Coasting

Three sunny mornings on the trot and weather-wise things are looking up. Knott End was first stop this morning where I sat at the jetty watching 3 Sandwich Terns fishing the incoming tide when a stranger engaged me in conversation. It transpired that my new found acquaintance was familiar with Sandwich Terns as he lives in Dover, Kent. Dover is just along the coast from the town of Sandwich where the Sandwich Tern was first described in 1787 by the ornithologist John Latham. 

The gent explained he was up here in Lancashire in support for his wife who was engaged in walking the green coastal paths of England. Here was his good lady at 8 a.m. not only raring to go on the next leg of the journey by walking from Pilling to Glasson Dock a journey of some 12 miles, but absolutely enthused and overwhelmed about the beauty of our UK coastline, and this stretch of Morecambe Bay in particular. I declined the invitation to join in by explaining about a previous bird watching appointment at Pilling later that morning, but the encounter left me reinvigorated.

Knott End

 

Sandwich Tern

Glasson Dock

As my new found friends set off on their journey I found more birds here at Knott End by way of 40+ Oystercatchers on the tideline along with 30+ Bar-tailed Godwit, 4 Sanderling, 3 Dunlin and 1 Ringed Plover. 

Dunlin

Just a handful of wildfowl today - 3 Shelduck, 2 drake Eider and 4 Mallard. 

There was also my old friend the Pied Wagtail, the same footless bird of 2012 which still belongs about the jetty and the sea wall, his one gammy foot now reduced to a tiny stub, the other leg seemingly not much better. To cap it all the poor creature seems to have lost all tail feathers, perhaps as a result of the lower centre of gravity causing his trailing feathers to wear out more quickly than they otherwise would? Certainly he looked and behaved in remarkably good condition as he flew about the sea wall in pursuit of the next meal. 

Pied Wagtail

A walk up river and alonsidse the golf course produced a singing Whitethroat plus overflying Goldfinch, Linnet, 4 Swift and several Swallows. 

Reaching Lane Ends I turned my attention to Lapwings and Redshanks again, this time finding another good sized Lapwing chick. If the chick had run instead of crouching it would for sure have outpaced me, the size of the bird almost certainly ensuring it sticks around to adulthood. As in recent years the number of chicks reaching this stage of development in 2013 is low. This gives no spare capacity for the Lapwings to increase their local population but more likely they will struggle to even maintain it at low levels.

Lapwing chick

Lapwing chick

Towards Fluke Hall I noted the first post-breeding flock of Lapwings, 35 of them flying in unison across the marsh – how soon is the breeding season over for Lapwings. Otherwise quiet except for a Grey Heron, now 2 Corn Buntings and a single Buzzard leaving the wood pursued by crows.  

The lady was exactly right, our coast is wonderful, and although we know that it's fantastic in so many ways, maybe we sometimes take it for granted? 

Monday Meanderings

The Buzzards were calling and circling high in the blue when I arrived on the moss. The dry weather and resulting farming activity had probably caused the birds to investigate the disturbance from a safe distance. Our local Buzzards are not ones to stay put and so pinpoint the nest if there are potential villains around, but many farmers about here don’t notice Buzzards and have better things to do than go out of their way to harm the birds. Rough shooters might, the danger being that many of them can’t tell arse from elbow, their knowledge of birds other than their precious “game” being infinitesimal. 

I think the weather of the last six months has also caused problems for Buzzards just as it has for many other resident species. This has resulted in low populations for the start of the breeding season, with just two pairs in an area I know well compared to 4 pairs in recent years. The nests are at the top of the tallest conifers in each wood, the shy adults departing the wood via the back door long before an intruder nears the livestock-proof ditch and fence. I found evidence of a recent meal, the Buzzards having left tufts of fur from a bunny or a hare on a plucking post. I couldn’t find proof that the raptors might have brought game birds here and they’d struggle to bring in a native Grey Partridge as that species is almost certainly locally extinct, competing as it must with thousands of released pheasants and red-legs for four months of the year. 

Buzzard

Buzzard plucking post - bunny fur

The woods proved quite productive in other ways, the other species tolerating the Buzzards’ presence. There was a Blackbird nest in a tree hole, a calling Nuthatch, a Great-spotted Woodpecker feeding a noisy family hidden away in a holy tree, singing Blackcap and singing Garden Warbler. I checked a Carrion Crow nest and found 3 healthy young, so torn between being conservationist or ringer I slapped rings on each then wished them luck for the winter shoots. Boy that chick is ugly but I’m sure his mum loves him. 

Great-spotted Woodpecker

"Woodpeckered" Tree

Carrion Crow chick

The plantation was full of singing birds - 5 Willow Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 6 Whitethroat, 1 Reed Bunting and 2 Blackcap. On a recently seeded field were 12 Stock Dove and a couple of Lapwings plus 2 singing Corn Bunting along the margin. And Yellowhammers were in full song today, their “little bits of bread and cheese” going a good way in the calm conditions. 

At the barn Pied Wagtails were feeding young, the nest in a pile of cut and stacked wood, and from the size of the meals the chicks were receiving I reckoned they wouldn’t be too far from fledging. A Little Owl was hanging about the building, the wagtails not entering until the owl was safely in the roof spaces.

Pied Wagtail

My cue to head home for a bite to eat too. More news and views soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Stewart's Photo Gallery .

Flaming June

Following the coldest spring for 50 years today is June 1st, the start of the “flaming” month - we’ll see. June is traditionally the time when many birders hang up their bins for a while, get out the paint brushes and garden tools to catch up on the jobs they promised to do months ago but for which they never quite found the time. I got another stay of execution when Sue went off to Manchester shopping, so with it being a bit too windy for painting or mowing the lawn I headed off birding, hoping for a few bits and bobs. 

The morning started fairly well at Lane Ends with a pulli Lapwing, one of two I saw a couple of days ago but then too far into the field alongside a busy road. This morning the now single chick was yards away from the previous spot but now just the other side of a handily situated and easily vaulted gate. The chick was a good deal bigger and more mature than ones I ringed earlier in the week, so with luck should survive to flying stage. Between here and Fluke Hall there have probably been 15 breeding pairs, with I’m told by a fellow birder, about 15 pairs up at Braides. There’s nothing much in between except for many hundreds of sheep munching the fields to bowling green height or more grass to feed even more animals through the winter. 

Lapwing chick

Things look fairly grim again for the iconic Lapwing, the adopted symbol of many local organisations keen to promote their green credentials. A peek online at the BTO ringing totals for Lancashire showed that only 49 Lapwings were ringed in the county in 2012, a pretty miserable total given how common and widespread the species was not too many years ago when it was easy to find many, many Lapwings. 

There’s a pair of Chaffinch nesting in the roadside hawthorns at Lane Ends, the male not wanting to give the game away but sitting stubbornly on the fence as the bright morning light frustrated any chance of a good exposure. 

Chaffinch

At Lane Ends several Wood Pigeons were feeding alongside the plantation and two Stock Doves on the marsh, all clattering off at my approach. In the clumps of phragmites 2 Reed Warblers could be heard above the rush of the wind through the trees, while along the sea wall the Corn Bunting’s song resonated from the barbed-wire fence. There doesn’t seem to be a female, the male feeding amongst the grasses on the sea wall until disturbed when it flies to the fence and begins to sing. 

Woodpigeon

There weren’t too many birds towards Fluke Hall but apart from the same nagging westerly it was an outstanding morning for a walk in the sun. A small number of Linnets and Goldfinches flew over while the Skylarks continue their mysterious comings and goings. Turning back towards Lane Ends I could see the Kestrel again flying over the marsh and sending the Lapwings and Redshanks into a frenzy of anxiety for their youngsters below. 

Redshank

The Kestrel got nothing again but rather like a birder, a ringer or someone with a camera he’ll be back later hoping for better luck. 

Visit Another Bird Blog soon to see photographs of a newly painted shed and a freshly cut lawn. You’d better believe it.

I'm linking tis post to http://id-rather-b-birdin.blogspot.co.uk/.

Chick Time

There’s not much to report today, but a few pictures nonetheless. 

A bright and breezy start at Fluke Hall gave a few warblers i.e. Blackcap, Lesser Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and 2 Common Whitethroat. There are a small number of finches in the area with 8+ Goldfinch and 4 Linnets today, with 4 - 6 pairs of Skylark. 

A check of Hi-Fly fields gave 30+ Swallows, 4 Swift and a single Sand Martin, with the pools and sea wall revealing 30+ Lapwing, 8 Oystercatcher, 25+ Redshank and a single Curlew wader-wise. A lone Kestrel from the Fluke Hall pair and on the lookout for an easy meal caused some panic amongst the waders when it flew across the fields, and then stopping to search the ground below. Like me the Kestrel knows there are small chicks about, but they are not easy to find with so many protective parents on watch. 

Kestrel

Redshank

Lapwing

One pair of the 3+ breeding Redshank had just one chick. Thankfully and with it being just a few days old it was a “croucher” rather than a “runner”, nature giving wader chicks well developed legs and feet from an early age, partly to allow them escape from predators. 

Redshank chick

I found just one Lapwing chick today, the wind on the exposed seaward side of the wall making watching extremely difficult. 

Lapwing chick

Not much doing at Lane Ends - 2 Reed Warbler, Long-tailed Tits, with Tufted Duck, Teal and Greylags on the pools. 

Log in soon to Another Bird Blog for a bird’s eye view and more cool chicks.

What IS That Warbler? - Book Review

Identifying North American warblers was never an easy task. My first trip to Long Point Bird Observatory Canada to coincide with spring migration proved an eye opener in every sense. Luckily I’d spent weeks beforehand swotting the Peterson Guide so had a reasonable handle on species I might encounter as a volunteer bander and field worker. But as a UK birder used to seeing, hearing and instantly recognising the dozen or two warblers of a typical UK Springtime, nothing quite prepares for the diversity of colours, plumages and often similar calls of the warblers of the USA and Canada. 

So when a new guide to the continent’s warblers promises to be “groundbreaking” and make warbler identification “easier than ever before”, with the undertaking to help the reader to “effectively learn songs and calls”, I had to take a look. The book in question is “The Warbler Guide”, by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle. The book is not on general release until July 2013 but was kindly sent to me by Princeton University Press in advance and for review on Another Bird Blog. 

The Warbler Guide

My first impression was that although The Warbler Guide covers just 56 species it is a hefty book of 550+ pages and at 7 x 9 inches and 2 inches thick would fit more easily in a handy bag or rucksack rather than a jacket pocket. As in the style of many guides nowadays, the aides to identification in The Warbler Guide are based upon photographs, in this case more than 1000 coloured pictures of US and Canadian warblers. The photographs are in the main excellent, many are quite outstanding given the challenges in photographing such an intensively active family of birds. 

If someone is looking to open the pages of The Warbler Guide and begin birding, they may be initially disappointed as it is page 138 before the species accounts begin. Any early frustration should be quickly dispelled because while those initial pages add to the bulk of the book, they contain a number of useful innovations which should be studied in depth before using the species accounts. This is especially true for less experienced or starting-out birders who could well find themselves overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task they face in IDing warblers at any time of the year, more so in the fall when less easily identified youngsters appear with moulting adults. This book will be invaluable to that learning curve but will also prove a useful assistant to the more experienced birder who twice a year has to tackle the Everest of warbler ID. 

The early part of The Warbler Guide includes sections entitled “What to notice on a warbler”, with illustrative photographs highlighting characteristics like size, shape, behaviour, the face, the body and the undertail. There is a short summary of general ageing and sexing techniques which includes advice on how to use the age/sex codes at the species account pages. 

The Warbler Guide - What to notice on a warbler

There follows a lengthy, 38 page section devoted to helping readers ID warblers by listening to them. The authors explain about sonograms, how to listen to warbler songs and also how to learn chip and flight calls. As one who struggles with sonograms I am somewhat biased in thinking that there is no substitute for the old-fashioned way of learning bird calls and song by experience in the field. However I applaud the authors for their very detailed charts and explanations and their willingness to share the latest understanding of this element of birding. Luckily for me and probably for many others, the authors will make a library of warbler songs and sounds available via their web site in time for the book’s publication in July. Furthermore a Smartphone App and an enhanced ebook will follow in spring 2014. The fact that Smartphones Apps are now almost universal raises the question in my mind of whether this section of the book and the two-page sonograms placed at the species accounts will be redundant sooner rather than later, and that reducing the number of pages devoted to this subject could usefully condense the book and achieve a more portable size? 

An innovative “Quick Finder” section contains valuable sections on face portraits, side views of the whole bird, 45 degree views, under views, and also separate pages of Eastern and Western undertails. In addition there is a “quick finder” for the geographical East in springtime or the autumn/fall periods, together with a “quick finder” for the West based upon spring only birds. This “Quick Finder” section contains another 20 plus pages devoted to identifying a species through highly descriptive and comparative sonograms of similar sounding species. 

Faces - The Warbler Guide

Undertails - The Warbler Guide

The actual species accounts are designed to help a reader narrow down the possibilities, including as they do views from above, the side or below, but also additional photos and “distinctive” views. Where applicable a species is shown in both ”bright” and “drab” versions with bullet pointed features of note, together with additional photographs depicting a comparison of colouration, brightness or hue via a set of skins or a set of partial views. The latter is an often incomplete picture a birder knows only too well. Variations in colour or brightness occur all too often so the direct comparisons offered here are highly useful and extremely valid additions to the information. Another innovation is the use of a set of icons which indicate basic colouration patterns, silhouettes, ranges, and where you're most likely to see the species. 

Wilson's Warbler - The Warbler Guide

Here it is worth mentioning how the authors have included colour-coded maps at each ageing and sexing account, the map detailing where a species takes a different migration route in spring and fall/autumn. Each map has a migration-span chart alongside illustrating how Early, Middle and Late waves of warblers can occur in locations during each season. This small but important feature shows a great deal of thought by the authors in helping readers to understand how adult birds, but more especially inexperienced juveniles, can turn up out of place and/or out of time, thus pointing out why a birder should always expect the unexpected. 

Cape May Warbler - The Warbler Guide

The alpha-order species accounts take up pages 138 to 525. These pages also include pictures and descriptions of non-warbler species which nonethelesss share shape and size characteristics, ID traps for the unwary which occur with warbler flocks, e.g. bird families like kinglets, verdins, gnatcatchers, vireos and even sparrows. 

At the end of the book a set of picture quizzes with answers allow readers the opportunity to test out their new found skills, while more pages illustrate and describe the warblers in flight. For those of a scientific bent there is a taxonomic and evolutionary chart compiled from the latest DNA research and analysis, plus a table of weights and measurements. 

North American Warbler Taxonomy - The Warbler Guide

In summary The Warbler Guide is a fine book crammed with photographs, tips, expert advice, innovation and information designed to help identify a unique and beautiful set of birds. As noted at the start of this review my only caveat is that because the book is so comprehensive and chockfull of guidance the actual physical aspect of it may make it rather unwieldy when used in the field. 

There is a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WarblerGuide with more information and the book is available to order now at Princeton Press priced at $29.95 or £19.95.

That’s Better

A fine, dry morning at last, and even the wind had dropped. Springtime here seems to have passed me by due to a combination of poor April weather, going on holiday, and then even more rubbish weather just when we needed it least. Now we are almost in June when migration ends and resident birds fall more silent. 

I set off from Lane Ends, packing a few rings into my bag - A size in case of late Wheatears, B for Skylark nests and D2 for any Lapwing chicks left after the crow assault and Hi-Fly’s farming activities. Lane Ends had singing Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler, and on the way to Pilling Water, the male Corn Bunting again, singing from a gate post. Out on the marsh were 3 Whimbrel, with a scan across revealing still 30+ Shelduck and 10+ Redshank in calling pairs. 

Corn Bunting

It was beyond Pilling Water where I found the Lapwing chicks, three of similar size but from separate broods. The grass up there is pretty long to find whole broods unless there is a “finder” and a “guide”, the latter to watch through binoculars and direct the finder to a spot where the Lapwing chick crouched to the ground. If only it was always that easy. 

Lapwing chick

The adults stay close, protesting loudly and keeping one eye on the intruder.

Lapwing

Lapwing

 Excitement over I walked towards Fluke Hall where I found more adult Lapwings but no observable chicks. In the area of Worm Pool I saw a couple of Redshank, 8 Oystercatcher, a Black-tailed Godwit, and perched up on the poolside vegetation a fine, male Whinchat. 

Whinchat

From the stile I counted a dozen or so Swallows and several Swifts hawking insects, my eyes diverted by a Buzzard leaving the trees of Fluke Hall, the raptor followed mercilessly by the obligatory crows. The crow shook them off just before it reached Pilling Water plantation. 

Buzzard and Carrion Crow

Small numbers of Goldfinch and Linnet flew over, with a single Pied Wagtail and several Skylark about. The Skylark weren’t for giving much away apart from singing and I think a few nests may have been lost after Hi-Fly’s recent bout of rolling and tidying. 

I headed back, a good morning’s work and a wonderful walk in the sun.

Stay tuned for more walks in the summer sun with Another Bird Blog with this post linking to Anni who would also rather be birding and Stewart in Australia where you can see a whole gallery of birds.

Ringed Poll, Ringed Gull

Not much doing the in the strong northerly winds with a trip to Pilling proving not very productive. Lane Ends pools gave up the Greylags with young, the Canada Geese as yet without, a pair of Tufted Duck and a single drake Teal behaving as if a female was close by. The pool margins still hold two singing Reed Warblers and a singing Reed Bunting, with the recent Sedge Warbler and Willow Warblers not seen.

Donning jacket and hat I braved a walk to Pilling Water where I found Kestrel and Buzzard, the latter heading off towards Fluke Hall, the Kestrel in the direction of Damside. Any small birds were laying low in the wind, but I noted a pair of Greenfinch and the single Corn Bunting once again. In the poor conditions I decided to cut my losses and save the birding for another, hopefully better day soon where the coming weekend looks marginally better. So in the meantime I drove to Rawcliffe where between the rain and hail showers I did a little site management work as the (comparative) recent warmth is has spurred growth which threatens to turn woodland edge into woodland.

Out Rawcliffe  

A record came from the BTO of a bird handled at Rawcliffe Moss last year, a bird which bore a Belgian ring number 12231826, Bruxelles. The Lesser Redpoll ring was first ringed on 11 February 2012 at Sinaai, West Vlanderen, Belgium and then recaptured at Rawcliffe Moss on 20 October 2012, one of five Lesser Redpolls captured that day and one of 28 of the same species caught their during October of that year. 

Belgium is known as a regular haunt of Lesser Redpolls leaving the comparatively colder climate of the UK to winter further south, October being a peak migration time. The distance between the two sites is 555km, West Vlanderen being in a south south-easterly direction from Out Rawcliffe. 

Lesser Redpoll - Belgium to Out Rawcliffe

Lesser Redpoll

On holiday in Menorca I saw another ringed Audouin’s Gull this year, one of three Darvic ringed ones in recent years (BCFH, AHY2 and AH2D) spotted near the south coast resort of Sant Tomas. The gulls are part of the population ringed on the small Menorcan offshore island of Isla de L’Aire, a protected island where no one lives and no one is allowed to land without permission, a consent which is granted rarely. I learnt that AHY2 was ringed in 2005 and in 2007 spent at least some time in Barcelona, mainland Spain but was back in Menorca in 2008 and in 2009, but I didn't see that one this year.

Audouin's Gull - AHY2

In the late 1960s, Audouin’s Gull (named after the French naturalist Jean Victoire Audouin) was one of the World's rarest gulls, with a population of only 1,000 pairs. It has established new colonies, but remains rare with a world population of about c10, 000 pairs. This gull thrives on human practices of waste fish dumping. The population of Audouin’s Gull has risen spectacularly since the fishing industry, particularly in the Ebro delta of Spain, began dumping large volumes of fish waste overboard. Having adapted to this food source, Audouin’s Gull populations would now be decimated should the fishing industry choose to use the fish waste as animal food. In periods when the fisheries do not operate, Audouin’s Gulls have been seen to suffer food shortages, as well as becoming prey for the Yellow-legged Gull. 

The adult resembles a small European Herring Gull, the most noticeable differences being the short stubby red bill and "string of pearls" white wing primary tips, rather than the large "mirrors" of some other species. Audouin's Gulls take four years to reach adult plumage. 

Audouin's Gull - AHZD

 

Audouin's Gull- BCFH

Stay tuned for more from Another Bird Blog soon.