Solely Birding

Thursday.The early birding at Cockerham, Conder and Glasson had more than a little of a déjà vu feel. 

There was no Barn Owl but the early morning Kestrel sat alongside Head Dyke Lane where regular as clockwork it can be found atop one of just a few roadside poles. Birds are such creatures of habit - much like birders really. Needless to say there was a Buzzard at Braides Farm, custodian as usual of the regular fence line which crosses the farm. The Buzzard often faces directly into the early morning sunrise taking the chill off those overnight feathers. That's the sea wall directly behind the Buzzard.

Buzzard

Maybe I was later than usual but there were wagons parked at Conder Green with drivers out of cabs generating noise and disturbance therefore no birds around. I made a quick exit for Glasson Dock where the early light and reflections can often be more spectacular than the birding. 

Glasson Dock

There are few Swallows around Glasson Marina this year. Last year many thousands roosted amongst the boats and yachts moored in the marina, this year so far just handfuls of Swallows feeding along with similar numbers of Sand Martins. If anything there appeared to be less Swallows than Swifts with a dozen or more of the latter. 

Swallow

One of the adult Common Terns from Conder Green was on its regular fishing circuit; around the yacht basin favouring the south end, up and over the lock gates and then around the dock a couple of times. Then it’s back over the lock followed by a circuit of the basin again, by which time it has usually caught a fish of suitable proportions for the youngsters back home. Later, all three recently fledged but not yet independent youngsters were lined up on the island at Conder Pool waiting for their meal. I can’t say that I have seen either of the adults fishing Conder Pool itself even though there may be suitable prey items as testified by the regular appearance of both Kingfisher and on Thursday the return of a single Little Grebe. 

Common Tern

Back at Conder Green and suitably quieter after the wagons and bodies moved on - 5 Little Egret, 7 Common Sandpiper, 4 Meadow Pipit, 5 Pied Wagtail, 3 Greenfinch. 

There wasn’t much else doing so I paid a visit to our Sand Martin colony at Cockerham where I’m free to wander around the dairy farm while birding courtesy of Chris the farmer. Roughly 90+ Sand Martins were in evidence with a number of youngsters visible at nest holes as adults returned with food. The next visit for ringing purposes is due in early August, a visit scheduled to fit BTO recommendations for ringing at Sand Martin colonies. 

Sand Martin

On Friday Jamie at Knott End promised me a Dover Sole fresh from the Wyre Estuary so I left him skinning the fish and went for a walk up river where the tide was surging up the channel. 

Wyre Estuary - Fleetwood (left) Knott End (right) 

The Wyre Rose - Fleetwood to Knott End Ferry

There was a Grey Heron along the tideline with many Oystercatchers flying to their roost upriver. In the car park a pair of Pied Wagtails collected food and then flew with beaks crammed full before dropping to the rocks below and out of sight. So that’s where they nest. 

Pied Wagtail

As I walked up river I’d counted 300+ Oystercatchers when a couple of them broke ranks to see off a Peregrine which floated above me. But too late, my camera was bagged and an elementary mistake. 

Upriver and then alongside the golf course I noted a Kestrel, a couple each of Goldfinch and Linnet plus a wheezing Greenfinch. 

All this fresh air sure gives a birder a healthy appetite. Grilled Sole for supper - count me in. 

 Dover Sole

There's more fishy tales soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog. 

Good News, Bad News

It wasn’t the best of morning with cloudy skies and the threat of rain but I made a beeline north. 

Beyond Pilling came the usual sighting of a Barn Owl criss-crossing the fields so fast that within seconds of my spotting it the owl had disappeared into the distance. By all accounts this is a bad year for Barn Owls following a shortage of voles. My many sightings of Barn Owls in the last few weeks supports the idea that adults are having to spend long periods of time hunting for food for themselves but also for youngsters yet to fledge. 

Barn Owl

At Braides there was a Buzzard along the distant fence line, a Kestrel, and a Grey Heron following the sea wall. More than one Buzzard spends the short summer nights out on these fences where five or six hours of  darkness gives them ample opportunities of snatching night-time mammals. Yes, the Buzzard was very distant on the fence. 

Buzzard

There was a Kingfisher waiting for me on the outflow of Conder Green pool. An adult Common Tern with young nearby was flying around making lots of noise and threatening most things in its path hence the Kingfisher looking to the skies to see what the fuss was all about. The Kingfisher flew off over the pool and towards the A588 road bridge - probably the best place to wait and watch for the blue streaks that care not about the traffic thundering by. It seems like Kingfishers are here for the winter now as I saw another one along the Glasson stretch of the canal a little later on. 

Kingfisher 

There was wader activity at Conder Green by way of 17 Dunlin feeding in the creeks alongside 6 Common Sandpiper and 70+ Redshank. No sight or sound of Greenshank or Spotted Redshank this morning, a Spotted Redshank now overdue on the autumn timetable. Still 20+ Oystercatcher, 30+ Lapwing and a handful of Curlew. 

They were a long time arriving but at last the Tufted Ducks have young, 14 or 15 fluffy youngsters scurrying behind their parents and onto the island so fast I’d hardly time to count them. There was another pair of Tufted Duck and still a lonesome drake Wigeon which has summered here. 

At Glasson Dock I took a walk along the canal to find 8+ Tree Sparrows, 5 Reed Warbler, and singles only of Whitethroat, Chiffchaff and Blackcap. Our northern “summer” has been a another poor one the latest in a series of cool or even cold and wet springs followed by a marginally better July, but months of poor productivity for birds of all shapes and sizes. 

Only now and at the end of the second week of July did I see my first Swallow chicks at Glasson Dock. Compared to just an average year the Swallows are at least two weeks late and leaving them less time to produce a second brood and certainly no chance of a third. 

 Swallow

When the rain stopped I did a little ringing in the garden and caught a few youngsters in the shape of Blackbirds, Goldfinches and House Sparrows. Maybe it’s not all bad news? 

House Sparrow

 

 Goldfinch

There are no birds in the nest box this year. The garden wasps claimed it instead.

Busy Wasps

Tune in soon for more news via Another Bird Blog. In the meantime I'm linking to Theresa's Run A Round and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday .

Early Autumn

No Barn Owl pics for the umpteenth time. Yet again this morning there was a Barn Owl hunting not far from the roadside but I was on double white lines along a twisty road where stopping is not recommended. I motored on and then notched up two Kestrels along Head Dyke Lane in the usual spot. 

At Lane Ends I stopped to count a field of exclusively Lapwings, a post-breeding gathering of 160+ birds. Scanning through the flock there didn’t seem to be too many youngsters although the nearest one to the car was a well-fringed juvenile with a spiky hair cut. 

Lapwing

At Braides a distant Buzzard sat atop a plastic wrapped bale of silage from which to watch and wait. At this time of year both Buzzards and Kestrels use these ready-made 360⁰ vantage points to launch attacks on unsuspecting mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects and worms. 

Buzzard

Following an earlier post this week I alluded to the trials and tribulations of our UK Common Buzzard. In a comment on the post my friend and fellow blogger David Gascoigne drew my attention to a passage by the nineteenth century naturalist David Henry Thoreau. 

Thoreau writes about the demise of a Red-tailed Hawk from a farmer’s gun. “But alas for the youthful hawk, the proud bird of prey, the tenant of the skies. We shall no more see his wave-like outline against a cloud, nor hear his scream from behind one. He saw but a pheasant in a field, the food which nature has provided for him, and stooped to seize it. This was his offense. He, the native of these skies, must make way for these bog-trotters from another land, which never soar. The eye that was conversant with sublimity, that looked down on earth from under its sharp projecting brow, is closed; the head that was never made dizzy by any height is brought low; the feet that were not made to walk on earth now lie useless along it. With those trailing claws for grapnels it dragged the lower skies. These wings which swept the sky must now dust the chimney-corner, perchance. So weaponed, with strong beak and talons, and wings, like a war steamer, to carry them about. In vain were the brown spotted eggs laid, in vain were ye cradled in the loftiest pine of the swamp. Where are your father and mother? Will they hear of your early death before ye had acquired your full plumage, they who nursed you and defended ye so faithfully?” 

Alas David, these words are all too relevant in this the 21st Century. 

The farmer missed the foxes though, the family I found searching through a recently cut field at Cockerham. They too were after unsuspecting mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects and worms. There were three foxes at first before one sloped back into the trees leaving me to get a picture of just two of them. I have mixed feelings about seeing Red Foxes in hearing and reading what damage and destruction they can wreak upon other wildlife, but at the same time rather admiring their looks and apparent charm. Am I alone? 

Red Foxes

Red Fox

Stopping for the Buzzard and then watching the foxes made me late for Conder Green where the incoming tide had partly filled the creeks. 

Conder Green

Common Sandpipers reach an early peak here, often in July, so a count of 13 flicking around the margins was not totally unexpected but still good to see. Apart from extra sandpipers the species and counts of the waterside were as normal by way of 70+ Redshank, 40+ Lapwing, 20+ Oystercatcher, 1 Greenshank, 2 Common Tern feeding young, 15+ Swift, 10+ Sand Martin, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Little Egret and 2 Pied Wagtail. 

Pied Wagtail

“Brown jobs” amounted to 3 Reed Bunting, 1 Blackcap, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Reed Warbler and 2 Greenfinch. 

I drove back to Fluke Hall for a walk along the hedgerows and the sea wall. There are still 2 Blackcap in song while 2 pairs of Whitethroats with their obvious alarm calls advertised the fact that youngsters are nearby. Along the sea wall another pair of Whitethroats fed young while 2 Reed Buntings were still in good voice. 

Feeding amongst the farmer’s midden was a single Wheatear, a fairly obviously plumaged juvenile. Occasionally they arrive on the coast from the uplands in June but early July is the norm - autumn’s not far away! 

Wheatear

 

Look in soon for more autumn birds with Another Bird Blog.

In the meantime linking to Anni's blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Same Old Birding?

It’s a well-worn birding route of mine from Stalmine to Conder Green and then back again, often with a detour or two. Alongside the flat coastal road there are many birds to be found at almost any time of the year. How remiss of Google in not showing the legendary birding spot which goes by the name of Conder Green. For blog readers not in the know but itching to get there, I am sworn to secrecy so cannot divulge the exact location. However it could be worth a look below the letter “o” of “Dock”. 

Birding Route

On the way north this morning I missed out a chunk of Head Dyke Lane and traversed Stalmine Moss instead, hoping for a Barn Owl coping with the extra responsibility of youngsters at home. There was one criss-crossing the fields and the road ahead but sods law prevailed and by the time I reached the spot, the owl had fled. I made do with a Kestrel or two and then a Buzzard content with the distance between us. Our local Buzzards don’t usually sit around for a picture and regular readers will know that in the UK this much maligned creature is as likely to have a gun pointed its way as it is to see the business end of a lens. 

Buzzard

Down from the hills a good number of Curlew have found their way back to the coastal fields of the A588 and while I didn’t stop to count the scattered birds, a couple of hundred seemed likely. At Braides was yet another Buzzard along the regular fence doing not much except waiting for the sun to rise and warm the air. I stopped for a while and found small numbers of Linnets, Meadow Pipits, Swallows and Skylark song. 

At Conder Green the Common Terns have at least two youngsters with adults back and forth for food, one out to the marsh, the other towards Glasson Dock. The terns don’t stand for others near their youngsters and I watched as the pair mercilessly chased off a Grey Heron and then a Shelduck. Luckily for them the 5 Little Egrets stayed in the creeks away from the aggressive terns. 

Although now part way into July and with well grown young in tow the Oystercatchers here still indulge in loud and frequent piping whereby aerial bouts of “piping parties” display in the air as well as on the ground. “Piping parties” are made up of pairs of birds which are often joined by birds from neighbouring territories. The Oystercatchers taking part in such displays maintain the open-billed posture they use in their ground displays. An Oystercatcher “piping party” can consist of a handful of birds or as many as twenty or thirty. It’s quite a sight and a fair old din. 

 Oystercatcher Piping Party

In the creeks and around the pool - 80+ Redshank, 35 Lapwing, 5 Common Sandpiper, 2 Greenshank and then 4 Black-tailed Godwit flying west. 

A walking circuit to find the “small stuff” revealed a singing Blackcap plus a Lesser Whitethroat still on territory along the railway line. Meanwhile Meadow Pipit(s), Reed Warbler(s), Sedge Warbler and Reed Bunting(s) all fed young. 

The House Martins near the bridge had a late start this year with a number of them still in the throes of nest building and a handy roadside puddle all they require for a proper job. 

House Martin

House Martin

The final stop Glasson Dock where I found one of the Common Tern from down the road, 15+ Swift, 1 Grey Heron and the adult Swallows yet to fledge their chicks from beneath the road. 

Swallow

Yes the route and the venues may be the same but where birding is concerned no two days are ever exactly alike on Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Theresa's Ranch  and Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

It’s Not All Rubbish

At last the builders have gone. I swept the final dust from the driveway and set off north through Pilling village in the direction of Conder Green and Glasson Dock. 

Rubbish

There were no Barn Owls this morning but compensation came along Head Dyke Lane with a Blackcap in song and a roadside Kestrel atop a telegraph pole. At Braides Farm behind the sea wall and distant from the road was another Kestrel, this one taking exception to and then dive bombing a Buzzard generally minding its own business on a nearby fence. 

Kestrel

Damn. There was a wagon running its loud engine and parked up in the layby at Conder Green. As if this wasn’t bad enough the driver was having a wander both across and up and down the road to stretch his legs, all the while oblivious to birds scattering left, right and centre from the pool and the creeks. 

Adopting Plan B I drove the half a mile to Glasson Dock where a Common Sandpiper was busily feeding along the edge of the path which skirts the yacht basin. An unusual sighting here as there aren’t really muddy margins for wading birds. 

Common Sandpiper

There was a Common Tern searching the yacht basin and the dock for food. I watched it catch a fish and head off towards Conder Green - shades of 2014 when the male of the pair nesting at Conder Green regularly fished the same circuit to feed his mate half-a-mile away. Otherwise both the dock and the yacht basin seemed very quiet with just the regular Swallows, Mallards and Coot near the water and small numbers of Swift and House Martin overhead. 

 Coot

The canal towpath proved fruitful birding by way of 2 singing Blackcap, a singing Chiffchaff, a Song Thrush in loud voice, and several Reed Bunting flitting about the vegetation. Reed Warblers and Sedge Warblers fed recent fledglings which hid in the reeds and umbelliferae which grow in profusion along the margins of the canal. Try as I might the little blighters wouldn’t cooperate. 

Reed Warbler

Conder Green was quiet again, the errant driver gone to create havoc elsewhere. Not many birds had returned although to be fair to our driver friend the pool has been rather devoid of birds and excitement all spring and summer except for the still resident Common Terns. Redshank and Lapwing numbers were quite healthy with 80+ and 30+ respectively, 10 Curlew, 15 Oystercatcher, 2 Common Sandpiper, and 2 Greenshank. Early July and the Greenshanks are dead on time as returnee migrants from their breeding sites way north and east of Lancashire. 

Greenshank

Oystercatchers

A walk of the circuit and the railway bridge produced 3 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Pied Wagtail, 3 Reed Bunting, 5 Whitethroat, 7 Greenfinch and 1 Sedge Warbler. 

So the moral of today’s story is that while we all know that mid-summer can be a quiet time for birding, we should also realise that it’s far from rubbish and infinitely better than DIY.

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday.

More Smarties

On Tuesday morning I left the builders to finish off our bathroom upgrade and went in search of another set of British Builders, the Sand Martins at our Cockerham gravel pit colony.

Sand Martins build their nests at the end of tunnels up to four feet in length, the passages bored into sand or gravel by using their beak, feet and wings. Sand Martins are very sociable in their nesting habits whereby anywhere between a dozen and several hundred pairs nest close together in the likes of sandy river banks, cliffs or gravel pits. 

This species is unusually difficult to monitor, because active and inactive nest holes are hard to distinguish, and because whole colonies frequently disperse or shift to new locations as suitable sand cliffs are created and destroyed by natural causes, occasionally by interference or even on occasion by predation. 

Sand Martin colony

Although the Cockerham colony is not huge it is certainly the biggest in the local area. On preparatory visits for 2015 in the latter part of May we estimated 100+ nest holes and approximately 200 Sand Martins in the immediate area. A week or two later and in early June Andy, Craig and I went on to catch 85 mostly adult birds during a ringing session. Tuesday was the follow-up visit and Andy and I reckoned there could be a good number of fresh juveniles ready to be ringed plus a chance of capturing more adults. 

Sand Martin

Today we totalled 88 birds comprising 62 new birds, 5 birds previously ringed elsewhere (controls) and 21 recaptures from our previous visit of 12th June. Of the 62 new birds, 18 were juvenile birds and 44 adults. The five “controls” all bore rings beginning Z401, the similar numbers far from coincidental as we are sure they were ringed by other ringers at Sand Martin colonies about 20/25 miles to the north along the River Lune. 

Sand Martin

Catching and processing 88 Sand Martins kept the two of us busy but in between times the other birds we saw included 2 Common Terns overflying the water plus resident Canada Goose, Mute Swan, Moorhen, Coot and a number of breeding Oystercatchers. One pair of Oystercatcher has a late nest containing 2 eggs in a very busy part of the farm where only time will tell if their gamble pays off. 

Oystercatcher nest

Oystercatcher

The approximately 250 Sand Martins on site vastly outnumbered the few Swallows in residence around the farm buildings.

 

Swallow

More news and views of birds soon. In the meantime I'm linking to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Short Saturday Birding

We’ve had the builders in all week which made it difficult to get out birding or to find subject matter for blogging. At last on Saturday I could escape for a while to take in some birding at Conder Green. 

The narrow and undulating road across the farmland of Stalmine Moss is not one that too many people travel on a Saturday morning. That makes the drive a good one for spotting Barn Owls and Kestrels although there aren’t too many places to park unless you cheat a bit by using the widened bits of road set aside as “passing places”, or by parking in farm gateways. Doing either might lead to black looks from the locals who always stick to the rules which make the Over Wyre World go around in a generally sedate manner. 

There was a Barn Owl hunting alongside Union Lane but nowhere to stop with a tractor looming large in the rear view mirror. This at 6 o’clock with masses of fields ready for a trim. Near to Lancaster Road was the expected Kestrel scattering roadside Linnets, Goldfinches and House Sparrows. 

Kestrel

Linnet

At Conder Green there’s chance to stop, look and listen and to soak in the solitude of an early start. Listening provided 2 singing Reed Warbler in the roadside reeds, 2 calling Reed Buntings and a Whitethroat warning from the scrub. Just as a few days ago, and from precisely the same hawthorn came the loud rattling song of a Lesser Whitethroat. 

Whitethroat

Reed Warbler

From Wiki - The Lesser Whitethroat has been commonly assumed to be closely related to the Common Whitethroat, as their names imply. It was suggested that the two species separated in the last ice age similar to the pattern found in the Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler, with their ancestor being forced into two enclaves, one in the southeast and one in the southwest of Europe. When the ice sheets retreated, the two forms supposedly no longer recognised each other as the same species. However, scientists researching this question have for quite some time realized that these two taxa are not particularly close relatives. It rather appears as if the divergence of the Lesser Whitethroat complex and its closest living relatives are from the southern parts of the Lesser Whitethroat range into Africa and include the Orphean Warbler group, the Arabian Warbler, and the Brown and Yemen Warblers. 

When seen in the hand the two species are more markedly different than in the field and it is hard to see how they became supposed close relatives. 

 

Lesser Whitethroat

Lesser Whitethroat - Photo: oldbilluk / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA

There wasn’t too much in the way of waders today with perhaps a slight increase of Lapwings to 18+ while 15 Oystercatchers and 70+ Redshanks remain steady in numbers. Otherwise - 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Curlew, a single male Teal and 1 Grey Heron. 

There’s more birding from Another Bird Blog just as soon as those builders are finished.

Linking today to Anni who would rather be birding, and to Eileen's Blog.