Birding And A Roving Linnet

It was birding only this morning with bright and breezy conditions on Rawcliffe Moss providing good visibility and a healthy selection of birds to keep me occupied for a few hours. I’d gone to fill the feeders and check what might be knocking about with a view to a ringing session tomorrow if the wind drops as promised.

As strange as it may seem scarce Yellowhammers outnumbered common Goldfinch this morning, with 10/12 of the former and just 8 or 10 Goldfinches, the only problem being that the buntings are much harder to observe, and certainly to catch than the Goldfinch. I topped up the Niger feeders and then raided the bottom of the pheasant feeders for a little more wheat for the Yellowhammers whilst wondering where all the Goldfinches have got to.

Yellowhammer
Pheasant

The plantation proved quiet, a couple of Blackbirds, 2 Song Thrush, 1 Jay, 3+ overflying Siskin, several Chaffinch and then 3 Buzzards settling their differences over the tall conifers. The wintering Hen Harrier showed again today as it flew over the plantation and then out towards Pilling Moss, just a brief sighting of a species which should by now be heading for the hills. Let’s hope it can stay safe from persecution up there after surviving the winter here. The fields produced 125 returning-north Curlew and then on a tiny flash of water, 14 Snipe and a single Meadow Pipit.

At the other end of the farm I found 2 Grey Partridge, 30+ Tree Sparrows, 2 more Buzzards, a pair of Kestrel and a singing Pied Wagtail. I made a mental note of a Mistle Thrush inspecting a suitable nest site, one to check in a week or two.

Kestrel
Pied Wagtail

Last week on 14th March I caught a ringed Linnet A376420 which turned out to have been ringed across the Irish Sea at Point of Ayre, Isle of Man on 22 October 2011. The Linnet was one of a wintering flock of 200/400 Linnets and when recaptured here on the moss was also part of a Linnet flock of 100-140 birds. The bird’s origins and its whereabouts after Out Rawcliffe remain something of a mystery, but it could be an upland bird seeking out a wintering maritime climate.

Linnet Y376420 - Isle of Man to Rawcliffe Moss
Linnet

Bright Spots

Sunday dawned clear and sunny with a light northerly wind, probably less than ideal conditions for realising major migration, either visible movement or fresh-in grounded birds. So it proved, with notebook entries suggesting I’d maybe used carbon paper below Thursday’s and Friday’s pages, the one exception being a line noting my first Wheatear of the year.

The Wheatear was at the expected spot near Pilling Water. I set two tent traps with a meal worm in each and then retreated to a safe distance. The odds are better when there are several Wheatears and also when a warming sun makes the meal worm wriggle to attract sharp eyed chats. No luck today, the Wheatear took a close look but wasn’t tempted by cold, motionless worms and within ten minutes the bird had flown off across the salt marsh and then north towards Heysham.

Wheatear

There wasn’t a lot doing at Pilling Water – 1 Cormorant, 4 Teal, 2 Meadow Pipit, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel and 1 Sparrowhawk, but 450 Pink-footed Geese an improvement on recent counts. There was perhaps a little more at Fluke Hall today with 26 Lapwing, 47 Redshank, 14 Oystercatcher, 2 Grey Plover, 8 Pied Wagtail, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Buzzard and an additional Kestrel.

Lane Ends fare was fairly predictable with 5 Tufted Duck, 1 Goldeneye, 2 Teal, a singing Reed Bunting, 4 Meadow Pipit, 1 Kestrel and 3 Jay.

At home there were a few chores to complete, with the garden net open because there seemed to be Goldfinches about; I hoped there might be new ones, plus there was a Goldcrest flitting through a neighbouring garden. I caught the Goldcrest and a new Dunnock within minutes but the resident, probably already ringed Goldfinches stayed clear.

Goldcrest

It was lovely if uneventful morning to be out, the couple of bright spots the Wheatear and then after, the belated Goldcrest.

Less Goldcrests - More Geese

I checked Fluke Hall again this morning because after Thursday’s influx of Goldcrests I wanted to see how many were left after the clearer skies of last night. Seemingly most of them had moved on, with just a single sighting, the barely audible Goldcrest contact calls of yesterday replaced today by the ringing sounds of at least 3 Siskins high overhead.

It was very quiet otherwise, with a dozen or so Meadow Pipits and a single Pied Wagtail. On the blog yesterday I forgot to mention the 5 wary Barnacle Geese on the Hi-Fly stubble. The Barnacles were still there today, looking equally as wild and suspicious as the few Pink-footed Geese they fed with.

The Barnacle Goose has an interesting myth that dates back to the 12th century. These geese were thought to have hatched from barnacles "organisms that grow on timber exposed to salt water" furthermore creating a barnacle tree in which the geese lived in their shell hanging from the tree. The purpose of this myth was to allow religious folk to eat the meat during Lent under the delusion the tasty flesh of the goose was fish. It wasn't until the 17th century that scientists debunked the myth when they discovered that in the remote Arctic regions Barnacle Geese built nests in trees on high cliffs and when the goslings hatched, they fell into the water. This discovery put an end to the mystical tree growing geese and at the same time provided the species with a name.

No such legend for the White-fronted Goose that simply gets its name from their white patch above the bill. Near Lane Ends I found two in the same field again, one with a gammy leg which may account for them not venturing too far lately.

Barnacle Goose
White-fronted Goose

Nothing much to report from Lane Ends/Pilling Water sea wall stretch except the usual 2 Kestrel, 5 Little Egret, 1 Pied Wagtail, 12 Meadow Pipits, 1 Greenshank and 2 displaying Buzzards today. At the plantation I heard more Siskins overhead, watched a single Redpoll head north east and noted a fresh-in Reed Bunting. On the water - 2 Goldeneye and 2 Little Grebe.

Sea Wall - Pilling
Meadow Pipit

The Kestrel hovered into the wind and the light, and at the wrong angle to my camera.

Kestrel

Back at home 2 more Buzzards sailed over, heading out towards the copses near Staynall and the River Wyre.

Crests And A Chiff

I saved my walk until pm today, not that it made the weather any better as here in the bleak North West as we enjoyed our fifth day of 100% cloud cover. The usual Lane Ends to Pilling Water trek came up with 20+ Meadow Pipits, 3 Little Egret, 2 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 1 Pied Wagtail, 2 Kestrel and 2 Jays. The inevitable green duo Green Sandpiper and Greenshank graced the wildfowler’s pools with a couple of Teal still hanging on in there.

Fluke Hall was a little more rewarding than of late with a gang of 8 Goldcrest moving through the trees and a single Chiffchaff giving snatches of song. When I got home and looked on the Internet there seems to have been a mass fall of Goldcrests in the Fylde and elsewhere this morning, with possibly hundreds if not thousands of birds arriving from somewhere.

Goldcrest
Chiffchaff

I checked the sea wall at all the likely spots but still no sign of Wheatears. More grounded Meadow Pipits at Ridge Farm, circa 18 birds mixing it in the wet field with approximately 25 Linnets and the now resident 4 Reed Buntings.

Reed Bunting

Yellow Not Rustic

All morning I’d been watching Yellowhammers, also known as yellow buntings, as they arrived to feed on a mound of spilt wheat, and with 40+ sightings in three, fours and fives, I reckoned on at least 20 individuals involved in the comings and goings. Having caught a couple of the yellow buntings Emberiza citrinella I’d taken the nets down when a text came through about a rather rare Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica glimpsed on migration through Heysham, about 25 miles from my ringing spot on Rawcliffe Moss. Just as well I took a couple of pictures, the buntings I caught were definitely of a yellow cast rather than a rustic hue.

Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer

In addition to the Yellowhammers I also caught 4 Goldfinch, a single Chaffinch and a Linnet. The Linnet was a recapture from a ringer elsewhere - Y376420 anyone?

The light was so gloomy this morning I had to use ISO800.

Linnet
Chaffinch
Goldfinch

The murky, grey, overcast morning with a hint of a south easterly produced little in the way of visible migration again, the most notable being a loose flock of 40 Fieldfares mysteriously heading due west. Maybe the Rustic Bunting got caught up in the same weather trajectory and went west to Heysham instead of north to Scandinavia?

The photograph is by kind permission of Kjetil Hansen of Norway, a place where Rustic Buntings are fairly common.

Rustic Bunting - permission of Kjetil Hansen

Other sightings this morning: Still a winter flock of 100+ Chaffinch, 40 Linnet, 15 Goldfinch, 2 Jay, 2 Buzzard, 1 Tawny Owl, 1 Corn Bunting, 4 Reed Bunting, 2 Grey Partridge

That Winter Feeling

It was the local Pilling patch again this morning, hoping for migrants ideally, although I’m more than happy to see and watch all species and see what they are up to at this time of year.

You could say the morning started on a high with a Barn Owl sat on a roadside post along Fluke Hall Lane, the only problem being that the approach of a car caused the owl to fly off quickly towards a nearby farm building, and I didn’t see it again.

Barn Owl

A walk at Ridge Farm found 8 Lapwing, 4 Oystercatcher, 2 Reed Bunting, 5 Linnet, 4 Skylark, 2 Little Egret and 1 Pied Wagtail, with just a couple of small groups of overflying Meadow Pipits heading east along the sea wall, less than 20 birds in all. Later on at Lane Ends I noted a single overhead Meadow Pipit and despite the rather murky, grey morning I didn’t see any grounded pipits in a three hour walk, so I expect that any heading north found their way inland via the sea wall or managed to cross Morecambe Bay at some point.

Lane Ends to Pilling Water and then back involved approximately 2 hours of leisurely birding: 3 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Grey Heron, 4 Little Egret, 2 European White-fronted Goose, 30 Pink-footed Goose, 5 Teal, 1 Mistle Thrush, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Greenfinch, 45 Lapwing, 24 Curlew, 25 Oystercatcher, 30 Redshank, 1 Greenshank, 1 Green Sandpiper.

Many species were noted either singing or in display mode, including Skylark, Lapwing, Redshank, Mistle Thrush, Little Grebe, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Robin, Dunnock and Chaffinch. So although spring is in the air, without a spot of sunshine or a rush of March migration this morning’s birding had a winter sensation to it still.

Redshank
Lapwing

Follower 300 arrived, hello Tomás. Nice pictures of Stone Curlew.

Things Can Only Get Better

Sometimes the Spring optimism is overtaken by the reality of a dull early March morning on the moss, where birds are hard to come by and visible migration is often less obvious than in the autumn. It does seem that birds moving north in spring stay with the coast more, plus of course there are a lot less birds in total than after a prolonged and successful breeding season.

That fact was brought home to me this morning when I had a text from the lads at Rossall to say vis was good and they had caught 15 birds at that point in time. My short text in response simply said “No vis - 4 goldf caught”. An hour later my total birds caught increased to 5 with a single unexciting Greenfinch added and not a lot of other stuff in the notebook to make the morning appear more thrilling. With nothing doing I decided to pack in sooner with five birds rather than later with the same handful.

Greenfinch

The only visible migration I saw came in the form of 2 Meadow Pipits heading north east, followed an hour later by a loose assembly of 12 Fieldfares, chuckling loudly as they too flew directly north and east.

I tried to catch a few Yellowhammers, there were 8 or 10 about the spilt wheat plus two singing males further down the farm, but the birds weren’t interested in being caught today. The Linnets flock numbered 90+ today, and despite spending some time close to the nets they too were indifferent to sporting a shiny and new BTO ring for the season.

Yellowhammer
Linnet

Other birds seen: 1 Kestrel, 4 Grey Partridge, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 4 Lapwing, 3 Reed Bunting. As I drove off the farm I saw 2 more Fieldfares, this time in the field where a party fed for a few days a week or two ago.

Fieldfare

The morning didn’t improve when back at home I destroyed yet another vacuum flask by dropping the latest one on the hard-paved patio. How does that Howard Jones song go? - "You can walk my path, You can wear my shoes, But things can only get better”.