Wheats And Chiffs

After a morning in the swimming pool and the sauna, an afternoon walk in the fresh air beckoned, particularly since overnight rain and southerly winds promised a little migration and the possibility of a few more Wheatears.

So I did my Lane Ends to Pilling Water walk where at the rocks next to Pilling Water I found 9 Wheatears, set two traps and within a few minutes caught two of the birds, an adult male and a probable adult female.

Wheatear
Wheatear
Wheatear
Tasty Mealworms
I spent more time trying to catch others but I all I got was a sprung trap with nothing in it. Sometimes the wriggling mealworm sets off the trap or a Wheatear approaching from the wrong side can trigger it without the bird being caught. As we might expect in March the Wheatears I have caught this week have all been of the nominate Eurasian race Oenanthe oenanthe with wing lengths between 92 and 97mm, bang in middle of the BWP quoted range of 90-102mm. I normally don’t expect to see any obviously bigger and brighter “Greenland” types until the middle of April.

So I turned my attention to counting what was out on the marsh and round about even though the high tide had been four hours before.

Pilling Water Out To Heysham
I had a count of 6 Little Egrets, and whilst there have been a number throughout the winter, I think I detected a little further migration of this species in the last few weeks. There was also a number of Redshank again today, maybe 110, more migrants on their way to Iceland and points north. The Peregrine was on duty today again which is a bit surprising considering it looks like an adult male and should perhaps be expected to be in the throes of breeding, unless of course it is doing so close by.

It’s a strange time of year as we wait for the spring migrants to arrive whilst still counting the winter visitors, like today when I estimated 2200 Pink-footed Geese out on the marsh; any day now they will be off to Iceland in huge groups.

Pink-footed Goose
Back at Lane Ends I sat at the picnic table that the moronic creatures of the night have begun to disassemble. It was in the hope that a Chiffchaff might just sing in the afternoon warmth, but below the bank I spied one just flitting silently through the branches of a willow; and then blow me if another further away didn’t start up singing, hesitatingly at first as they do, but then slowly breaking into that monotone but very welcome chiff–chaff, chiff-chaff. Definitely two then, and probably a male and a female.

A Swallow But Not Summer

Knott End was productive this morning when I filled down one side of my notebook page with records from there. The wind blew south easterly, and although it wasn’t cold, it was cool with full cloud cover and to the north Heysham disappeared periodically into the low and slightly drizzly cloud. I didn’t expect to get many photographs this morning in such low light conditions, but multi-tasking as blokes do, I had ready my bag of rings, pliers and spring traps for any likely looking Wheatear encounters.

From the area of the jetty I counted 800+ Oystercatchers, 45 Redshank, 5 Curlew, 2 Ringed Plover, 6 Eider, 1 Cormorant, 2 Red-breasted Merganser and 1 Little Egret, with fly overs of 2 Whooper Swans heading north and 2 Greylags. There was a little noticeable migration from birds that flew across the estuary from Fleetwood to follow the jetty and then the Esplanade inland, i.e. 15 Meadow Pipit, 4 “alba” wagtails, 2 Siskin, a Reed Bunting and a Skylark.

Whooper Swan
Cormorant
A little up river alongside the golf course I noted 2 Wheatear down on the pebbly shore, 3 Linnets, 3 Goldfinch and a couple of Greenfinch that at last seem to have returned in a few numbers this last week. Also up here I heard a Mistle Thrush singing from the other side of the golf course. Along the Esplanade I found the flock of 16 Twite feeding on the black magic and the Meadow Pipit theme continued with little groups of 8 then 11 birds heading along the wall towards Pilling.

Twite
Goldfinch
Meadow Pipit
I decided to walk my usual Lane Ends to Pilling Water stretch. Here also there was an obvious Meadow Pipit and alba movement whereby I added another 28 “mipits” heading south east into the breeze and 5 more wagtails. On the pools the Gadwall pair of two days ago had left to be replaced by pairs each of Goldeneye and Little Grebe.

Near the stile at Pilling Water I watched the fields, marsh and sky and perused the wildfowler’s pools to count: 120 Redshank, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Teal, 2 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Egret, 30 Golden Plover heading north, 3 singing Skylark and a single Swallow, my first of the year that flew low across the stubble then like most things this morning, east along the sea wall.

Little Egret
Swallow
No Wheatears here this morning but by next highlight came in the form of the pale, male Peregrine I had seen on and off for the last week or so, this morning noisily chasing off inland another but slightly smaller male Peregrine. The big bird paused on the way back out to the marsh to take a half hearted attempt at a Lapwing that seemed to outmanoeuvre the Peregrine; that’s why I thought the Peregrine hadn’t really tried very hard, it could surely have a Lapwing if it so wanted?

Spring Two

I always buy in a pot of live meal worms for springtime because Wheatears just can’t resist them, so when I go to Lane Ends and Pilling Water I combine birding with trying to catch a few Wheatears if they are around.

I hadn’t seen a Wheatear until today but when after lunch I walked towards Pilling Water I saw three of them; within 5 minutes I caught two in spring traps whilst the third watched proceedings from the top of the single bare elderberry tree.

Male Wheatear
Female Wheatear

Earlier on I didn’t expect to see any Wheatears because of the Merlin sat amongst the rocks of the sea wall in my favoured Wheatear catching location. Maybe it was the sight of those white rumps from the distant marsh that brought it near in the first place, but as soon as it saw me it sped off again.

Merlin

Other birds seen this afternoon with combined Lane Ends/Pilling Water counts: Little Grebe 2, Gadwall 2, Meadow Pipit 6, Goldfinch 6, Little Egret 4, Reed Bunting 2, Linnet 3, Skylark 3, Long-tailed Tit 2. Additional birds of prey were represented by a male Sparrowhawk over the plantation and a male Peregrine both sat on and dashing over the marsh towards Cockerham.

I called in at a Little Owl spot for another twosome: I guess this goes on Birdtrack as a positive breeding record?

Little Owl
Little Owls

Through The Gloom

A family birthday party at Rico’s together with a surfeit of red wine and garlic infused food probably isn’t the best preparation for a good night’s sleep so I wisely cried off the planned 5am ringing for a bit of a lie in and a little birding at a civilised time.

I made the mistake of setting off in a mist that I thought was clearing. Wrong. Slowly, and in the hope of killing time until the sky brightened, I drove around Moss Edge in the hope of seeing the Barn Owl in the mizzle, which I did fleetingly as just a ghostly grey apparition before it wisely returned to the barn it inhabits. The Little Owl was in residence at the two trees corner, sat in the box entrance as normal but the mist was so dense and light so poor a photograph was out of the question. I’d seen and heard ghostly Lapwings still displaying in the gloom and Grey Partridge calling but nothing else of note until I emerged at Crimbles Lane to a Kestrel sat atop the roadside fence.

Barn Owl by Stuart Piner
Little Owl at “Owl Corner”
With headlights on and heated seat warming my bottom I decided to head for CG and sit out the mist, at least there would be something to see once the sun broke through. I could have sworn that this morning that sign read “Road liable to fogging”.

The Famous Conder Green
Through the gloom at Conder Green I made out the odds and ends of the customary fare: 4 Shelduck, 6 Tufted Duck, 5 Wigeon, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Moorhen, 18 Teal and 1 Grey Heron. I saw a single Reed Bunting singing and also a Meadow Pipits displaying alongside the creek. Waders came in at 1 Spotted Redshank, 15 Redshank, 3 Curlew and about 12 Oystercatchers, most of the latter still debating which pair should occupy the small island in the coming weeks. The blue sky in the picture is most definitely not from this morning, but by the time I was nearly home the mist did clear to reveal a bright if not completely azure sky.

Oystercatcher
Oystercatcher on "The Island"
Grey Heron

Take A Look

When it rained today I spent a while on the Internet looking at this week’s new BTO initiative announced in their usual low key manner.

Without any obvious fanfare they placed online a tremendous resource for birders, ringers and for local bird report editors and authors that can at the touch of a button produce both online ringing totals and recovery summaries viewable at a country and county level.

Fieldfare

The new development is much more than a simple store of information for ringers because it will prove so fascinating and informative for all birders and students of migration whether ringers or not. Non-ringers may not have heard about the introduction of this facility, but I urge them to take a look at http://www.bto.org/ringing/ringinfo/recovery_summaries.htm

It seems that the coding for this, which was no mean feat in itself, plus the run to extract and tabulate the data took over 8 hours of solid computing time!

There are caveats with some of the data, but this is all explained on the web pages. In particular, not all old (pre 1979) recoveries of birds ringed abroad have been input and the ringing totals are for data sent in electronically by ringers (about 97% at present).

All I can say is congratulations to all concerned and well done the BTO and staff involved. The pages are as fascinating as they are useful and once again it shows how much valuable information is gleaned from ringing birds.

Redwing

Lapwing
The weather looks slightly better for Sunday with a little ridge of high pressure. I may even get some ringing and birding in.

6am Sunday

Half A Picture Post

I’m a bit stuck for time today so I’ll post a few pictures with the minimum waffle from me.

I was at the farm today hoping to get more pictures of the shy Yellowhammers and the equally timid Corn Buntings. They just wouldn’t come in to feed and then I realised why. The photographer’s nightmare, half a bird hidden by its surroundings.

Headless Little Owl
Well I didn’t want to disturb the Little Owl so waited while it sat and dozed, looked around, ignored the crows and a Chaffinch that spotted it, called a few times and then sat some more, all the while keeping birds from feeding on the pile of discarded grain.

After a while I drove round to the road where I had a distant view of the owl.

Little Owl
So there are a few other photos, mainly from earlier in the week. Until I took these pictures I hadn’t realised what striking ear marks Brown Hares have.

Brown Hare
Brown Hare
Corn Bunting
Collared Dove
Chaffinch
Yellowhammer
Yellowhammer
Roe Deer
Eventually the owl moved again. But as a precursor to the promise of rain for Saturday, the best light had gone which didn't make for the perfect photograph and the birds waiting to feed didn't return.

Little Owl

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.