Late News....Again.

Can't keep up with all this birding, and certainly not blogging too. 

Avocet Conder Pool 28 March. Pete Woodruff.

I'd been looking for this bird at the left hand edge of this island on Conder Pool for the past few days, the very spot they nested last year, but I had to wait until Wednesday to find the Avocet had arrived here. The bird was attacked by a Black-headed Gull, and chased off towards the Lune Estuary where I found it 30 minutes later feeding by the Conder mouth. When I returned to Conder Green 4 hours later, the Avocet was back on Conder Pool. There was no sign of it yesterday in two visits 2 hours apart.

The Avocet has returned to Conder Pool for it's third year, 10 days earlier than it did in 2017, when AC found it there on 6 April, he texted me with the news, but the bird had left before I got there and I had to wait 4 days to see it  there on 10 April. In 2016 the Avocet was a late arrival, and didn't show here until 20 May, but a pair eventually hatched four young, but only one survived to fledging, the only one to have done so in both years.

A Cautionary Tale. 

Having walked past Bank Houses at Cockersand, I stood at the metal gate SD431534  looking across the field and heard a bird to my right briefly burst into song, 30 seconds later the bird again burst into song to my left. By now the bird I had clearly heard twice, was by song, a Common Whitethroat.

But wait a minute, for a bird heard only, you really do have to look more deeply into the claim. For starters, there are no Whitethroats mentioned as arrivals into the UK at the Portland Bird Obs and having given all the details to two other reliable birders, the most valuable suggestion being it was more likely I had heard a Dunnock being more variable in song than usual.

No point in going any further down this road of claiming to have heard a Whitethroat on 28 March at Cockersand, but, with a recording like this one below to listen to, I'm never going to convince myself I didn't.

The Golden Oldie.

I dug up my header image of the Pacific Diver that I saw at Farnham GP's N.York's Feb 2007. 

Found on 12 January 2007, it was the first confirmed record for Europe which was initially thought to be a Black-throated Diver, and at first posed something of a problem, in that Farnham Gravel Pits are privately owned, and at the time, members of a Yorkshire Naturalist Society bird-watched there as guests of the land owner. The news of this potentially first for the Western Palearctic was reluctantly suppressed before eventually being released. 

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE

Happy Days.

Black-throated Diver. Martin Lofgren @ Wild Bird Gallery 

As a mega for the location, I had to twitch the Blea Tarn Reservoir juvenile Black-throated Diver yesterday, after all it's on my doorstep, well about a mile away anyhow, and with a little elevation over the reservoir from the track to Middle Langthwaite Farm, the bird gave good views, and at one point obliged by keeping still whilst preening....Nice.

Smew. Jan Larsson @ Vingspann  

The perfect example of 'right place, right time' to find the mega diver there, and reminded me of a visit I paid to this very same reservoir 25 years ago on 5 March 1993, when I called there on my way to do my Saturday bit in the days of delivering car parts, to find a stunning drake Smew there, a scarce if not rare sight in our area today. 

Another record I came across, was that of up to 300 finches seen on 5 December 1995, my record reads....'A flock of Chaffinch and Brambling held up to 300 birds found below a Beech at Levens Bridge in Cumbria, the greater majority of this flock was of up to 250 Brambling with Chaffinch'....They were seen in a year when the beech mast crop was excellent, and when I had found eleven mostly local Brambling locations....Happy Days. 

Thanks to Martin and Jan for the excellent photographs.

Egghead!

Lost to the world of 'other things' and unable to get out birding, I thought it a good idea to fill the gap with some exposure to the man from Scotland who isn't an academic 'egghead' at all, which makes my title to the post a little sarcastic....but n'er mind.

It's also an excellent opportunity to put up another three brilliant images....even more brilliant if you 'clik the pik'.

Slavonion Grebe.Tim Kuhn.

This guy pleaded guilty to several charges relating to the trading in eggs of protected or threatened species of birds including Slavonion Grebe, Black-throated Diver, and Peregrine Falcon. He also pleaded guilty to charges of unlawful possession of in excess of 300 eggs including those of the Osprey and many others. 

  

Peregrine Falcon Tim Kuhn.

The future populations of vulnerable or slow breeding species like the Peregrine Falcon and other birds of prey and divers are at risk of a devastating impact because of this illegal and out dated practice of egg collecting, and this fella was involved in one of the biggest ever egg trading investigations. 

Black-throated Diver Rick Derevan 

The outcome of this was a long time in the making and started back in 2009 when another man was convicted of a similar crime. Thousands of e-mails were examined in that case and a network and number of individuals were discovered and exposed  to be trading in eggs via the internet as far afield as the US and Scandinavia, it was because of this case that Mr 'Scotland' was amongst these individuals, and was unearthed by investigators and found to be in possession of 2,300 birds eggs....He gets sentenced in April, and its taken since 2009 to come to this....a bit of a drag!

Thanks to Tim Kuhn for the excellent images of the Slavonion Grebe and Peregrine Falcon, and to Rick Derevan for the equally excellent Black-throated Diver.

Birding tomorrow....hopefully.

Cumbria Birds....

....of thirty years ago, but first....

Steam Crane. Peter Guy.

Another remarkable and interesting photograph of the old steam crane at Lamb Hill Quarry on the moors of the Forest of Bowland and all that remains of the stone extraction for the construction of the dam at Stocks Reservoir. I'd wager the average birder/visitor to Birds2blog didn't know about this piece of history....I certainly didn't. Thanks for this Peter, the second the the two B/W photographs you sent me recently for which I'm truly grateful.

Well, they say something good comes out of everything in varying degrees and I suppose my currently being 'off the road' gave me the opportunity to do some searching through old records to come up with something of interest from our neighbouring county of Cumbria thirty years ago. I know little detail of the birds of Cumbria today but was intrigued to find the following records/notes from 1979 when Cumbria was broken down into five areas for the purpose of recording. Randomly but systematically chosen with varying degrees of interest some of which can be regarded as 'very interesting' making you realise how things have changed both locally and nationally.

Black-throated Diver. Five records one of which stood out as being seen 2 March on the River Kent at Watercrook, Kendal inside the town boundary.

White Stork. At Brocklebank, Wigton, 3-6 June regularly seen roosting on a chimney.

King Eider. A male seen 10-23 June, South Walney B.O.

Hen Harrier. Bred at two sites in Cumbria for the first time in many years.

Black Grouse. Breeding recorded in all districts with single birds in possibly new sites.

Dotterel. A pair bred successfully on a Cumbrian site.

Temminck's Stint. At Hodbarrow 17 May. The record also reads, quote....'The last Cumbrian record quoted in R. Stokoe's 'The Birds of the Lake Counties' was September 1891.

Baird's Sandpiper. Arnside Marsh 25-30 September. The bird - a first for Cumbria - was seen by many observers and was flushed by a male Peregrine Falcon one day.

Nightjar. One seen in May at Heversham Marsh was the only record.

Yellow Wagtail. On 17 April, 25 seen at Tarn House Tarn, on 5 May, 20 at Kendal Sewage Works, on 29 August, c.30 at Killington Reservoir roost.

Stonechat. A note reads....The hard winter produced a notable decrease in most areas especially on inland sites where many were deserted in the breeding season.

Ring Ouzel. Breeding recorded in all five districts.

Willow Tit. A note reads....Still regular in woodland around Carlisle e.g. High Stand. No records from the south of the county.

Nutcracker. Two records one of which was accepted by BBRC and was seen on 22 October 1978 at Fallow Park, Bowness-on-Windermere and was the first record for Cumbria. The second record is of a bird seen on 1 December 1979 by the warden and four other observers at South Walney B.O.

Two-barred Crossbill. A female seen on 10 August at the southern end of Lake Thirlmere by an observer with experience of this species.

All interesting stuff and I personally wonder just how much things will have changed with at least seven of these fifteen records in the thirty years since they were collected in Cumbria in 1979.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!