Avoiding Percy

School half term means Monday child minding duties for Nana and Granddad, but only after I snuck out into the frost to Pilling for an hour or two.

I always go down Wheel Lane; it’s the quickest Pilling point to reach and often the most fruitful destination that includes Ridge Farm, Fluke Hall and the Hi-fly stubble fields. I was wary this morning, keen to avoid being seen by strangers on the lookout for Plastic Percy the Red-breasted Goose, visitors to Pilling who might assume that I too was a fellow traveller out for a tick only; the people looking to latch onto someone who knew the whereabouts of Percy, and almost certainly unimpressed that a dude like me was visiting my second home of 30 odd years and that I was not busting a gut to see the object of their desires today.

Fortunately I arrived early and there was no one in the gateway so I parked up for a quick look at the wild geese and the swans. Many Pink-footed Geese were just flying in from the marsh, alighting on the stubble recently replenished with yet more wheat. I’m not sure when Hi-fly spread the largesse, maybe late in the evening when the geese have gone to the outer marsh? But from the way the geese know to hit different spots at first light suggests that the shooters are moving the wheat drops around different parts of the stubble fields. Good hygiene practice at least, if not very sporting of them. There were enormous numbers of birds, and I later revised my estimate of the combined geese here to a figure in the region of 22,500, plus or minus 10%.

Around the frosty flood were 28 Whooper Swans, some of them at that moment heading off to inland fields; maybe for peace and quiet, where they might not be surrounded by the constant comings and goings, the wall of sound made by 20,000 + geese?

Whooper Swan
Whooper Swan

It must be cold and early if there are no cars already parked, no doggie walkers, no horse boxes unloading Dobbin to chase the waders from the Fluke Hall beach; no birders either today. There were several Chaffinch dropping periodically into the trees, 2 Brambling on call, plus 8 or more Greenfinches. It wasn’t until I got closer to Ridge Farm that things bucked up with 18 Tree Sparrows, 8 Skylark and a gang of 10 Reed Buntings sticking together on the hedgerow. As there was no one about I walked back via the sea wall and the shore hoping for sight or sound of a Lap or Snow Bunting that might accord with the minus temperatures; instead I got a Wheatear, bobbing up and down to keep warm, both of us.

Reed Bunting
Wheatear

At Lane Ends too were Reed Buntings, with at least two calling from below the car park, an overhead Redpoll plus 3 separate Brambling calls, one from the trees then two overhead. I noticed 2 Redwing fly from the nearest trees and head east, and 2 Pied Wagtail down on the shore. A flock of 200+ Starlings packed tight on the marsh, suggested a raptor might be about, but it wasn’t the expected Merlin or Peregrine, rather a male Sparrowhawk that grabbed a Starling then headed for the sanctity of the Lane Ends trees for the meal.

At Pilling Water 80 Teal and 2 Pintail came off the wildfowler’s pools. It was here that when I looked west I revised my goose count as what appeared to be the entire Icelandic goose population erupted en masse from the stubble; they filled the horizon with a mass of blurred grey with a complementary distant din before panicking out to the green marsh. I can only think the cause of the commotion was an overzealous Percy hunter who stuck arms and legs through the hedge on the assumption that all geese are content with being viewed at close quarters, but preferably through a screen.

Pink-footed Goose

Behind the sea wall I found 2 Meadow Pipits, and 7 Skylarks, with alongside the wildfowler's boundary, a single Reed Bunting.

Meadow Pipit

My two hours were up; I’d had a very pleasant time just birding, seeing real birds, and neatly avoided bumping into Percy or his pursuers.

A Cold Catch

Following yesterday’s rain and wind the skies cleared overnight and left a heavy frost that greeted Will and I at Rawcliffe Moss this morning for the 0645 start. As normal we wanted nets up in the dark to catch any roosting thrushes and the hoped for dawn arrivals. As we donned warm coats, thick socks and wellies, the first noises weren’t from the usual Tawny Owl but a dog fox barking loudly from a distance away. It was only as we walked through the plantation to the net rides that we heard the Tawny, hooting as it flew from its chosen tree at our incursion.

After putting up four nets we went back to the first one to find a Redwing, first bird of the day. We barely had time to process the Redwing and down a coffee before parties of Fieldfares arrived from the north; most of them were large groups numbering anything from 40 or more birds to flocks of 200+. Between 0730 and 0830 we counted 750+ Fieldfares, but with much smaller numbers of Redwings. After the initial movement both species slowed down a little then trickled through, but in total we think 1050+ Fieldfares and 100+ Redwings moved through the site between 0730 and midday when we left.

Fieldfare
Redwing

If only we had caught the thrushes in similar numbers to those seen, but the two species are difficult to trap. However we did have a very successful and interesting session in the ringing, migration monitoring and general birding. We caught 39 birds of 10 species, 38 new and 1 recaptured Great Tit. New birds: 13 Reed Bunting, 4 Fieldfare, 3 Redwing, 3 Goldcrest, 2 Goldfinch, 7 Chaffinch, 3 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit, 1 Dunnock and 1 male Blackcap. The Reed Buntings split 10/3 in favour of juveniles.

Blackcap - juvenile male
Goldcrest
Chaffinch

In trying to monitor the visible migration we suffered from the eternal problem of “vis miggers” on clear mornings with good visibility – high flying birds that can be both audible and often detectable, but many others up there in the blue being less accommodating in calling at the right moment, or remaining invisible. Also it was inevitable we missed birds that we couldn’t see or hear as we toured through the planation concentrating on our net rounds. But we did count the following birds, generally north to south: 30+ Reed Bunting, 12 Meadow Pipit, 8 Siskin, 1 Redpoll sp, 50+ Chaffinch, 4 Brambling, 2 Yellowhammer, 30+ Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch.

An unusual bird on site this morning was a Bullfinch, in this case a brightly coloured male that both showed and called briefly near our nets before doing a disappearing act. The Bullfinch is a scarce bird in the Fylde area. It's not my photograph I’m afraid, but certainly a good one taken at Pennington Flash.

Bullfinch - M. Jobling

Mixed “Others” this morning were: 50+ Skylark, 1 Whooper Swan flying west, 5+ Snipe, 2 Kestrel, 3 Buzzard and thousands of Pink-footed Goose landing on nearby Pilling Moss.

On the way off the farm I visited the Little Owl again, got a slightly better picture than yesterday, and then a hundred yards away I saw a second bird of a separate but known pairing.

Little Owl

There can’t be anyone that doesn’t know about a potentially plastic Red-breasted Goose amongst the thousands of proper Pink-footed Geese today at Pilling. Here’s a picture to whet the appetite or not depending upon your point of view.

Red-breasted Goose

Out Of The Rain

The rain woke me up last night when it hammered on the bedroom window. It relented a while before starting up all over again just as I got out of bed and full of optimism that the day would brighten. It didn’t, so I walked up to Top Shop for a newspaper then back down the hill in the rain before I settled down in the conservatory to read for a few hours.

There were Fieldfares and Redwings again this morning, a mixed flock of 60/80 over the house early on, some Fieldfares settling in the top of next door's sycamore, others flying away but vocal all the time, as Fieldfares tend to be. I watched the garden where windfall apples lay in the mess of autumn leaves, but the thrushes aren’t ready for apples yet, not while there are so many berries about.

I found a stranger in the garden though in a Hedgehog - European Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), an animal that often leaves evidence of its nocturnal feeding under the bird table, and occasionally shows itself. Hedgehogs are one of the first mammals, having changed little in 15 million years, and whilst they are found in Europe, Asia, Africa and New Zealand, there are none in Australia or North America.

European Hedgehog
Fieldfare

By lunchtime I strained at the leash and although it still showered and remained grey overhead I took myself off to Rawcliffe Moss to check out our ringing site just in case of a session for Sunday.

Because the rain still spotted my windscreen I decided to check out the barn where the Little Owl sometimes resides, on the premise that the owl might use the structure as somewhere to keep dry. It was there on the metal beam, huddled against the wall of the barn, a bit far off but I gained a record shot with a somewhat tricky exposure for the distance, the grey day and a partly enclosed building. There were 3 Pied Wagtails around the barn, alternately feeding in the puddles or on the recently harvested field. Also here, 2 local Jays flew over heading for the nearby tree line.

Little Owl

From ahead of my car 5 Grey Partridge scurried off into a field then merged into the stubbly, stony earth, too far for a photo or for the naked eye.

Next were Fieldfares and Redwings again with a couple of large parties that at the merest hint of danger or disturbance flew back and forth between a berry-laden hedgerows and the safety of the tallest trees in the nearest wood - these huge flocks of migrant thrushes are so skittish at the moment. Nevertheless I counted approximately 300 Fieldfare and 40 Redwing following the pattern of this week of the larger thrush showing in better numbers.

Along the track were 45 Tree Sparrow, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Reed Bunting, 3 Blackbird and 6 Chaffinch, and beyond the hedge in the very wet field, 400 Starlings.

Tree Sparrow
Great-spotted Woodpecker

I walked the top field and the 97 hedge, quiet except for the Tree Sparrows and Reed Buntings I had disturbed from the other track, but 8 Skylark, a patrolling Kestrel and a more distant Buzzard gave me a few lines in my slightly soggy notebook.

One or Two

I knew something was afoot when I opened my back door this morning and heard a Fieldfare going over. I live in a bit of suburbia but less than 200 yards away I’m on a road that leads through old hedgerows, bits of woodland and eventually down to the River Wyre, so I suppose it’s not totally surprising that my garden list includes things like Buzzard, Cuckoo, Redwing, Fieldfare, Treecreeper, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. There had been some splendid even huge counts of Fieldfare up in the Pennines for a few days now, just a pity the continued wind strength frustrated efforts to catch and ring these handsome birds.

Anyway I paid my usual Thursday visit to Knott End then headed out to Pilling; a bit late I’m afraid at 0915. Out of my car at Fluke Hall and the calls of Fieldfares made me look up to see hundreds swirling about looking for a place where they might land and feed. In fact I estimated 250/300 birds that swept over the wood and out of sight. It was no good following them, at this time of year they might land or just keep going. So I walked up towards Ridge Farm where I found yet more Fieldfares, this time about 40 in a flock over towards New Ridge Farm that once again kept going in their autumn urgency. There were lots of Starlings too this morning, with over 300 birds here in the area of Ridge Farm, and more like 6/700 hundred on the stubble at Fluke Hall Lane. In fact the influx of continental Starlings has gone almost unnoticed on local commentary but they certainly arrived in good numbers in the last three weeks or so. The Skylarks joined in the movement when I counted more than 30 coming off the stubble in the morning rush, but as Skylarks tend to do to so as to frustrate birders keen on categorising them, they flew around rather aimlessly before they returned to the stubble where they hid very successfully.

Fieldfare
Starling

If nothing else the Ridge Farm track guarantees Dunnocks galore, Tree Sparrows, Linnets, with in winter, Greenfinches and maybe a chance of a Lapland Bunting for twitchers but not for regulars like me. So no chance of a Longspur but I did get 15 Tree Sparrow, 8 Greenfinch, 7 Linnet and 4 Stock Dove crouching in the stubble with the regular and more numerous Wood Pigeons.

Tree Sparrow

Back up Fluke Hall Lane I found the Fieldfare where they had settled in enormous berry laden hawthorns, only to be disturbed by the postman opening a gate for access to the track the birds lined. Erupting again they flew inland to more distant hedgerows in the centre of several fields where the poor thrushes looked less likely to be disturbed again.

Fieldfare

Instead of chasing the thrushes I walked through Fluke Hall wood, strictly no go of course to ordinary birders unless on the road, but perfectly good to see the numerous Chaffinch feeding high in the beech trees. The Chaffinch were with a couple or more of Brambling this morning, plus the fly through secretive Buzzard pursued by crows and Jackdaws again, but not so secretive that we don’t recognise the signs of regular breeding.

I took time out to check the tit flock; all the usual suspects but plenty of Long-tailed Tits ,endless Coal Tit, and the quiet calls of Robins.

Robin
Coal Tit

Lane Ends threw up nothing save for the singing Chiffchaff and the omnipresent Little Egrets whose roost now nears 60 birds. At this rate of increase they will outnumber Fieldfares.

Bonus Birds

The weather forecast changed to a more positive aspect last night and although we couldn’t get to Rawcliffe Moss because today was a shoot day, Will and I and I decided to visit our woodland site near Lancaster. It’s not quite like catching Redwing and Fieldfare but at least we might be able to increase the Goldcrest and Chaffinch totals. We put up just three nets in easy locations because some clearance of rides is needed after the summer’s growth before we embark on anything more ambitious.

We caught just 20 birds, 19 new and one recapture, a Goldcrest from last week. New birds today, 9 Goldcrest which made 20 in the last 7 days, 4 Great Tit, and one each of Robin, Treecreeper, Long-tailed Tit, Coal Tit, Chaffinch and Song Thrush.

Goldcrest
Robin
Treecreeper
Long-tailed Tit

It was a cold morning, one of those mornings when birds are sometimes a little slow or reluctant to leave the hand. In fact it is a very cold and dark bit of woodland where the sun takes some time to filter through to where we ring, hence the rather dark background to some images.

Chaffinch

Other birds of the woodland today: 2 Nuthatch, several Coal Tit and several Jay, a Buzzard, but small numbers only of Chaffinch and Blackbird, probably until the leaves and the beech mast drop.

I had to pass Conder Green on the way back at 1115 am, and although the tide partly filled the creek, a peek on the pool revealed 3 Spotted Redshank, but too far away for a picture.

Somewhere (Near The Rainbow)

I wanted to bird but I stopped at Gulf Lane because it was a pretty spectacular rainbow, even if it was accompanied by torrential hail stones. If I’d had an 18mm lens I could have got both ends of the light show in the picture.

A Pilling Rainbow

I was on my way back from Conder Green after a couple of hours of not very productive birding where 3 Spotted Redshanks in the creeks may well have been the highlight because apart from the usual 7 Snipe, 1 Greenshank, 5 Redshank, 2 Curlew and circa 50 Teal, all was quiet. From the platform I looked west into the afternoon light but couldn’t see more than 5 Little Grebe silhouettes. I was peering in the opposite direction when I heard the splash of a Kingfisher behind me but as I turned it had already returned to the stone parapet. As I made for the camera it shot around the pool in a semi-circle before hovering Kestrel-like for a second or two before disappearing again. The bird is still here then, but the light is much better in the morning direction for trying to photograph a Kingfisher.

Redshank
I checked out the flock of 40ish Greenfinch at Cockersands where I bumped into PW and JB, but I left them to do the heroic stuff like counting the waders on the beach from the windswept road. For wader enthusiasts I am sure there will be a count here http://woodruff4.blogspot.com/

Near Lane Ends the fields were awash with mainly 350 Lapwings, 60 or so Curlew, several Redshank and 1 Golden Plover, a species strangely absent so far this autumn.

At Fluke Hall Lane the geese were being sent out to the marsh by a combination of a camera toting clown walking along the roadside in full sight of the massed flock, ably assisted by the noisy Hi-fly quad bike arriving with sacks of wheat. I managed to find 5 Barnacle Geese with the thousands of pink-feet before the whole lot erupted out of sight, but even as I took the shot the geese were up and alert, ready to go.

Pink-footed Goose

From the car park I heard the Chiffchaff again and if it is the same one it has been around for several days now, with Robins and Long-tailed Tits for company. Several Little Egrets were huddled together on the shore and by scanning east and west waiting for heads to pop up and down from the old ditches I doubled that score to 15, no problem.

Robin

With luck we might just squeeze a ringing session in on Wednesday morning – overnight frost and 10mph northerlies. Could be worse.

Thrushes Prevail

I stepped out of my back door at 6am to another clear, cold and star filled morning with my warm breath condensing in the close to zero air. I jumped into the Suzuki, switched the heater to the “toast” setting, stuffed a pair of gloves into a warm air vent, flicked on the heated seat so as to warm my essential bits, then set off for Rawcliffe Moss.

It was still black when I met Will at 0630 but we set to in getting the nets up in the frost before the thrushes dropped in. In fact we were early enough to catch a few roosting Redwings in the first net as we toured the plantation erecting the remainder.

I’d said to Will that the first migrant Redwings arrived at 0740 on Saturday, exactly as they did today, on the dot, when a party of about 30 birds came from the south east and dived into the plantation. They brought with them a few Fieldfares. That was the opening shot of today’s thrush movement which from 0740 until about 1030am consisted of approximately 300 Redwing, 120 Fieldfare, 9 Song Thrush and 5 Blackbirds. About 50% of the thrushes arrived from the south-east this morning, travelling with the prevailing wing, whilst most others came from the north and north-west.

Our catch this morning was made up of 35 birds of 11 species, 33 new and 2 recaptures. 14 Redwing, 2 Song Thrush, 3 Fieldfare, 3 Goldfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Great Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Yellowhammer and 4 Reed Bunting were new birds, while a Blackbird and a Coal Tit were ringed on site on previous occasions.

Fieldfare - juvenile male
Fieldfare - juvenile male
Redwing - juvenile
Song Thrush
Yellowhammer - adult male

We are keeping an eye on the biometrics and adult/juvenile ratio of the Redwings caught so far this autumn and at the moment they split very nearly 50/50 adult/juvenile with consistent weights that vary between 54 and 64 grams. One adult today had a wing length of 125mm which could place it into the Icelandic origin bracket.

Other birds on the move this morning, c50/60 Chaffinch, 4+ Brambling, 12+ Siskin which included a party of eight, 4 Lesser Redpoll, 4 Stock Dove rapidly heading south, 1 Grey Wagtail, and 8+ alba Wagtails. Twice we noted groups of Jackdaws flying dead south both fast and low over the plantation and we totalled them to c80 birds. This was in total contrast to the hundreds of Jackdaws that at dawn noisily left the regular roost situated in a large wood on the next door farm and dispersed west to their daytime locations.

Waders this morning consisted of the usual several Snipe plus a lone Golden Plover fly over. Raptors noted this morning - a Sparrowhawk hunting through the plantation at dawn, a lone Kestrel, plus a dashing Merlin as we prepared to leave at 11am. But, where have all the Buzzards gone?

Sparrowhawk

At dawn this morning the sky was awesomely red. I have not changed the photograph in any way except for sharpening. But later in the day the clouds rolled in to a BBC promise of rain on the way - “Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”, or should that be “ringer’s warning”?

Ringer’s Warning?