Sundowner

Wednesday evening - Will and I met up at Out Rawcliffe for a sundown ringing session, and a go at the Goldfinch roost we discovered late last week when about 300 birds took to the twilight gathering.

The evening started well when Will spotted a distant slow flying raptor with the tell-tale “V” profile. It was a male Marsh Harrier hunting the barley fields, and it did so on and off for the next hour or so but never came close enough for a decent photograph.

Marsh Harrier

We counted up to 100 Goldfinches into the roost but managed to catch 14 new ones. This would be a high percentage with only a hundred roosting, so we think we missed a chunk of birds arriving, perhaps from a hidden direction. It’s early days yet, but indications are that the roost holds mainly birds of the year, with once again this latest catch of all juveniles. A Goldfinch roost appears to be a new phenomenon in this part of the country, probably partly as a result of the Goldfinch population explosion, and so presents an area open for further study.

Goldfinch

We finished with 34 birds, 29 new and 5 recaptures. New birds: 14 Goldfinch, 7 Long-tailed Tit, 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Whitethroat and 1 Blackcap. Recaptures: 3 Willow Warbler, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Dunnock.

Willow Warbler
Long-tailed Tit

Other birds seen: circa 4000 Swallow, 8 Mistle Thrush, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 22 Linnet, but not forgetting Little Owl that watched us leave its patch.

Little Owl

Run Around

There are not many words or pictures today after I spent ages trying to take photographs of a juvenile Wheatear. I took even longer trying catch it when all the time the little devil just gave me the run around, standing right next to the spring trap a couple of times. Part of the problem is the meal worms which have enjoyed a life of luxury and contentment in a tub of bran since April, but now in August just don’t wriggle enough to attract the attention of a sharp eyed chat. At least I got four frames before the bird spotted me hiding in the boulders then shot off up the sea wall.

Wheatear

As usual I was on a Pilling run, Lane Ends to Pilling Water where the incoming tide brought a few Augusty things in. Waders clocked up were 60 Lapwing, 28 Dunlin, 2 Greenshank, 1 Common Sandpiper, 12 Redshank, 2 Golden Plover and 440 Curlew. Just 2 Grey Heron today with a nil count for Little Egret again but further signs of autumn with 3 Great-crested Grebe out near the tide line.

Dunlin
Redshank

A Peregrine put in the briefest of appearances then seemed to head off in the direction of Pressall Sands where surely there would be more wader food. There have been good numbers of Sandwich Terns lately, a sure sign that some will find their way into the bay as far as Pilling and Cockerham, so no surprise to see two today associating with circa 125 Black-headed Gulls. The Greylags increase again with 90 today.

Once again the passerine count proved abysmal, with 1 Pied Wagtail, 4 Linnet, 3 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch and 4 Skylark. Meanwhile the build-up of Swallows continues with c 300 feeding over the marsh and tideline today.

Nothing else to report but hopefully there’s more tomorrow, especially if I get chance for a run over to to the reptile shop and a supply of fresh meal worms.

Reconnaissance Trip

Sunday evening Will and I met out on the moss to look for roosts, or at least birds heading to roosts, finches and Swallows. As were going to be there for a while we decided to put up a couple of nets in the hope of intercepting some evening movement.

There seemed plenty of Willow Warblers flitting around in the warm, muggy conditions. It didn’t take long to catch 7 new ones to add to the 12 caught there yesterday and the 3 on Wednesday. We also caught a couple of extra Whitethroat.

Willow Warbler
Willow Warbler

About 7pm we noticed good numbers of Goldfinches heading in smallish groups towards the plantation, plus twos and threes of Linnets and even a party of 5 Yellowhammers. By 2030 the Goldfinches were more or less all in, roosting in the densest area of trees towards the north end of the planation. By this time we had counted 300+ Goldfinches from a south and east direction going into the roost, but from our position couldn’t see arrivals from the north or the west. We caught 5 new Goldfinch, all juveniles, but now we have sussed out the Goldfinches preferred roosting spots we may well have a go at a more serious catch on another evening.

Goldfinch
Goldfinch

Swallows spent the evening feeding over the barley and silage fields until about 9pm the largest numbers swarmed over fields to the south east of us in the direction of St Michaels village. How does one count a dark mass of evening Swallows? But we finally estimated in excess of 4,000 birds which could well have been double the amount. We saw 20+ House Martins during the early evening and then a single Swift heading south.

It was a fascinating evening, one that ended on more highs with sight of the resident Little Owl then 2 Tawny Owls in the spot where I photographed a young bird just a couple of weeks ago.

Tawny Owl

More Willies and Whites

At 6am the air on Rawcliffe Moss felt cool and autumnal but thankfully it was windless. Will and I quickly set to and erected our nets in double quick time then grabbed a coffee each before the real work/fun began.

Continuing the theme of last weekend and my solo mid-week session, the highlights of today were an influx of yet more Whitethroats and Willow Warblers together with a suggestion of the beginnings of Chaffinch and perhaps other migration amongst the 12 species handled.

In total we processed 45 birds, 39 new and 6 recaptures. New: 14 Whitethroat, 12 Willow Warbler, 3 Sedge Warbler, 3 Chaffinch, 2 Swallow and 1 each of Blackcap, Lesser Redpoll, Song Thrush, Robin and Wren. Recaptures: 2 Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Goldfinch and 1 Great Tit.

Both Whitethroats and Willow Warblers were in noticeably good numbers this morning, not only in the plantation where the nets are, but also along the feeding corridor of the well vegetated track margins, a route which runs exactly in a north/south direction. Our 12 new Willow Warblers split 7/5 in favour of adults to juveniles this morning which continues the suggestion of poor breeding success proposed on this blog in recent weeks: the ratio of our new Whitethroats today was the more respectable and expected 3 adults to 11 juveniles.

Sedge Warbler
Wren or Wriggle Arse – Troglodyes troglodytes
Blackcap

The 2 Swallows caught were feeding on a low path through the plantation when intercepted by our nets.

Swallow

Lacking today were any number of Goldfinches feeding on the Niger seed, with one recapture only. When we topped up the feeding devices we noted that they were still more than half full after a previous mid-week fill. However, today’s single Lesser Redpoll capture, a non-resident species, was caught alongside a Niger feeder. We are always amazed by how quickly birds home-in on feed of any sort but in particular the aromatic, shiny, oily black Niger.

Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch on Niger

Chaffinches have been noticeable by their absence here in June and July, but although we caught only 3 today we detected a slight movement, in fact less than 15 birds overhead, but all contact calling and heading from north to south.

Chaffinch

Birding today was uneventful, but with counts of 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk, 70 Swallow, 25 House Martin, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 5 Skylark and 5 Linnet.

Ringing The Ringed

The birding was so quiet at Lane Ends and Pilling Water this morning that I barely opened my notebook, and it took a text message from SP to liven up the morning somewhat. I’d done the sea wall walk from the car park and then back but recorded not much, the recent finch flocks reduced to single digit counts; 2 Willow Warbler, 1 Reed Warbler, 7 Linnet, 4 Skylark, 6 Goldfinch, 10 Pied Wagtail, 1 Greenfinch, a handful of hirundines and 7 Grey Heron. Unlike the grey variety, the Little Egrets of recent days are now absent, but if they are post-breeding dispersals from the Bangor, North Wales colony as seems likely, the mystery remains of their more local movements.

Willow Warbler

Whilst heading back from Pilling Water I remembered to switch on the Nokia; lucky I did as a message told of a brood of Ringed Plover chicks at Plover Scar, Cockersands - well if there aren’t plovers at the aptly named Plover Scar there must be something wrong. But two heads and certainly two pairs of eyes and binoculars are better than one when searching for Ringed Plover chicks against the adult’s distraction techniques and the fast running youngsters. After one false start SP and I found the three chicks, just a couple of days old but well capable of leaving us behind in a sprint across the rough shingle. This is a good breeding record for the Cockersands area and whilst the shore is more than suitable for breeding Ringed Plovers, the overall daily disturbance probably limits the species success here in too many years.

Ringed Plover chick
Ringed Plover

Also out on the scar were 5 other Ringed Plover, c40 Golden Plover, 8 Whimbrel, 15 Oystercatcher and 2 Wheatear.

Whimbrel

I was back home in time to hear the pitter-patter of tiny raindrops on the conservatory roof. Time to grab Brownie Points, then catch up on IPMR and a few ringing records.

Solo Session

With everyone else otherwise engaged I set off for Rawcliffe Moss this morning for a solo ringing session, so promised myself not too many nets; it’s not the putting up, it’s the taking down that’s the chore, especially after tramping around several times until mid-morning, then taking in nets just as morning warms up and the horse flies begin to remove lumps of flesh. The Suzuki must have been the first vehicle along the moss track this morning, early enough to see a Fox disappear into the roadside hawthorns and then dozens of Swallows doing a dawn fly around before all going their separate ways.

I had an interesting little session with more Sylvias and Phylosscs amongst the 27 birds caught, 22 new and 5 recaptures. New: 6 Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap, 3 Goldfinch, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Chaffinch and 1 Chiffchaff; 4 nestling Blackbirds made up the 22 new. The 5 recaptures were 3 Goldfinch, 1 Blackcap and 1 Great Tit.

Willow Warbler
Chaffinch
Whitethroat
Blackbird nest
Blackbird nestling

Apart from the ringing, I saw the usual array of birds: 2 Buzzard, 4 Skylark, 60+ Swallow, 2 Corn Bunting, 18 Whitethroat, 15 Linnet and 22 Goldfinch. The Goldfinches were about the farm today, but feeding on thistle heads, not using our niger seed much, hence the lower numbers caught compared to recent efforts.

Whitethroat
Swallow
Linnet

Whites and Wags

Fluke Hall Lane was quite busy with small birds this morning, mostly Whitethroats and Tree Sparrows, but it was easier to see and count the 15+ Whitethroats than it was to get to grips with the 30 or more Tree Sparrows. There are lots of Tree Sparrow boxes at Fluke Hall, and by now onto on their third broods so I imagine the count was a serious underestimate, but Tree Sparrows are good at hiding from view for both counts and photographs.

Whitethroat
Whitethroat
Whitethroat

Tree Sparrows seem to have had a good year locally and our own Fylde Ringing Group has ringed over 300 Tree Sparrow nestlings this year, mostly due to Paul’s 260+ ringed at Singleton, Warton and Stalmine.

Tree Sparrow

A quick look from the sea wall at Fluke Hall revealed a distant tide and a couple of Alba wagtails, a species definitely on the move this morning. On the way to Lane Ends and near Pilling school I also counted 30+ of the House Sparrow variety together with 6 Linnet.

Linnet

My Lane Ends to Pilling walk revealed another Whitethroat, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Willow Warbler, 2 Kestrel, 23 Linnet, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 2 Meadow Pipit, 8 Skylark, 40 Swallow, 8 House Martin and 210 Lapwings. I watched as several of the Lapwings kept dive-bombing something out of my sight but hidden by a depression in the marsh. They had found a Sparrowhawk, plucking some recent prey item, and when the hawk lifted off and headed towards Pilling village, I saw it was a female and still carrying the remains of its victim.

There was a slight easterly breeze this morning and a very noticeable movement of Alba wagtails arriving from the south east then heading out onto the marsh where they stayed in a loose flock of 22+ birds, mostly if not all Pied Wagtails. Along the outer creek and on the wildfowler’s pools were 2 Grey Heron, 4 Little Egret, 4 Common Sandpiper and 8 Redshank.

Pied Wagtail
Little Egret