Short And Sweet

At last I was out to the old patch for a couple of hours where it really felt like the two weeks and more since my last visit, not just the elapsed time but the fact that while I was away the weather changed from autumn to winter; and now on December 1st the shortest day beckons. Fortunately the Fylde coast still has no real snow, just a smattering this afternoon to remind us that it is almost everywhere in the UK except around here where the sun shone brightly for me, if only for an hour or two.

Luckily I remembered the way down Wheel Lane, past a watching Kestrel to the stubble field, where the “Beware Flooded Road” sign should now read “Beware Ice” but it didn’t. I think the Whooper Swans have been around the whole time I was away and their numbers didn’t disappoint today at about 125 somewhat distant birds where their constant social activities keep the shallow water from freezing completely. I stepped out of the car to get a better look across the field and flushed a single Snipe from a sunny, thawing spot in the grass, but apart from the swans and a few dozen Pink-footed Geese, the entire fields seemed devoid of much else.

Kestrel
Whooper Swan

At Damside I stopped to clock the regular Little Owl near the sewage works where I also counted over 350 Curlew and 40 Lapwing, the Curlew using the longer grassed field, but the Lapwings split equally between that and the sheep grazed field opposite.

Lapwing

Lane Ends was quiet with both pools almost completely frozen, with just enough open water to allow the mixed ethnicity Mallards breathing space. Smaller birds were few and far between, with just 5 Robin, 4 Blackbird, 8 Moorhen and a single Pied Wagtail entered in my notebook. From the car park I counted 3 Little Egret out on the marsh and a male Sparrowhawk leaving the trees behind me before it continued along the sea wall. The sun still shone out so I continued up to Pilling Water where many hundreds of wildfowl fed in the partly frozen channel and others murmured along the grazed marsh. There were so many, packed so tight, some very distant, and with my reluctance to scare them off, my count is more a guesstimate; 500 Wigeon, 600 Teal and 300 Mallard, but if anyone cares to do a recount from the partial view below the figures may be different.

Wildfowl
Wigeon
Wigeon

Also up here, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Grey Heron flying inland, another Little Egret, plus 4 Snipe in the partially frozen ditches.

Snow clouds rolled in from the darker south and east as light flurries of the white stuff broke out, and at 1430 the light began to fade. Oh for the Cyprus light and sun! But instead I rode to Gulf Lane hoping for a winter afternoon Barn Owl or maybe a second frosty day Little Owl. Not quite, but I did get winter thrushes, 40 or so Fieldfares and 2 Pied Wagtails. Soon it was over, the weak snow persisted enough to keep the sky dark and by 1530 gulls and geese headed for their roosts, as did I.

Fieldfare

To Blog Or Not To Blog?

That was the question when I got back home after a couple of overcast, grey, showery, windswept hours at Pilling Water at lunchtime with a pretty full set of notes but a blank card in my camera and not much time on my hands.

There’s been big tides this week but I’ve been busy elsewhere so didn’t even get to Lane Ends and take advantage of the tides to get in a spot of wader watching. Not that the waders here are particularly watchable at close quarters, it’s just the spectacle of thousands of waders and wildfowl that is compelling, not to mention the almost guaranteed raptors. When tides are high they also run in very fast, as today. So speedy does the water advance and birds fly in all directions that a thorough count of all species becomes a two or three person job with counters assigned to particular species or groups of birds. If that sounds like an excuse I guess it’s an explanation that I know my count was not comprehensive but a snapshot of what was about with approximates of birds.

Wildfowl numbers are building quickly with my first token 28 Wigeon of the autumn out on the tide, vastly outnumbered by enormous numbers of Teal, upwards of 750. There were more Pintail today with c80 birds, and just fantastic to see them back in numbers as they fly across the marsh their elongated, elegant shape and silvery sheen so easy to pick out. Shelduck numbers have increased now with at least 230 birds on the roosts of the marsh or the ebbing tide. 3 Eider and 5 Great-crested Grebe made up the numbers of the wildfowl, but I didn’t count the Mallard.

Pintail
Shelduck
Wigeon

The easy waders counted were the oddities, conspicuous by their calls, 3 Greenshank, 4 Snipe, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and a single Spotted Redshank that called very loudly as it flew past and on towards Lane Ends. Plovers came in at 22 Grey Plover, 35 Golden Plover, 180 Lapwing and 40 Ringed Plover. There were large numbers of Oystercatcher pushed off lower roosts with many headed towards Cockerham where they roosted on the sea wall with yet others flying beyond the wall to the immediate fields. I reckoned at least 2500 birds today. My approximate counts of Redshank, Dunlin and Knot were 40, 60 and 30 respectively but tremendous numbers of Curlew at c700.

Redshank
Curlew
Dunlin

It wasn’t surprising in the windy and rainy conditions that I could find only small numbers of passerines with 1 Wheatear, 10 Goldfinch, 2 Skylark, 1 Meadow Pipit and 5 Linnet. Little Egrets today numbered 13.

Wheatear

The forecast for tomorrow gives only marginal conditions for a ringing session but fingers are crossed that the wind subsides.

Fixed

The Oystercatcher photograph helped me fix my computer problem. I fretted for a half a day over why I couldn’t print Word documents, multitasking between fiddling with various settings and looking through my latest photographs from Conder Green, Lane Ends and the moss. Then while doctoring the Oystercatcher picture on Photoshop I thought I would try to print a photograph; when the black of the oycs came out mottled and runny it finally dawned on me where the problem lay. So I fitted a new black ink cartridge that replaced a dodgy one and hey presto problem solved.

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
The Oystercatchers were in good voice, displaying over Conder Pool whilst they sorted out who would get the prime spot on the rocky little island. There was an Oystercatcher with a badly deformed bill that I guess won’t be a prime partner but through Photoshop I fixed it for the bird to have a smarter bill.

Oystercatcher
"Fixed" Oystercatcher
The rest of the birds came mainly in singles, Coot, Little Grebe, Snipe, Goldeneye and Canada Goose but 8 Wigeon, 6 Tufted Duck, 14 Teal in the shallows and 6 of the aforesaid Oystercatchers.

Canada Goose
Wigeon
Teal
I stopped off at Lane Ends where I caught up with the Fieldfare again, and where the buckthorn berries look less colourful and appetising everyday. A Kestrel perched out in the sun for about two seconds before it took to hiding. It’s difficult to fix photographs where branches make up most of the frame; the story of my life this last week. But then a Pied Wagtail in the car park compensated me a little.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Fieldfare
Pied Wagtail
Later on I went to Rawcliffe Moss to meet the other lads and cut some rides in readiness for the spring mist netting.So first I stopped off early to get pictures again and hopefully not many Photoshop fixes would be required on a bright blue afternoon with no branches to get in the way.

Chaffinch
Wren
Blackbird
Robin
Corn Bunting

Ducking Out

Nothing to report today. After cloud, rain and cold most of the day – all at the same time! I ducked out of doing much but I caught up on a lot of paperwork.

Maybe I should take a holiday to South East Asia as it is nice and warm there, where a Coot as a rare vagrant species is causing a stir in Sabah, Borneo. http://horukuru.blogspot.com/

But to keep the blog going here are a few more recent wildfowl pictures including a common or garden UK Coot.

Coot

Pintail

Pintail

Female Pintail


Shelduck

Wigeon

Let's hope for birding weather tomorrow.

Blue Sky Thinking

To use the phrase that seems to be fashionable at the moment with politicians, civil servants, trendy business types and teachers. It aptly described both the weather and my mood today because not only was it a really brilliant blue sky as I set off, but I hoped I my birding would be free of any preconceptions about what I might see and even better, without limits as to what I might encounter. The only limit was the time I set myself of being home for lunch in time to indulge in some grandparenting.

Although the air was clear it was also still frosty, enough for another layer of ice on the Fluke Hall Lane puddles and shallow floods where I struggled to see much at all. A party of 28 Whooper Swans stood in much the same spot as weekend, with about 30 Shelduck, and 120 Pink-footed Geese for company. Further along the lane the sun definitely stimulated spring in the air this morning with a couple of Lapwings tumbling around, and when a flock of them spooked, I watched a few males chase others off, and then stand defending their patch of ground. A male Starling posed against the blue for me in a roadside tree, and I took a photograph of a Greylag, that unexciting, unphotographed relative of Pink-footed Goose.

Lapwing

Starling

Greylag

I looked from Lane Ends car park where miles out, more large white swans 50+ ducked up and down from the skyline, and from the distant calls were probably all Whoopers. The fields normally dotted with waders were very quiet, even deserted, but at the entrance to Lane Ends 2 Fieldfares hopped over the frozen ground, before as my car passed, flying into the buckthorn where the berries still cluster.

Fieldfare

There was nothing for it really but to head up to CG where my forward scout from Tuesday reported a quiet period, but that would never deter either of us from revisiting this place. Even Braides held zero, just an open gate that hinted of recent vehicles on the birding fields.

At Conder Pool I counted 2 Coot, 2 Shoveler, 80 Teal, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Little Grebe, 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Lapwing, 3 Snipe,18 Wigeon and 12 Shelduck that chose that moment to disappear into the blue. But as they say “here’s one I did earlier” and also a head shot of a fabulous Wigeon.

Shelduck

Shelduck

Wigeon

Scores on the board at Glasson Dock: Tufted Duck 56, Pochard 8 and Coot 104, with an image from a couple of weeks ago when the heavens were equally cold and bright.

Coot

At Cockersands, Crook Farm end I noted a Kestrel at the junction then 8 Linnet and 2 Song Thrush below the road that quickly flew into the walled garden. Along the shore and in the shallows were a selection of slightly distant, common but simply still stunning waders, brightly lit in the clear sunshine: Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Redshank, Dunlin, Turnstone, Lapwing, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover. Off the scar I quickly noted 5 Eider and several hundred Wigeon but after the waders, didn’t have more time for lingering.

A quick tour round to the caravan park confirmed the presence of the “tidechat”, Saxicola torquata that always sits on the wrong side of the light, 2 Meadow Pipits, a smart male Reed Bunting, 4 Greenfinch and a single Rock Pipit.

Stonechat

Tempus fugit or some similar words, then home.

Broccoli Soup

I scooted round a few of the regular birding spots this morning without breaking speed limits or obtaining any record counts. Once again the waders returned to the Pilling fields after snow and rain yesterday and overnight made for good feeding. Between Backsands Lane to just east of Lane Ends I counted 90 Curlew, 600 Lapwing, 125 Redshank and 65 Golden Plover with 2 Ruff amongst the Lapwing providing an agreeable, unexpected extra. A few Oystercatchers also took advantage of the newly softened fields.

Lapwing

Oystercatcher

With limited time I didn’t stop at Braides, just a passing leftwards stare as I drove past but certainly there was not a lot in the immediate fields. At Conder pool a Dunnock in the “hide” window greeted me, demanding that I take a photograph, so I duly obliged not sure if I would see much afterwards from the said window.

Dunnock

The previous day’s weather had perhaps had an effect on the numbers of Tufted Duck because I counted 50+, a substantial improvement on recent numbers. Other wildfowl came in at 7 Wigeon, 2 Coot, 84 Teal and 2 Shelduck. I watched the Teal down in the creek where they sifted through the mud for something duckily delicious.

Teal

Teal

Wigeon

A couple of Grey Heron flew the around creeks and the pool without getting near enough to photograph, as did a hovering Kestrel, a couple of Skylark, 6 Goldfinch and a few of that scarcity, Greenfinch. I didn’t see the usual Spotted Redshank or Greenshank today, even when I walked the railway bridge, but I saw the normal small numbers of Redshank and Curlew.

Near The Stork I bumped into PW religiously doing his birding thing again, but taking time out to lean into my car and exchange pleasantries and information, despite the traffic hurtling past desperate to reach their places of work. As we agreed, “Even some birders don’t bother to get out of their cars here, least of all Joe Public on the way to Ashton Garden Centre or Leighton Moss.” Oh well, not everyone desires to be a birder, thank goodness. PW gripped me with his count of 56 tufties; I never was much good with figures. But I got my own back by relating the 3 Rock Pipits I’d just seen towards the car park, picking through the debris from the recent high tides. I had also seen 4 or more Meadow Pipits in the same area, less reluctant to leave their search for grub than their rock living cousins. Also here, Pied Wagtails.

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

I headed off to Cockersands but abandoned my plan to look for the Stonechat and other tideline dwellers when I saw two removal vans and two other vehicles parked up in my spot, guessing that any comings and goings would mean there was little about other than new residents exploring new surroundings.

I then circuited Jeremy Lane without a lot of success but I did find a semi-obliging Little Egret that I took pictures of when it jumped out of a roadside ditch and sat in a field. And the sun was out, for now.

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

I couldn’t believe it, I looked at my watch.1140, time to get back and watch little Theo demolish the broccoli soup. What an unusual lad! It must be his bringing up.