More Therapeutic Than Birds...

....and notes about moorland burns, the bog, the cemetery, and the diver.

Another beautiful calm sunny early February day on Thursday, had me pleasantly sauntering around the Birk Bank area. As I left then car behind me on Rigg Lane, I had been thinking this was going to be a therapeutic day rather than a day for birds, and so it was.

I'm known on B2B to often say, upland birding can produce quality, but not a bag full of birds, today that is something of an understatement. In the 3 hours here I saw just four birds - yes just four birds - 2 Blue Tit and 2 Wren, heard Raven calling high and distant, six times I heard the 'bouncing bark' of Red Grouse, and not a raptor in sight.

Moorland Burns.

I haven't been in the area since last September, and was surprised and puzzled by several small areas with patches of burnt heather....I have no idea what that was about!

Birk Bank Bog.

The old boardwalk has been replaced by a new one running straight out and across the bog. 

With machinery used in erecting the new boardwalk, there has been the inevitable damage to the bog, and there is now a wide ditch on the left side. In the image above, the bottom right hand is the corner of the old boardwalk.

This image was taken from what was the corner of the old boardwalk. It shows a ditch where the walk was, but the wall remains in place. So maybe not all bad news for the Common Lizards, which I suspect are currently in hibernation perhaps somewhere in the wall, they could often be seen basking in the sun on the old walk.....It remains to be seen where they will bask this summer.

It is my understanding that consultations where made during the planning for work undertaken to retain the water level at the far end of the bog, dragonflies and butterflies were taken into consideration. My informant concludes by telling me....'the site will have room for everything'.

Lancaster Cemetery.

An hour in the cemetery was well rewarded with excellent views of at least 8 Siskin flighty but briefly feeding on Alders, also equally excellent views of a Goldcrest.

Treecreeper. Pete Woodruff.

But the best bird was a Treecreeper, initially picked up flying from one tree to the foot of another, then creeping spirally up before moving to the next tree, soon to disappear from view on the backside. I stalked the bird to get views again and observed some interesting behaviour, it was motionless for a few minutes, then slowly looked to the left, then to the right, its eyes blinking slowly. 

Great Northern Diver.

The Great Northern Diver remains at Pine Lake, having been present there since it was first recorded last year on 15 December 2024.

Great Northern Diver Pine Lake. John Wallace.

This is the diver I predicted was doomed to die after seeing a line with a Pike fishing rig hanging out of the side of its bill, and a hole the size of a 10 pence piece in the left side of its neck. One birder I spoke with had a genuine suspicion the line was wrapped around the underside of the bird, and thought it was probably unable to fly, and that could well be the case today. Not good for a seabird trapped on an inland lake for 7 weeks unable to return to the sea.

I'm grateful to John Wallace for allowing me to use his excellent image of this bird dated 25 January, showing it to be in pristine and healthy condition.   

Great Northern Diver Pine Lake December 2024 (Facebook)

Hard to believe this Great Northern Diver appears to have fully recovered from the terrible injury inflicted upon it obviously since it's arrival on Pine Lake in December last year.

Two For The Price Of One!

I took advantage of decent days to get off my backside and get out again....Twice!

Wednesday 29 January. 

I covered the estuary starting at Conder Pool to note 5 Snipe, the same number of 5 Little Grebe and 3 Tufted Duck, but the best bird for my book was the Song Thrush below the hedgerow.

Notes from a 'relatively quiet' Lune Estuary at Glasson, up to 400 Golden Plover, 325 Wigeon, 3 Goosander, 450 Pink-footed Geese were at the south end of Colloway Marsh. Pick of the day was 4 Goldeneye seen as two drake and two female, these four represent my best count this winter....something wrong here!

I made a video of two Cormorant on the Lune Estuary today, but the birds were too distant for it to be any value for positive ID. But in a drastically cropped still from the video, one of the Cormorants was seen as suggestive to be a continental Sinensis, though good views of the gular pouch angle - not possible here - is the best way to be certain about this.

I have found Continental Cormorant twice on the canal basin at Glasson Dock, the first being seen 14 years ago in February 2011, when I was grateful to Stuart Piner for sending me this illustration for comparison of the gular pouch on both carbo and sinensis. The second almost to the day, was seen 5 years ago in February 2020. I was also grateful to Paul Ellis for his help in the 'suggestion' that my bird at Glasson was of the continental form.

En-route to Cockersand, at least 60 Fieldfare off Moss Lane, and probably up to 400 Whooper Swan were fragmented over five fields between Bank End Farm and Crook Farm. In fields around Abbey Farm, at least 1,500 Golden Plover were put to the wing with Curlew and Lapwing, probably by the wintering Merlin which I failed to latch on to. Eight Eider were off Plover Scar from where I saw 2 Greenfinch on a fence post.

Notes.

I make interesting notes about two species today. In my book, the Goldeneye is generally absent from our area this winter, the best count I've seen recently reported is of 17 Goldeneye on 12 January. My records reached a peak of 4 Goldeneye at Glasson this week on the Lune Estuary. 

As far as I can see, the winter thrushes are also in short supply in our area this winter too. My best count was of the c.60 Fieldfare seen along Moss Lane this Wednesday, my previous best was of 12 Fieldfare at Cockersand 9 January.

Thursday 30 January.

My intention was to go on the Stone Jetty at Morecambe, but I swiftly had a change of mind, and made a U-turn when I saw this from the landward end of the jetty....

Off Broadway, up to 60 Eider and 2 Red-breasted Merganser seen. At Teal Bay, there was a nice variety of 8 species of waders roosting on the groyne, including 10 Bar-tailed Godwit and a lone Golden Plover, 2 species of wildfowl, 26 Wigeon, 4 Pintail, and 2 Great-crested Grebe.

It was good to be close up and see the birds come to feed as soon as the tide started to ebb.

In The Garden.

I found a Pygmy Shrew on Wednesday, a first for our garden, and a Buzzard was excellent low over the house, with great views of underwing plumage detail in the sunlight.

Pygmy Shrew (Deceased) Pete Woodruff

When it is active, the Pygmy Shrew has to eat every 2/3 hours to survive, it lives little more than a year, long enough for it to have two litters producing up to 6 young....Shucks!

Finches Make My Day....Again!

On Friday a pleasant couple of hours in Morecambe, where I walked along the Stone Jetty to find a lone female Common Scoter well offshore into the bay, also 8 Eider to note and 2 Great-crested Grebe.

Along the promenade off Broadway, 74 Eider were in two groups, 2 Great-crested Grebe seen, and up to 200 Pink-footed Geese flew north.

A 1st winter female Scaup behaved impeccably, close in and diving constantly on a flat calm sea. 

I've traced four past records on the internet from 1 December of Scaup off Morecambe Promenade in the area around Strathmore/Broadway, all except one have been recorded as a female, the exception being that of a 1st winter female which is what Fridays bird was. 

1st winter female Scaup. Pete Woodruff.

  

The Bullfinch.

A pair of Bullfinch made my day when I found them in Lancaster Cemetery during the week, my eighth record of the species at this location. I'm not the tree expert here, but I think the one they were feeding on was a Hornbeam.

Bullfinch Female. Simon Hawtin.

I was quite surprised when searching through my records. I was reminded that I had found my first Bullfinch in Lancaster Cemetery over 10 years ago, and doubly surprised to see the number of birds there in 2014....

2014 Oct 30 5 birds

2021 Dec 17  male

2022 April 3 3 birds

2022 Nov 13 4 birds

2022 Dec 6 pair

2023 Feb 6 pair

2023 May 1 pair

2024 Jan 15 pair 

....And Impressive Wintering Stonechat Records.

On this visit to Conder Pool I practiced one of my occasional stock taking exercises the result of which came up with, 19 Wigeon, a Little Grebe, 12 Redshank, 21 Black-headed Gull, a Lesser Black-backed Gull and Common Gull, 3 Mute Swan, 3 Canada Geese, and best till last a female Stonechat.

At Glasson Dock, 12 Goldfinch were accompanied by 2 Greenfinch, and on Jeremy Lane, 7 Whooper Swan were seen as 4 juvenile and 3 adult.

Reed Bunting. Pete Woodruff.

At Cockersand, 14 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch, 3 Reed Bunting and 11 Blackbird. In fields, 625 Golden Plover, 12 Fieldfare, and up to 220 Whooper Swan were seen over four fields.

When I arrived back at the motor, I was pleasantly entertained by a pair of Stonechat constantly foraging on and off the marsh, from where I watched a Barn Owl appear but soon lost to view behind Bank Houses.

The Cockersand Stonechat wasn't very obliging and the light was fading too, but I had to get some footage as it was my only opportunity of the day.

Stonechat.

Over these first 12 days of January, I have collected records of 24 Stonechat wintering at 14 sites, mostly on the Fylde. I also now have 7 upland records of wintering birds. 

Great Northern Diver....Continuing the saga of an ill fated bird.

I gleaned the opinion of an experienced angler in an attempt to reach some sort of conclusion about the foreign body the bird had 'picked up' since it arrived on the lake nearly a month ago.

This is a copy of the e-mail.... 

Hi Pete, I have just seen the images, and it looks fairly certain to be a Pike fishing rig. Usually 18 inches of a strong braided metal material with 2 treble hooks to hold the dead fish bait, unfortunately it looked like this was snapped off and the diver has ingested the fish dead bait intended for pike. This wire corrodes very slowly, and in my view isn't good news for this bird. 

The end of this message didn't surprise me at all, but definitely saddened me....The demise of a beautiful bird seems inevitable.

On A Lighter Note!

I monitored Clougha and its surroundings, all seasons every month primarily for Stonechat for in excess of 10 years 1999-2010. For the record, that's at least 120 visits, lasting on average 5 hours, making a total of up to 600 hours spent on Clougha/Birk Bank.

Who would have thought, that 2 years after my observations drew to an end, I would move into a house that had a brilliant view - albeit between the rooftops - of the place I loved the best, looking for the bird I loved best.

I recently took this shot of Clougha from our bedroom window, looking splendid in a nice coating of snow. I took another 2 minutes later, and heavily cropping it during processing....

....I discovered a bird had appeared on the scene over Clougha. It's obviously a bird of prey, but not too obvious a Buzzard perhaps, maybe a Harrier or Kite.

Thanks to Martin Jump for the header image of a male Sparrowhawk that thought it could hover like a Kestrel.

A Tale Of Two Divers

The Pacific Diver.

Two Pacific Divers actually, one having been found recently as a first for the Netherlands, and bringing in the crowds from near and far. This diver breeds in much of Arctic Canada and Alaska.

The Pacific Diver is a bird which is included in my list of twitches which is about as rare as the bird itself.

Pacific Diver Juvenile Farnham G.P. February 2007. Pete Woodruff.

February 2007 was a double whammy day for me 18 years ago, the Pacific Diver was the follow-on of a twitch to see a American Robin in Bingley not many miles away from the Pacific Diver in the Knaresborough area.

American Robin. Martin Lofgren.

Great Northern Diver.

The second diver is a Great Northern Diver, found on 15 December on a lake on the Lancashire/Cumbria border. Being closely related to the Black Throated Diver, this bird was a failed attempt to be seen by me, but many birders/photographers have seen this seemingly healthy example of a 1st winter bird.

But there is something of a mystery surrounding this bird, some images of it from its earlier days at the lake show it to be in pristine condition, but this is not the case in the images to be seen on various sites today. 

 

Great Northern Diver 8 January. Copy Permitted. 

The bird has a hole on the right side of its neck, and although not visible in this image, also has what appears to be 'string' coming out of both sides at the base its bill in images currently published on Facebook.

I'm not passing any comments on this blog about the unfortunate situation this bird finds itself in, save to say this is surely connected with fishing. Hanging out of the mouth in one image I have seen today, is what I can best describe as a piece of metal.

Delight and disaster on one page!   

Sluggish Start To 2025!

Sluggish and little to report, but never any less the pleasure of birding for me.

The tide was well advanced when I arrived at Glasson on Thursday and had driven most of the waders off the estuary. But I noted a pair of Goosander, and it was good I saw two drake and a female Goldeneye, seen as the only three individuals found here this winter, and looking like a scarce bird for our area now. This despite its status being recorded 3 years ago in the LDBWS Annual Report as....'a fairly common visitor to the Lune at Glasson'....I doubt that the Goldeneye will be recorded as 'common' in the next report!

I couldn't resist a video of the ducks on a cold but beautiful January day, on a calm river in an attractive setting....Pump up the volume to hear 17 secs of 22 delightful whistling Wigeon.

There was nothing to report at Glasson Dock, until a Kingfisher flew across the canal basin toward the marina. Neither was there much action at Cockersand, but over a couple of hours here, it did turn out to be something of a mini raptor fest.

Although the high tide was a little under 10m, 4 Rock Pipit were pushed off the marsh and were on the shingle. There was up to 1,500 Golden Plover in fields, with 150 Curlew, and possibly 180 Whooper Swan scattered over three fields.

The raptor foursome started with views of a Barn Owl followed by a Merlin soon followed by a Buzzard.

The Little Owl was again basking in the sun on its favoured girder on the farm building at Bank Houses with a horse appearing to be on guard duty.

The Cockersand Barn Owl.

I had the same experience with the Barn Owl today as I had at the start of the year on 7 February, the account of which is copied here.... 

The Barn Owl took off from Bank Houses at the same time I started my circuit of Cockersand. It was in view for up to an hour as I walked along Moss Lane until I reached the Lighthouse Cottage at 2.25pm. In the hour, the owl crisscrossed every field in the area, and hunted along every ditch and hedgerow, diving to the ground at least six times without success, and perched on fence posts about the same number of times.

Thursdays sighting ended with views of the Barn Owl flying south toward Abbey Farm, I then picked up a female Merlin rocketing south across the same field to cause up to 2,000 Golden Plover/Lapwing/Curlew and Starling to panic. I myself panicked when I saw the Merlin mobbing the Barn Owl, but the pair disappeared behind bushes. I didn't see the Merlin again, but was sure the Barn Owl escaped the attentions of the raptor to take refuge at Abbey Farm.

And Finally.

In my inbox I received two brilliant images recently, both of which represent my appreciation and respect for the ability to freeze a moment in time with excellent photography. 

Goosander. Martin Jump.

This one from Martin shows the Goosander with the catch of an Eel and lookers on, one showing anger, and one with envy.

Blue Tit. Ian Mitchell.

This one of a Blue Tit coming in to land on Ian's garden feeders. Thanks Martin and Ian....Amazing stuff. 

Wandering Through 2024.

With the recent crap weather combined with the inevitable seasonal disruption, I had an opportunity to put together some of my random highlights for each month throughout the year.

January

Spotted Redshank Lune Estuary

Cattle Egret (4) Snow Bunting Cockersand

White-fronted Goose 1st winter Jeremy Lane

Hen Harrier male Cockersand

February

Hen Harrier/Merlin/Barn Owl Cockersand

March

Scaup drake/5 Mediterranean Gull/c.4,000 Black-tailed Godwit Conder Pool, the highest number ever recorded here.

April

Cattle Egret (2) Conder Pool

Emperor Moth female Hawthornthwaite

May

Pied Flycatcher possible 5 breeding pairs Stoops Bridge

Cuckoo 5 birds including a female calling/7 Garden Warbler Birk Bank area

Woodcock Tower Lodge

June 

Southern Marsh Orchid up to 200 spikes east of Lancaster

Cuckoo 5 including interaction between 3 birds Bowland

Bilberry Bumblebee 5 Birk Bank area

Golden Ringed Dragonfly 17 all Bowland

July

Arctic Tern 1st summer Conder Pool

Mediterranean Gull 6 in field off Rigg Lane

Yellow Wagtail juvenile Conder Pool

August

Emperor Dragonfly 23/Brown Hawker 12 Lancaster Canal

Great White Egret Conder Pool

Green Sandpiper Conder Pool

Purple Hairstreak 4 Birk Bank

Banded Demoiselle 16 Lancaster Canal 

September

Mediterranean Gull 11 Lune Estuary Glasson

October

Little Owl Cockersand first here for 9 years

November

Short-eared Owl Cockersand

December

Common Scoter pair/Scaup female Morecambe

Brent Geese 112 Heysham highest count here

Blackcap male in the garden

Garden Blackcap 30 December 2024

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL