First Wheatear

Another grey, cold morning saw me not too optimistic about seeing or hearing a few migrants but at Fluke Hall I found my first 2 Wheatears of the spring, in the guaranteed, sheltered and comparatively warm spot below the sea wall. In my enthusiasm I pulled out the tub of meal worms, for the next month or two a permanent addition to the already overcrowded car boot, and set a couple spring traps. The Wheatears got close a couple of times but the cold, immobile worms didn’t do the trick – this time.

Wheatear
Wheatear

Nothing lost I checked the rest of the sea wall and inland fields to find 5 Meadow Pipit feeding down on the puddles of Ridge Farm with just a couple more heading off over Morecambe Bay. In the Fluke Hall trees was a singing Chiffchaff and the loud pinging calls of Siskins. Just out of the wood the resident Kestrel flew ahead of the car along to each telegraph pole in turn, my third Kestrel of the morning, with others at Lambs Lane and Head Dyke Lane. It was there, at Lambs Lane at 9am I’d seen a hunting Barn Owl that circled the field a few times before it went off in the direction of Pilling village.

Barn Owl
Kestrel

I walked to Pilling Water my customary Wheatear spot, where they are eminently more catchable than the drawn-out boulder shore of Fluke Hall, but didn’t find any. Here were several more Meadow Pipits, 5 Teal and 3 Redshank on the pool and 3 Little Egret on the shore. At Lane Ends were a couple more Siskins, a single Alba Wagtail, and 7 Meadow Pipits. Six more Teal and a single handsome Shoveler on the flood of Backsands Lane where a plover flock held 80 Golden Plover and 60 Lapwing.

Shoveler

Will tells me there are still plenty of Siskins in his garden, so maybe we’ll do more finch ringing tomorrow and save the meal worms for the Wheatears on a warmer day.

Opening March

It was out to the moss today, the real beginning, the first of our spring ringing proper and a chance to weigh up if the Niger feeders put up two weeks ago had done the trick for small finches. It was a dull, grey start and nil wind, good for ringing but not necessarily for seeing March migrants but with luck in between ringing a few Goldfinch, Siskin and Redpolls we might see a few more species heading north.

The feeders had certainly worked because we caught 16 Goldfinch, 15 new plus a recapture from last week, a single new Great Tit and other recaptures of a Dunnock and Great Tit, but unfortunately no more variety than that.

Goldfinch
Great Tit

Besides approximately 30 Goldfinch seen the plantation was as quiet as we expect in early March, with other species limited to 3 Reed Bunting, 6 Chaffinch, 2 Wren, 2 Long-tailed Tit and a couple of Blackbirds.

The birding was reasonably interesting with a good SE to N passage of approximately 35 Meadow Pipits in mainly twos and threes, and singles of Siskin and Alba Wagtail. We also saw a flock of 40 Fieldfare come from the south west and fly strongly to the north east, calling as they went. A couple of flocks of Curlew also went north, 30 birds in total. “Usual” stuff around the fields comprised singing Skylark and Corn Bunting, still a flock of 90 Woodpigeon and just 2 Buzzards, neither of them venturing skywards on such a dull morning.

On the way off the moss I saw a pair of Grey Partridge and once again found the two pairs of Little Owls now well and truly “at it” in their respective territories and holey trees.

Grey Partridge
Little Owl

A respectable morning’s work for 16th March and from now on the days can only get busier.

One Hundred And One

No, it’s not the England cricket team’s latest effort but today’s ringing total from Will’s garden.

More hurried phone calls and weather watching this morning led to a drive up to the Garstang garden for 0800 where the overnight heavy rain was just about petering out, but leaving the paddock in a bit of a muddy mess. Undeterred we put up two nets and caught 101 new birds: 82 Siskin, 16 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch, 1 Blackbird and 1 Dunnock. Recaptures were 3 Siskin from recent weeks and 1 Chaffinch.

Siskin

Last week we thought the Siskin migration had dried up a little but this weekend saw a fresh surge of new birds to the garden area with Will's finch estimates of 200+ Siskin, 100+ Chaffinch, 6 Lesser Redpoll, 15 Goldfinch and 6 Greenfinch. After the morning’s hard graft and observations of birds arriving and leaving we thought today’s count was more like 300+ Siskin, 150+ Chaffinch, 4 Goldfinch, 2 Brambling, 3 Lesser Redpoll and 8 Greenfinch.

Today we looked for visible fat on each Siskin we caught, and a quick perusal of our field sheet shows that roughly 80% of them had fattened up ready for on-going migration. Individual weights varied between a standard and expected 11 grams but several birds tipped the scale at over 15 grams but one large male bounced the balance to 15.7 grams, more akin to the weight of a Goldfinch.

Siskin data
Siskin - adult male
Siskin - female
Siskin - female
Siskin- adult male
Siskin- juvenile male

Apologies then that today’s pictures are all Siskin. And now I really must sign off, I have over a hundred birds to enter into IPMR, the BTO ringer’s database.

Owls And Things

It was Out Rawcliffe this morning where as a change to my normal direction I first took a walk through the wood and headed for the big field. Lucky I did when I chanced upon a roosting Tawny Owl which obliged by not flying off.

Tawny Owl
Tawny Owl

The owl wasn’t the only thing in the wood, with a pair of Great-spotted Woodpeckers, 30+ Chaffinch, 5 Blackbirds and several Tree Sparrows chattering around the nest boxes. Along the big hedge were another 20 or so Tree Sparrows, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Yellowhammer and 2 Corn Bunting, one in song. From the big field itself a group of 9 Stock Dove took off at my approach, then a little more distant, a gang of 40+ Lapwings.

It’s very exasperating at the moment with between 30 and 50 Siskins and lots of Chaffinch still in Will’s garden but a nagging wind that makes it a touch too blustery for a ringing session. Up on the moss, so open it’s guaranteed to catch any wind that’s in the offing, I discovered that the feeders put up last week had attracted a number of Goldfinch and 10 Chaffinch. Predictably the annoying gusts were there too, blowing through the still bare, leafless trees. 15 Lesser Redpolls were also in the wood, moving about quietly in the masses of alder trees, but unlike Siskins that readily take to artificial feeders, around here at least, Redpolls haven’t done so to the same extent. However perseverance is the name of the game and the feeders will stay up for a while, and there’s lots of Redpoll to come in the next few months.

My finch count didn’t include the odds and sods of 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Dunnocks, the Robins and titmice aplenty, which today included 4 Long-tailed Tits, all of which mooched around the food on offer. So I topped up the feeders with black magic and crossed everything available in the hope of calmer weather and a spot more ringing soon.

Long-tailed Tit

Apart from the nagging breeze it wasn’t a bad morning for birding, quiet enough and very cloudy, but no hint of the snow promised for Ireland to the west and The Lake District just 40 miles up the M6. The Buzzards were very active this morning, still resolving disputes, amongst themselves and with the Carrion Crows which harass them at every turn. I counted 7 Buzzards this morning.

Buzzard

On the way home I looked across to a distant tree that held last year’s Kestrel nest; no Kestrel there, but a pair of Stock Doves sat directly above the entrance hole. As I watched the doves moved from near the hole a Little Owl popped out of the cavity and just sat there in the entrance, perhaps to emphasize its occupation to the now departed doves. A poor picture I know, but that Little Owl’s dogged determination to hold on to that nesting spot just made me smile.

Little Owl

A Waiting Game

After de-icing the car windscreen at -4⁰C again this morning I set off to Rawcliffe Moss not sure what I might do in the way of birding when it’s neither winter nor spring just that nondescript bit in between that’s just a waiting game.

Last week we put up a few niger feeders in the plantation in the hope of attracting more migrant Goldfinch, Siskin and Lesser Redpoll in the weeks ahead. But at first I didn’t much fancy putting up nets with icy fingers using icy poles and icy ropes in an icy landscape.

But when I walked up the centre of the trees a gang of 10 or 12 Chaffinch scattered from the base of one of the keeper’s pheasant feeder, then I heard a Goldfinch or three tinkling about, a Yellowhammer flew over, and then over towards the potato field the Corn Bunting sang from last year’s song post in last year’s territory. So with the sun up I decided to have a net and in between the checks, a wander about, play a watching brief, have a good listen in the quiet that is the middle of the deserted March mosslands.

Corn Bunting

From my walk of the plantation perimeter I counted 3 Reed Bunting, 4 Blackbird, 7 Goldfinch, 2 Buzzard and hovering Kestrel whilst overhead and in the space of an hour there was minimal visible migration in the form of 3 Pied Wagtail, 2 Lesser Redpoll and 3 Siskin. From the far side of the trees 3 Roe Deer dashed off and several Brown Hare loped away from the shorter grass to longer cover. I watched a Jay flew over, the first I have seen for months, not so the still flocking Woodpigeon with 70 of them flying tightly east.

When I checked the couple of nets the feeders had worked a just little with 3 Goldfinch, a Chaffinch, a Great Tit and a recaptured Blue Tit from last autumn.

Blue Tit
Great Tit
Chaffinch
Goldfinch

Meanwhile the finches that went over didn’t join those on the niger, but I have high hopes for the next few weeks when Redpoll come through in numbers. As the morning warmed Skylarks came into good voice but very soon the wind picked up rendering my previously motionless nets to resemble sails and I hastily packed in. As I left the moss I saw the Little Owl in the lee of the ivy covered tree and usual 4 Stock Dove around another where the ivy hides the cavities.

I just looked at the weather chart and the synopsis for the next four days is not good with westerlies and rain at times. It could be a slightly longer wait for those migrants.

Looking For More

The ringing in Will’s garden has been very productive so far this year, with 140 Siskin and 85 Chaffinch ringed, not forgetting 12 Goldfinch, 8 Brambling and 4 Lesser Redpoll. With signs of everything quietening down last week we had another shot today, hoping to at least hit the 150 mark for Siskins.

It was a bit early to disturb Will’s slumber so I called at Out Rawcliffe for ten minutes or so and a quick look, where I found instead a Little Owl staring down at me. Little Owls aren’t always obliging so I stayed in the car, and not for the first time used the opening sun roof to get a picture or two. Also near the Little Owl spot were 3 Yellowhammer with one singing its dawn melody, a “little bit of bread and cheese”.

Little Owl
Little Owl

There were Siskins in the garden, maybe a dozen or so in the tops of the alders and a few on the feeders but they quickly cleared off, leaving about 60 Chaffinch, 2 Brambling, several Greenfinch, the regular Robins, Blackbirds and Greenfinch and a good number of the tit family.

The catching was slow today, in fact as slow as we have ever experienced there and we ended up with 10 new birds only, 5 Chaffinch, 1 Goldfinch and 2 each of Blue Tit and Great Tit.

Siskin

Our one recapture today was a resident adult Dunnock, readily sexed as a male on today’s early March date by the cloaca. The male Chaffinches are now looking particularly bright, reminding me that in parts of Scotland the Chaffinch was, and may still be known as “Blue Cap”.

Chaffinch
Goldfinch

Other birds over and about the nearby fields: 4 Buzzard, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Mistle Thrush, 25 Greylag, 2 Canada Goose.

So whilst we didn’t achieve today’s objective of more Siskin, a nil result can often tell us as much as a good result. In our case we are now pretty certain that the throughput of both Siskins and Chaffinches is coming to an end and that perhaps it is time to switch our allegiance to spring and summer ringing sites in pursuit of more birds.

That’s What It’s Like

Early March can be uneventful; it’s often a case of waiting days for migrant birds that may have appeared on the south coast of England but have yet to arrive up here in the “bleak north”. So it was this morning where in the face of a less than ideal north easterly wind and grey skies, I gave the Pilling sea wall a good grilling for migratory birds but found only one or two I could say were definitely “on the move”. However, March is a good time to gather early indications of the numbers and territories of local breeding birds like Lapwing, Skylark, Oystercatcher, Shelduck and Redshank, before they all hide themselves in the rapidly growing vegetation of April and May.

Pairs of both Goldeneye and Little Grebe were on the Lane Ends pools, all of them involved in spring shenanigans, the drake Goldeneye head tossing to a seemingly uninterested female, and Little Grebes trilling away in the safety of the pool margins; the grebes will stay, the Goldeneye will soon go, maybe to become one of the 100 or so pairs breeding in Scotland, but more likely fly off to Scandinavia or Western Russia where most Goldeneye breed.

Goldenye

This has been a Siskin winter for sure, more obvious to me because of ringing lots of the little green things without necessarily seeing them whilst out birding, but a single bird this morning called as it left the Lane Ends trees and headed off strongly to the North East. Two Little Egrets were just out on the marsh, and I later saw a third one, but their numbers won’t increase now until July and post-breeding dispersal. Numbers of Pink-footed Geese Over Wyre have been quite low recently, maybe related to the continued cold with the slow growth of green shoots for them to feed on, but more were about this morning and I estimated circa 3,000, but hey who’s counting pinkies to the nth degree?

I followed the sea wall to Fluke Hall and back; there were 65 Lapwing and 2 Golden Plover on the stubble flood, with at least two pairs of the Lapwing pared off from the main group and indulging in their fantastic spring displays. A few of the males have now developed full head adornments and are just wonderful to watch as they strut and pose around their adopted patch of ground. Oystercatchers are also paired up, with at least 4 pairs between Lane Ends and Fluke, some males doing their slow flapping displays, others using fence posts so soon. I also saw several Redshanks alarm calling, the males “bobbing” on the self-same spots of ground as last and previous years.

Lapwing
Oystercatcher

Along the way I counted 5 fully singing Skylarks, i.e. rising into the sky then gradually falling, rather than the half-hearted songs from the ground or a fence post of late, but I also saw another 12 or more feeding in the edges of the green marsh. It was just here I first heard then saw 3 Meadow Pipit land on the wall ahead of me; Meadow Pipits, the true harbingers of spring up Pilling way, but maybe only if they fly purposefully over, "seep-seeping" then disappear into the distant view of Heysham?

Meadow Pipit

On Worm Pool I hoped for something more exciting than 4 Teal, 2 Shelduck, 2 Redshank, squabbling Moorhens and the aforementioned Little Egret, but sat on the sea wall I noted the far-off Peregrine waiting for the tide to bring in more birds. A patient Peregrine can outwait me most days, so I headed back.

No, it wasn’t the most action-packed hour or two of birding, but working a local patch is often about the mostly seasonal, sometimes fast, often slow and occasionally imperceptible ups and downs that are the lives of birds, and anyway I enjoy it.