Soccer Free Zone

This morning called for a quick change of plan from ringing to birding when within the space of 1/2 day the weather outlook changed from a ringer friendly “fine” with a 7 mph southerly wind to one of a birder unfriendly “rain” with 25 mph westerly. Nothing for it then but a walk up Pilling way once the early morning rain cleared but the wind still blew.

I planned a walk towards Ridge Farm but it still drizzled with rain so I stopped in the gateway along Fluke Hall Lane where 3 Whitethroats dodged about and a Reed Bunting still sang. It was very blustery but brightened a little so I parked up and walked across to the sea wall with several Swallows and 2 Sand Martin whizzing over the crops. It seems that the dry spring and summer this year has been a good one for breeding Sand Martins, which explains why I and other birders have been seeing them recently along the coast and inland away from colonies, but equally they are quite early returning migrants.

Near the sea wall a single Corn Bunting sang where only now does the growing crop offer anything. Just along from the song post I disturbed 5 Pied Wagtails that fed unobtrusively on the path but noted that Worm Pool was completely dry, despite all the rain of the last few days. I found 2 Skylarks carrying food, one with small items which indicated small young but with the wind howling around my ears and the adults acting warily, I couldn’t locate the nest. A second pair carrying large amounts of food were obviously feeding large young, perhaps even out of the nest so I didn’t follow the adults back.

Skylark

Skylark
Skylarks have an intensely fast breeding cycle, one of the shortest of any British bird. Chicks can leave the nest when only about eight days old, fledge to independence at 18-20 days of age, and are fully independent at 25 days. The whole cycle lasts 37 days.

I stumbled across a nest I’ve never found before, a Red-legged Partridge, where the adult sat tight in a clump of stinging nettles. What a shame that this gun fodder now outnumbers our native Grey Partridge, which is a species I haven’t seen for weeks and weeks and is perhaps a casualty of the severe winter.

Red-legged Partridge
Grey Partridge
Continuing up towards Pilling Water I watched 2 Kestrels surveying the marsh as the lowish incoming tide only just filled some of the ditches, but enough to flush out waders like the building numbers of Curlew which I counted as 420, and Lapwing as 70 today. From the direction of Fluke Hall I heard the call of Whimbrel, early returns indeed as five flew along the tideline towards the wader and gull roost where a single Golden Plover mixed with 20+ Redshank and 7 Dunlin, but I did hear a Snipe before it flew over me and inland.

I approached Pilling Water warily because the Common Sandpipers that hang about along the tidal channel are just so distrustful; always flicking off if anyone so much as pops a head over the wall, but the first bird along the channel today was a Little Ringed Plover - most unusual out here. But I did see 4 Common Sandpipers and 8 more Pied Wagtails, then looking out beyond the channel, 600+ Black-headed Gulls, 2 Great-crested Grebes and the beginning of duck city with more than 30 Mallards.

I estimated the same passerine numbers I have seen about here for a few weeks now, 10 Linnet, 6 Greenfinch, 8 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and 2 Meadow Pipit, so it looks like returning waders are making most of the running at the moment.

Snipe
Little Ringed Plover

Tuesday looks a possibility for ringing, but up here in the North West we aren't getting the settled weather that the south of England still enjoys.

Out And About

This morning I explored a part of Rawcliffe Moss I don’t often visit, to get a taste of what is going on in places not well watched or worked, and I deliberately avoided the nearby plantation where we do our ringing. Fortunately I have permission from the farmer to explore away from the public footpath that crosses the land with the obvious but unspoken understanding that I follow the country code wherever I go. Farmers are often misunderstood and maligned by Mr Average Joe Public, who cares little about where the food on his plate comes from, only that it should be cheap. But without exception I always find the farming fraternity good-natured, friendly, helpful to a fault, and interested in what I am doing.

I was pleased I ventured out because I found both flock and gangs of birds, post breeding groups, using the set asides and the margins, feeding on the abundance of insects on a warm, muggy, rain threatening morning. Hirundines were in evidence with a minimum of 70 Swallows and 20 House Martins, and unusually so far away from known colonies, about 20 Sand Martins. At times, as they do at this time of year, in between hawking insects over the crop fields, the flock gathered to rest on fences with a distant Bowland backdrop. I tried to get closer to the birds on the wire but a deep almost overgrown ditch, a trap for the unwary, blocked my progress. Alongside the ditch I found three pairs of Whitethroat “tacking” away, plus 2 Corn Buntings, one in song the other collecting large beakfuls of food and flying away from me over the impassable ditch.

Swallows and Bowland
Whitethroat
Corn Bunting

On some weedy margins I found a flock of 60 Goldfinches, with over 20 Linnets, and on a bare field being prepared for late sowing, 6 Skylarks, 5 Pied Wagtails, 5 Mistle Thrush, 3 Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 7 Stock Dove and 8 Wood Pigeon. A Kestrel patrolled over the fields, flushing the finches into the air and attracting the attention of the martins and Swallows that chased after it until the Kestrel made off. I get the feeling that this autumn we will see some huge flocks of Goldfinch, they are now such a successful species in both town and country.

Stock Dove
Goldfinch

I called in at Hambleton to check out my Swallow population with another single nest to ring, these four with flight feathers very short and recently emerged from sheaths, code “FS” for nest recording purposes. There’s another pair with tiny young that require a visit for ringing in a further week, with two nests containing very large young ringed a week ago, and one pair on eggs. But all in all despite the good weather it seems a below average year for my Swallows. I do wonder what effect the loss of two early nests to predators had on the colony, as the Larsen crow trap remains set but the Jackdaws and Magpies continue to search around for food.

Swallow
Swallow
Magpie

Oh, “The Tandoori”?, you ask of last night. The guy that owns the restaurant was previously the chef at Fayez Tandoori for 17 years so he should know how to make a curry. There was a rather long and daunting menu but once we sussed it out no problem. We enjoyed a really nice meal at a reasonable price. We both tried the chicken with lamb with Maya Rice which with a light touch of lemon and coriander was absolutely superb. The naan bread was so fluffy and lightweight it reminded me of the finger scalding bread straight from the tandoor in the beach shacks of Goa. The takeaway menu is here but I think there may charge be an extra delivery charge for some readers of this blog who live a few miles away.

http://www.eatitnow.co.uk/order/takeaway/poulton-le-fylde/themayatandooribaltihouse-fy67bx/menu

Fast And Furious

It’s a fast and short post today because it’s Sue’s birthday on Saturday and tonight we are off to The Maya Tandoori and Balti House that comes highly recommended. Watch this space for the result.

It was Conder Green this morning where I was a bit late and annoyingly as usual a white van man, radio blaring, was parked in the lay-by that overlooks the pool, and for good measure, he sported a yellow jacket, conspicuously cleaning his van windows in full view of any birds out on the pool. No chance of close photos there then.

Not to worry, there’s always stuff to watch at good old CG. Like our old friend the Spotted Redshank, gradually turning from that majestic black colouration to the more familiar grey that does indeed end up with it looking like a Redshank with spots. Real autumn migrants like Common Sandpiper numbered at least 10 without me venturing around to the area of the bridge. Two Dunlin fed in the base of the channel. The other wader that arrives in July is Greenshank, and today two roosted with 8 common Redshanks on the main pool. Also on the pool, or rather the islands, were 2 Little Egret, 42 Lapwings, 14 Oystercatchers and a Little Ringed Plover. Ducks today were 3 Tufted Duck and 2 Wigeon but no Teal as yet.

Greenshank
Little Egret

A female Kestrel flew around the pool and over the creek pursued by 2 calling not yet independent juveniles. So I saw a good selection without finding the “biggy” that CG will inevitably throw up again, perhaps soon if PW keeps looking as much as I do. Sorry PW, I caught a glimpse of you in your new motor, but at the junction I had already committed to turn right.

What is a morning without a Pilling walk along the sea wall that blows away the cobwebs? It was a rerun of the day before but with Common Sandpipers now morphed into 4, Pied Wagtails into 10 but the same Skylarks and single Meadow Pipit in song. A dashing Sparrowhawk flew through a gap in the trees of the wildfowler’s pools then almost immediately I could hear that the Blackbirds at least spotted it. And as Blue Peter might say “Here’s one we caught earlier”.

Sparrowhawk

Out on the marsh a Grey Heron sat waiting for goodness knows what and a Kestrel flew low across the grass perhaps hoping again for an unwary wader chick.

Grey Heron
Kestrel

At the car park a Reed Warbler croaked away loudly with a tit flock moving through the thick tree cover. I didn’t have time.

Trying

I finally got to grips with the shy Great-spotted Woodpecker that visits the garden when it thinks I'm not looking, but I couldn’t get a full pose away from the peanuts. I will just have to try again.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
As it rained this morning I spent a while reinstalling a slide show for the RH column of the blog after the previous one broke for no apparent reason. I hope readers new and old like the new version; all the pictures at higher resolution can be found somewhere on previous posts.

The rain fell most of the morning and then kept showering as I ate a sandwich while looking hopefully west through the conservatory windows for a hint of brighter stuff. Then after lunch I risked the continuing showers for a walk along Pilling shore where I received a little soaking but at least I got out for a while, but with not much to report I’m afraid.

At Lane Ends the Tufted Duck recently bred successfully and today the female looked after three young while the young Greylags are now as big as their parents.

Greylag
Tufted Duck
I heard the Blackcap singing again plus two Reed Warblers today, one alongside the road and the other below the car park, and whilst Reed Warblers are able to breed in just small patches of phragmites reed, I’m afraid the unmanaged woodland is about to engulf the few patches of reed left. Little Grebes were around because I heard their trill but there are so many hiding places I rarely see them.

I walked towards Fluke hall to the sound of two singing Skylarks and the displaying, singing Meadow Pit I saw a few days ago, the one that carries a BTO ring.

Skylark
I sat on the wet stile at Pilling Water and surveyed the shore and inland towards Pilling village. Three Common Sandpipers hugged the outlet ditch together with a couple of Redshank, a still brightly coloured single Black-tailed Godwit and a couple of Oystercatchers. There are still a number of Pied Wagtails on the marsh, today I counted just six, plus the comings and goings of several Linnet, and just below me two Greenfinch.

Linnet
I watched as an overflying micro light put to flight the waders further out on the marsh, 130 Curlew and 60 Lapwings. As this happened I think an opportunistic Kestrel took advantage of the disturbance and confusion to snatch a small Redshank chick from underneath the noses of the parents, and the falcon flew past me and over the wildfowler’s pools out of sight with its dangling prey. Hirundines and Swift numbers were more normal today with about 60 Swallows, 20+ House Martins and 25 Swift feeding over the marsh, sea wall, and about Pilling Water itself.

Kestrel
My mammal highlight today was a brief sighting of a Stoat closely pursued by a youngster, a “kit”. My views were very brief as the animal stood up momentarily to look at me then ran off, still followed by the youngster and I had no chance of a picture. Trying to watch wildlife can be very frustrating sometimes, trying to photograph it even more so.

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Quality Street

That’s what Will and I called one of our net rides at Rawcliffe this morning when two 60ft nets especially kept catching warblers and finches. In fact it was a very successful morning’s ringing after a slow start at dawn but better once the early morning dampness cleared and the temperature rose.

We caught 49 birds, 35 new and 14 recaptures of 8 species. New birds were:
Willow Warbler 10
Sedge Warbler 3
Whitethroat 10
Goldfinch 8
Blackbird 1
Treecreeper 1
Dunnock 1
Great Tit 1

Recaptures came as:
Willow Warbler 4
Whitethroat 4
Sedge Warbler 6

We caught our first juvenile Sedge Warblers of the year, fresh and yellowish, looking so different from the whitened adults with plumage now worn by their travels in the early year and the demands of a breeding season.

Sedge Warbler-juvenile
Sedge Warbler-juvenile
”Quality Street”
We also caught a few Goldfinch which appeared barely out of the nest, short winged, short tailed youngsters but obviously independent enough as they flew off strongly in small parties of adults and juveniles. Whilst this went on around us we found Goldfinches at a different stage with a nest containing five eggs.

Goldfinch-juvenile
Goldfinch
Goldfinch nest
Treecreeper
Two juvenile Whitethroats with consecutive ring numbers we recaptured this morning had actually been originally ringed in a nest in the plantation on 9th June.

Whitethroat-juvenile
The actual birding as distinct from the ringing was very quiet this morning with no visible migration and the new birds caught today can be ascribed to post breeding dispersal of juvenile birds and moult dispersal of adult birds.

On the lepidoptera side of things we did find a cache of eggs on nettles this morning. A quick trawl of the Internet identified these as Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae I think.

Small Tortoiseshell?
Another Dawn-Out Rawcliffe

Saturday, Saturday

The forecast is bad for tomorrow but if the BBC are true to form it won’t be nearly as bad as they suggest, my cue for setting the alarm.

After a 10 day interlude I needed to check my Swallow site out today: Maybe that is not as random as it suggests as I knew there would almost certainly be young Swallows ready for a ring. In fact after losing two broods to unknown but suspected predators, two other broods were of the right size for a ring today with primary feathers “IP” – just in pin, but emerging. So I ringed 3 in one nest where Molly the Border Collie kept intruders out and five in a nest in the black shed with the tiny, unobvious but secure entrance hole as around me adults and birds of the year tried to join in with bouts of feeding hungry young.

Swallow
Swallow

In the nest that fledged only 14 days ago, in fact the most secure and favoured nest site, an adult sat on 4 new eggs, these Swallows certainly don’t waste any time. In other nests I counted 14 eggs, some quite soft and ready for hatching, then in another nest, chicks too young to ring now but ready in four or five days.

Swallow

Back at home with the lure of peanuts I tried to interest the Great–spotted Woodpecker into spending time in the apple tree, but even as a youngster it is so wild and wary that it is a difficult task. Momentarily I got the bird to pose half way around the tree, not ideal but in the evening light it made for a pleasing picture, as did the Chaffinch and Collared Dove.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
Chaffinch
Collared Dove
I looked at http://www.xcweather.co.uk/ which suggests that Tuesday may be better for a ringing expedition. Here’s hoping.

It's Just A Hobby

I did a few jobs yesterday and combined it with the babysitting, so after the warm southerlies of the last few days and the arrival of July this morning I treated myself to a little birding. It started as an ordinary morning walk without too many expectations, then as often happens, the unexpected materialises, my familiar walk got more and more interesting until it finished with a special bird.

As I arrived at Lane Ends about 80 Curlew came off the inland fields, flew over the plantation and landed out on the marsh where they joined the autumn gang of 120 or so Lapwings. The walk up to Pilling Water proved uneventful with just the usual Skylarks for company as I cursed the early morning brightly clothed walkers for beating me to the pool again, but it was 9am I suppose.

Sat on the stile I noticed a scruffy looking Barn Owl hunting the fields and ditches alongside Fluke Hall Lane and the margins of Pilling Water. At that hour on a bright sunny it could only be hunting for food for youngsters, and I watched it for about 15 minutes alternately quartering the ground or sitting on the lookout fence posts. It was very scruffy, but I suppose I might be if I had been sat on eggs in the confines of a dark smelly box for some weeks. In actual fact there is nothing quite like the smell of an end of season owl box full of growing young with their left overs of discarded and rotting food items and sometimes the left overs of the smallest owl eaten a week or two before by its larger siblings.

Barn Owl
Barn Owl

That brightened my first hour or so before the owl flew off towards Fluke Hall, but it was so quiet I could hear a Whitethroat singing from the distant sewage works at Damside. Back at the sea wall end I noted 2 Common Sandpipers along the outfall and a lone Golden Plover, with 9 Pied Wagtails scattered across the marsh with small groups of Linnets that totalled up to a miserly 14 birds. A Meadow Pipit has started singing again at the junction of the sea wall there, and I am sure there is a nest close by as it let me approach it fairly close while calling to its mate. I noticed it had a ring on the right leg but it is more than a few years since I ringed any “mipits” just there, so I need either to carry a scope or catch the bird with meal worms to find out its place of ringing.

Meadow Pipit

A Grey Heron sat along the inland dyke where Swallows and House Martins fed. From the stile I was fairly certain that besides the local hirundines, other Swallows and House Martins were on the move south, with a single Sand Martin joining in the feeding out over the marsh, with Swifts noted here as going west and numbering 40, Swallows 70 and House Martins 30. The resident breeding Redshanks and Lapwings still protested at my presence even though they had obviously moved their young further out on the marsh, so I tried my hand at Redshanks photos again, but the results weren’t as good as a few days ago.

Redshank

At Lane Ends car park I dumped my heavy camera bag in the car to watch the seeming inactivity out on the marsh. As Lapwings and Starlings mixed in the summery length grass I waited to count them, concentrating instead on the numbers of Swifts flying at all heights but mainly heading west with more Swallows and extra House Martins. Something spooked the Lapwings and Starlings into the air “en masse”, the regular autumn/winter Merlin or Peregrine, but early I supposed. Then an adult Hobby came fairly slowly from the right along the sea wall in front of the mound, pursued and almost surrounded by complaining Swifts and Swallows, then disappeared behind the plantation with an entourage of twittering birds. By now I revised my morning count of Swift to 90, Swallow to 80 and House Martin to 45. My Starling count was 240, Lapwing 170. Hobby isn’t a major rarity here, in fact they do breed in Lancashire but it’s always a special day when one surprises you unexpectedly.

Hobby

Although everything went quiet I waited for a while to see if the Hobby might reappear. After about twenty minutes the Lapwings, Starlings and hirundines spooked again as the Hobby came in from the direction of Fluke Hall at a much faster pace, did a Swift impression, then continued off towards Cockerham where I lost it in the sky.

That’s a good morning’s birding, and it was 1130 already. How time flies when we’re having fun.