More Of The Same

The run of sunny mornings at the moment is just great for making hay by going out birding often. 

On my way through Pilling this morning I stopped to watch a Barn Owl ghosting through the mist and to take a picture of the sunrise. A Quail was calling somewhere in the distance, but no chance of seeing the small and elusive creature, a bird which is more easily heard than seen. The song which is heard mainly at dawn and dusk, is unmistakable and is said to most easily remembered by the phrase "wet my lips". Click on the xeno-canto button to hear the dawn chorus. 

Pilling Sunrise

At Conder Green I was in time to see the local Barn Owl scattering a number of hirundines as it headed for its daytime roost and out of sight. The owl was unlikely to emerge again as the early vehicles and people were beginning to appear, so I settled in to look about the pool and creek. 

A good count of Swifts and hirundines hawking the early batch of insects – 40 Swift, 15 Swallow, 6 Sand Martin and 15 House Martin. Others – 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Sedge Warbler, 3 Pied Wagtail, 4 Linnet, 8 Goldfinch, 7 Greenfinch. 

Good numbers of Redshank today with 75+, my how their numbers vary according to overnight arrivals and departures. 60+ Lapwing, 8 Common Sandpipers today plus an about-time Green Sandpiper and a very vocal Little Ringed Plover. 

Common Sandpiper

Common Sandpiper

Green Sandpiper - Photo credit: Photo Nature / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA 

Little Ringed Plover

The Oystercatchers have split the young now, one chick with the male, the other with the female, a strategy employed to maximise the number of chicks making it to flying stage. 

Oystercatcher

 

Oystercatcher chick

Wigeon increased today to 7 individuals, only 4 Tufted Duck but the addition of a distant juvenile Goosander. Other tufties seem to have moved on the more regularly frequented Glasson Basin where I later counted 8 Tufted Duck and 12 Coot.

Goosander

I found a Grey Heron hiding away in the usual quiet spot at Glasson – out of sight out of mind and where it can hunt the shallows without fear of being disturbed. 

Grey Heron

More later from Another Bird Blog. Log in soon and in the meantime remember to click my pics.

This post is linking to  Camera Critters  and Anni's Blog.

Sunny Shots

There's not much news from Conder/Glasson this morning but I took a small number of brand-new photographs. What a difference a little sunshine makes. "Click the pics" for a grandstand view of the birds.

An adult Oystercatcher was on lookout duty next to the road, the sun behind the bird rather than the ideal situation in front or to one side. I had to overexpose almost two stops to get any sort of picture. The chick was better placed. 

Oystercatcher chick

Oystercatcher

Not too many other waders this morning and no sign of Greenshank or Spotted Redshank. It was the usual 25+ Common Redshanks, 6 Common Sandpipers, 8 Lapwing and 2 Curlew, although a single Snipe on the pool was new. 

A Kingfisher made a single pass along the creek before heading off towards the canal - good to see them back in the area. 

Kingfisher

Six Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon, 1 Goldeneye, 4 Canada Goose and 1 Shelduck on the pool 

Passerines from the pool/road – 1 Sedge Warbler, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Meadow Pipit, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Whitethroat, 4 Goldfinch, 3 Linnet, 1 Tree Sparrow. 

Glasson was quiet and peaceful where the usually shy grebe was more accommodating today. The Great Crested Grebe is the largest member of the European grebes and an excellent swimmer and diver, pursuing its fish prey underwater. The adults are unmistakable in summer with their head and neck decorations. 

 Great Crested Grebe

 Great Crested Grebe

Great Crested Grebe

The heron kept a safe distance with a watchful eye again, while the Coots and Mallards are accustomed to people at the water's edge.

Grey Heron

Coot 

Mallard

Linking today to  Stewart's World Bird Wednesday. In Australia it is Wednesday already!

Sunday Shanks

First off and for all my blogging pals especially Wally in Florida who knows a good British pub when he sees one, here's a picture of The Stork at Conder Green with their sign depicting a heron. Confused? - Read the last post on Another Bird Blog or click the pics below for close-up views of The Stork and this morning's first Grey Heron spotted just yards away from the inn. 

The Stork at Conder Green

Grey Heron

Yes I was there again this morning hoping for pictures and more than a few birds in the bright sunshine. That dusky stunner Spotted Redshank was still in the creek, the naked eye all that was needed to pick it out from the centre of a gaggle of 20+ Redshanks. At least 8 Common Sandpipers noted today as the birds moved up and down the creek according to pedestrian traffic over the bridge or vehicles heading to the car park. Oystercatchers still have two young, the chicks now very mobile in exploring all parts of the pool edges. 

Less obvious was a single Greenshank hiding away at the back of the pool, sometimes in view, mostly not. 

Greenshank

The Canada Geese have quite big youngsters now, the goslings looking for all the world like tiny versions of their parents. The young Shelducks are getting there and it is obvious who they belong to especially when the female is so attentive because dad has done a runner. The drake Goldeneye still there with 8 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon and now 1 Little Grebe 

Canada Goose

Shelduck

The warm sun definitely helped but there appeared to be more passerines about this morning with small groups of calling finches, mainly long the old railway line. Into the notebook went 15 Linnet, 12 Goldfinch and 10 Greenfinch as a clear improvement on recent counts and hopefully the start of larger flocks of each. Good numbers of Whitethroats too with 3 singing males, a couple of family parties and additional churring adults lifting the morning count to 15. Others – 3 Sedge Warbler, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Tree Sparrow, 3 Stock Dove. 

Greenfinch

Linnet

Also along the railway path, 2 Pied Wagtails and a Grey Wagtail flying over. It was from the old railway line that I saw a Roe Deer out on the marsh, the animal crossing from north of Conder and heading all the time to Glasson until it bounded up the embankment and disappeared from view; it's quite normal to see cattle out on the marsh or river mud at low tide, but not wild deer. 

Roe Deer - River Lune

Cattle - River Lune

I made it to Glasson where as I shaped to photograph another Grey Heron a Kingfisher flew up and landed on the jetty beyond the heron. It was good to see a Kingfisher after such a hard and prolonged winter even though the tiny bird was too distant for a photo. I settled for yet another heron shot, a Black-headed Gull and a juvenile Starling. 

Grey Heron

Black-headed Gull

 Starling

A blog reader asked where my bird ringing has been lately. The explanation is that after ringing over 25,000 birds home and away during 20+ years I decided to wind down a little from general mist netting to concentrate on smaller ringing objectives, bird watching and photography.

So stay tuned to Another Bird Blog for the same mix as before with perhaps less frequent ringing news and views.

Sunny Survey

It was the Cockerham round today - Conder Green, Glasson and Cockersands.

Common Sandpipers continue to pass through with 11 today, joined in the creek by 25+ Redshanks, 1 Curlew and a summer plumaged Spotted Redshank.

Spotted Redshank - Lorenzo L M. / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lorenzo-l-m/3646591077/ 

At this time of year adults spot-reds look totally different from their autumn and winter cold-grey plumage. Although July seems early for returning migrants from relatively cold northern climes, female Spotted Redshanks leave breeding sites first. Exhausted from producing eggs, it is an advantage for them to arrive at staging areas early and have first pick of the food. Males usually leave next, and juveniles later. These waves are not due to the lack of food on the northern summer grounds, but because there is more food at the staging area for those that arrive first. Female Spotted Redshanks sometimes leave up to a week before eggs hatch, leaving males to look after the youngsters, a breeding and survival strategy adopted by other wader species.

It is a number of years since a mid June outing to the then undisturbed River Ribble found 14 of the black beauties on a tidal pool that was also the site of a Ruff leck. Oh Happy Days.

I counted just 10 Lapwings this morning plus the usual number of Oystercatchers, a pair with 2 well grown chicks and other adults still behaving territorially. And here's proof if any were needed that Oystercatchers eat more than oysters.

Oystercatcher

The juvenile male Goldeneye is still around but a long lonely wait for more to join him in October with for now just 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Wigeon and a few Shelduck for company.

Goldeneye

Small birds and others – 1 Reed Bunting, 4 Tree Sparrow, 2 Whitethroat, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Linnet, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, and it's hard to get any passerines into double figures at the moment. Two Stock Dove, 30 Swift and 8 Sand Martin and 1 Grey Heron.

Two Sedge Warblers in song this morning, one at the lay-by the other towards the Stork, the pub that to be strictly accurate should be renamed “The Grey Heron”. The pub dates from 1660 when any large wading bird with long legs, a long bill and long neck would be referred to as a stork.

It was a lovely sunny morning for a look at Glasson Dock and a walk along the canal towpath. I found a single Great Crested Grebe, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Whitethroat, a Chiffchaff in song and 2 Willow Warblers feeding in a sycamore tree although not much else unless you count a Song Thrush, and I guess we really should.

Glasson Canal

Mallard

Cockersands was quiet too with 2 Grey Plover, 6 Curlew, 1 Reed Bunting and 2 Grey Heron moved on by the incoming tide.

Looks like a sunny weekend ahead - hooray.

Linking this post to Camera Critters and id-rather-b-birdin .

It's Driving Me Batty...

The weather that is, although warmth is promised for weekend. But stay tuned for real bats after the bird news. 

A cloudy, cool and breezy start again at Lane Ends with 2 Common Sandpiper on the pools and it looks like there has been a return movement of of this species, a Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron and 2 Corn Buntings in song. A Peregrine flew over towards Pilling Marsh carrying small prey although I couldn't make out what. 

Grey Heron

At Conder there were seven more Common Sandpipers but little else to enliven a dull morning, the usual 60+ Redshank, 1 Curlew and 15 Oystercatcher including two youngsters but an increase in Lapwing to 120. 

Redshank

Although the unseasonal Goldeneye remains, Tufted Duck were down to just 4 birds today plus 3 Wigeon seen from the bridge. Small birds were thin on the ground in the cool conditions, a singing Sedge Warbler, 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Tree Sparrow, 2 Reed Bunting, 5 Goldfinch and 4 Linnet. Two of the Linnets were recently fledged young begging food from the accompanying adults. 

 Linnet

When I later looked at Glasson Dock there were no Tufted Duck there either, just half-a-dozen Coot and a Chiffchaff singing from the nearby trees. 

Now for the really barmy stuff. For a day or two we thought we had mice spending time around the garden after finding tiny, black, rice-sized droppings on and around the household waste bin at the far side of the house. After sweeping up for a few days the mystery was solved this morning by finding two dead baby bats in the same spot and the realization that the phantom “mice” are in fact bats using the eaves of the house and depositing their waste below as they come and go. From good old Wiki - it appears our bats may be Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus a small bat whose very large range extends across most of Europe, North Africa, southwestern Asia, and possibly into Korea. It is one of the most common bat species in the British Isles. 

A young bat is called a pup or kit. When born they are 3-4 % of their mother's weight. Pups can't fly so they either stay in the nest while their mother forages for food or they will cling onto their mother while she is in flight. 

 Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus

Common Pipistrelle Pipistrellus pipistrellus

Maybe our pups dropped off mum or fell from the tiny cracks where the brickwork meets the under eaves. In any case that's two bats that won't be flying around our garden on those balmy summer evenings we're promised. 

Visit soon for more barmy stuff soon from Another Bird Blog.

Similar Summer

“Summer” continued in the same cloudy, cool and breezy vein at Conder Green this morning. So no surprises when after a couple of hours of due diligence my notebook entries almost mirrored those of recent days.

There was an extra Common Sandpiper today, two birds flicking low over the creek as I arrived to a  water level which filled the channel. The high water level kept the Redshanks away so my count didn't exceed 30 birds, likewise the Oystercatchers count of 16 which included two chicks. A flock of 40+ Lapwing came off the filling marsh to roost towards the back of the pool as 12/15 Curlews headed more inland while 2 Grey Heron stayed overlooking the creek.

Wildfowl numbers were low today with the single Goldeneye, 9 Tufted Duck and 12 Shelduck completing the count.

Shelduck

The long and dense hawthorn hedge provided action in the shape of approximately 20 Sand Martin, 12 Swallow, 15 House Martin and 20 Swift hawking for insects again.

The same hedgerow supplied the passerines too - 4 Tree Sparrow, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Chaffinch, 6 Goldfinch, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Linnet and 2 Pied Wagtails, the wagtails feeding in roadside puddles below the hedge.

Juvenile Goldfinch

After remarking a couple of days ago upon the scarcity of Stock Doves at Conder Green today I noted three of them feeding quietly alongside the road; later I was to see one in our garden where the timid species is an now an uncommon but previously impossible species to expect. Perhaps like their larger relative the Wood Pigeon the inconspicuous and overlooked Stock Dove will become a common garden bird? Here's a handful of a woodpig I caught earlier in the week.

Woodpigeon

A quick scoot around Jeremy Lane and Hillam Lane revealed 30+ Sand Martin, 12 Tree Sparrow, 1 Kestrel and 8/10 Skylarks. It was a pretty unpleasant morning for Flaming June and far from ideal for birding so I cut my losses and headed home to try again another day, hopefully tomorrow.

Skylark

Look in Sunday and see if things improved for Another Bird Blog.

Linking this week to Stewart's Gallery,  Weekly Top Shot ,  Anni's Blog and  Camera Critters.

Scary

Conder Green had a good going over again this morning. Although the results weren't startling, the good selection of species and numbers meant there was always something for interest and entertainment in this quiet time for birding.

I'll begin with the waders. A pair of Oystercatchers on the pool have two good sized young, the adults being their usual protective and demonstrative selves by scaring off anyone or anything which came too close to make sure their chicks stayed low to the ground.  Luckily there aren't too many Carrion Crows hereabouts, just the local Magpies.

Oystercatcher

Oystercatcher

Redshanks have increased to 65 in the immediate creek and 20+ from the railway bridge = 85+ today. A single Common Sandpiper was back this morning, plus 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Curlew and 3 Lapwing. Bridge Over The River Conder also yielded 125+ Mute Swan and 2 Grey Heron. 

Common Sandpiper

The Oystercatchers weren't the only ones on parental duties as two pair of Shelduck have 11 young between them, a six and a five of much the same almost half-size ducklings. A pair of Canada Goose still with two goslings and 2 pair of Mallard with 10+ young. Other wildfowl - Wigeon now depleted to 2 birds, 14 Tufted Duck, 1 Goldeneye. 

The mozzy type insects were swarming again this morning, a bonanza which drew in a constant stream of hirundines and Swifts. The notebook says 30+ Swift, 20 Sand Martin, 20 House Martin and 20 Swallows – counts that can be guesstimates only but might give an inkling as to the visible and audible action of so many small birds hawking the hedgerow. 

Numbers of “small stuff” as in 5 Linnet, 6 Goldfinch, 2 Pied Wagtail, 1 Meadow Pipit, 1 Whitethroat, 4 Greenfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and 5 Tree Sparrow. A single Stock Dove feeding near the pool edges may well be a new bird for me at this site - must check. 

Tree Sparrow

Stock Dove

Back home and during a walk around the village all seemed quiet except for two singing Chiffchaffs, a couple of Whitethroats and the Buzzards down the lane towards the river. Sue suddenly said “Why don't you use your grubby old birding clothes to enter the village Scarecrow Competition?” I declined by admitting that I'm not too good at those Blue Peter type things but I'm not too sure if that's what Sue had in mind. 

Scarecrows 

Scarecrow

Scarecrows

Scarecrow

Join Another Bird Blog soon for more scary birding and the best in news. Don't forget to "click the pics" - don't be scared now.