Early Doors Birding

The forecast promised three or four hours of sunshine. So there was just enough time to get some birding in before the day’s babysitting at 9am. Mid-day and it's raining.

I hit the road north in the direction of Pilling and Conder Green. 

Conder Green, Lancashire

I had lost track of the tide times so found myself at the creek just as the tide filled, an outcome with both good and bad points, depending upon the depth of the water caused by the tidal bore, the speed and height of which can vary considerably. Many of the birds that feed in the shallow water of the creeks find themselves flooded out so then head off to roost on the higher sandbanks of the Lune or on Conder Pool just yards away. 

A Barn Owl took advantage of the situation and spent thirty minutes or more searching a wide area of marsh and field for a meal, stopping only briefly to take a look around. Barn Owls are surprisingly fast fliers for anyone looking to take an action shot, with a single bird spending a good time on the wing. They pause or rest less than one might imagine from the many and varied photographs which often show them using fences or similar objects. 

Barn Owl

The tide worked in my favour today when many waders found their way to the pool, including 13 Common Sandpipers, 100+ Lapwing, 40+ Redshank, 15 Oystercatcher and 2 Curlew. Common Sandpipers have returned with a vengeance, the breeding season finished for many of those which arrive in the UK in early spring. They raise just one brood and then head back to Africa with little delay. 

Lapwings have not bred here on the pool with their present numbers swelled by fairly local birds from the many marshes and fields nearby. Autumn and Winter will bring a much larger influx from Scotland and Europe. 

Common Sandpiper

Lapwing

Lapwing

The resident Common Terns still feed their dependant young on a distant island but rarely come close enough for a picture. Likewise the breeding but shy Avocets, strangely quiet today. From a start of four chicks I fear there may be one or even none of the fluffy youngsters left. 

Avocet

The road here at Conder Green is badly potholed and damaged due to passing heavy traffic from nearby Glasson Dock coupled with the occasional high tides that wash over it. The local Oystercatchers don’t mind too much. There’s usually a morsel or two of food to be found in the broken, bumpy and uneven surface of what passes for a road. 

Oystercatcher

The usual Grey Heron and Little Egret obliged with wildfowl represented by 3 Wigeon, 2 Tufted Duck and a healthy but uncounted number of Mute Swan and Mallard. 

It was good to see Swifts this morning with 40+ feeding over the hawthorn hedge at early doors, together with 15+ Swallow and a handful of Sand Martins. This is the highest number of Swifts I’ve seen at home this year, a tiny number compared to the many thousand I noted migrating through the island of Menorca in early May. Let’s hope that our declining Swift is doing rather better in other parts of Northern Europe than here in Great Britain. 

Along the hedgerow I found 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Sedge Warbler, 4 Goldfinch, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Linnet, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Song Thrush. 

Young Swallows were about today, fresh from a nearby nest but taking a rest along a five-barred metal gate. Who can resist taking yet more pictures of our handsome Barn Swallow? Not me. 

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Barn Swallow

Please join in again soon. And now go back and “click the pics” for a closer look at those Swallows.

Linking today to Viewing Nature with Eileen,  Run A Round Ranch  and  Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

In A Ringer's Garden

I’ve been marooned indoors most of the weekend, followed by a Monday of mostly rain when birding didn’t appeal. Instead I completed a few chores and then relaxed at home, even tried a little garden ringing between showers. Apart from a few unwary Goldfinch and a pair of resident Blackbirds that blundered into the single net while chasing around, nothing else played ball. The camera proved more effective in capturing birds than the single 40ft net I employ. 

I suppose I was trying to catch a few of the Lesser Redpoll that I’ve seen about the garden for a week or more, a species yet to appear in my home ringing list. It’s hard to tell if the handful of redpolls have been are involved, but at this time of year it seems unlikely when large numbers of them are speeding north. I finally managed to get a few pictures of this scarce garden visitor by moving the bird feeder closer to the downstairs bedroom window. The feeder is filled with a mix of niger and millet, with the redpolls seeming to prefer the black stuff. 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

Over a cup of coffee the IPMR ringing database told me how many of each species I have caught in the garden by occasional ringing since moving here in late 1990. I found one or two surprises amongst the almost 600 birds of 25 species.  Click the table below to see it larger.

Garden Birds

Goldfinches are the most abundant visitor, so much so that the once plentiful House Sparrow is now just an occasional visitor. The Goldfinch is way ahead as the most ringed bird and although as a partial migrant species I do try and catch them when they are around in numbers, the total of 217 ringed a true reflection of their profusion in recent years. 

Goldfinch

Just 15 Chaffinch came as a shock as the species is fairly common in the garden, but upon reflection they do tend to appear in tiny and often unexpected handfuls, mostly mopping up under the feeders. In comparison Goldfinches often swarm over the feeders and can number up to 15/20 at a time. 

Chaffinch

The traditional garden birds of Blue, Great and Long-tailed Tits feature well along with a good number of the less typical garden dweller the Coal Tit. 

I was pleased to see the Blackbird total at a healthy 56 including some nestlings, but disappointed to see just a single Song Thrush in the list. This is yet another reflection of how a once common garden bird has declined. More than one pair of Blackbirds is busily feeding young just now; the male below caused a rumpus today when a robber Magpie came by. 

Blackbird

Note the odd one out in the list, a single Swallow, a juvenile bird caught by hand in the partly constructed house when Swallows took up residence before us in late 1990. The builder kindly let the Swallows finish their family before fitting the front door.

Swallows

The ones that got away? I well remember a Woodcock which flapped from the net before I could reach it, not to mention the more than one occasion when a Sparrowhawk did the same, including today. 

You can't win 'em all.

Linking today to World Bird Wednesday.

“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.

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 .

Solely Birding

Thursday.The early birding at Cockerham, Conder and Glasson had more than a little of a déjà vu feel. 

There was no Barn Owl but the early morning Kestrel sat alongside Head Dyke Lane where regular as clockwork it can be found atop one of just a few roadside poles. Birds are such creatures of habit - much like birders really. Needless to say there was a Buzzard at Braides Farm, custodian as usual of the regular fence line which crosses the farm. The Buzzard often faces directly into the early morning sunrise taking the chill off those overnight feathers. That's the sea wall directly behind the Buzzard.

Buzzard

Maybe I was later than usual but there were wagons parked at Conder Green with drivers out of cabs generating noise and disturbance therefore no birds around. I made a quick exit for Glasson Dock where the early light and reflections can often be more spectacular than the birding. 

Glasson Dock

There are few Swallows around Glasson Marina this year. Last year many thousands roosted amongst the boats and yachts moored in the marina, this year so far just handfuls of Swallows feeding along with similar numbers of Sand Martins. If anything there appeared to be less Swallows than Swifts with a dozen or more of the latter. 

Swallow

One of the adult Common Terns from Conder Green was on its regular fishing circuit; around the yacht basin favouring the south end, up and over the lock gates and then around the dock a couple of times. Then it’s back over the lock followed by a circuit of the basin again, by which time it has usually caught a fish of suitable proportions for the youngsters back home. Later, all three recently fledged but not yet independent youngsters were lined up on the island at Conder Pool waiting for their meal. I can’t say that I have seen either of the adults fishing Conder Pool itself even though there may be suitable prey items as testified by the regular appearance of both Kingfisher and on Thursday the return of a single Little Grebe. 

Common Tern

Back at Conder Green and suitably quieter after the wagons and bodies moved on - 5 Little Egret, 7 Common Sandpiper, 4 Meadow Pipit, 5 Pied Wagtail, 3 Greenfinch. 

There wasn’t much else doing so I paid a visit to our Sand Martin colony at Cockerham where I’m free to wander around the dairy farm while birding courtesy of Chris the farmer. Roughly 90+ Sand Martins were in evidence with a number of youngsters visible at nest holes as adults returned with food. The next visit for ringing purposes is due in early August, a visit scheduled to fit BTO recommendations for ringing at Sand Martin colonies. 

Sand Martin

On Friday Jamie at Knott End promised me a Dover Sole fresh from the Wyre Estuary so I left him skinning the fish and went for a walk up river where the tide was surging up the channel. 

Wyre Estuary - Fleetwood (left) Knott End (right) 

The Wyre Rose - Fleetwood to Knott End Ferry

There was a Grey Heron along the tideline with many Oystercatchers flying to their roost upriver. In the car park a pair of Pied Wagtails collected food and then flew with beaks crammed full before dropping to the rocks below and out of sight. So that’s where they nest. 

Pied Wagtail

As I walked up river I’d counted 300+ Oystercatchers when a couple of them broke ranks to see off a Peregrine which floated above me. But too late, my camera was bagged and an elementary mistake. 

Upriver and then alongside the golf course I noted a Kestrel, a couple each of Goldfinch and Linnet plus a wheezing Greenfinch. 

All this fresh air sure gives a birder a healthy appetite. Grilled Sole for supper - count me in. 

 Dover Sole

There's more fishy tales soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog. 

Same Old Birding?

It’s a well-worn birding route of mine from Stalmine to Conder Green and then back again, often with a detour or two. Alongside the flat coastal road there are many birds to be found at almost any time of the year. How remiss of Google in not showing the legendary birding spot which goes by the name of Conder Green. For blog readers not in the know but itching to get there, I am sworn to secrecy so cannot divulge the exact location. However it could be worth a look below the letter “o” of “Dock”. 

Birding Route

On the way north this morning I missed out a chunk of Head Dyke Lane and traversed Stalmine Moss instead, hoping for a Barn Owl coping with the extra responsibility of youngsters at home. There was one criss-crossing the fields and the road ahead but sods law prevailed and by the time I reached the spot, the owl had fled. I made do with a Kestrel or two and then a Buzzard content with the distance between us. Our local Buzzards don’t usually sit around for a picture and regular readers will know that in the UK this much maligned creature is as likely to have a gun pointed its way as it is to see the business end of a lens. 

Buzzard

Down from the hills a good number of Curlew have found their way back to the coastal fields of the A588 and while I didn’t stop to count the scattered birds, a couple of hundred seemed likely. At Braides was yet another Buzzard along the regular fence doing not much except waiting for the sun to rise and warm the air. I stopped for a while and found small numbers of Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Swallows and Skylark song. 

At Conder Green the Common Terns have at least two youngsters with adults back and forth for food, one out to the marsh, the other towards Glasson Dock. The terns don’t stand for others near their youngsters and I watched as the pair mercilessly chased off a Grey Heron and then a Shelduck. Luckily for them the 5 Little Egrets stayed in the creeks away from the aggressive terns. 

Although now part way into July and with well grown young in tow the Oystercatchers here still indulge in loud and frequent piping whereby aerial bouts of “piping parties” display in the air as well as on the ground. “Piping parties” are made up of pairs of birds which are often joined by birds from neighbouring territories. The Oystercatchers taking part in such displays maintain the open-billed posture they use in their ground displays. An Oystercatcher “piping party” can consist of a handful of birds or as many as twenty or thirty. It’s quite a sight and a fair old din. 

 Oystercatcher Piping Party

In the creeks and around the pool - 80+ Redshank, 35 Lapwing, 5 Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and then 4 Black-tailed Godwit flying west. 

A walking circuit to find the “small stuff” revealed a singing Blackcap plus a Lesser Whitethroat still on territory along the railway line. Meanwhile Meadow Pipit(s), Reed Warbler(s), Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting(s) all fed young. 

The House Martins near the bridge had a late start this year with a number of them still in the throes of nest building and a handy roadside puddle all they require for a proper job. 

House Martin

House Martin

The final stop Glasson Dock where I found one of the Common Tern from down the road, 15+ Swift, 1 Grey Heron and the adult Swallows yet to fledge their chicks from beneath the road. 

Swallow

Yes the route and the venues may be the same but where birding is concerned no two days are ever exactly alike on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Theresa's Ranch  and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

More Smarties

On Tuesday morning I left the builders to finish off our bathroom upgrade and went in search of another set of British Builders, the Sand Martins at our Cockerham gravel pit colony.

Sand Martins build their nests at the end of tunnels up to four feet in length, the passages bored into sand or gravel by using their beak, feet and wings. Sand Martins are very sociable in their nesting habits whereby anywhere between a dozen and several hundred pairs nest close together in the likes of sandy river banks, cliffs or gravel pits. 

This species is unusually difficult to monitor, because active and inactive nest holes are hard to distinguish, and because whole colonies frequently disperse or shift to new locations as suitable sand cliffs are created and destroyed by natural causes, occasionally by interference or even on occasion by predation. 

Sand Martin colony

Although the Cockerham colony is not huge it is certainly the biggest in the local area. On preparatory visits for 2015 in the latter part of May we estimated 100+ nest holes and approximately 200 Sand Martins in the immediate area. A week or two later and in early June Andy, Craig and I went on to catch 85 mostly adult birds during a ringing session. Tuesday was the follow-up visit and Andy and I reckoned there could be a good number of fresh juveniles ready to be ringed plus a chance of capturing more adults. 

Sand Martin

Today we totalled 88 birds comprising 62 new birds, 5 birds previously ringed elsewhere (controls) and 21 recaptures from our previous visit of 12th June. Of the 62 new birds, 18 were juvenile birds and 44 adults. The five “controls” all bore rings beginning Z401, the similar numbers far from coincidental as we are sure they were ringed by other ringers at Sand Martin colonies about 20/25 miles to the north along the River Lune. 

Sand Martin

Catching and processing 88 Sand Martins kept the two of us busy but in between times the other birds we saw included 2 Common Terns overflying the water plus resident Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Coot and a number of breeding Oystercatchers. One pair of Oystercatcher has a late nest containing 2 eggs in a very busy part of the farm where only time will tell if their gamble pays off. 

Oystercatcher nest

Oystercatcher

The approximately 250 Sand Martins on site vastly outnumbered the few Swallows in residence around the farm buildings.

 

Swallow

More news and views of birds soon. In the meantime I'm linking to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.