Glass Half Full

Trying to stay positive is the key. When all around is doom and gloom my glass is half full. Spring is not far away. The sun will shine, rain will stop and birds shall sing. Despite the virus, birds will arrive from Africa, my pliers well oiled and camera batteries fully charged in readiness for oodles of photos.

Good news from Greece where we are due to travel on 5 May and where the Greek authorities are even now preparing a welcome for tourists from late April.  Even here in moribund Great Britain our government appear to realise that their yo-yo restrictions and lockdowns are disproportionate to any remaining threat, and that they must allow society to open up very soon.

Meanwhile, an archive from warm and sunny Lanzarote 18th January to 1st February 2015. 

It was fairly blowy on the day Sue and I set off south to the working salt pans, Salinas de Janubio and the little lunch-stop village of El Golfo. It is often breezy, more likely windy in the Canary Islands which lie in the Atlantic Ocean some 100 kms off the coast of Africa. During the times of the Spanish Empire the Canaries were the main stopover for Spanish galleons on their way to the Americas because of the prevailing winds from the northeast. There is compensation for the breezes in the islands’ subtropical climate with long warm summers and moderately warm winters. 

The Canary Islands

Not far from our base of Puerto Calero and just off the LZ2 we stopped off to look for Lesser Short-toed Lark and perhaps more Houbara Bustards in a location they are reputed to use. No luck with the bustards however we did see Lesser Short-toed Lark, Berthelot’s Pipit and Kestrel, as well as finding a good crop of huge watermelons and strawberries growing in a seemingly inhospitable but well irrigated place. 

The Lesser Short-toed Lark is a bird of dry open country which is fairly common in Lanzarote and breeds in Spain, North Africa and eastwards across the semi-deserts of central Asia to Mongolia and China. It prefers even drier and barer soils than its close relative the (Greater) Short-toed Lark. As far as I know the Short-toed Lark is but a scarce passage visitor to the Canaries, and a species I am familiar with in the Mediterranean. 

Update 2020. A recent paper has proposed that Lesser Short-toed Lark is better treated as two distinct species, with the position subsequently adopted by the IOC World Bird List. The species that occurs here in the Canaries is now known as Mediterranean Short-toed Lark. Distribution - southern Europe, Canary Islands, North Africa and Iberia through the Levant to western Iraq.

Mediterranean, (Lesser) Short-toed Lark

Watermelon, Lanzarote

From a high approach road the salt pans down at sea level often appear tranquil enough. There can be a different story at ground level where the wind whips the water into a frenzy of white as a display of how the salt pans create their valuable product by deposition of salt. The Greenshanks are wading through the salty froth of the water seen in the first photo below, 800 yards away.

Salinas de Janubio

Greenshank

Greenshank

Berthelot's Pipit

Black-winged Stilt

Black-winged Stilt

Turnstone

What with the wind and lack of cover to approach birds, this is a difficult place in which to birdwatch and take photographs. Unfortunately I didn’t manage any pictures of the also-present Whimbrel, Kentish Plover, Grey Plover, Redshank, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper or Black-necked Grebe but it was good to see so many species in this one place.

A short drive away from Janubio is the famed Green Lagoon, something of a tourist hot-spot and a destination for crowded buses. It is easy to see why and to join in the endless photography which takes place. 

The Green Lagoon, Lanzarote

The beach itself is of pebbles and the cliffs behind the lagoon equally dramatic, having been wind eroded into fantastic shapes over the course of the centuries. The scenery is further enhanced by the large finger of rock which sits just off the beach and causes the sea to crash around it. The landscape here is so wild filmmakers used it as the backdrop for Raquel Welch wearing her animal skin bikini in the classic movie One Million Years B.C. 

El Golfo, Lanzarote

The weathered cliffs extend all the way along the walkway which goes in the opposite direction to the village of El Golfo, revealing different bands of rock smoothed and shaped by the forces of nature. 

Just along from the Green Lagoon is the village of El Golfo which has possibly the highest concentration of fish restaurants on the island. The morning’s catch is gutted and cleaned on the beach to a watchful audience of many dozens of Yellow-legged Gulls and the inevitable Common Sandpiper scurrying through the rocky pools. 

El Golfo, Lanzarote

Yellow-legged Gull and chef. 

Common Sandpiper

We stopped off in the pretty town of Yaiza before heading back to the Hotel Costa Calero and a pre-dinner glass of Cava. 

Yaiza, Lanzarote

 

Hotel Costa Calero

Another successful day of exploration in Lanzarote. Previous posts about our holiday to Lanzarote can be found at "A birding-day Lanzarote style" and at Birding Lanzarote.

More birds soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Anni in Texas,  Rain's Garden  and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

 

Escapology

Friday Morning wasn't the finest of late but cloud was high and dry above roads still wet and puddled by weeks of rain.  I was desperate for fresh air and to escape from confinement. 

While there's still no bird ringing, I decided to drive to a couple of local spots for a walk, a circuit or two while not breaking the rules. 

I nipped into our field at Gulf Lane so as to retrieve the dummy poles left at the Linnet catching spot. Richard will soon be be looking to prepare the ground for this year's crop of bird seed and cover crop. 

This proved to be a lucky move when a Great Egret flew from the field ditch, over the traffic of the A588 and then into the ditches behind the sea wall. Without fail there's usually a Little Egret or two in the ditch but not today. 

Great Egret

 

Great Egrets are following in the footsteps of Little Egrets by making their homes in Great Britain. Perhaps they are colonising more slowly than their smaller cousins did in the 1970,80s and beyond but they are definitely on their welcome way. 

Although I didn't see any Linnets there was a Stonechat and a pair of Skylarks larking about overhead. Spring has sprung in the last few days with the usual suspects in song at home and many other places – Greenfinch, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, and Wren to name just a few. For now the Stonechat seems not to have a partner and it may soon be on its way elsewhere. 

Stonechat

 

At Conder Green I parked up and walked the circuit that takes in the road to Glasson Dock, the path to the estuary, along the footbridge to the The Stork Pub and then back to Conder Pool. 

January 2020 - “Shock and sadness in aftermath of Stork Inn Conder Green pub fire”. 

The Stork - Conder Green

 

The pub, which dates back to the 1660s is now almost back to its old self except for the double blow of being forced to close again by the virus and yet more lockdowns. 

My counts came to 145 Teal, 70 Wigeon, 6 Goosander, 1 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 15 Redshank, 10 Curlew, 44 Oystercatcher, 22 Lapwing. 1 Kestrel and 1 Cormorant. Evident today was how many Oystercatchers and Black-headed Gulls have set out their stalls for the coming season. In just a week I expect to see the first Avocets back from their wintering in South West England and to then start the annual battle for nest sites with the Oystercatchers. 

I poured a coffee from the flask and then parked at Jeremy Lane/Moss Lane for a walk along the quiet lanes, trying best not to disturb the wild swans now scattered into three or four parties of 310 Whooper Swan, 6 Bewick's Swan, 1 Black Swan, 2 Greylag, several hundred Curlew and a couple of hundred flighty Golden Plover. 

A winter visitor, the well-travelled Bewick's Swan is the smallest of our wild swans. It has more black on its yellow-and-black bill than the more numerous and highly vocal Whoopers. 

Bewick's Swan

Whooper Swan

 

Other bits and pieces spotted here during my escape from captivity – 15 Tree Sparrow, 20/25 Meadow Pipit, lots of Blackbirds and a single Stonechat.

 Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

Banned And Baffled

Being banned from bird ringing other than in one's own garden is frustrating and annoying. More so when the authorities continue to allow both shooting and fishing to take place in the countryside. We are hopeful that we may be able to recommence our vital conservation work soon. 

In the meantime. A couple of recoveries of ringed birds remind us of previous ringing sessions. 

We caught and ringed Lesser Redpoll Y596566 at Oakenclough way back on 4 February 2015 as a first winter female. It certainly looked like a female and also measured at 72mm wing.  Below is the picture from that day, easily retrieved from the blog because it was the only redpoll caught. 

Lesser Redpoll - Y596566

 

“There was a slight frost with both clear skies and the radio forecast promising a sunny day ahead.  Our four hours proved to be rather slow in both activity and numbers caught whereby we speculated that birds had moved from this high ground location to more urban locations a mile or three away where the temperatures would be more to their liking. 

We caught just 25 birds, 21 new ones and 4 recaptures. New birds: 8 Blue Tit, 6 Great Tit, 3 Chaffinch and singles each of Goldfinch, Lesser Redpoll, Coal Tit and Robin. Recaptures: 2 Chaffinch and 1 each of Robin and Coal Tit.“ 

Fast forward to 26 January 2021, 5.98 years later and Y596566, the single Lesser Redpoll of 4 February 2015 was recaptured by Durham Dales Ringing Group at Rowlands Gill, Tyne and Wear, some 126 kms from Oakenclough. 

Lesser Redpoll - Oakenclough to Tyne and Wear 

 

By now and with the now mature bird, Durham Dales ringers were able to more accurately age this bird as an adult male rather than the female we supposed 5 years earlier. 

Such is the danger and associated pitfalls of trying to age and sex first winter Lesser Redpolls where it is wrong to commit a bird's age to a database unless 99% positive. Hopefully we ringers learn from our mistakes. Unless of course it was a simple data input error of “F” instead of “M”! That's our excuse and we're sticking to it. 

============================= 

Although we have been unable to continue with our wintering Project Linnet because of the virus yet another Linnet recovery has come to light. 

This one again involves the island of North Ronaldsay, Northern Isles and an old friend, a male Linnet carrying Ring Number AJD6518. We caught AJD6518 for the first time at Gulf Lane Pilling Marsh on 26 November 2018. The same bird has now been recaptured on three separate occasions at Holland House, North Ronaldsay Bird Observatory - 7 May 2019, 28 June 2019 and the latest one on May 2020. 

Linnet - North Ronaldsay to Pilling 

Where this individual has been during the winter of 2020 is anyone guess but we rather hope it came back to Lancashire again, even though we were unable to prove the likelihood when bird ringing became verboten. 

After this latest information about Linnets' status on North Ronaldsay I made contact with George Gay who has the privilege of a working life on this outpost of bird migration. 

George - “The Linnets on the island leave over the winter and usually return sometime in March in dribs and drabs.  Holland is not only a roost site but their main breeding site on the island. Since 1987 we have ringed just over 7000 Linnets here but they haven't bred until fairly recently and have largely replaced Twite as a breeder on the island. 

Holland is the main site but birds do breed elsewhere on the island with Ancum Willows probably being the next most likely spot to find breeding birds. They've been on a steady increase since the late 90's to early 2000's and now roost flocks can easily reach 300-400 birds post breeding.” 

Linnets

The information above mirrors the summaries of the Linnets' status in both the BTO Migration Atlas 2002 and the BTO Bird Atlas of 2013, both of which tell of the Linnets' colonisation of the Northern Isles of Scotland during its simultaneous decline as an English farmland species. 

Two other records also show our now regular Lancashire/Northern Isles connections. 

Ring number AYD5167 was ringed as a post breeding individual at Holland House, North Ronaldsay on 8 September 2018, a rather large juvenile male of wing length 84mm. We recaptured the same bird at Gulf Lane, Pilling, Lancashire on 24 December 2018. Here is a clear case of juvenile dispersal/migration. 

The above correspond to yet another Linnet that spent time at our winter set aside of Gulf Lane. Z722984 was ringed as a nestling of 6 siblings at Scousburgh, Shetland, 14 June 2016 and later recaptured at Gulf Lane, Pilling on 24 October 2016 - A juvenile heading south-west to spend the winter in England. This is more support for the idea about the origins of many Linnets that flock to spend the winter in the area of Pilling and Cockerham, the same birds that then depart in March to head north to Scotland. 

Linnets

The value of bird seed and cover crops in many English locations becomes apparent as does the need for constant monitoring to spot changes taking place in the countryside.  

Linnets

Come on Boris, Natural England and BTO, give us our ringing back. We much prefer it to shooting or fishing. Don't you?

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Back home in the garden 2020/2021 has proved a peculiar winter with almost zero bird activity apart from the occasional Goldfinch and Blackbird. 

Goldfinch

Perhaps the continuous unsettled weather has caused birds to move elsewhere to seek food. The grass is squelchy through the endless rain with no opportunity for it to dry out. Days of sunshine are rare with the chances of catching a few birds remote. 

Stay tuned friends. We may be banned but we haven't given up hope of a return to ringing soon.

 

Another Archive

Apologies folks. It's another post from the locked-in archives. This one from and 9 May 2019. I'm linking this post to Rain Frances my pal in Canada for her Thursday Art Day - Rain Frances.

As my artistic ability is zero I digitised a few of the original photos into art. I hope Rain doesn't notice and complements my improved art.   

Our fifteenth time in Menorca. And yes, Menorca is that special. But it does get less quiet, much busier and more popular each year, and that's why this may be our last.

Don’t forget – “click the pics” for a trip to sunny Menorca.

Fornells, Menorca

Mahon, Menorca

Es Migjorn, Menorca

Coffee Time, Menorca

Phil's Art

Fornells village, Menorca

Fornells

Cattle Egret

Turtle Dove

Egyptian Vulture

Wood Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper

Menorcan Panda

Phil's Panda

Hoopoe

Es Grau, Menorca

Black-winged Stilt

Cattle Egret

Greater Short-toed Lark

Punta Nati- Menorca

Bee-eater

Audouin's Gull

Red-footed Falcon

Ciutadella - Menorca

Ciutadella

Ciutadella - Menorca

Serrano Jamon

 Hoopoe

 Red Kite

Bee-eater

Bee eater - watercolour

Menorcan Friends

Ensaimada and Coffee - Menorca Style

Sant Tomas, Menorca, Spain.

 

Back soon with more news, views and photographs home and away on Another Bird Blog. 

Linking Saturday 30 January 2021 to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas

Doom, Gloom And BS

I'm still in lockdown as are many others around the world. Stay positive folks. There is a way out once the politicians and the experts toss a coin. 

In the meantime for birders needing a fix there's peripatetic Internet birding.  Peripatetic - "Leading the life of a person without a fixed domicile; moving from place to place: itinerant, nomadic, vagabond, vagrant."  Sounds like pre-Covid twitchers who lived an almost nomadic existence but with a hotline to Bird News and Cornish  airports. 

Here's a story first noted online in the leading purveyor of doom, gloom and fake news, The Guardian, claimed by some to be a newspaper.  Predictably the Guardian take on dead birds falling from the sky in the United States 16 September 2020 was an example of man-made climate change, the “climate crisis” rather than a natural event.  

"The mass die-off of thousands of songbirds in south-western US was caused by long-term starvation, made worse by unseasonably cold weather probably linked to the climate crisis, scientists have said. “.... could not say if this event was directly related to climate change but acknowledged that it is making extreme weather events more likely.” 

Delving further I came across a more reasoned summary from Jim Steele, a US scientist, birder and environmental campaigner. He quite rightly takes The Guardian and others to task for “pushing flockalyptic fears" even though "there is no support to suggest the sky-is-falling or ecosystems are collapsing.“   

“On October 8th a resident of Pacifica California reported that 2 birds fell dead from the sky onto his decking. That would startle anyone and raised grave concerns. People began suggesting possible causes: a mid-air collision, West Nile virus, rat poison, wildfire smoke, and of course the climate crisis. Some pointed out they had found a dead bird in their yard. Others referenced a massive die-off of migrating birds in early September over Colorado and New Mexico suggesting thousands, maybe a million birds had died. The speculated cause of death was wildfire smoke, starvation and a cold snap that dropped temperatures from 90°F to near freezing in a matter of hours. Sky-is-falling fears and fearing a “ bird flockalypse” one person wrote, “if birds are dying, we humans are next”.   

"Up to 1,550 birds flew into some of Philly's tallest skyscrapers one day last week.  The slaughter shook bird watchers." - The Philadelphia Inquirer  - 7 October 2020.

"Good scientists must examine all likely factors. So, I investigated the stories behind most documented bird die-offs.  For the case of a single dead bird found in someone’s yard, that bird may have died from disease, flown into a window, or simply died of old age. Most of our sparrows, warblers and hummingbirds don’t live longer than 13 years. Twenty-five to fifty percent of young birds die in their first year."    

"California asks people who find dead birds to report them to local vector control agencies so the birds can be tested for disease, West Nile Virus in particular. For the year 2020, to date about 5200 dead birds have been reported in California, a fourth of which were tested. Only 320 have had the virus, while most died of unknown causes. (Mass die-off of 10 or more birds are not included in their reports.) Los Angeles county reports the most dead birds, while rural Sierra County reports none. That suggests higher population centers with more eyes find more dead birds. "   

"In contrast, the die-off of hundreds and thousands of birds, often during migration requires very different explanations. Good scientists must place such unusual events into a historical context. Was the September 2020 die-off in the southwest so historically rare that we can attribute it to how humans have recently altered our environment? Or, are such die-offs relatively common occurrences. Scientists calculate millions of birds die each year during migration in North America. We just don’t know all the causes, or what percentage of dead birds are actually observed."    

"A 2007 scientific paper reviewed reported bird die-offs across the globe and major die-offs were observed more than once a decade for the past 120 years. Some happen during spring or fall migration, other die-offs happen while on the breeding grounds. Most are associated with cold weather. On New Year’s Eve night in 2011, people reported dead black birds “raining” from the sky around an Arkansas town. People blamed everything from secret military testing and UFOs to bad weather. Investigations later determined 5000+ birds had died from blunt force trauma, which confirmed reports that birds were flying into buildings and towers. " 

 "The most common cause of other cases of bird deaths was bad weather - heavy rains, cold or snow. For example, a sudden cold spell across southern Germany, Austria and Hungary caused birds numbed by the cold to fall from the sky. Residents eagerly brought still living birds inside to warm, then loaded 89,000 birds onto planes and trains, sending them south to a warmer Venice, from which birds continued their migration."    

"In March 1904, a small town in Minnesota reported dead birds falling. Investigations determined nearly a million birds, all Lapland Longspurs, died during a heavy rainstorm. Over 750,000 birds were counted on just 2 small lakes that were still covered with winter ice. Autopsies determined most birds died from blunt force trauma as birds crashed into the ice or buildings.  

"Migratory deaths of thousands of birds this September in southwest USA likewise, appear to be driven by a cold snap. USGS experts have indeed told me that the best explanation is still a sudden cold snap that dropped temperatures from the 90s to near 30 F, killing birds already stressed by the rigors of migration. My analysis of archived EPA air quality doesn’t suggest smoke particulates coincided with that die-off, but officials have not yet ruled out wildfire smoke. Corpses are still being autopsied and whether or not there is lung damage could implicate wildfire smoke.  

"I suspect the most likely cause of the 2 birds falling dead from the sky in Pacifica was due to exhaustion from flying out over the ocean and trying to return to land. I have been on pelagic bird trips miles from shore where exhausted land birds flop down on our boat. Several studies have been performed on the Farallon Islands which are 26 miles offshore due west of Pacifica. Several studies note weather conditions, such as offshore winds that we naturally experience this time of year cause birds to veer off course and fly out to sea. They can be further confused by the offshore fog bank. Many of the birds having arrived on the Farallons are later observed to be headed back to shore, suggesting they are guided to our coast if they can see land when not obscured by fog. Furthermore most of the Farallon birds are young birds born that summer and are typically less efficient at finding food are more likely to become emaciated after an extended overseas flight."  Jim Steele - Jim Steele Landscapes and Cycles

Starvation and poor weather condition often cause mass casualties to migrating birds in America, Africa, Asia and Europe in spring and autumn. That is the reality of birds flying thousand of miles over sea and land where weather can change in an instant. The death of some is unfortunate but it is scientific fact witnessed over the millennia.

One tall building. One dark and stormy night. 395 dead birds - The Denver Post June 2017

The moral of this story? Friends and readers. Do not imagine that news broadcast into your home via TV or newspapers is unpolitical or impartial and that somehow their approach to birding and natural history is exempt from propaganda.  It is time to think for ourselves, push back, and call time on the constant BS of mainstream media as exemplified by The Guardian, the BBC and many other organisations happy to hop onto the scamwagon of the "climate crisis", otherwise known as weather events of a tiny planet in a solar system that is some 4.6 billion years of age.   

 

I am grateful to Paul Homewood for originally drawing my attention to the “news” above. Please include Paul in your list of essential reading that questions the narrative of mainstream media. 

Not a Lot of People Know That - Paul Homewood 

Linking today to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.