A Little Bunting Day

The intention was to just fill the feeders and drop more seed for the hungry Bramblings at Rawcliffe, and then do a little birding, leaving the ringing for the better forecast of tomorrow. With the wind speed nil and a number of birds around I decided to stay for a while, until that is the wind picked up about 1030 and forced me to close the nets. 

In the meantime more Bramblings appeared in the nets along with a national rarity, a Little Bunting Emberiza pusilla. Little Buntings breeds across the taiga of the far northeast of Europe and northern Asia. It is a migratory species wintering in the subtropics of northern India, southern China and the northern parts of Southeast Asia. It is a rare vagrant to Western Europe and the UK. 

Birds caught: 4 Brambling, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Chaffinch, 2 Goldfinch, 1 Little Bunting. 

The Little Bunting was in a net alongside two Reed Buntings, the Little Bunting immediately recognisable because of its diminutive size, fine, straight bill, distinctive head pattern, obvious whitish eye ring and pink legs. The measurements were equally tiny, a wing length of 68mm and a weight of just 12.7 grams. 

Little Bunting

Little Bunting

For comparison with the smaller bunting, one of today’s male Reed Buntings. 

Reed Bunting - Emberiza schoeniclus

More Bramblings today takes the winter November to March total here to 55, so definitely something of a “Brambling Winter” with the second highest yearly total of this species for the ringing group. The Reed Bunting total for the same winter period stands now at 49 birds as the buntings continue to roam local farmland, eventually finding their way to my feeding station. 

Brambling

Brambling

Mentioning Reed Buntings reminds me  of a couple of recent records of their local autumn/ winter wanderings. The first involved a young bird Y763574 ringed in the summer of 2012 on July 30th at the Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, near Silverdale. I recaptured the bird at Rawcliffe Moss on 5th January 2013, a distance of just 34 kms - a fairly typical way that Reed Buntings seem to roam during autumn and winter. 

A second record involves Y279071, a first calendar year Reed Bunting caught at Out Rawcliffe on 25th September 2011 and later caught by another ringer at Knott End on 29th January 2012. This bird too shows another typical short distance movement of just 10kms. 

Reed Bunting movements

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Snowy Scene

What a strange day for birding. There was a bitterly cold easterly wind as the BBC said there would be, but one minute I’m out in the sunshine enjoying a good bit of birding, and then two minutes later scurrying for the car to escape horizontal snow showers. Listening to the radio and waiting for the shower to stop it seems the maritime Fylde is surrounded by snow to the north, east and south once again. 

Sunny Showers

It's On The Way

Snow Shower - Out Rawcliffe

I was out on the moss again topping up the finches with niger and their regular seed mix, and not before time after being unable to get there yesterday. The birds are becoming quite astute, disappearing as soon as I approach the dropping point, and then by the time I stand there filling the feeders the place is devoid of birds. A stranger to the site would quickly abandon any birding there on the assumption there were no birds to see. After a while the finches return allowing a count of sorts as 10 Brambling, 15 Chaffinch, 6 Reed Bunting, 8 Goldfinch, 2 Yellowhammer, 4 Blackbirds and a Song Thrush. 

The Robin often waits near the car hoping for seed spill when the car stops and a gust of wind blows spilled seed from the open hatchback.

Robin

More interesting today was the number of birds on nearby stubble, most of them visible only when a Hen Harrier motored in from the west in fly-fast surprise rather than slow-quartering pounce mode. As it flew rapidly over the fields the harrier dislodged 120+ Skylark, 35 Corn Bunting, 18 Fieldfare, 60+ Woodpigeon and 90+ Starling from just one field as pandemonium took hold. With so much food in the offing and snow still blanketing the hills, no wonder the harrier is staying put for now. 

Hen Harrier

Snow in Bowland

The car window was down and as I drove further down the farm a female Sparrowhawk came off the roadside and then flew in and then out of the adjacent wood to escape attention. The hawk wasn’t unnoticed by the resident Tawny Owl though, the owl giving out a couple of territorial hoots to see off the Sparrowhawk. That  ploy worked well enough on the hawk but made me head into the wood instead. I found the Tawny in what looked like a well-used roosting spot of a low, ivy covered stump of a tree. No sign of its mate which could well be sat on eggs by now and keeping those snowflakes at bay. 

Tawny Owl

Other bits and bobs today - 1 Grey Heron, 1 Mistle Thrush, 30+ Tree Sparrow, 1 Kestrel, 1 Buzzard, 1 Little Owl. 

Little Owl

More soon from Another Bird Blog, but just for a change of scene and a hint of what’s on the menu here next week, try Princeton University Press Blog .

In the meantime today I'm linking up with Stewart's photo gallery.

Friday Fix

With a cold easterly breeze and full grey cloud the morning held spits of rain, as well as the promise of more to come, so kicking my heels I waited until the sky brightened a touch then headed out Pilling Way hoping to finish Friday with a flourish. 

I gave the Fluke Hall and Ridge Farm area a decent going over without finding anything spectacular, least of all an early Wheatear in such unpromising conditions. A number of Pied Wagtails were searching the recently ploughed fields and the roadside midden where more than one local family dump their horse manure, the resulting gunk as good a place as any to look for feeding birds. Mixed in with the mainly wagtail flock were a couple of Meadow Pipits, 6 or 7 Skylarks, and towering above the passerines 40+ Oystercatcher, several Lapwing, 4 Redshank and 3 Curlew, all burying their bills a little deeper than the small birds could manage. 

Oystercatcher

Pied Wagtail

Further back in the same field were 400+ Pink-footed Geese, a small sample of the several thousand out beyond the sea wall towards Lane Ends. All the geese took flight a little later when a light aeroplane flew over sending the birds in the air for a few minutes before they settled back to feeding on the marsh again. 

Pink-footed Goose

Other bits and bobs here and from the sea wall: 2 Mistle Thrush, 1 Reed Bunting, 5 Little Egret, and a couple of singing Chaffinches with calling females close by. 

Backsands Lane has dried out more than a little, birds there today restricted to 30 Redshank, 15 Lapwing, 10 Greylag and the resident Kestrel. From Lane Ends car park Pilling Marsh was a mass of distant grey geese, too far out to make anything of in the murky light. 

Cockerham proved better with a distant, albeit good selection of birds, mostly waders on the managed flood - 80+ Dunlin, 40 Redshank, 120 Golden Plover, 300 Starling, 15 Curlew, 1 Little Egret and 160+ Lapwing. 

Golden Plover

A number of male Lapwings were in full display mode, tumbling crazily over the field, showing off their flying skills to females below. I could see one of the females a distance away had a ring on its left leg, the bird too far away and the light too poor to read the inscription. 

Lapwings are not only long-lived but also extremely site faithful through generations and I wondered if this female was one of the hundreds of Lapwing chicks I’d ringed along this stretch of coast over many years - perhaps no, but possibly yes. More visits required in a week or two when the female will be there and perhaps much closer, looking after a clutch of youngsters and still displaying the evidence of an earlier day in my company when I gave her a shiny new ring.

Lapwing

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Today's post is linking to Madge's Top Shot  and to Anni's Birding Blog . 

Blown Off Course

Morning rain put paid to any huge ambition today, so when the rain cleared about midday leaving little wind but with a grey sky I decided to head to Rawcliffe where I could check the feeding station. 

There seemed to be a decent number of Chaffinch and Brambling about again, all scattering from the seed drop zone as I approached, so I put up a couple of nets before leaving a couple of litres of seed. I caught just three Bramblings, 2 new and a recapture from recent days before the wind sprung up unannounced causing me to take the nets down again. It was very annoying again after a similar episode last week, but the few Bramblings pushed my total here to 51 new ones during the full winter period. 

When I looked at the data on IPMR these birds split as 42 juvenile/second calendar year and 9 adults roughly 50/50 each sex.

Brambling - second calendar year male

Brambling - second calendar year male 

It stayed dry but very overcast so a little birding was in order. Finches around the feeding area totalled 10 Brambling, 10 Chaffinch, 14 Goldfinch and 4 Reed Bunting, a reduction in recent numbers. I note that after the recent dry spell many fields which remained as stubble throughout the winter have now been ploughed, thus leaving less fields for finches and others to feed in. If only we could have such stubble fields every winter, as we used to do before farmers took to winter crops. 

Buzzards are a permanent fixture here on the moss with the 4 individuals I saw today in the overcast skies representing 4 breeding sites I know of, with many more not too far away. Other raptors pm were a Sparrowhawk molesting one of the above Buzzards and a Peregrine which came from the direction of Pilling and scattered roughly 90 Woodpigeons from the tree tops of the nearby conifer plantation. 

Over towards Lancaster Lane the Lapwings and Starlings indulged in periodic panic with many hundreds in the air together at times giving rough counts of 280 and 600 respectively. A couple of Lapwings have now taken up residence on the farm in the same areas used in previous years. 

Other sightings: 60+ Curlew heading north, 2 Yellowhammer, 18 Corn Bunting, 40+ Tree Sparrow, 4 Song Thrush (2 pairs) and 9 Roe Deer. 

The nine deer were in separate groups of 4 and 5 animals. As an aside, and from the national newspapers today - “There are currently around 1.5million deer in the UK, and experts say that unless numbers are managed, the deer population will escalate out of control and they will soon be considered vermin”. I wouldn’t say deer are a major problem around but I know they break through electric fences causing valuable livestock to wander and to occasionally get lost. 

Roe Deer

Back to the birds. The Corn Bunting picture was taken on a sunnier day than today but it’s the tree the buntings always fly to when they have been disturbed from their favoured feeding spot. 

Corn Bunting

A bit of a short day and a rather undersized post but please tune in to Another Bird Blog soon for the better birding experience.

Back To Pilling

There’s been a lot to do Rawcliffe way so it has been weeks since I went in the direction of Pilling, especially since the road was closed and the sea wall out of bounds from Boxing Day until the end of the shooting season. This morning was too breezy for ringing so with a couple of hours to spare I turned left at the main road, Pilling bound. 

The berry-laden bush at the Fordstone Road junction has lain untouched by birds most of the winter. The hawthorn is smack bang on the corner of the busy junction, where pedestrians and/or cars are virtually non-stop, enough to scare off the local Blackbirds, and now into March the berries have nearly all dropped to the ground with any that remain turned now to a dark red colour. There must be some goodness left in the berries because there were two Waxwings there this morning, even as the local kids trooped noisily past on their way to school; the children could almost have reached out and touched the birds had they noticed them. I grabbed a couple of shots of the Waxwings as they moved around the other side of the hawthorn, intent on staying near their breakfast. 

Bohemian Waxwing

Bohemian Waxwing

Lambs Lane had 2 Kestrels, so more pictures to add to my recent run of Kestrel shots. The local population of Kestrels seems very high this winter and things are looking good for the breeding season. 

Kestrel

From Backsands Lane I walked up to the sea wall, just to check it was still there after my enforced absence. Out of sheer habit I peered down at the Wheatear rocks where in two or three weeks the Wheatears will be; none today and no passerines either but there was a Greenshank, a Redshank and an Oystercatcher on the wildfowlers pool. There was a Greenshank in December, and I’m guessing it’s the same one wintering here. 

Greenshank

The flood at Backsands held a good number of geese and waders: 900 Golden Plover, 350 + Lapwing, 40 Curlew, 45 Dunlin, 14 Redshank, 5 Teal, 1500+ Pink-footed Goose and 10 Greylag. Overflying or in the United Utilities compound I noted 4 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Mistle Thrush and 2 Pied Wagtail. 

Pink-footed Goose

Synchronised Landing - Pink-footed Goose

Greylag Goose

Not a bad result for a couple of hours work. Log in soon to Another Bird Blog for more news and views of birds and birding. 

Today the blog is linking to Stewart's Photo Gallery .

Norway Bound

Maybe the blog’s been a little repetitive lately, all the same old stuff for weeks on end, Chaffinches, Bramblings and Goldfinches, together with a glut of Reed Buntings to vary the diet of finches. Well that’s how winter is around here, slogging away at the regular stuff out Rawcliffe way until March and April when the excitement suddenly switches to birds arriving from Africa. 

Today proved much the same but held a welcome surprise together with thoughts that a number of the birds I caught held secrets I could only guess at. 

Lighter mornings now mean earlier starts so I was there at 0630 with nets up soon after, followed by a four hour session which yielded 22 new birds with 4 recaptures and to add to the Goldfinch control of Thursday, a further “control” in the shape of a Norwegian ringed Brambling. New birds: 6 Goldfinch, 6 Chaffinch, 4 Brambling, 4 Reed Bunting, 2 Fieldfare. Recaptures: 2 Goldfinch, 1 Chaffinch and 1 Brambling. 

The Brambling recapture had been ringed here 6th December 2012, so was clearly a wintering bird which joined in with the sometimes huge Chaffinch flocks hereabouts since December of last year. 

A fine looking male Brambling I took from one net looked to have a large, dull, possibly foreign ring on its right leg. On closer inspection the ring, ED78766 bore a Stavanger, Norway address. This adult bird must have been ringed in Norway in 2011 or earlier and journeyed south to the UK or elsewhere in the winter of 2011/2012 and now the winter of 2012/2013. Any day now it will surely be heading back to Norway or beyond to spend another summer. The record of today’s capture will be sent to the BTO at the month end with the original ringing details following on in due course. 

ED78766

Brambling

Two Fieldfares were caught at first light as they exited a roost situated in the dense woodland north of my ringing area. Fieldfares winter here in the UK too with similar times of arrival from Northern Europe and Scandinavia as the Bramblings, as well as comparable times of heading back that way. Very soon we say goodbye to Bramblings and Fieldfares until November. This last week I’ve caught a few good sized Chaffinches, males over 90mm and females 86/87mm wing lengths, all suggestive of European or Scandinavian origin. 

Fieldfare

Chaffinch

Six new Goldfinches today to add to recent ones is very indicative of the species returning north and probably the aforementioned control of Thursday D137544 .

Goldfinch

Counts and observations from birding today: Barn Owl at dawn, 18 Redwing, 12 Fieldfare, 3 Buzzard, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Kestrel, 20 Corn Bunting, 19 Yellowhammer, 130 Chaffinch, 2 Curlew, 2 Mistle Thrush. 

Kestrel

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On Target Again

There was a little frost at home in semi-rural Stalmine and with the promise of sunshine there was nothing to deter an early start for a spot of ringing. Out on the wide open and exposed Rawcliffe Moss seven miles inland the frost was more obvious. 

I waited in the car with a cup of coffee and the engine running until the sun came up and the Roe Deer had run in the opposite direction. A rampant Roe Deer can destroy a £100 mist net in the split second it takes the animal to crash straight through it. 

"Frosty"

Roe Deer

The rising sun brought warmth and bird movement as they began to arrive for a breakfast of mixed seed - wheat, sunflower, niger, kibbled maize and red dari. Whatever is in the bag certainly works well enough with another 22 birds caught, all of the target species: New birds - 8 Brambling, 4 Goldfinch, 4 Reed Bunting and 3 Chaffinch. Two others were a Brambling recapture from recent weeks and a Chaffinch from 2012. 

F

Field Sheet

Reed Bunting

The eagle eyed may have noticed on the photograph of the field sheet a Goldfinch “control” - “control” being ringers’ jargon for a bird bearing a ring from elsewhere, in this case D137544, a second calendar year female. I knew it wouldn’t be mine. The ring was on the left leg and I ring on the other. 

Goldfinch D137544 

This is the adult male Brambling which carried a little fat, weighing in at 26.6 grams. 

Brambling - adult male

Brambling - adult male

Most of today’s Bramblings were second calendar year females. 

Brambling - second calendar year female

The morning’s birding was rather subdued with 50/60 Fieldfare and 200 Starlings still in the stubble field, 25 Goldfinch, 18 Reed Bunting, 10+ Brambling, 10 Chaffinch and 2 Yellowhammer. Overhead came 3+ Siskin, 15 Curlew flying west, 1 Buzzard and 2 Kestrel. 

Further down the farm track the Little Owl sat warming up in the bright sunshine but I couldn’t linger. Lunch beckoned. 

Little Owl - Athene noctua

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