birding just yet.

In pure self-indulgence I’m posting some personal highlights pictures of 2013 in a month by month sequence. It’s mostly the birds which stirred the senses with odd shots of the places where memories are made. 

January is time to escape from the grey, cold skies of a UK winter and grab some welcome sunshine, if only for a few weeks. We were stunned by the long, wide, sandy expanse of the beaches of Fuerteventura, some several miles long and just begging to be walked. When tired of the walking I sat on some quiet rocks near the shore and took pictures of a Whimbrel, a shy wader species I had longed to photograph. 

Fuerteventura

Whimbrel

February continued where I left off in the early part of the year in ringing birds out on the frozen mossland. Brambling winters don’t happen too often, 2012 and 2013 being the first for several years and a winter when I caught 66 of the striking finches. One bore a Norwegian ring, another one later captured in Norway. 

Brambling

March, and as the ice lingered on there were still Bramblings to be seen along with a good number of common Reed Buntings. Bird ringing is not about catching rare or scarce birds. Catching and ringing birds is about monitoring the populations of common birds, an important and vital job in these worrying days of wholesale declines. Many a trainee ringer has fallen by the wayside when realising that rare birds appear in mist nets on equally rare days and that the humdrum of catching common birds is mostly unexciting hard graft. Imagine my surprise on 15th March to find a Little Bunting in the net, an agreeable but unimportant addition to the winter catch of 72 Reed Buntings. 

Little Bunting

April is Wheatear Time. The migrant chats appear along the coast on their way to the uplands of the UK or Scandinavia. A few are destined for Iceland or even distant Greenland. The birds are hungry following their journey from further south and can rarely resist a mealworm, so I send them on their way north bearing a ring which tells others that they arrived there via the UK. 

Wheatear

May usually involves Menorca. The island draws us back with its rugged and gentle landscape, quiet roads, friendly locals and spring sunshine. Birds are hard to find but rewarding when you do, unimpeded by crowds of target birders running here, there and everywhere. The Hoopoes use the same nest site and feeding locations every year. Creatures of habit also use the same café for a spot of lunch. 

Hoopoe

Menorcan lunch

June and it’s time to find and ring some wader chicks. The task is to find them in the literal sense but also find them before they disappear as a species from our diminishing wetlands and intensified farms. Redshanks aren’t the easiest to come across, in fact they are damned difficult to locate, sprint like Usain Bolt and have protective parents that shame many a human. The first I ringed for a good few years. 

Redshank chick

July is a time when birds and birders go quiet. There nothing much to do except feed the kids and stay around the house, least of all travel very far to discover new things when migration time is far away. Skylarks aren’t the easiest of nests to find but I daren’t go near this one as the size of those grubs says the chicks are big and possibly out of the nest. Skylark chicks often leave the nest long before they can fly, an evolutionary adaptation which increases their chance of survival. 

Skylark

August often sits on the fence between summer and autumn not knowing which way to jump. The cold, late spring of 2013 made late broods last into August and wader chicks about to fly. My personal favourite picture of 2013 just happens to be my favourite species the Lapwing. With luck the spikiy young Lapwing below will live 15/20 years. Let’s hope there are places for it to live 20 years from now. 

Lapwing

September produced an unexpected holiday in Greece when our daughter Joanne married on the island of Skiathos. Two weeks of unbroken sunshine with a few birds thrown in. A battered old Suzuki Jimny served as a passable hide to photograph the normally unapproachable Woodchat Shrike and a superb vehicle to reach Kastro where we enjoyed numerous Eleanor’s Falcons. So many reasons to return in 2014 to the tranquil haven of Hotel Ostria owned by the delightful Mathinou family.

Skiathos, Greece

Makis and aubergines at Hotel Ostria

Woodchat Shrike

October was quiet with subdued migration on our west facing coast. Red-breasted Mergansers eluded me for years, shy birds unwilling to have a portrait taken until after a couple of days of rough weather I came across a young bird at Pilling. I got my picture on a grey, cloudy day but wonder what happened to the bird and if there will be another chance to photograph a merganser so close. 

Red-breasted Merganser

November turned up a few Snow Buntings, scarce in recent years. So infrequent have they become in recent years that any discovered immediately become target birds for those less inclined to actually find any birds for themselves. I had a Snow Bunting to myself for a while at Pilling and spent time lying spread-eagled on the tideline to take a few portraits as the bird fed unconcerned at my presence. 

Snow Bunting

December 2013 is ending as it began in a raging storm and more to come. In between the birding was hard slog with not much to show for time spent in the field. I searched my archives for December to find the best picture of a month’s efforts, a mediocre shot of an above average bird. Things can only get better in 2014. 

Curlew

I wish followers, friends and occassional visitors to Another Bird Blog a Happy New Year. May all your birding days be filled with discovery and joy.

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

Searching Them Out

Through Pilling this morning I noticed how a number of farmers have taken a cut of the silage, leaving at last somewhere for Lapwings and Curlews to feed, even though the land is very dry at the moment. There was a good number of Curlews at Gulf Lane with 60 or more on the field nearest the road and another 30+ at Braides Farm but Curlews not ones to hang around for a portrait when a car slows down so the camera remained switched to “off”. 

I was on the way north to Glasson and Conder hoping to see a few birds and to grab new pictures. The regular wildfowl and egrets all stay clear of the well visited viewing spot so it’s a case of look long and look hard for the birds - 1 Goldeneye, 2 Wigeon, 2 Teal, 2 Little Grebe, 5 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, and 1 Cormorant today. 

 

Grey Heron

A variety of observers have christened the long staying Goldeneye as “female”, “male” or, perhaps to be on the safe side, an “immature”. Months ago I initially thought it a male and although it hasn’t advanced its plumage too much, today it definitely appeared to be of the masculine variety.

Goldeneye

The wader count followed that of late, with just 2 Little Ringed Plover, 1 Spotted Redshank, 30+Redshank, 2 Oystercatcher, 5 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 30+ Curlew and 90+ Lapwings. Of the latter species, 40ish on the pool, the remainder fly-overs from beyond the canal and out to the marsh. 

Spotted Redshank

Not much in the way of passerines except for 3 Pied Wagtail, 4 Linnet, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Tree Sparrow and a party of 7 Long-tailed Tits.

Pied Wagtail

Early doors had seen a roost dispersal of Swallows, some 70+ perhaps from reeds nearby, but less than 10 House Martins in all and just 2 Swift. I took a quick ride to Cockersands where most birds were at the distant tide line so I clocked the nearby 3 Whimbrel, 6 Linnet, 8 Greenfinch and single Wheatear below the car park. 

Wheatear

Whimbrel

On the strength of the Wheatear I decided to go to Lane Ends looking for more and hopefully to catch a couple. No luck, although I found 3 juveniles and had a “near miss” when the net snagged on the mechanism, the birds then keeping their distance from the supposedly enticing meal worms. 

Otherwise quiet with just a Buzzard, a single Pied Wagtail and 15+ Swallows for company. 

By the way, visitor from Windsor and Maidenhead and your search question of 10th August via Google “is it ligal (sic) to have a goldfinch?” the answer is almost certainly “no” in your case and your IP address has been passed to the appropriate authorities to further investigate your whereabouts and reasons for asking. Likewise the Google searcher from Berkshire looking for “goldfinch traps”, you too have been clocked.

Keep looking blog readers. We'll find them one way or another.

Linking today to Stewart's Gallery.

Sunny Saturday

Now that August is here both waders and terns are migrating through with increasing momentum so with a tide due 10am I decided to give sunny and scenic Knott End a bash this morning. This west coast isn't the best for sunrises, but sunsets can be spectacular and the photographic light often inviting. 

Tide at Knott End

Sunset - Knott End looking to Fleetwood

Long before the tide turns to head upstream and fill the channel between Knott End and Fleetwood there are thousands of birds picking through the distant mussel beds. Large gulls and Oystercatchers form the myriad bulk with a mix of smaller waders and Black-headed Gulls making up the remainder. As the incoming water buries the muddy, rocky and sand strewn islands the birds fly off in various directions to look for food elsewhere or perhaps to roost. 

Natural England - “Mussel beds have a particularly important role where they occur on soft seabeds, as they provide a hard surface in otherwise muddy or sandy areas. This attracts and supports a greater range of marine life than would otherwise be found there. 133 different animals and plants have been recorded in blue mussel beds, including seaweeds, anemones, barnacles, sea snails, crabs, starfish and worms.” 

Post-breeding time means there are huge numbers of our common and largely ignored Herring Gulls together with much smaller numbers of Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Lumped as one this morning gave a count in excess of 1000, how's that for a non committal estimate? 

Herring Gull

The Oystercatcher count reached 400+, most heading upstream and 180 or more staying on the shore. At least 140 Dunlin also travelled upstream towards the Barnaby's Sands roost, as did 25+ Redshank, 45 Curlew, 7 Ringed Plover,1 Bar-tailed Godwit and 1 Whimbrel. The Whimbrel had hung around for a while searching through the near shore before a procession of early morning Knott End sun-seekers sent it too scurrying upstream. The Turnstones are back, the most approachable of our wader set, and I almost missed the four of them as they fed quietly at the busy jetty when most everything else was gone. 

Whimbrel

Dunlin and Ringed Plover

Turnstone

A small roost of terns pre-tide with 15 Sandwich Terns and 3 Common Tern. Other bits and pieces – 1 Eider, 2 Pied Wagtail, 8 Linnet, 1 Swift, 14 Swallow 

Talking of sun here's a picture of the grand-kids' giant Sunflower in the back garden and grown from the debris of a cleaned out bird feeder. The flower now measures some 8½ inches diameter. 

Giant Sunflower

Linking today to Camera Critters and  Anni's Blog.

Thursday's Tour

Conder Green enjoyed a purple patch of late with a superb selection of species which has kept birders entertained and then coming back for more. But a run of high tides and nights of rain has dramatically filled the pool to such a degree that this morning I struggled to see much bird life on or around its breezy and choppy waters; after all, “waders” pass their days picking through muddy margins or sandy shores, herons and egrets prefer to fish the unmoving shallows, and dabbling ducks favour a dip not a dive. 

The regulars were there, 4 Common Sandpipers, 1 Greenshank, 1 Spotted Redshank and 4 Dunlin in the creek with tiny numbers of Oystercatcher and Lapwing on the pool, plus an overflying Black-tailed Godwit which landed in the field beyond where Curlews and Lapwings fed. Two Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron stayed mostly out of sight, not so the 2 Wigeon, 2 Little Grebe and single Goldeneye which although present, kept a distance away. 

Many Swifts appear to have left these shores in recent days, numbers this morning counted on one hand. As I watched Swallows and House Martins feeding across the marsh I saw some break off to pursue a Sparrowhawk that was cruising the hedgerow alongside the railway bridge; the hawk eventually disappeared out of sight into the trees above the car park. It's many weeks since spotting a Sparrowhawk and while they do go more than a little secretive in June and July, I get the feeling that Sparrowhawk numbers are low at present as they are absent from regular spots I know of. 

Sparrowhawk

Three noisy Ravens flew over, the trio heading together towards Glasson and beyond. Passerines consisted of 3 Tree Sparrow, 3 Pied Wagtail, 6 Greenfinch, 2 Linnet, 2 Whitethroat and a still singing Reed Bunting. 

A look at calmer Glasson revealed 1 Great Crested Grebe, 12 Tufted Duck, 15+ Swallows and 2 Swift. 

Tufted Duck

Barn Swallow

From the bowling green but looking directly into the sun and the backlit waders there were lots feeding at the incoming tide, approximately 450 Dunlin, 200 Redshank, 80 Lapwings and 2 Grey heron; later I would see most if not all of the Dunlin arrive at Cockersands after the tide filled the Conder sandbanks and stopped the waders from feeding. 

The full tide at Cockersands held the aforesaid Dunlin, 42 Eider, 3 Whimbrel, 25 Curlew, 2 Ringed Plover, 120 Oystercatcher and 7 Grey Heron. 

Dunlin

Whimbrel

It was good to see a flock of about 30 Linnets here feeding in the depths of the marsh grass where the seeds fall to the sand below. Come November the Linnets will be gone, replaced by their northern cousin the Twite. 

Just along the road I found a family party of 5 Whitethroats, a species which appears to have experienced a good breeding season. After a cold spring the season has been an average one for Tree Sparrows, so after their slow start it was good to find a flock of 50+ flitting between a ready to harvest field and the roadside hawthorns. 

Tree Sparrow

“Click the pics” for a closer view and then log in to Another Bird Blog soon to see what Friday brings.

Bits N Bobs

If Saturday was a day for Goldfinches then today wasn’t. Read on, but first news of a Barn Owl, the victim of a passing vehicle, the bird found dead by the roadside at Hambleton on 30th March as reported  HERE.

Barn Owl

A notification from the BTO tells me that GC29414 was first ringed 2 miles from Hambleton as a nestling on 26 July 2006, 2442 days or almost seven years before it died.The average lifespan for a Barn Owl is about 4 years, the oldest one known from bird ringing being 15 years of age. So despite GC29419 being a very experienced adult, it still fell victim to a vehicle. 

As the BTO remind us - “Each year over 900,000 birds are ringed in Britain and Ireland, by over 2,500 highly trained bird ringers, most of whom are volunteers. Ringing began over 100 years ago to study the movements of birds. While it continues to generate information about movements, it also allows study of how many young birds leave the nest and survive to breed as adults, as well as how many adults live from year to year and how many birds disperse to different breeding sites. Collection of this information helps understand why populations increase or decline - vital information for bird conservation. After over a hundred years of bird ringing in Britain and Ireland there is still much more to learn!” 

With more northerly wind this morning but after Saturday’s success I decided to try my luck again at the feeding station. When I arrived a Barn Owl was hunting the fields, even flying about my ringing station where soon I would find out there weren’t any new migrants and even the Goldfinches mostly absent.

Barn Owl

Just three Goldfinches this morning, and as if to reinforce the previous point about “still much to learn”, one of the Goldfinch bore a ring D130275 from elsewhere. I suspect it may be from across the other side of Morecambe Bay as a recent Goldfinch control here, D137544 had been ringed last autumn at Heysham some 20kms away.

 Goldfinch D137544 - Heysham 22nd Oct 2012 to Out Rawcliffe 28th Feb 2013

Goldfinch

The 7 birds caught today, 3 Goldfinch, 2 Dunnock, 1 Willow Warbler and surprise, surprise, a recapture of the Little Bunting first ringed here on 13th March. Upon examination I aged it once again as a second calendar year female. The bird now has more colouration in the face with the whitish eye ring more conspicuous. I reckon by now the poor creature is well and truly lost and therefore highly unlikely to find a route to north-east Europe or northern Asia where it should be now. Even less likely is that it will find a mate here in the wilds of the Lancahire mosses.

Little Bunting

Little Bunting

Not much doing on the migration front with a single Lesser Whitethroat singing nearby, one Lesser Redpoll over and several Swallows heading north. The 18/20 Whimbrel in the next fields have been there some days now and if only I could get as close to a Whimbrel here in Lancashire as the one I photographed in January's Fuerteventura holiday.

Whimbrel

Otherwise stuff - 4 Yellowhammer in song, 7+ Whitethroat, 6+ Willow Warbler, 15 Tree Sparrow, 8 Corn Bunting, 4 Reed Bunting, 2 Buzzard, 2 Wheatear and 2 Kestrel. 

Yellowhammer

It has been cold for weeks now but I know for sure things will warm up soon on Another Bird Blog, so log in later to see why.

Meanwhile take a look at Stewart's gallery down in Australia where it just has to be warmer than here -  http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.com.au/