Hat, Scarf and Gloves

The wind had swung around to a near perfect northerly making for a hat, scarf and gloves start and the thought that after Friday’s thrush rush and Saturday’s blank, Sunday’s grey morning might be hard work. It was - not a single Redwing or Fieldfare but a few bits and pieces to relate. 

I started at Conder Green and the solid, reliable stuff. The Teal never disappoint even if they don’t do a lot other than loaf around the creeks, dibbing and dabbing here and there, 95 of them today with 2 Goosanders trying but failing to blend in unnoticed. The 2 Spotted Redshanks were in the self-same spot below the road along with several Redshanks and a Little Egret. 

The pool was equally quiet with birds but distant - 5 Little Grebes, 4 Wigeon, a lone Tufted Duck, a Pied Wagtail and 2 Meadow Pipits. Just one thing for it then - Lane Ends, Pilling where at least there would be geese and swans. 

The geese weren’t for dropping on their recent field with two people carrying binoculars stood there at the field edge. Wild wild geese don’t like, don’t trust humans, so why would the pinkies land and feed close to them? 

From the sea wall at Fluke I could see the many thousands of geese out on the marsh beyond Lane Ends. They would have to start again, send out a scouting party to find a quiet undisturbed field where they could feed and feel secure. The Whoopers are a little more tolerant than the geese. They let me take a picture through the hedge but kept a close eye with many of their 62 heads raised in suspicion. The first winter/juveniles have the greyish bill.

Whooper Swans

I made it to the wildfowler’s pools in time to see the flash of a Peregrine flying towards Lane Ends, and then a Sparrowhawk harassed by the Jackdaws. A number of Barnacle Geese came over looking for somewhere to feed but continued on their way inland. Poor (terrible) picture at ISO800.

Barnacle Geese

Not a lot else. The reliable Green Sandpiper, 2 Grey Wagtail, 20+ Skylark, 2 Snipe, 160 Teal and 40 or more Shelduck around the pools. 

More birds soon and a better mood I hope.

Linking this time to  Stewart's Gallery A Long Way Off.

Looking Up

When I opened the door to sniff the morning air at 0830 I knew something was afoot. A flock of Redwings were flying fairly low over the house and heading in a north easterly direction. 

In other years the exact same thing has taken place during north-easterly winds after thousands of nocturnally migrating thrushes overshot their intended direction, the birds then spending most of the following morning trying to get back on track. This all appears to be a tremendous waste of their precious energy to head back in the direction from which they came, but it’s almost as if they are pre-programmed to take a particular path even if it means finding the spot where they went wrong and then starting over again. 

I quickly jumped in the car and headed for the Pilling coast, hoping to see even more visible migration taking place. I wasn’t disappointed as during the next three hours many thousands of Redwings and Fieldfares appeared from the west and south west to then head determinedly north east over Fluke Hall before continuing along the sea wall to then eventually disappear out of sight. 

Early on the movement was almost entirely Redwings and then after an hour or more larger number of Fieldfares appeared until most of flocks were of the larger thrush. I didn’t see any of the many thousands of birds stop to feed as they all seemed to be intent on their task, driven by their communal effort. By midday the movement appeared to have stopped with my approximate numbers split at roughly 50/50 of 4000 Fieldfares and 3500 Redwings.

I tried to get some pictures of the droves of birds- not easy with mixed groups, differing flight heights and speed of individuals, but below is the general idea - a fairly inadequate way of documenting such monumental birding experiences. 

Migrating Redwings

 Redwing

 Migrating Fieldfares

Fieldfare

Things were looking up in other ways with the arrival of a good number of Whooper Swans fresh from Iceland and finding their usual spot out on the marsh where there was also a small flock of Canada Geese. I counted 90 swans today, although I may have missed some flying inland or continuing south. 

Whooper Swans

 Whooper Swans and Canada Geese

The Pink-footed Geese easily numbered 8000, joined today by small groups of Barnacle Geese numbering 13 that I could see. The geese are of course their usual wary selves and I could not reach the sea wall for fear of disturbing the geese until the Hi-Fly chaps had completely cleared them by driving across to their shooting pools. 

Pink-footed Geese

In the vicinity of the pools were 35 Black-tailed Godwit, 15 Snipe, 20+ Skylark, 2 Reed Bunting and 180+ Teal. There was some evidence of an influx of other species today with Jackdaws increasing to 90, Woodpigeons to 150, and the appearance of 8 Stock Dove.

More from Another Bird Blog on Saturday. Linking up Camera Critters and I'd-Rather-b-birdin.

A Rare Visit

The continuing strong winds have made for a birder’s lazy week, so today I thought I’d pay one of my rare visits to the RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve a fifty minute drive up the M6. With a bit of luck I’d see a few birds in shelters spots and get a few photographs to share with blog followers.I ended up with an enjoyable few hours birding, a good list of birds, but not too many pictures. 

The “summer visitors” Marsh Harriers are still in residence and with three birds this morning, it seems likely that at least one may spend the winter here. It’s not so long ago that Marsh Harriers reappeared in the North West, now they are a common enough sight in most seasons. At first light two harriers were hunting across the reeds, one of them taking a Coot from the water and then flying off with the hapless bird.

Little Egrets were leaving the roost some distance away, and later on I would see at least nine throughout the reserve. Several Grey Herons at first light too. 

With being a wetland reserve Leighton Moss holds lots of wildfowl, with today many Wigeon and Teal together with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Shoveler, Pintail and Shelduck. 6 Whooper Swan were my first of the autumn. 

Teal

Teal

Pintail

Shoveler

Wigeon

Wigeon

Out from the salt marsh hides were plenty of rather distant and “into the light” waders. All the better to promote some of the very expensive optical equipment on sale at the visitor centre a cynical birder might say! 

There were high numbers of Black-tailed Godwit and Redshank, with 1 Knot and 3 mostly sleeping Curlew Sandpipers. A Kingfisher gave a double flypast, not stopping to pose. Raptors out here were the third Marsh Harrier, a Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel, and passerines a couple of Grey Wagtails, Linnets and Skylarks. 

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

Black-tailed Godwit

 

Redshank

So that's probably my annual visit to Leighton over for another year. Join Another Bird Blog soon for more far far away adventures. 

Green With Envy

A wholly frustrating couple of hours at Lane Ends today when birds wouldn’t come close and there didn’t seem to be much happening anyway in the grey and overcast light. 

Masses of Pink-footed Geese out on the marsh - several thousand at least, possibly into five figures now. Little Egret numbered 9, with just 2 Grey Heron, one on the marsh and one along Broadfleet. Skylarks were much in evidence again, and I totalled up 60+ on the marsh and around the Hi-Fly fields, the birds at one time scattering at the appearance of the local Kestrel. Just a single Meadow Pipit seen/heard!

Skylark

The incoming tide brought a number of waders off the marsh, most noticeably a pack of 21 Black-tailed Godwit, 35 Golden Plover and 20+ Snipe. 

Snipe

The Teal weren’t for moving much from the tideline today, my count of 250+ from the wildfowler’s pools only. Also on the wildfowler’s pools, three Green Sandpipers, two departing the moment I set foot over the stile on the sea wall, the third as I explored the flooded ditches. No chance of photographs of the Green Sandpipers, a species frustratingly difficult to approach in the field, always seeing and avoiding a birder either before or just as binoculars are raised. It’s my most frequent encounter, a series of frantic, liquid calls and the rapidly disappearing white rump of an apparently black bird. 

I am indebted to Sergey Pisarevskiy for the superb photograph of a Green Sandpiper which shows the true colours of this beautiful bird. Oh to get a photograph of a “green sand” even approaching the quality of this one. 

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

For anyone who doesn’t know the call, turn up the volume on the PC and click on the xeno canto button to hear a Green Sandpiper flying away from a bird watcher.


From Birdlife International "Green Sandpipers have an extremely large range across Europe and Asia, the global population estimated to number c.1,200,000-3,600,000 individuals (Wetlands International, 2006). In the UK the species is a common passage migrant in spring, but more so in autumn".

Range of Green Sandpiper

"Green Sandpipers are wholly migratory and move overland on a broad front with European populations making well-documented stop-overs in Saharan oases. Southward movements to the wintering grounds occur between June and early November, with the species present in the north and equatorial tropics from late-August to early-April, and in southern Africa from October to March.

The return passage to northern breeding grounds occurs between late-February and mid-May. In mild winters the Green Sandpiper is a fairly common sight in the UK, and some birds may also remain in the breeding grounds of southern Scandinavia. The species generally occurs in low concentrations during passage and at stop-over sites, although it may occur in small scattered groups of up to 30 individuals.

During the breeding season this species inhabits damp areas in swampy, old pine, spruce or alder woodland and montane forest with many fallen and rotten tree stumps, marshy forest floors and heavy carpets of lichens and mosses, generally in the vicinity of rivers, streams, swamps, ponds, lakes and bogs.

Outside of the breeding season Green Sandpipers show a preference for a wider variety of inland freshwater habitats such as marshes, lake edges, sewage farms, small dams and ponds, ditches, riverbanks and forest streams. It is also found in intertidal areas such as creeks and the channels of saltmarshes This species is unusual for a wader by frequently nesting high in trees in the abandoned nests of passerine species such as Woodpigeon, thrushes, crows, jays and shrikes, but may also nest in squirrel dreys or on natural platforms up to 20 m high."

More soon from Another Bird Blog. In the meantime I'm linking to Stewart's Gallery of birds .

Saturday’s Selection

I started at Lane Ends this morning where as I arrived a Barn Owl was caught momentarily in the car headlights as it hunted over the sea wall; the owl paused on a fence post before flying off west towards Pilling. In the half-light I counted 42 Little Egrets out of the island roost but didn’t hang around to watch the pink-feet leave. Counting the geese off the marsh can be a couple of hour’s job, especially when there are so many. 

When I returned later after a quick look at Conder Green there were still 7 or 8 thousand geese about, so goodness knows what the total numbers are at the moment, but enough to attract the shooter’s cars to Gulf Lane. 

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese - "pinkies"

Conder Green has certainly gone off the boil with just 4 Snipe, 55 Teal and 2 Little Grebe this morning. An overflying Raven seems to be something of a regular sight just here lately. Two Reed Bunting, 2 Pied Wagtail and 7 Meadow Pipits added to the meagre haul. 

It was then back to Pilling for a walk to Pilling Water and Fluke Hall. There are good numbers of wildfowl on the wildfowler’s pools, a good spot to wait for the Teal spooking off, to watch their flying abilities and maybe get a picture of them. I didn’t get much of a chance today when all I heard was the rush of wings in hurried flight as hundreds of Teal came over my head, the ducks pursued by an equally rapid and determined Peregrine. 

The Peregrine didn’t catch, at least not in the few seconds I glimpsed it before it shot over the sea wall and out towards the marsh. I saw it again later getting a taste of its own medicine from Carrion Crows. Peregrines are a daily occurrence about here with the views for birders mostly distant and fleeting, the raptor sticking to the distant marsh and tideline where most of its food is found. 

Teal

Carrion Crow and Peregrine

Other wildfowl/waders - 300+ Wigeon, 3 Golden Plover, 400+ Lapwing with other raptors being a Sparrowhawk and a circling Buzzard. Small stuff today came in the shape of a Kingfisher fishing Broadfleet, 40+ Skylarks, 2 Linnet, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Wheatear and a tiny number of Meadow Pipits, less than ten. 

The pipits and the chats are both near the end of their autumnal movement, the Skylarks perhaps continuing for a while yet. The Meadow Pipit picture I took earlier in the week, the Wheatear today, in the spot where both species can consistently be found. 

Meadow Pipit

 Wheatear

Wheatear

Another Bird Blog links today to Camera Critters and Anni's Blog. Check them out for more birds and All Creatures Great and Small. 

Before The Deluge…...

.... some of them were dreamers, and some of them were fools (Jackson Browne). 

But when the weather forecast is as dire as the one for both today and tomorrow, its best to get out there and do some birding before the clouds break. 

Take Cover

Knott End seemed a good bet this morning; a walk alongside the golf course where there are trees sheltered from the south easterlies and there would be an incoming tide to watch. 

There was a little visible migration with birds arriving from the North West then continuing up river or crossing the golf course heading into the breeze. The movement comprised mostly wagtails, 6 definite Pied Wagtails, i.e. the ones that landed prior to heading off south, another 15 overhead “albas”, and 4 Grey Wagtails which spent time along the jetty before flying off south together. At one point a Sparrowhawk appeared from the golf course then chased a few wagtails into the air before giving up and heading across river to Fleetwood. A small movement of Skylarks too, with 10/12 birds arriving from the north and continuing up river. 

A number of Chaffinches, circa 20 arrived from the general direction of the estuary, the birds calling as they dropped into the trees lining the fairway. There’s a good stand of rosehips along here, and I found 6 Greenfinches feeding amongst the bright red fruit. There was a single Wheatear on the shingle below the path plus 2 grounded Meadow Pipits. 

There’s usually one or two Grey Heron patrolling the incoming tideline but today I counted 11 of them spaced neatly along the half mile stretch of the river. Grey Herons are patient and solitary feeders.

Grey Heron

A good selection of waders, with 2400 Oystercatcher, 18 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit, 220 Redshank, 140 Curlew and 1 Turnstone. Shelduck are making their way back in some numbers now with a count of 250+, together with the regular 7 Eider ducks at the jetty. 

Redshank

That’s about it really. I took a slow walk through the quiet trees at Fluke Hall, the best I could manage a Jay, Chiffchaff and a Great-spotted Woodpecker. 

14.30 hours - and the rains came down. Better luck and more news soon tomorrow on Another Bird Blog? Log in soon to find out. 

Sneak Peek - Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland

I couldn’t resist more than a peek at the new Crossley, and the chance to tell Another Bird Blog readers about this exciting book, plus share my initial impressions of it, even though the regional blogathon isn’t until November. 

The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

This new work follows the same format as the previous two published for the North American market, volumes which received an enthusiastic welcome for their innovative, almost revolutionary style. The Crossley ID guides use photographic techniques to display a species as it looks in the field and in a typical environment, rather than the more usual artistic but ”flat” portrayal found in traditional field guides. 

The first thing to note is that this new Crossley is aimed mainly at a UK market of “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels”. This qualifying note explains why some 300 species are covered rather than the 598 or so species on The British List, the number that might be encountered in half a lifetime of determined birding rather than the 300 or so which the average birder might see in a series of normal years. Because of the stated target audience this would seem an eminently logical and sensible way of selecting the species featured. 300 species alone is quite challenging to a novice birder and the only issue I have found with the species featured is the authors potentially confusing treatment of the redpolls. 

Species are displayed by “proportional representation” i.e. the more common a species is the more space it takes up, typically a full page for very common birds, half a page for scarce species and a quarter page for rarer species. 

The next thing to note is that the book doesn’t use a traditional taxonomic sequence, which as the authors (Richard Crossley and Dominc Couzens) point out, does not always makes sense in the field. Instead the book splits species into just seven groups based on habitat and physical similarities so that they can be more easily compared. Again, the authors make the point that a bird’s appearance is largely influenced by its environment and therefore the taxonomic order is not necessarily broken too often. 

So the species accounts use two simple main headings of Waterbirds or Landbirds. Sub-headings break these down into Swimming Waterbirds, Flying Waterbirds, Walking Waterbirds, Upland Gamebirds, Raptors, Miscellaneous Larger & Aerial Landbirds and finally, Songbirds. This proves a simple but effective innovation, helped by a corresponding opening section where all the species are displayed at their relative size. These pages are a handy quick reference for a novice birder struggling with for instance, a beach full of waders or a freshwater packed with wildfowl. 

I picked out just a couple of double page plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland to whet readers’ appetite. The first one, Flying Waterbirds, is taken from the opening sequence of pages which show birds at their relative size, structure and shape, that element of “jizz” so vital to the “mystery” of bird identification. 

Flying Waterbirds - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The second shows Goosanders and Red-breasted Mergansers in absolutely typical, accurate and realistic scenes. Those Goosanders could well be on Conder Pool, and the Red-breasted Mergansers look for all the world to be ensconced on  Fleetwood  Marine Lake.

Goosander and Red-breasted Merganser - The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

The third plate shows Purple Sandpipers with Turnstones, a characteristic situation which will help new birders to find and identify Purple Sandpipers in their strictly coastal environment. Ruffs are shown in many of their distinctive changes of both size and appearance, a wader designed to trap the unwary or inexperienced. With this page in front of them I would hazard a guess that many “beginner and intermediate birders, yet suitable for all levels” birders would quite happily put a name to the strange looking bird in front of them. 

 

Purple Sandpiper and Ruff -  The Crossley ID Guide: Britain & ireland

I just realised, I didn’t mention the textual description and explanation which accompanies each species. The accounts are accurate, concise and more than adequate to aid identification, especially since on turning to a species the text is relegated to second place as the eye and the brain automatically focus on the birds. It’s reality birding where visual learning is the norm and seeing is believing. 

I wish I had time and space to feature many more plates from Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland as many of them are quite superb, especially the wildfowl and waders. Maybe the best way to experience and enjoy them is to beg, steal or borrow this book for yourself as soon as it is available; however I’m sure that Princeton University Press would prefer that you buy it. To help you decide they have published a selection of plates of common garden birds to download at Princeton University Press.

Princeton's timing of release for this book is either fortuitous or a master stroke because the book will make a superb Christmas gift for a youngster, a kid of a certain age showing an early interest in the real world rather than the electronic domain. Also I can see this book being a huge hit with folk of an older generation, maybe those who leave work with newly found time on their hands but with a desire to learn about birds. This book is an ideal companion with which to both absorb and enjoy their new found love. 

There’s more about Crossley ID Guide: Britain & Ireland in early November. Meanwhile I’m putting my copy in the car, then if I get stuck in a downpour at least I can carry on birding by browsing the pages of this splendid book.