Another Sunny Day

A layer of frost on the car also means another sunny day lately so who am I to complain about de-icing the windscreen with cold fingers again? All I do is set off a little later and give the birds a chance to move around more when the early sun warms the air. But the current high pressure also seems to be blocking wholesale migration from the south as we birders wish our lives away to hope for a rush of Meadow Pipits, see the first Wheatear or Sand Martin or maybe hear the rasping of a Sandwich Tern along the shore. But there's hope yet as I note Bardsey Island had their first Wheatear on Tuesday.

First call today was Knott End, probably as good a place as any to see the aforementioned harbingers of spring. But there were no Meadow Pipits overhead, just the single Rock Pipit below The Esplanade again with about 25 Twite. Out from the jetty just a single male Eider floated on the incoming tide with no female companion which is a good sign as she was probably up river hidden away somewhere. Before the tide displaced most of them I counted 80+ Redshank, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 44 Knot, 22 Shelduck, 40 Turnstone and 140 Oystercatcher, a dramatic reduction on recent counts as birds head off to breeding sites.

Isle of Man Ferry at Fleetwood

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
Turnstone
Twite
It was good to be out but I wasn’t seeing any March migrants so I decided to do Fluke and Ridge Farm. In the field at Wheel Lane I could see 2 distant Ruff, and even through the bins I could see how each bird is colouring up for spring; also at least 20 scattered but some displaying Lapwings, the larger numbers of previous weeks now dispersed like the Knott End Oystercatchers.

”Distant” Ruff
Lapwing
Ridge Farm produced a healthy variety of birds in the shape of 70 Twite feeding on the deck in the open field, 9 Linnet, 11 Skylark, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Pied Wagtail and at last, 1 migrant Siskin calling overhead but invisible in the bright blue sky, but zero Meadow Pipits. It was now 10am so I was somewhat surprised to see a Barn Owl flying along the hedgerow before it returned towards the farm buildings. A Kestrel circled the wood and a Sparrowhawk hung around the trees near the Tree Sparrow boxes, hoping for an opportune meal as Sparrowhawks always do.

Barn Owl
Twite
Reed Bunting
Tree Sparrow

I motored on to Braides where I saw absolutely zero. The year has been so dry that the ditches dug last autumn to encourage breeding waders are bone dry which makes the field unsuitable for Lapwings at the moment unless we have lots of rain.

Yet another trip to Conder Green produced 2 Greenshank, 14 Tufted Duck, 18 Teal, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Little Grebe and 5 Oystercatchers displaying over the pool again.

More Twittering

It was 4pm and I had to nip to the shops at Knott End so called in at the Twite spot to see if I could improve on my last lot of photos. Despite the constant traffic of people along The Esplanade 15 Twite kept returning to where I waited so I got a few pictures of them, plus a half decent shot of a Rock Pipit before the sun gave up on me.

Twite
Twite
Rock Pipit
I spent most of the earlier afternoon walking on the moss where it was quiet but sunny and I saw the normal early March fare. Buzzards were obvious again today, calling from the vicinity of the woods or overhead as they drifted high in all directions, and I put 4 in my notebook together with 2 Kestrels, the other regular raptor around here.

Buzzard
“Small stuff” consisted of 22 Tree Sparrow, 4 Yellowhammer, 16 Linnet, 4 Goldfinch, 5 Skylark, 2 Reed Bunting and 14 Corn Bunting, most of which fed on the old tailings again. At least 5 Tree Sparrow boxes had activity around them but as usual the birds moved off when I approached too near. Not to worry, all will become clear when the boxes are opened.

Tree Sparrow
Corn Bunting
“Others” today were 4 pairs of Grey Partridge, 2 Little Owl, a single Jay, a return of the Woodpigeons with a count of 64 and 3 Shelduck flying back out towards the coast. Brown Hares were very active today as I witnessed more than one bout of sparring and tearing across the open fields. Four Roe Deer put in an appearance again today as they ran from a wood I approached, making me feel guilty about disturbing them but they are just so hard to spot in a wood and will always see or smell us first.

Roe Deer

Fixed

The Oystercatcher photograph helped me fix my computer problem. I fretted for a half a day over why I couldn’t print Word documents, multitasking between fiddling with various settings and looking through my latest photographs from Conder Green, Lane Ends and the moss. Then while doctoring the Oystercatcher picture on Photoshop I thought I would try to print a photograph; when the black of the oycs came out mottled and runny it finally dawned on me where the problem lay. So I fitted a new black ink cartridge that replaced a dodgy one and hey presto problem solved.

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
The Oystercatchers were in good voice, displaying over Conder Pool whilst they sorted out who would get the prime spot on the rocky little island. There was an Oystercatcher with a badly deformed bill that I guess won’t be a prime partner but through Photoshop I fixed it for the bird to have a smarter bill.

Oystercatcher
"Fixed" Oystercatcher
The rest of the birds came mainly in singles, Coot, Little Grebe, Snipe, Goldeneye and Canada Goose but 8 Wigeon, 6 Tufted Duck, 14 Teal in the shallows and 6 of the aforesaid Oystercatchers.

Canada Goose
Wigeon
Teal
I stopped off at Lane Ends where I caught up with the Fieldfare again, and where the buckthorn berries look less colourful and appetising everyday. A Kestrel perched out in the sun for about two seconds before it took to hiding. It’s difficult to fix photographs where branches make up most of the frame; the story of my life this last week. But then a Pied Wagtail in the car park compensated me a little.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Fieldfare
Pied Wagtail
Later on I went to Rawcliffe Moss to meet the other lads and cut some rides in readiness for the spring mist netting.So first I stopped off early to get pictures again and hopefully not many Photoshop fixes would be required on a bright blue afternoon with no branches to get in the way.

Chaffinch
Wren
Blackbird
Robin
Corn Bunting

Change Tack

Today at Out Rawcliffe I altered my approach and looked out for singing birds and signs of spring rather than looking for wintering birds and winter flocks.

The Little Owl was there again, the usual spot. So although that's three times this week to take their portraits, who could resist another one even if this bird did insist on hiding partially behind a branch?

Little Owl
Just seconds after taking the owl’s portrait a male Sparrowhawk flashed over the hedgerow in front of me and out of sight as normal but at least it means they are about the farm somewhere.

Down on the moss scattered about the farm I counted 4 Corn Buntings and their “jangling keys” song, but they weren’t all thinking of spring song as a flock of 10 fed around some discarded barley near the barn, others waiting for me to clear off. Such a wary species, but good to get a few pictures. There was also a pretty accommodating Pied Wagtail finding food here.

















Corn Bunting
Pied Wagtail

Pied Wagtail
I walked the track towards Nateby and clocked up 8 pairs of Grey Partridge, 11 singing Chaffinch, 2 drumming Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 2 singing Yellowhammers, Tree Sparrows at 3 nest boxes and 4 Buzzards circling over the woods, mewing and displaying. Then flocks of 17 Linnets and 7 Goldfinch with 2 singing Skylarks.

From the fir wood I flushed a Peregrine from the tree tops but the crows also saw it and voiced their disapproval. Nailed to a tree the gamekeepers had shown their own displeasure of Carrion Crows – “to discourage the others” as they say.

Gamekeeper’s Warning

Towards the Conifer Copse

Through the Conifer Copse
I found a few lingering Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrows at the now run down feeding station, as well as an expectant Robin and a bunch of Roe Deer, now more tolerant since the shooting season ended.

Robin

Roe Deer
Perhaps as important as the things I saw this morning were the things I didn’t see: very few Wrens, not many Robins, 1 Song Thrush but about 8/10 Blackbirds, so perhaps a bit early to say the winter had a devastating effect but we’ll see.