Quality Not Quantity

Another early breakfast. Then at 0525 a drive towards Oakenclough, a 35 minute journey and ETA 0600 for a meet with Andy. 

Half a mile from home came the welcome distraction of a flypast Barn Owl. A white van ahead had slowed down and alerted me to a Barn Owl heading my way alongside but below the raised road. There was time for a few clicks of the shutter before continuing east and into the rising sun. Doesn't everyone drive with a camera on the passenger seat just in case? 

Barn Owl

 

Andy was already there as I pulled in at 6.02 with the excuse of "Barn Owl" the reason for the poor timekeeping. 

Over the fence 15 yards away a Garden Warbler was in full song, a good omen for what lay ahead. We enjoyed a quiet ringing session of quality rather than a quantity of birds with the sum totals of 3 Garden Warbler, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Goldfinch and 2 Lesser Redpoll. 

It was during 2020 we noticed increased numbers of Garden Warblers here at Oakenclough, a site  where the species has not bred for at least ten years. But now the plantation is revitalised by a clearance of rhododendron and restocking with native trees, we are confident Garden Warblers will return. Our three today consisted of one male, one female and one yet early season indeterminate. 

Garden Warbler

 

Goldfinch

Willow Warbler

While there's a good population of Willow Warblers here we think that Lesser Redpolls breed close by if not in the plantation in which we ring.  Similarity to Garden Warblers, the redpolls bred here in the not too distant past and they too may return as the planting matures and thickens.    

Lesser Redpoll

 

Our birding was unremarkable in the clear and cool morning but we notched up several Swallows, 15 Sand Martin, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Buzzard, 1 Siskin, 1 Great Crested Grebe, 12+ Willow Warblers,. In nearby fields were several Oystercatchers and Lapwings plus a good number of Greylag families.

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

A Tale Of Two Halves.

Wednesday morning produced yet another icy start at Oakenclough. After a few dire days of catches and thinking along the lines of that old upbeat Howard Jones song, we imagined that “Things could only get better”. 

How wrong we were as we failed to even reach double figures. Just 5 birds caught and once again, virtually zero visible migration of note in the bright blue skies above. Throughout four hours we noted three or four Swallows heading north. Luckily the four (2 x 2) Siskins overhead drew our attention by their distinctive piercing flight calls or may have missed them too. 

Our catch - 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Blackcap, 1 Wren and 1 Willow Warbler. 

The second year male Blackcap was the first to be caught this year when normally we might expect to be in double figures by early May. 

Blackcap

Lesser Redpoll

 

The single Willow Warbler was a recapture from the week before, so new birds numbered four. In the plantation ten or twelve Willow Warblers sang from their now established location without us catching any females. From this, and the lack of chasing around, we deduced that female Willow Warblers had yet to arrive to our site. This is a natural enough lag in timing for Willow Warblers and many other species, accentuated in 2021 by the icy spring. 

Although by 1030 temperatures had climbed to the dizzying heights of 11 degrees, we knew to call it a day. 

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Friday dawned bright but slightly breezy with the decision not to go ringing already made. I headed off Pilling way for a spot of birding alone. 

Swallows were more obvious with a number of them seen to fly north and quickly out of sight. In my two plus hours I counted more than 20, a vast improvement on recent days. But still no Swifts or House Martins, the latter still absent from their breeding eaves in our semi rural location and now two weeks behind schedule. 

I searched a stretch of land I'd not done in weeks and found 3 Lapwings sitting while their mates chased off gulls and crows that showed too much interest in the very obvious nesting pairs. In the same area were two or more pairs of Skylarks, a single Wheatear, a male Pied Wagtail and ten to twelve Linnets. 

Pied Wagtail

Skylark

Linnet

 

In wetter areas came 11 Little Egret, 2 Great Egret, 1 Grey Heron, 3 Tufted Duck, 4 Shelduck, 5 Mute Swan, plus both Canada Geese and Greylags with youngsters in tow. Also, 6 Reed Warbler, 4 Sedge Warbler, 8 Oystercatcher, 6 Redshank. 

Sedge Warbler 

Back home today we sat with a coffee and watched a male Sparrowhawk sat on a neighbour's garden wall. After a while the hawk dropped to within inches of the ground, accelerated like a rocket and crossed into another garden.

Sparrowhawk

That's all for now folks. The forecast for Saturday is rain and wind so it looks like a day doing nothing but chores. Don't go away, see you soon.

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

Mayday, Mayday.

Saturday morning. The First of May began bright and cold again. I waited an hour or two until the sun burnt off the frost and then drove north, hoping for a quiet walk in the warming sun and fresh air. 

They came along the private track, four adults and two dogs against the skyline. Urbanites on their May Day weekend. The egret saw them coming and flew off with loud protests. 

Hunkered down in the car and concentrating through the viewfinder, I'd not seen the intruders headed my way. Thankfully the townies took the other direction and left me in peace. Such are the joys of trying to bird now that lockdown is all but over when the countryside become a free for all again. 

Great Egret

 

I disturbed a Buzzard from the fence line but it made no sound as it slipped away perhaps thinking I'd not seen it in the exact same place for a couple of weeks. The local Carrion Crows gave the Buzzard a noisy send off . 

Carrion Crow and Buzzard

Along the track two pairs of Redshanks showed all the signs of having nests nearby. Oystercatchers too, piping and wary.  And a Lapwing called to youngsters to get their heads down - “Mayday, mayday”, and then circled and flapped to make sure the danger had passed. The young Lapwing were in the longer grass of a ditch, safe enough and hidden from a ringer's view. 

The sun came from the wrong direction. Overexpose the only way to get some sort of picture. 

Redshank

  

The Wheatear on the other side of the sun made for easier viewing even though it kept a safe distance.

Wheatear

 

The ditches also held 3 Little Egrets and a Grey Heron. On and in the reed fringed edges of nearby pools came 2 Pied Wagtail, 4 Sedge Warbler and the snapping song of 4 Reed Warblers. A couple of Swallows whizzed by; so good to see a few at last. No House Martins seen but the farm hand reported seeing House Martins and a Whitethroat on Friday. 

Pied Wagtail

 

On the water - 4 Greylags with young, 2 Canada Geese with young, 2 Shelduck, 4 Moorhen, and then 2 Coot with their early brood. 

Coots

And now on Sunday morning we have a hailstorm. No kidding!  Help.

 

Winter Woollies

There was a thin film of ice on the windscreen again this morning.  After the coldest, frostiest April for at least 60 years with an average of 13 days of air frosts, the temperatures are said to rise next week. 

I was too early for the meet with Andy at the Sand Martin quarry so I spent the first hour birding at Conder Green in winter woollens. It was pretty quiet. Already the breeding birds appear to have settled into a routine. 

As predicted, my count of 16 Avocets just a week ago on Thursday 22nd on was a flash in the pan of noisy, quarrelsome migrants. In their place today were just 3 pairs of Avocets tending their nests and interacting with partners. 

Avocet

 

Other waders produced similar counts to a week ago with a good number of Black-tailed Godwits, several Oystercatcher, and singles of Snipe, Curlew and Spotted Redshank. It’s a little late in the spring for a Snipe to be hereabouts when they should be thinking about breeding. 

Snipe

 

I met Andy at 0830 and we drove down to the foot of the quarry and looked up at about 150 Sand Martins as they circled noisily around the concentration of nest holes. 

Over the winter Chris the owner of the quarry constructed a ledge in the hope that we could reach the martins more easily. In this our first visit of the year it worked well and enabled us to catch 30 Sand Martins, 29 new ones and one recapture from 2020, AKE3973, an adult male we ringed last June. 

Sand Martin

 

Sand Martin

 

We’ll stay away from the site now until late May/early June when the first brood of youngsters should be on the wing. 

The fishing lake here holds few other birds apart from today a Grey Heron, a single Kestrel, 2 Goldfinch, 4 Oystercatchers and 8 Mute Swan. The water level is too high this year to host breeding Avocets and the water too cold to welcome anglers with just one hardy sole camped out today. 

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If as promised the weather warms then a visit up to Oakenclough is on the cards for next week. 

Just the other day details arrived of Lesser Redpoll AHK3073 caught at Oakenclough on 20 April 2021. This recapture turned out to be a very valuable one because AHK3073 had been ringed by other ringers (Sorby Breck Ringing Group) just 2 days earlier on 18 April 2021. 

 

AHK3073 Sheffield to Oakenclough

Lesser Redpoll

AHK3073 had travelled 99kms from just north of Sheffield in those two days. Here was a bird on a mission of heading north, probably on the way to the English Lakes or Scotland and where it would find a mate for the summer months. 

Don't go away. Back soon. 

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Blogspot and Anni in Texas.

No Show

Three degrees at dawn but not the songsters. The temperature was 3º at Oakenclough where Friday's ringing turned into another poor show of zero migration and little in the way of new birds.  I tell a lie. Visible migration consisted of consisted of 2 Swallows arriving as singles and 2 Siskins, singles again. Otherwise, nothing in the clear skies above or in the trees and bushes below. 

Click the pictures for a full frame.

We started off with high hopes and three birds on the first round at 0700. Willow Warblers have somehow found their way north, hence a count of 10 to 12 singing males. We had three new male Willow Warblers in our catch of just six birds - 3 Willow Warbler, 1 Lesser Redpoll, 1 Robin and 1 Goldfinch. 

Lesser Redpoll

  

Willow Warbler

Very often it's the absent species that provide the clue to an overall picture. So female Willow Warblers have yet to arrive, along with Blackcaps, Garden Warblers, Whitethroats and the elusive Goldcrests. The latter species is not represented at all in our catches this spring, perhaps as a result of the cold wet autumn and icy winter of 2020/2021 when large numbers would die.  Likewise the lack of Long-tailed Tits this year, another species susceptible to cold winters. 

Swallows and House Martins are extremely scarce so far in April despite the plentiful arrival of Sand Martins in late March when winds were more favourable. Swifts may too be delayed as by now the 25th, the first of their ilk are usually reported in Lancashire. 

Nationally it is hard to get a handle on how many of the commoner species are arriving in the country when Internet birding sites are 99% dominated by rarity reporting. So for instance we know when Bee Eaters, Hoopoes and other exotica arrive, but common migrants are off the radar of too many hit-list birders. 

Birds around the area of our ringing site consist of resident Robins, Dunnocks, Wrens, Mistle Thrushes and Pied Wagtails. Blackbirds and Song Thrushes are pretty scarce here where the tree and shrub cover is sparse until late summer. 

Maybe next time we'll pick up a few of the missing species?

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An hour and two on Saturday at our ground zero Pilling/Cockerham ringing site birds proved birds more varied and in higher numbers. By Saturday afternoon temperatures reached the balmy heights of 15 degrees but it felt cool away from sunshine.

The tiny pool held a pair of Canada Geese with four or five youngsters in tow, the goslings so tiny that they were mostly hidden from view in the grassy undergrowth. Also on the pool - 2 Shelduck, 2 Greylag, 3 Tufted Duck, 2 Moorhen, a pair of Little Grebe, a Little Egret, and a single Reed Warbler in raucous song.

Shelduck

Further exploration found 4 Wheatear, 10 Linnet, 4 Pied Wagtail, 1 Yellow Wagtail, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Buzzard. Three pairs of Oystercatcher show all the signs but seemingly they are yet to lay their eggs.

Wheatear

Pied Wagtail

Oystercatcher

I think we might have a bash at the Sand Martins next week. At least we know there are plenty on site.

 

Mostly Waders

While we have been waiting for migrants the Lapwings just got on with the job in hand. I was fairly surprised this morning to find a brood of three young Lapwings at Cockersands. Not one to miss an opportunity I walked through an open gateway and immediately picked up two of them while the third managed to hide from sight in the muddy tractor ruts. So that's ring numbers DE33134 and DE33135 used, the first D2s of the year. 

Lapwing 

There were other several other pairs of Lapwings around but I didn't see any more youngsters, in fact not many birds except for a few Skylarks, half a dozen Linnets and a single Swallow. 

The morning had been one of waders, especially so at Conder Green. Sixteen Avocets was quite a count. Equally impressive was the sight of 180 Black-tailed Godwits in their many shades from last years greyish youngsters to the dark brick colour of full breeding males. Unfortunately most of the godwits stayed roosting out of camera range on a far island with just a few in the roadside creeks. 

Avocet

Black-tailed Godwit

The Avocets were noisy and flighty, just as migrant birds tend to be. Not all of the sixteen will stay around to breed, most likely four or five pairs depending upon levels of disturbance, the attentions of predators and the ever changing weather. Pretty sure that two days of downpours and cold temperatures last summer killed all four of the young Avocets we ringed on 16th June. 

Avocet

Avocet

Other waders and wildfowl in lesser numbers; 14 Oystercatcher, 7 Redshank, 2 Greenshank, 1 Snipe, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Curlew. All the sixes with 6 Shelduck, 6 Tufted Duck, 6 Greylag. 

Oystercatcher

 

Small birds were few and far between with two Willow Warblers along the footpath the best and still no sign of Whitethroats. I drove to friends R and H for a look along their private tracks and found a couple of Wheatears. There was both Reed Warbler and Sedge Warbler in the reed bed and 3 Willow Warblers in the copse. 

 

Wheatear

On the pool 2 Greylag and 2 Canada Goose, a Grey Heron and a Little Egret. Behind the sea wall I found five more Little Egrets and a single Great Egret. 

 

Great (White) Egret

 Hopefully more news tomorrow. A spot of ringing looks likely. 

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

Getting Better

Here we are again. As promised in yesterday's blog post when the sighting of a less than common Great Egret at Cockerham provided the Monday Highlight. 

After recent unremarkable ringing sessions and the sum total of ten birds caught, I met Andy at 0630 at Oakenclough on Tuesday in the hope of a change in our bird ringing fortunes. 

We had a better catch and even managed to achieve double figures. Once again, on a clear bright morning the visible migration was nil except for the few Lesser Repoll that sneaked in unseen. Lesser Redpoll was the most ringed bird today with 6 Lesser Redpoll, 3 Willow Warbler, 2 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Robin and 1 Wren. 

One of the six Lesser Redpoll AHK 3073,a second year female was a “control” - a bird ringed elsewhere. 

Willow Warbler

 

Lesser Redpoll

Chaffinch 

It seems that many of the Greylags on site laid their eggs at similar times. Today saw a number of crèches of adults with similarly sized youngsters. The crèche strategy is common amongst a number of geese & duck species and one that increases the survival rate when so many pairs of eyes serve to watch over the youngsters pooled together with three, four or more adults.  

  

Greylags

When the ring details of Lesser Redpoll AHK3073 are entered into the BTO online database back home we will learn about the original ringing information within a few days. 

The British Trust for Ornithology online database of DemOn has many possibilities and choices available for ringers to record their catches. The data ringers collect is real and in real-time, not made up as they go along. For instance, we collect a minimum of: 

• the place (map reference) 
• whether the bird is new to us or a subsequent capture – one ringed elsewhere or one ringed by ourselves on a previous occasion 
• date of ringing 
• time of ringing 
• the species 
• the species' age and sex 
• the species' breeding condition (or not) 
• biometric measurements e.g wing, bill, tail, claw 
•  the weight 
• fat score 
•  moult status 

DemOn

Even when we catch very few birds the info we collect still adds to the vast database of information on birds' lives and their survival, all of which aids conservation science. 

“Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.” 

Most volunteer ringers probably class themselves as citizen scientists of varying degrees of application and expertise. They share and contribute to both national and international data monitoring programs through sharing information across the continents and countries through which birds migrate at many different times of year.

Stay tuned. There's more birding, ringing and photos soon.