Windy Week, Sunny End

Last week was a little wild and very unlike April. Here in coastal Lancashire high winds toppled trees, wrecked fencing and blew sea ducks inland as far as Preston and probably beyond. 

Andy phoned to say friends had a Common Scoter on their garden pond for a day or more and would I like to go and “grab a picture or two”? You know the rest. The wind subsided, the Scoter decided that Poulton -le-Fylde wasn’t quite so nice after all and did a moonlight flit. 

Common Scoter

Not to worry, Saturday morning looked a goer for ringing at Oakenclough so I met up with Andy and Will at the appointed 0630. When I arrived on site the dashboard read 1.5°, a major improvement on the -0.5° when setting off from home 35 minutes earlier. 

The sun was on the rise and gave way to a pleasant enough morning with a good mix of species to ring but not many birds on the move in the clear blue sky. Fifteen birds caught – 6 Lesser Redpoll, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Coal Tit, 1 Dunnock, 1 Reed Bunting, 1 Chaffinch, 1 Great Tit, 1 Siskin. 

Click the pics for close up views.

The most unexpected bird of the morning was a Reed Bunting, a species quite scarce on site and at the elevation here of about 700ft above sea level. It’s a species more generally thought of as a lowland farmland dweller. 

Reed Bunting

 

The single Siskin caught was a fine adult male. 

 

Siskin

 

Six new Lesser Redpoll added to recent catches of the species while the two Coal Tits came from previous visits here in the winter of 2022/23. 

 

Lesser Redpoll

Coal Tit

 

Goldfinch

Other species seen – 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Swallow, 5 Sand Martin, 3 Jay, 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 2 Sparrowhawk, 1 Buzzard. 

Great-spotted Woodpecker

All three Jays flew overhead, unusually silent as they disappeared into nearby trees. Jays are normally noisy when they are around as their Latin name of Garrulus glandarius would suggest. Garrulus is a Latin word meaning "chattering", "babbling" or "noisy". The specific epithet glandarius is Latin meaning "of acorns", a woodland fruit in which the Jay specialises. 

Jay

 

See you in the week folks. 

“It’s warming up” said the BBC weatherman. If it's on the BBC it must be wrong. You heard it here first.

This And That

A BMW approached on the other side of the road but soon became a passer-by as it hurtled off in the direction of the Stalmine 30mph zone. Ten and more years later and forever counting, our village still lacks a pedestrian crossing where folk can safely visit the Seven Stars. Or more importantly, cross safely back to the other side after a few pints. 

Soon, another car appeared in the rear view mirror, niggling at my rear end, even at 6am. The young lady 4X4 lost no time to roar past my untrendy and inexpensive Fiat as it leaned like a drunken sailor over the double white lines of Burned House Lane. Those two opposing vehicles were the only ones I saw on my 0600 journey toward Cockerham. 

I guess those people had somewhere important to go in a hurry, probably not, but I’m absolutely sure that at those speeds, neither of them were birders. 

There was no urgency as I reached Murder Mile of the A588, the scene of many a high speed, often fatal accident. Wiki - “The A588 is a road in England which runs from Poulton-le-Fylde to Lancaster. It is the main route serving the Over Wyre areas of the Fylde.” 

Me -“At 6am of a silent, slightly misty, sun-burnished autumn morning, the A588 can be quite breathtakingly beautiful”.  

Cockerham - Over-Wyre, Lancashire

Appropriately enough the 20 mile A588 that winds through the Over-Wyre villages of Hambleton, Stalmine and Pilling and across the marshy land that abuts Cockerham Sands, terminates at Lancaster Hospital. 

I stopped at the speed camera layby (weekends only) to grab a picture of the rising sun while reminding myself of the luck in leaving the DWP Rat Race some 15 years ago. Instead I get to spend a few hours in the glorious sunshine of an August morning with birds all around while not watching daytime TV. 

“Quality not Quantity” is the perennial defence and get out clause of bird ringers who don’t catch too many birds. I am no exception. Hence while 4 Linnet and 4 Reed Warbler will not make the BTO database blow a fuse, the feeling and fun was intense, and to borrow another ringer’s phrase, “there’s always another day”. 

One of the Reed Warblers, an adult female, had been ringed here in 2020, almost to the day. Thankfully for my ageing and sexing abilities, she was still an adult female with a now wrinkled brood patch. 

The picture is a juvenile Reed Warbler, protesting, as they do. 

Reed Warbler

 

Linnet

Linnet

The adult male Linnet was part way through its post-breeding moult. 

Birding was quiet too with a dawn Buzzard pursued by a handful of crows, and then later 150 or more of the blackened villains. Otherwise - 3 Grey Heron, 3 Little Egret,1 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 40 Woodpigeon, 2 Stock Dove, 4 Goldfinch and 6 or more Brown Hares.  

Great -spotted Woodpecker

Brown Hare

As I type there’s rain closing from the west with more forecast for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We'll see.  The forecasters have been known to get it wrong, despite the many £millions spent on new computer modelling systems, the same systems that can predict the weather 30 or more years ahead!

Linking this weekend to Eileen's Saturday Blogspot and Texas Anni.

Annual Bullfinch Day

The forecast was for a better morning of almost zero wind coupled with bouts of sunshine. Another 0600 start up at Oakenclough where Andy was already out of his car and ready to go.

A check of the DemOn database revealed we started the new month with 137 captures during July including 35 Willow Warblers and 24 Blackcaps, more than we expect and perhaps a sign of a good breeding season.

There were fewer birds this morning with a lack of Blackcaps but a continuation of the Willow Warbler theme with 22 new birds and zero recaptures. Totals - 10 Willow Warbler, 2 Coal Tit, 2 Wren, 2 Blue Tit and one each of Bullfinch, Goldcrest, Chaffinch, Blackcap, Chiffchaff and Great-spotted Woodpecker.

Today represents our likely annual Bullfinch catch. We see just one or two Bullfinch a year at this site and we are unable to say from where they originate. The species previously bred here in the late nineties and almost certainly still breeds fairly locally.

Despite the rather striking appearance of the male Bullfinch the species as a whole is rather discreet, unobtrusive and even secretive, a bird that is easily overlooked by anyone unfamiliar with its quiet song and calls.

  

Bullfinch 

As with the young Bullfinch, at this time of year young birds that recently left the nest can look rather fine in their fresh plumage. Conversely, adult birds can look rather scruffy after weeks of intensive work and activity in bringing up a family. 

Compare the images below - a juvenile Willow Warbler born sometime in June and an adult Chiffchaff with severely worn flight feathers. 

Chiffchaff - worn adult - 1st August 

Chiffchaff - adult 

Willow Warbler - juvenile/first summer 

Between fledging and its migration south in the autumn the young Willow Warbler will undertake a partial moult of body contour feathers but not flight feathers. This moult is necessary to replace feathers not structurally strong enough to withstand normal wear and tear adequately, or more importantly, the stress and dangers likely to be imposed by the rigours of migration to Africa.

An adult Willow Warbler is exceptional as a species in that it has two complete moults per year, one in the breeding area soon after breeding, the other in the African winter quarters.  This difference in moult strategies of adults and juveniles, and hence the appearance of autumn Willow Warblers, is often the cause of confusion by birdwatchers who claim they can age Willow Warblers in the field. 

The Chiffchaff must soon begin a complete moult and then replacement of all of its feathers in order to be fit enough to return to Africa before winter sets in. A Chiffchaff will take about 6-7 weeks to complete the staged replacement of its feathers.

The Great-spotted Woodpecker was also a juvenile - a noisy and demonstrative individual that drew blood with a series of hammer blows to my thumb.

Great-spotted Woodpecker 

And just the one Blackcap today, another juvenile and a few weeks too early to decide male or female.  

Blackcap

Log in soon. There are more birds and photos to see with Another Bird Blog.

Linking to Anni's Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Incommunicado

Apologies to regular readers or those searching for the very latest in bird news. There’s been a lack of posts here due to my enforced sabbatical from blogging. At least it gave me time to catch up with a few chores. 

Everyone is reporting the same - the coldest, wettest June ever with hardly a glimpse of the sun. And it’s not just here in the UK. 

Wednesday 12 June 2019. “Hailstones as big as grapefruits hammered several countries across Europe, causing chaos and damaging thousands of homes and buildings. 

Hailstones 

"The fierce hailstorm has battered parts of Slovenia, Croatia and Germany since Monday as strong gale-force winds brought cold temperatures along with intense rainfall.” 

Even a stab at ringing in the garden ended early with more rain although I managed to catch a dozen or so birds before the heavens opened. Goldfinches are ever-present plus a number of very fresh juveniles around now, almost always accompanied by one or maybe both of their parents. 

Goldfinch

I didn't expect to catch a woodpecker, and although they live just down the road in a nearby copse, they rarely visit the garden as I don’t feed peanuts. 

Great-spotted Woodpecker 

Woodpigeon 

House Sparrow 

Goldfinch 

Goldfinch

I'm hoping for better weather next week as we approach the longest day of summer!

Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and  Eileen's Saturday Blog.

Back For More

The forecast of little cloud and a 4 mph wind for Thursday looked so stable that we actually confirmed our arrangement for Oakenclough on Wednesday afternoon. This is a most unusual occurrence that more often than not involves a detailed discussion around whether a ringing session is even possible in our normally unsettled weather. 

I met Andy and Bryan for the 0630 start to a perfect morning of zero wind with just a little cloud together with a hint of sun peeking around the corner. 

Birds were on the move from the off and the morning proved productive for both ringing and birding. Goldfinches dominated the catch but we also bagged a few warblers and more Tree Pipits to add to those of Tuesday. 

Today’s catch comprised 52 birds of 10 species; in numerical order - 20 Goldfinch, 8 Chaffinch, 6 Goldcrest, 5 Willow Warbler, 4 Tree Pipit, 3 Coal Tit, 2 Blackcap, 2 Robin, 1 Great Tit, 1 Greenfinch. 

The twenty Goldfinches included an adult bearing a ring immediately recognisable as not our own due the unfamiliar series of letters and numbers – S524171. Otherwise the remaining Goldfinches proved to be first years/juveniles. Almost without us trying very hard it’s looking like Goldfinch will become the most ringed bird of 2018 due simply to its abundance in town and country. 

Goldfinch 

All four Tree Pipits proved to be first years/juveniles. All seven we have caught this week have been first year/juveniles. This is not surprising given that by the end of the summer birds of the year will outnumber adults in the ratio of approximately 5/1 and also that adults are thought to migrate earlier than juveniles. The recovery rate for ringed Tree Pipits is actually quite low, despite ”acute persecution” in Southern France and Northern Spain (BWP). 

Tree Pipit 

Tree Pipit

Five Willow Warblers gave opportunities to directly compare adults (born before 2018) with first years (born 2018). 

adult Willow Warbler 

first year Willow Warbler 

The two Blackcaps were first year birds, one female and one male. 

Blackcap 

We discussed how we’d not caught a Coal Tit for months and then, lo and behold, three turned up in quick succession, together with a single adult male Great Tit. 

Great Tit 

Not so with Blue Tits as they remain hard to come by up here – rather a strange thing to say about the most ringed bird on the BTO’s books. Our own observations and casual chatter elsewhere suggest Blue Tits may be the next to suffer from a drop in numbers. 

From as early as 0700 there was a noticeable movement of Swallows overhead which tailed off about 0900 by which time we had counted 80+. As the morning warmed more Swallows arrived from the North West together with smaller numbers of House Martins as both species aerial fed in numbers approached a combined 250/300 or more. 

Finches were also on the move as shown by our catch of both Goldfinches and Chaffinches with small parties of both throughout the morning. Not so with Lesser Redpoll, this has yet to appear as an autumn migrant up here. 

A number of Pied Wagtails appeared in late morning with 15/20 feeding nearby and a couple or more noted flying over and due south. Other birds noted in addition to those caught – 15 Willow Warbler, 2 Sparrowhawk, 2 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 1 Song Thrush, 1 Peregrine, 1 Treecreeper. 

Great-spotted Woodpecker 

The Spotted Flycatchers were along the nearby woodland edge of someone’s garden. These were the first I’d seen since May in Menorca where Spot Flys are ten-a-penny, unlike the UK where the species is another one in decline. 

Spotted Flycatcher 

The flycatchers were a good way to end an interesting and rewarding morning. And with the same forecast for Friday, who knows? We may be back for more. 

Linking today to Eileen's Saturday Blogspot.

No Time For Sitting

These starts are getting earlier now that spring is here. Today was a 0530 wake-up for a meet up at Oakenclough with Andy at O630. We were joined today by Bryan who was also hoping our run of luck would continue by catching more Siskins and Lesser Redpolls. 

As it turned out there wasn’t much time to relax and by midday we were more than pleased with our total catch of 38 birds which included a good number of the aforementioned two species: 11 Lesser Redpoll, 10 Siskin, 7 Goldfinch, 3 Long-tailed Tit, 2 Robin, 2 Blue Tit, 2 Coal Tit and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker. 

Ringer's lounge

Of the eleven Lesser Redpolls two, a male and a female, Z312630 and Z312632 were recaptures from 23 April 2015. The almost consecutive ring numbers could mean the two may have stayed together in the intervening period. It is also interesting that neither has been recaptured between April 2015 and today and may have been returning “home”. 

Lesser Redpolls

Lesser Redpoll

Lesser Redpoll

For comparison, below are adult Siskins of each sex and don’t need labels to show which is which. 

 Siskin

Siskin

After a temporary blip last week Goldfinches returned in smlll numbers today.

  

Goldfinch

Great-spotted Woodpeckers are pretty common here but rarely come to our bird feeders, especially since we don’t employ peanuts but stick to Niger and mixed seed. 

Great-spotted Woodpecker - second year male

Great-spotted Woodpecker

Birding between ringing produced migrants in the shape and sounds of Siskins and Lesser Redpolls overhead. Also 2, Grey Wagtails which fed briefly. 

Otherwise, local birds included 4 Mistle Thrush, 2 Buzzard, 1 Kestrel, 1 Sparrowhawk and 4 Pied Wagtail. An unexpected sighting proved to be three Snipe which rose from a still boggy area of the plantation as we walked towards the nets.

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.

Bird Watching

Wednesday 19th March 2014. 

It’s hard to decide the highlight of Wednesday morning, catching the first Wheatear of 2014 with the help of trusty meal worms or seeing a full set of local raptors in action. 

Northern Wheatear

Meal Worms

First stop as usual was Wheel Lane where the Golden Plover count reached 360+, Redshanks numbered 20+, and the well scattered Lapwings totalled 30+. Two Little Egrets could be seen along the ditches that cross the maize field. As per a few days ago a Chiffchaff sang brief snatches of song from the hedgerow and as I waited for the chiffy to show, I picked up on 2 Long-tailed Tit, a single Goldcrest searching the hawthorns, and several Meadow Pipits in the near part of the field. 

The waders took to the air a couple of times, once for a passing Kestrel and then for brief views of a dashing Merlin, the latter heading out over the sea wall. 

I parked at Fluke and checked out the woodland. The Long-tailed Tit nest of 9th March appears to have come to a standstill a couple of days after, the nest now a complete cup but without the essential domed topping. No sight or sound of the adults either - an unexplained failure for the BTO Nest Record. I’m keeping an eye on a freshly manicured hole near where I’ve seen and heard the Great-spotted Woodpeckers, ”chicking” today and in the last two or three weeks. It’s not been a great year for hearing the peckers’ drumming noises, perhaps a pointer to fewer pairs in the area and less competition? 

 Great-spotted Woodpecker

There were 2 Buzzards calling in the tree tops, noisy Jays and then further along the lane a Sparrowhawk came gliding through the trees and made as if to perch up. When the hawk saw me it sped off out of sight. Generations of human persecution have made raptors reluctant to share their world with bird watchers who mean them no harm. 

Buzzard

In the wet field south of Fluke Hall were 14+ Pied Wagtails, 15+ Meadow Pipits and in the hedgerow, 2 Reed Buntings and 2 Greenfinch, the wags and mipits difficult to locate in the badly rutted, furrowed and still partially flooded ground. 

I walked east along the sea wall with the still strong wind at my back where in the shelter of the rocks I found a bright male Wheatear. The spot was too public for even a tiny trap - a host of footprints on the muddy shore and piles of doggy poo testified to my preference for a quieter spot. 

From the sea wall I watched a female Peregrine arrive from the west and then settle low on the marsh but out of sight. Waiting for a Peregrine to fly is not always a short delay so I walked further east and then counted the Pink-footed Geese for the umpteenth time this winter - 420 this time and never a total the same. Good numbers of Shelduck but no count today and no sign of the Brent Goose or regular Green Sandpiper. 

Pilling Water provided the ideal Wheatear, settled on the rocks and looking for food. A meal worm later it was mine - a fine female to finish the morning and to open the Wheatear account for 2014. Now that’s what I call bird watching. 

Northern Wheatear

More bird watching very soon from Another Bird Blog.