Fun In The Sun

Best not to waste this run of fine mornings and get out birding because sure as hell we’ll pay for it sooner or later with a spell of rain, we always do. 

So I was up at misty dawn heading north along the A588, slowly but surely so as to give any Barn Owls chance to show. No owls so I made do with a Mistle Thrush, a couple of fence-hopping Skylarks, 3 Pied Wagtails and a singing Corn Bunting. The Corn Bunting was near Gulf Lane again, where it has been singing for a week or ten days from the tops of the tallest roadside bushes and following the pattern of rather mysterious June arrivals by setting up territory near silage crops. There’s another one singing a couple of hundred yards away on the moss and at least two more between Lane Ends and Fluke Hall. 

Cockerham Dawn

Corn Bunting

Skylark

At last at Conder Green, and it’s been a long time coming, a Tufted Duck with youngsters. I watched the female lead 10 ducklings off the near island, the balls of fluff no more than a day old. At Glasson later there was another female with 5 much bigger young. 

Tufted Duck

Otherwise there was little different from recent days, low water levels on the pool and high tide in the creeks making for low counts of 6 Common Sandpiper, 24 Lapwing, 48 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 5 Little Egret and 1 Grey Heron. 

At Glasson Dock a Kingfisher was down in the depths of the moorings today, flying to the stones which are sometimes visible when water levels are low. Against the light and the background of water this picture required some “manipulation”. Digital cameras, long lenses and water surfaces don’t make for good images. 

Kingfisher

Noise levels increased as people arrived for work at the busy little working port. Early risers chatted and waited to take their boats from the yacht basin, through the lock gates and out to the River Lune via the working dock. It’s a well-practiced operation as boat owners and Canal & River Trust workers join forces to crank the road bridge closed and then manoeuvre the boats through the lock gates to let the water levels rise and fall as necessary. 

Meanwhile a Blackbird and nesting Swallows looked on, their precarious nests on the underside of the road bridge now inaccessible for an hour or more until normality was resumed. The Kingfisher flew off towards the estuary and I went for a walk along the canal. When I came back the road bridge was restored with the Swallows going about their business as usual, although they have yet to produce any youngsters and have clearly lost a nest or two already. 

 

Glasson Dock

Swallow

Blackbird

There were 2 Common Terns patrolling the yacht basin, their screeching calls drawing attention to their presence. After a while they flew over heading out to the River Lune. Five Pied Wagtails on the car park with 1 Grey Wagtail, 8 Reed Warbler, 3 Reed Bunting, 8 Goldfinch and 6 Linnet along the sunny tow path. 

Common Tern

There's more fun in the sun with more birds to see on Another Bird Blog very soon.

Linking today to Skywatch Friday  and Run A Round Ranch in Texas.

Mainly Kingfisher

I’m hoping that blog readers like to see Common Kingfishers because that’s virtually all the pictures on show today when other birds failed to play ball with the camera. Don't forget to click the pics for a Kingfisher feast.

There are many boats of all shapes and sizes at Glasson Dock, the vessels tied with all manner of ropes and chains. The moorings and the boats make for great perches where a Kingfisher can watch the water just a few or several feet below. From across the water I spotted one doing just that. 

Glasson Dock

A Kingfisher has eyesight with polarising filters which cuts out reflections and enables the bird to see their underwater prey better. When they plunge into the water, the eyes are protected by a membrane, so they actually catch their prey blind, relying on touch to snap their bills shut. A Kingfisher prefers to hunt in shallow water because it gives them better accuracy. 

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Kingfisher

Just like the owl family, the kingfisher family of birds bring up the indigestible parts of their food as pellets. In the case of kingfishers they regurgitate tiny pellets of indigestible fish bones. The pictures below show today's Kingfisher doing that. 

 Kingfisher

 Kingfisher

Kingfisher

I walked a good way along the towpath towards Conder and then back to Glasson with reward in the shape of an unexpected Nuthatch, the bird calling loudly from the tiny wood alongside the path.

Nuthatches have been somewaht scarce in recent years, although they may still be a mile up the road at Thurham. It's  a Nuthatch haunt of many years standing but not a particularly good summer birding spot. The Nuthatch below is from 2011.

Nuthatch

Otherwise, a good count of 12+ Reed Warblers, made up of three singers and other birds scuttling through the waterside vegetation to feed or be fed. Also, 2 Chiffchaff in song, 4 Tree Sparrow, 3 Reed Bunting and 3 Whitethroat. 

A good number of Moorhens use the thick waterside vegetation, some feeding their likely second broods. 

Lancaster Canal - Glasson

Moorhen

Two whistle stops at Conder Green revealed 50+ Swift, 120 Redshank, 12 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and 1 Spotted Redshank.

The usual herons, 4 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

More soon from Another Bird Blog.

Come Rain Or Shine

Well it’s been mostly shine for three or four weeks now so a bit of a bummer on waking up today with 100% cloud and grey skies. Then bang on cue at about 10am, rain with a strengthening breeze. 

Not before I’d done the rounds of Glasson and Conder though, a circuit which found little change from Monday or Wednesday. The highlight of a common enough Greenshank might give some clue as to the other birds seen. 

The Greenshank was in the tidal creeks with 150+ Redshank, 9 Common Sandpiper, 3 Curlew, 12 Oystercatcher, 2 Grey Heron and 2 Little Egret. 

A Greenshank Tringa nebularia is somewhat larger than the related Common Redshank Tringa totanus, and perhaps surprisingly, the Greenshank’s closest relative is the Greater Yellowlegs Tringa melanoleuca, its North American cousin. Greenshanks are beginning to appear on their return journeys from their breeding sites of sub-Arctic Europe, although a number of pairs do breed in northernmost Scotland, a country which can be quite Arctic like. 

The Greater Yellowlegs does turn up in Britain occasionally but not yet at Conder Green.

Greenshank

Redshank

Greater Yellowlegs - Photo credit: Henry McLin / Foter / (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Common Sandpiper

On the pool, and this beginning to sound more than a little monotonous, 2 Little Grebe, 14 Tufted Duck, 4 Shelduck, 3 Little Egret, another 20+ Lapwings and a Grey Heron. 

Grey Heron

Quiet and breezy at Glasson where a walk along the canal towpath and the yacht basin produced a tiny flock of 14 Goldfinch, 5 Reed Warbler, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Blackcap and 1 Grey Wagtail. In the cool of the morning Swallows were restricted to 10+ and Swifts to just two.

The Lancaster Canal at Glasson

Glasson Dock

Let’s hope for shine tomorrow when Another Bird Blog goes birding again.

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

Nothing Special?

I came across a few “special” creatures today. Kingfishers, Peregrines and Red Foxes aren’t particularly rare but there’s always that little extra thrill when spotting them, more so when you are not looking for them and they turn up without warning. 

Such creatures have the potential to turn an ordinary day into an extraordinary one, but more often than not they tantalise with brief and fleeting views, as all three did today. 

The first encounter was with a fox just setting off to the cross the A588 at Cockerham. When it saw my car approaching the animal spun around in the road and shot back into the hedgerow from whence it came. On a bendy and busy main road it was impossible to stop with little point in doing so when an animal is so wary. That’s three Red Foxes I’ve seen in as many weeks in just casual journeying to birding spots. Maybe foxes are having a good summer too? 

Glasson was my first stop where another try for Otters yielded lots of birds but no Otters. A Kingfisher was perched on the metal footbridge which crosses the working lock, a heavily used and busy spot for boats and pedestrians but not at 6am. Swallows were flying under the same bridge to where they nest but there’s still no young, just 8/10 adults. Similar numbers of Swifts overhead and between 6 and 8 House Martins. 

Kingfisher

I set off for the canal towpath and logged 2 Pied Wagtails and 1 Grey Heron, 12 Tufted Duck and 15 Coot on the water. Alongside the canal were many brown jobs “tacking” and “ticking” their way through the now substantial waterside vegetation which is dominated by stretches of dense and tall Phragmites, the common reed. 

I logged 11 Reed Warbler, 8 Whitethroat, 6 Reed Bunting, 4 Sedge Warbler, 2 Song Thrush and “several” each of Linnet, Goldfinch, Collared Dove, Woodpigeon, Blackbird and House Sparrow, even one or two of the erstwhile common Greenfinch. Yes, they still exist.

Linnet

Greenfinch

Early July is not the optimum time for seeing a coastal Peregrine, more like August right through to March/April when inland Peregrines find rich pickings on the expanse of Morecambe Bay before they head back to the hills or city buildings to breed. 

All was quiet at Conder Green viewing point until the small flock of c30 feeding Starlings erupted into sound and flight. “Whoosh”, a Peregrine hurtled down from nowhere and almost connected with the by now tightly packed Starlings. In the blink of an eye the Peregrine was gone, without breakfast. 

It had been quiet. Suddenly there was noise from panicking and nervous Starlings, Redshanks, Oystercatchers and gulls, a clamour which lasted a minute or more before peace returned. A passing Peregrine had left its usual legacy of fear. 

How do you follow a Peregrine? With the usual counts I’m afraid: 6 Common Sandpiper, 120 Redshank, 15 Oystercatcher, 30 Lapwing, 4 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Stock Dove. 

On the way home a Kestrel on a fence post. As I said, nothing special but a reason today to link with  Theresa's Fences Day.

Kestrel

Join Another Bird Blog soon for another ordinary day.

Guess Where, Guess What?

It’s a short post today because there isn’t too much to say from a visit to, yes you’ve sussed it, the usual spots. 

Yet another Barn Owl kicked off the morning as I had brief views of one flying across the road at Cockerham before it did the usual disappearing act over a hedgerow. Barn Owls are just as wary as most birds and aren’t going to stop their early morning hunting to pose on a fence post for camera wielding birders. They are surprisingly fast flyers too when trying to focus for an in-flight picture. 

Barn Owl

The returning wader theme continued at Conder Green with a good count of 10 Common Sandpiper and 140 Redshank but no sign of the Spotted Redshank of weekend. Another birder reported 15 Common Sandpipers here on Sunday and there’s every chance that each day sees new arrivals; there is after all a valid reason the species has the qualifying “common” in their name. 

Also new in were 2 Grey Wagtails feeding in the low-tide creek amongst the Redshanks, Common Sandpipers, 8 Oystercatcher, 2 Curlew, 1 Grey Heron and 7 Little Egrets. 

Little Egret

Otherwise, and with the risk of boring regular readers, there was little change to be had around Conder Pool in the way of 15 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon, 14 Lapwing, 1 Pied Wagtail, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 1 Stock Dove and 75+ Swift. 

On a lovely sunny morning I hoped for a repeat of the Glasson Dock Otters of Saturday but now in good light, even though there’s some truth in the maxim “lightning never strikes twice”. No bolts from the blue and no Otters today. 

Compensation arrived in the form of a pleasant walk around the yacht basin and along the canal towpath with 2 Grey Heron, 8 Tufted Duck, 2 Whitethroat, 1 Reed Warbler, 1 Chiffchaff, 2 Song Thrush and 15+ Blackbirds, together with a Grey Wagtail to add to those of Conder. 

A Grey Heron was fishing from the remains of the boat sunk during last winter’s storms - that’s the old washing line in the background. When the heron had flown off towards the canal a Coot brought Junior Coot to the wreck for a wash and brush up. 

Grey Heron

 Coot

I’ve been watching the Swallows here and waiting for the young to emerge from under the road bridge but there’s no sign of any juveniles yet, just adults, so I think the nests have failed. 

Swallow

On the way home I called to see Chris who has a Sand Martin colony in his recently quarried fields. It looks like a good season so far with a total of 120+ Sand Martins on the fences and in the air, plus 10 or more Swallows. 

 Sand Martin

There are more guessing games on Another Bird Blog soon. Try to be here.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday. 

A Mixed Bag

Heading for Conder Green via Cockerham and 100 yards ahead of the car I spotted yet another Barn Owl, this one flying pretty close to the roadside. I slowed the car, switched off the still-on auto headlights and slowed right down to where I’d seen the owl. No luck, it had disappeared without trace, and even though I waited in a gateway for 15 minutes or so the owl didn’t reappear; the start of a slightly frustrating morning. 

Predictably at Conder Green and late June there was a return journey still summer plumaged Spotted Redshank, newly back from the tundra of the Arctic Circle - Norway eastwards through Finland to the forest zone of Siberia. Female Spotted Redshanks can leave the breeding grounds up to a week before their eggs hatch. Others desert their partners at an early stage to form post breeding flocks, leaving the males to look after the youngsters. The light was poor, the redshank too far away for a picture, so I borrowed one. 

Spotted Redshank -  Photo credit: Lorenzo L M. / Foter /  (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) 

Waders and heron species today: 145 Common Redshank, 3 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Snipe, 12 Oystercatcher, 9 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron. There’s very bad picture of the single distant Snipe taken in poor light at ISO800.

Snipe

Decent numbers of Swifts this morning with 60+ feeding both high and low. Three Sand Martin also. Passerines pretty much unchanged and singing-2 Whitethroat, 2 Sedge Warbler, Reed Bunting, Blackcap, Sedge Warbler.

The two drake Wigeon are still around, with an increase in the Tufted Duck to 19 individuals but no sign of ducklings despite the summering pairs. Spots of rain appeared so I drove the half mile to Glasson by which time it might stop.

There were a few Tufted Duck and a Great Crested Grebe circuiting the yacht basin, diving and feeding and then reappearing yards away.

Great Crested Grebe

 Great Crested Grebe

The grebe found me singing Chiffchaff and Reed Warbler around the margins of the water and led me towards a family of Otters. European Otter (Lutra lutra) is also known as the Eurasian Otter, Eurasian River Otter and Common Otter.

From UK Safari “Adult Otters have no natural predators, although in the past they were heavily persecuted by gamekeepers. Loss of habitat, polluted rivers, hunting and other human activities all contributed to the decline of native otters. During the late 1950's, following the introduction of new and stronger pesticides, the UK Otter population went into rapid decline. It's only in recent years that the otter population in the UK has started to recover through protective legislation and conservation programmes” 

By now the light was really poor with noisy folk beginning to appear from moored house boats. A couple of rushed shots were all I managed before the Otters melted into the water.

 Otter

Otters

The light improved slightly, enough for a look at Fluke Hall. Kestrels have fledged from a nest box there, the young still being fed by the adults along the edge of the wood. I watched as the adults saw off a really tatty looking Buzzard obviously in heavy summer moult.

Buzzard

There were a couple of Skylarks carrying food to what at first I thought to be two separate nests. After a short time I realised, and upon noting that the food items being carried were of similar size, that the adults were in fact feeding birds out of the nest, the youngsters spaced apart by as much as 30 yards.

I tracked one chick down in newly growing wheat where it lay motionless on the ground trying to blend in with the vegetation. Young Skylarks leave the nest when they are between 8-11 days old, sometimes before that if they are prematurely disturbed.

Skylark

I put the young Skylark back where I found it and waited out of sight for the adult to return with food.

 Skylark

A very mixed bag of stuff today, but what a thrill to see Otters so close to home. Yes, it’s hard to beat a local patch.

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

A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Book Review

Today there’s a review of A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring, a newly published book by David Cobham with Bruce Pearson. 

There is a fascination with birds of prey which can propel them into headline news, not just rare bird bulletins, but very often the TV news and the popular press. Sometimes it is good news but very often there is controversy, disagreement or debate around birds of prey where the quarrels reach into politics and beyond, even the Royal Family. 

Enquire of a bird watcher their favourite bird and more often than not the answer will be a bird of prey, even though in the course of everyday bird watching many British birds of prey are difficult to engage with as we glimpse them but briefly. Such is the passion for raptors that on occasions, perhaps yearly, bird watchers travel long distances, making costly and time consuming special journeys to see birds of prey like Goshawk, Honey Buzzard, Golden Eagle or White-tailed Eagle. 

When Princeton University Press sent a copy of A Sparrowhawk’s Lament for review on Another Bird Blog I admit to niggling thoughts about the need for yet another book about birds of prey, what might be added to current knowledge on the subject, and who might stump up £25 for a new one. With so many books devoted to raptors already out there it was hard to imagine where a new volume might begin and end. 

A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Princeton University Press

So I got stuck into A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring, a book containing 15 chapters, one for each British Breeding Bird of Prey together with the obligatory Introduction and Conclusion. That translates to roughly 20 pages to each species, good sized chunks with which to digest the contents and consider a verdict.

From the beginning I was struck with the detail and sheer readability of the text and finished the first 40 pages of the Introduction, The Sparrowhawk and The Osprey without a break. 

 Sparrowhawk - A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Princeton University Press

As I live in the North West of England, just a flap and a glide from the infamous Bowland Hills, and where after 200 years of persecution the Hen Harrier has been wiped from the landscape, I took a particular interest in the chapter devoted to Circus cyaneus, the original Silver Ghost. These 20 pages make for illuminating, disturbing and often emotional reading, from the crucified Hen Harrier on a barn door, the introduction of the double-barrelled breech-loading shotgun, Famous Grouse whisky, on through quad-biked keepers kitted out with night-vision goggles, and ending with a moving poem and the predictable fate of Bowland Beth. Read it all, I think you may never buy Famous Grouse again and will in all probability have a tear in your eye. 

Fortunately not all of the chapters make for reading as depressing as the saga of the Hen Harrier, the magnificent Golden Eagle or the elusive Goshawk, with chapters charting success stories like Buzzard, Hobby, Montagu’s Harrier, Red Kite and Honey Buzzard to redress the balance somewhat. 

 Red Kite - A Sparrowhawk’s Lament - Princeton University Press

By the time I reached The Conclusion at page 269 my own thought was that the book’s sub-title rather undersells it. A Sparrowhawk’s Lament is much more than a summary of how British birds of prey are faring in 2014, more like an entertaining read about the historical, cultural and even literary background to British raptors, the chapters peppered with anecdotes, experiences and observations from the author and conservationists engaged in the study, safeguard or reintroductions of such species. This detail gives the whole book an instructive, authentic, expert, and above all a caring feel for our often maligned UK raptors. 

David Cobham has spent a lifetime studying birds and is a vice president of the Hawk and Owl Trust. In addition he is a film and television producer and director, notable for such films as The Goshawk, The Vanishing Hedgerows, and Tarka the Otter. The author’s Acknowledgements for his interviewees reads as a who’s who of raptor expertise, including luminaries such as as Ian Newton, Roy Dennis, Robin Prytherch, Wilf Norman and the late Derek Ratcliffe. 

The book is generously sprinkled with more than 90 black & white illustrations by Bruce Pearson. These vignettes add greatly to the accompanying text in providing a perfect fit to the overall feel of the book. 

All in all A Sparrowhawk’s Lament is a desirable little volume which I thoroughly enjoyed, and one I can recommend to blog readers for the next rainy, non-birding day. 

A Sparrowhawk’s Lament: How British Breeding Birds of Prey Are Faring: David Cobham with Bruce Pearson. Princeton University Press - $35.00 / £24.95 

Back to birding soon on Another Bird Blog.