A Good Old Chat

I seem to see a lot of Marsh Harriers, a species which is also my photographer’s nemesis. Maybe it’ s just that I like to do my birding and ringing where Marsh Harriers occur, marshes naturally enough but here in the North West they like our extensive farmland, where tall crops and scattered trees make the landscape look remarkably like a marsh.

Today’s male was at Fluke Hall, where I’d sat down on the stile to shelter in the lee of a gatepost from yet another heavy shower when the harrier appeared from over the sea wall and briefly circled the field north of Fluke. There are a couple of atrocious record shots of the distant bogey bird but at the end of this post there are some images from later in the day of a dependable bird that always performs for the camera – Wheatear.

Marsh Harrier
Marsh Harrier

The light was so poor I couldn’t get a proper shot of the local Peregrine either. It appeared from behind me, took a passing dive at a Starling and then shot out over the marsh into the distance.

Those two birds had been the highlight of the mile or two long walk from Lane Ends, with fairly unimpressive counts of much else save for a steady passage south of 100+ Swallows heading into the drizzle and murk: Otherwise my figures were: 2 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 30 Teal. 42 Lapwing, 1 Raven, 1 Stock Dove, 1 White Wagtail, 8 Linnet, 70 Goldfinch and a solitary Skylark.

Skylark

It was the Wheatears that brightened up the afternoon and saved the camera from having a blank day. There were five of them jumping about in the warm shelter of the boulders where the flies hang out. When the shutter clicked audibly, one or two stopped searching, and then perched up to alarm call, “chacking” loudly and then taking a better look at the intruder.

Wheatear
Wheatear
Wheatear
Wheatear
I hate to mention the dreaded "w" word but a spot or of decent stuff might lead to a little ringing soon.

A Strange Old Day

After more overnight strong winds and rain I went up to Knott End first thing on the off chance the weather had left a few bits and pieces behind. But there was nothing much out of the ordinary, just 3 Eider, 9 Cormorant, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit and neatly rounded approximates of 70 Oystercatcher, 1200 Knot, 700 Dunlin and 125 Ringed Plover.

The BBC promised an improving day, lessening wind and sunny intervals so I drove over to the feeding station for a look and to complete the chore of topping up the Niger feeders. I could see there were plenty of finches about; some on the feeders, but lots in the shooter’s unsprayed and full of weeds maize crop, 100+ Goldfinch, 100+ Linnet and 25+ Greenfinch. There’s those approximates again, but how does anyone accurately count mixed and highly mobile flocks of 200+ finches?

Goldfinch

Through the shower clouds I pretty soon spotted the elusive Marsh Harrier that’s been roaming far and wide for a few weeks now, from St Michaels and across to Pilling Moss, several miles of road for me but a flap and a farmland glide or two for Circus aeruginosus. I watched both a dive bombing Peregrine, then a Sparrowhawk and then a Kestrel have a go at the harrier, but the farmer in his combine harvester had the best view as the bird sped across towards Pilling Moss again. All I got was yet another distant shot.

Marsh Harrier

The wind and rain never did ease off properly, but then on my way home through Hambleton I got a phone call about a wind-blown manxie, and it’s a long time since I photographed a close-up manxie, Bardsey in fact. And I’m fairly certain I have never taken pictures of Manx Shearwater, Goldfinch and Marsh Harrier on the same strange day.

Manx Shearwater
Manx Shearwater

Chris in Iceland advises me that Meadow Pipits are poised for take-off. I’m ready for the off too Chris, all that’s required is a spot of half decent weather.

Mipits

Up here in Lancashire we seem stuck with the sting of Irene’s transatlantic tail, day after day of rain and wind plus more to come. So I’m sat at the PC this morning trying to fill a blog slot before all Another Bird Blog followers clear off to pastures new.

When the rain eventually stops and the winds subside the plan is to catch and ring Meadow Pipits, because the months of September and October are just when these small and highly active birds are at their most numerous around this part of the world. During September and October, “mipits” as most ringers call them, migrate in huge numbers, flying south from the edge of Greenland, Iceland, Scandinavia and the Northern Isles, then along the coastline of the Irish Sea on their way to destinations close to the winter warmth of the Mediterranean Sea. What a brilliant idea, I wish I could tag along at this very moment.

Because Meadow Pipits are diurnal migrants we are able to catch them during the first few hours of the morning as they migrate on a route that takes them close to our ringing sites.

Meadow Pipit

Diurnal migrants travel mainly during daylight hours as opposed to the many bird species which migrate chiefly during the night (nocturnal migrants); migrating in the daytime allows a bird maximum feeding opportunities during those hours of daylight. Migrating during the day also means they are less likely to get lost on their journey if they don’t rely upon the moon and stars to navigate, as do birds that migrate during the night. Meadow Pipits have another advantage by eating a varied assortment of insect foods in a wide range of habitats, a strategy which gives them the advantage of being able to drop in almost anywhere at short notice where they will find food. This also allows them to quickly replace energy used up by their comparatively shorter daytime flights. This also explains why Meadow Pipits rarely carry any visible fat reserves.

Meadow Pipit

Because they are relatively numerous, lots of birders don’t bother looking at the slightly anonymous and unremarkable Meadow Pipit, but in my humble opinion they are just a superb bird. However I have been known to curse them when seemingly well caught individuals, enveloped in the pocket of a mist net, then proceed to climb out easily by using that elongated hind claw, and then fly off with a cheery “tseep tseep”. The long claw is actually an adaptation for perching on the ground as compared to the much shorter hind claw of the closely related Tree Pipit whose claw is adapted to allow the bird to grip onto all sizes of tree branches and twigs.

Meadow Pipit - hind claw
Meadow Pipit

During mid to late October the numbers of Meadow Pipits we see tails off because most of them will have reached their autumn journey's end, the South of France, Spain, Morocco and Algeria. They spend the winter there, freshen up their feathers, and then in February and March start the journey back to Northern Europe where during March and April they begin the cycle of life all over again.

Meadow Pipit

So there’s few weeks left to get to grips again with mipits, if only it stops raining.

Meadow Pipit

Mostly Chaffs With Chiffs

After Saturday’s rain lasted until midnight it came as no surprise when our 6am start on the moss began not only soggy underfoot but also rather slow in terms of birds being around or becoming active. By 0730 Will and I had caught only 6 birds, but as the morning brightened and warmed up so did our tally of birds.

By 1130 the figures looked much better with a total of 45 birds of 10 species, 44 new and 1 recapture. New birds: 22 Chaffinch, 5 Goldfinch, 4 Whitethroat, 4 Chiffchaff, 2 Robin, 2 Blackcap, 2 Dunnock, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Linnet and 1 Great Tit. The single recapture was a recently ringed Goldfinch.

The feature of this morning proved to be the Chaffinches, not hugely noticeable in terms of the numbers passing overhead but enough small groups to estimate a total north to south movement of 150+ birds, particularly if we catch 22 individuals. Although finches predominated again today we notched up more warblers in the Sylvia shapes of Whitethroat and Blackcap. The squeaks of Chiffchaffs also became noticeable once the air had warmed sufficiently for them to move around the plantation and we thought that our 4 birds could probably be doubled for the day count. We don't normally catch many Robins or Dunnocks here so the two of each today were thought to be migrants.

Chiffchaff
Chaffinch
Great Tit

Today’s 4 Whitethroat pushed our year total here to 147 new birds. Below are two of today’s, a bright-eyed adult and a dark eyed juvenile.

Whitethroat
Whitethroat

It looked like the flies took a day off yesterday and then spent the morning drying off against the warm heavy metal of our motors.

Warming Up

Our birding followed a similar pattern to the ringing with increasing activity as the morning temperature rose. Overhead and/or north to south: 135 Swallow, 3 House Martin, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Raven, 20+ Meadow Pipit. Locals: 2 Skylark, 50+ Goldfinch, 100+ Linnet, 2 Tawny Owl, 1 Little Owl.

Raptors proved obliging this morning, Buzzards in particular taking to the air after their rain sodden no-fly Saturday, with 11+ and a gang of 9 riding the same thermal to the south west about 11am. Also, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Kestrel and 1 Marsh Harrier over towards the Pilling Moss road again.

Buzzard

Return Of The Goldfinches

The overnight south-easterly dropped a vagrant Ortolan Bunting into Fleetwood, an event which almost certainly caused a temporary spike in petrol sales for miles around, but out on the moss some seven miles inland Will and I were more worried the breeze might disrupt another vital ringing session. We placed our nets carefully so as to avoid the strength of the breeze, so once again caught steadily but with the species list taking a turn away from the warblers of recent weeks.

In all we totalled 36 birds of 8 species, 31 new birds and 5 recaptures, the bulk of the catch made up of finches. New birds: 19 Goldfinch, 6 Chaffinch, 2 Chiffchaff, 1 Whitethroat, 1 Great Tit, 1 Willow Warbler and 1 Goldcrest. Recaptures: 4 Goldfinch and 1 Blackcap.

Having been largely absent from the plantation for weeks the local Goldfinches seemed to re-find our Niger feeders today, no doubt due to their natural food becoming quickly depleted. Their moult and resulting plumage variations continue to test our ageing and sexing skills, the bird below a relatively easily determined juvenile male.

Goldfinch

The juvenile male Goldcrest we caught was the first of species this autumn and as usual it will be fascinating to see how many or how few we catch in the coming weeks. Whilst Goldcrest is the smallest British bird, today’s tipping the scale at 5.7 grams, Chiffchaffs run them a close second with the two today weighing in at 5.7 and 6.5 grams respectively.

Goldcrest
Chiffchaff

Even today’s Willow Warbler was small, a juvenile female with a wing length of 60mm and weighing just 7.7 grams.

Willow Warbler

Visible migration was fairly invisible this morning, perhaps due to the aforementioned breeze and fairly dense cloud in all directions, but particularly to the north. Noticeable were however a party of 9 Mistle Thrush headed south and then later 6 Sand Martins similarly southward bound. A negligible count of Meadow Pit with less than 10 “over” in our four plus hours, but still approximately 120 Swallows in evidence.

Raptors today: 1 Kestrel, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Buzzard and 1 distant Marsh Harrier over towards Pilling Moss again.

Oh yes, 1 Little Owl.

Little Owl

Worth The Wait

Three days of grotty weather finally gave way to a decent wind and rain free morning so Will and I met up on the moss at 6am for yet another bash at catching some migrant birds. In the dawn light Will spotted a Roe Deer not too far away from our net rides so we deliberately made a bit of noise as we put the nets up, not wanting a repeat of the last visit when a deer ran through a net.

We caught steadily from the off, five or six birds on each round until we finished at 11am with a final tally of 41 birds of 11 species, 36 new and 5 recaptures. New birds: 11 Chaffinch, 11 Linnet, 3 Blackcap, 3 Whitethroat, 2 Goldfinch, and then one each of Blackbird, Blue Tit, Treecreeper, Chiffchaff, Tree Pipit and Grasshopper Warbler. Recaptures: 3 Whitethroat, 1 Blackbird and 1 Blackcap, all five of them ringed quite recently.

Although we have seen and heard the occasional Grasshopper Warbler here, today’s juvenile was the first “gropper” ringed at the site since we began work here in 2003.

Grasshopper Warbler
Grasshopper Warbler

We didn’t catch a single Blackcap here in April or May but since mid-June we have ringed 32 individuals, with one of today’s birds a fine, recently moulted, glossy headed, adult male.

Blackcap

Today's Chiffchaff made just 8 for the year, but we didn’t catch a Willow Warbler to add to the current total of 118 for that species here in 2011.

Chiffchaff

Today’s Tree Pipit was in the “finch net”, with the Grasshopper Warbler in the “pipit net”. We had at least two other Tree Pipits close to the nets without catching them, and in all a minimum of 6 birds “over” and heading south.

Tree Pipit

We targeted Chaffinch and Linnet today, Linnet because of the 200+ birds feeding in nearby fields, and Chaffinch because of their now growing numbers taking part in visible migration. In our five hour session we counted a minimum of 100 Chaffinch overhead and headed south, together with just a few Greenfinch. Today also proved to be the first signs of Meadow Pipit migration here, with just tiny groups and single birds on the move but those numbers added up to c35 birds arriving from the north or north east before they continued south. Now that "mipits" are on the move they will be added to target species for the next and subsequent visits.

Linnet

Other birds seen today: 3 Raven, 1 Peregrine, 1 Kestrel, 3 Buzzard, c150 Swallows, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Grey Wagtail and 1 Alba wagtail.

A Waiting Game

We’ve pencilled in Thursday morning for a spot of ringing when the low pressure should be long gone taking the wind with it. Not so this morning when another blowy morning saw me hit the Pilling patch and birding via Fluke Hall first.

The always shy Tree Sparrows are spending lots of time waiting around in the hedgerows at the moment because both the adults and young of the year undergo a complete moult, a time when they become more vulnerable to predators. I watched a gang of about 30 of them near Fluke Hall, and then as I tried counting the sparrows I spied a young Blackcap and 3 Whitethroat flitting through the same hawthorns, with several Goldfinch and Chaffinch about too.

Whitethroat
Blackcap
Tree Sparrow

At Lane Ends I ducked down behind the wall and headed up to Pilling Water where hugging the tideline I counted 2 Skylark, 4 Linnet and 30 Goldfinch, and then on the marsh 3 Little Egret and 2 Grey Heron. Ravens have become fairly frequent around here in recent years, today being no exception when a single one came from the south east, and then flew to the incoming tideline where it squabbled with a Carrion Crow for a while before the big one croaked off towards Fluke Hall.

Against the stiff wind I made a few counts along the way: 28 Shelduck, 55 Curlew, 2 Wigeon, 115 Lapwing, 22 Ringed Plover and 18 Dunlin. At the wildfowler’s pools I watched about 240 Teal take flying practice when without warning whole gangs of them suddenly and with no apparent reason erupted from the water. They would head off west or south, circle around for a minute or two and then just as quickly as they left, return in tight formation with a headlong rush for the safety of the quiet, food-filled pools.

Teal

There was single male Wheatear this morning, the bird on the usual spot but almost certainly a different bird to recent days. There had been a a number of Swallows al morning, a dozen or two near Fluke, a couple at Lane Ends, but also a steady movement west along the shore that included House Martins. My morning count came to 150+ Swallow and 12 House Martin.

It was near the sea wall I settled down, hidden in the damp grass to watch the antics of a gang of local Swallows, recently fledged youngsters still relying on food from parents. Although there was no sun to enhance the Swallow’s plumage, the birds were close enough to get a few pictures. It’s almost September and these could be my last Swallow images until they return next year.

Swallow
Swallow
Swallow
Swallow
Swallow
Swallow