Wild At Heart

Another cloudy, windy, showery, north-westerly morning with no chance of a ringing session led me to Conder Green where there is always a good selection of birds with not too many Sunday Morning grockles for the first hour or two. The alternative was a bout of bush bashing in search of little brown or green jobs, if I could find a sheltered warm spot on our eternally windy coast. I suppose that is the only downside of living so close to the sea, the isobars not only pack a bit closer, they often pack a punch on even the most innocuous looking morning.

It was the normal situation at CG, it seemed quiet with not a lot of birds immediately apparent, but I gave it time for the birds to show and a while for me to find them. The 7 Little Grebes were a bit more obliging this morning near the closest island with no need for me to go to the far end of the pool where they usually hang out, disinclined to venture very far. The 3 Wigeon were also reasonably close initially, but drifted off once they realised cameras and ‘scopes were about again; half a dozen Teal in the shallows also sloped off to a safer distance, but I had my doubts about how wild were the 4 Mallards.

Mallard
Little Grebe
Teal

I made the observation once before, but maybe it’s worth repeating. To wildfowl, and probably to waders with whom they frequently mix, a human pointing a telescope must look remarkably like one wielding a shotgun, a scenario which they remember and to which their instincts are attuned for an immediate response. Therefore we shouldn’t be surprised when at the first sight of the human form or noises associated with us, such birds flee from our presence. All the more reason then if we wish to observe and photograph birds is for us to learn and adopt fieldcraft, something so obviously lacking in many of the newer untutored birders who arrive hot foot from pager messages with expensive top of the range equipment but without an apprenticeship or the essential skills to acquire the best from their recent purchases.

Also on the pool, 1 Little Egret, 15 Lapwing, a Grey Heron and the Kingfisher doing a circuit of the pool before it disappeared to the furthest bank and out of sight. From the platform I watched a Wheatear that took a liking to the posts that mark the road during high tides, as it perched up on several of them in turn as passing cars made it favour one after the other. It’s not a bird I’ve ever seen much of just here, and they are much more likely to appear just up the road at Glasson.

In the creeks I counted 4 Greenshank, 3 Spotted Redshank, 6 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 7 Curlew, 18 Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper, another Little Egret, 26 Teal and unusually, a Ringed Plover. I took some distance shots at ISO 800 in the poor light, but what a fine selection of waders all at close quarters and I asked myself why would anyone go elsewhere to see such birds?

Ruff and Spotted Redshank
Common Sandpiper

From the roadside I could see lots of Goldfinch in the hawthorns near the bridge so I drove round and checked them out. There was actually a flock of 120 birds flying between the marsh and the hedgerows near the viaduct, spooked a couple of times that I could see, by on the second occasion an overflying Sparrowhawk that obviously took a close interest in such a plentiful, easily caught supply of food.

I drove up to John’s set aside for a check on the finches using the plot. If it wasn’t so close to the road and passing traffic I am sure the numbers would increase from the 40 Greenfinch, 8 Chaffinch and 4 Linnet I saw today, but for now I am hoping there is a bit of a settled spell that builds up the flock followed by a windless, mist net suitable day.

Goldfinch
Chaffinch

To Blog Or Not To Blog?

That was the question when I got back home after a couple of overcast, grey, showery, windswept hours at Pilling Water at lunchtime with a pretty full set of notes but a blank card in my camera and not much time on my hands.

There’s been big tides this week but I’ve been busy elsewhere so didn’t even get to Lane Ends and take advantage of the tides to get in a spot of wader watching. Not that the waders here are particularly watchable at close quarters, it’s just the spectacle of thousands of waders and wildfowl that is compelling, not to mention the almost guaranteed raptors. When tides are high they also run in very fast, as today. So speedy does the water advance and birds fly in all directions that a thorough count of all species becomes a two or three person job with counters assigned to particular species or groups of birds. If that sounds like an excuse I guess it’s an explanation that I know my count was not comprehensive but a snapshot of what was about with approximates of birds.

Wildfowl numbers are building quickly with my first token 28 Wigeon of the autumn out on the tide, vastly outnumbered by enormous numbers of Teal, upwards of 750. There were more Pintail today with c80 birds, and just fantastic to see them back in numbers as they fly across the marsh their elongated, elegant shape and silvery sheen so easy to pick out. Shelduck numbers have increased now with at least 230 birds on the roosts of the marsh or the ebbing tide. 3 Eider and 5 Great-crested Grebe made up the numbers of the wildfowl, but I didn’t count the Mallard.

Pintail
Shelduck
Wigeon

The easy waders counted were the oddities, conspicuous by their calls, 3 Greenshank, 4 Snipe, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and a single Spotted Redshank that called very loudly as it flew past and on towards Lane Ends. Plovers came in at 22 Grey Plover, 35 Golden Plover, 180 Lapwing and 40 Ringed Plover. There were large numbers of Oystercatcher pushed off lower roosts with many headed towards Cockerham where they roosted on the sea wall with yet others flying beyond the wall to the immediate fields. I reckoned at least 2500 birds today. My approximate counts of Redshank, Dunlin and Knot were 40, 60 and 30 respectively but tremendous numbers of Curlew at c700.

Redshank
Curlew
Dunlin

It wasn’t surprising in the windy and rainy conditions that I could find only small numbers of passerines with 1 Wheatear, 10 Goldfinch, 2 Skylark, 1 Meadow Pipit and 5 Linnet. Little Egrets today numbered 13.

Wheatear

The forecast for tomorrow gives only marginal conditions for a ringing session but fingers are crossed that the wind subsides.

Sanity Prevails

After my inglorious trip to Fleetwood yesterday I regained my sanity this morning after an uneventful but peaceful ringing session on the moss whereby the only person Will and I met during the couple of hours was George the gamekeeper. We all had a laugh together about a local chap who got married and changed his name to that of his new bride who just happens to come from a wealthy family. We all agreed that the chance would be a fine thing but that we’d rather be poor and happy, as George drove off in his ancient, creaking Daihatsu and Will and I settled down on our plastic chairs then tucked into our breakfast of lukewarm Thermos coffee with cheese & tomato and peanut butter sarnies respectively.

We took a chance on last night’s weather forecast that suggested marginal ringing speeds of 10mph and met at 6am to a clear, breathless morning. Once again visible migration was quiet with birds high overhead. Moving wagtails numbered one or two albas and 3 Grey Wagtails, with a noticeable but meagre movement of about 35 Meadow Pipits heading south. Tree Pipits featured again with at least 5 overflying birds, one or two dropping in to the netting area but today we failed to catch any.

Once again Chaffinches proved the most numerous but somewhat inconspicuous migrant as reflected in our catch. We think that many drop into the north end of the plantation before working their way through to our nets, and whilst their origins are something of a mystery at the moment, they appear to be birds of the British race with a preponderance of females. We have now caught 70 Chaffinches here in the last 30 days, a movement of Chaffinches a little earlier and stronger than expected. Here’s a picture of a Chaffinch that didn’t want to leave us.

Chaffinch

We caught 39 birds today, 35 new of 25 Chaffinch, 2 Wren, 2 Willow Warblers, 2 male Blackcaps, 1 Dunnock, 1 Blue Tit, 1 Whitethroat and 1 Garden Warbler. We had 4 recaptures with 1 Dunnock, 2 Whitethroat both adult males with completed moult and a female Blackcap that was first captured on 22 August.

Willow Warbler
Blackcap
Garden Warbler

Other birds seen this morning: at least 4 Grey Partridge, 1 Kestrel, 10 Linnet, 18 Goldfinch, 5 Reed Bunting, 6 Tree Sparrow and 3 Skylark, the first for some weeks and maybe the beginning of the true autumn birds.

Tree Sparrow
Skylark
Here's a good quote for all ringers and patch workers: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results - Albert Einstein.

Angry

I spent a very frustrating couple of hours this morning at Rossall Point, Fleetwood. The idea of photographing autumn waders on the beach on a fine sunny morning seemed a good one at the time; the morning started out ok but it went downhill rapidly.

As I jumped out of the car I saw Swallows moving east into the wind, not just one or two, but dozens, then almost immediately 2 Swifts came low off the sea and also headed south east. Alongside the golf course I counted about 25 Meadow Pipits, not on the move but off passage feeding between the golf course fence and the rough grass of the fairway. Also along here I counted 4 Wheatears and logged the constant stream of Swallows west to east and the mouth of the Wyre, eventually more than 250, with at one point a Sparrowhawk for company.

Sparrowhawk
Wheatear
With a couple hours to high tide I turned my attention to the beach, and looked for a likely spot where I could merge behind one of the wooden groynes and as the tide rose, let the waders come to me.

The numbers built up as mainly 250 Ringed Plover, 400 Dunlin, 100 Sanderling and 10 or 12 Turnstones formed an ever bigger gang of hopefuls looking to rest at high tide. No chance. I am afraid that the good folk of Fleetwood seem to have absolutely nil respect for the wildlife that is on their doorstep, as one after another a procession of beachcombers, dog walkers and cyclists pushed the birds off their chosen resting places not once or twice, but dozens of times. Every time I settled down with the camera behind a groyne another grockle would appear behind me or off the top of the beach and send the poor birds off yet again.

The birds flew off over the incoming tide time after time and returned to a fresh spot only to find themselves moved off by in turn, a clown waving a bright yellow jacket, a plonker with a carrier bag trudging up and down then back along the beach, a gormless couple best described as “divis”, or a series of walkers throwing objects towards the tideline for their precious pooches, one of which was called “Sweetheart”. For f#*k’s sake woman, it’s a dog, a pet that’s all. Let’s face it; the problem is dog owners not the dogs themselves.

Maybe we will all be pleased to hear that Wyre Borough Council are to spend EU taxpayer’s money (that’s mine and yours) on a grandiose scheme for a café and information centre at the old Coastguard station here at Rossall Point. So that’s another waste of our money, more empire building, more overpaid, useless, fat arses failing to walk the talk. Because while the council like to present themselves as environmental heroes they do nothing to protect the birds here from constant harassment and some of their employees appear to have no real interest in wildlife, even less knowledge of it and apparently no desire to learn. The Rossall problem has been going on for as long as I can remember, with countless Ringed Plover nests lost over the years, but is now far worse bar the miracle of one successful pair this year. Surely the council could do something tangible and positive and put the horse before the cart by firstly spending our money on zoning and signing the beach, with clearly marked no go areas, and then use their army of overpaid litter picker/rangers to educate and inform people on the spot, but also to enforce currently ignored bye-laws, before they embark on a White Elephant that no one wants or needs?

I did get a few pictures but I am far from happy with them as everyone may have gathered. But are these birds worth protecting for the sake of upsetting a few doggie lovers and having some WBC employees do real work?

Ringed Plover
Dunlin
Turnstone
Sanderling

I think I might go to one of my more regular patches tomorrow.

Another Circus

It was too windy for ringing therefore I did the early run to Conder Green this morning where as is often the case from the screen, the pool looked devoid of birds but down in the creek everything seemed infinitely more promising. With CG it’s worth drilling down, looking hard and listening carefully to find the nuggets.

I hadn’t stood more than a few minutes looking through the waders in the bottom of the nearest creek when I just knew a raptor was near. Some birds froze, several called, others moved fractionally up the creek and a few more flew off quickly, but even the Mute Swans sensed something amiss and moved onto the higher bits of marsh. The birds had seen or sensed the Marsh Harrier a good 15 seconds before me as it came from the north and the Lune, over the viaduct but high then over the pool and the canal, sailing all the time south towards Lower Thurnham as quickly and serenely as it appeared. The harrier didn’t have the same effect as a Peregrine or a Merlin, a mass panic, more of a “watch out lads and lasses”, and I wonder sometimes if birds use different messages for the several types of bird of prey or if in fact they sensed the harrier wasn’t in true hunting mode but just drifting harmlessly south? In any case it was the most evident and certainly the largest vis migger this morning and whilst seeing this migration I also wonder just how many harriers are involved in Fylde Circus aeruginosus sightings this autumn, but I've definitely seen my share of them.

I went back to my search and noted 3 Spotted Redshank, 6 Greenshank, 2 Ruff, 11 Snipe, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 22 Teal, 15 Redshank, 1 Curlew Sandpiper and 1 Kingfisher in the creek. The pool was indeed quiet except for 8 Little Grebe and the 3 Wigeon again, with 15 Goldfinch and 8 Linnet about the thistles and hawthorn. I struggled for pictures this morning but as well as yet another distant shot of a receding Marsh Harrier I did an equally long shot of a Ruff, that most elegant of waders.

Ruff
Marsh Harrier
Snipe

I journeyed on to Cockersands to check out the finch flock and gauge the ideal wind direction for mist netting the field of set-aside, and took the opportunity for a count: 80 Linnet, 30 Greenfinch, 15 Chaffinch, 25 Goldfinch and a Whitethroat. It was a different total from a couple of days ago but the birds had just been spooked by a Kestrel, plus I know the flock size and composition will vary from day to day. Wind forecast for the week ahead – strong. Typical.

Kestrel

I looked at my watch and decided there was time for Lane Ends and Pilling Water/Fluke Hall. Between the car park and Fluke my count of Little Egrets came to 13, not unlucky for the egrets by any stretch of the imagination as they consolidate into their self-found niche. The wildfowler’s pools held about 400 Teal today, plus 2 Greenshank and the now ever present Green Sandpiper, while the Kingfisher beat me to it again as it shot off the parapet, around the marsh and into the pools. Two Kingfishers in a morning, that’s nice!

I’d noticed all morning that most of last week’s hirundines cleared out, and here where I see lots of Swallows and last week several hundred, today they were less than a dozen. It was similar with Meadow Pipits and wagtails, as I saw less than 10 pipits and zero wagtails today. The finch groups hadn’t changed much but remained separate here, with a flock of 35 Linnet then a further party of 20 Goldfinch. I thought the two Wheatears I saw were the same birds that have been around for a few days now, visiting a series of favoured spots, doing the same old things, just like me really. I finished on a high at the car park as I listened to the trilling Little Grebes with an ear open for a calling “phyllosc” or similar, when on top of a willow a Spotted Flycatcher sallied up and out then back again. I watched it for a while but my time was up.

Spotted Flycatcher
Meadow Pipit

Short Saturday

I woke at 3am due again to Ringer’s Sleep Syndrome, the unconscious fear of missing or being late for a ringing session that causes a person to wake long before the alarm clock but unable to go back to sleep. So not long after I got up, made a cup of tea then blogged yesterday’s late news before I headed off to meet Will at Rawcliffe Moss again for a 6am start.

Although the wind blew at less than 5mph we knew the forecast promised it would increase quite quickly, so we set nets accordingly and hoped for an hour or two to catch early movers. Our nets went up in the more sheltered western side of the plantation, away from the east wind. It was just as well we did because by 9am the wind blew quite stiffly, enough to make the nets very visible so we took them down.

In the continued clear conditions visible migration was quiet and birds high overhead. Early moving wagtails numbered one or two albas and 3 Grey Wagtails, and by now the 4th of September, a very thin movement of Meadow Pipits numbering less than 10. Tree Pipits featured again in what is proving a mega autumn for the species. We saw and heard at least 5 birds and caught another two. Similar to the past ten days or so Chaffinches proved the most numerous migrant/local dispersal with more than 40 individuals passing south overhead, sometimes unseen because of the height they flew at. We noted our first autumnal Woodpigeon movement as a tight flock of c30 birds sped west.

We caught 15 birds today, 12 new consisting of 2 Tree Pipit, 1 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat and 8 Chaffinch plus recaptures of 2 Long-tailed Tit and 1 Blue Tit.

Tree Pipit
Tree Pipit
Chiffchaff
Whitethroat

Other birds seen this morning: 4 Grey Partridge, 3 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Golden Plover, 10 Linnet, 15 Goldfinch and 1 Jay

Jay
Rawcliffe Moss Morning

The Postman's Late

I know it's Saturday and the post is overdue but I got delayed and I'm doing this at 5am before I head off to do some ringing.

There were some bird errands Friday which didn’t necessarily involve much bird watching but I had time for a flying visit to CG Conder Green. And guess what I saw flying away?

Little Egret

On the pool were 5 Little Grebe, the species that’s made a home for itself here, but only it seems out of the breeding season. The 3 Wigeon are still in situ, as is the Kingfisher which did a flying circuit again before it disappeared towards the main road and the reeds of the upper Conder. I found 3 Spotted Redshank, 4 Greenshank, 1 Ruff, 7 Snipe and 18 Teal plus 30 or so Redshank. In the lay-by a Whitethroat still searched through the tangled vegetation and a single Tree Sparrow divided its time between preening itself or darting onto the road and collecting food probably dropped by the wagons that park there.

Tree Sparrow
Whitethroat

I went to see a farmer chap who is keen to create Sand Martin habitat on his farm but lacks the capital that some of our conservation organisations seem to have. Anyway I gave him an article from a recent Daily Telegraph that described how Anglian Water built 350 Sand Martin burrows with sand-filled clay pipes in breeze blocks, and this year there are 180 nests. It reinforced the idea in his head and I think he will get around to doing something in the future. I hope so because he already has a few breeding Sand Martins. I also checked out the little set aside at Cockersands where the finch flock builds up daily feeding on the standard kale, quinoa and goodness knows what else mix, but the birds soon take to it. I counted about 100 mixed finches, maybe 40% Linnet, 30% Goldfinch and 20% Greenfinch with the odd Meadow Pipit and Tree Sparrow thrown in. I have permission to ring birds here so any catches should firm up the proportions of birds involved plus give some vital information on what is happening to our Linnets and Greenfinches.

Linnet
Greenfinch

Up at the farm were 2 Swallow nests with large young. One will fledge any day, the other one in about a week’s time. Let’s hope the weather holds. Plenty of other Swallows in the area of the farm got spooked by a little Sparrowhawk that then headed out towards the Lune. Jobs done I motored on up to Lane Ends in time to see a male Marsh Harrier circling out on the marsh, but it didn’t come close. After a while it headed off towards Bank End and Cockersands, where I had just come from, leaving me to listen to a Chiffchaff sing from the plantation bathed in in the warm morning sun.

I had time to do Pilling Water, just. Because a minute or two before I had watched the harrier fly east, a large raptor out on the marsh threw me momentarily. But it turned out to be a Common Buzzard doing a thermal and I couldn’t turn it into a honey. I found 5 Wheatear, 45 Linnet, 11 Alba Wagtails, 24 Meadow Pipit and 5 Little Egret. The Green Sandpiper called from the wildfowler’s pools and 3 Snipe flew into there from the outer marsh, but out near the sewage filters and the cut field I saw hundreds of Swallows. I drove back that way and estimated over 800 Swallows and took a shot of a single bird.

Buzzard
Swallow