Finches And Fieldfares

It’s been a slow start to the finch season with even Goldfinches hard to come by lately, but this morning’s ringing on the moss made amends with a sudden increase in the King Harrys and the start of the redpoll passage.

With recent quiet visits and the cold, misty start today I wasn’t too adventurous with the number or positioning of nets but caught fairly well until about 10am. New birds, 12 Goldfinch, 5 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Chaffinch and a single Coal Tit. The two recaptures were a Blackbird and a Goldfinch.

As the sun burned off the mist a few Siskins and more Lesser Redpolls flew north, however there was no sign of either Goldcrests or Chiffchaffs in the plantation, species we might expect by now. Otherwise the birding was subdued with 7 Yellowhammer, 45 Curlew, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 3 Skylark, 1 Corn Bunting, 2 Buzzard and 1 Kestrel.

In the autumn it’s not always possible to sex Lesser Redpolls - no doubt about one of this morning’s males.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
Chaffinch
Coal Tit

This Goldfinch is a female – the red on the face does not extend beyond the eye and the nasal hairs are greyish.

Goldfinch
Goldfinch

Fieldfares have used a nearby field for weeks now, all through the wet spell and even now as the soil dries out completely where the bird's brown tones merge in with the dry terrain. I stopped today to take some photographs of birds in a flock of about 130 as they intermittently picked over the earth than flew to the tops of nearby trees when passing vehicles spooked them. Take a good look, it may be November before we see them again. I saw a single distant Redwing amongst the flock but could have missed others.

Fieldfare
Fieldfare
Fieldfare
Fieldfare
Fieldfare
Fieldfare
Fieldfare
Redwing

Miscellany

There’s a spot of birding to report, a few pictures from the garden, then news of a newly published paperback book.

On my way to Pilling after lunch I saw three pairs of Kestrels, a species very active at the moment and which looks to have survived the mild winter well. An hour at Pilling saw 3 Siskin and 4 Lesser Redpoll heading east into the wind, also a few extra Meadow Pipits, with 15 + at Pilling Water, together with 3 Wheatears. Out on the marsh I could see the 5 Barnacle Geese which spent last week on Hi-Fly’s stubble field. The Greenshank and Green Sandpiper still grace the pools if you know where to look and how to approach the water so as not to scare them both into the inner, hidden pools.

Kestrel

Back home in the garden a pair of Long-tailed Tits are building a nest in a berberis bush, and the Blackbirds are also busy constructing a nest somewhere.

Long-tailed Tit
Long-tailed Tit
Blackbird

Princeton University Press sent me a copy of “Birdscapes- Birds in Our Imagination and Experience”, a book previously published as a hardback and now for the first time published in paperback. Below is the blurb for the book, £13.95 in the UK or $19.95 in the US from Princeton University Press

Birdscapes- Birds in Our Imagination and Experience

“What draws us to the beauty of a peacock, the flight of an eagle, or the song of a nightingale? Why are birds so significant in our lives and our sense of the world? And what do our ways of thinking about and experiencing birds tell us about ourselves? Birdscapes is a unique meditation on the variety of human responses to birds, from antiquity to today, and from casual observers to the globe-trotting "twitchers" who sometimes risk life, limb, and marriages simply to add new species to their "life lists."

Drawing extensively on literature, history, philosophy, and science, Jeremy Mynott puts his own experiences as a birdwatcher in a rich cultural context. His sources range from the familiar--Thoreau, Keats, Darwin, and Audubon--to the unexpected--Benjamin Franklin, Giacomo Puccini, Oscar Wilde, and Monty Python. Just as unusual are the extensive illustrations, which explore our perceptions and representations of birds through images such as national emblems, women's hats, professional sports logos, and a Christmas biscuit tin, as well as classics of bird art. Each chapter takes up a new theme--from rarity, beauty, and sound to conservation, naming, and symbolism--and is set in a new place, as Mynott travels from his "home patch" in Suffolk, England, to his "away patch" in New York City's Central Park, as well as to Russia, Australia, and Greece.”

I studied the contents page, read extracts from reviews on the back cover and then read an early section entitled Witnesses and Prophets which lumps together the reactions to birds from a very diverse bunch of birders - amongst them the likes of Keats, Richard Millington, D.I.M Wallace, Gilbert White and Ernst Mayr - Oh Wow, now there's a mixed bunch to meet in a hide one day!

I missed this book first time around but really must read it soon, so I filed it next to my bed as the next read. At 300 pages of solid reading it will take a week or so but I will let Another Bird Blog readers know all about the rest of the book.

Birding And A Roving Linnet

It was birding only this morning with bright and breezy conditions on Rawcliffe Moss providing good visibility and a healthy selection of birds to keep me occupied for a few hours. I’d gone to fill the feeders and check what might be knocking about with a view to a ringing session tomorrow if the wind drops as promised.

As strange as it may seem scarce Yellowhammers outnumbered common Goldfinch this morning, with 10/12 of the former and just 8 or 10 Goldfinches, the only problem being that the buntings are much harder to observe, and certainly to catch than the Goldfinch. I topped up the Niger feeders and then raided the bottom of the pheasant feeders for a little more wheat for the Yellowhammers whilst wondering where all the Goldfinches have got to.

Yellowhammer
Pheasant

The plantation proved quiet, a couple of Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Jay, 3+ overflying Siskin, several Chaffinch and then 3 Buzzards settling their differences over the tall conifers. The wintering Hen Harrier showed again today as it flew over the plantation and then out towards Pilling Moss, just a brief sighting of a species which should by now be heading for the hills. Let’s hope it can stay safe from persecution up there after surviving the winter here. The fields produced 125 returning-north Curlew and then on a tiny flash of water, 14 Snipe and a single Meadow Pipit.

At the other end of the farm I found 2 Grey Partridge, 30+ Tree Sparrows, 2 more Buzzards, a pair of Kestrel and a singing Pied Wagtail. I made a mental note of a Mistle Thrush inspecting a suitable nest site, one to check in a week or two.

Kestrel
Pied Wagtail

Last week on 14th March I caught a ringed Linnet A376420 which turned out to have been ringed across the Irish Sea at Point of Ayre, Isle of Man on 22 October 2011. The Linnet was one of a wintering flock of 200/400 Linnets and when recaptured here on the moss was also part of a Linnet flock of 100-140 birds. The bird’s origins and its whereabouts after Out Rawcliffe remain something of a mystery, but it could be an upland bird seeking out a wintering maritime climate.

Linnet Y376420 - Isle of Man to Rawcliffe Moss
Linnet

Bright Spots

Sunday dawned clear and sunny with a light northerly wind, probably less than ideal conditions for realising major migration, either visible movement or fresh-in grounded birds. So it proved, with notebook entries suggesting I’d maybe used carbon paper below Thursday’s and Friday’s pages, the one exception being a line noting my first Wheatear of the year.

The Wheatear was at the expected spot near Pilling Water. I set two tent traps with a meal worm in each and then retreated to a safe distance. The odds are better when there are several Wheatears and also when a warming sun makes the meal worm wriggle to attract sharp eyed chats. No luck today, the Wheatear took a close look but wasn’t tempted by cold, motionless worms and within ten minutes the bird had flown off across the salt marsh and then north towards Heysham.

Wheatear

There wasn’t a lot doing at Pilling Water – 1 Cormorant, 4 Teal, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel and 1 Sparrowhawk, but 450 Pink-footed Geese an improvement on recent counts. There was perhaps a little more at Fluke Hall today with 26 Lapwing, 47 Redshank, 14 Oystercatcher, 2 Grey Plover, 8 Pied Wagtail, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Buzzard and an additional Kestrel.

Lane Ends fare was fairly predictable with 5 Tufted Duck, 1 Goldeneye, 2 Teal, a singing Reed Bunting, 4 Meadow Pipit, 1 Kestrel and 3 Jay.

At home there were a few chores to complete, with the garden net open because there seemed to be Goldfinches about; I hoped there might be new ones, plus there was a Goldcrest flitting through a neighbouring garden. I caught the Goldcrest and a new Dunnock within minutes but the resident, probably already ringed Goldfinches stayed clear.

Goldcrest

It was lovely if uneventful morning to be out, the couple of bright spots the Wheatear and then after, the belated Goldcrest.

Less Goldcrests - More Geese

I checked Fluke Hall again this morning because after Thursday’s influx of Goldcrests I wanted to see how many were left after the clearer skies of last night. Seemingly most of them had moved on, with just a single sighting, the barely audible Goldcrest contact calls of yesterday replaced today by the ringing sounds of at least 3 Siskins high overhead.

It was very quiet otherwise, with a dozen or so Meadow Pipits and a single Pied Wagtail. On the blog yesterday I forgot to mention the 5 wary Barnacle Geese on the Hi-Fly stubble. The Barnacles were still there today, looking equally as wild and suspicious as the few Pink-footed Geese they fed with.

The Barnacle Goose has an interesting myth that dates back to the 12th century. These geese were thought to have hatched from barnacles "organisms that grow on timber exposed to salt water" furthermore creating a barnacle tree in which the geese lived in their shell hanging from the tree. The purpose of this myth was to allow religious folk to eat the meat during Lent under the delusion the tasty flesh of the goose was fish. It wasn't until the 17th century that scientists debunked the myth when they discovered that in the remote Arctic regions Barnacle Geese built nests in trees on high cliffs and when the goslings hatched, they fell into the water. This discovery put an end to the mystical tree growing geese and at the same time provided the species with a name.

No such legend for the White-fronted Goose that simply gets its name from their white patch above the bill. Near Lane Ends I found two in the same field again, one with a gammy leg which may account for them not venturing too far lately.

Barnacle Goose
White-fronted Goose

Nothing much to report from Lane Ends/Pilling Water sea wall stretch except the usual 2 Kestrel, 5 Little Egret, 1 Pied Wagtail, 12 Meadow Pipits, 1 Greenshank and 2 displaying Buzzards today. At the plantation I heard more Siskins overhead, watched a single Redpoll head north east and noted a fresh-in Reed Bunting. On the water - 2 Goldeneye and 2 Little Grebe.

Sea Wall - Pilling
Meadow Pipit

The Kestrel hovered into the wind and the light, and at the wrong angle to my camera.

Kestrel

Back at home 2 more Buzzards sailed over, heading out towards the copses near Staynall and the River Wyre.

Crests And A Chiff

I saved my walk until pm today, not that it made the weather any better as here in the bleak North West as we enjoyed our fifth day of 100% cloud cover. The usual Lane Ends to Pilling Water trek came up with 20+ Meadow Pipits, 3 Little Egret, 2 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Pied Wagtail, 2 Kestrel and 2 Jays. The inevitable green duo Green Sandpiper and Greenshank graced the wildfowler’s pools with a couple of Teal still hanging on in there.

Fluke Hall was a little more rewarding than of late with a gang of 8 Goldcrest moving through the trees and a single Chiffchaff giving snatches of song. When I got home and looked on the Internet there seems to have been a mass fall of Goldcrests in the Fylde and elsewhere this morning, with possibly hundreds if not thousands of birds arriving from somewhere.

Goldcrest
Chiffchaff

I checked the sea wall at all the likely spots but still no sign of Wheatears. More grounded Meadow Pipits at Ridge Farm, circa 18 birds mixing it in the wet field with approximately 25 Linnets and the now resident 4 Reed Buntings.

Reed Bunting

Yellow Not Rustic

All morning I’d been watching Yellowhammers, also known as yellow buntings, as they arrived to feed on a mound of spilt wheat, and with 40+ sightings in three, fours and fives, I reckoned on at least 20 individuals involved in the comings and goings. Having caught a couple of the yellow buntings Emberiza citrinella I’d taken the nets down when a text came through about a rather rare Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica glimpsed on migration through Heysham, about 25 miles from my ringing spot on Rawcliffe Moss. Just as well I took a couple of pictures, the buntings I caught were definitely of a yellow cast rather than a rustic hue.

Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer

In addition to the Yellowhammers I also caught 4 Goldfinch, a single Chaffinch and a Linnet. The Linnet was a recapture from a ringer elsewhere - Y376420 anyone?

The light was so gloomy this morning I had to use ISO800.

Linnet
Chaffinch
Goldfinch

The murky, grey, overcast morning with a hint of a south easterly produced little in the way of visible migration again, the most notable being a loose flock of 40 Fieldfares mysteriously heading due west. Maybe the Rustic Bunting got caught up in the same weather trajectory and went west to Heysham instead of north to Scandinavia?

The photograph is by kind permission of Kjetil Hansen of Norway, a place where Rustic Buntings are fairly common.

Rustic Bunting - permission of Kjetil Hansen

Other sightings this morning: Still a winter flock of 100+ Chaffinch, 40 Linnet, 15 Goldfinch, 2 Jay, 2 Buzzard, 1 Tawny Owl, 1 Corn Bunting, 4 Reed Bunting, 2 Grey Partridge

That Winter Feeling

It was the local Pilling patch again this morning, hoping for migrants ideally, although I’m more than happy to see and watch all species and see what they are up to at this time of year.

You could say the morning started on a high with a Barn Owl sat on a roadside post along Fluke Hall Lane, the only problem being that the approach of a car caused the owl to fly off quickly towards a nearby farm building, and I didn’t see it again.

Barn Owl

A walk at Ridge Farm found 8 Lapwing, 4 Oystercatcher, 2 Reed Bunting, 5 Linnet, 4 Skylark, 2 Little Egret and 1 Pied Wagtail, with just a couple of small groups of overflying Meadow Pipits heading east along the sea wall, less than 20 birds in all. Later on at Lane Ends I noted a single overhead Meadow Pipit and despite the rather murky, grey morning I didn’t see any grounded pipits in a three hour walk, so I expect that any heading north found their way inland via the sea wall or managed to cross Morecambe Bay at some point.

Lane Ends to Pilling Water and then back involved approximately 2 hours of leisurely birding: 3 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Grey Heron, 4 Little Egret, 2 European White-fronted Goose, 30 Pink-footed Goose, 5 Teal, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Greenfinch, 45 Lapwing, 24 Curlew, 25 Oystercatcher, 30 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper.

Many species were noted either singing or in display mode, including Skylark, Lapwing, Redshank, Mistle Thrush, Little Grebe, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Dunnock and Chaffinch. So although spring is in the air, without a spot of sunshine or a rush of March migration this morning’s birding had a winter sensation to it still.

Redshank
Lapwing

Follower 300 arrived, hello Tomás. Nice pictures of Stone Curlew.

Things Can Only Get Better

Sometimes the Spring optimism is overtaken by the reality of a dull early March morning on the moss, where birds are hard to come by and visible migration is often less obvious than in the autumn. It does seem that birds moving north in spring stay with the coast more, plus of course there are a lot less birds in total than after a prolonged and successful breeding season.

That fact was brought home to me this morning when I had a text from the lads at Rossall to say vis was good and they had caught 15 birds at that point in time. My short text in response simply said “No vis - 4 goldf caught”. An hour later my total birds caught increased to 5 with a single unexciting Greenfinch added and not a lot of other stuff in the notebook to make the morning appear more thrilling. With nothing doing I decided to pack in sooner with five birds rather than later with the same handful.

Greenfinch

The only visible migration I saw came in the form of 2 Meadow Pipits heading north east, followed an hour later by a loose assembly of 12 Fieldfares, chuckling loudly as they too flew directly north and east.

I tried to catch a few Yellowhammers, there were 8 or 10 about the spilt wheat plus two singing males further down the farm, but the birds weren’t interested in being caught today. The Linnets flock numbered 90+ today, and despite spending some time close to the nets they too were indifferent to sporting a shiny and new BTO ring for the season.

Yellowhammer
Linnet

Other birds seen: 1 Kestrel, 4 Grey Partridge, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 4 Lapwing, 3 Reed Bunting. As I drove off the farm I saw 2 more Fieldfares, this time in the field where a party fed for a few days a week or two ago.

Fieldfare

The morning didn’t improve when back at home I destroyed yet another vacuum flask by dropping the latest one on the hard-paved patio. How does that Howard Jones song go? - "You can walk my path, You can wear my shoes, But things can only get better”.

Ending On A High?

Another bright and breezy morning dictated no ringing, instead a drive to and then a walk over the local patches of Fluke, Pilling Water and Lane Ends, with another quiet morning and very little sign of spring migration. It was so quiet I lumped all the sighting together under headings “Lane Ends/Pilling Water” or “Fluke” but regular readers will readily associate the sightings with a particular spot

Lane Ends/Pilling Water: 2 Little Grebe, 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Goldeneye, 6 Little Egret, 2 European White-fronted Goose, 12 Greylag, 1 Sparrowhawk, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Greenshank, 6 Skylark, plus 20 grounded Meadow Pipits.

Now the shooting season is finished grey geese in general are easier to approach, although many of the pinkfeet have been in the quieter parts of Staynall and Stalmine for a week or two.

European White-fronted Goose

Fluke: 40 Dunlin, 35 Lapwing, 125 Golden Plover, 10 Oystercatcher, 18 Curlew, 8 Skylark, 6 Meadow Pipit, 8 Linnet and 22 Twite. Although both the Twite and Meadow Pipits could be migrants, the Twite are probably part of the flock that wintered between Pilling and Knott End, the Meadow Pipits not visibly migrating but hanging about in the area of the midden with 2 Pied Wagtails.

Meadow Pipit

Back home the local Great-spotted Woodpecker was busily drumming away beyond the village hall with the regular Mistle Thrush in full voice. In the garden Goldfinches have dried up, no sign of Siskins but a Goldcrest made a brief appearance.

With a high pressure sitting over us the weather forecast looks better for a spot of ringing tomorrow, even though it may turn out to be a “blocking” high.

High Pressure

Two Ninenty Nine

I grabbed about three hours of birding this morning when I saw no sign of spring migrants, hardly surprising in the stiff north westerly I guess, and it is only March 8th. Here we are again wishing our lives away to see a few birds which will arrive only when they are good and ready.

In the way of passerines Fluke Hall turned up 2 singing Song Thrush, 3 Reed Bunting and lots of noisy Tree Sparrows about the area of the nest boxes. The wet stubble fields proved fairly quiet with 30 Golden Plover, 25 Redshank, 40 Oystercatcher, 14 Curlew and 50+ Lapwing, some of the latter in display mode again, but no sign of first nests yet.

Lane Ends including a walk to Pilling Water and then back produced a mixed bag of species, 2 European White-fronted Geese, 36 Woodpigeon, 2 Little Grebe, 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Egret, 1 Greenshank, 4 Skylark, 180 Shelduck, 1 Sparrowhawk and 1 Buzzard.

Sparrowhawk
Tufted Duck

Travelling along Head Dyke Lane in the direction of Knott End I could see a hunting Barn Owl across the fields to my left but there was nowhere to stop a car safely, so I continued up to the village. The rising tide realised a good selection of birds, with 360 Oystercatcher, 24 Eider, 15 Shelduck, 1 Cormorant, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit, 14 Turnstone, 3 Curlew, 10 Sanderling, 2 Pied Wagtail and 1 Rock Pipit.

Oystercatcher
Pied Wagtail
Eider

Apologies for the quick, short post today but please look in to Another Bird Blog again soon, and for anyone not a “follower”, sign up now to become Number 300.

Misted Over

We tell ourselves Spring is here but even with the sun up it was a cold start out on the moss, iced up ropes with a second layer of ice on the bamboo poles, so three nets went up slowly, with swigs of coffee in between. First bird out was a Linnet, giving me high hopes that more of the 120 strong flock might find the net from their forays into the alders. It wasn’t to be as thick mist rolled in from the west, and apart from Goldfinches on the feeders the birds stopped moving around much. I caught just 9 birds, 7 Goldfinch, 1 Linnet and I Chaffinch, until packing up early due to the lingering mist leaving dew on the nets.

Linnet
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Misty Moss

The Yellowhammers were still about the spilt wheat this morning, at least 15 birds, with Chaffinches coming for a look also.

Yellowhammer

The “other” sightings are pretty thin today, the mist preventing me seeing anything of note except 1 Kestrel, a singing Corn Bunting, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers and a Little Owl at the entrance to a nest box. They do that every year, fool someone into thinking they are about to use a box, then go and nest elsewhere.

Little Owl

Just the other day I found this freshly dead but very wet mouse on the morning grass. I think it may be a house mouse Mus musculus, but I stand to be corrected by someone with knowledge of small mammals.

Mouse