Frozen Fingers

The car door was frozen solid thanks to yesterday’s rain followed by a frosty night. “Minus 2°C” - “Danger of Ice” said the dash display when I eventually got into the car. 

There was a choice - head up to Oakenclough for a ringing session or drive out Pilling way for a spot of birding. I chose ringing, braved the frozen ropes and poles and worked through the early pain barrier of icy fingers. 

I was pleased I did as a total of 18 birds was pretty good for a lone effort, including as it did an unexpected bonus in the shape of a Brambling and more of the target finches. Totals today: 7 Goldfinch, 5 Chaffinch, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit, 1 Robin, 1 Lesser Redpoll and 1 Brambling. 

Bramblings have been very scarce during this very mild winter but this time of year is one of the better periods in which to see this close relative of the common Chaffinch. Better still to catch one, today’s an adult female caught in the company of Chaffinches. 

Brambling

 Brambling

The single Lesser Redpoll was the first bird of the morning. Although an obvious adult male the early morning sun emphasised the red of the photograph. 

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

There’s no need to accentuate the red in a Robin Redbreast or the red in the face of a Goldfinch or a Chaffinch. 

Robin

Goldfinch

Chaffinch

The morning’s birding was rather limited due to working alone whilst ringing. Of note came 1 Buzzard, 20+ Chaffinch, 1 Siskin, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Sparrowhawk, 4 Cormorant and 6 Oystercatcher.

Oakenclough

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Linking today to I'd Rather be Birding and also Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Productive Birding

I was looking to go ringing this morning but a stiff easterly put a stop to that plan. Instead there was some good birding to be had on the local circuit. 

Heading north I stopped off at Cockerham to see the wintering flock of Linnets still very flighty over the weedy set-aside field but holding firm at 70/80 individuals. Half-a-mile away at Braides Farm there’s lots of water in the fields where I found 2 Little Egret and 30 Lapwing seriously outnumbered by a feeding and bathing flock of some 1500 Starlings and several hundred gulls. The gulls were mainly Black-headed Gulls with a couple of dozen Common Gull and one or two Lesser Black-backed Gulls in the mix. There was a Kestrel hovering over the roadside verges. 

Lapwing

I made my way to Conder Green to be greeted by a Barn Owl quartering the marsh. No sooner had I lifted the camera than the owl flew towards its daytime roost and swooped out of sight into the building. It was almost 0900, a time when Barn Owls should be tucked up for the day. 

I turned my attention to the creeks and the pool where I quite quickly found the wintering Spotted Redshank and similarly long staying Common Sandpiper. My now old “Atlas of Wintering Birds in Britain and Ireland”of 1986 shows that both species wintered in the UK at the time of the fieldwork I took part in during 1981 to 1984). As one might expect both were concentrated in the warmer south and west of England (and Ireland for the Common Sandpiper), but the Common Sandpiper was represented here in NW England by a number of dots on the map. 

Common Sandpiper

The pool was pretty crowded with both waders and wildfowl, albeit most of them at long distance and away from the busy, noisy road. A few of the counts and bouts of activity, especially from Oystercatchers, Shelducks and Tufted Ducks, suggested that a number of birds have arrived back with a view to taking up summer residence. Here are the counts – 95 Teal, 65 Curlew, 15 Shelduck, 12 Wigeon, 10 Lapwing, 12 Redshank, 5 Little Grebe, 4 Tufted Duck, 2 Canada Goose, 1 Little Egret, 1 Grey Heron. 

Tufted Duck

 Shelduck

A single Skylark flew over and there were a few Chaffinch and a singing Greenfinch along the hedgerow. 

A quick look at Glasson found no Goldeneye on the yacht basin so I settled for 21 Tufted Duck, 24 Coot and 16 Cormorant. Of the latter, two were fishing the others lined up along the far jetty drying out from their own earlier fishing expeditions. 

Cormorant

The route back home took me past flooded fields at Pilling where I stopped awhile to count 400+ Lapwing, 350 Redshank, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 1 Ruff and many more Black-headed Gulls. 

Dunlin

That was a pretty good morning of birding I hope everyone will agree. Look in soon for more birding, ringing or photography.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday and Anni's Birding.

Birding, Ringing And Broke

Apologies for the shortage of blog posts but just lately but I have been rather busy with non-birding but essential tasks like fixing the garden fence and buying a new PC. 

On the positive side our new brand new set of posts and rails will deter marauding cats and there’s now a solid base from which to secure a mist net pole. 

My minimal IT skills meant that the trailing-wires installation of the new PC was initially less than perfect but I loaded Integrated Population Monitoring Reporter (IPMR), moved 130,000 ringing records at the third attempt and even managed to transfer my favourite blogs into Firefox Favourites. 

So now I’m skint and it’s a blessing that birding costs nothing - well relatively so, unless you’re also a ringer, but that’s another story. 

After keeping a close eye on the weather forecasts Andy and I finally got a bash at Oakenclough on Thursday. We met up at 0730 to a frosty but sunny start and were joined today by Seumus and Jean. 

The ringing office

A five hour session produced 24 birds - pretty slow going but then January/February is both the least productive and the slowest part of the year for catching birds. Our 24 birds were made up of 21 new and 3 recaptures/retraps from previous occasions in 2015. New birds today - 7 Siskin, 5 Goldfinch, 4 Chaffinch, 2 Coal Tit, 2 Blue Tit, 1 Great Tit. The recaptures comprised one each of Goldfinch, Blue Tit and Coal Tit. 

Today’s Siskins gave a good range of ages and both sexes for direct comparison. 

Siskin - adult female

Siskin - adult male

Siskin - second year male

All of the Goldfinches proved to be second years. 

Goldfinch - second year male

With the breeding of most of our birds just weeks away, now is a good time to brush up on bird song , before the dawn chorus becomes too overwhelming as spring migrants arrive to join the resident songsters. There was a good list of species in territorial song this morning – Blackbird, Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, Wren, Robin, Great Tit, Blue Tit, Coal Tit and Dunnock. 

Blackbird

Non-singing birds today, including those seen or heard flying overhead included Greylag Goose, Cormorant, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Siskin, Starling, Lapwing, Curlew, Chaffinch and Oystercatcher. 

Several small parties of Oystercatchers flew overhead giving their customary “piping” calls. The species breeds close by whereby their apparently random flying to and fro is a prelude to the setting up of nearby breeding territories. 

Oystercatcher

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Linking today with Eileen's Saturday.

Birding Home And Away

After arriving back from holiday late on Sunday it’s been hard to find the time or even the motivation to go birding. But om Wednesday morning I dug my hat, gloves and birding jacket out of the car boot in the sure knowledge that the feel of a Lancashire winter at 5⁰ is in stark contrast to two weeks of Lanzarote’s wall-to-wall sunshine and 23⁰. 

Wednesday was my turn on the Oakenclough rota. It was time to top the feeders and check the numbers of birds feeding there in case the weather should relent and allow a ringing session - a week from now looks a possibility after yet another stormy weekend ahead! 

Andy topped up last Saturday and reported decent numbers of Chaffinches, Goldfinches and Coal Tits, concentrated as usual in the least windy spots. Three feeders were barely touched, another three close to empty. So it was a minimal top-up in the more exposed feeders and a heftier dollop of nyger in the others. There was nothing in the way of extra species apart from at least two Mistle Thrushes in full voice. 

Goldfinch

Mistle Thrush

That was the extent of my birding, so for this post I’m including a few pictures from the Lanzarote of late January. 

Lanzarote had enjoyed the driest, warmest November, December and January on record with virtually nil rainfall and endless sunny days. This historic and glorious weather continued during our two week stay with barely a cloud to be seen. We took many coastal walks in the immediate area venturing out in the hire car on just three or four days. 

Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

The dryness of the landscape can be seen in the picture above but few walkers ventured from obvious paths to look for birds like Berthelot’s Pipit, Lesser Short-toed Lark, Trumpeter Finch, Desert Grey Shrike or Linnet. A number of Berthelot’s were feeding young but judging by the large numbers of larks around in groups and even small flocks, their breeding season was more advanced. The larks hugged the ground so much in their cryptic brown plumage that it was almost impossible to get close before one exploded into the sky and took many more along. On one walk 40 or more Lesser Short- toed Larks took to the air upon spotting my approach.

Berthelot's Pipit

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Lesser Short-toed Lark

Berthelot's Pipit

Desert Grey Shrike- Lanius elegans koenigi

Trumpeter Finch

From the coastal paths could be seen Sandwich Tern, Kestrel, Yellow-legged Gull, Whimbrel and Common Sandpiper.

 Common Sandpiper

On a couple of days and very close to the hotel we found a party of three Hoopoes. In parts of the Mediterranean I’m used to Hoopoes being very approachable but this trio proved hard to close. 

Hoopoes

Hoopoe

Fortunately the dry and dust of the coastal paths would often lead to a watering hole or two for thirsty travellers like ourselves. 

 Puerto Calero, Lanzarote

There’s more home or away birding soon on Another Bird Blog. Don’t miss it.

Linking today with Anni's Blog and  Eileen's Saturday.

In Recovery Mode

“Welcome to Manchester” crackled the pilot over the intercom without a hint of irony. “The temperature outside is ten degrees and it is raining quite hard. Be careful as you step onto the air-bridge as it is wet and slippery”. 

After two weeks in the endless sunshine of Lanzarote we arrived home with a soggy reminder of why we felt the need for a change from the UK winter of 2015/16. Speeding though the darkness of Sunday evening the roadside pastures glistened wet and deep. Nothing much had changed. 

After a day or two of domestic catch up and readjustment I’ll be ready for a spot of birding, but in the meantime came news of a couple of recaptures/recoveries. 

While I was busy sunning in Spain, and despite the poor weather here, Andy braved a couple of ringing sessions at Oakenclough. It was the ringing site which provided an interesting Goldcrest movement of last autumn and when the migration of Goldcrests was particularly noticeable. During August, September and October of 2015 we caught 73 Goldcrests at the site. 

We ringed HDN315 a juvenile male on 9th September whereupon it was recaptured 41 days later on 20th October by other ringers at Rollesby, Gt Yarmouth, close to the Notfolk coastline. This is a distance of 319kms. Autumn movements of British Goldcrests show a distinct northwest to southeast axis, the likely origins of the birds being the extensive conifer forests of Scotland and Northern England and the southerly destination of the birds generally unknown. Small numbers of Goldcrests are proven to have crossed to the near continent where they winter. Perhaps our Goldcrest was on its way to France or Belgium to escape the British winter? 

Goldcrest - Oakenclough to Norfolk

Goldcrest

During the summer of 2015 we made four visits to a Sand Martin colony at Cockerham where we ringed 169 Sand Martins and one or two other bits and pieces. 

Sand Martin number Z470329,a male in breeding condition on 30 June 2015 was subsequently recaptured by French ringers on 30th July, exactly a month later at Roseliere, Chenac-Saint-Seurin-d'Uzet, Charente-Maritime, France. 

Sand Martin

 Sand Martin - Cockerham to Roseliere, Chenac-Saint-Seurin-d'Uzet,

This is a distance of 949 km and at 172deg, almost exactly due south from Cockerham. Sand Martins are some of our earliest arriving migrants during March and April and are often gone from the UK by August, especially so during 2015 when a poor breeding season meant that this Sand Martin colony dispersed early with little noticeable breeding success. By late July our Sand Martin Z470329 had further to travel before reaching its wintering quarters of North Africa. 

There should be more local news soon and maybe some birds and views from Lanzarote. In the meantime Another Bird Blog may have to take a little sundowner this evening to help the recovery along by pretending that summer is heading this way. 

Lanzarote - January 2016

Yellow-legged Gull - Lanzarote

Log in soon. Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Birding In The Sun

Sue and I are in Lanzarote, Spain. Until we return home here are more photos of Lanzarote together with some of the birds met along the way. 

At any time of year near perfect weather is more or less guaranteed in the Canary Islands. It gets windy sometimes and storms aren’t totally unknown, but at the moment it’s sun every day and temperatures hovering between 21- 23C. Whenever we go the attire is nearly always shorts and a tee shirt with a light jacket as backup for the cool of morning or evening. 

All over the island of Lanzarote is the influence of the visionary artist, architect and environmentalist César Manrique who saved Lanzarote from the effects of rampant tourist development. His unusual creations emphasise the unique landscapes and geology of the island and are a major attraction to travellers. 

 

Fondación César Manrique - Near Tahiche, Lanzarote. 

Agave attenuata - Lanzarote

Lanzarote is rain-free for 95% of the year producing a near desert like environment in many places. It’s a landscape attractive to three speciality birds of the island, Houbara Bustard, Cream-coloured Courser and Stone Curlew but none of them are easy to find in the type of terrain they inhabit.

Houbara Bustard

Stone Curlew 

Beware! - Bustards about

Watermelon - Lanzarote

Berthelot’s Pipits are fairly common if sometimes difficult to pick out against the often grey, volcanic landscape. They are known to run around the feet of the tourists where there’s often a morsel or two of food, preferably the local queso tierno (tender cheese). Just occasionally I have seen Berthelot’s Pipits in the grounds of the hotel, once whilst lazing on a sunbed as the pipit walked along a nearby path. They also occur in nearby residential areas in amongst unfinished roads or housing developments, as do Desert Grey Shrikes, Linnets, Spanish Sparrows and Collared Doves.

Berthelot's Pipit

A favourite drive is to head south along the coast to the village of El Golfo where we stop for a coffee or a snack followed by a walk along the headland where Yellow-legged Gulls abound but Lesser Black-backed Gulls are more common at migration time. There’s usually a Little Egret to be found amongst the rocks, together with small numbers of Common Sandpiper, Turnstone or Whimbrel.

El Golfo - Lanzarote

Yellow-legged Gull

Little Egret

Whimbrel

Turnstone

Thank you everyone for continuing to visit Another Bird Blog in my absence. If you leave a comment I promise to get back to you as soon as possible via the hotel WiFi. Failing that I will return your message as soon as possible when back in England.