The Bridge Beyond Troubled Waters

I did “Over Wyre” this morning. Well I live on the north side of the Wyre anyway so I don’t actually need to go there as such because I’m already here. It’s just a figure of speech, a legacy from when I lived on the other side and my favourite birding destination was “Over Wyre”. As lots of Fylde people say, once you cross Shard Bridge into “Over Wyre” you immediately notice the difference by entering another world, where folk greet each other and it's a bit laid back, a slower pace of traffic and daily life, away from the hustle and bustle nearer the coastal holiday towns, the port of Fleetwood and the Blackpool conurbation. So when we moved house about ten years ago I joined civilisation over here but now ten years on when I go birding locally I still say I’m going “Over Wyre” when I’m already here.

I was reminded of this today when I did a gentle circuit of some of the usual spots but got delayed, waylaid twice by separate folk who just wanted to pass the time of day with a chat in the spring warmth.

The tide was out at Knott End so although there wasn’t much point in looking for waders, I did take a look for the Twite where 18 or so fed in the usual spot after some kind soul had put out more food, whilst the well meaning chap who walks dogs all day long, his own and other folks’, stopped for a chat and prevented me from taking more pictures. But I did grab a Twite and a Redshank.

Redshank
Twite
I took a look along Backsands Lane where 160 Golden Plover fed in the roadside field, too distant for photographs as usual. All the Lapwing flocks broke up in the last week or two and now all that’s left is endless display from paired up birds between Fluke Hall and Lane Ends. I listened in vain for Chiffchaff at Lane Ends but did manage 2 singing Reed Bunting with Goldfinch and Chaffinch joining the chorus. On the pools were 4 Goldeneye (2M, 2F), 5 Tufted Duck, 4 Teal and the return of 2 Little Grebe that vanished during the cold and ice but today trilled to be back. Three Meadow Pipits and 2 Pied Wagtails came off the marsh while 2 Long-tailed Tits flitted about the lower car park. My highlight here was a male Peregrine sat waiting out on the marsh, all grey, white and black marked face in the distance. I talked to a local couple for what seemed ages, who were amazed by the sight of a Peregrine at Pilling, and when I explained Peregrines can be seen most days here they were truly astounded as they only live in the village. Sometimes I think us bird watchers take our knowledge and experience for granted; just occasionally maybe it’s good to share it to make someone else’s day.

Conder Green was always a favourite place of mine, even before the honey pot pool and it seems like the Greenshank, Common Sandpipers, Redshank, Snipe and Teal have just been there for ever. I guess they all have, long before birders with plastic tubes came along to take a closer look and wonder at them.

Today I found the four uncommon “shanks”, 2 Greenshank and 2 Spotted Redshank with the regular 10 to 12 Redshank, 40 Teal, 1 Goldeneye, 18 Wigeon, 15 Oystercatcher and 2 Curlew.

Curlew
Teal
Whilst I didn’t notice any Meadow Pipit migration it was interesting that 2 birds did their display flights from the marsh here, presumably a case of the early males bagging the best territories before the main arrival. Also in song was a single Reed Bunting and in the back garden of the Stork, that uncommon thing a Greenfinch. Let's remind ourselves what one looks like before they disappear for ever.

Greenfinch
On the way back Head Dyke Lane is closed for repairs for a week, a detour of a couple of miles plus ten minutes or so on the journey each time, slowing down on the narrow lanes to let other pass with a raised hand from the steering wheel. Who cares? We’re Over Wyre now these things just don’t matter.

Rings and Things

It was ringing on the moss this morning with a fine forecast and a light south or south easterly, ideal conditions so we hoped for a little obvious migration as most things now seem a little late in comparison to our accustomed sightings in recent years of early March Meadow Pipits, Wheatears and Sand Martins.

It proved an interesting morning that started well by a Barn Owl taking an overhead close look at me as I stood at the car in the 6am semi dark as I waited for Will.

We set 5 nets at 280ft and waited. There was a little Meadow Pipit movement from south to north although we didn’t catch any. In fact it was very quiet with only 6 birds trapped, 2 Goldfinch both females, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Blackbird with 2 retrapped Dunnock from 2009, a male and a female in the same net. During our net rounds, we flushed a Woodcock from the plantation which flew off and around to land back in the trees further up from where we worked. Also cryptic wader wise, a single Snipe flew from the peaty field beside the track and headed into the far distance.

Goldfinch
Reed Bunting
Top of The Moss
Obvious visible migration came in the form of about 12 Meadow Pipits, 2 Golden Plover and 12 Curlew heading north but otherwise probably local birds only moving about the moss and along the hedgerows i.e. Linnet 8, Tree Sparrow 15, Yellowhammer 4, Kestrel 2, Buzzard 1, Long-tailed Tit 2, Blackbird 6, Reed Bunting 5 and Goldfinch 6. We watched a pair of Corn Bunting throughout the morning, the male singing constantly then later I found a flock of 16 still hanging around the old tailings.

Because we finished ringing in good time I spent a while attempting some photography near the barn.

Yellowhammer
Chaffinch
Chaffinch
Yellowhammer
Collared Dove
Brown Hare
What a brilliant morning! Alright we didn’t catch a lot but we got a picture of what was happening on the migration front and an update on the local population and as we always say “You never know until you try”.

Top Of The Moss

I grabbed a couple of hours birding this morning at Rawcliffe Moss before the family visited us with gifts for Sue on Mother’s Day. Glad I went out earlier because although the wind blew a fresh north westerly that made it feel pretty cold, I saw a nice selection of birds and had the place to myself.

First stop was the ivy clad trees at the Rawcliffe end of the road where I had seen Stock Doves a couple of times recently around a likely looking cavity, and there they were again, mating out in the open on a handy branch. So that goes down in Birdtrack as a positive and I really must load my ladder on in a few weeks time to check them out properly. I think I only ever ringed one or two Stock Dove previously. Further down the lane I imagined the Little Owl wouldn’t be sat out in the open in such a breeze, and I was right as it sat only partly visible, huddled up in the lee of the ivy. Just as well I took plenty of pictures during the frosty spells when it obligingly sat away from the ivy.

Little Owl
Towards the winter feeding track a Kestrel perched on the overhead wires but flew off as I approached which caused a single Snipe to flush from a muddy patch of ground. It’s getting a bit late for Snipe now but of course they are just as liable to be migrants as other species we see in March. In the fields alongside the road I counted 5 Roe Deer and at least 6 Brown Hares doing a little of their mad March thing but not quite at full pelt. At the track I walked out towards the big field via the Pheasant feeder where the Yellowhammers hang out, and there were still 5 around as well as a couple of Chaffinch plus the usual Blue Tits and 2 Reed Buntings. After brief snatches of song last week I haven’t heard much of the Yellowhammer's song “Little Bit of Bread and No Cheese”, but I hope it won’t be long before I do.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Snipe
Yellowhammer
There were still 8/10 Tree Sparrows along the hedge hanging out for free grub but they really need to get on with claiming a nest box soon as many have done, because when I walked through the wood and then along the “97” hedge their chippy calls near boxes betrayed breeding plans. Further up the hedge I found a flock of 18 Linnet, a group of 5 Goldfinch and a 2 more Reed Buntings in the area they nested last year. Then when I rejoined the main track 2 Corn Buntings sat together on a spindly bush, one singing. Also up here on top of the moss, 2 pairs of Grey Partridge, 2 Buzzard, a second Kestrel, an incoming Shelduck, more singing Chaffinch, an overflying Pied Wagtail, a Great-spotted Woodpecker in the fir copse and at least 40 Woodpigeon crashing noisily from the trees.

Corn Bunting
Buzzard
I’d had a good couple of hours and there’s nothing quite like quitting when your ahead. Even better to see all the family together later in the day.

Round Robin

I did the rounds this morning in a search for migrants where I seemed to be the only birder at large, almost outnumbering any birds I thought likely to be migrants.

My first stop was Pilling, where at the end of Wheel Lane the 2 male Ruff gave super views on the closer bits of the flashes as one of them quarrelled with a Redshank over ownership. Here I also counted 8 Curlew, at least 15 displaying Lapwing, 15 Redshank and a couple of singing Skylarks.

Ruff
Down at Fluke I avoided parking next to the teenagers in their cars separated by a few inches (makes it easier to pass essentials through you see), the ground below surrounded by the cigarette paper, aluminium and plastic detritus of their nighttime’s endeavours, the roof of one car decorated with a blaring rooftop “boombox” of vile unimaginable racket. Parents, if you at all want to know where your child was last or any night, please follow the trail of noise, litter and herbal smells that leads to Fluke Hall and you will probably find them even if the Police and other authorities have no interest.

So I walked the sea wall in the direction of Ridge Farm where I found a much reduced flock of 15 Twite with close by a smaller group of 7 Linnet, 4 Skylark together, as distinct from the 2 that sang above the fields and 2 Reed Bunting atop the hedgerow. That was pretty much it apart from the resident Robins, Dunnocks, Wrens and Woodpigeon that populate the gorse hedge at the moment. Roll on the much promised spring.

I walked back to Fluke and reclaimed my car where the partygoers had departed, and perhaps now their parents had left for work the poor kids could take to their beds exhausted after being out all night.

At least Lane Ends was quiet and deserted so I took a look around there and walked to Pilling Water then back. In the area of the car park and plantation I counted at least 18 Blackbirds, but how much of this count is due to migration or the effects of the Blackbirds mopping up after "animal lovers" feeding the abandoned cockerels is open to debate. Look on the positive side though, the proper birds get a bit of food, the occasional cockerel is too slow to avoid passing cars and the resultant mess of feathers will make good nesting material for lots of species in the weeks to come.

Additional birds along/about here: 4 Goldeneye, 4 Little Egret, 2 male Reed Bunting singing, 3 singing Skylark and 2 Long-tailed Tit. Down at Pilling Water, 3 Teal, 2 Black-tailed Godwit and 5 Bewick’s Swan. A Kestrel I saw had a ring on the left leg which I discovered only when I later looked at the photograph.

Kestrel
At Knott End on the incoming tide I counted 300 Oystercatcher, 125 Redshank, 22 Knot, 12 Ringed Plover and 5 Eider, then by the bus shelter stopped to confirm the Twite at 18.

Oystercatcher
Twite
Linnet
I have to say I spent a couple of hours looking and searching but found nothing I could say was a true migrant.

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day and I may not get out birding or ringing, but what I really need to know is when is Grandad’s Day?

Another Sunny Day

A layer of frost on the car also means another sunny day lately so who am I to complain about de-icing the windscreen with cold fingers again? All I do is set off a little later and give the birds a chance to move around more when the early sun warms the air. But the current high pressure also seems to be blocking wholesale migration from the south as we birders wish our lives away to hope for a rush of Meadow Pipits, see the first Wheatear or Sand Martin or maybe hear the rasping of a Sandwich Tern along the shore. But there's hope yet as I note Bardsey Island had their first Wheatear on Tuesday.

First call today was Knott End, probably as good a place as any to see the aforementioned harbingers of spring. But there were no Meadow Pipits overhead, just the single Rock Pipit below The Esplanade again with about 25 Twite. Out from the jetty just a single male Eider floated on the incoming tide with no female companion which is a good sign as she was probably up river hidden away somewhere. Before the tide displaced most of them I counted 80+ Redshank, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 44 Knot, 22 Shelduck, 40 Turnstone and 140 Oystercatcher, a dramatic reduction on recent counts as birds head off to breeding sites.

Isle of Man Ferry at Fleetwood

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
Turnstone
Twite
It was good to be out but I wasn’t seeing any March migrants so I decided to do Fluke and Ridge Farm. In the field at Wheel Lane I could see 2 distant Ruff, and even through the bins I could see how each bird is colouring up for spring; also at least 20 scattered but some displaying Lapwings, the larger numbers of previous weeks now dispersed like the Knott End Oystercatchers.

”Distant” Ruff
Lapwing
Ridge Farm produced a healthy variety of birds in the shape of 70 Twite feeding on the deck in the open field, 9 Linnet, 11 Skylark, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Pied Wagtail and at last, 1 migrant Siskin calling overhead but invisible in the bright blue sky, but zero Meadow Pipits. It was now 10am so I was somewhat surprised to see a Barn Owl flying along the hedgerow before it returned towards the farm buildings. A Kestrel circled the wood and a Sparrowhawk hung around the trees near the Tree Sparrow boxes, hoping for an opportune meal as Sparrowhawks always do.

Barn Owl
Twite
Reed Bunting
Tree Sparrow

I motored on to Braides where I saw absolutely zero. The year has been so dry that the ditches dug last autumn to encourage breeding waders are bone dry which makes the field unsuitable for Lapwings at the moment unless we have lots of rain.

Yet another trip to Conder Green produced 2 Greenshank, 14 Tufted Duck, 18 Teal, 1 Goldeneye, 1 Little Grebe and 5 Oystercatchers displaying over the pool again.

More Twittering

It was 4pm and I had to nip to the shops at Knott End so called in at the Twite spot to see if I could improve on my last lot of photos. Despite the constant traffic of people along The Esplanade 15 Twite kept returning to where I waited so I got a few pictures of them, plus a half decent shot of a Rock Pipit before the sun gave up on me.

Twite
Twite
Rock Pipit
I spent most of the earlier afternoon walking on the moss where it was quiet but sunny and I saw the normal early March fare. Buzzards were obvious again today, calling from the vicinity of the woods or overhead as they drifted high in all directions, and I put 4 in my notebook together with 2 Kestrels, the other regular raptor around here.

Buzzard
“Small stuff” consisted of 22 Tree Sparrow, 4 Yellowhammer, 16 Linnet, 4 Goldfinch, 5 Skylark, 2 Reed Bunting and 14 Corn Bunting, most of which fed on the old tailings again. At least 5 Tree Sparrow boxes had activity around them but as usual the birds moved off when I approached too near. Not to worry, all will become clear when the boxes are opened.

Tree Sparrow
Corn Bunting
“Others” today were 4 pairs of Grey Partridge, 2 Little Owl, a single Jay, a return of the Woodpigeons with a count of 64 and 3 Shelduck flying back out towards the coast. Brown Hares were very active today as I witnessed more than one bout of sparring and tearing across the open fields. Four Roe Deer put in an appearance again today as they ran from a wood I approached, making me feel guilty about disturbing them but they are just so hard to spot in a wood and will always see or smell us first.

Roe Deer

Fixed

The Oystercatcher photograph helped me fix my computer problem. I fretted for a half a day over why I couldn’t print Word documents, multitasking between fiddling with various settings and looking through my latest photographs from Conder Green, Lane Ends and the moss. Then while doctoring the Oystercatcher picture on Photoshop I thought I would try to print a photograph; when the black of the oycs came out mottled and runny it finally dawned on me where the problem lay. So I fitted a new black ink cartridge that replaced a dodgy one and hey presto problem solved.

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
The Oystercatchers were in good voice, displaying over Conder Pool whilst they sorted out who would get the prime spot on the rocky little island. There was an Oystercatcher with a badly deformed bill that I guess won’t be a prime partner but through Photoshop I fixed it for the bird to have a smarter bill.

Oystercatcher
"Fixed" Oystercatcher
The rest of the birds came mainly in singles, Coot, Little Grebe, Snipe, Goldeneye and Canada Goose but 8 Wigeon, 6 Tufted Duck, 14 Teal in the shallows and 6 of the aforesaid Oystercatchers.

Canada Goose
Wigeon
Teal
I stopped off at Lane Ends where I caught up with the Fieldfare again, and where the buckthorn berries look less colourful and appetising everyday. A Kestrel perched out in the sun for about two seconds before it took to hiding. It’s difficult to fix photographs where branches make up most of the frame; the story of my life this last week. But then a Pied Wagtail in the car park compensated me a little.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Fieldfare
Pied Wagtail
Later on I went to Rawcliffe Moss to meet the other lads and cut some rides in readiness for the spring mist netting.So first I stopped off early to get pictures again and hopefully not many Photoshop fixes would be required on a bright blue afternoon with no branches to get in the way.

Chaffinch
Wren
Blackbird
Robin
Corn Bunting