Slowly Does it

After a lull the frost returned last night to remind us it’s still February, and as I write this at 5pm it’s snowing hard and settling. Just as well we fitted in a ringing session this morning even though it was another finger nipping exercise when Will and I returned to the farm site near Myerscough for an 8am start.



We caught slowly and by 1030 it was all over with the nets coming down in double quick time and a chance to warm our hands.

Birds caught:
6 Blackbirds, of which 4 were retraps from previous weeks. Also, 12 Chaffinch, 3 Reed Bunting, 1 Long-tailed Tit from a party of 6 that came along the hedgerow, 1 Dunnock and 1 Robin. After a couple of ringing sessions minus any Wrens in the cold weather of recent weeks, today we caught four new ones.

Male Reed Bunting

Female Reed Bunting

Female Chaffinch

Female Chaffinch

Male Chaffinch

Male Chaffinch

An interesting recovery came through yesterday of an adult female Goldfinch I caught in the garden on 26th October 2009. It was originally ringed in Chilworth Surrey on 27th January 2009 where it may have been spending the winter or just possibly on the way to or from the close continent. Many Goldfinches winter in Britain and whilst some remain close to their breeding areas, others undertake southerly movements. The principal overseas migration is south westerly through France into Iberia where British and Irish birds join other European Goldfinches. The Migration Atlas states that the sex ratios in Britain and Spain in winter suggest that female Goldfinches undertake more migration than males.



It’s just an excuse to show a photograph of a Goldfinch in my garden.

Goldfinch

Shore Thing

After a swim at the gym this morning I hoped to get out for some photographs for a while after lunch once I dropped Sue at the Fleetwood shops – what’s new then?

I took a quick look at pools on the Nature Park where I counted the waterfowl, 14 Tufted Duck, 28 Coot, 4 Gadwall, 2 Shoveler and 2 Little Grebe. The Gadwall stayed out of camera range but the tufties weren’t too bothered about having their picture taken. We are all guilty of it. Taking photographs of the resplendent drakes whilst ignoring the females who advertise their presence and desirability with a little more subtlety of plumage. So today to redress the balance I took a picture of the drake but also a picture of just one of the females that accompanied him everywhere he went.

Tufted Duck

Tufted Duck

Shoveler

Up at Rossall shore the weather closed in quickly with heavy windswept drizzle – nothing new there either. But I switched to ISO 400 and found some birds to picture before I returned to my car 30 minutes later where I put the heater on full blast to dry specs, bins, telephoto lens and camera. The rain blasted across from the North East so much that I didn't even get chance to walk along the shore and count the waders. At least there are a few pictures I managed to take before the drenching.

Knot

Redshank

Sanderling

Sanderling

Sanderling

Turnstone

Black-headed Gull

Finch Fest

Will had maintained the bird feeding in his Garstang garden and promised us a good catch when the weather allowed the three of us, Will, Ian and I to finally make it there. The forecast was accurate but we were well prepared, paying due respect to the zero temperatures by donnning extra layers, woolly hats and thermals.

66 birds kept us fairly busy and stopped our fingers seizing up from the cold which hovered around freezing point all morning. Sue kindly provided us with copious coffee in hand warming mugs, not to mention the bacon butties that came with the compulsory brown sauce, all of which also kept the cold at bay; Garden ringing can be so civilized compared to some of the grotty situations that we ringers often find ourselves in.

Chaffinch

Goldfinch

Although the Chaffinch were a bit slow arriving, the Siskin were there from the off, calling excitedly from the tops of the alders in the half light and we caught three of them on the first net round then another later on when the tardy Chaffinch arrived for a feed.

The four hour session saw us catch the following birds, of which pretty much 50% comprised finch species:
Siskin 4
Goldfinch 6
Chaffinch 21
Greenfinch 1
Blue Tit 17
Coal Tit 3
Blackbird 3
Great Tit 7
Dunnock 1
Robin 2
Nuthatch 1

We caught an interesting adult male Goldfinch that had flecks of yellow/gold in the red of the plumage around its head. I wouldn’t say we catch many Goldfinch in the course of a year but perhaps enough to say we may have seen this before, but none of us had. Picture below.

In between the ringing we noted both a male and a female Sparrowhawk that passed by separately for a brief look at what was on offer, a couple of Redwing and two Collared Dove. There are a couple of Treecreepers in Will’s garden that not only visit the bird table but also feed on the ground below the table and it was most interesting to watch them creeping across the hard standing picking up morsels of food, naturally we christened them “Groundcreepers”. The garden also has a healthy population of very clever House Sparrow who totally avoid going anywhere near our nets.

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Siskin

Greenfinch

Nuthatch

Nuthatch

Round Again

It was a much brighter start to today; with dare I say even atypical bright morning sunshine that lessened the impact of a touch of frost and the cold northerly wind.

Along the Pilling lanes towards Lane Ends there were plenty of Lapwings again, some now sporting impressive wispy crests in preparation for the breeding season, and although I couldn’t be sure, I thought I saw a distant couple tumbling around in a brief practice. But against a blue sky background the black and white of Lapwings in everyday flight is exciting enough without the added thrill of watching them display. I counted 160 Lapwings close to Fluke Hall, along with 80 Redshank whilst hundreds of Pinkfeet flew across to land within earshot but out of sight behind the inner sea wall and almost in some lucky person’s backyard in Pilling village.

Lapwing

Lapwing

Pink-footed Goose

I stopped at Lane Ends where I was early enough to see five Little Egrets flying off, scattering east and west along the marsh to their desired feeding spots. I walked to the east pool where just as I spotted it from the corner of my eye, the Kingfisher saw me and flew down from the bushes at the edge of the water and now low over the water, headed quickly along the ditch towards Cockerham. Kingfishers are such a frustrating beast, so inconspicuous for such a tiny bird, always first to see you and for ever keen to fly off where they can’t be seen. There was the normal Mallard throng on the pool waiting for handouts but the Goldeneye pair were well worth a second look, even though the male made sure they kept a more sensible distance from me than the Hovis hungry Mallard. A partial walk towards Pilling Water revealed several Snipe amongst last night’s tidal debris that like the earlier Kingfisher, saw me early then flew off without stopping to suss me out. I also counted 15 Skylark along here before reaching Pilling Water now partially frozen again but hosting a single Black-headed Gull, and out in the near distance 8 Whooper Swans and several hundred more pinkies.

Goldeneye

Driving up towards Cockerham and just past Sand Villa I could see ahead a Magpie harassing a slow flying roadside Barn Owl, but as I approached nearer the owl flipped over the hedge and out of sight where I couldn’t see it, especially as I had the usual moronic bumper hugger for company. I stopped at Braides hoping to see more of the owl but it must have gone in another direction so I counted the Lapwing, 300+ and the Golden Plover, 75.

Having done the circuit earlier in the week I wasn’t keen to do the Cockersands, Jeremy Lane, Glasson route again, particularly at the thought of bumping into weekend pagerites on the rampage for the American Wigeon, so I opted to spend an hour or two at Conder Green and watch the tide roll slowly in. Not very exciting I know, no ticks, no banter, no ringing in the ears, no tripping over half abandoned tripods, and how would I find out about the next bird on today’s must-see-list?

But I had a great time, sitting in the sun, taking a few pictures, watching some beautiful common birds just going about their business as the human world speeds by, mostly oblivious to the joys of the natural world: Shelduck 11, Tufted Duck 5, Little Grebe 2, Meadow Pipit 2, Reed Bunting 2, Snipe 8, Teal 90, Goldeneye 2, Spotted Redshank 2. Greenshank 1, Grey Plover 2, Grey Heron 1, Wigeon 4, Lapwing 32, Redshank 14, Cormorant 4

Now there’s a proper list and I found them all myself.

Teal

Shelduck


Greenshank

New On The List

The morning started with a surprise when at Knott End jetty a male Tufted Duck drifted quite close in on the incoming tide, then just as quickly floated out again towards the middle of the tidal channel. An unusual event indeed for my imaginary Knott End list, but 4 Eider, 3 drakes and a female that the tufted headed over to were more typical.

Tufted Duck

The Twite flew over a couple of times, two separate groups of 20 plus as I watched them head towards the village where they eventually joined up to form a tight flock of 45 birds. On the shore just below the jetty a couple of wary, totally grey Knot fed amongst 23 Turnstone and a half a dozen Redshank. I didn’t give the Knot its full title, which of course is actually Red Knot, the description of a plumage we hardly see them in, and then only partially; they are of course one of the circumpolar long distant migrants of the wader world.

"Red" Knot

Knot Migration

Turnstone

It was a week ago that I saw tremendous numbers of waders in a feeding frenzy on the inland fields just recovered from the weeks of frost, but this week all change again as numbers reverted to more normal levels. Only Fluke Hall Lane field held good numbers of about 120 Lapwing and 40 Redshank, even though the grass remained flooded and the few Curlew around were up to their ears in the dark stuff.

Curlew

There was little to report from Lane Ends but far off Pink-footed Geese and white swans, so distant I couldn’t be certain but I thought the usual Whooper Swan, about 25 partly hidden in the ditches and low parts of the green marsh. There were 2 Little Egret here, and later 2 at Braides then 2 near Cockersands.

I checked out Conder Green to find 2 Spotted Redshank, 1 Grey Heron, 7 Tufted Duck, 3 Wigeon, a solitary Grey Plover, 10 Shelduck and 80 very mobile Teal, with 4 Snipe playing at statues on the edge of the island.

Snipe

Teal

Teal

As I drove up to Cockersands with the car window open I heard croaking Raven again in what has been my Raven Week, and then saw a pair overhead flying closely together heading inland. A quick check at the Crook Farm end saw the usual wader culprits scattered too far and near to count with any certainty but between here and the caravan park I noted huge Wigeon numbers of 1500+ and more than 300 Pintail.

Close to the caravan park about 15 Tree Sparrows sat in the hawthorns at the awkward to park spot but of course weren’t there on the way back when my camera lay primed on the seat next to me. A Stonechat searched the shoreline but insisted on keeping some distance from me, so my photograph is poor, suffering from the usual defect of too much ISO on a grey end to a sunny start, but at least it’s current.

Stonechat

“Others” seen up here included up to 1000 Lapwings, 600 Dunlin, 15 Ringed Plover, 80 Golden Plover and a fine Merlin flashing by to finish an uneventful but interesting morning.

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.