Resurrection!

Well my birding has been very patchy of late, in fact it's been non existent to be honest, but I'm working on getting myself out of the hole I find myself in. Meanwhile, there's some resurrection on the horizon in some areas starting with a fledged c.6 week old juvenile Tawny Owl seen in Bowland.

This is the best image available, a phone shot for the record. I've decided to keep my mouth shut about details on this one....Schedule 1 birds and all that!

The Lancaster Orchids.

It was good to find the orchids again this year east of Lancaster.

Southern Marsh Orchid June 2026. Pete Woodruff.

This time I found at least 120 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid, a slight improvement on last year, when I made a count of up to 100 spikes.

Common Spotted Orchid June 2026. Pete Woodruff.

My count this year, was of 48 Common Spotted Orchid, better than last year when it was 25 spikes.

Garden Birds.

Our birds have had a good breeding season so far this year.

I managed to get some footage of the Blue Tit feeding young, also Great Tit, Goldfinch and Dunnock all have young, and a Blackbird with a juvenile. The House Sparrow has done well with a total figure of at least 40 adult and young.

Who knows how many adult and young Starling have visited us over the past few weeks, it could have been a three figure number, and included this bully juvenile on the apple.

Garden Bees.

The garden bees were busy on Sunday with the weather warming.

Red Mason Bee. Pete Woodruff.

The Mason Bees were back and forth to the hotel....

The Blue Mason Bees were filling in the holes, with an upstairs neighbour having a nosey!

Blue Mason Bee. Pete Woodruff.

....this one was resting on the roof. I think these will leave later than their red cousins, but both will have gone by the end of July.

Common Carder Bee. Pete Woodruff.

A Common Carder Bee was nectaring on Viper Bugloss.

Conder Pool.

It's good to see the Common Terns have taken control of the platform, and even better to hear they have started to produce this years chicks. The news from Conder Pool gets better by the day, when two new Common Terns arrived yesterday.

The Avocets are also having a good season, and adults have already succeeded to guide chicks off Conder Pool, to cross the busy B5290 to the River Conder. I have no accurate figures, but I get the impression there are at least 20 Avocet chicks with 5 nests to hatch.

There seems to be no end to the good news from the pool this year, when a new Avocet arrived here to breed. This is a bird ringed at Boulais in France 20 June 2008, according to its history, a much traveled 18 year old Avocet.

I am grateful to Howard Stockdale for this update with news and images from Conder Pool. 

One For The Orchid Buff's....

....and a moth, a dragonfly, and some flycatchers.

I've had an interest in orchids for a few years now, especially any to be found in the Lancaster area, an interest that increased when I found the Bee Orchid here some years ago now with my good friend and mentor John Leedal. 

Bee Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

The Bee Orchid is seen as one of the best known and loved of its kind, its flowering is sporadic, which accounts for failures to find it at the same location year on year, and contributes to why I've not seen it for 4 years since June 2020.

But my visit here this time turned out to be a bit of a revelation when I found what I regarded to be a good count of Northern Marsh Orchid. 

Southern Marsh Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

I can't claim the record of orchids found at this site east of Lancaster to be the first, but I can certainly claim it to be the first record of up to 100 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid here as opposed to any records in previous years of misidentified Northern Marsh Orchid. 

Southern Marsh Orchid Detail

This is the link to an end piece I wrote following the discussion that ensued on Wild Orchids of the UK website Orchids

Small China Mark.

Small China Mark. Pete Woodruff.

A nice Small China Mark on the canal towpath. Fairly common around still and slow-moving water, the larvae are semi-aquatic feeding on duckweed, and building floating cases from fragments of the food plant.

Emperor Dragonfly.

Emperor Dragonfly Birk Bank 6 June. Ian Mitchell.

The Emperor Dragonfly is referred to in The Dragonflies of Lancashire and North Merseyside Steve White and Philip H. Smith, as....'remains absent in the uplands'....though this reference was published in 2015, and I await a reply from Steve see if this is still the case with the species in 2024.

Pied Flycatcher.

I was grateful to AC for confirmation of up to 6 pairs of Pied Flycatcher in the Marshaw-Tower Lodge-Trough Bridge area, with five boxes taken, and a tree nesting pair as I had suggested a couple of weeks ago. On a trip into Bowland on Thursday, it's a pleasure for me to report on his behalf, evidence of possible breeding Spotted Flycatcher Tower Lodge area, and a pair of Redstart at both Marshaw and Abbeystead both with breeding evidence....Great Stuff AC. 

I was grateful to Ian Mitchell on three counts, 1) for forwarding me the record and image of a male Emperor Dragonfly at Birk Bank, 2) for info that the record of Bilberry Bumblebee at Birk Bank has been officially accepted, 3) for the excellent header image of the same Bilberry Bumblebee.

Third Time Lucky.

Bee Orchid 22 June. Pete Woodruff. 'Clik the piks'

It was third time lucky when KT and myself visited the site on the outskirts of Lancaster again, where we found three spikes of Bee Orchid, not that all that easy to find in the long grass on the bank. Other Orchids in the area have gone through the roof, when 378 Common Spotted were counted. Thanks to AC for his contribution here.

Garden Pond Frog. Pete Woodruff.

Everyone was chuffed to find a Frog in our garden pond recently, it has been seen three times since in various parts of the garden.

Conder Update.

I had an excellent update from Howard Stockdale, with all the news from Conder Pool.

No Vacancies. Howard Stockdale.

The news included this image of a full house, with two Common Tern, two Avocet, and a Black-headed Gull all sitting on the island.

A Common Tern appeared to be an immature on the marker at Conder Pool two days ago on 22 June. 

Common Tern Conder Pool 22 June. Howard Stockdale.

It was an older bird with stunted growth related to it's injury, having lost most of it's lower left leg contributing to poor health. 

The header image is of the first breeding Common Terns of Conder Pool 2014, and shows an adult with two young including one of the runts I mentioned in my last post as being a tradition with the terns here.

Armchair Birding. Episode 2.

Common Tern Chicks Conder Pool Pontoon 16 June. Howard Stockdale.

Some excellent updated news from Conder Pool. The Common Tern have three chicks on the pontoon, all ringed and one being a runt which is becoming a tradition with the Conder Terns....

Conder Cattle 16 June 2020. Howard Stockdale.

....and the farmer has replaced the sheep with coo's!

Bee Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

I made my third visit to a local site to count at least 147 Common Spotted Orchid, whilst finding no Bee Orchid, moving a step closer towards 2020 being a blank year. Although, unless my camera date was incorrect at the time, this image was taken at the location on 22 August last year, so perhaps plenty of time yet.

Large Skipper. Pete Woodruff.

Also seen this week on a pleasant couple of hours on an equally pleasant evening, a Large Skipper and Common Blue Damselfly.

Hedge Woundwort. Pete Woodruff. 

The Hedge Woundwort is common throughout most of Europe, but nevertheless a beautiful flower, adding some welcome colour to the roadside verge where I found it. A close relative of Marsh Woundwort, and are both members of the Mint family. 

Thanks to Bryan Yorke for this and previous requests to Bryan for help with ID. Please 'clik the piks' hopefully they may look better.

.............................................................................

During my conversation with the gamekeeper at Cragg Cottage on Wednesday, I asked if he had noted any Stonechats on his daily trips up Clougha and beyond. His reply echoed mine, that the Stonechat was only just beginning the return to Clougha in any number since their departure 10 years ago during the severe winter weather of 2009 - 11. 

Although I had given up on the Clougha/Birk Bank Stonechats when I realised they had abandoned the area following the two consecutive severe winters, on my occasional visits, I was encouraged by finding 9 Stonechat wintering at Birk Bank on 5 January 2017. That said, annual reports for 2018 claimed breeding at 14 locations in Bowland, but I saw no evidence that Clougha was included in the fourteen, and on the few summer visits that I have made there since 2011, I had no reason to think the gamekeepers comment was anything but correct, and that the Stonechat was only just beginning to return to Clougha in anything like the numbers I collected for 10 years 1999 - 2009. 

A good example from my past records would be, 20 Stonechat seen on 15 June 2009. My hopes are that it will soon become what was once our areas stronghold of this brilliant little gem. 

Orc's In Lanc's.

I thought I'd glimpsed an Orchid from a moving car on Monday, so the following day I thought I should get myself off to investigate.....What a great idea.

Clik the piks, they're bigger and better.

Bee Orchid. 17 June. Pete Woodruff

I was delighted to find a few spikes of the brilliant Bee Orchid. Seen as one of the best known and loved Orchids, its flowering is sporadic, which accounts for failures to find it at the same location year on year.

 

Common Spotted Orchid. 17 June. Pete Woodruff.

With the Bee Orchids I found probably up to 100 Common Spotted Orchid. The most common of all the UK species, the flower of which can range from white to pale pink, through to purple.

Image courtesy of Julie Wareing

I was sent this moth for ID. Found in a Lancaster garden, it's a Buff Ermine, and many thanks for sending it to me Julie.