Out For The Count

There's is a lot of rain due today following a rather "lively" week. Lively as in  mixed and unpredictable rather than intellectually stimulating, a week of windy days and restricted activities.

So for now I’m stuck in at the computer and able to answer a question posed by a blog reader recently - “How are you at counting pickles in a pickle jar and candy in a candy jar...guess that would make for good practice. How do you get your numbers anyway...had to ask?”. 

I’d never thought that counting pickles in a jar could be similar to counting birds but in actual fact the same principles apply. 

Here is a summary of bird counting techniques methods which I and many other birders use when out in the field. I dotted the text with photographs of groups or flocks of birds for readers’ on-going practice and consideration. 

Many birding projects ask participants to count birds, and most birders I know enjoy keeping a count of the birds they see whenever they are in the field. Counting each individual bird seen can be challenging, but it can also provide valuable information for scientific research. As populations of birds change, mostly downwards, fluctuations in counts at the same locality at the same time of year may indicate shifts in pollution levels, habitat loss, migration timing and more. 

One is simple even if it does fly off as soon as the shutter activates. After that things become more difficult.

Little Egret - One

Woodpigeons - How Many?

Annual projects such as the Breeding Bird Survey, Common Birds Census, Garden Bird Survey, BirdTrack, Wetland Bird Survey or the Ringing Scheme are different types of bird census projects which over several years accumulate a massive amount of data about numbers of birds in different locations. The data would be impossible to gather without the help of every participant. However the more accurate a count is, the more useful the data is for conservation projects and ornithological research. 

There are various ways to count birds depending on the birds present, the size of the flock and how the flock is behaving. Techniques include: 

Individual Counts: When just a few, recognisable birds are present, each individual bird can be easily counted without fear of major miscalculations. This basic one-two-three technique works best when the birds are clearly seen and slow moving so that individual birds will not be counted multiple times.

Grouping: Counting birds in numeric groups is an easy method for totalling small or medium-sized flocks. With practice birders can easily learn to count birds not one by one, but five by five, ten by ten, and with practice, fifty by fifty. This allows for a faster count while still keeping the increments small enough for precise numbers. 

Oystercatcher - 240/260?

Grids or Counting in Blocks: This counting system is most often used with larger, single species flocks where the birds are relatively stationary. The field of view is divided into a grid or block of even sections where the birds in one section are counted as close to individually as possible. Multiplying this count by the number of grids or block sections in the flock can give a reasonable estimate of the total number of birds. 

Whooper Swan - circa 65/70?

Selective Counting: When a large flock of birds has some obvious mixed species, it may be possible to selectively count all the birds easily. First, pinpoint the more unusual birds in the flock and count them individually, then use the grid/block technique on the bulk of the birds. This provides not only a good count of the flock size, but also represents the diversity of the birds present. 

Proportions: When a mixed flock has too many species for selective counting, a good estimate can be made by counting proportions of the species present. Similar to the grid/block technique, only one section of the flock is counted, but each different species is noted individually, and the proportions are used to calculate the total number of birds of each species in the entire flock. This technique is best when a flock is heavily mixed and each species is spread throughout the flock. 

Timing: When a flock is moving quickly, it can be impossible to create a grid/block or to count birds individually, since the movement will obscure other birds and make any estimate less accurate. A timing count can be used by focusing on a fixed point the flock is passing, and counting the number of birds passing that point in a certain period of time, such as a few minutes. Then the entire amount of time it takes for the whole flock to pass is noted, and the count is multiplied by the number of increments in that overall time to gauge its full size. This system can also be employed during times of visible migration or massed flight e.g. Swallows, Meadow Pipits or finches passing overhead or through a fixed point. 

Wigeon - circa 70?

Photographs: A digital photograph can be used for an accurate count if the entire flock can be photographed. The photo is then manipulated on a computer or printed out and individual birds are marked off as they are counted. This is a time-consuming method but can be very precise for a reliable count when high levels of accuracy are necessary. 

Sanderling - 65/70?

Practice is essential to develop and refine bird counting skills. The more frequently someone counts birds, the more comfortable they will be with each count made while knowing the data collected is accurate and therefore more valuable. Other ways to enhance the methods of counting birds include: 

Maintaining a notebook at hand to write down a record of birds counted, particularly when counting over a longer period of time. With notes there is less need to “guesstimate”. 

Allow for density when counting flocks, particularly when using grid or timing techniques. Birds are often less dense on the outer edges of the flock, and if grid sections are not balanced a count can be significantly off. 

Work to be as accurate as possible, but when necessary, choose to underestimate rather than overestimate the numbers of birds seen. This will help correct for any inadvertent errors, such as birds that were counted more than once. 

Counting birds can add a new dimension to birding, by not only keeping track of the numbers of birds seen but also making the birding so much more purposeful and useful for conservation science. 

Remember that counting birds may not be an exact science but it is a highly enjoyable one. 

Pink-footed Geese - +500? 

Meanwhile, and in view of the parlous state of  many bird species, I think that very soon there will be very few birds left for anyone to count.

For those of a certain age. Does the Joni Mitchell song from 1961 ring a warning bell?

Insert the word "birds" in place of "trees"

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone?
They paved paradise, put up a parking lot.

They took all the trees
Put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see 'em 

Please log in to Another Bird Blog soon - I'm counting on it.

Brambling Prize

In most UK winters the Brambling is a difficult one to find but a bird to prize. These cousins of the ubiquitous Chaffinch live north and east of here on the borders of Finland & Russia, venturing this far west in irregular numbers and unpredictable years. 

At the feeding station I‘ve listened for the nasal wheeze, watched the feeders and the ground beneath for weeks while studying the hedgerow for a flash of white rump amongst the Chaffinches. And then on Wednesday, joy of joys, at last a Brambling, crouching amongst half a dozen Chaffinches, an orange neighbour, reward for the seed drops and the interminable car washing after the tortuous muddy farm track. 

Brambling

 

The finches scattered for no reason when I saw that the Brambling, now in a nearby tree, was male, perhaps even an adult but not for definite until and if we catch the star. 

Not that there’s any ringing just yet while Avian Flu is still nearby and APHA, the Animal & Plant Health Agency drag their feet on giving the all clear. Seven weeks, going on eight while waiting to hear when we can collect information for conservation. In the meantime and if at a loose end I could take up shooting birds as that’s allowed. Shooters have a route to the top, ringers do not. 

A couple of Reed Buntings, 3 Greenfinch, a couple of Blackbirds and 20 or more Linnets completed the count as I scattered more seed in the base of the hedgerow where even the Sparrowhawk’s long legs won’t reach. 

Here, and later back home, garden Greenfinches were in song, more species that so soon can see that spring is about to sprung. I saw Brown Hares on the move too, three together in the first of their Mad March ways. 

Greenfinch

Chaffinch

I left the Pilling farm and drove to Cockerham where at weekend Andy and I had prepared the seed plot for our now annual whoosh netting of Linnets and the sometime bonus of Skylarks and Stonechats. But never the wary Stock Doves that scatter at the sight of a vehicle. 

For the uninitiated, the idea of a whoosh net is to propel a fine net over ground feeding birds via elasticated bungees. The method is somewhat hit and miss as it requires the said birds to land in the tiny designated/prepared area and settle there long enough for the net to whoosh over them. Oh how we laughed when sitting for hours watching Linnets fly round and around without showing any interest in a mound of fresh, tasty bird seed that would mysteriously disappear before our next visit. 

Prepping the Square

 

The local Kestrel hovered above, and never one to miss a trick, has discovered the seed to be a regular source of animal protein. I dropped more rats and mouse seed and promised the 60+ Linnets we’d be back when APHA and BTO give us the thumbs up. 

Kestrel

 

After a number of years of sympathetic farming the most recent owner of Braides Farm has vandalised the place, torn out every perching fence and singing post, filled and levelled the vegetated ditches, built a huge midden of earth, and now imported hundreds of sheep to eat what’s left of the once green landscape. 

If there are any Skylarks this year, they’d best keep clear of grazing sheep. In the distance and mostly on an adjacent farm were up to 100 Whooper Swans and not much else. Once again, it’s “follow the money” to see that conservation and wildlife hits rock bottom in the Tory Grand Plan to level down. 

At least at Conder Green there are birds to see if a little early for the return of the bad boys the Avocets, black and white birds represented today by three Shelduck recently returned from their winter in the Wadden Sea, Dutch or German, take your pick. 

Shelduck

 

A single Little Grebe proved hard to locate, they too are heading back from whence they came for the coming spring. Wigeon were in good numbers of 60 or more, some hidden behind the islands while the tiny Teal were so numerous but scattered throughout that any count would be very inaccurate. 

Wigeon

Five Snipe moved around the mound of the near island and not seeming to hide as they mostly do, perhaps feeling safer on an island. Small numbers of Redshank, Oystercatcher and Curlew finished the wader scene. 

Time flies when having fun even if it’s the many and varied birds of spring that I’m really after so I headed home for a cup of coffee and to search my emails for one from APHA. 

No luck. Try again another day. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

 

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.

Headline Birds

Friday. There was a frosty outlook and a cold south-easterly and I was ready for a spot of fresh air birding. 

Once again a hunting Barn Owl stole the morning headlines as it put on a short display over Stalmine Moss. Soon it was gone, back to roost in a nearby barn. The Barn Owl is well named; although in parts of the UK they nest in hollow trees, cavities or tree-mounted boxes, in this region of Lancashire they nest in newish agricultural buildings where provision has been made, or where they still exist, older type barns yet to be “modernised”. 

Barn Owl 

At Fluke Hall I was in time to see 100+ Whooper Swans land behind the sea wall fresh from their roost on the nearby marsh. Hardly had they settled when a shooter/farmer plus Border Collie arrived on a quad, unbolted the metal gate, drove across the field and scattered the swans into the red of the morning sky. The swans take some of the shooters’ bait laid to pull in wild geese, wildfowl and their released game birds but thankfully the swans are “protected”. 

My own seed drop at Gulf Lane was for a different reason and upon arrival I saw a flock of 60 or more Linnets circling the plot. I walked the icy path in trainers and scattered a full bucket of millet and rape seed, retraced my steps to the car and then watched as the Linnet flock grew. Perhaps the frosty start moved them from other sites but they certainly seemed hungry, so much so that within thirty or forty minutes the flock grew to between 220/260 birds that piled as one into the seed. There was a single Stock Dove in our net ride and also a Snipe that flew from the adjacent drainage ditch. This winter has seen very few Stock Doves in contrast to the winter of 2017/2018 when up to a dozen could be seen here most days. 

Stock Dove 

Conder Green seemed strangely quiet with a distinct lack of anything “new” and just the usual crew of ducks – Teal down to 140, Wigeon steady at 64, Mallards present, and 5 Little Grebe. Even waders were sparse in the frosty creeks and on the surrounding grassy margins - 55 Curlew, 40+ Lapwing and 25 Redshank. 

Teal 

Wigeon 

The story continued with an uneventful run up to Cockersands where lingering Fieldfares scattered from the roadside trees then leapfrogged ahead as they looked for the last of the berries. Near the caravan park and around the dilapidated barns were 4 Pied Wagtails and a single Grey Wagtail. It was noticeable how as they all fed around the yard the Pied Wagtails were the dominant species as each in turn chased the Grey Wagtail to the edges of the area. 

Grey Wagtail 

Alongside the white frosted marsh was a small flock of 8 Greenfinch, 3 Reed Buntings, a couple each of Chaffinch and Tree Sparrow. 

The Greenfinch; not too long ago this was a ubiquitous bird of farmland and garden that birders could ignore, safe in the knowledge that commonality would ensure the species' continued success. How wrong we were; the Greenfinch has become a headline bird, one to notice and to then report as something of a rarity. 

Greenfinch 

Meanwhile birds featured in other headline news. “200 Turkeys Vote For Christmas” and “A Lame Duck Flaps Into Brussels” ran just two of the comical stories. The nation laughed out loud until tears ran down our collective ruddy cheeks. 

If politicians were an endangered species we might all sleep safer in our beds.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday,  Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday. 

Set-Aside Again

The weather has been kind to our recent ringing plans by way of minimal winds and little in the way of rain. It was the same this morning with a forecast of clear skies overnight followed by a light frost and virtually no wind. Andy and I met next to the set-aside plot at Cockerham where Linnets home in each morning to what seems to be a mix well suited to their needs. The forecast proved spot on with a dusting of frost on the crop together with a pretty cold start in the half-light of dawn. 

We caught Linnets steadily to the accompaniment of geese calling overhead interspersed with the occasional gunshot. We saw two pinkies drop from the sky this morning. The shooting group along this stretch of Pilling and Cockerham Marsh is Morecambe Bay Wildfowlers. They have a membership of approximately 150 participants whose limit each is shooting on three days a week throughout the winter season. Apparently the club has a waiting list of potential members who might wait four or five years to be accepted, such is the demand for places caused by the vast concentrations of numbers of wildfowl quarry in the winter months. 

A typical mid-winter count of the most common wildfowl along this single stretch of coast and dependent on the weather and other factors might be: 8/10,000 Pink-footed Goose, 2,000 Shelduck, 5,000 Wigeon, 1800 Teal, 300 Mallard and 200 Pintail. No wonder the shooters love the place as much as the birders. 

Teal

Wigeon

Once again this morning Pink-footed Geese flew off the marsh in almost continuous skeins for at least four hours and a guesstimate of 20,000/30,000 individuals. Many pinkies still arrive from Iceland and the recent mild weather seems to be delaying their onward migration to both Norfolk and south Lancashire. 

We heard lots of distant Whooper Swans but less than twenty flew above us with most heading off towards Fluke Hall where more than a hundred have been noted in recent days. As the morning warmed up a good number of waders appeared to feed on the fields nearest the sea wall. We approximated counts of 1000+ Lapwings, 700 Golden Plover, 100 + Curlew and 20+ Redshank. 

In the picture below Andy checks the nets in the set-aside crop for Linnets. In the background the bund of the sea wall is visible together with the distant Lakeland fells on the far side of Morecambe Bay and the tall white buildings of Heysham Nuclear Power Station some 15 miles away as the crow flies. Click the pic for a view across Morecambe Bay.

Ringing in the set-aside

We had a pretty good catch of Linnets with another 25 to add to our autumn total plus a new bird for the site in the form of 2 Wrens. In all we saw about 200 Linnets in our stay but we have yet to recapture one out of the 100+ caught in the last 3 weeks. This of course suggests a high turnover of mainly different birds birds rather than the same birds returning each day.

Linnet Ringing Station

Linnet

 Wren

Andy seems to have timed his six days in Spain to coincide with a change of weather here in Lancashire as a low pressure system brings winds and more changeable weather. We’ll see. 

Log in soon and find out what is happening on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today with http://paying-ready-attention-gallery.blogspot.co.uk/.

Water, Water, Everywhere

Wheel Lane was under water again, a foot or so deep in places as I made my way towards the coast road. Luckily I was in the 4x4 so kept going until the relative dry of Fluke Hall Lane and Backsands Lane as Whooper Swans and Pink-footed Geese flew from their marsh roost and headed inland. 

Distant gunfire told me the shooters were hidden on Cockerham Marsh where they lie in wet, muddy gullies waiting for the geese to fly overhead. It’s a harder sport than bird watching but comes with the chance of a Christmas goose and/or a dose of influenza. Their two parked vehicles stood at Gulf Lane, vacant dog cages sat on the flat backs. 

I stopped to look for the Linnet flock and single Stonechat of late. About 160 Linnets were circuiting, waiting for a chance to stop and feed near their favoured weedy spot which almost abuts the busy main road that is the A588. The Linnets had a few seconds or maybe up to a minute of food before the next vehicle sped by to send the flock into the air and start the sequence all over again. I wondered if the Linnets felt as I do when sat down for a meal and someone knocks on the door to sell me something I don’t want or the telephone rings with yet another of those nuisance calls? There was no sign of the Stonechat. 

Linnet

A stop at Braides Farm revealed 2 Little Egrets but no waders on the floods. There seems to be a contradiction at the moment whereby the many flooded fields which cover the local landscape hold very few waders. 

There was more to see at Conder Green where the pool-now-lake and the incoming tidal creeks held 195 Teal, 100+ Mallard,18 Wigeon, 22 Redshank, 8 Little Grebe, 5 Tufted Duck, 5 Snipe, 2 Curlew and a Grey Heron. 

Wigeon

Something of a surprise came when a Water Rail fluttered low from one side of the slowly filling creek to the other before diving into the safety of the marsh grass. It was a typical sighting of this skulking and secretive species, one that is notoriously difficult to see in its wetland habitat. Water Rails are often very vocal, especially in the breeding season and the wintertime when their unique squeals and grunts betray their presence a yard or two away from a hopeful but unseeing birder. 

Although their flight looks weak Water Rails are capable of long sustained flights during their nocturnal migrations. British-ringed birds have been recovered from as far away as Poland, Czechoslovakia and Sweden. Play the video - it's a better view than I had this morning.

Towards the old railway I found a couple of Chaffinch and Greenfinch, a vocal Reed Bunting, and the expected Pied Wagtail. 

Reed Bunting

At Glasson Dock the yacht basin held 21 Tufted Duck, 11 Goldeneye, 1 Great Crested Grebe and a handful of Cormorants. A walk of the basin perimeter and the roadside hawthorns gave up a dozen or more Long-tailed Tits, a single Goldcrest and more than a handful of Blackbirds.

Glasson Dock

The Plan was to stay out birding a little longer but rain was moving in from the west. It was time to head home and blog what I had. 

“A” Good Day

These fine mornings are too good to waste, especially since we are promised a day or two of downpours next; so I set off early to make hay and visit a few regular birding spots. 

Morning Has Broken 

Swallows have been fidgety all week with small gangs of them along roadside wires and others more obviously moving south during the day. As I drove along Head Dyke Lane through Stalmine and Pilling I noted several groups of roadside Swallows, one of which numbered 100+ birds close to a likely looking roosting site. 

At Glasson Dock I found more than 30 Swallows feeding around the moored boats and over the yacht basin. While not a huge count it was more than I’ve seen there all year with my own observations suggesting that some Swallow pairs have managed to produce just one brood of chicks this year. 

 Swallow

Today the first signs of an increase in Coots with a count of 18 although Tufted Ducks remain at a handful. There was the usual Grey Heron fishing from the jetty and a Cormorant diving nearby but both fly off towards the estuary at the first signs of human activity. A couple of Pied Wagtails fed around the lock gates together with a handful of Goldfinches and the regular Collared Doves. 

I walked part of the old railway path and picked up on a dozen or so flighty Goldfinches, 2 Whitethroats and 2 Willow Warblers, the warblers being the first for a good number of days if not weeks of the species’ absence during our lost summer. 

Whitethroat

At Conder Green I glimpsed the Kingfisher in a fly past before seeing the standard wading fare of 160 Redshank, 90 Lapwing, 4 Common Sandpiper, 3 Snipe, 1 Greenshank and 3 Little Egret. Ducks and grebes etc - 3 Little Grebe, 4 Teal, 2 Shelduck, 1 Tufted Duck and 1 Wigeon. 

The Wigeon, in theory a winter visitor, has been around the pool throughout the summer and is perhaps missing the company of its own species by the way it trails in the wake of the local Mallards. It does though remain very wild and difficult to photograph at close quarters. 

Wigeon

On my way to Fluke Hall I called at Lane Ends, Pilling to have 5 Little Egrets, 1 Little Grebe and 1 Sparrowhawk. At Fluke Hall there was a Jay in the woodland together with 2 Buzzard, while along the hedgerows I found a Whitethroat and a Willow Warbler and then towards Ridge Farm a single Corn Bunting. 

This once abundant and common farmland species, and as advised a number of times on this blog, now clings to existence by a single thread in this part of coastal Lancashire. This area once grew crops which people could eat - carrots, potatoes and all manner of vegetables, and where the left over winter stubble would feed Corn Buntings, Yellowhammers and finches galore. Nowadays the same fields are crammed with cattle and sheep. Our bellies are full of meat but the birds have gone for ever. 

Corn Bunting

I spent a while enjoying the sunshine at Knott End and saw 100+ Sandwich Tern, 1400 Oystercatcher, 130 Dunlin, 28 Bar-tailed Godwit, 3 Grey Heron, 30+ Swallows on the move, and a couple of Eider duck floating on the flat iron sea. 

Now wasn’t that a good day’s birding? 

Knott End, Lancashire

By the way, did you know that Google has renamed itself Alphabet? But if you do a search tomorrow you will still find Another Bird Blog listed under “A”.

Linking today to Anni and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

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. 

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