Sniffing Out The Birds

My thanks to many blog readers for their sympathy, advice and tips to defeat my common cold of almost three weeks. Something finally worked to make me 99% operational apart from a lingering sniffle. I suspect it was the home made garlic and tomato soup, so stand well clear for a birding update from today. 

Thick cloud was slow to clear and it was 0930 before I arrived at Pilling to flights of Whooper Swans heading strongly inland from their roost out on the salt marsh. The twenty-four I saw was but a small sample of the hundreds in the area. A typical winter count for the Pilling area is 300-400 but I have seen up to 480 in one particular year, a breath-taking sight with an awesome soundtrack. 

Whooper Swans

Little Egrets seem to have adopted a field close to Lane Ends where this morning I counted 15 of them feeding in the grass. When I drove back the same way hours later the number had reduced to five. There was a Kestrel using the fence posts alongside the road but as an experienced adult and accustomed to constant passing traffic, there was no way it would let me get close. 

Kestrel

A Sparrowhawk came from the plantation and headed off low in the direction of the village where there are bird feeders aplenty. One of the hazards of visiting gardens is that occasionally a hawk may stun or kill itself by colliding with a glass window, just as the Sparrowhawk below found in Pilling village beneath a window. 

Sparrowhawk

Karen in Ontario has mixed feelings about regular garden visits from a Cooper’s Hawk Accipiter cooperii, a close relative of our own Eurasian Sparrowhak Accipiter nisus. Both birds have similar habits and will target concentrations of birds as an efficient and cost-effective way of hunting which has little risk to them. Meanwhile Karen’s Cooper's Hawk is alive and very well. 

I found another 18 Whooper Swans with 6 Mute Swans in a field alongside the A588 at Sand Villa, Cockerham and on my way to Conder Green. 

Swans - Cockerham Marsh

At Conder Green little had changed from my last visit pre-Christmas with too much water giving just the usual smattering of wildfowl: 1 Grey Heron, 1 Cormorant, 2 Goldeneye, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 1 Goosander, 2 Tufted Duck, 60+ Teal and 12 Wigeon. On the island 3 Snipe almost melted into the vegetation while a single Lapwing may have an eye on a territory here in the coming weeks. 

There are still 6 Little Grebe on the pool plus one or two in the creeks with the count varying as the species is so shy and secretive, even outside of the breeding season. 

Little Grebe

Little Grebe has a wide distribution, their breeding range extending across Europe, central/southern Asia and central/southern Africa, to Japan and Papua New Guinea in the east. In Europe, they breed from Iberia and Britain & Ireland in the west as far as the borders of Russia and the Caucasus. In the eastern part of this range, Little Grebes are totally migratory, with birds moving south and west in winter to avoid the severe continental winters. 

 

Range of Little Grebe  - www.avibirds.com

Elsewhere in its European range the species is a partial migrant, with some birds being resident, whilst others move to coastal waters, where feeding occurs in shallow tidal areas. Every January I see good numbers of Little Grebes at a coastal lagoon and salinas in Lanzarote, Spain where I suspect they are winterers from the colder parts of Europe, some possibly from Britain. 

Close to the main road was another Kestrel, not a common bird here at the pool although I have seen one here on the last three visits. 

Kestrel

Near the car park I found 15 Chaffinch and 2 Pied Wagtail and discovered that someone has chopped down a couple or more very old and valuable hawthorn trees where thrushes and finches feed and hide. 

Take your eyes off somewhere for a week or two and the vandals move in. Back to birding UK style 2015. 

Sniffing out more birds soon with Another Bird Blog.

In the meantime linking to Anni's Blog, Eileen's Blog and Run-a-Roundranch.

New Year Birds

Like many others I’ve been laid up with a dreadful cough/cold and sinusitis for the past ten days, my traditional January misery. “That’s what you get for standing around in draughty, cold and wet fields bird watching” was the predictable response from Sue. Despite the lack of sympathy I soldiered on and limited my birding to a couple of trips to top up the feeding station. Andy is also out of action for a week or more after his minor knee operation so the job falls to yours truly until I find him a walking stick. 

On the way to Oakenclough today I paused at Out Rawcliffe to note both a Kestrel and Buzzard and then stopped to watch a flock of about 40 Fieldfares and a few Redwings feeding in a field of maize stubble. It’s at this time of year, when autumn fruits are more or less depleted, that Fieldfares earn their name by taking to feeding in fields rather than hawthorn hedgerows. Redwings adopt the same feeding strategy and mix freely with their larger relative. The thrushes were wary of my car at the roadside and also watchful of a number of Black-headed Gulls intent on stealing any substantial items of food rather than finding their own. 

Fieldfare

A Redwing doesn’t actually have a red wing, the area of red plumage is situated on the flanks beneath the armpit, and not always visible, but it’s easy to see how the bird acquired the name. 

Redwing 

The partly tidal river here is traditional haunt of Goosanders so I wasn’t surprised to see 4 males in flight, an incidental and early year tick for someone who takes such things seriously. 

East of Garstang Town and following a number of journeys this way I again saw a pair of Buzzards in a now familiar spot, and a little further on a Kestrel dashing from the same stretch of ivy covered trees noted on my last drive. It’s surprising how easy it is to begin to build up a picture of the species which inhabit an area, and a foot survey of this locality could yield interesting results for anyone looking to adopt a “local patch”. I don’t know of many birders in this very rural and attractive part of Lancashire, not since Professor Lane left for Hampshire and A.N.Other took semi-retirement from birding. Maybe the ones left like to keep a low profile? It‘s often a good idea. 

The feeding station held a welcome but expected bird of 2015 in the shape of a niger feeding Siskin, just the one but it’s a start. We’re hoping that once the alder cones lose their autumn succulence the local Siskin population will turn to our well-stocked feeders. I’m happy to report no further thefts of feeders at the moment, so fingers crossed for a Siskin-filled February and March, the months of the year in which to expect Siskins at feeders.

Siskin

 

Also in the locality and on or around the feeders, 1 Pied Wagtail, 1 Goldcrest, 25+ Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 8 Chaffinch and the usual titmice, Coal Tit numbers in the ascendant. 

I took a look on a few fields close by and found a fairly distant mixed flock of approximately 250+ Fieldfare, 25 Redwing and 140 Starling, plus 3 Mistle Thrush. I imagine that the Mistle Thrush are local birds as there is a healthy population up here. The others will winter hereabouts as a roaming and so unpredictable flock until they head back North in February, March or even April.

It was good to get out in the fresh air, banish the sniffles and open up my 2015 notebook to a good few entries. 

Catch more birds soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking this post to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Picture A Year

The New Year, and as is customary here’s a selection of favourite pictures which best depict the four seasons of birds and birding on Another Bird Blog during 2014. This is my entry to Jim M Goldstein's Best Photos 2014, a project with over 300 participants from all over the world in 2013.

It was quite difficult to choose a single representative picture taken in the actual month concerned, the problem being that some of those 30 day periods lacked much photography action. Often the birds chose not to join in with my camera quest and I went without pictures for weeks at a time. Here goes with the photographs and I hope that the few words accompanying each picture might help others who wish to photograph birds, that most difficult of subjects. Don't forget to "click the pics" for a light box show.

January. A picture of a Little Egret from my Lanzarote sunshine holiday, away from the cold, grey days of a Lancashire winter. Photographing white birds is to me quite perplexing. Often the bird’s image ends up looking either washed out with no detail in the white feathers or drastically under-exposed, making the bird appear grey instead of white. While not perfect this picture is about as good as I can get until I resolve the mysteries of my Canon camera’s exposure values. 

Little Egret

 

February provided opportunities for taking pictures of Goldeneye, a shy diving duck which visits the UK in the winter months only. The golden eye and the two-tone bill of this female remain in focus as the camera captured the water droplets on her plumage as she emerged from a lengthy dive in the depths below. The picture was taken from a car window following a careful approach as a truly wild Goldeneye is highly unlikely to stay around if approached directly. 

Goldeneye

March hints at Spring but more often than not it feels like the depths of Winter. The arrival of Wheatears from Africa tells us not to worry, Summer isn’t too far away. Finding the first Wheatear of the season is something of a ritual for most birders. The yearly custom is often subject to mockery from others who claim to be above such trivial pursuits. But there’s nothing quite like close contact with a Wheatear newly arrived from Africa to make one appreciate the phenomenon of bird migration. Below, a fine looking male, the first of a number caught during the year. 

Wheatear

April and there was a stroke of luck with a Black-tailed Godwit intent on feeding, so not noticing my presence. Like most waders Black-tailed Godwits are normally shy, so I rattled off dozens of similar pictures to clog up the hard drive and then chose just one that captures the bird with its bill open.

Black-tailed Godwit

May’s photo is easy to pick from the many sunshine shots of Menorca, a Mediterranean island which beckons each year. A colony of Bee Eaters is hard to resist. The birds live in an unlikely looking spot where they burrow into the sandy soil to lay their eggs and raise a family. Staying in the car and waiting for a Bee Eater to perch close by is far more successful than trying to approach this shy bird on foot. 

Bee Eater

June is a good month for early morning starts where even the shy Grey Heron might feel unthreatened by a single person in a slowly approaching car. This heron used a boat from which to watch the shallow water below but quickly flew off at the first person approaching on foot. 

Grey Heron

July rarely goes by without a chance of photographing Swallows. An adult’s summer plumage makes for the most photogenic but juveniles are much more willing to stay around for a picture. 

Barn Swallow

August.  A young Tufted Duck has yet to learn the ways of man. The expression in the bird’s eye combined with its body language said that while it was happy with the initial approach, if I moved closer it would depart the scene, taking the accompanying Tufted Ducks with it.

Tufted Duck

September in Skiathos where a Red-backed Shrike resident in the hotel gardens was somewhat unapproachable but had a regular beat, as many species do. After a week or more of relaxing in the garden while at the same time noting the bird’s habits, I used the cover provided by a chain link fence to obtain a number of reasonable shots without scaring the bird away. 

Red-backed Shrike

October is the month that Whooper Swans fresh in from a non-stop flight from Iceland settle on a traditional part of our coastal marsh. It’s best to try for pictures before the swans get uneasy from the regular wildfowl shoots which start in October, activities which increase their wariness. Take a close look at the picture and how each swan is looking in a different direction in case of predators, a 360° early warning system. It’s part of the reason that birds form flocks - many pairs of eyes and ears are better than one and at the first sign of trouble the herd will have the earliest possible warning. 

Whooper Swans

November seemed to involve a good number of sightings of Buzzards, a hopeful sign perhaps? The trials and tribulations of our UK Buzzards at the hands of the less responsible devotees of shooting became a regular feature throughout the year on Another Bird Blog. It culminated in November with the conviction of a gamekeeper for the intentional killing of nine Buzzards; the court issued a suspended sentence but no financial penalty other than to pay court costs of £930 plus a “victim surcharge” of £80. In the eyes of our UK justice system the value of a single Buzzard is less than £10.

As if Buzzards hadn’t enough to contend with in being constantly harassed by the ever expanding corvid population?

Buzzard and Carrion Crows

December. A far from perfect picture of a Kestrel displaying “fuzzy” focus, into the light of a watery morning, parts of the bird hidden by the fence line on which it sat. I like this picture because there is something of a detached look about this bird’s expression as it ignores the camera and concentrates on finding that essential early breakfast. 

Kestrel

It just remains for me to thank everyone who visited the blog in 2014. Happy New Year to all.

I hope to meet up with everyone again in 2015.

Linking today to id-rather-b-birdin.,  Dawn's Critters and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Steady If Unremarkable

Tuesday morning I met up with Andy and Craig for a ringing session at Oakenclough. Recent weather and other setbacks delayed the opportunity but at last everything came good in a way best summed up by today’s headline. 

Things were quieter than of late in both numbers and species however we managed to catch 54 birds, 24 new ones, 29 recaptures from recent weeks and a single “control”. 

Control is the terminology ringers use to describe a bird bearing a ring from elsewhere, in this case a first winter male Goldfinch with a standard British ring but inscribed with a letter/number combination we don’t own. In due course, and once the record is submitted to and analysed by the BTO database, the original ringing data of who, when and where will be sent to us. In return the original ringer will find out when and where “their” Goldfinch was recaptured and who captured it on 30th December 2014. 

Our new birds comprised 7 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 7 Blue Tit, 4 Great Tit and 2 Goldcrest. Recaptures materialised as 13 Coal Tit, 12 Blue Tit, 3 Goldfinch, 1 Dunnock. No new Coal Tits and 13 recaptures of the same species suggest that we may have caught a good proportion of those wintering in the immediate area. 

Coal Tit

Goldcrest

Chaffinch

In between our bursts of ringing activity a little bird watching in the immediate area found 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Pied Wagtail, 3 Jay, 1 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk and 1 Raven.

Craig located a small flock of 12 Siskin and 6 Goldfinch feeding in the alder trees. We are hoping that the regular catches of Goldfinches will soon be augmented by their two near relatives once they decide to add niger seed to their diet.

Siskin

Pied Wagtail

Further to the problems of last week when some miserable sod stole bird feeders from this site, a kind blogger friend in Kentucky sent me a link to read how others have tackled equally selfish thieves. 

Read about the remarkable things that some folk will steal and have a good laugh about the victims’ understandable outrage and subsequent responses at www.dontbeamiserablesod.com

More birds soon from Another Bird Blog. 

Do Birds Smell?

It’s a question I asked myself a number of years ago when noting how long it took for birds to discover new sources of food, in particular the introduction of bird feeders where none had been used previously. 

Birds were always thought to have a very poor sense of smell. But most vultures and many scavenging seabirds locate their food by smell. Any birder who has been on a pelagic trip to see seabirds up close will be familiar with the practice of chucking overboard buckets of “chum” or “rubby dubby”, to lure shearwaters and petrels close to the boat. Scientists believe that other birds, e.g. homing pigeons, may use familiar odours in finding their way home or use their sense of smell during migratory journeys. Think about the various odours given off to overflying birds by different places, e.g. pine forest or ancient deciduous woodland, saline or fresh water, the urban jungle or the countryside. 

Egyptian Vulture

Manx Shearwater

A recent Dutch study determined that Great Tits found and located apple trees with winter moth infestations and big concentrations of caterpillars larvae by smell rather than sight. Tit species eat large numbers of insect larvae particularly during their breeding seasons when they feed them to their young, timing their breeding to do so. Trees benefit from the protection offered by birds removing larvae that would otherwise go on to eat the leaves and perhaps impact on tree growth and productivity. 

Great Tit

The Dutch experiments were designed to remove other possible ways in which the Great Tits might detect the winter moth larvae. The researchers removed the caterpillars, removed leaves with holes and even took away signs of ‘caterpillar poo’, ensuring no visual clues were left for the birds to locate the infested trees. Despite these measures the Great Tits repeatedly found the trees with larvae infestations. The results were clear, even when they couldn’t see the trees, the Great Tits homed in on trees with winter moth infestations when they could smell them. 

The researchers believe the trees gave off chemicals which birds can detect by smell to alert them to infestation. It has long been known that many plants attract insects using smells and benefit from the relationships as a result, but this is the first time they have been shown to attract birds in the same way. More research is needed to determine which chemicals are involved but infested trees were found to release more of a chemical responsible for the “green” smell of apples. 

Most bird feeders use metal/plastic tubes or wire mesh to make the food highly visible to birds and we naturally assume that birds start to use our bird feeders because they locate food via their keen eyesight. My new niger seed feeders arrived today, replacements for ones recently stolen from a ringing site. At first glance the design looks improbable and unlikely to work as the feeding holes are tiny. When the stainless steel cylinder is filled with niger, the seed is virtually invisible with just the tiniest point of an individual seed poking through odd holes. 

Niger feeders

Nevertheless I experimented with this design of feeder a number of years ago and found them to be highly successful in attracting Goldfinches very quickly and I attributed this to the birds’ ability to smell the niger. 

At lunchtime I took the new feeders to Oakenclough with fingers crossed that Scrooge doesn’t sniff them out before our ringing session which may well be tomorrow.

Goldfinch

Here’s an experiment anyone can try at home. Buy a sealed bag of niger seed, Guizotia abyssinica, open the bag and stick your nose in it. Then inhale and enjoy the sweet, oily, nutty fragrance which brings in those Goldfinches. 

No, there’s is no doubt in my mind that birds and in particular Goldfinches have well developed olfactory senses, probably as good as our own. 

Now you must excuse me. I’m sure that from the kitchen I can detect the unmistakable aroma of a curry cooking in the oven and I'm ready for a bite to eat. 

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Scrooge In Birdland

Christmas doesn’t last too long at our house. We both like to get back into a normal routine. For me that’s birding and in fact I went out early yesterday to top up the feeding station near Oakenclough in readiness for a ringing session soon. 

Our ringing site is quite remote and theoretically private. Scrooge must live nearby as here almost in the middle of nowhere, on or just before Christmas Day, he stole three bird feeders. Four other feeders were left untouched so held the usual array of finches albeit in reduced numbers. I topped the remaining feeders up and then chucked seed on the ground so hopefully the birds will be able to find their usual ration. Back home and online I ordered a couple of new feeders which should arrive Monday and in time for the next top up day. Andy is getting a couple more feeders plus making laminated notices advising Scrooge to leave the feeders alone. 

Goldfinch

Today I set off early for Pilling where as usual I found a Kestrel atop telegraph pole along Head Dyke Lane. Not far away was the usual Barn Owl which once again did its now customary trick of heading indoors. It looks like Barn Owls are finding food at the moment and so have no need to spend too many daylight hours hunting. 

At Damside was the resident Kestrel pair watching over the now very wet fields. We’ve had a lot of rain recently with the result that on these few fields were approximately 900 Pink-footed Geese, 290 Curlew, 200+ Lapwing, 160 Redshank, 45 Golden Plover and 120 Starlings. I spent some time grilling the geese but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary amongst the multitude of pink-feet. That’s my Christmas story and I’m sticking to it. 

Pink-footed Geese

Pink-footed Geese

I checked out Fluke Hall to find a calling Nuthatch and a singing Song Thrush, both drowned out by the sound of gunfire from a shoot in progress across the fields behind. Along the marsh and on the inland fields: 1 Kestrel, 52 Whooper Swan, 35+ Shelduck, 2 Little Egret, 48 Redshank, 125+ Lapwing and 80+ Wood Pigeon. 

In the maize stubble were a couple of Reed Buntings and 11 Skylarks searching through the vehicle tracks where the shooters carry in sacks of food for their tame mallards. 

I guess I’d best join in the Season of Goodwill, so here’s a message from my Christmas Robin to  Scrooge. "Enjoy your bird feeders you miserable sod!"

Robin

Back soon with more bird news on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Blog. Anni would rather be birding too.

Better Than Shopping

After a five-day Atlantic conveyor belt of rain, wind and grey skies hit our region I was ready to bin my bins and instead take up a pastime less weather dependent. This morning the sky turned a whiter shade of grey and as an alternative to Christmas shopping I plucked up the courage to go birding. The wind hadn’t dropped though and the morning was both cold and very blustery. 

I stopped at Pilling expecting to see a Barn Owl after the poor hunting weather of the last week. Although one appeared on cue I was slightly disappointed with mostly distant views of it quartering the fields and then briefly fence hopping. After just a minute or two the owl had departed over the fields and towards its daytime roost, this individual’s usual trick. 

Barn Owl

Barn Owl - off to roost

In a field close to Lane Ends I counted 14 Little Egrets. They had clearly just vacated the roost but chosen to feed in a wet field rather than head out to the extremely windy shore. There seemed to be lots of waders on the same fields and when I returned this way later as the tide rose and into better light I counted in excess of 2500 Lapwings, 650 Curlew and 240 Redshank, not to mention hundreds of Black-headed Gulls.

Lapwing

At Thurnham was a Kestrel, hovering at the roadside but an awkward spot to stop a car when others were speeding by on their way to work. As I arrived at Conder Green, another Kestrel, this one hovering over the marsh before trying its luck further away. I lost interest in the unhelpful Kestrel and looked on the choppy waters of the pool and in the more sheltered creeks.

While many species abandon the windswept pool and the vagaries of the tidal channels the tiny but hardy Little Grebes stick it out in most weathers. Ten Little Grebes today, along with 90+ Teal, 26 Wigeon,2 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Egrets, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Spotted Redshank and 1 Common Sandpiper, all equally determined to spend Christmas at Conder Green.

Little Grebe

 
At Glasson Dock the Tufted Duck numbers have inexplicably dropped from 70/80 to something like 25 today, less than double the count of 14 Goldeneye, and not forgetting singles of Little Grebe and Grey Heron.

I hung around watching the antics of the male Goldeneye trying to impress the females with their head bobbing and stretching displays. Go easy boys, you’ll end up Christmas shopping if you’re not careful.
  

I note there are a few things on the bird listers circuit this holiday week. There’s a long suffering Shore Lark at Rossall which now has more portraits on the Internet than Angelina Jolie. Alternatively there’s an equally tormented Snow Bunting at Fleetwood, the little bird currently experiencing flashbacks of humans carrying large instruments of torture.

And now suddenly everyone is bursting to see a couple of Canada Geese, a bird they don’t normally touch with a bargepole and certainly not a telescope. But in this case as a sub-species of Branta canadensis and therefore only half a tick maybe it is preferable to being dragged Christmas shopping with the other half?

Enjoy your Christmas everyone.

Linking today to Eileen's Blog,  Theresa's Christmas Ranch and Christmas Birds in Australia.