Happy Haircut

It’s OK this not working lark but the problem is that there aren’t enough days in the week. What with family, birding, ringing, blogging and writing a monthly column for the Green Book, I never have time for a haircut; until today that is, so I made tracks for Roger’s at Norbreck, then for afters planned an hour or two with the camera at Fleetwood.

Before I left home I checked the garden for yesterday’s Sparrowhawk, and there it was again in the same damson tree, trying to look inconspicuous. The bird let me get really close, too close for my 400mm, until it hopped across to next door’s fence but hidden by a holly tree. It’s obviously a male, and probably a fairly old one judging by the eye colour which verges on red. Maybe it’s a little sick or like me just slowing down in old age, but there’s few garden birds about, and it may just be playing a crafty game waiting for dozy Long-tailed Tits to come by.

Sparrowhawk

The birding was quiet along Rossall and then the Marine Lake, and with the high tide reaching the sea wall many waders may have flown elsewhere: 360 Turnstone, 60 Sanderling, 2 Oystercatcher, 1 Dunlin, 4 Pied Wagtail, 4 Meadow Pipit, 13 Red-breasted Merganser. As ever, double click the pic for a larger version.

Turnstone
Oystercatcher
Sanderling
Turnstone
Red-breasted Merganser
Red-breasted Merganser
Sanderling
Turnstone

What an enjoyable morning, and just as well I got those jobs done today; the forecast for the next few days is not good for birding, ringing, photography or getting a haircut.

It’s Persecution.

In Scotland the authorities recognise that those who persecute birds of prey frequently do so at the direction of their employers or others with vested interests, and so introduced an offence of vicarious liability, the purpose of which is to bring those parties to justice.

A petition (link below) calls on the UK Government to introduce an offence of vicarious liability to bring to justice those who direct or turn a blind eye to raptor persecution in England.

As an indication of how bad thing are, in the last year only four pairs of Hen Harriers successfully reared chicks in England, fourteen Peregrine Falcon territories failed on grouse moors in the Lancashire Forest of Bowland, and only one successful Goshawk nest was recorded in the Derwent Valley, Derbyshire. Current legislation is not enough to deter those who break the law and destroy our heritage; the introduction of vicarious liability would hit those directing the slaughter.

Sign the petition here

Hen Harrier

I didn’t get out today, but acquired this shot of a Sparrowhawk in the back garden. It didn’t appear too well, maybe it has been in the Forest of Bowland.

Sparrowhawk

Lost And Found

There’s not much from me or Pilling today, and with the tide well out, just the steady stuff again for a couple of hours graft and an invigorating walk along you know where.

There’s now 2 Goldeneye and 2 Tufted Duck on Lane Ends pool, no flashy drakes, just the dowdy brown things to pick out amongst the Mallards. Lane Ends to Pilling Water and Fluke Hall gave me 13 Little Egret, 27 Whooper Swan, 1 Black Swan, 1 Peregrine, 7 Meadow Pipit, 11 Linnet, 4 Skylark and 3 Barnacle Goose. I’m fairly sure someone lost the Barnacles, they don’t seem very wild.

Goldeneye
Barnacle Goose
Whooper Swan

I lost a glove somewhere past Pilling Water, but found instead 2 Green Sandpipers, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 300+ Woodpigeon, 475 Jackdaw, 600+ Teal, 1500 Lapwing, 15 Shelduck and 11 Redshank.

I’ll just have to go back soon and look for that glove, maybe I’ll find some new birds soon?

New Horizons, Old Friends

There was no Rawcliffe today for Will and me; instead we decided to try our luck at the winter feeding spot at Myerscough where in the last few weeks Will did the hard preparatory work by snipping overgrown hawthorn branches adjacent to net rides, regularly dropping a little bird seed, and on his visits making sure that birds had found the free grub. The targets of our efforts are set to be Chaffinches and thrushes, with perhaps a few wary Tree Sparrows, but the latter may not oblige after the first one or two visits literally catch them out.

The site was disgustingly muddy, the track churned up by the many tractor and farm vehicle visits of autumn, but we set just a couple of nets in the half-light then waited for birds to arrive.

The farm track is less than half a mile from a long established Chaffinch roost at nearby Myerscough College. The grounds of the college are so busy with people and vehicles on a daily basis that it is not feasible to ring there, so putting feed out nearby is more effective than attempting to catch Chaffinches in a large, widespread roost. There is scope here for a couple of keen young ornithologists to count how many Chaffinches arrive at the roost in the late afternoon, from which directions, and maybe even the birds' choice of tree or shrub in which to spend the night. If only young birders were as keen on finding out about birds as they are on seeing new or “exciting” ones.

Muddy Waters

Targeting the Chaffinch proved very successful in a four hour session, with a total of 49 birds, 46 new and 3 recaptures. New birds: 36 Chaffinch, 3 Tree Sparrow, 3 Robin, 2 Blackbird, 1 Blue Tit, and 1 Dunnock. Recaptures: 1 Chaffinch, 1 Blue Tit and 1 Tree Sparrow. The Chaffinch and Blue Tit were first ringed here on 12 December 2010, with the Tree Sparrow dating from January 2009.

Our observations suggest that 100+ Chaffinches came to the feed at the hedgerow, our count probably a severe underestimate given the number arriving but not necessarily caught. Also, it’s early days yet but compared to our autumn catches of predominantly juvenile Chaffinches at Out Rawcliffe, it was quickly evident today how many of the birds handled were adults, 18 of the 37, or virtually 50%.

Mainly Chaffinch
Chaffinch
Chaffinch – broad tail of an adult
Blue Tit

The rather enclosed nature of the site limits the bird watching somewhat, but in addition to the birds ringed we noted 2 Bullfinch, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Snipe, 1 Kestrel, 1 Tawny Owl, 7 Redwing, 6 Fieldfare.

Perseverance……

Persistence, Resolve, Doggedness or just plain Obstinate? Call it what you like in the face of not much happening in the bird world in recent days, but if there’s half a sunny morning and Sue goes off Christmas shopping, what’s a man to do but go birding?

Pilling Lane Ends to Fluke was even quieter today with an embarrassing lack of entries in my notebook and even less images in the camera.

From the car park both the Peregrine and Merlin were about but distant. The Peregrine remained on the edge of the marsh but as I walked to Fluke Hall the Merlin perched up a couple of times on the gates of the sea wall or sit atop fence posts which line the inland ditch. After a while the bird tired of me walking its beat and flew off to sit on the remains of the washed up tree on the marsh. There was a Buzzard along the sea wall too, one of the Fluke birds, harassed out to the marsh and up into the clouds by the persistence of Carrion Crows and Jackdaws.

Jackdaw

On the wildfowler’s pools today, 15 Shelduck, 150 Teal and countless hundreds of not very wild “mallards”.

It’s the lack of passerines which is rather strange at the moment with counts today of 6 Skylark, 1 Meadow Pipit, 2 Reed Bunting and 8 Linnet. The exception to this current November rule is the number of Starlings about, with large, even huge flocks in many parts of the Fylde. Along the sea wall today I met another resolute birder heading east who stopped to theorise that the incursion of Starlings could be associated with the current influx of White-fronted Geese, as many of the UK’s wintering Starlings also originate from Eastern Europe and Russia. A good notion there, so nice to see a University education not wasted.

I achieved a whopping count of 14 Little Egrets today, with 1 Grey Heron amongst them, so the heron family almost eclipsed my count of small birds.

It’s just as well there’s a regular Little Owl spot nearby to practice a spot of now rusty photography.

Little Owl

Solo Stint

A fine, bright morning beckoned, so with everyone else at work I tried a few hours solo ringing at Rawcliffe Moss from 0915 to 1115. I didn’t catch many birds but there was a nice mix of species with some immaculate looking individuals.

I caught 15 birds with a couple of nets but packed in when a gang of Long-tailed Tits gathered near the net, prepared for an assault when my back was turned. New birds: 4 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Goldfinch, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Reed Bunting and 2 Blackbird. The 4 recaptures were singles of Blackbird, Goldfinch, Dunnock amd Lesser Redpoll. It’s unusual to recapture a Lesser Redpoll here and today’s returnee had been first caught on 20th September, suggesting that it and other Lesser Redpolls belong to a regular little group that feed in the plentiful birch and alders.

Lesser Redpoll
Dunnock
Goldfinch
Chaffinch
Blackbird

Things were quite good on the birding front with 1 Tawny Owl, 1 Woodcock, 1 Kestrel, 3 Buzzard, 45 Skylark, 5 Corn Bunting, 80 Woodpigeon, 5000 Starlings, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 3 Yellowhammer.

Yellowhammer

While on the subject of Goldfinches it appears that one I ringed in my garden on 13th June 2010 took a trip to Manchester, Orrell Reservoir to be exact, where it was caught by another ringer on 4th September 2011. Interesting, I’ll bet that Goldfinch was headed further south for this winter, but I don’t have any recaptures during the 448 days from original ringing then recapture in Manchester.

Goldfinch-Stalmine to Manchester

Still Balmy

Driving up to Pilling this morning I listened to a radio programme where the presenters discussed how this November is set to be the warmest on record. So until the UK sits receives cooler air from the east or north, birding will stay a little quiet with some species in low numbers and yet others apparently absent altogether.

That synopsis is my justification for a quiet couple of hours with amazingly similar notebook entries to recent days, together with an absence of new sightings or additional species. However it was an agreeable morning, and for the record here are the sightings.

Ridge Farm and Fluke Hall Lane: 45 Linnet, 8 Greenfinch, 9 Reed Bunting, 14 Blackbird, 2 Little Egret, 2 Snipe, 8 Skylark, 6 Meadow Pipit, 12 Tree Sparrow, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Treecreeper, 400+ Jackdaw, 300+ Woodpigeon and a herd of 32 Whooper Swan. On the drive from Lambs Lane, I’d already counted 15/20 Blackbirds, so although there are plenty of those around, there are no Redwings or Fieldfares to be found. Even if the coloured thrushes turn up now there is also a distinct lack of hawthorn berries for them to feed on, and with the benefit of hindsight 2011 has not been a very berry year.

Whooper Swan
Reed Bunting
Tree Sparrow

Lane Ends/Pilling Water: A Stoat ran across the road stayed hidden under the hawthorns when I stopped the car, but as I parked up for a few minutes waiting for the animal to show I spotted the regular Merlin crossing Backsands Lane then perching up on the inner embankment. Looking from the car park the Peregrine was 500 yards out, immobile on the same bit of marsh it has occupied all week, likewise 6 Little Egrets walking in and out of the familiar tidal channels. A walk to Pilling Water revealed just 2 Skylarks and the regular Kestrel.

At Pilling Water the Hi-fly bloke bemoaned the lack of wildfowl, with just 150 Teal and a handful of Pintail on their pools, plus his one and only Woodcock sighting of the autumn. As we chatted he related how there may have been up to 30,000 Pink-footed Geese in recent times, an extraordinary number if correct, but counting or possibly duplicating restless geese can be a more inexact science than counting birds that pass by just once. My count today of the many overhead skeins of geese heading in various directions, in and out of the marsh, and beyond the tide line was in comparison a miserable 3,500.

He told me how last winter during the snow, frost and days of 600 Teal he saw a Bittern, stood bolt upright trying to merge into the background of maize as the loaded quad chugged past. “Not much chance of a Bittern or more wildfowl just yet” we agreed, as we had a good old moan about the British weather.

The wind should drop overnight; let’s hope there are a few birds at the ringing sites.