Black Red and Ringing

A lady from Knott End rang me to ask why there was more than one bird watcher near the jetty. I had to explain about the Black Redstart there. That’s the most exciting thing to happen at Knott End for many years. The cafe should sell a few more bacon butties this weekend.

Black Redstart

It’s still too breezy for ringing at winter sites, and stuck in the box for almost two weeks my pliers complained about feeling unloved and redundant. After several weeks of nothing much, a few Chaffinch, Goldfinch and Blackbirds returned to the garden this week, so I put up a single net to see what came along.

A few hours later I had caught a good selection of 15 birds; 6 Goldfinch, 2 Blackbird and one each of Dunnock, Chaffinch, Coal Tit, Robin, Blue Tit, Song Thrush and Starling. Not bad really as I don’t normally ring many Starlings, or even Song Thrushes now they are so scarce. I'd forgotten how good looking Starlings are, but only when they behave well.

Starling
Song Thrush
Coal Tit
Blue Tit

Goldfinch can be tricky, especially now that some first year birds moult primary feathers, but the one below still has brown primary coverts.

Goldfinch
Goldfinch

The Chaffinch was a first calendar year male – pale, worn tertial feathers, worn and thin central tail feathers.

Chaffinch
Chaffinch
Chaffinch

It’s No Secret

It’s just birding at the moment with constant blustery weather making a ringing session out of the question at our wind-sensitive winter sites. The November totals will be dire but Will tells me he added one Robin to the figures when one flew into the van through an open door.

I wanted to go to Out Rawcliffe for a look around this morning before I realised today is a shoot day. A local told me there’s yet another feasibility study taking place into the siting of a “farm” of 125 metre high wind-turbines on the moss. On several occasions in the last year or two Will and I had seen the bird surveyors, birders who do the leg work of the consultants by spot counting every month. If you ask, they claim they don’t know why they are counting and what the final counts will be used for! It’s all too political for me, but I hope the same individuals have declared possibly conflicting interests to in turn, their employee and local natural history groups they represent.

This grandiose scheme is the latest attempt after an earlier proposal was chucked out a couple of years ago on the grounds of harm to the area's huge wintering flocks of Pink-footed Geese, wildfowl and breeding birds in general. Rawcliffe Moss is also a Biological Heritage Site. Don’t these companies ever give up in wanting to cover the countryside in concrete and visual eyesores? In the last month up to 15,000 geese have flown in to the moss to feed in the half light of early mornings, some of which were murky, misty, even foggy, the type of morning when geese in particular are known to lose their bearings. Fresh minced Pinkie anyone?

Pink-footed Goose
Goose Mincing Machine

There was time for a look at Pilling this morning where I found my glove from last week without finding a lot different on the bird front. Pink-footed Geese were to the fore, the foreshore in fact with circa 1500 at Fluke Hall and c2500 at Lane Ends.

Passerines proved difficult to find again with 8 Tree Sparrow, 6 Greenfinch, 11 Linnet and 22 Twite at Fluke Hall, the latter two species in separate flock as ever, but also separated by their jizz and their habitat choices. Rarely if ever do I see these closely related species together. On this occasion the Linnet were along Ridge Farm hedgerow, the Twite on the salt marsh.

Twite
Linnet

Just 18 Whooper Swans behind the sea wall with a Merlin giving a splendid fly past, but it was a Peregine that constantly spooked a couple of thousand Lapwing and 600 Teal at Broadfleet. Just 4 Little Egrets today, with 2 Goldeneye and 2 Tufted Duck on the pools.

Teal

Do You Need A Euro?

Yesterday’s south westerly gales blew overnight, but this morning was at least bright if still windy. It wasn’t a morning for walking, more like trying to stay upright against the strong blasts of cold air. It was warm enough in the car so I checked Fluke Hall Lane first where 45 Whoopers were still on Swan Lake and then close by, about 50 Pink-footed Goose with 2 White fronted Geese of the European variety.

In the UK, two races of White fronted Geese (Anser albifrons) overwinter, generally Greenland birds in Scotland and Ireland, with Russian/European birds in England and Wales, with this winter seeing an as yet unexplained, and greater than normal influx of the euro birds. In North America where the Greenland race occurs, it is known as the Greater White-fronted Goose, so named for the patch of white feathers bordering the base of its bill. But even more distinctive are the barred markings on the breast of adult birds, which is why the goose is called the "Specklebelly" in North America.

The 2 whitefronts separated off and flew inland, but just up the road near Lane Ends I was to see 3 others. Jackdaws and Woodpigeons crowded in the stubble, panicking off occasionally to allow a rough count of 300 each. 4 Skylarks here too. There was nothing doing at Fluke hall itself except for the unusual sight of a drake Pintail on the wooded pool, perhaps a casualty of last week’s shoot.

Pintail

The fields adjoining Backsands Lane were full of mainly Lapwings and Golden Plover with a small number of Redshank, probably 2000 Lapwings, 1200 Golden Plover and 50 Redshank. I guess the severe overnight winds had driven them all off the marshes to seek shelter behind the sea wall, but the accompanying rain also brought food near the surface of the now puddled fields.

Lapwing and Golden Plover
Lapwing

In the field opposite Lane Ends were 3 more White-fronted Goose, one limping quite badly, a feature which may serve to keep track of it in the next week or two. I chanced a walk to the pools where 2 Goldeneye and 2 Tufted Duck remain, but no wind-blown waifs and strays. In the trees near the car park were 1 Treecreeper, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 4 Chaffinch and 8 Long-tailed Tits.

White-fronted Goose

I drove up to Knott End to see what the tide had blown in. No unexpected seabirds or gulls, but the usual fare of Eider, but 29 a good count, 40 Turnstone, 22 Sanderling, 120 Oystercatcher, 19 Twite and 12 Red-breasted Merganser.

Sanderling

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.