Saturday’s Selection

I started at Lane Ends this morning where as I arrived a Barn Owl was caught momentarily in the car headlights as it hunted over the sea wall; the owl paused on a fence post before flying off west towards Pilling. In the half-light I counted 42 Little Egrets out of the island roost but didn’t hang around to watch the pink-feet leave. Counting the geese off the marsh can be a couple of hour’s job, especially when there are so many. 

When I returned later after a quick look at Conder Green there were still 7 or 8 thousand geese about, so goodness knows what the total numbers are at the moment, but enough to attract the shooter’s cars to Gulf Lane. 

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese - "pinkies"

Conder Green has certainly gone off the boil with just 4 Snipe, 55 Teal and 2 Little Grebe this morning. An overflying Raven seems to be something of a regular sight just here lately. Two Reed Bunting, 2 Pied Wagtail and 7 Meadow Pipits added to the meagre haul. 

It was then back to Pilling for a walk to Pilling Water and Fluke Hall. There are good numbers of wildfowl on the wildfowler’s pools, a good spot to wait for the Teal spooking off, to watch their flying abilities and maybe get a picture of them. I didn’t get much of a chance today when all I heard was the rush of wings in hurried flight as hundreds of Teal came over my head, the ducks pursued by an equally rapid and determined Peregrine. 

The Peregrine didn’t catch, at least not in the few seconds I glimpsed it before it shot over the sea wall and out towards the marsh. I saw it again later getting a taste of its own medicine from Carrion Crows. Peregrines are a daily occurrence about here with the views for birders mostly distant and fleeting, the raptor sticking to the distant marsh and tideline where most of its food is found. 

Teal

Carrion Crow and Peregrine

Other wildfowl/waders - 300+ Wigeon, 3 Golden Plover, 400+ Lapwing with other raptors being a Sparrowhawk and a circling Buzzard. Small stuff today came in the shape of a Kingfisher fishing Broadfleet, 40+ Skylarks, 2 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Wheatear and a tiny number of Meadow Pipits, less than ten. 

The pipits and the chats are both near the end of their autumnal movement, the Skylarks perhaps continuing for a while yet. The Meadow Pipit picture I took earlier in the week, the Wheatear today, in the spot where both species can consistently be found. 

Meadow Pipit

 Wheatear

Wheatear

Another Bird Blog links today to Camera Critters and Anni's Blog. Check them out for more birds and All Creatures Great and Small. 

Before The Deluge…...

.... some of them were dreamers, and some of them were fools (Jackson Browne). 

But when the weather forecast is as dire as the one for both today and tomorrow, its best to get out there and do some birding before the clouds break. 

Take Cover

Knott End seemed a good bet this morning; a walk alongside the golf course where there are trees sheltered from the south easterlies and there would be an incoming tide to watch. 

There was a little visible migration with birds arriving from the North West then continuing up river or crossing the golf course heading into the breeze. The movement comprised mostly wagtails, 6 definite Pied Wagtails, i.e. the ones that landed prior to heading off south, another 15 overhead “albas”, and 4 Grey Wagtails which spent time along the jetty before flying off south together. At one point a Sparrowhawk appeared from the golf course then chased a few wagtails into the air before giving up and heading across river to Fleetwood. A small movement of Skylarks too, with 10/12 birds arriving from the north and continuing up river. 

A number of Chaffinches, circa 20 arrived from the general direction of the estuary, the birds calling as they dropped into the trees lining the fairway. There’s a good stand of rosehips along here, and I found 6 Greenfinches feeding amongst the bright red fruit. There was a single Wheatear on the shingle below the path plus 2 grounded Meadow Pipits. 

There’s usually one or two Grey Heron patrolling the incoming tideline but today I counted 11 of them spaced neatly along the half mile stretch of the river. Grey Herons are patient and solitary feeders.

Grey Heron

A good selection of waders, with 2400 Oystercatcher, 18 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit, 220 Redshank, 140 Curlew and 1 Turnstone. Shelduck are making their way back in some numbers now with a count of 250+, together with the regular 7 Eider ducks at the jetty. 

Redshank

That’s about it really. I took a slow walk through the quiet trees at Fluke Hall, the best I could manage a Jay, Chiffchaff and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. 

14.30 hours - and the rains came down. Better luck and more news soon tomorrow on Another Bird Blog? Log in soon to find out. 

Sneak Peek - Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

I couldn’t resist more than a peek at the new Crossley, and the chance to tell Another Bird Blog readers about this exciting book, plus share my initial impressions of it, even though the regional blogathon isn’t until November. 

The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

This new work follows the same format as the previous two published for the North American market, volumes which received an enthusiastic welcome for their innovative, almost revolutionary style. The Crossley ID guides use photographic techniques to display a species as it looks in the field and in a typical environment, rather than the more usual artistic but ”flat” portrayal found in traditional field guides. 

The first thing to note is that this new Crossley is aimed mainly at a UK market of “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels”. This qualifying note explains why some 300 species are covered rather than the 598 or so species on The British List, the number that might be encountered in half a lifetime of determined birding rather than the 300 or so which the average birder might see in a series of normal years. Because of the stated target audience this would seem an eminently logical and sensible way of selecting the species featured. 300 species alone is quite challenging to a novice birder and the only issue I have found with the species featured is the authors potentially confusing treatment of the redpolls. 

Species are displayed by “proportional representation” i.e. the more common a species is the more space it takes up, typically a full page for very common birds, half a page for scarce species and a quarter page for rarer species. 

The next thing to note is that the book doesn’t use a traditional taxonomic sequence, which as the authors (Richard Crossley and Dominc Couzens) point out, does not always makes sense in the field. Instead the book splits species into just seven groups based on habitat and physical similarities so that they can be more easily compared. Again, the authors make the point that a bird’s appearance is largely influenced by its environment and therefore the taxonomic order is not necessarily broken too often. 

So the species accounts use two simple main headings of Waterbirds or Landbirds. Sub-headings break these down into Swimming Waterbirds, Flying Waterbirds, Walking Waterbirds, Upland Gamebirds, Raptors, Miscellaneous Larger & Aerial Landbirds and finally, Songbirds. This proves a simple but effective innovation, helped by a corresponding opening section where all the species are displayed at their relative size. These pages are a handy quick reference for a novice birder struggling with for instance, a beach full of waders or a freshwater packed with wildfowl. 

I picked out just a couple of double page plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland to whet readers’ appetite. The first one, Flying Waterbirds, is taken from the opening sequence of pages which show birds at their relative size, structure and shape, that element of “jizz” so vital to the “mystery” of bird identification. 

Flying Waterbirds - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The second shows Goosanders and Red-breasted Mergansers in absolutely typical, accurate and realistic scenes. Those Goosanders could well be on Conder Pool, and the Red-breasted Mergansers look for all the world to be ensconced on  Fleetwood  Marine Lake.

Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The third plate shows Purple Sandpipers with Turnstones, a characteristic situation which will help new birders to find and identify Purple Sandpipers in their strictly coastal environment. Ruffs are shown in many of their distinctive changes of both size and appearance, a wader designed to trap the unwary or inexperienced. With this page in front of them I would hazard a guess that many “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels” birders would quite happily put a name to the strange looking bird in front of them. 

 

Purple Sandpiper and Ruff -  The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

I just realised, I didn’t mention the textual description and explanation which accompanies each species. The accounts are accurate, concise and more than adequate to aid identification, especially since on turning to a species the text is relegated to second place as the eye and the brain automatically focus on the birds. It’s reality birding where visual learning is the norm and seeing is believing. 

I wish I had time and space to feature many more plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland as many of them are quite superb, especially the wildfowl and waders. Maybe the best way to experience and enjoy them is to beg, steal or borrow this book for yourself as soon as it is available; however I’m sure that Princeton University Press would prefer that you buy it. To help you decide they have published a selection of plates of common garden birds to download at Princeton University Press.

Princeton's timing of release for this book is either fortuitous or a master stroke because the book will make a superb Christmas gift for a youngster, a kid of a certain age showing an early interest in the real world rather than the electronic domain. Also I can see this book being a huge hit with folk of an older generation, maybe those who leave work with newly found time on their hands but with a desire to learn about birds. This book is an ideal companion with which to both absorb and enjoy their new found love. 

There’s more about Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland in early November. Meanwhile I’m putting my copy in the car, then if I get stuck in a downpour at least I can carry on birding by browsing the pages of this splendid book.

Sunday 29th September 2013

Another bright, breezy if not completely sunny start today so once again I set off in a northerly direction. Well there are worse places to bird than Conder Green,  I can assure you. 

The sun wasn’t quite up so I had to use a less than ideal and "noisy" ISO800 to snap the Kingfisher again, either that or hope the bird might reappear in the bright sunshine which threatened.  Often the Kingfisher is hard to find, especially once passing traffic starts and more people appear. The responses from around the globe to my Kingfisher pics invariably relate how members of the kingfisher family are shy the world over. 

Kingfisher

When the Kingfisher sped off towards the road bridge it was “search for Little Grebes time” as they are often partially out of sight, tucked into the edges of the islands or at least one or two of them constantly diving for food. Just seven today makes me wonder about the turnover of birds and how many in total have passed through the site in recent weeks. 

Little Grebe

Apart from the grebes the pool was pretty much deserted with Wigeon numbering just four on the pool although another 25 or more could be seen from the railway bridge. A single Cormorant, a lonely Little Egret and a few Teal completed the count on the pool. Luckily the creeks proved more rewarding with 2 Spotted Redshank, 18 Redshank, 3 Snipe, 3 Curlew , 40 Teal, 1 Goldeneye, 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Grey Wagtail and the Kingfisher again. 

Redshank

A Chiffchaff was along the old railway track together with a flock of 30 Goldfinches. Activity above came in the form of a Kestrel, a Sparrowhawk, and as the air warmed, a movement of Swallows numbering some 30+ birds flying determinedly south in loose twos, threes and fours. 

There was another Chiffchaff at Glasson, this one making location easier by singing from the trees opposite the Victoria pub. A quick count of the wildfowl, 25 Tufted Duck, 75 Coot, 1 Grey Heron and 1 Cormorant then it was home time. 

Tufted Duck

No birding on Mondays for Another Bird Blog, but never fear, back soon.

Linking today to Stewart's Photo Gallery.

Saturday Sun

The egrets had already left the Pilling roost this morning. It must have been the bright sunny start which set them on their way. The roost breaks up into small groups which spend a short time on the marsh before heading separate ways - 22 birds this morning. 

Little Egrets - Pilling Marsh

I didn’t wait for the Pink-footed Geese to leave the marsh as I would see plenty in the next three or four hours, in fact a large count of as many as 6,500 in total. The picture below shows just a small fraction of the geese about this morning. 

 Pink-footed Geese - Pilling Marsh

There was a Kestrel along Backsands Lane and a Sparrowhawk heading rapidly south. I’ve seen more Sparrowhawks in the last day or three than almost the whole of the summer and I imagine that the recent ones are migrants. 

Fluke Hall to Pilling Water proved very productive, mainly due to the number of birds about Hi-Fly’s land. I don’t think there’s been a shoot yet judging by the huge numbers of Red-legged Partridge still frequenting the fields and the maize crop. I haven’t seen many large raptors around so maybe the partridge numbers are still circa 2000, the number released for "sport" some weeks ago. I did see singles of both Peregrine and Buzzard at Fluke Hall but apparently showing no interest in the partridges. 

Red-legged Partridge

Red-legged Partridge

There were good numbers of Skylarks on the fields and a steady stream of Meadow Pipits going over, the mipits heading east along the sea wall. My notebook records 24 Skylarks and 160 Meadow Pipits in 3+ hours. The maize crop and ditch held more than 10 Reed Buntings too, as well as 3 Jays paying a flying visit and looking for an easy meal. It was while watching their antics with the Jackdaws that I caught sight of a Kingfisher flying rapidly along the ditch towards Fluke Hall. 

Reed Bunting

Meadow Pipit

Wildfowl numbers on the shooting pools, and without counting the many tame Mallards - 40+ Wigeon, 300+ Teal 300, 1 Cormorant, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Green Sandpiper. 

Wigeon

Wigeon and Teal

Other ‘bits and bobs’ - 1 Wheatear, 1 Chiffchaff, 15 Long-tailed Tit, 1 Siskin. 

The sun brought out a good few butterflies whereby even I can identify a Speckled Wood, one of several found naturally enough in Fluke Hall Wood. 

Speckled Wood

Another Bird Blog is linking today to Camera Critters  and to Anni's Blog .

Bird News, Book News

If there are marks for trying then I surely deserved 10/10 this morning by hitting the road early for yet another mission to find some autumn migrants during the continuing easterlies. 

I was heading north again so called into Lane Ends for an early perusal. The geese were just leaving the marsh, heading inland in search of food. The many skeins totalled more than 2000 birds before the noise of the Little Egrets’ early morning squabbles distracted me. The egrets too were about to set off for the day’s undertakings so I abandoned my goose counting to watch 26 or more egrets leaving the roost and heading off north, south, east and west. Here’s a project for a determined ringer - to find out how far the egrets travel to this roost, the turnover of birds, age composition etc. 

Three Jays were about the woodland and a Kestrel hovering over the sea wall but otherwise quiet. Maybe I was too early for small birds. 

Little Egret

Kestrel

There were small birds at Conder Green, mainly small yellowy-green things called Chiffchaff, and not the widely anticipated and sought after yellowy-green things named Yellow-browed Warbler. There were at least six Chiffchaffs in the area of the railway car park, most of them feeding hurriedly and silent with just the odd one or two giving out their forceful and tell-tale contact calls. Try as I might, the best I could find with the chiffys were migrant Chaffinches, some of those arriving from the north and dropping into the welcoming trees. As I watched Chaffinches arriving from the direction of the Lune a single Swallow flew over and then disappeared beyond the trees. 

Chiffchaff

I couldn’t find the large flock of Goldfinches of a couple of days ago, just a small group of about 15 today, but there was a wildfowler stalking the marsh where the finches had fed. The wildfowler swung a trophy Teal below his shotgun so I cursed him before moving on. 

Conder Pool and the nearby creeks held 7 Little Grebe, 40 Teal, 25 Redshank, 4 Snipe, 2 Cormorant, 2 Lapwing, 1 Grey Heron and 2 Pied Wagtail. The pool surface looked too rippled to expect the Kingfisher to sit around but it put in an appearance by flying upstream towards the road bridge. 

Fluke Hall seemed a likely spot - an infrequent haunt of less than annual rarities but “a needle in a haystack” job if ever there was one in the lush vegetation. A Peregrine on the sands greeted me, and it then flew around slowly as if to taunt “camera-in-the-car” me. 

Two Sparrowhawks along the road, and at last a gang of small birds to search. Fifteen or more Long-tailed Tits, 2 Chiffchaff and 2 Goldcrests, plus odds and ends of Blue Tit and Great Tit was the sum of my efforts. Better luck tomorrow. 

Long-tailed Tit

Back home the postman had left a parcel. So the new Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland is here on my desk for a pre-publication gander. The official publication date is 6th November but Princeton University Press sent me a copy knowing that regular readers of Another Bird Blog would be more than interested to hear all about this third volume in the ground breaking series, Crossleys’s invasion into the European market. In a week or two, and to coincide with official publication, there will be other UK bird bloggers joining in for a regional blogathon to take a close and detailed look at the book. 

 The Crossley Guide: Britain and Ireland 

 

The Crossley Guide: Britain and Ireland 

First impressions of Crossley ID Guide: Britain and Ireland just as soon as I’ve taken a sneaky look - stay tuned to Another Bird Blog.

Dim And Distant

It was yet another murky, grey and overcast start today, the third such day on the trot, conditions which are far from ideal for studying the autumn’s visible migration, so today's post definitely has something of a a grey theme about it.

In the past few days I’ve noted a trickle of Meadow Pipits, an obvious influx of Chiffchaffs and for me at least a noticeable movement of Skylarks. Today I gave Conder Green some serious stick without turning very much up and then finished off with a look at Lane Ends, Pilling. Through the gloom of Conder Pool I could see that the numbers of Little Grebe had increased to 11 birds; the site has become something of a winter stronghold for the species in recent years. There are six grebes in the photo below, the camera taking the picture at ISO4000 after I set the ISO speed to “auto” to account for the gloom. 

Little Grebe

Also on the pool, 4 Wigeon, 3 Cormorant, 5 Little Egret and 8+ Teal. I waited for the Kingfisher to appear and although it obliged, that picture was also taken at ISO4000 - not good. The second picture was taken in exactly the same spot on a much brighter morning some months ago. The moral is perhaps to forget photography on such dim and gloomy days. 

Kingfisher

 Kingfisher

The roadside creeks held a single Snipe, 1 Common Sandpiper, 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Curlew, 1 Lapwing, 18 Redshank, 1 Ruff, and another 25 Teal. “Bush bashing” along the old railway path turned up a single Chiffchaff, several Robins and a couple of calling Chaffinch, not much evidence of new arrivals. It was good to find a large flock of Goldfinch, at least 140 birds along the edge of the marsh but very flighty between there and the tall trees beyond the car park. 

At Glasson I counted the wildfowl on the yacht basin - 80 Coot and 25 Tufted Duck, plus the obligatory Grey Heron. Two Grey Wagtails here were the only signs of new arrivals. 

Grey Heron

Grey Wagtail

I arrived at Lane Ends in time to see many noisy skeins of Pink-footed Geese heading back out to the marsh - no doubt disturbed from a feeding spot inland by farming activities. At least 1400 birds, without counting those distant on the marsh which didn't set off inland at dawn. 

On the east pool, the only open water now visible, 7 Shoveler and a single Little Grebe. Otherwise, 2 Meadow Pipits and a single Grey Wagtail below the sea wall plus a Great-spotted Woodpecker and 2 Jays in the woodland. 

Shoveler

More news and colourful pictures soon from Another Bird Blog. 

Shrikey!

For today’s post there are a few pictures of shrikes I saw in Greece recently. 

The shrikes were clearly migrants as I found them using a large area of scrubby ground just yards behind the busy sunbathing beach of Aselinos in the north of Skiathos. On this particular morning there were good numbers of Whinchats and Yellow Wagtails plus 3 Richard’s Pipits and a dozen or more Red-rumped Swallows. 

Not far away in a patch of olive grove I found migrant Spotted Flycatchers, Willow Warblers, a (Eastern) Bonelli’s Warbler and a Common Cuckoo. 

Cuckoo

Birding was quite difficult in Skiathos, not helped by the dawn to dusk bright sunshine and high temperatures in the mid to high eighties for the whole two weeks there. It meant that small passerines stayed deep in shady cover and hirundines remained high in the sky most of the time. In all I clocked up a lowly 35 species in the quite casual birding undertaken in what remained after all a holiday and a wedding celebration, not a pure birding holiday. Like many other Mediterranean destinations, birds are hard to approach. 

From Wiki - “The Red-backed Shrike Lanius collurio is a carnivorous passerine bird and member of the shrike family Laniidae. Like other shrikes it hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder." This practice has earned it the nickname of "butcher bird." I managed to get pictures of the shrike by using the car as a hide. 

Red-backed Shrike

“This bird breeds in most of Europe and western Asia and winters in tropical Africa. At one time a common migratory visitor to Great Britain, their numbers declined sharply during the 20th century. 

The bird's last UK stronghold was in Breckland but by 1988 just a single pair remained, successfully raising young at Santon Downham. The following year for the first time no nests were recorded in the UK. But since then sporadic breeding has taken place, mostly in Scotland and Wales. In September 2010 the RSPB announced that a pair had raised chicks at a secret location on Dartmoor where the bird last bred in 1970. In 2011, two pairs nested in the same locality, fledging seven young. In 2012 there was another breeding attempt, but no young were fledged this time, probably due to a prolonged spell of wet weather. This return to south western England has been an unexpected development and has raised speculation that a warming climate could assist the bird in re-colonising some of its traditional sites, if only in small numbers.” 

Red-backed Shrike

 Red-backed Shrike

 

There were at least 2 Woodchat Shrikes in the same area, one using much the same perches as the red-backed, and by using the same car-as-a-hide technique I was able to get some shots of this normally very wary species. 

Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike Lanius senator  breeds in southern Europe, the Middle East and northwest Africa, and winter in tropical Africa. They breeds in open cultivated country, preferably with orchard trees and some bare or sandy ground. Like other shrikes the Woodchat hunts from prominent perches, and impales corpses on thorns or barbed wire as a "larder". This species often overshoots its breeding range on spring migration, and is a rare, but annual visitor to Great Britain. 

I’ll leave blog readers with a few images of non-birding Greece. Don’t forget to ‘click the pics’ to join in the action. 

On The Bus Skiathos

Arriving - Skopelos

 Leaving - Skopelos

 Kebabs - Skiathos

No Name Gyros - Skiathos

More soon from Another Bird Blog UK. Be there or be square.

Back To Basics

Some things never change - as in yet another accident on the A588 at Burned House Lane where Police cars blocked the road, necessitating a detour to get to Pilling. A biker and a Mini Cooper this morning, two or more people who didn’t arrive at work on time. 

After the high temperatures of Skiathos and its Mediterranean birds the sought after hot spots today were local birding haunts to reacquaint myself with mundane but nevertheless good-to-see UK regulars. After almost three weeks of absence a number of things struck me. Not least was the presence of good numbers of recently arrived Pink-footed Geese here for the winter, and the fact that there are still Barn Swallows lingering from the summer. Swallows were immediately obvious, at least a hundred over the wheat fields and on roadside wires at Fluke Hall Lane and then good numbers flying noticeably south and west throughout the morning at Conder Green and later at Lane Ends/Pilling Water. I must have counted several hundred Swallows in total, with just 2 House Martins noted at Pilling Water. 

Barn Swallows

Was there was plenty of rain while I was away? That was clear from flash pools here and there and the water levels at Conder Green where nothing much came my way save for a latish Common Sandpiper, 2 Snipe, 1 Little Egret, 1 Cormorant, 6 Little Grebe and a Kingfisher. A quick look at Glasson gave 2 Grey Heron, 250+ Lapwing and 300 or more Redshank along the river, some wading as waders should, others picking over the muddy shore. 

Redshanks

Lane Ends beckoned. A single Jay and probably more called from the trees as a small group of Goldfinches dropped into the tree tops, but I didn’t linger and instead set off for Pilling Water. Grounded along the tideline were a single Wheatear, 4 Skylark and a small number of Meadow Pipits, all flying off on my approach, with the remainder wildfowl or waders at high tide time. 

What a difference three September weeks make to duck numbers, with today upwards of 400 Wigeon, 1100 Teal, 15 Pintail and 900+ Pink-footed Geese. Wader numbers were equally impressive if imprecise on a less than ideal tide height leaving many roosting on the higher marsh at Fluke Hall: 5 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 6 Snipe, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 400+ Lapwing, 700+ Curlew, 40 Redshank and 4 Ringed Plover. No count of gulls, but a dozen Sandwich Terns were good to see so far into the bay. 

Wigeon

Sandwich Terns

That Greek holiday seems like a distant dream in a far off sunny spot but sometimes isn't it good to get back to basics on a local patch?

Heading Home - Skiathos

Log in soon for more uncomplicated birding from Another Bird Blog.