No Sweat, No Tears

It wasn’t a difficult decision for me this morning. At the height of spring migration time with a bit of overnight rain that cleared early combined with breaking skies and southerly winds, exactly as the BBC forecast for once, it doesn’t take much imagination to know what to do and where to do it. I headed for some coastal cover that just happened to be Lane Ends and Pilling Water where I hoped to locate a few bits and pieces. For luck I threw in Ridge Farm hedgerows and the line of east to west gorse and hoped for a result.

There were yet more new Greenland Wheatears near Pilling Water where I counted 6, all of which quickly flew east in the direction I had just walked. Or at least I thought that’s what happened whilst I laid the traps and hoped the "white arses" would return, but one female lingered long enough to locate the meal worms and I caught my sixth Wheatear of the spring. They are just amazing how they locate a single wriggling meal worm amongst the tide line debris, grass and rocks: the needle in a haystack syndrome I think. But they must have incredible eyesight not to mention inconceivable powers of navigation to undertake the journeys they make.

Greenland Wheatears make one of the longest transoceanic crossings of any passerine. In spring most migrate along a route (commonly used by waders and waterfowl) from Africa via continental Europe, the British Isles, and Iceland to Greenland. However, autumn sightings from ships suggest that some birds cross the North Atlantic directly from Canada and Greenland to southwest Europe. Birds breeding in eastern Canada are thought to fly from Newfoundland to the Azores before flying onwards to Africa. The Greenland Wheatear may be the only regularly breeding passerine bird of North America that migrates to wintering grounds in sub-Saharan Africa, crossing either the Atlantic Ocean or the continent of Eurasia.

”Greenland” Wheatear
”Greenland” Wheatear
”Greenland” Wheatear Migration Routes and Wintering Area
I found this quote on the Internet - “The Greenland Wheatear arrives in the later part of April. It is in a hurry to reach its breeding sites on the other side of the Atlantic, so doesn’t stay for long.” That is a slight understatement of my experience of the species this week when the rapid ongoing migration was very noticeable. Maybe it has a little to do with the fact that they were later arriving here than in most years.

Other than the Wheatears, things were quieter this morning on the wildfowler’s pool and out on the marsh. Perhaps with the change in wind direction of the last day or two both the flock of Redshank and the many hundreds of Pink-footed Geese had left for Iceland with suddenly low counts of 25 and 150 respectively today. Naturally I saw a Little Egret, but one only.

At Lane Ends the warblers treated me to a selection of song. Sedge Warbler was new in, singing in the reeds below the cark park with trilling Little Grebe nearby, and at least 2 Willow Warblers, a Blackcap and a Chiffchaff joining in the chorus. I saw 2 Jays this morning and feel sure that the villains have a nest of their own somewhere close by.

As I walked to look on the west pool I saw a Lapwing mobbing a larger fast flying bird which when I binned it turned out to be the large pale Peregrine of recent weeks, now heading quickly inland. I have no doubt the direction took it to one of a number of distant pylons, far-away to my eyes, but a flap and a glide to a Peregrine. Below is the same Peregrine, different Lapwing and a different day about a month ago, but some scenarios don’t change.

Lapwing versus Peregrine
Over Wyre I don’t expect to get the number or variety of fresh migrant birds that the peninsula of Fleetwood attracts, or even the numbers of pairs of eyes that might look for the birds, unless that is the birders choose to stare out to sea instead of searching for little brown jobs. So very often I can be the only person doing the rounds of LE, Ridge and Fluke as my notebook shorthand denotes their names, but not to worry I quite like it that way.

Vey obvious this morning was the influx of Whitethroats, with snatches of song and visible birds along the tree line of Fluke Hall Lane and the hedges of Ridge Farm, with twos and threes here and there. In fact I counted a minimum of 15 birds and imagined that if I had found that number, then Fleetwood and Heysham would at least treble my meagre total. I watched a steady stream of Swallows and House Martins follow the sea wall east, as did a couple of calling Redpoll. The local Linnets are now in some cases paired up, with territories along the gorse, but others still flock, like the party of 16 close to the sea wall. I did see an extra couple of Willow Warblers along the hedge at Ridge Farm, and another Blackcap singing along the inward track. But it looks like all the excitement was across the water at Fleetwood this morning with nice sounding birds like Cuckoo, Ring Ouzel, Redstart and even Hen Harrier added to growing lists.

Blackcap
Willow Warbler
Oh the joys of lonesome birding Over Wyre with all the fun and excitement we expect but without the tears and heartbreak of missing a few year ticks. After all, it's only a bit of fun isn't it? Oh well I’ll just have to make do with a picture this time.

Hen Harrier

Less Work, More Play

After Friday’s ringing, I decided this morning would be less like a job of work so decided to go birding with the aim of getting a few photographs, of anything.

First stop was deserted Conder Green, where the absence of large wagons overlooking the pool allowed me to be probably the first person there. I looked in vain for the Spotted Redshank now almost completely black that is always there but I drew a blank on the species for the first time in many, many months. I settled for a Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpiper, 7 Redshank, a Curlew and an overhead Whimbrel that flew out over the railway bridge to the marsh. The owning Oystercatcher chivvied a single Black-tailed Godwit to the furthest side of the island before I could get a decent look at it in what seemed to be almost full summer plumage. The Oystercatchers and Redshank still spend a lot of time displaying and squabbling, but not so the Lapwing as there seems to be one pair only. Likewise the Little Ringed Plover with a displaying bird over the back of the pool today.

Greenshank
Little Ringed Plover
The morning duck count was 3 Goldeneye, 2 Tufted Duck and 4 Shelduck.

It was fairly early in the morning and with a tide due I thought that Cockersands Abbey might be worth a visit. The first obvious birds were 8 “Greenland” Wheatears flitting around the shore, and as in the last week elsewhere they proved immediately mobile, reluctant to pose for photographs, and I judged, too urgently dynamic a group to try and catch any of them. In fact it took a while to take pictures just from my car without even trying to approach them they were so energetic. In addition to the Wheatears, a party of 12 Meadow Pipits looked new in, a theme to be repeated later at Pilling. Two Sandwich Terns flew up and down the river calling constantly.

”Greenland” Wheatear
”Greenland” Wheatear
Waders were thin on the ground with the normal suspects Oystercatcher, Redshank, Ringed Plover and Dunlin but I took time out to photograph 2 Grey Plover that stood obligingly on a rock.

Grey Plover
Grey Plover
Grey Plover
At Lane Ends a Sparrowhawk left towards the village as I arrived but a Blackbird carrying food dived into the plantation despite the Jays that have been seen again doing their evil best. Singing birds included a loud Blackcap, 2 Willow Warbler, Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Reed Bunting.

As ever I walked up to Pilling Water where I found yet more Wheatears. Another 8 here that like all the others this week continued with rapid migration, this time east towards Lane Ends, but not before a female tripped my spring trap closed without getting caught but I watched it go back for a look at the meal worm inside. Along the tide line was another party of Meadow Pipits that this time numbered about twenty.

Meadow Pipit
”Greenland” Wheatear
”Greenland” Wheatear
The wildfowlers pools held less Redshank today with perhaps only 40, but the ever present Little Egret was in the ditch out towards the shore, and over the ex-stubble at Fluke Hall where the Lapwings recently laid their eggs, a Buzzard circled over the newly ploughed earth.

A Little Is A Lot

It was an early start, but nothing new there. I met Will on the moss at 6am where we put up our standard mist net quota for the site of 320ft of net. Pretty hard work for a reward which isn’t necessarily of huge quantity in a normal Fylde spring when birds head straight for previous breeding haunts without stops in the middle of nowhere. This is how an unkind, unknowing soul might well describe Rawcliffe Moss, but any coastal situation is usually more productive in terms of both variety and numbers of migrants in both spring and autumn than the moss, some 7 or 8 miles inland.

But we enjoy the peace and quiet of the moss land, and the often lack of numbers allows us in between net visits to indulge in plenty of sky and land watching for local birds and at the right times of year, visible migrants. The ability to enjoy both is the joy of being both a ringer and a birder, and it is so sad that a few people think that a person must be exclusively one or the other to qualify as legitimate. Those are our reasons for actually enjoying this morning, despite the fact that for our herculean efforts we caught, some might say, a paltry 8 birds of 2 new and 6 retraps.

The two new birds were a Tree Pipit and a Blackbird, as diverse a pair as anyone might expect out on the moss. I took the pipit from the net and pondered, “When was the last Tree Pipit I handled?” suggesting to Will it was probably 15 years ago. I got back home and checked on IPMR - May 1996 at Lane Ends, Pilling. That is how scarce Tree Pipits are locally, and apart from overflying, calling birds in Spring and Autumn, it is not a species seen on the deck very often.

Tree Pipit
Tree Pipit
Our retrapped Whitethroat we first ringed here in 2007 as an adult and it has
returned in 2008, 2009 and now in 2010.

Adult Male Whitethroat
Similarly, a retrapped Willow Warbler was first ringed as a fresh juvenile and probably born on site in 2009.

Willow Warbler
The other retraps were 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Reed Bunting and a Goldfinch from 2008.

Local birds evident today were still small groups of Goldfinch and Linnet with singing Skylark and Corn Bunting plus resident Tree Sparrows ensconced in boxes.

Tree Sparrow
Corn Bunting
Visible migration was extremely interesting this morning in the form of a steady but slight passage of about 20 Swallows and a similarly thin movement of approximately 30 Meadow Pipits. The mid week migration of Wheatears noticed at many locations continued on the moss this morning with at least 16 bright “Greenland” types noticeable on the black, peaty fields. Two distant but obvious White Wagtails also stood out against the intense dark soil. There was a little movement of Redpoll again with a minimum count of 12 birds passing north throughput the morning. Waders on the move were mainly Whimbrel with at least 7 heading west and other unseen ones calling more distantly.

Raptor sightings were of the Kestrel and Buzzard variety, especially the Buzzard that has a favoured perch with a panoramic view of the moss and which overlooks the legions of tiny bunnies now evident in the fields. Raptor surprise this morning was a Merlin that put in a brief appearance over the plantation before heading out west, but the almost unseen bird of the morning was a Ring Ouzel in the plantation, loudly “tac-taccing” at our approach to the nets before flying off north and giving brief views to Will.

Kestrel
I can't hope to ever get a photograph of a Ring Ouzel so here is an absolute corker of a portrait by Andreas Trepte http://www.photo-natur.de/ .

Ring Ouzel
What a cracking morning, more please.

We’ll Wheat Again

OK I know the pun is excruciating but it’s not easy to keep dreaming up blog titles, not to mention coming up with a page full of nonsense and half decent photographs.

After a couple of blank weeks plus other days when the few Wheatears I saw gave me the run around, Wheatears finally appeared in the UK in some numbers this week. At last I managed to get to grips with anothere one today when I found a party of 7 “Greenland” type Wheatears in my (and their) favoured spot near Pilling Water.

Just like two days ago the birds were extremely mobile and active and within 30 minutes of finding them they had disappeared across the bay towards Heysham but not before I caught the single female shown here. The wing length of 103mm confirmed it as Oenanthe oenanthe leucorrhoa the subspecies of Wheatear which breeds in Greenland and which appears as a passage migrant in the British Isles and especially the west coast. It wasn’t especially heavy at 26.6 grams.

”Greenland” Wheatear
In amongst the wildfowler’s pools the Redshank numbered 130 again with 2 Teal and 2 Little Egret. I spent a little time waiting for a Wheatear to find the bait but during that time I counted other passerines as 8 Meadow Pipits, 4 Skylark, 11 Linnets and 1 Willow Warbler.

Before Lane Ends I had walked the Ridge Farm area where I counted 21 Linnets, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Wheatear, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Little Egret and visible migration of 2 House Martins and 7 Swallows that flew north over the sea wall. I looked hard for Ring Ouzel having had a message of 2 at Lytham and 1 a further one at Fleetwood in the morning, and even though Ridge Farm is ideal habitat, I've yet to see a "Mountain Blackbird" there.

Earlier still I took a look at Knott End and walked a small way up river alongside the golf course. A little way up I heard the unmistakeable rasp of Sandwich Terns and found 2 flying up and down river and perching intermittently on the mid stream boat moorings. A bit further upstream and under the old fishermen’s jetty were 3 Turnstone, several Redshank and single Common Sandpiper and Dunlin.

Sandwich Tern
Turnstone
The golfers emerging from the clubhouse flushed 3 “alba” wagtails that flew north from the fairway and out towards the jetty. There on the flat calm water I found 12 Eider, 11 drakes and 1 female with 2 Whimbrel on the mussel beds. The little genuine visible migration I witnessed came via a few Swallows that crossed the river from Fleetwood and headed east along the sea wall towards Pilling.

More tomorrow............

The Other Moss

Today I had to go up to Kendal for my car service so popped into Leighton Moss RSPB nature reserve near Silverdale. I’m not a great fan of nature reserves, I prefer to go out and find birds myself, but maybe once or twice a year I will go to Leighton Moss which has breeding Marsh Harriers, Bearded Tit and Bittern, to name a few of the specialities. Anyway it was a chance to do a bit of photography where the birds aren’t too shy of approaching the hides and I persuaded that emblematic Lancashire bird the Lapwing to provide me with a new blog header for a while.

During my short visit I noticed that lots of the summer migrants were in: singing Blackcaps and Willow Warblers seemed everywhere I walked, with one or two of both Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler striking up their chatter in the reeds. At least three Marsh Harriers and two Buzzards put in brief appearances but kept a long way from the two hides I visited.

I grabbed a few pictures to post for today but I hope I can get back to the real mosses of Pilling and Rawcliffe soon.

Grey Heron
Grey Heron
Gadwall
Marsh Harrier
Teal
Lapwing

Back to normal tomorrow I hope.

Windy Wheatears

Today I’m struggling to post anything except a letter through a doorway. Even that could get blown from my hands.

After a morning swim I hoped the overnight and morning gusts would drop for me by afternoon but they didn’t. The wind was really potent here today, too strong really for passerine birding but I thought I would go out to look for a few Wheatears out Pilling Way on the basis of a good count of more than 70 Wheatears on Bardsey Island on Monday 19th April. Bardsey Blog.

For anyone unsure of the geography up here, Bardsey is just off the tip of the Llleyn peninsula, North Wales, approximately 170 miles by road to the southern part of Morecambe Bay. To a Wheatear, especially a fuelled up specimen, it’s but a short flight from Bardsey or North Wales to any part of Morecambe Bay and a quick top up of food before the next leg of their journey. That’s not to say that any Wheatears I might find would definitely be part of the Welsh contingent, but they may have been. Equally Wheatears have been rather held up lately by the constant northerly winds and there must be many more heading this way quite soon.

Wheatear
Bardsey Island and Morecambe Bay
My walk along the Pilling wall in the north westerly proved difficult and uneventful, so hard that the best birding option was to walk behind the grassy wall out of the wind but not so to speak, stick your head over the parapet for fear of being blown back below.

There were at least 8 Wheatears, mobile, fence hopping specimens hard to study through binoculars shaking in the blustery wind. Needless to say with being so active they weren’t tempted by meal worms but quickly continued their part journey in an easterly direction.

A quick count around the Lane Ends pools revealed 6 Tufted Duck and several Swallows plus 2 Sand Martins hawking over the windswept pools.

Back home I did notice both Swallows and House Martins in our cul-de-sac inspecting last year’s sites.

Swallow and House Martin
Swallow
Swallow

Sorry folks, that’s all my news for today.

A Distant Circus

My early circuit of the Lane Ends pools and plantation in the clearing mist revealed 3 pairs of Tufted Duck, with once again the seemingly lone drake Gadwall that doesn’t venture far from the south east corner of the pool. There was a light passage of redpoll, probably Lesser Redpoll as at least three chattered high overhead with a smattering of Meadow Pipits heading out into the Heysham obscured bay. I really excelled myself when I picked up an overhead calling Tree Pipit that also headed north. Fortunately for my now low frequency hearing it was directly above me because if it had been further away and I may not have heard that high pitched but distinctive short sharp buzz. Old age and the loss of faculties, it comes to us all but happily I do have other skills left that come in quite useful occasionally. And I can still easily hear Whimbrel, and who couldn’t hear and recognise the loud, rapid seven whistles as one glides overhead with bill bent but not curved - two went over this morning as I made my way towards Pilling along the sea wall.

Common Redpoll
On the video there’s a bonus of Slender-billed Curlew and Curlew as well as Whimbrel.




I started off at Pilling Water with 4 Teal and 145 Redshank on the wildfowler’s pools, with mixed amongst them 5 Dunlin, then along the water itself looking back towards Broadfleet bridge, a Common Sandpiper. The flock of Pink-footed Goose still numbers about 800 and maybe they are better off at Pilling at the moment rather than flying off north to Iceland. A Grey Heron joined the now constant 4 Little Egrets dotted white across the green marsh together with 30 or so Shelduck, similarly white from a distance until binoculars revealed their real colours.

I laughed out loud today when I remembered the occasion out here many moons ago when I found an Avocet at a time they were rare and a clown of a birder asked if I hadn’t seen a Shelduck! I smiled back into my passerine count which revealed a singing Willow Warbler, 2 Reed Bunting, 6 Meadow Pipits, 4 Linnets and a single “alba” overhead.

Redshank
Teal
Shelduck
I spent quite a lot of time at Pilling Water this morning because every time I readied for the walk back to Lane Ends something happened, either I spotted a distant bird that required further investigation or I heard a call or two that made me linger a while. Like when I found a single Wheatear, my first there for more than 10 days; a good enough reason to try and catch it I reasoned, but it would have non of my meal worms and eventually headed out over the bay after being flushed twice by separate tide line joggers.

I sat on the stile looking left to Preesall Sands debating whether that familiar distant post had changed shape and now bore a raptor perched on top, moving around occasionally or was it a mirage from the haze? No matter because the next one wasn’t a figment of my imagination but a Marsh Harrier Circus aeruginosus, distant but flying over the sands on the edge of the marsh and heading east. I willed it to fly in towards me and linger for a slow trawl of the marsh but it didn’t, just continued on its flight north and east towards Bank End and Cockerham. It was distant for sure and it also gave me and my camera a “V” sign as it flew away out of sight.

Marsh Harrier