Plan C

Plan A didn’t work, it was too windy for ringing with more showers on the cards. Plan B didn’t work either; go to a Barn Owl box near Garstang and check out what breeding activity there might be after recently finding a pile of fresh pellets. The box was erected many years ago by an enthusiast who has since died, so it was the first time we had elected to go there.

Barn Owls

The problem was like Dad’s Army the ladder wasn’t long enough so we postponed Plan B also, Will dashed off to work and I went to Myerscough Quarry for some birding, a place that until a few years ago held a lovely workable Sand Martin colony.

The pools are the obvious draw there now, especially since our dry spring allowed water levels to drop and expose many muddy margins for wading birds; I counted 4 Grey Heron, 2 Little Egret, 15 Oystercatcher, 80 Lapwing, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Redshank, 1 Snipe and 6 Little Ringed Plover. There was constant calling from the LRPs, adults calling the young, but also males still displaying, trying to interest the females into another brood I guess.

The next most obvious thing to count must be the wildfowl, and here I logged 2 Pochard, 12 Tufted Duck, 71 Coot, 1 Great-crested Grebe, 8 Little Grebe and 3 Goosander.

Tufted Duck
Great-crested Grebe
Coot
Goosander
Little Ringed Plover

There was hirundine and swift activity, more obvious when a Kestrel appeared once or twice. And for the sake of the year listers who have yet to see, I don’t like to dwell on Hobbies, but if ever a place looked suitable for a marauding Hobby, it is here. I made do with the Kestrel and a Buzzard that spooked all the bigger waders into a brief flurry of activity. In the event I logged 20 House Martin, 3 Sand Martin, 20 Swallow and 7 Swift, numbers of the latter are falling everywhere now.

When I last visited here some of the smaller pools were suitable for catching Snipe, one of those jobs we tend to put off. Now those smaller pools hold good little reed beds where I counted 6 Reed Warbler, 5 Sedge Warbler and 11 Reed Buntings, no doubt an underestimate for the first two skulkers at least.

Reed Bunting
Buzzard

I saw small parties of both Linnet and Goldfinch dotted around, entering them down as 15 and 20 respectively.

A very enjoyable couple of hours at a place I would visit more often if I lived near Preston.

Balancing Act

Well as my old friend and hero Victor Meldrew might say, “I don’t believe it!”. People in the south of England swelter and turn a healthy shade of orange while us worthy folk in the North West get three solid days of rain on Sunday, Monday and now Tuesday, whereby my brown colour is more akin to the onset of rust, the car lies idle in the drive and my binoculars and camera fret away, neglected in their cases. It’s just not fair, we get months of nice weather and now we have to pay the price and withstand an equal amount of crappy weather fit for ducks only.

Meanwhile Mr Google may discontinue the blog on the grounds of inactivity if I don’t show willing and find something, anything, to write. “If in doubt look through the archives” as the BBC might say, and show some of the oldies, some repeats and hope that the viewers don’t notice the “R” in the programme schedule. The advantage of a blog is of course that it is totally free to view and to compose, apart from these stressful non-birding times which take their toll of the old grey matter. But to compensate me for this I am considering making an online charge of £1 as does News International now with the “Times”, but not I think with the “Sun”. I wonder why? And by the way, the “Sun” apparently sells 3 million copies a day - amazing.

So here are a few pictures of birds sitting or balancing on the top of plants, walls, wires, man-made objects or simply balancing in the air, all the things they do so effortlessly and which we marvel at.

Oh, they are not all repeats, maybe similar but certainly “Another Chance To See”.

Stonechat
Spotted Flycatcher
Kestrel
Woodpigeon
Booted Eagle
Spotted Flycatcher
Woodchat Shrike
Tawny Pipit
Redshank

And if all things are equal surely we will get dry weather tomorrow?

Green, Black, Red and Yellow

Maybe I should have stayed in bed this morning rather than driving up to Conder Green. It wasn’t raining when I set off but I was barely through Cockerham when the rain started.

As I drove through Pilling village I bore down upon what from a distance away I took to be a corvid in the middle of the road. Only too late as I got up to the bird did I realise it was a Sparrowhawk with prey, and as I slammed on the anchors and reached for my camera on the passenger seat, the bird flew off carrying what was left of a small passerine. I really need a couple of pictures of a Sparrowhawk not in the hand, but they are not easy to get. One shot through the garden last night and hid in a neighbour's sycamore. Then later in the day I disturbed another when I went to ring some Swallows but it shot out of sight very quickly. Boy those Sparrowhawks don’t sit about in the open much.

Sparrowhawk
Sparrowhawk

It rained and gusted all the time I was at Conder Green and limited my brief birding. I got a good count of Common Sandpiper, with a minimum of 18 birds but took a shot of one I noticed with two colour rings, yellow and red, and a standard BTO metal ring on the other leg. Later I reported it online through “Euring”. But I don’t think I will win any prizes with the photograph taken in a downpour.

Common Sandpiper
Other waders in the creek comprised a Little Egret and one each of Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, with 130 Redshank, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 1 Black-tailed Godwit and 7 Dunlin, with red and black being the dominant colours of these almost full adult plumage birds.

Bar-tailed Godwit
The sleek, black Oystercatchers with their thick carrot bills went through again with their noisy, elaborate, displays and territorial disputes around the pool, so I snatched a few pictures before the rains came again and I headed home.

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
Later I checked out a Swallow nest and ringed 5 young but all in all my Swallows aren’t having a good year, and whilst a brood of five I ringed about 10 days ago are ready to fly, they are minus one that fell victim to the Border Terriers in the dog pen below the nest.

Swallows

What's Next

There wasn’t a lot of point birding this morning with rain lashing down and a 30mph westerly so I did some IPMR work and saved the birding until lunch time when the at least the rain stopped, even though it remained windy. There was a likely looking tide due at about 3.15pm so I went to check it out at Pilling.

After an interval of a couple of months Little Egrets put in an appearance with 2 autumn birds out on the marsh so it will be interesting to see how their numbers build up here. In recent years the autumn Little Egrets outnumber the Grey Herons, as they did today with only one of the grey variety counted. The waders came in with the tide as they always do, but now as July moves on a bit more variety ensues. The Common Sandpipers have been back since 27th June but in small numbers, 6 today. Along the outflow I spotted a bird in unfamiliar summer plumage, a Turnstone, a bird we are more accustomed to seeing in winter plumage. Unfortunately I can’t claim to have taken the picture on the Arctic tundra where they breed but from where some leave about now. There were a number of Dunlin again today and I estimated 90 birds, with a single Golden Plover and coming in from across the north of the bay, 4 Grey Plover. Curlew numbers continue rising with 600 today plus 40 Redshanks and a single Greenshank.

Turnstone
Turnstone
Common Sandpiper
Dunlin
Grey Plover
Little Egret
On the incoming tide I counted 6 Great-crested Grebe, 3 Red-breasted Merganser, 4 Mallard and 9 Eider, all brown females or juveniles. Eiders are much more common here than formerly so I guess the Walney colony has finally expanded to take in south Morecambe Bay.

Eider
Three very vocal Kestrels patrolled the sea wall and the marsh today; it was probably the two juveniles making all the noise as they looked to have very fresh plumage.

Wind-blown or sheltering passerines were hard to find but 4 very green Greenfinch, several Linnets and the still displaying Meadow Pipit were duly noted.

Of course if we get even more rain, the tide comes in too far or the birding gets a bit quiet there’s always the option of trying some extreme motoring in my Suzuki.

It's That Hobby Again

It was another snatched hour or two when in between rain showers I ventured down to the local patch Pilling shore. I wanted to take a look on this the highest tide for a week or two, where I hoped for a few early autumn waders or whatever else might come along.

First off were the Lane Ends Reed Warblers, two of them singing below the car park, but not much else apart from the building numbers of Greylag on the pool and the shore, 31 of them today. The walk to Pilling water yielded the usual Kestrel, a singing Meadow Pipit and couple of Skylarks. The Kestrel sat about near the pool, and so did I, but on the stile as the grass was soaked from a previous shower. I found the four Common Sandpipers along the outflow, unwilling as ever to come close so I settled down and counted the 550 Curlew and 110 Lapwings, the most numerous and obvious birds until the tide runs in a little more.

Kestrel
Curlew

I really couldn’t believe it, but it happened again, the same Hobby from 12 days ago or a new Hobby, cruising over the incoming tide as it scattered the birds below on the marsh. I made the elementary mistake of taking my eye off the bird as I fiddled with the camera in the belief I could lock onto the Hobby again, but I couldn’t and it disappeared.

Hobby

The Hobby is real mystery bird up here, a will-o’-the-wisp thing, here one minute gone the next. I was left wondering about the influx to the UK in early July, the one I saw on July 2nd and the one or two extra ones that suddenly appeared in Lancashire without any obvious reason or explanation.

I settled down again maybe knowing that if the Hobby came back the birds on the shore would know before me and alert me accordingly. I counted the Black-headed Gulls coming and going from the sub-roost and spotted an adult Mediterranean Gull heading off towards Lane Ends and eventually probably Bank End where the gulls settle on the higher tides. There were groups of Dunlin going to and fro, circling and calling, settling occasionally on the margins of the marsh which allowed me a count of 80, but apart from 20 or so Redshank, I didn’t see much wader variety.

Dunlin
Dunlin

Terns sometimes appear at the Pilling Water roost, usually at or just after high tide when they follow the tide into the bay from Knott End way. That's how it was today when 2 Common Tern flew in to settle down on the outer marsh until the tide dropped.

Common Tern

I had watched the dark grey clouds head in from the south, and jacketless as the rain thundered down I put a roof over my head in the birder’s shelter for a while. It was temporary only as the rain continued and I headed back to the car, wet but happy that my hobby is so rewarding.

Birder’s Shelter

Through The Little Window

It seems that up here in the North West we experienced the driest spring for 80 years, but now we have to pay for it with not only a hose pipe ban, but Atlantic depressions queuing up in the Irish Sea to beat us into submission before putting paid to any autumn ringing plans. So at the moment it’s a case of scrutinise the weather, hope for a little window of calm, ringer friendly weather then head for Rawcliffe Moss as Will and I did this morning for the promised 2mph start but a further assurance of 15mph gusts pretty soon after.

On my way to the ringing area at 0430 I paused at the open fronted barn to watch the Barn Owl disappear out of the equally open back door, but it doesn’t nest here, just roosts on the beam occasionally.

Barn Owl

Soon we caught 33 birds, 24 new and 9 recaptures before we packed up at 0915 when the south-easterly wind began to blow the nets too much. Our catch comprised the usual suspects today, finches and warblers mainly with a single Robin that broke the monotony of Goldfinches and Whitethroats.

New birds - 8 Whitethroats all juveniles as we would expect, 3 juvenile Sedge Warblers, 1 adult Willow Warbler, 11 Goldfinch and 1 Robin. The Goldfinches split six adults and five 3Js.

Recaptures were 1 Sedge Warbler and 2 Willow Warbler with 6 Whitethroats, 5 of which were males.

Robin
Sedge Warbler
Goldfinch
Goldfinch - “3J”
Birding was quiet again today with the exception of Goldfinches everywhere, some of which found the nets but many that didn’t. Linnets remained scarce on this patch of farmland, and we counted about a dozen only with an unexpected single overflying Lesser Redpoll and several Chaffinch.

There was a noticeable movement of Sand Martins once again with at least 14 flying purposefully south about 0830 but the Swallows and House Martins we saw could simply be local ones. This morning’s raptors comprised 2 Kestrel and 2 Buzzards.

Chaffinch
We left Philip the farmer busy spraying the potato crop but wondered how we might modify his machine to catch a field full of autumn and winter finches or Skylarks?

Ringing Equipment?

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.