Missed The Pink

I found myself looking at Starlings this morning. Yes, those noisy, mucky pests that carry the very appropriate Latin title of Sturnus vulgaris. For readers not up to speed with the latest rarity news, there has been an influx of Rose-coloured Starlings into Western Europe and the UK from the pink ones’ normal area of easternmost Europe and southern Asia.  In those parts the species inhabits steppe and open agricultural land but when they turn up here in the UK they might be found in almost any habitat that resembles their original.  

An adult Rosy Starling looks nothing like our Common Starling but for the next few weeks it’s a good idea to check out any post-breeding Starling flocks as the juveniles of each species have a closer likeness.

All of a sudden there are a lot of Starlings around this week with flocks here and there and 90% of them fresh juveniles. 

Rose-coloured Starling 

Common Starling 

Good and bad news from Conder Green. A mink scurried along the water’s edge, glistening black from its dip in the creek before it disappeared into the grass. This was my first sighting here of this non-native terrorist, the originals of which were escapees from fur farms and those released by misguided Disney-heads. 

Mink - Pdreijnders CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Unsurprisingly the watery creeks held little apart from a handful of Redshank, Oystercatcher, Lapwing and Shelduck, plus singles of Curlew, Grey Heron and Little Egret.

Fortunately the story on the pool was much better with proved breeding from a number of birds and a "maybe" from a single Little Ringed Plover that is unlikely to be alone.  On the nearest island an Oystercatcher had three chicks, vying for the limited space with four fresh out-of-the-egg Redshank chicks.  Play “Spot the Chick” in the picture below. 

Redshanks 

Otherwise - a pair of Avocet in the throes of egg sitting, 18 Tufted Duck and at least 4 more pairs of Oystercatcher with more small young.

There are still two pairs of Common Tern, one pair with chicks, all of them joined briefly today by two other Common Terns that flew in from the estuary. After a few very noisy but brief skirmishes the would-be interlopers flew back from whence they arrived out to the River Lune.

I completed a circuit of the lanes from Conder Green via Jeremy, Moss etc. to estimate the passerines hiding in the ditches and hedgerows with singing counts of 12 Tree Sparrow, 8 Sedge Warbler, 6 Whitethroat, 3 Reed Warbler, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Pied Wagtail, 2 Willow Warbler and 2 Blackcap

Tree Sparrow 

Pied Wagtail

I drove back via the moss roads to find more juvenile Starlings, a day flying Barn Owl, 4 Buzzards and a single Yellowhammer belting it out from on high. A Yellowhammer is quite a find nowadays, almost rarer than a Rosy Starling.

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Barn Owl

Yellowhammer

That’s all for now folks. Another Bird Blog is back soon with more colourful bird tales.

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


P.S. 

Kelly - Community Manager @ Google 31 May 

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Wader Snaps

This is the quiet period when migration takes a breather as the birds settle down to breed. I took time out with the camera today with the intention of snapping a few waders in the hills a thirty minute drive from home.  Don't forget - click the pics.

Snipe intrigue me. Dumpy, squat  little waders that like to hide away in marshy places and rarely make it easy for the camera. In the breeding season the males keep an eye open for trouble along fences or dry stone walls and where with a stealthy approach there’s a chance of a picture or two. I took loads of pictures of one obliging Snipe. 

Snipe 

Snipe 

Snipe

For a minute or more the Snipe took a walk along the fence towards an on-guard Oystercatcher. The Oystercatcher had chicks but Snipe are generally a week or more behind the oyks. 

Oystercatcher 

Oystercatcher chick 

Snipe

Oystercatcher and Snipe

Snipe 

Snipe

Up here in the hills Oystercatchers breed in the fields, amongst scattered trees, and also along the beds of stony streams. 

Oystercatcher 

Oystercatcher chick 

I didn't see too many Redshanks today but one of a pair, I think the male, proved pretty obliging. He sounded a warning from a roadside post to the female just yards away on a nest in the rushy field. 

Redshank 

Lapwings weren’t too numerous and the ones I saw were adults or well grown youngsters so I suspect that the Lapwings are more or less done for this year. 

Lapwing 

Lapwing 

Curlews are the difficult ones. They are very wary of approaching cars where even slowing makes them very prone to fly off. Unlike the other waders up here, Curlews rarely sit on walls and even less so on fence posts. 

Curlew

Bowland, Lancashire

Other species seen but not photographed today – 2 Cuckoo, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Pied Flycatcher, several Siskin, 4+ Lesser Redpoll, Mistle Thrush (many), Red Grouse, Grey Wagtail, Sand Martin, Swallow, Willow Warbler, Blackcap. 

Four plus hours - No raptors!

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday.

Book Review - Birds of Prey by Brian K Wheeler

New books arrive thick and fast. Up for consideration today are two books released together as companion field guides to North American raptors - Birds of Prey of the West & Birds of Prey of the East. The two are due for publication any day but for the benefit of readers of this blog, I managed to get my hands on a copy of each hot off the Princeton press. 

Birds of Prey of The West - Princeton Press 

Birds of Prey of the East - Princeton Press

After the run of photographic field guides and PC & IPhone apps of recent years I felt somewhat relieved to see that the art of the classic field guide is not lost but alive and well in these two volumes from Brian K Wheeler. 

A glance at the author’s unbeatable CV gives a clue as to the expertise displayed in these two superb books. 

“Brian K. Wheeler has been studying, painting, and photographing birds of prey throughout the United States and Canada for more than fifty years. He is the illustrator of Hawks of North America (Peterson Field Guides), the co-author and photographer of A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors, and the author and photographer of Raptors of Eastern North America and Raptors of Western North America. His photographs have appeared in many other books and in many bird magazines.” 

In the author’s own words. “The journey began when I was seven years old, when I earnestly started drawing birds and mammals, first on old canvas pieces, then on cardboard, and then on white watercolor paper with transparent watercolor paint. Later, I used the thicker opaque watercolor medium called gouache." 

"My first watercolor paintings of wildlife date back to age 12, and I sold my first painting when I was fourteen. Painting wildlife and especially birds was my passion, and I drew or painted every day. By my early twenties, I concentrated mainly on birds. My late teens and twenties were spent learning bird anatomy. I spent much time with waterfowl hunters and preparing road and window killed specimens for museums.” 

Both books are lavishly illustrated with really stunning, lifelike paintings which depict an enormous range of variations of age, sex, colour, and plumage. Princeton claims that the two books “feature a significant amount of plumage data that has never been published before”. I have no reason to doubt that given the dazzling number of plates and the variety contained therein. 

The painted figures illustrate plumage and species comparisons in a classic field-guide layout with each species shown in the same posture and from the same viewpoint, which further assists comparisons. 

 Red-tailed Hawk - Birds of Prey of The East

Bald Eagle - Birds of Prey of the East

Facing pages of text include quick-reference identification points and brief natural history accounts that incorporate the latest information. There are rather few bird photographs in either volume but where included they are of the best quality to illustrate a particular point, e.g, the authors explanation of the difficulties in re-establishing the Aplomado Falcon in the wild. 

Snail Kite - Birds of Prey of the East  

Swainson's Hawk- Birds of Prey of the West

Range maps appear exceptionally detailed and accurate and much larger than those in other guides, often full page as shown below. The maps also show up-to-date distribution information for each species and include the location of cities for more accurate reference points for the reader. 

Turkey Vulture - Birds of Prey of The East

Turkey Vulture - Birds of Prey of the West

This highly detailed information is further enhanced by discussion & analysis of sub-species, plumage variations, morphs, proposed splits & joins and the intermixing or interbreeding of species. For instance the Red-tailed Hawk in its many and various forms is treated to a fifty-five page essay in each volume. Similarly, eleven pages of the Eastern volume are allocated to describing the Peregrine Falcon in all its types. 

Peregrine Falcon - Birds of Prey of The West 

Birds of Prey of The East

Something rather new and extremely useful in this type of classic field guide is the inclusion of colour habitat photographs and brief explanatory notes next to the maps. A location is all very well but for the author to show the reader the actual habitat to explore is a beyond handy indeed. 

"Wyoming. Note excrement whitewash below aerie left of pine tree in the foreground midway on cliff face”! My exclamation. 

Zone-tailed Hawk - Birds of Prey of the West 

Despite the author’s scholarly approach and experience the guides never lapse into jargon or become overly scientific; they remain accessible and highly readable throughout. These are mighty books for raptor enthusiasts who take their birds of prey seriously. They represent a new standard for bird field guides. They go beyond the definition of a guide and reach into the realms of dissertation, systematic study and detailed exploration. 

I really cannot praise these two volumes enough. Both are “must-haves” for the serious raptor aficionado. 

Available now at Princeton Press and Princeton Press at $27.95 or £22.00 for each volume.

Linking today to Anni's Texas Bird Blog.

Result!

A Linnet 

Readers who follow this blog may have read about the Linnet project at Pilling/Cockerham. Over two winters we have caught and ringed over 500 Linnets hoping to find out more about Linnets that spend the winter on local farmland and coastal marshes of The Fylde of North Lancashire. 

We have suspected that many originate from Scotland with previous evidence of a summer nestling from Shetland recaptured at our one ringing site in winter. Now comes news of another Linnet and its connection to Scotland. 

We ringed Linnet S348682 as a juvenile/first year female on 2 December 2016. In the both the following weeks nor the next winter did we recapture her. Fast forward to 27 April 2018 when S348682 was recaptured by another ringer at Clachtoll, Lochinver, Highland, Scotland, a distance of 496km and an elapsed time of 511 days from the ringing date. By now the ringer had aged and sexed the Linnet as an adult female with the spring date suggestive of a possible breeding locality. 

Linnet - Cockerham to Lochinver

Linnet

Clachtoll is a coastal fishing and crofting village, situated on the Bay of Clachtoll, on the north western edge of Scotland. Almost certainly the Linnet had returned in April 2018 to the actual locality in which it was born or somewhere close.

Results like this motivate us to continue with the Linnet project for 2018/19. Such returns make all those cold morning starts and freezing fingers worthwhile. 

A Sand Martin 

Readers may recall that just last week on 23 May Andy and I suspected we caught a rather old Sand Martin. The martin bore a ring beginning with the letter “D”. So I punched in D350512 into Demography Online and hey presto, a few days later came a result. 

Sand Martin D350512 was ringed as a juvenile at Icklesham, East Sussex on 2 September 2103, four and half years, or to be exact, 1724 days prior to our recapture at the Cockerham nesting colony. Here we were able to sex it as a male. 

Sand Martin  

Sand Martin - Sussex to Lancashire

The comparatively short journey between Sussex and Lancashire is dwarfed by the yearly journeys of Sand Martins. D30512 has already flown several times between Africa and England and vice versa.

I make it ten journeys of about 2,500 miles each time, by road or as the crow flies. You do the maths.

Lancashire to Sahel

Millions of Sand Martins spend the Northern winter in the belt of hot and dry land immediately south of the Sahara known as the Sahel. Here they depend on areas of water in river flood plains and when rainfall is high, more martins survive. But in times of drought the Sand Martin population drops quickly. 

In the late 1960s, numbers in the British Isles fell by around 70% as a result of drought in the Sahel. Recent wetter winters have allowed numbers to recover but the species is very dependent upon climate and its effect, both here and in Africa.

An aside. Are other bloggers having problems with comments not appearing in their designated email accounts? It seems it's a Google problem but I wish they would fix it soon.

So apologies in advance if I am a little tardy with replies. I am having to go into the blog comments via Google + rather than read them in the everyday email account.        

Linking today to Eileen's Blog and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Back On Patch

There was a stiff north-easterly wind as I set off over the moss roads. It had been three weeks without birding the local patch so I was keen to see what had taken place in this “silent spring”. Via the Internet I’d read local blogs and bird club pages where all agreed that a number of species were down or even missing – Whitethroats, Sedge Warblers, Swallows, Swifts, House Martins and Reed Warblers; the same names kept cropping up on the list of absentees. 

Until this morning I’d not seen a Swift in the UK, just several thousand in Menorca over a week ago. It was almost 1030 this morning before I saw my first 2 UK Swifts of the year, both heading purposefully into the wind and out over Morecambe Bay. 

The early start gave a number of Whitethroats, both singing but also skulking as they do. Maybe they are just trying to catch up with the days they lost on the way here? But less than a dozen Whitethroats for almost four hours of birding in suitable habitat represents a poor show. 

Whitethroat 

At least the recent dry days gave farmers a chance to catch up and for now the flash floods are gone.  Many a field is ploughed & seeded or stripped bare by the first cut of silage. 

Rawcliffe Moss, Lancashire 

The moss roads produced an interesting mix. I checked out the Buzzard nest of some weeks ago where the foliage now almost completely hides the nest. The two adults were very close by but silent and I’m pretty sure there are small young up there in the tree tops. 

Buzzard Nest 

Buzzard 

Close by was a singing Lesser Whitethroat, a Kestrel and on nearby fields, 6 Stock Dove. There was a Curlew displaying too, an upland breeding species that nests in very low numbers here on the coast.  

An hour or two around the Cockerham, Conder Green and Cockersands area proved to be inconclusive. I saw lots of Sand Martins at Cockerham but Swallows and House Martins were noticeable by their low numbers, even absent from regular spots along Moss Lane. 

In this part of Lancashire our Swallows have suffered a series of poor, short summers of rain, cool temperatures and the loss of many traditional nesting sites. The cumulative effect of these changes is that two or three broods have not been possible in a season and there are less young available to fly to Africa in the autumn. The additional pressures of the Swallows’ long and hazardous migration mean that the numbers of Swallows returning to breed in our Northern summer declines each year. Swallows are stuck in a vicious circle from which they struggle to escape. 

I managed to see and hear about six Sedge Warblers, plus a handful of Whitethroat but not a single Reed Warbler in the phragmites ditches alongside the lanes. I'm hoping the lack of visuals of both Reed and Sedge Warblers is down to a late start and the females laying low while on eggs. 

Sedge Warbler  

Brown Hares have done well this year where perhaps the farmers’ reluctance to enter their fields in the wet spring helped hares progress. Skylarks may have benefited in a similar way and it was a very visible but not necessarily vocal species this morning with a good number seen along Jeremy and Moss lanes. Skylarks too are mostly at egg stage in late May and I didn't see any carrying food today.

  

Brown Hare

Skylark 

Along Moss Lane I saw two broods of young Lapwings, adults with three good sized chicks and then adults with but a single youngster. Sadly I also saw the beginnings of a post-breeding season gathering of 15-18 adults whereby both failed or non-breeders join together in a loose flock to compare notes and discuss what they might do different next time. 

Lapwing 

There’s good news from Conder Green where a second pair of Common Terns have claimed the island spot vacated by the Avocets of early May that upped sticks and went elsewhere. The other pair  of terns still claim the man-made pontoon.

Common Tern 

Also here – 5 pairs of Oystercatcher, 3 pairs of Tufted Duck and 2 pairs of Redshank.