March Madness

I hope this isn’t getting monotonous for blog readers but there isn’t much to thrill today after a quiet morning up Conder and Cockerham way. It’s just that time of year, early March when the winter birds thin out but before the arrival of the first true spring migrants in mid to late March. 

We enjoyed an awful lot of heavy overnight showers, a couple of sleepless spells as windswept rain lashed the bedroom window. When driving this morning there were lots of new roadside muddy puddles through which to splash. I made a mental note to leave time in the day for yet another bucketful of car shampoo, my unvarying chore of the past three months. 

When I arrived at Conder Green the River Conder was flowing towards the estuary both fast and high, filling the creeks to way above low water level, a sure sign of a night’s deluge. 

The regular birds were there, some in now smaller numbers as winter finally abates: 28 Redshank, 70 Teal, 4 Little Grebe, 3 Goldeneye, 1 Spotted Redshank, 1 Grey Plover, 4 Curlew, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Little Egret, 4 Shelduck, 6 Wigeon and 4 Oystercatcher. The Oystercatchers comprised two pairs, each taking up residence on the topmost points of the almost submerged islands where both Oystercatchers and Lapwings nest. After the winter rain and storms and using the sluice wall as a reference point it looks as though the water level of the pool is now higher by some 18 inches or more. 

Oystercatcher

Grey Plover

Teal

It remained pretty windy this morning whereby the often serene Glasson Dock had waves a plenty to hide the wildfowl. Receding numbers but still 30+ Tufted Duck, 7 Goldeneye and 8 Cormorants, the Cormorants lined motionless along a single landing stage, waiting for the signal to dive in if the photographer moved closer. 

Cormorant

Goldeneye

The fields at Jeremy Lane were stacked with mainly smaller gulls and Starlings. When I stopped to look closer I estimated 750 Black-headed Gull, 75 Common Gull, 1 Mediterranean Gull, 1 Little Egret and 1500 Starlings. 

Little Egret

Every so often there was a “dread” as all the birds took to the air before settling again to resume feeding on the saturated fields. It wasn’t until the third time that I saw the cause of their panic, a female Merlin dashing low and fast close to the throng of birds but failing to take anything. 

Somewhere in the distant fields was a flock of Black-tailed Godwits too, at one point about 300 of them flying around together before settling far away. 

It was good to see Brown Hares about this morning, just 3, but two of them engaged in their March Madness, chasing through the fields in the near distance. 

Brown Hare

There’s more Insanity in March very soon from Another Bird Blog.

Linking today to Camera Critters, Eileen's Saturday Blog and Anni's birding blog.

Quiet Morning, Suffering Seabirds

After an hour or two at Pilling there are a few birds to report today. 

My casual birding pales into insignificance when I relate bad news about the effect upon seabirds of the endless Atlantic storms of recent months - vital reading for all bird lovers. Worse still an established and proven method for monitoring the same seabird populations in Britain is being thrown on the scrapheap by a new Welsh quango. Read on. 

First my Pilling news from the maize floods, Fluke Hall Lane and surrounding fields, a good two and a half hours stomp around on a bright but very cool morning. The wood held my first Goldcrest of the springtime, a pair of Long-tailed Tits, several Goldfinch and a pair of Mistle Thrush. 

Less good news was sight of a bird predator, a Stoat running across the road at the edge of the wood. I’ve seen Stoats in the same spot for many years, the animals having traditional places where they live and breed, just like many animals and birds. I had my small lens today, so took a picture of the long dead fox left in the same spot where it was most likely poisoned or shot. 

Common Stoat

Red Fox

Two Buzzards were about and over the trees again, the third time in a week of noting them here. A walk to the wet fields and sea wall revealed more than a hundred Redshank, 38 Dunlin, 15 Curlew, 12 Oystercatcher, 30+ Shelduck, 22 Pied Wagtails, 4 Little Egret, 15+ Skylark, 10 Twite, 8 Meadow Pipit, 1 Reed Bunting and 450+ Pink-footed Geese. 

Similar daily goose counts are the best I can muster at the moment as the geese fly north to Iceland in good numbers and leave Lancashire until September. A feature of the morning was the huge numbers, perhaps several thousands of Starlings heading north across the bay. We often forget that Starlings too return North and East about now. 

Pink-footed Goose

Starling

Now for the news I mentioned at the start of this post. 

Tens of thousands of birds particularly auks such as Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills have died as a result of the raging and endless gales of the winter. The remains of these birds are now being washed up on the coasts of Wales, Cornwall and the Channel Islands, even more so on the Atlantic coast of France and the beaches of the Bay of Biscay where large numbers of British Puffins and their auk cousins spend the winter. 

Atlantic Puffins - Photo credit: US Fish and Wildlife Service

Latest estimates from Wildlife Trusts partnership suggest a confirmed death toll of around 25,000 birds, which is expected to rise steadily as more corpses are washed ashore. This natural disaster makes us realise how vulnerable our seabirds are to other threats, such as the oil spills and other dangers such as climate change and overfishing. 

Seabird colonies in Scotland are faring especially badly. In some only a fifth of breeding birds are raising chicks, mainly because their food, largely sand eels, has disappeared. Perhaps because of too much trawling or rising water temperatures the sand eels have moved north making them less available to British seabirds. 

Common Guillemot -  Photo credit: Foter / CC BY

As this potential disaster waits to unfold a new Welsh quango is abolishing the measly funding of £12,000 a year for the long-term monitoring of a large Guillemot colony of more than 20,000 birds on Skomer Island, Pembrokeshire. The quango Natural Resources Wales was set up last year to incorporate the old Countryside Council for Wales with the Welsh sections of the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission. 

Please read this story in more detail at The Independent, and particularly if you live in Wales write to your Member of Parliament expressing your shock and displeasure at what you read.

I am grateful to Professor Tim Birkhead for bringing this to our attention.

More from Another Bird Blog soon. Stay tuned.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Spring Signs

A morning is always off to a flying start with a hunting Barn Owl. Soon after first light I was travelling north through Pilling when I saw a Barn Owl ahead, the bird using roadside posts as lookouts. It’s a dangerous manoeuvre for a Barn Owl with morning traffic passing quickly by when collisions with vehicles forms a major component of untimely Barn Owl deaths. 

My heart was in my mouth as the owl hunted along the grassy edges of the busy A588, up and over the hedgerows and then finding new vantage points from where to wait for prey as vehicles raced by. At one point the owl lifted up from the verge carrying a mouse or vole and then sped off. The owl must have quickly swallowed the prey whole because within seconds there it was again playing the same dangerous game with passing vehicles. I watched the bird hunt for four or five minutes before it disappeared over the fields and back to a daytime roost away from danger. 

Barn Owl

 

I carried on up to Cockerham where the flooded fields held interest. Most of the birds were a good distance away with lots of comings and goings, much of it sparked by the regular dreads of the 100+ Lapwings. Also here were 65 Curlew, 40 Redshank, 60 Golden Plover, 2 Dunlin and 3 Ruff, the latter being two burgeoning males and a duller, smaller female. 

In Spring male Ruffs develop their exaggerated head plumage, the two today being quite pale around the head even at a distance of a couple of a hundred yards, their colour, size, structure, scalloped appearance and general jizz marking them out from nearby Redshanks. 

Ruff - Photo credit: Foter / CC BY-SA

Redshank

There’s been a marked passage of wagtails this week, continued here this morning with a minimum of 24 Pied Wagtails on the flooded field. Circa 200 Starlings on the same fields and 6+ Skylarks, a few of the latter in song despite the cool and frequent showers. Across the way at Crimbles Lane I found 80+ Fieldfares chattering in the tree tops and a Stock Dove. 

Pied Wagtail

It hadn’t been the best morning of weather and by Conder Green I was dodging almost continuous showers but managed to find 90 Teal, 45 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Curlew, 15 Oystercatcher, 18 Wigeon, 8 Little Grebe 2 Tufted Duck, 1 Grey Plover, 2 Spotted Redshank, 6 Meadow Pipit and 1 Little Egret. 

A tiny Sparrowhawk created something of a panic, appearing from “nowhere” then flying very low across the marsh towards then up and over the hawthorn hedgerow bordering the cycle track. It’s a superb hunting technique that Sparrowhawks and other Accipiters employ, a modus operandi stolen by the military in recent years for the design, production and perfection of “stealth” aircraft. 

 Sparrowhawk

The constant showers sent me back to Pilling where I stayed close to the car. On the flooded maize - 30 Lapwing, 60 Redshank and 1 Snipe. A long-dead Fox was not a pretty sight. 

On the shore and in and around the trees were 16 Meadow Pipit, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Jay, 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 2 Greenfinch and 1 calling but unseen Siskin. 

All in all a good morning’s birding with welcome and clear signs of Spring in the wagtails, pipits, Fieldfares and Ruff. 

More soon from Another Bird Blog - read it here first.

Linking this post to Anni's Birding Blog. She'd rather be birdin' - who wouldn't?

Pilling And A Pinkie

The morning began bright and breezy with gusts teetering on the edge of being “windy”, a subtle difference that birders will recognise whereby choosing a place to go birding requires a little forethought. Pilling was the decision and where after a three hour slog around the patch the old notebook had a good few entries. 

The flooded maize received a watery top-up last night although the soggy fields didn’t need it by virtue of the regular stuff there: 160 Redshank, 45 Lapwing, 28 Dunlin, 15 Skylark and 2 Little Egret. More than a few of the Lapwings and the Skylarks were in display mode. 

Two Buzzards came from over the Fluke Hall woods, circled around for a while and then headed off in the direction of Pilling village and the mosses beyond. The wood was a bit windswept for birdsong but I did see a pair of Stock Dove in the trees, 25+ Woodpigeon feeding on the ground and a handful of Goldfinch. 

Buzzard

Woodpigeon

Beyond the wood I checked out the fields to find 18 Pied Wagtail, 6 Oystercatcher, 15 Curlew, 4 Greenfinch, 4 Meadow Pipits, 1 Reed Bunting and a couple of dozen Pink-footed Geese. 

When the Meadow Pipits flew across to the beach I noticed their arrival and calling had pushed other birds into the air, and on checking I found the pipits chasing off 3 Snow Buntings. In the ensuing melee a flock of 40+ Twite lifted off the marsh then circled around to find a new spot on which to feed. The buntings seemed to head west along the sea wall and although I spent some time trying to relocate then I couldn’t, so I imagine they carried on towards Preesall, Knott End or Fleetwood. In the strong breeze blowing along the shore everything seemed very flighty and reluctant to stay in one spot for long. 

 Snow Bunting

Heading east I found more wagtails behind the sea wall, 5 Whooper Swans, 7 Little Egret, 5 Teal, 3 Red-legged Partridge and a couple of hundred scattered Pink-footed Geese. There don’t appear to be many pinkies around at the moment so maybe many have flown north towards Iceland already. 

Whooper Swans

It was last December 2013 near Pilling Water that I spotted a Pink-footed Goose wearing a neck-collar, the collar inscribed with the letters “TAB”. I reported the sighting online and yesterday received back the following information from The Wildfowl and Wetland Trust about when and where the pinkie was ringed and all the subsequent sightings. My own sighting at the bottom of the list is the most recent. 

There’s a clear pattern to the bird’s seasonal movements. After spending the summer months in Iceland the goose migrates south, probably stopping off in Scotland. It then spends part of the early winter in Lancashire or Norfolk, but seems to spends each New Year in Norfolk. By February, March and into April it is back in Scotland feeding up for its Spring flight to Iceland. There are an awful lot of flights to Iceland and back not included in the list below. Aren’t birds amazing? 

20/10/2006 Loch of Lintrathen ANGUS, Scotland - adult female Pink-footed Goose first caught then marked with “TAB”.

15/02/2007 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

01/03/2007 Balnaglack, Dallcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

03/04/2007 Morayhill, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

18/11/2007 Breydon Water area, Great Yarmouth NORFOLK, England 

24/11/2007 Pollard Street, Bacton NORFOLK, England 

01/12/2007 N of Sharrington NORFOLK, England 

19/12/2007 Runham NORFOLK , England 

05/01/2008 Repps Mill NORFOLK, England 

16/01/2008 Repps Mill NORFOLK, England 

23/01/2008 Thrigby NORFOLK, England 

28/02/2008 Gellybanks area, Loch Leven PERTH & KINROSS, Scotland 

09/04/2008 Lower Cullernie, Balloch INVERNESS, Scotland 

02/11/2008 Fluke Hall Lane, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

08/11/2008 Bone Hill Fram, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

08/01/2009 Preesall Park, Preesall LANCASHIRE, England 

08/01/2009 Cockers Dyke, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

03/02/2009 Head Dyke Lane, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

02/03/2009 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

07/03/2009 Cullernie INVERNESS, Scotland 

25/03/2009 Easter Dalziel, Dallcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

30/03/2009 Easter Dalziel, Dallcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

03/04/2009 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

19/03/2010 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

01/04/2010 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

05/04/2010 Wester Dalziel, Dalcross INVERNESS, Scotland 

05/11/2010 Hall Farm, Rollesby NORFOLK, England 

01/12/2013 Dam Side, Pilling LANCASHIRE, England 

The bird below isn’t “TAB”, on 1st December 2013 she was far away, the inscription read via a telescope at 200 yards or more.  I’m sure however that the bird below is an equally amazing pinkie. 

Pink-footed Goose

More soon from Another Bird Blog. And remember, you read it here first.

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blog.

The One That Got Away

Monday was a fine morning with lots of bird activity round about but I was stuck at home waiting for the plumber to arrive, so I decided to do a little garden mist netting. It’s the first suitable day there’s been for many months, either in terms of birds in the vicinity or a wind and rain-free day. 

But this morning there seemed to be lots of bird song, Blackbird, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Song Thrush, Robin, Dunnock and Great Tit. At the big house across the way a pair of Jackdaws busied themselves by inspecting the double chimneys as Collared Doves and Woodpigeons closely watched the action. Maybe the doves were hoping to pick up some of the sticks the Jackdaws let drop to the floor? 

Below is picture of all the only evidence of the first bird I caught, one measly feather, all that was left on the grass below where a bird lay in the net for a few brief seconds. Full marks to anyone who stops to puzzle but then correctly identifies the species from the feather before reading on - go to the top of the class. 

It’s not a species generally associated with gardens but does occur in them more than one might imagine, especially during cold and frosty weather. I was in the house and through the window saw the large brown bird lying in the net but as I sped outside in one short move, the Woodcock lifted itself from the pocket and flew over the fence and far away. The second picture is as they say, “One I did earlier”, a year or two ago, so infrequent are sturdy and strong-flying Woodcocks found in mist nets. 

Woodcock feather

Woodcock

So I had to content myself with Goldfinches on a date which may prove to be the start of the species’ Spring movement north. Another sure sign of Spring was the sight and sound of Siskins in next door’s Sycamore tree, but the few birds there were not visiting my niger feeders today. 

Siskin

I caught 6 Goldfinch, not many but a better total than of recent inactive months - 5 females and a single male. Below is a female born last year, identified as a female by the grey nasal hairs, red not extending beyond the eye and aged as last season's bird by a combination of the mixed age tail feathers and the brown edging to lesser coverts. 

Goldfinch

Goldfinch

Another young female below, this one retaining some of its brownish juvenile head feathers. The red on the face reaches the end of the eye but does not extend beyond it. 

Goldfinch

Below is a male where for comparison with a female, the red on the face reaches a good way beyond the eye.

Goldfinch

There’s more to come later from Another Bird Blog, just as soon as the plumber’s gone and we can return to a normal existence. 

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Unseasonal Sands

It’s been a busy old week of grandparent’s callings, finding time for birding and then in-between updating a tired old kitchen. And if anyone tries to tell you that the British Builder is dead and buried, superseded by its Polish counterpart, don’t believe them; the Union Jack flies high in Knott End and Stalmine. 

So birding and blogging had to take third place for a while but now that weekend’s here I’m up and running with a little news. 

A drive north included a Kestrel at Thurnham, quickly followed by a look over the pools and creeks of Conder Green which gave much the usual stuff: 2 Spotted Redshank, 10 Little Grebe, 150+ Teal, 30 Wigeon, 5 Goldeneye, 15 Lapwing 1 Little Egret, 12 Curlew, 12 Oystercatcher and 1 Common Sandpiper. The wintering sandpiper has eluded me for weeks, hiding away and silent in the tiny creeks rather than the main tidal channel but it finally showed today. 

Common Sandpiper

At Glasson: 15 Goldeneye comprising 13 males and 2 females, 1 Red-breasted Merganser, 40 Tufted Duck and 9 Cormorants. 

Goldeneye

Goldeneye

Back at Pilling the sun came out and I set off along the usual route to find 8 Little Egrets, the Brent Goose on the marsh and the wintering Green Sandpiper on the shooter’s pools. 

It looks like the Green Sandpiper isn’t the only wintering sandpiper here as amongst the 60+ Lapwings, 125 Redshanks and 15 Curlew was a Curlew Sandpiper. I last saw a Curlew Sandpiper here on 15th November, the lack of visits during the intervening period of wind, rain and weekly shoots accounting for the lack of sightings of the bird since that date. 

Curlew

Curlew Sandpiper - Photo credit: jvverde / Foter / CC BY-NC

There were small birds around the pools and the maize field with 45+ Linnet, 2 Reed Bunting, 15 Skylark and a sudden arrival of 14+ alba wagtails arriving from the west and landing some distance away. On the pool, now less than a dozen Mallard and 2 Pintail survive the winter shoots, the original 2000+ released Red-legged Partridge now hard to come by after so many days of gunfire.

Near Fluke Hall I watched a Stock Dove in display flight and heard several species in song - Goldfinch, Chaffinch, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Dunnock, Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit and Coal Tit. 

Stock Dove

Spring must be just around the corner. Hooray for that. 

Linking today to Anni's Blog, Eileen's Saturday Blog and Camera Critters.

Is It Here Yet?

There are signs the end of the atrocious winter weather may be in sight, and Spring around the corner. It certainly felt like that this morning when the sun shone and the wind dropped to less than 15mph, almost perfect birding conditions. 

I set off for Pilling where a pair of early morning Kestrels greeted me on the roadside at Damside. In some years Little Owls have used the nest box so it looks like the Kestrels have first shout this time. 

Kestrel

I decided to give Fluke Hall a try where I was dismayed to find shooters on the maize fields and so above the high water mark, where as I understand it, the “season” for shooting wildfowl should have ended on 31st January. A small pile of corpses littered the sea wall but I was too far off to make out the species. 

Despite the loud guns there were a number of Lapwings and Redshanks on the flood, some 95 and 8 respectively, also 10/12 Linnet and 15 or so Skylarks. Later, and as I walked the sea wall I saw and heard a good number of Skylarks, some in song, others in obvious territorial disputes, with a morning total of 30+ birds. 

Fluke Hall Lane and the wood itself proved quite productive with 2 singing Song Thrush, a pair of Mistle Thrush, 2 Greenfinch, 1 Treecreeper, 2 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Buzzard, 2 Jays, a minimum of 12 Blackbirds and 3/4 Chaffinches in song. 

Jay

By now the shooters had driven discreetly off the track in their mud spattered Land Rovers, Range Rover and Navarra so I walked the now very quiet sea wall to Lane Ends. 

A good selection of birds ensued, circa 850 Pink-footed Goose, 7 Little Egret, 3 Meadow Pipit, 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Peregrine, 1 Brent Goose and a good number of the aforementioned Skylarks. The Brent was alone on the salt marsh and not in the company of Pink-footed Geese or Shelduck, species it might be expected to mix with.

Brent Goose

At Lane Ends it was good to hear the trilling of courting Little Grebes, an unmistakeable sound emanating from the pool hidden from view. A couple of Chaffinches in song here too. 

Little Grebe

Maybe Spring is finally on the way? If so Another Bird Blog will be there to record the details, so log in very soon.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.