A Lunchtime Lament

Lunchtime and it’s raining and windy now, bang on midday, just as the BBC’s forecast promised, unlike their hint they might use my Little Owl picture for the end shots of the North West weather last weekend. As I sat waiting for the programme and a miserable claim to fame they dropped the weather, in fact cut the whole local news on two evenings in favour of the grunts, groans and over-hype that is Wimbledon fortnight. So Eno, I may not send any more pictures, even my Linnets.

That’s mainly what I ended up doing this morning in the few hours of bright skies, taking more pictures of Linnets. They are wary, a difficult species to approach; perhaps an inbuilt aversion to man from the nineteenth century when wild Linnets were kept in caged captivity as a domestic songbird and the population as a whole plummeted? They seem to be making a bit of a comeback this year - let's hope so.

Linnets have short broad bills which can’t cope with very big seeds or those difficult to extract so they feed mainly on plants whose seeds are attached to the stem, such as dock, chickweed or the plant shown below which is I think redshank/lady’s thumb. Linnets also pick up seeds from the ground, at Pilling this includes the tide wrack and seeds deposited at the base of the marshy grasses.

Linnet
Linnet
Linnet
Linnet
Linnet

There were about 40 Linnets knocking about the tideline this morning, together with 14 Goldfinch and 5 Greenfinch, plus a gang of 10 to 12 Pied Wagtails and 2 Meadow Pipits again, just as a few days ago.

Goldfinch
Pied Wagtail

I arrived fairly early this morning, just as the sun rose high enough to send the Barn Owl hurrying off from Pilling Water and then home towards Damside with the safety of its dark barn. Also at Damside the Kestrels seem near to fledging, with much wing stretching and noisy calls. The wildfowler’s pools held 3 Teal and a Common Sandpiper, with a small quota of Redshank, Lapwing and Oystercatcher.

At Lane Ends I counted 2 Willow Warbler, 7 Tufted Duck, 4 Little Grebe and that ultra-rarity, a Song Thrush but I don’t suppose it's a sighting that will set the pagers buzzing?

Song Thrush

The Evening Job

I stayed home yesterday and did a little garden ringing, saving energy for the evening job. At 5pm Ian and I met up with members of North Lancashire Ringing Group for a session at their biggest Sand Martin colony on the River Lune, a location with approximately 600 nest holes in the river bank and where the group has captured over 1000 birds already this year.

The colony is on the other side of the river from the access point so entailed a walk across the river to the opposite bank where, after emptying flooded wellies, we set up shop. If I say that we caught 380 Sand Martins it might explain that the evening was too busy to take many photographs. From an initial breakdown from Richard Du Feu (thanks Richard) the 380 Sand Martins were made up of 293 new birds, 82 recaptures and 5 controls (birds ringed elsewhere). Two of the controls came from Icklesham, Sussex and Merseyside, the others are as yet unknown.

Already this year the group have captured a breeding Sand Martin with a Spanish, Madrid ring and the same bird was recaptured again last night.

Sand Martin
Madrid ring
Ian G and Ian H

Read more about Sand Martins and North Lancs Ringing Group here.

Morning Post

A calm clear night promised a morning of ringing without the nagging wind of recent weeks. But the temperature dropped so much overnight that when I switched on the wipers to clear the dew laden glass the blades were in a semi-frozen state and dragged slowly across the windscreen. Thirty minutes later at 0530 Ian and I had our nets up at Out Rawcliffe but with me still in a jacket and woolly hat, waiting for the sun to rise and warm the air.

Our catch was very similar to last week, with yet more adult Willow Warblers in stages of their full moult, a number of 3J Whitethroat and Goldfinch, but with the season now into July there was a further lack of juvenile Willow Warblers and no sign of any Sedge Warbler success.

We processed 24 birds, 15 new and 9 recaptures. New: 3 Whitethroat, 4 Goldfinch, 4 Willow Warbler, 2 Blackcap, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker and 1 Great Tit. Recaptures: 3 Whitethroat, 3 Goldfinch, 2 Sedge Warbler and 1 Great Tit. So, a good range of species but lacking any substance to the overall total for our 2 x 5 hour effort.

Great-spotted Woodpecker
Blackcap
Goldfinch - adult
Goldfinch - juvenile

The birding morning was similarly quiet with 2 Grey Heron, 2 Buzzard, a female Sparrowhawk, 4 Skylark, 2 Corn Bunting, 1 Mistle Thrush, 18 Goldfinch and several Tree Sparrow, with a single overhead Raven heading east again. A nearby field held a flock of post-breeding Lapwings with a minimum of 130 birds. A slight oddity of the morning came in the form of 3 Siskin high overhead but heading south.

Lapwing

My trips to the moss wouldn’t be complete without sighting of a Little Owl. Sometimes they are not in the expected spots and it may take a little extra looking to locate one, like today when I passed likely looking but vacant corners then spotted a familiar round blobby shape on a distant telegraph pole.

Little Owl

Numbers Up

There were mixed but definite signs of autumn today at Pilling with an influx of post breeding Curlew, a gang of Pied Wagtails both young and old, and a build-up of the Linnet flock.

Naturally enough I’d done Lane Ends first to note 18/20 Blackbirds, 2 Blackcap, 2 Reed Warbler, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Jay and the hidden but vocal Little Grebes.

The high tide was due at midday, but at 28ft it lacks any height to push many waders from the shores of Preesall and Knott End and then up to Lane Ends. But the job can often be left to the microlight aircraft, and today two of the annoying, clattering machines disturbed the entire Curlew flock from the sands and up to Pilling Water/Lane Ends but helped me to a count for of 365 - very high for 1st July. There wasn’t much else in the way of wader or wildfowl except 1 Common Sandpiper, 35 Oystercatcher, 22 Redshank and 85 Lapwing and 70 Shelduck, the latter a slight increase on recent counts due to inland breeding birds moving to the coast.

Curlew

As the tide came into Pilling Water it concentrated, previously scattered Pied Wagtails into a gang of 19 birds, 5 or 6 adults and the remainder birds of the year. The finches were more difficult to count as they alternately mixed together then broke up into their separate species groups, but I eventually came to figures of 40+Linnet, 18 Goldfinch and 8 Greenfinch. After a number of sightings of Wheatear this week I hoped for my own this morning, taking a spring trap and meal worms, but when I sat down into the Wheatear rocks with the camera I had to settle for a few pictures of Linnets instead.

Pied Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Linnet - male
Linnet - juvenile

The Fluke Hall stretch of coast was uneventful, with 7 Skylark, 5 Grey Heron, 2 Stock Dove and a smattering of more Redshank, Oystercatcher and Lapwing.

The weekend weather forecast looks ok and maybe we’ll get in a spot of ringing.

Lookout Post

I’ve posted a few owl pictures recently which prompted a blog reader to ask about daylight owls. Not all our UK species are strictly nocturnal; in fact all of them hunt at mainly dawn or twilight, but also occasionally in full daylight, especially at this time of year when they all have young owlets to feed. As the UK is in the Northern hemisphere the summer daylight hours can be long e.g. at the moment it is light from 0330 to 2200 hours, which restricts owls' night time hunting, therefore it is not unusual to see owls in the early morning when they can hunt without disturbance before us humans are up and about.

Having said all of the above a Little Owl on the fence post at Hambleton today confounded my theories by being still up and about at 1130am when owls should be at a daytime roost and Homo sapiens are ready for a morning coffee. The owl wasn’t roosting at all and became very animated as it not only watched that I didn’t get too close, but searched for food on the ground below, eye-balled a passing pedestrian and took time out to look for overhead dangers from the local Buzzards, Kestrels or Sparrowhawks.

Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl
Little Owl

I also checked the Swallows at Hambleton today where I knew one nest to be ready for ringing the chicks; from that nest I added another five youngsters to the year’s total but proceedings have come to a virtual halt now as I wait for the second broods. When I looked in the “black shed”, the adult female was sat tight so I lifted her off, checked for the five eggs, and as she was without a ring, fitted her with one then took a portrait shot before placing her quickly but gently back. She stayed put as I closed the shed door.

Swallow

Many species are tolerant of being lifted off a nest and it’s all a question of knowing when and how to do it and being aware of species that cannot be safely lifted from a nest. When I eventually ring the youngsters from the black shed there will be a record of the complete family apart from the male: when and where the young were born together with data about the female parent plus information on the stages and final outcome of the nest from egg laying to fledging.

Yet another brood of young Swallows now close to fledging sat unflinching in the shed door as I took their photographs because they are well used to people in and out on a daily basis. But my Swallows are now so far behind with their first and any second nests that a third brood is highly unlikely for any pair, so we really need some decent weather through July and August to consolidate the limited success so far.

Swallow

It’s Better Than Watching Paint Dry.

A bright and breezy morning saw me off to Pilling looking for morning hunting Barn Owls, whereby it didn’t take long to find one just beyond Burned House Lane, but unfortunately the owl was flying away from me then inland towards a building that always looks owlish. Down Lambs Lane and Fluke Hall Lane I counted at least 10 roadside Whitethroats and several Greenfinches before I came upon the second Barn Owl hunting the rough pasture and ditches. It was a pretty wary one this Barn Owl and as it watched me the bird allowed one shot before floating off into the morning light.

Barn Owl
Whitethroat
Greenfinch

The owl stayed out on the fields so I drove up via Damside and the Kestrel pair and then on to Lane Ends, for the now standard trio of Reed Warbler, Blackcap and Jay with the gang of 15/20 resident Blackbirds.

Kestrel

I’d walked a few yards towards Pilling Water when I saw a Little Egret flying across the marsh, the egrets absent from here for a few months only with their autumn return now guaranteed in late June and early July. Also out on the distant marsh were 3 Grey Heron, but so common have the egrets become, in just a few short weeks they will easily outnumber the herons.

When I got to Pilling Water I could still see the distant Barn Owl towards Fluke, but I settled down on the stile to watch around me. Just one Swift this morning with less than 10 each of House Martin and Swallow, but the hirundines are still sufficiently numerous in the village. There was a flock of 30/40 noisy Starlings around the wildfowler’s pools but they all suddenly quietened then spooked off as a tiny male Sparrowhawk came from nowhere to take a hapless Starling. Carrying the Starling the hawk flew into the trees to dissect its meal but within five minutes it had finished the feed and then circled around again before flying off and up Pilling Water to an accompaniment of twittering hirundines.

I looked for Wheatears, returnees due any day along the wall but instead found 2 Meadow Pipit, 4 Pied Wagtail, 24 Linnet, 11 Goldfinch, 4 House Sparrow and 3 Greenfinch. Waders along the outflow and distant sand included 1 Common Sandpiper, 1 Greenshank, 18 Redshank, 10 Oystercatcher and 24 Curlew.

Linnet

As I wandered along the Redshanks with the undetectable, ditch hugging youngsters gave me the customary guard of honour but noisy welcome; I returned the compliment and gave them the routine camera treatment for a few minutes then left them in peace.

Redshank
Redshank

Well it may be a quiet time of year for birding but if I’d stayed at home painting the gates I don’t think I would have had nearly as much fun; in any case there’s always tomorrow for a few chores.

A Dearth of 3Js

Our morning at Out Rawcliffe started on a high when at the barn I spotted a juvenile Little Owl which looked as though it had very recently vacated a nest, a 1J as ringers label them – a newly fledged chick but capable of limited flight only. A minute later Ian and Will came down the lane, then after Ian ringed the owl it sat on the barn wall long enough for me to take one picture before a flight of sorts took it a few yards into nearby vegetation; the parent birds would be close to and soon find the youngster.

Little Owl – 1J
Little Owl - adult
Up at the plantation thing were fairly quiet with18 birds caught, 10 new and 8 recaptures. New birds: 4 Whitethroat, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Great Tit and 3 Willow Warbler. Recaptures: 2 Sedge Warbler, 3 Whitethroat, 1 Willow Warbler, 1 Great Tit and 1 Blackcap.

Blackcap
Whitethoat- adult male
Whitethroat – juvenile, 3J

At the end of June we hope for but also expect catches with lots of new juveniles (3Js), especially in an area where we know many pairs of insectivorous Whitethroat, Willow Warbler and Sedge Warbler were present throughout April and May. Normally by late June/July, juvenile birds should outnumber adults by at least 4 to 1. Therefore so it was a little disconcerting this morning when we found that of the ten new birds, only five of them were 3Js and the three new Willow Warblers were all adults in advanced stages of moult, their feather renewal a sign that for them at least the breeding season is over. As ever, only time and more visits will give us an idea of this year’s breeding success but we await with interest the onset of a quantity of true post-juvenile dispersal rather than the limited indications of our ringing site.

Birding wise things were also fairly quiet but the calm, nearly wind-free and partially sunny morning brought out a few Skylarks and caused a return of the Corn Bunting that hadn’t sung from the ditch side hawthorn for weeks.

Corn Bunting
Skylark

"Otherwise" birds: 2 Buzzard, 3 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 15 Swift, 2 Reed Bunting, 1 Yellowhammer, 4 Linnet, 15 Goldfinch, 2 Blackbird and one unidentified, escapee 3J owl that left downy feathers in our mist net.