Menorca Mop-Up

A rainy start to Thursday means I may not get birding until later or even Friday. So for today I’m posting left-over photographs from Menorca 2014, and then no more until next year - promise. 

Below, a Spotted Flycatcher, a common species in early May, this one near Cala Galdana. 

Spotted Flycatcher

There was a ringed Audouin’s Gull near the hotel most days. The Darvic letters BCFH looked familiar from 2013, and so it proved. The gull had been ringed as a chick in the nest at Cap Menorca, Ciutadella on 4th July 2008 but later taken a liking to Sant Tomas where I’d seen it in 2013 too. 

Audouin's Gull

Here’s a female Stonechat at the roadside from Tirant to Cap de Cavalleria. She was irate that we were near to her nest. 

Stonechat

Near Tirant - Menorca

I’m told that the insect is a not uncommon Scarlet Darter, the following photo the usual distant view of the elusive and shy Purple Heron, and then an unidentified millipede sp. 

Scarlet Darter

Purple Heron

Menorcan Millipede

Two Donkeys at Es Migjorn, much in love

Menorcan Donkeys

Black-winged Stilts at two different sites, Es Grau and Addaia. 

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Woodpigeons on Menorca have noticeably darker plumage than our UK ones, but just like our own the Menorca ones are also losing their fear of man by frequenting towns and gardens on a regular basis.

Woodpigeon

A break from birds with a few pictures from our favourite coffee stop - the charming, unspoilt, quiet town of Es Mercadal. 

A Bistro - Es Mercadal

Street Scene - Es Mercadal

The Old Smithy - Es Mercadal

 

Coffee Stop - Cas Sucre at Es Mercadal

To finish today’s post, here is the ubiquitous Egyptian Vulture and a Bee-eater on that rusty old fence. 

Egyptian Vulture

Bee-eater

 
I hope blog readers enjoyed Menorca? We certainly did.

And who knows what tomorrow's post will bring?  Stop by Another Bird Blog soon to find out.

As you might expect, this post is linking to Theresa's Run-A-Round Ranch where you can find more birds on fences.

Pilling And A Pinkie

The morning began bright and breezy with gusts teetering on the edge of being “windy”, a subtle difference that birders will recognise whereby choosing a place to go birding requires a little forethought. Pilling was the decision and where after a three hour slog around the patch the old notebook had a good few entries. 

The flooded maize received a watery top-up last night although the soggy fields didn’t need it by virtue of the regular stuff there: 160 Redshank, 45 Lapwing, 28 Dunlin, 15 Skylark and 2 Little Egret. More than a few of the Lapwings and the Skylarks were in display mode. 

Two Buzzards came from over the Fluke Hall woods, circled around for a while and then headed off in the direction of Pilling village and the mosses beyond. The wood was a bit windswept for birdsong but I did see a pair of Stock Dove in the trees, 25+ Woodpigeon feeding on the ground and a handful of Goldfinch. 

Buzzard

Woodpigeon

Beyond the wood I checked out the fields to find 18 Pied Wagtail, 6 Oystercatcher, 15 Curlew, 4 Greenfinch, 4 Meadow Pipits, 1 Reed Bunting and a couple of dozen Pink-footed Geese. 

When the Meadow Pipits flew across to the beach I noticed their arrival and calling had pushed other birds into the air, and on checking I found the pipits chasing off 3 Snow Buntings. In the ensuing melee a flock of 40+ Twite lifted off the marsh then circled around to find a new spot on which to feed. The buntings seemed to head west along the sea wall and although I spent some time trying to relocate then I couldn’t, so I imagine they carried on towards Preesall, Knott End or Fleetwood. In the strong breeze blowing along the shore everything seemed very flighty and reluctant to stay in one spot for long. 

 Snow Bunting

Heading east I found more wagtails behind the sea wall, 5 Whooper Swans, 7 Little Egret, 5 Teal, 3 Red-legged Partridge and a couple of hundred scattered Pink-footed Geese. There don’t appear to be many pinkies around at the moment so maybe many have flown north towards Iceland already. 

Whooper Swans

It was last December 2013 near Pilling Water that I spotted a Pink-footed Goose wearing a neck-collar, the collar inscribed with the letters “TAB”. I reported the sighting online and yesterday received back the following information from The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust about when and where the pinkie was ringed and all the subsequent sightings. My own sighting at the bottom of the list is the most recent. 

There’s a clear pattern to the bird’s seasonal movements. After spending the summer months in Iceland the goose migrates south, probably stopping off in Scotland. It then spends part of the early winter in Lancashire or Norfolk, but seems to spends each New Year in Norfolk. By February, March and into April it is back in Scotland feeding up for its Spring flight to Iceland. There are an awful lot of flights to Iceland and back not included in the list below. Aren’t birds amazing? 

20/10/2006 Loch of Lintrathen ANGUS, Scotland - adult female Pink-footed Goose first caught then marked with “TAB”.

15/02/2007 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

01/03/2007 Balnaglack, Dallcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

03/04/2007 Morayhill, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

18/11/2007 Breydon Water area, Great Yarmouth NORFOLK, England 

24/11/2007 Pollard Street, Bacton NORFOLK, England 

01/12/2007 N of Sharrington NORFOLK, England 

19/12/2007 Runham NORFOLK , England 

05/01/2008 Repps Mill NORFOLK, England 

16/01/2008 Repps Mill NORFOLK, England 

23/01/2008 Thrigby NORFOLK, England 

28/02/2008 Gellybanks area, Loch Leven PERTH & KINROSS, Scotland 

09/04/2008 Lower Cullernie, Balloch INVERNESS, Scotland 

02/11/2008 Fluke Hall Lane, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

08/11/2008 Bone Hill Fram, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

08/01/2009 Preesall Park, Preesall LANCASHIRE, England 

08/01/2009 Cockers Dyke, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

03/02/2009 Head Dyke Lane, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

02/03/2009 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

07/03/2009 Cullernie INVERNESS, Scotland 

25/03/2009 Easter Dalziel, Dallcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

30/03/2009 Easter Dalziel, Dallcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

03/04/2009 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

19/03/2010 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

01/04/2010 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

05/04/2010 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

05/11/2010 Hall Farm, Rollesby NORFOLK, England 

01/12/2013 Dam Side, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

The bird below isn’t “TAB”, on 1st December 2013 she was far away, the inscription read via a telescope at 200 yards or more.  I’m sure however that the bird below is an equally amazing pinkie. 

Pink-footed Goose

More soon from Another Bird Blog. And remember, you read it here first.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Saturday Sandpiper

This morning’s jaunt out Pilling way provided similar fare to recent days, the exceptions being a build of the Linnet flock and the reappearance of a Curlew Sandpiper. 

I stopped at the lane and took in the waders on the stubble, 100+ Black-tailed Godwit, 120+ Lapwings, 4 Curlew, 20 or so Redshanks and a single Snipe. I gave up on the tiny and distant peep which kept disappearing into the troughs of the flooded stubble, and while I thought it was the Curlew Sandpiper I’d last seen on 15th November, I couldn’t be certain. 

 

Black-tailed Godwit

It didn’t take long to find the Peregrine at Fluke Hall as it rocketed along the shore sending everything ahead of it into a panicked frenzy. One of these days I might be sat there with a ready primed camera and get a world beating picture of a Peregrine in full flight- more likely not, so I’ll have to make do with just seeing on an almost daily basis this awe inspiring raptor. 

The combination of my approach and the Peregrine put all the crows in the air again, 300+ Jackdaws, 40+ Carrion Crows, 2 Stock Doves and 6 Woodpigeons. I’ve been missing Wood Pigeons this autumn, counting tiny numbers in comparison to the avalanche of last winter when counts of 10,000 and 20,000 could be easily had on the mossland stubbles, the skies darkened by huge flocks.  Last winter the wide scale failure of acorns in Europe brought quite incredible numbers to the UK, now this year seemingly just the opposite. It will be interesting to see what happens when the usual January and February cold weather grips Europe. 

Woodpigeon

At the sea wall I was able to count the Linnets moving between the marsh and the stubble, eventually coming to an estimate of 140+. While the Linnets increase, my Skylark numbers now rarely reach double figures, and just 12 today. Two Reed Buntings about the spent maize, together with 4 Meadow Pipit and the usual 40 or so Shelduck coming and going via the wildfowlers pools, plus 30 Whooper Swans feeding on the stubble. 

Shelduck

There wasn’t much doing in Fluke Hall, a number of Chaffinch and Goldfinch obvious in the sunny tree tops and a noisy Jay hiding somewhere in the greenery. By 1130 the warm morning sun had sent Tree Sparrows into flurries of noise and activity around nest boxes while near the car a Dunnock was in full song. 

On the way back I stopped the car for another look on the flood and clinched the now closer and unimpeded Curlew Sandpiper. A reasonable end to a good morning’s birding. 

Curlew Sandpiper - Photo credit: jvverde / Foter.com / CC BY-NC 

More soon from Another Bird Blog - keep looking.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Camera Critters .

Eye Spy

Another Bird Blog is taking a day off from birding today, doing a few chores, watching the Hungarian Grand Prix and indulging in a spot of garden ringing in pursuit of Goldfinches. 

There's been a good number of juvenile Goldfinches appearing on the feeders together with one or two adults. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

A Woodpigeon blundered into the net and handling a monster like this takes some adjustment after working with tiny Goldfinches. The woody proved to be a female, males usually bigger, the wing measurement a way to sometimes determine the sex. 

Woodpigeon

Here's an unusual news story concerning a ringed bird. After posting a picture of a Kestrel yesterday I later and quite accidentally found the following story buried in Saturday's newspaper. 

“Turkish authorities have cleared a renegade bird captured in the Ağın district of the eastern province of Elazığ of suspicions of working for Israel's state-of-the-art intelligence agency. Residents of Altınavya village became suspicious that the little kestrel could be more than a bird that lost its way when they found it wore a metallic ring stamped with the words "24311 Tel Avivunia Israel," and delivered it to the district governorate. 

Local authorities submitted the bird to careful medical examinations to ensure that it did not carry microchips. An X-ray test carried out at Fırat University in Elazığ finally convinced the authorities that the bird was just a simple specimen of Israeli wildlife. However, the X-ray showed the initial degree of suspicion, as the bird had been registered under the name "Israeli spy" by medical personnel. 

Following the tests, the authorities decided not to press official charges and the falsely accused bird was free to fly away.” 

Kestrel Spy?

Israeli use of non-human spies is apparently a large concern in the Middle East. In May of 2012, authorities in Ankara dissected a European Bee Eater after becoming concerned that it was carrying an Israeli listening device, and in December an eagle with an Israeli tag in Sudan was captured and touted as a Mossad spy. 

In 2010, an Egyptian official said Israel-controlled sharks could be involved in a number of attacks on tourists in the Red Sea. 

Aren't we lucky that our UK birds don't ever become embroiled in such political intrigues? 

Log in soon to Another Bird Blog for more news, views, pictures and birding tales.

Linking today to  World Bird Wednesday .

Similar Summer

“Summer” continued in the same cloudy, cool and breezy vein at Conder Green this morning. So no surprises when after a couple of hours of due diligence my notebook entries almost mirrored those of recent days.

There was an extra Common Sandpiper today, two birds flicking low over the creek as I arrived to a  water level which filled the channel. The high water level kept the Redshanks away so my count didn't exceed 30 birds, likewise the Oystercatchers count of 16 which included two chicks. A flock of 40+ Lapwing came off the filling marsh to roost towards the back of the pool as 12/15 Curlews headed more inland while 2 Grey Heron stayed overlooking the creek.

Wildfowl numbers were low today with the single Goldeneye, 9 Tufted Duck and 12 Shelduck completing the count.

Shelduck

The long and dense hawthorn hedge provided action in the shape of approximately 20 Sand Martin, 12 Swallow, 15 House Martin and 20 Swift hawking for insects again.

The same hedgerow supplied the passerines too - 4 Tree Sparrow, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Chaffinch, 6 Goldfinch, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Linnet and 2 Pied Wagtails, the wagtails feeding in roadside puddles below the hedge.

Juvenile Goldfinch

After remarking a couple of days ago upon the scarcity of Stock Doves at Conder Green today I noted three of them feeding quietly alongside the road; later I was to see one in our garden where the timid species is an now an uncommon but previously impossible species to expect. Perhaps like their larger relative the Wood Pigeon the inconspicuous and overlooked Stock Dove will become a common garden bird? Here's a handful of a woodpig I caught earlier in the week.

Woodpigeon

A quick scoot around Jeremy Lane and Hillam Lane revealed 30+ Sand Martin, 12 Tree Sparrow, 1 Kestrel and 8/10 Skylarks. It was a pretty unpleasant morning for Flaming June and far from ideal for birding so I cut my losses and headed home to try again another day, hopefully tomorrow.

Skylark

Look in Sunday and see if things improved for Another Bird Blog.

Linking this week to Stewart's Gallery,  Weekly Top Shot ,  Anni's Blog and  Camera Critters.

Flaming June

Following the coldest spring for 50 years today is June 1st, the start of the “flaming” month - we’ll see. June is traditionally the time when many birders hang up their bins for a while, get out the paint brushes and garden tools to catch up on the jobs they promised to do months ago but for which they never quite found the time. I got another stay of execution when Sue went off to Manchester shopping, so with it being a bit too windy for painting or mowing the lawn I headed off birding, hoping for a few bits and bobs. 

The morning started fairly well at Lane Ends with a pulli Lapwing, one of two I saw a couple of days ago but then too far into the field alongside a busy road. This morning the now single chick was yards away from the previous spot but now just the other side of a handily situated and easily vaulted gate. The chick was a good deal bigger and more mature than ones I ringed earlier in the week, so with luck should survive to flying stage. Between here and Fluke Hall there have probably been 15 breeding pairs, with I’m told by a fellow birder, about 15 pairs up at Braides. There’s nothing much in between except for many hundreds of sheep munching the fields to bowling green height or more grass to feed even more animals through the winter. 

Lapwing chick

Things look fairly grim again for the iconic Lapwing, the adopted symbol of many local organisations keen to promote their green credentials. A peek online at the BTO ringing totals for Lancashire showed that only 49 Lapwings were ringed in the county in 2012, a pretty miserable total given how common and widespread the species was not too many years ago when it was easy to find many, many Lapwings. 

There’s a pair of Chaffinch nesting in the roadside hawthorns at Lane Ends, the male not wanting to give the game away but sitting stubbornly on the fence as the bright morning light frustrated any chance of a good exposure. 

Chaffinch

At Lane Ends several Wood Pigeons were feeding alongside the plantation and two Stock Doves on the marsh, all clattering off at my approach. In the clumps of phragmites 2 Reed Warblers could be heard above the rush of the wind through the trees, while along the sea wall the Corn Bunting’s song resonated from the barbed-wire fence. There doesn’t seem to be a female, the male feeding amongst the grasses on the sea wall until disturbed when it flies to the fence and begins to sing. 

Woodpigeon

There weren’t too many birds towards Fluke Hall but apart from the same nagging westerly it was an outstanding morning for a walk in the sun. A small number of Linnets and Goldfinches flew over while the Skylarks continue their mysterious comings and goings. Turning back towards Lane Ends I could see the Kestrel again flying over the marsh and sending the Lapwings and Redshanks into a frenzy of anxiety for their youngsters below. 

Redshank

The Kestrel got nothing again but rather like a birder, a ringer or someone with a camera he’ll be back later hoping for better luck. 

Visit Another Bird Blog soon to see photographs of a newly painted shed and a freshly cut lawn. You’d better believe it.

I'm linking tis post to http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.co.uk/.

Missing On The Moss

Autumn and winter time make for many productive birding and ringing days at inland Rawcliffe Moss, whereas March, April and May can be very hit or miss because spring migrants tend to arrive at more coastal locations. 

Today must have been one of those latter type days when after a clear, quite frosty and very early start of 0530, Will and I could muster only 6 birds in a good three hours. Birds caught 3 Goldfinch, Willow Warbler, Dunnock and Wren. 

After blank days waiting for Lesser Redpolls there were finally some on the move this morning but none of the 8/10 birds seen or heard found our nets. We did open the Willow Warbler account with a single male caught and at least two others seen/heard but otherwise we saw no other warbler species. 

Willow Warbler

Goldfinch

With clear and sunny skies it was a quiet morning of birding too, the migration highlights being 2 Whimbrel, 4+ Siskin over, 2 Alba wagtail, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Golden Plover and 6/8 Swallows over. A number of flighty Woodpigeons, 100+, are still in the area, probably part of the winter contingent and yet to depart as opposed to residents birds waiting to pair up. 

Woodpigeon

Local residents accounted for the other species as 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Kestrel, 2 Buzzard, 1 Little Owl, 1 Corn Bunting in jangling song and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker beating out a wooden tune. 

On the way home I snapped a common/European Starling in song on a hedgerow top. Apart from the fact the bird was singing, it’s a male due the blue base to the yellow bill, whereas and perhaps appropriately enough, females have a pink base. I use the word “song” advisedly as everyone knows a Starling’s refrain contains a wide range of chuckles, whistles, knocking and grating sounds along with good imitations of the songs of other birds. A Starling is a member of the oriole family of birds, many of which are fabulous songsters. 

European/Common Starling

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, European Starlings were quite rare. After that they underwent an increase in numbers leading to it becoming one of Britain's most widespread and common birds. Recently the Starling has suffered a dramatic reversal of fortune; since the 1980s their abundance has decreased severely, giving great cause for conservation concern. The greatest declines of a shocking 92% have occurred in woodland, but this may represent sub-optimal habitat for the European starling. On farmland declines of 66% have occurred. Starlings can be considered a pest species because of the mess they make at roosts, but they are a visually attractive species and one we might miss were they to be no longer around.

European/Common Starling

Sunday’s forecast is for sun with a breezy southerly. Looks like a spot of birding for Another Bird Blog, so log in soon to find out what you missed.

Still Winter Birds

The weather people now say we have to wait until the middle of next week for warmer temperatures. If and when such warmth eventually arrives there’s sure to be a flood of birds, but in the meantime out on the moss this morning it was 1°C again at early doors with no surprises when all the birds were of the wintering kind. 

I had a couple of nets up for a while before the wind arrived again, time enough to catch 5 Goldfinch, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Chaffinch and a single Brambling. The latter was a recapture from recent weeks, one of the Goldfinch a regular from 2010, 2011 and 2012 and a breeding male.

The morning kicked off with a Barn Owl, just one bird now where last week I was seeing two of them regularly, one of those probably a bird I found dead on 1st April. Let’s hope there’s a current surplus of Barn Owls large enough to fill gaps caused by winter losses. This Barn Owl hunts over a square half-mile or more from its night-time roost, flying a regular beat across the fields, along fence lines and woodland edge but seems to rarely cover the same ground twice in the one outing. There’s a lot of energy expended with seemingly not much reward at the moment, as I rarely see it catch anything to eat. 

Barn Owl

Into April and there are few birds at the feeding station now, the Reed Buntings thinned to 8 or 10, similar numbers of Chaffinch and Goldfinch with just odds and ends of Bramblings. Including today gives a total of 43 new Reed Buntings caught here since January 1st, not to mention the bonus of a Little Bunting amongst them.

Reed Bunting

Little Bunting

Overhead happenings this morning were limited to a single Siskin heading north and a noisy party of about 20 Fieldfares flying north-east. There are still regular flocks of 200+ Curlew, 15+ Golden Plover and 50+ Lapwing on fields towards Pilling, but a single pair of Lapwings close to the ringing station could well be on eggs now. This pair constantly chases off the local Carrion Crows suggesting something more than a simple territorial dispute. 

After seeing and hearing huge wintering flocks clattering through the skies since November, the Woodpigeon flocks are now much reduced in size and more easily counted to less than a hundred individuals today. 

 Woodpigeons

Raptors today: 2 Buzzard, 2 Kestrel and 1 Sparrowhawk. A day or two ago I noticed the male Kestrel is ringed, probably one of the nestlings Will and I ringed here in June 2010 and now occupying the same territory in which it was born. 

Kestrel

On the way off the farm I counted 11 Yellowhammers scattered across a yet to be ploughed field, the birds still finding some goodness in the soil, and nearby still 15 Corn Buntings. 

There’s more seasonal birds an Another Bird Blog soon. Log in to find out which they are.

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit

From inside the house the coating on the car looked like frost. Once outside there was a light flurry of snow together with a thin film of the white stuff on the roof and bonnet. Although dawn was half an hour way there were breaks in the cloud above so I set off in an easterly direction hoping for a repeat run of Friday’s catch at my finch feed site on the moss.

At the farm the snow had stopped so I set a couple of nets,and after a couple of hours the field sheet showed a good selection of species and a reasonable total of 18 birds, including a few more of the carrot coloured Fringilla montifringilla: New - 5 Chaffinch, 3 Brambling, 3 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and 1 Woodpigeon. Recaptures - 3 Chaffinch and 1 Brambling, all from recent days. 

In contrast to Friday the Bramblings were much less obvious this morning with probably less than 10 seen or heard, with Chaffinches equally hard to detect and maybe less than 20 about. Reed Buntings continue to come and go with the three new birds caught but a constant 20 or so utilising the woodland edge of the ringing site.

Goldfinches seemed to return to the niger feeders today so here's hoping their numbers will increase soon when birds head back in a northerly direction from the south of England and the near Continent. With more than 20 around catching three is still an improvement on recent tallies. Below is an adult male Goldfinch caught today displaying a stunning spring plumage and having a wing length of 85mm, the longest I’ve ever encountered on any Goldfinch.

Goldfinch

Goldfinch - adult male

I caught a very heavy adult Woodpigeon, looking innocent enough but a species also known hereabouts as the Greater Seed Hoovering Dove. When I released the monster it laboured off, weighted down with best quality bird seed. 

Woodpigeon

A picture of this morning’s adult male Brambling followed by a portrait of one of the second calendar year females caught today.Why do the males attract lots of attention from birders when the females are equally attractive but in a much less obvious way?

Brambling -  Fringilla montifringilla

Brambling - Fringilla montifringilla

The morning’s birding was pretty quiet too although a female Merlin chasing Skylarks enlivened a few moments before the falcon sped off towards Pilling. It made me look over that way to see other birds scattering too in the wake of or anticipation of the Merlin's arrival - mainly 110 Fieldfare, 200 Starling in the next field, but in the still wet field beyond, 12 Golden Plover, 10 Black-tailed Godwit and 150+ Lapwing. 

Earlier I’d seen the Hen Harrier over that way too, heading north and west towards Skitham Lane and Bradshaw Lane. There was no chance of yet another bad photo by me, especially at that distance, so here’s a sample plate of several Hen Harriers/Northern Harriers from a soon to be released book The Crossley ID Guide: Raptors.  JPEG courtesy of Jessica and Caroline at Princeton University Press.

Northern Harrier/Hen Harrier - The Crossley ID Guide:Raptors

And watch this space in the next few weeks when Another Bird Blog takes a deeper look at The Crossley Guide:Raptors in time for the April launch .

Log into Another Bird Blog soon for more news, views and a fruitful journey.