A Winning Streak?

A second ringing event in four days is something of an achievement this winter but that’s what we did this morning when a little window of opportunity beckoned us to our destination, a farmland site near Myerscough close to the A6 between Preston and Garstang.

Chaffinch dominated the catch which we expect as the farm is close to a concentration of Chaffinch that feed and roost within the Myerscough College of Agriculture. Birds caught comprised:

Chaffinch 29
Blackbird 11
Reed Bunting 1
Dunnock 2
Robin 1
Blue Tit 3
Great Tit 4
Greenfinch 1

female Chaffinch

male Chaffinch

We found most of the Blackbirds still carrying visible fat with individual weights varying between 96 grams and 122 grams.

In recent months it is almost a triumph to catch a Greenfinch, and although there were a few around this morning, we caught only one, a typically dull first winter female as shown in the photograph with a second photo of a male for comparison.

female Greenfinch

male Greenfinch

Reed Bunting

It's very unusual to catch only one Robin at this location, and that a retrap from last winter; it could be that the cold and ice of recent months has already taken a toll.

Robin

Our ringing station is somewhat enclosed which restricts the amount of birding available in between net rounds but in addition to the birds caught we noted several Collared Dove, just a couple of Tree Sparrow and some distance away a croaking Raven, a species now increasingly common in the Fylde. A couple of days ago as I went out of the back door at home one flew over heading north. That just about puts it on my house list but unfortunatley the photo wasn't taken near my house but in Arizona.

Raven

Is it too much to hope that the weather stays kind and that we might manage another ringing session and reach three in a week? That would be a winning streak, but watch this space.

Yellow Pages

It was a ringing session that almost didn’t take place when a thick mist, some might say fog, descended overnight on the moss. However after the paucity of our ringing in recent months plus the determination to gain some reward for the weeks of ground feeding the site, the nets went up. The visibility of less than 100 metres limited the normal incidental bird watching to close encounters only but gave the opportunity to sharpen up aural birding skills as Pink-footed Geese, Whooper Swans, Chaffinch, Reed Buntings, Corn Buntings and Yellowhammers called overhead or nearby without necessarily being seen through the grey, dank, misty air. Experience has always said that we catch less well during mist or fog as birds stay put from overnight roosts, waiting as humans might for horizons to brighten before venturing out.

Maybe hunger got the better of them as we caught 37 birds, the highlight being 9 Yellowhammers, always a good examination of ageing and sexing skills, not to mention testing one's memory of the pages of good old “Svensonn”.

Male Yellowhammer


Female Yellowhammer

Here’s a couple of other pictures of Yellowhammers courtesy of http://www.naturephoto-cz.com/.

Male Yellowhammer

Female Yellowhammer

There are a few interesting things about Yellowhammer that I didn’t know until I Googled the word.

Yellowhammers have at least 20 other names including gladdy, little-bread-and-no-cheese, yellow bunting, yellow amber, yellow ring, scribble lark and scribbler, the last two, because of the squiggly marks on their eggs.

The “hammer” part of the name may come from the German term for bunting “ammer”.

The Yellowhammer was introduced to New Zealand in 1862 and is now common and widespread there. It is probably more abundant in New Zealand now than in Europe where it is in serious decline, (in the UK the species fell by 54% between 1970 and 2008).

Soon they will be singing, so here's a reminder of something to look forward to.

Wader Count

Today turned out to be a bit of a wader counting session because almost every spot I passed or looked at seemed to hold large numbers of them.

It was a bitterly cold easterly wind this morning at Fluke Hall but a quick look from the sea wall revealed a number of corvids, about 250, comprising 50/50 Carrion Crows and Jackdaws.

On the immediate marsh were 325 Lapwings, later to be a huge feature of the morning, and 1200 Pink-footed Goose that quite quickly left their roost to fly just inland to the fields next to Fluke. 5 Whooper Swans also flew onto the same area as the geese.

I combined the count from the wet fields at Fluke Hall Lane, Damside, Backsands Lane and roadside fields up to Gulf Lane to come up with impressive figures of 600 Redshank, 2200 Lapwing, 40 Dunlin, 3 Snipe, 310 Curlew and 22 Oystercatchers. Non-waders seen were 7 Meadow Pipits, 3 Little Egrets and a single Kestrel.

A further 330 Lapwings seen at Braides Farm together with small numbers of Golden Plover, probably 75 only, although they were distant behind the sea wall. Whilst Lapwing numbers are now high following the month or more of snow, ice and frost, it does appear that many Golden Plover left the area. Two more Little Egrets at Braides.

I spent an hour or more in the Conder Green area with nothing unexpected to report: 16 Shelduck, 2 Coot, 2 Spotted Redshank, 95 Teal, 3 Snipe, 7 Wigeon and 1 Little Egret. Only 4 Redshank in the creek, a low count but it looks like Redshank as a whole have taken to the now wet very fields of the surrounding area. Along the hedgerows and car park I found 10 Long-tailed Tit, 13 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Linnets and several Blackbird.

The Jeremy Lane area held many more common waders; 430 Curlew, 105 Redshank, 10 Black-tailed Godwit and a further 385 Lapwing. Two Little Egrets in the roadside ditches and a Kestrel. I admit I didn’t stop to count the Mute Swan but a couple of hundred of them scattered over the fields amongst the waders certainly added to the impression of a feeding feast on abundant prey.

Next, down the lane to my usual finishing spot at Bank End where the wet fields on either side held more of the common three, 180 Curlew, 85 Redshank and 140 Lapwing.

Lapwing

Curlew

Curlew
Alongside the marsh a Pied Wagtail and a Grey Wagtail walked ahead of me as I prepared my camera for yet another Grey Wagtail photograph. No chance, a Merlin flashed low in front of me to closely miss both wagtails then vanished out of sight over the embankment into the fields. I didn’t see the wagtails after that brief encounter but the Merlin returned from the fields and perched on a distant post out on the marsh before it was seen off by Carrion Crows.

Grey Wagtail

Merlin

Apologies for the poor shot, I did say it was distant and it was.

Beware The Balls

My first admission is that I haven’t got any new photographs from today apart from the first one because most birds I saw simply weren’t playing ball for posing, but I also had the usual problem of too much grey sky and no sunshine. I like to use my own photographs to illustrate the blog but sometimes it’s just not possible to get new or relevant ones. What an excuse!

But at least I have some birds to report and if I stick in a few old pictures from sunnier times, maybe I can be excused this time or other readers simply wont notice.

After a morning swim and sauna but in need of fresh air I thought I might head off walking in a slightly different direction this afternoon but I first checked out the Knott End stuff along the foreshore and the jetty.

Go to the top of the jetty, just hang about there and for sure the Twite appear from wherever they were just spooked by a passing stranger. At least in the air I can get a reasonably accurate count as I did when the flock of 40/45 flew over twice before landing in the fenced off abandoned building site where the encroaching weeds must offer a bit of food. Three Eider, 2 males sharing a female, waited for the ferry on the concrete slope but as the boat got a little nearer and they saw the other passengers, the Eider changed their minds and slipped into the water. A sentinel Cormorant was long gone towards the Wyre Light when the ferry was only half way from Fleetwood.

On the pebbles and tidal debris below the jetty I counted 14 Turnstone, 12 Redshank, 2 Pied Wagtail 2 Sanderling and 1 Rock Pipit. And there are three of my older photographs taken at Knott End on previous occasions. I’m biased but I think the Pied Wagtail pic really captures the forever active spirit of the species.

Eider


Turnstone

Pied Wagtail


Sanderling

I didn’t count the Oystercatchers, Redshank and Shelduck further out on the beach to the north because I decided to head up river and south across Knott End Golf Course reckoning that few golfers might be out on such a cold, dismal, windswept day and thus make my walk across the fairways a little safer. As it happened I needn’t have worried too much from head height golf balls as most of the objects travelled fairly slowly at ankle height. Luckily I was now kitted out with walking boots, double skin trousers and thermal socks to protect my lower body, but from wayward golf balls as well as the cold wind.

I reached Hackensall Hall without major incident or little round indents to my boots; I stopped for a while to look around the old buildings and wonderful old trees, perfect for owls I thought, but not today, only Robins, noisy Blackbirds, and chattering Wrens, with a single Song Thrush and a Mistle Thrush.

I did find other woodland birds, like 4 Great-spotted Woodpeckers scrapping over the best trees even though I thought there were dozens suitable. Obviously the peckers know which ones are best for their purpose. Below is a “nearly” picture on a sunny day. There were surprisingly few Chaffinch about but a small flock of titmice included four Long-tailed Tits and 2 Treecreepers, just after I said a day or two ago that they are scarce.

Great-spotted Woodpecker


Treecreeper

The recently thawed pool with now the thinnest skin of either ice or much colder water was almost deserted save for a Moorhen and a Coot. Here’s a photo I took a week ago when I recall the weather being a little icy. What enormous feet, but useful for mauling bird ringers.


Coot
Out of the woodland I followed the track towards Barnaby’s Sands where on the other side of the hedgerow I counted 7 Redwings and 5 Blackbirds feeding on a damp grassy field with 15 Oystercatchers and 3 Redshank for company. I was rapidly running out of time after lingering in the woodland and watching the antics of a few less than accomplished “golfers”, but I was in time to watch both a Merlin and a Short-eared Owl over the marshes of the Wyre backdropped by hundreds of distant Teal and Wigeon. I retraced my steps to Knott End along the riverside path where behind the stone parapet I found an abandoned golf ball nestling bright yellow in the rough grass. I threw it back into the fairway to get my own back and hopefully confuse a wayward golfer.

To sum up, a pleasant, quiet walk with a good tally of birds and I'm still in one piece.

Overdue

Will and I were due some ringing after the recent weeks of frustrated intent and weather related cancellations. So with a good forecast we met at 0730 at our woodland site south of Lancaster town centre whilst other team members went off to Stanley Park in pursuit of wildfowl.

The wood and parkland on the site of an old hospital is very much a thrush site as confirmed by the first couple of net rounds when we quickly caught 19 Blackbird in the four mist nets erected. Of the 19 caught only three had no visible fat, the rest with scores between 1 and 5 but the heaviest a first winter male that tipped the scale at 130 grams and three birds in the high 120’s.

Blackbird

The woodland was noticeably quiet in respect of Chaffinch and we caught only two, very unusual. But inevitably we added those woodland favourites, Wren, Robin and single Blue and Great Tit.

Despite being quite close to the city centre the habitat is obviously attractive to roosting Woodcock and this being a Woodcock “year” we had a walk through the woodland to weigh up the numbers here. We flushed at least eight that headed off in various directions but one ended up in a net. This is the first one the ringing group has ringed since 1998, the last of a run in the 1990’s when we caught several at woodland roosts; so this one today was well overdue. With reference to “Ageing of Holarctic Waders” we think this bird a first winter male but stand to be corrected by anyone with more recent experience than the 1990’s!

Woodcock

Woodcock

We don’t catch many Treecreepers either. In fact they are now pretty scarce in the Fylde. So finding two in a net together was also past the due date.

Treecreeper

Other birds seen but not caught included 4 Nuthatch, 2 Jay, 1 Mistle Thrush plus 1 Goldcrest, a couple of Goldfinch plus sundry titmice.

The session was over fairly quickly as the birds dried up but allowing a little time to call in at Conder Green before heading home. The pool itself has almost thawed but held little, with most of the interest being on the creek and surrounds with 3 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Plover, 1 Spotted Redshank and the wintering Common Sandpiper, a good January tick, 90 Teal and a couple of Wigeon. There were several hundred Pink-footed Geese overflying from the Pilling direction and heading towards the Lune marshes.

A Light Lunch

I hadn’t been out to Rawcliffe Moss for a week or more but this lunch time presented an hour or two to fit in a quick visit. From the car I could see Seumus had been earlier because although fairly distant, the fresh line of bright seed mix stood out on the brown, muddy track as did the gaggle of 16 Wood Pigeons helping themselves.

Along the hawthorn and the wet ditch the count of customary diners revealed 120 Tree Sparrows, 14 Yellowhammers, 10 Chaffinch, a single Fieldfare, 4 Blackbirds and 2 Reed Bunting. Thrush numbers down then but resilient Tree Sparrows and Yellowhammers still abound.

Fieldfare

Tree Sparrow

Reed Bunting

Up on the big field 4 Roe Deer did their usual disappearing trick but twice, initially running from sight with stuck on tails, but then taking more determined evasive action by deerleaping the barbed fence.



Roe Deer

I checked out the stubble fields where I watched a circling Kestrel, but with tramping through the short stalks I put to flight 18 Skylark, then a tight flock of 80 Linnets that surprised me simply by being there after the recent weather events. More Woodpigeons up here in the woods and our plantation gave me an extra 110 to put in my notebook.

A few lines of distant Pink-footed Geese gave me the usual photographic dilemma of grey goose versus grey sky. But it’s nice to just see and hear them constantly without trying to get too scientific with counts or take the ultimate picture. If only they were that obliging anyway, but it’s strange how for instance some birders think they can just jump out of a car in front of a flock of feeding pinkies without the geese immediately taking to the air in panic.

Pink-footed Goose

Up near the plantation I saw a Buzzard over towards Nateby heading as usual even further away from me so I took the track through the trees. The wildfowlers pond was just about thawed; enough to hold a single Snipe on a little muddy bank but there were no duck. Of course the Snipe made off pretty sharpish, unlike the one at Pilling a few days a go.

Snipe

Two more noisy Blackbirds and several Goldfinch in the alders almost completed the picture here until a party of about 22 Corn Buntings appeared from the trees to then head off south, but I did catch up with them near the farm. I can only think that in the trees the buntings were feeding on some of the wildfowlers spilt grain intended for the absent Mallards.

In the lee of the birch wood I could see a couple of Blackbirds feeding in the soft grass but also 3 Song Thrush virtually together. Song Thrush, so scarce we need to note them all.

Song Thrush

Other odds and ends today – both Dunnock and Great Tit singing at the hint of extra daylight and warmth plus a Great-spotted Woodpecker on the same hole infested tree I saw it a week or more ago. Spring can’t be far away!

On the way off the moss a Little Owl in the barn was reluctant to hang around for a photograph. So I stuck here a picture of the same bird on a nearby tree on a previous but sunny day.

Little Owl

Ringing tomorrow, watch this space.

Almost Normal

After an aborted ringing session because of an early breeze, I started off the dull morning at Knott End with a look from the jetty where the tide was slowly running in to a grey scene of 1400 Oystercatchers, 40 Knot, 90 Dunlin, 118 Shelduck and 80 Redshank on the shore with 9 Turnstone roosting near the top of the jetty. Down near the end of the jetty I could see 4 Eider on the path with a couple of Herring Gulls but the slope looked so slippery with ice I didn’t venture down to find out. Six Red-breasted Merganser flew off the incoming water and then upstream towards Fleetwood docks. An overflying Fieldfare chuckled off towards the Golf Course. It was so dull; I set the ISO to 800.

Knott End

Oystercatchers

Dunlin


Knot

I found the resident party of 40 Twite feeding on the shore but these birds are so jittery I didn’t get chance to look in any detail before a passing soul disturbed the flock enough for them to fly up and beyond the Bourne Arms to the marsh beyond. I walked towards the village to see the Twite fly back and forth at least twice, settling only briefly before twittering off again. But in amongst more Redshank feeding in the partly frozen puddles I found 2 Rock Pipit and 2 Meadow Pipit with a Pied Wagtail scuttling along the wall beneath me.

Pied Wagtail

Already the road thawed and the sky brightened so I thought to try my luck at Lane Ends, maybe even walk to Pilling Water for the first time for a month or more. I’d looked a couple of days before for thrushes feeding on the last resort Sea Buckthorn, and today a single Fieldfare fought off a Blackbird and reserved a spot on the overloaded bush. In the car park, the leaf litter and the scrubby woodland I counted more than 18 Blackbirds where I switched my ISO to 400 to get a picture or two of the Fieldfare in the buckthorn and 4 Redwing and 6 Meadow Pipit searching through the thawing grass opposite the entrance.

Fieldfare


Meadow Pipit


Meadow Pipit


Redwing

From the top car park I could see Whooper Swans out near the tide line but also flying just inland to Fluke Hall Lane so I walked up to Pilling Water taking odd pictures as I walked. At Pilling Water I was able to count he birds, the ones now on the inland fields, those still on the move and a few still out on the marsh. My total count was 96.








Whooper Swan

A passing Peregrine disturbed the massed Teal, Wigeon and Mallard in the tidal channel but apart from saying there were thousands, I’m afraid I didn’t have the time to count and in any case it was still cold enough to stop telescope fingers working normally. On the walk back to Lane Ends I found 2 Skylark still around the grass at the base of the partly thawing sea wall.

I drove out of the car park to see a Snipe flying gently towards a roadside ditch so followed to where it landed. I guess it’s not a species of which we expect to get prolonged or even close views; in my own case only when occasionally they might be caught in a mist net. But today I just got lucky, and although it took me a minute or two to spot the bird in the ditch below me, I bided my time and waited for the bird to relax a little.







Snipe

An eventful and fruitful morning, even almost normal after the last few weeks.