Hot-Spot Cold-Spot

The still northerly breeze meant no ringing but the early morning sun dictated a birding trip to the customary hot-spots, starting at Conder Green. 

On Saturday four Avocets fed together but today it was back to perhaps an earlier pair, probably the two that arrived a couple of weeks ago. Following a good few days of sunnier if not necessarily warm weather the female is now sat on a nest. 

Meanwhile the two second year Avocets that spent a few hours here on Saturday morning seemed to have gone and were merely passing through on their way north and/or east. Avocets don’t normally breed until their third year whereby second year birds make up the numbers in the colonies that Avocets sometimes, but not always choose to breed. Conder Green is large enough for several pairs of Avocets but that is not necessarily a good thing as the species can be very aggressive in seeing off all opposition, large or small. 

There was no such aggression today, mainly because there was little for the Avocets to complain about. The usual water birds comprised 2 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 6 Tufted Duck, 8 Teal, 16 Shelduck and 2 Little Egret. A Kingfisher put in another brief appearance by flying through the creek, up and over the road, and then across the pool and out of sight. 

Passerines were hard to come by except for singles of Blackcap, Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Reed Bunting and Meadow Pipit in the scrubby habitat next to the main road. I’m seeing only male Whitethroats just yet but not in great numbers. The continual north winds, blocking high pressure and below average temperatures must be holding many migrant birds back on the south coast or beyond. 

Whitethroat

 

26th April

Meadow Pipit

As I drove off from Conder Green a Kestrel hovered over the marsh and for a few seconds pulled in a couple of complaining Swallows. I didn’t see too many Swallows during the morning, just one or two House Martins, and I didn’t stop to survey the Sand Martins at Bank Lane. 

The marsh at the end of Bank Lane was very quiet, the best I could muster being singles of Whimbrel and Grey Heron, and then 6 Pied Wagtail. 

Whimbrel

I spent quite a while along Jeremy Lane, Moss Lane and up to Cockersands. I had Wheatear, Chiffchaff, Reed Bunting, Linnet, Goldfinch, 3 Sedge Warblers and 3 Whitethroat. Just as feared, a number of fields that held Lapwings and Skylarks have been ploughed just as ground nesting birds have eggs and/or tiny young. I found a pair of Skylark in one regular spot but at another unvarying spot of the last few weeks - nothing. A good few fields had been ploughed right up to the fence line and the 80/100 Lapwings of recent weeks seem well down, replaced today by 8 Stock Doves attracted by the turned soil. 

Skylark

Lapwing

Near Lighthouse Cottage a male Whitethroat was in full song and showy mood for the females yet to arrive. His singing and display circuit proved easy to suss: the overhead wire and then the tallest bushes of the roadside plot, followed by a scurry along the roadside fence where sprigs of bramble provided cover. A singing Sedge Warbler stuck to the vegetation and wasn’t as obliging as the Whitethroat. 

An adult male Whitethroat has a lovely pink wash across the breast upon first arrival in late April but the healthy glow soon vanishes during the rough and tumble of a British summer. 

Whitethroat

Whitethroat

Sedge Warbler

Whitethroat

I may be out on Friday if the weather holds good. Log in then for more news, views and photos.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday.

A Close Call

I didn’t venture far but stuck to Pilling with a wander around Fluke Hall. I hoped for a few newly arrived birds and a chance to check out the resident nesting species. 

Hardly anyone walks along the road that cuts through the trees at Fluke Hall. In the early morning there’s just a procession of cars loaded with dogs. Buy a dog and get fit. But first you have to load the animals into a vehicle and then transport them miles from your home to take part in the walk, preferably with dozens of similarly minded people. And then at the end you load the dogs up again and drive back home? Is it me? 

In between the noise of vehicles rushing past me the bird song and random calls returned, but finding a small bird in the now burgeoning spring growth is a difficult business. It’s when a birder’s trained ears become the first weapon of choice and binoculars an afterthought. Of summer migrants I located Chiffchaffs, Willow Warblers and Blackcaps, at least three each of the first two and a single only of the latter. 

Willow Warbler

There were Goldfinch a plenty, Blackbird galore, the chatter of Tree Sparrows, the drumming and “chick” calls of Great-spotted Woodpeckers, and even the rarity of a singing Greenfinch to enjoy. Rarer still I spotted a pair of Treecreepers moving though the higher branches. The species is now so locally scarce that seeing one is something of an occasion. 

Blackbird

The everyday stuff of Blue and Great Tits, Dunnocks, Robins, Wrens and Starlings added to the woodland feast. Wood Pigeons clattered from the trees when I walked past their resting places as a pair of the less boisterous and much shyer Stock Doves flew silently from the canopy. Crows alerted me to a male Sparrowhawk which circled above before the crows won the day and the hawk retreated to cover. 

A Starling dried out in the sun after a bath while singing and wing-flicking to his mate. Although superficially the same at this time of the year, a close up view of each sex will show that a male has a blue base to the bill, whereas the opposite sex prefers a feminine shade of pink. 

Starling

A good selection of species then, and a pleasant hour or two of birding, but more than one species was missing. There was no sight or sound of Song Thrush or Mistle Thrush, an absence of Kestrels near their regular nest box, no mewing from overhead Buzzards and few birds newly arrived. And where are the Goldcrests this spring?

Such is the incentive and ultimate reward for knowing and learning one site over many years rather than dashing here, there and everywhere in pursuit of “message birds”. 

Along the marsh I found a Curlew and a Whimbrel close to each other, two species which are sometimes confused by inexperienced birdwatchers, perhaps because it is not always easy to make a side by side comparison. The Curlew is the bigger of the two, with a body size which rivals that of a large Gull, whereas a Whimbrel is closer to the size of a Black-headed Gull, but if they’re not standing next to each other there is no direct comparison. 

Curlew and Whimbrel

The Whimbrel Numenius phaeopus and the Curlew Numenius arquata are close relations in the large family of Scolopacidae - waders or shorebirds. The family includes many species called sandpipers, as well as those called by names such as curlew and snipe or ”shank”, although there is but a single whimbrel. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked from the mud or soil. Different lengths of bill enable different species to feed in the same habitat, particularly on the coast, without direct competition for food. 

Inland of the marsh were dashing Skylarks, displaying Lapwings, Redshank and Oystercatcher, a Reed Bunting, a pair of Pied Wagtails, a Wheatear and a Whinchat. 

Whinchat

There was nearly a sticky end for the Whinchat when a male Sparrowhawk appeared from nowhere, flew low and fast, slowed montarily and then stretched out a talon to grab the chat. The Whinchat spotted the hawk at the very last second and dropped out of view. 

Phew, that was a close call. 

Did everyone "click the pics" for better views of the birds? No problem, just head back and start all over.

Birding In The Sun

Sue and I are in Lanzarote, Spain. Until we return home here are more photos of Lanzarote together with some of the birds met along the way. 

At any time of year near perfect weather is more or less guaranteed in the Canary Islands. It gets windy sometimes and storms aren’t totally unknown, but at the moment it’s sun every day and temperatures hovering between 21- 23C. Whenever we go the attire is nearly always shorts and a tee shirt with a light jacket as backup for the cool of morning or evening. 

All over the island of Lanzarote is the influence of the visionary artist, architect and environmentalist César Manrique who saved Lanzarote from the effects of rampant tourist development. His unusual creations emphasise the unique landscapes and geology of the island and are a major attraction to travellers. 

 

Fondación César Manrique - Near Tahiche, Lanzarote. 

Agave attenuata - Lanzarote

Lanzarote is rain-free for 95% of the year producing a near desert like environment in many places. It’s a landscape attractive to three speciality birds of the island, Houbara Bustard, Cream-coloured Courser and Stone Curlew but none of them are easy to find in the type of terrain they inhabit.

Houbara Bustard

Stone Curlew 

Beware! - Bustards about

Watermelon - Lanzarote

Berthelot’s Pipits are fairly common if sometimes difficult to pick out against the often grey, volcanic landscape. They are known to run around the feet of the tourists where there’s often a morsel or two of food, preferably the local queso tierno (tender cheese). Just occasionally I have seen Berthelot’s Pipits in the grounds of the hotel, once whilst lazing on a sunbed as the pipit walked along a nearby path. They also occur in nearby residential areas in amongst unfinished roads or housing developments, as do Desert Grey Shrikes, Linnets, Spanish Sparrows and Collared Doves.

Berthelot's Pipit

A favourite drive is to head south along the coast to the village of El Golfo where we stop for a coffee or a snack followed by a walk along the headland where Yellow-legged Gulls abound but Lesser Black-backed Gulls are more common at migration time. There’s usually a Little Egret to be found amongst the rocks, together with small numbers of Common Sandpiper, Turnstone or Whimbrel.

El Golfo - Lanzarote

Yellow-legged Gull

Little Egret

Whimbrel

Turnstone

Thank you everyone for continuing to visit Another Bird Blog in my absence. If you leave a comment I promise to get back to you as soon as possible via the hotel WiFi. Failing that I will return your message as soon as possible when back in England.

A Quiet Day

There wasn’t much doing at Fluke Hall. A flock of 25+ Linnets indicated at least some partial local breeding success, the group being near enough the most I’ve seen all year. The woodland seemed devoid of anything out of the ordinary with just Blackbirds, Wrens, Tree Sparrows, Goldfinches, and the usual mix of Blue and Great Tit. No warblers again and this is a very strange and apparently unproductive year for many of our “little brown jobs”. 

Although there was a stiff breeze from the North West I decided to walk the sea wall so as to check the ditches, the shore and a couple of other spots which occasionally produce a bird or two. Two Whimbrel were feeding along the shore but quickly departed south with their customary rippling whistles when they spotted yours truly coming along. Near the end of the 19th century hunting on the Whimbrel migration routes took a heavy toll on numbers and although the population has since recovered, they retain their fear of man.

These migrant Whimbrels are done with breeding now and heading back to the coast of Africa where they spend the winter. 

Whimbrel

There was a Green Sandpiper along the ditch plus a couple of Little Egrets and just 2 Lapwings on a muddy stretch. 

Driving past Gulf Lane I spotted a distant Buzzard on a fence post but the road too busy to stop. When I pulled into the gateway at Braides Farm there was another Buzzard on a yet another distant post. Buzzards live in a nearby wood where the farmer doesn’t mind me taking a look occasionally as long as I don’t damage his fences. A young Buzzard was calling for food from high in the trees as the adults circled above and protested about me being around. I took a few shots and departed the trees before heading for the stillness of a Glasson Dock morning. 

Buzzard

Buzzard

Three Tufted Ducks have made it back to the deep waters of Glasson. They are young birds, their appearance a  sign of more tufties to follow in the months ahead when their numbers build to 40 or 50 or maybe 70 or 80 in a colder but unfreezing winter when they can dive for food. A handful of Coots, a few Moorhen and a family party of 9 Mute Swans completed the waterbirds. 

Glasson Dock

Tufted Duck

Three Pied Wagtails commuted between the bowling green and the towpath while across the water a lone Grey Heron stalked along the old jetty as it watched the water below for signs of a meal. Swifts have mainly departed these shores and it’s just ones and twos I see now especially here at Glasson which has tall old buildings where Swifts can enter. A handful of Swallows lined the rails of the lock gates but I think and hope that the adults are on with a second brood on the ledges below. 

Grey Heron

juvenile Swallow

A walk along the canal towpath produced little more than a solitary Blackcap, a Song Thrush, and several Tree Sparrows. But my birding pass had expired with not even enough time for Conder Green. 

Not to worry, there’s always tomorrow or another day on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Weekend Reflections and Theresa's Run A Round Ranch .

What's The Weather Back Home?

Here are a few more pictures from Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain where the temperature hovers around the 21°C mark, just the job to shift those winter blues. 

Birding here isn’t the easiest in the world with a limited number of species, some of which are difficult to find and none provided on a plate but it all makes for interesting and often exploratory days. This all works quite well as it leaves time for Sue and I to enjoy the touristy parts of the island or simply relax on a sunbed around the hotel pools. 

The tourists don’t hit the beaches too early after sampling the nightlife of Purto del Carmen the previous night so a morning walk surveying the deserted beach while looking for a coffee stop provides an agreeable morning. 

Puerto del Carmen, Lanzarote

Not too far from the promenade, the shops and the lines of sunbeds there’s an area of rocks and sand which hold Yellow-legged Gulls, Turnstones, Sanderlings and maybe one or two Whimbrel. 

Whimbrel

Sanderling

In the old and very picturesque part of the harbour Little Egrets and Turnstones search through the fishing boats hoping to grab a bite to eat. There are lots of gulls and at the harbour mouth a number of Sandwich Terns loafing away their time until a passing boat sends them back out to sea looking for a meal. 

Puerto del Carmen

Turnstone

Little Egret

Sandwich Tern

The waters off the Canary Islands are rich in Atlantic breeding seabirds, including large numbers of Cory's Shearwaters, Manx Shearwaters, the rare Barolo's Shearwater, White-faced Storm-petrel, Madeiran Storm-petrel and European Storm-petrel, while the list of other regularly-occurring pelagic seabirds includes Wilson's Storm-petrel. 

Watching the sea along the southerly coastline here can result in sightings of whales and dolphins including the Short-Finned Pilot Whale and Common and Bottlenose Dolphins, and it is said that Hammerhead Sharks and Loggerhead Turtles are present. The Canary Islands were also formerly home to a population of the rarest pinniped in the world, the Mediterranean Monk Seal. 

From the hotel I have seen distant whales in past years so keep a look out although I’m more likely to see one of the many ocean going yachts moored locally. 

Yacht at Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

Back at our hotel there are a couple of walks across the often parched landscape might provide Houbara Bustard or Cream-coloured Courser. Oases of greenery including gardens can turn up the goods like Trumpeter Finch, Desert Grey Shrike, Collared Dove, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Berthelot’s Pipit and Spanish Sparrow.

Calero, Lanzarote

Spanish Sparrow

Trumpeter Finch

Desert Grey Shrike

Hotel Costa Calero

This week I found nesting Desert Grey Shrike, breeding Stone Curlew, Houbara Bustards and a pair of Trumpeter Finches yards from the hotel.

It’s back to normal in the UK very soon on Another Bird Blog. Stay tuned.

Wheatears Are Back, Wagtails Are Wow

Wednesday saw my first Wheatear of late summer near Fluke Hall. The Wheatear christened Hi-Fly’s shiny new gate with a derisory white blob before disappearing into the foot high maize crop. I waited for the chat to reappear as Wheatears mostly do but this one didn’t. I waved “Hi” to one of H-Fly’s gang constructing the pheasant pens for the autumn releases - goodness how the seasons fly by. 

Wheatear

It was a quiet couple of hours walk with little to report except for 10 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and a couple of single figure flocks of both Goldfinch and Linnet. There appeared to be a small movement of Swallows heading east along the sea wall but no more than 40 or so birds in two hours. 

Thursday’s early start saw a Barn Owl near Pilling village followed by a Corn Bunting in song where Gulf Lane meets Maniac Mile. It’s here on the straight road that bikers hit a ton or more on Sunday mornings when there’s no one but birders around. At either end of the straight there are deceiving bends where on more than one occasion the unwary have come to an unplanned stop on the wrong side of the fence.

Maniac Mile - Pilling to Cockerham

I stopped for a leisurely look at Braides Farm and then Crimbles added 45+ Lapwing, several Curlew and a Black-tailed Godwit before hitting the road to Glasson and elsewhere. Glasson held good numbers of Swallows both feeding around and resting upon moored boats. I counted 250+ Swallows and 2 Sand Martins. Not much doing near the dock except for 1 Grey Heron, 1 Common Tern and 1 Pied Wagtail. The Tufted Duck count was up to 15 here today, perhaps partly as a result of the low water levels at Conder Green, the ducks’ hangout for the last three months. 

Swallow

Tufted Duck

Walking the canal proved fairly fruitful and into the notebook went 8 Sedge Warbler, 4 Reed Warbler, 4 Reed Bunting, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Blackcap and several each of both Greenfinch and Goldfinch, as well as another 2 Grey Heron. 

Reed Warbler

Sedge Warbler

High tide at Cockersands added more species to the day by way of 350 Oystercatcher, 19 Eider, 65 Dunlin, 5 Whimbrel, 2 Ringed Plover, 1 Golden Plover, 2 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. 

Whimbrel

It was 11am, 5 hours from the start and just time for a quickie at Bank End where the tide was well short of its maximum at the foot of the sea wall. 

Bank End, Cockerham

There was the customary Little Egret, Tree Sparrows, Goldfinches and a Willow Warbler in the line of trees and Pied Wagtails on the marsh. The wagtails might hold a yellow one, that scarce beast which turns up intermittently these days, so it was worth scanning the marsh. 

Wow! An amazing count of 130+ Pied Wagtails, and this not an early morning post-roost gathering or an evening pre-roost assembly, it was 11am. 

Pied Wagtails

Pied Wagtail

Less than 10% of the wagtails were adult birds the remainder being birds of the year. 2014 is turning out to be a wonderful summer for birding and it looks like birds are making the most of it too.  

Log into Another Bird Blog soon for the latest news and views.

Linking today to Run A Round Ranch.