A Tern For The Better

Friday morning proved too breezy for ringing so with the little sun I headed for Knott End village and the viewpoints of the jetty and promenade. From here are vistas across Morecambe Bay to the English Lakes, Barrow and on suitable days, The Isle of Man. There are many birds to be seen in most seasons except for high summer when grockles appear. 

It was just here on Monday that a lady and her dog were rescued after getting stuck in mud off the end of the slipway. I’m on safe ground in saying that because she had a dog with her, the lady was probably not a birder. 

Monday 2 August - Knott End, Lancashire - @LancsLive

The poor lady was pulled unceremoniously from the sticky mud by members of Knott End Coastguard with help from the crew of the Knott End/Fleetwood ferry. She was fortunate that a fast tide was not rushing in and that local people spotted her plight, as without their help, the seemingly innocent  walk could have ended in tragedy. 

The tides and sands of Morecambe Bay are incredibly dangerous but there is no accounting for stupid when warnings are clear and abundant.  

Knott End slipway - "Beware of sinking sand and mud. Check tides and weather"

My own walk along the river path was less eventful but dictated by the incoming tide which flooded the mud, sand and mussel beds. As the land disappeared about 450 Oystercatchers flew upstream to their roost. There was a steady flow of 55+ Sandwich Terns, their breeding season at an end with many now journeying to winter off the south and west coasts of Africa. 

Out of our own UK season of Sandwich Terns from March to September I have seen the species in the winter warmth of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura and Gambia, West Africa, but wherever it is, Sandwich Terns seem to always retain their fear of man and keep a safe distance. 

This fear is not surprising when many past recoveries of ringed Sandwich Terns are from hunting in West African countries like Ghana, Senegal, Angola, Ivory Coast , Liberia and Sierra Leone. Here the trapping of terns for food is carried out by children setting noose traps on the beach baited with dead fish. Although this practice may be less prevalent than say the 1960, 70 and 80s, it is apparently still widespread in some areas. 

 

Sandwich Terns

Sandwich Tern

Oystercatchers

 

The best and certainly the rarest birds I saw were two other terns, Little Terns, on the beach and close to a gang of a dozen or more Sandwich Terns. Soon, the two smaller terns followed their cousins out over the incoming tide. 

Little Terns used to be much more common in Autumn in the days before the familiar story of falls in their UK population.    

Factors contributing to this low productivity include predation of chicks and eggs by, Kestrels  Foxes and the crow family. other losses from nest loss due to bad weather, food shortage, and, most significantly, disturbance by humans. Most Little Terns nest along the east and south coasts of England, adjacent to some of the most densely populated areas of Britain, although many sites are now guarded in an attempt to limit disturbance.

Little Tern

Early August is the best time to see Little Terns in Lancashire. Many years ago I counted more than 100 gathered on the shore at Cockersands on a single August morning.  Sad to say it is highly unlikely such a high number will be seen again in these parts but instead the norm becomes a count by fingers of one hand. 

There seemed few other species alongside the river and the edge of the golf course except for a handful of Greenfinches, Linnets and that rarity the House Sparrow.  A good number of Collared Doves look as though they have enjoyed a successful breeding season. There's been up to a dozen around our local gardens this last week. And of course the shore and the river provide lots of gulls.  

Greenfinch

House Sparrow

 

Collared Dove

Lesser Black-backed Gull

Near Sea Dyke Cottage (1754) two Grey Herons flew upriver, croaking in flight as the tide engulfed their feeding patch. 

Knott End, River Wyre

Grey Heron

 

Our summer weather is looking pretty poor to at least Monday. I’m thinking that Wednesday 11th might be my next birding and/or ringing day. Fingers crossed the experts have got it wrong again. 

This And That

A BMW approached on the other side of the road but soon became a passer-by as it hurtled off in the direction of the Stalmine 30mph zone. Ten and more years later and forever counting, our village still lacks a pedestrian crossing where folk can safely visit the Seven Stars. Or more importantly, cross safely back to the other side after a few pints. 

Soon, another car appeared in the rear view mirror, niggling at my rear end, even at 6am. The young lady 4X4 lost no time to roar past my untrendy and inexpensive Fiat as it leaned like a drunken sailor over the double white lines of Burned House Lane. Those two opposing vehicles were the only ones I saw on my 0600 journey toward Cockerham. 

I guess those people had somewhere important to go in a hurry, probably not, but I’m absolutely sure that at those speeds, neither of them were birders. 

There was no urgency as I reached Murder Mile of the A588, the scene of many a high speed, often fatal accident. Wiki - “The A588 is a road in England which runs from Poulton-le-Fylde to Lancaster. It is the main route serving the Over Wyre areas of the Fylde.” 

Me -“At 6am of a silent, slightly misty, sun-burnished autumn morning, the A588 can be quite breathtakingly beautiful”.  

Cockerham - Over-Wyre, Lancashire

Appropriately enough the 20 mile A588 that winds through the Over-Wyre villages of Hambleton, Stalmine and Pilling and across the marshy land that abuts Cockerham Sands, terminates at Lancaster Hospital. 

I stopped at the speed camera layby (weekends only) to grab a picture of the rising sun while reminding myself of the luck in leaving the DWP Rat Race some 15 years ago. Instead I get to spend a few hours in the glorious sunshine of an August morning with birds all around while not watching daytime TV. 

“Quality not Quantity” is the perennial defence and get out clause of bird ringers who don’t catch too many birds. I am no exception. Hence while 4 Linnet and 4 Reed Warbler will not make the BTO database blow a fuse, the feeling and fun was intense, and to borrow another ringer’s phrase, “there’s always another day”. 

One of the Reed Warblers, an adult female, had been ringed here in 2020, almost to the day. Thankfully for my ageing and sexing abilities, she was still an adult female with a now wrinkled brood patch. 

The picture is a juvenile Reed Warbler, protesting, as they do. 

Reed Warbler

 

Linnet

Linnet

The adult male Linnet was part way through its post-breeding moult. 

Birding was quiet too with a dawn Buzzard pursued by a handful of crows, and then later 150 or more of the blackened villains. Otherwise - 3 Grey Heron, 3 Little Egret,1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 40 Woodpigeon, 2 Stock Dove, 4 Goldfinch and 6 or more Brown Hares.  

Great -spotted Woodpecker

Brown Hare

As I type there’s rain closing from the west with more forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We'll see.  The forecasters have been known to get it wrong, despite the many £millions spent on new computer modelling systems, the same systems that can predict the weather 30 or more years ahead!

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

August Time

After the relative quiet of birding of June and July, the first days of August sees many birders pick up their bins again. There’s hope that the new month will bring post breeding dispersal with signs of true autumn migration and a wealth of birds that may arrive with unsettled weather and cooling temperatures. 

Sunday morning at Cockerham was cool with a pronounced westerly breeze and ever changing bouts of sun and cloud. I had single panel nets in the four foot high seed plot where I hoped to catch the first Linnets of the autumn. Hidden in the lee of the car as protection from sun, the cool breeze and the threat of a shower I switched a couple of times from a shirt to adding a jacket and then back to jacketless as the sun returned.

All the while Linnets arrived from both west and east, individuals, small groups and even a flock of 25+ that eventually gave a count of 60 or more Linnets; a clear sign of the autumnal flocking behaviour of small finches. 

A couple of Linnets escaped as I walked to the net however I did capture six, 3 moulting adults and 3 juveniles of the year. There was also an adult female Blackbird. 

Linnet - adult male

Linnet - adult male

Linnet - juvenile/first summer

Blackbird - adult female

 

Perhaps and in view of the weather it was no coincidence that the morning produced a clear movement of Swifts heading south, singles and twos at first. And then rather suddenly about ten o’clock and directly above the nearby pool came a vortex of Swifts, 50 or more feeding below the billowing grey cloud. Within minutes they were gone, back on high and out of sight to continue their southerly flight. 

Swifts

 

Other species seen and heard – 190/200 Carrion Crow, 12 Curlew , 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Tree Sparrow, 15 Swallow, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Buzzard. 

The huge numbers of predatory Carrion Crows in recently cut fields suggests a very successful breeding season but does not bode well for small birds and breeding waders in 2022. 

Carrion Crow

In other news. It was here in Cockerham that a Great Egret lingered through May and well into into June 2021 and where earlier in the spring there has been two or even three individuals.  At one point I hoped that the egrets might join the Little Egret by becoming a breeding species of this part of Lancashire. It was not to be but now comes news of Great Egrets from the South West of England. 

Great Egret - Fylde, Lancashire

 

From Bird Guides.“Great Egrets have enjoyed a record-breaking year on the Somerset Levels, as the species continues its rapid colonisation of Britain. An estimated 50 chicks fledged this year on the Avalon Marshes. Nesting took place at 10 separate locations across Shapwick Heath, Ham Wall and Westhay reserves, with 25 of the 37 nests found going on to successfully fledge young. "

"Great Egret joined the list of breeding British birds as recently as 2012, when a pair nested at Shapwick Heath Somerset – the epicentre of the current population in the country. For much of the 20th century the Great Egret was restricted to the wetlands of Eastern Europe but, since the 1990s, the species made a comeback, nesting in increasing numbers across Europe and then spreading west." 

"Since 2012, numbers of breeding birds in Somerset increased steadily. In 2017, a pair of Great Egrets fledged three chicks at Holkham Nature Reserve Norfolk, marking the county's first successful breeding attempt.” 

In 2019, a single pair nested in Cheshire for the first time, at Burton Mere Wetlands, a flap and a glide into to Lancashire for a Great Egret. 

More news and views soon. Stay tuned to Another Bird Blog. 

Boxed In

Sorry folks. Today is Barn Owls again, just like last Friday. 

Friend Steve made contact to say that his Barn Owls were probably ready to ring. I readied large bird bags and a set of “G” rings and arranged to meet Bryan over at Steve’s place. 

Steve’s home is not a farm but is close to farmland where Barn Owls hunt. The average countryside dweller does not have to be a farmer to play host to a Farmer’s Friend, the Barn Owl. If someone either owns or has access to a building that Barn Owls might use, the paragraph below has useful information. 

From the Barn Owl Trust - Barn Owl Trust.   “If there’s a large building that a Barn Owl can enter at 3+ metres above the ground then this is almost certainly the best place to put a new Barn Owl nest box. An owl box in a building is easier to erect, costs less, or is quicker and cheaper to make. Such locations mean a box lasts much longer and affords extra shelter.” 

“Mounting an owl box on the outside of a building has many disadvantages and is not recommended unless there is no alternative. Buildings that are in human or agricultural use can be very suitable; Barn Owls can get used to almost any kind of activity as long as they can stay out of sight.”

 

Unfortunately Steve’s owls had of late soiled the lens of the “in the box camera” during their daily routines. By Friday morning all we had to go on were unclear images from early July which showed small owlets. 

Let’s elucidate by explaining that owl homes don’t have plumbing or waste disposal systems and Barn Owls do not have a weekly tidy up of the home. Their messy nest places also contain remnant, long forgotten body parts of voles, rats and other furry creatures. On occasions, and when food is in short supply, a box may hold the remains of smaller siblings that serve as emergency rations - yes Barn Owls have a cannibalistic streak. In other words, an owl box may not be the most sanitary of places to explore by the senses of hand or nose. 

With fingers crossed that in the interim things went well for the owls, Bryan volunteered to climb the ladder, peer into the dark box and stretch a hand into the unknown. With luck the same hand might emerge unscathed, holding a Barn Owl or two. As soon as we put the ladder towards the box an adult Barn Owl flew out, immediately followed by another - a good sign that all was well with the family. 

Bryan shouted down “Success, two chicks, but one unhatched egg”” as he gently placed each owl into bags and fetched them to ground level to be ringed. The chicks had well developed legs and feet of just the right dimensions for the “G” rings, GR26343 and GR26344. 

Bryan

 

Barn Owl

There was time to clean the camera lens and for Steve to check the image on his phone. All was well, the picture bright and clear so that Steve and family can watch the progress of the owls from the comfort of their home screens. The young owls will leave the box for good in about 14 to 21 days’ time. 

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

 

Sundemic

Dare we even think it, let alone say it? At last an old-fashioned British summer where the sun shines from dawn to dusk, a knotted handkerchief the must-have headgear and Lobster Red in vogue.  After the coldest May on record we may be headed for the sunniest July. 

All well and good but hot sunny days and clear sky nights do little for bird migration or to hear the “ping” of a birding WhatsApp message. It’s changeable weather that fetches the birds, common or rare whether here in the British Isles, the Mediterranean, the Aegean or across the pond in North America & the islands of the Caribbean. Here in Lancashire showers through the night and rain before dawn can be the precursors to a “fall” of birds, especially if such conditions include an easterly blow. 

This, the first week of the school hols, was a busy week for grandparents keen to go birding despite the “unseasonal” weather, accustomed as we are to rain in July. Friday morning presented the first opportunity to hit the road without kids so off I went towards Cockerham; the breeze was a little blowy for ringing. 

2021 has been a funny year for Barn Owls too. Poor success in 2020, a cold spring in 2021 combined with a shortage of voles has meant the farmer’s friend is only now catching up, breeding only when everything is hunky dory.  In Pilling village I met up with one of the locals strangely absent for months but now back on the trail of rats, voles and much besides. 

Barn Owl

 

Here at Cockerham farmers have taken the dry weather opportunity to take a cut of silage, the newly cut fields quickly discovered by mainly Curlews, Stock Doves and assorted Gulls (Lesser Black Backs, Herring and Black-headed. The cut fields mean there are less places for Brown Hares to hide from view while leverets have yet to learn that man may not be a friend. One ran towards the car. 

Leveret (Brown Hare)

 

The Sand Martin colony at Hillam Lane was fairly busy if difficult to count at around 120+ birds, both adults and juveniles present.  Also here was a family of Moorhens, 4 Curlew, 1 Grey Heron and a single Common Tern from nearby Conder Green 

Common Tern

Sand Martin

After the lack of rain with corresponding hot weather the water level at Conder Green is possibly as low as it has ever been with lots margins that are mostly distant or hidden from view. However while the sum of birds on view was not high, the number of species via combined pool and tidal creeks was very impressive. 

Waders amounted to 22 Redshank, 14 Lapwing, 10 Oystercatcher, 7 Curlew, 6 Avocet, 4 Common Sandpiper, 2 Snipe, 2 Greenshank and 2 Little Egret. 

Little Egret

 

Curlew

 

Add to those waders the odds and sods like 3 Little Grebe, 4 Tufted Duck, 1 Grey Heron, 16 Mute Swan, 45 Greylags and then the obligatory Swallows and Sand Martins, it all amounts to more than acceptable birding. Greylags are now a constant sight at Conder Green at almost any time of the year, even more so in autumn following a successful breeding season. 

Greylags

 

If the wind drops a little for tomorrow I may try a little ringing. Saturday looks a touch breezy, Sunday less so but either way more sunny days beckon. How unusual! 

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

And then take a look at my lovely friend Rain Frances in New Brunswick, Canada who via You Tube will show you how to sketch and draw - Rain Frances on You Tube.

 

Billy No Mates

Saturday morning, 17 July. My usual ringing pal Andy is laid up for some weeks following his knee op this week. Regrettably that means he will lose his part time job as a Car Park Attendant as he won’t have the essential qualifications of a lop-sided limp - (his joke, not mine). There’s no way Sue will accompany me at 0600 and support the far end of a 60ft mist net while I tie the near end. She’s not keen to provide secretary duties either. Arrangements like that would probably cost me dearly in the way of a contribution to the Gordon’s Gin Empire. 

Fortunately Billy No Mates knows of a quiet place where he can sit in a shaded chair with a couple of mist nets up and also bird with eyes and ears, even though in mid-July there’s not a lot to see or hear. 

This venue is private with no one to trouble me except for the pesky sand flies that even through a shirt dig their needle teeth in as soon as they land. This is not a place to catch piles of birds but rather a place to watch the world go by and wonder how I have managed to stay sane for 18 months while the world around has gone completely insane. 

The seed crop isn’t quite ready to split and drop but already the mass of flowers hold a myriad of insects and creepy crawlies. It’s no wonder then that a single net through the crop catches insect eating Sedge Warblers and Reed Warblers that visit here from a reed bed fifty yards away. 

Seed Plot

Seed Plot

So here’s a quiz for clued up non-ringers or even ringers who see few “acros”, acrocephalus warblers. The two pictures below show two ages of Sedge Warbler, an adult (male as it happens) and below that a juvenile born in recent weeks. Which is which? The differing stages of their respective plumage provide the answer. 

Sedge Warbler - juvenile/first summer

 

Sedge Warbler - adult

 

Differentiating the ages of Reed Warblers is less easy. At this time of year one of the best and quickest methods is to examine the wear on the primary flight feathers, especially at the tips. Birds of the year look fresh, new and unworn, whereas the equivalent feathers of an adult will be slightly worn and bleached at the outermost points. 

See the two pictures below. 

Reed Warbler - juvenile/first summer 

 

Reed Warbler - adult

 

Reed Warbler

 

A stroll along the paths led to a locked gate and the farmer's sign “Bull in Field”, an essential to deter trespassers of many kinds.  As I looked over, the young bull stared back. He appeared d harmless enough with blunt, stubby horns and a kindly face, nothing like those steamy nostril Spanish bulls that trample bullfighters into the Iberian dust. 

Beware of the Bull

 

As docile as the hulk appeared it’s best to never approach a bull, young or old, especially if there are heifers around. I also know to steer clear of the occasional Galloway cow found in local cattle herds; given the chance they can get fairly obnoxious and chase unwary birders across a field. 

Half a dozen Reed Warblers, two Sedge Warblers and a Wren the sum total of my ringing efforts. Adult Reed Warbler AKH0265 was from elsewhere, further details will follow. A Common Whitethroat sat atop a nearby hawthorn bush, the berries green with youthful innocence and the “throat” an older male with a greying mop, a wise old bird that I didn’t catch. 

Whitethroat

 

Likewise an unexpected count of 35 House Sparrows and 40+ Swallows were my highest counts of both species this year. Sad to say not a single Swift crossed my path - a poor year for this species. 

And sad to say, no other warblers where I might expect a couple of Willow Warblers and /or Blackcaps. 2021 - What a strange year in many ways when this cold spring followed the abysmal weather, poor breeding and low productivity of 2020.  There are no finches in the seed plot yet because natural seeds of the countryside are abundant for now, but the variety of the seed plot will work its magic soon. 

All season I watched the secretive Tufted Ducks that gave nothing away as to where the nest might be. And then today the family, minus dad of course, toddled along the track and then dived off and into the pool as mom saw me ahead. 

Tufted Ducks

 

On the waterway also - 3 Little Egret, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Heron.  An entertaining morning for sure, even if there was no one to talk to except the birds or myself. 

 

A Smelly Subject

Here’s a story with conclusions that may not be all that surprising to many bird watchers. It’s about birds’ sense of smell, a subject tackled here on Another Bird Blog in December 2014. 

https://anotherbirdblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/do-birds-smell.html  

The story below is from Science Daily of July 2021 - “The fine nose of storks." 

"The sharp eyes of an eagle, the extraordinary hearing of an owl - to successfully find food, the eyes and ears of birds have adapted optimally to their living conditions. Until now, the sense of smell has played a rather subordinate role. When meadows are freshly mowed, White Storks often appear there to search for snails and frogs. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Animal Behaviour in Radolfzell and the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz have now studied the birds' behaviour and discovered that the storks are attracted by the smell of the mown grass. Only storks that were downwind and could thus perceive the smell reacted to the mowing. The scientists also sprayed a meadow with a spray of green leaf scents released during mowing. Storks appeared here as well. This shows that White Storks use their sense of smell to forage and suggests that the sense of smell may also play a greater role in other birds than previously thought."

 

White Storks

"For farmers around Lake Constance, it's a familiar sight: when they start mowing their meadows, storks often appear next to the tractors as if out of nowhere. The White Storks live in the wet areas around the lake, feeding on snails, frogs and small rodents that find shelter in high meadows. If these meadows are mowed, the small animals are easy prey. However, the storks do not always appear when mowing takes place. Until now, it was not known how the storks locate the rich food source. "

White Stork

"Previously, it was believed that birds relied primarily on their eyes and ears rather than their sense of smell. "It was simply assumed that birds can't smell well because they don't have real noses," says Martin Wikelski, director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. "Yet they have a very large olfactory bulb in the brain with many receptor molecules for scents." So birds have the best prerequisites for a fine nose. 

Wikelski has spent many years observing storks and researching their migratory behaviour, among other things. When he talked to his colleague Jonathan Williams about the storks' puzzling reaction to mowed meadows, Williams had an idea. Williams works at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, Germany, studying volatile organic compounds and their effects on humans and the environment. "My guess was that the storks were reacting to the intense smell of freshly cut grass," Williams says. This typical smell is produced by so-called green leaf odorants and consists of only three different molecules. "These are also added to perfumes, for example, to give them a fresh, "green" note," explains Williams. 

The researchers now wanted to find out whether the sense of smell actually leads the storks to freshly mown meadows. To do this, they monitored the birds' movements both from aircraft and via GPS sensors of tagged animals. "We first had to rule out the possibility that the storks could hear the tractor or see the mowing process," Wikelski says. Therefore, they only included storks in the observation that were more than 600 meters away from the mowed meadow and did not have direct visual contact. The researchers also made sure that the storks were not alerted to the mowing process by the behaviour of conspecifics or other birds. 

When mowing began, only the storks that were downwind flew to the meadow in question. The conspecifics that were upwind and thus could not perceive the grass smell did not react. To test whether the smell of the cut grass alone attracted the storks, the researchers switched to a meadow that had been mowed two weeks earlier. "The grass of this meadow was still very short. Therefore, it is uninteresting for the storks to forage," Wikelski explained. On this meadow, he and colleagues spread grass that had been mowed a short time before at a greater distance. A short time later, the first storks flew in and searched for food in the mown grass. 

The researchers finally mixed a solution of green leaf scents and sprayed it on a meadow with short grass. The meadow then smelled intensely of mown grass and also attracted storks from the surrounding area. "This proves that storks find their way to feeding sites via scents in the air," Williams says. This finding contradicts the previous assumption that storks primarily use their eyes to find food. Rather, the birds rely on their sense of smell to do so. "There have been storks that have flown more than 25 km from the other side of Lake Constance to mowed meadows," Wikelski says. The researchers suspect that the sense of smell may also play a greater role than previously thought in the foraging activities of other bird species." 

Birds of prey such as Buzzards, kites and falcons spring to mind. These species are regularly observed flying over or within striking distance of meadows where their sense of smell probably plays a part in their hunting prowess.

Buzzard

Red Kite

Buzzard

These scientists might be surprised to learn that experienced bird watchers already suspect that birds find their food by many methods, the sense of smell being just one of them. Birders have a nose for such things and are often ahead of the game. If only they were consulted a little more often by experts. 

Kestrel

 

Red-footed Falcon

 Story via - Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.  ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 12 July 2021. 

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