Weekend Wildfowl

I didn’t get out this morning but I am posting some wildfowl pictures from Sunday afternoon when I grabbed a few hours birding after the morning mist and murk lifted, but I didn’t see a lot apart from lots of Lapwing, Curlew and Redshank along Fluke Hall way. The highlight was a single Ruff in a muddy puddle with Lapwing, perhaps one of the two I found last week, then later a fast flying Barn Owl on Pilling Moss being harried by a Carrion Crow. Best shot I could get I’m afraid. The technical term for this is "record shot". But at least I know where to park my car next time after I weighed up its hunting circuit.

Barn Owl

Being Over Wyre in mid-winter there were plenty of wildfowl around at the weekend, and also lots of birders looking for and at them. Paul sent me some pictures that he took of a Dark-bellied Brent Goose at Copthorne that was hanging around with feral Greylag Geese; plus Bewick’s Swans at Thurnham, and Whooper Swans also at Thurnham.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose & Greylag Goose

Bewick’s Swan

Whooper Swan

I did grab these next few pictures,Eiders at Knott End and more Whooper Swans, these at Fluke Hall Lane, part of the huge flock of 250+ seen recently.

Eider

Eider

Whooper Swan

Birding Israel

Hi Folks

Here's a great video:

Full size version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSSYiS0lGhc or click to expand the screen above.


Enjoy

Bacon Butties

Don’t worry, you didn’t press the wrong button. This is "Another Bird Blog" but with one more culinary reference. Regular readers will know that mention of bacon butties means a ringing session near Garstang in Will’s garden where a Ringer’s Winter Breakfast of that peculiarly British invention together with regular doses of hot coffee is compulsory. Thanks Sue, hope you enjoyed the birds as much as we enjoyed the breakfast.

Ringer's Breakfast

Whilst the sarnie provided bodily sustenance for Will and I during a light lull in proceedings, the equivalent feast of finches kept us otherwise fairly busy from 0730 until 1130. Siskins arrived from their roost in the half light which enabled us to catch six on the first walk to the nets, together with an early Chaffinch.

Male Siskin

Female Siskin

Whilst the Siskin seemed keen to grab an early bite of nyger seed, the Chaffinch were slower to both arrive or to stay around but we did catch some of them, plus Goldfinch and Greenfinch to give a total of 35 birds of which 24 were finches.

Siskin 8
Greenfinch 3
Chaffinch 11
Goldfinch 2
Coal Tit 4
Robin 1
Blackbird 2
Dunnock 1
Nuthatch 1
Collared Dove 2

Male Greenfinch

Coal Tit

Collared Dove

We also caught a one-legged Robin, one perfectly healthy leg and an old healed stump near the knee joint – most unusual. Naturally we didn’t ring this bird but with being in Will’s garden he may be able to keep track of Hopalong's further survival.

Robin

Other birds noted this morning included 2 Nuthatch, 5 Collared Dove, 1 Brambling, 1 Kestrel, a male Sparrowhawk that shot through the garden, and a Buzzard in the field beyond being harassed by Carrion Crows.

By the way, Will likes to go to work on an egg as well.

BB Regular or BB plus Egg

Broccoli Soup

I scooted round a few of the regular birding spots this morning without breaking speed limits or obtaining any record counts. Once again the waders returned to the Pilling fields after snow and rain yesterday and overnight made for good feeding. Between Backsands Lane to just east of Lane Ends I counted 90 Curlew, 600 Lapwing, 125 Redshank and 65 Golden Plover with 2 Ruff amongst the Lapwing providing an agreeable, unexpected extra. A few Oystercatchers also took advantage of the newly softened fields.

Lapwing

Oystercatcher

With limited time I didn’t stop at Braides, just a passing leftwards stare as I drove past but certainly there was not a lot in the immediate fields. At Conder pool a Dunnock in the “hide” window greeted me, demanding that I take a photograph, so I duly obliged not sure if I would see much afterwards from the said window.

Dunnock

The previous day’s weather had perhaps had an effect on the numbers of Tufted Duck because I counted 50+, a substantial improvement on recent numbers. Other wildfowl came in at 7 Wigeon, 2 Coot, 84 Teal and 2 Shelduck. I watched the Teal down in the creek where they sifted through the mud for something duckily delicious.

Teal

Teal

Wigeon

A couple of Grey Heron flew the around creeks and the pool without getting near enough to photograph, as did a hovering Kestrel, a couple of Skylark, 6 Goldfinch and a few of that scarcity, Greenfinch. I didn’t see the usual Spotted Redshank or Greenshank today, even when I walked the railway bridge, but I saw the normal small numbers of Redshank and Curlew.

Near The Stork I bumped into PW religiously doing his birding thing again, but taking time out to lean into my car and exchange pleasantries and information, despite the traffic hurtling past desperate to reach their places of work. As we agreed, “Even some birders don’t bother to get out of their cars here, least of all Joe Public on the way to Ashton Garden Centre or Leighton Moss.” Oh well, not everyone desires to be a birder, thank goodness. PW gripped me with his count of 56 tufties; I never was much good with figures. But I got my own back by relating the 3 Rock Pipits I’d just seen towards the car park, picking through the debris from the recent high tides. I had also seen 4 or more Meadow Pipits in the same area, less reluctant to leave their search for grub than their rock living cousins. Also here, Pied Wagtails.

Meadow Pipit

Pied Wagtail

I headed off to Cockersands but abandoned my plan to look for the Stonechat and other tideline dwellers when I saw two removal vans and two other vehicles parked up in my spot, guessing that any comings and goings would mean there was little about other than new residents exploring new surroundings.

I then circuited Jeremy Lane without a lot of success but I did find a semi-obliging Little Egret that I took pictures of when it jumped out of a roadside ditch and sat in a field. And the sun was out, for now.

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

I couldn’t believe it, I looked at my watch.1140, time to get back and watch little Theo demolish the broccoli soup. What an unusual lad! It must be his bringing up.

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