Migrants At Last.

Conder Pool.

I found my first migrants this week, the first being a pair of Little Ringed Plover on Conder Pool.

The first bird was seen on the small island to the right of the viewing platform, it soon flew off. The next sighting was of a bird on the island behind the main Common Tern raft, was joined by a second bird. I was soon able to observe display behaviour, with posturing seen. I had seen the same behaviour between a pair last year on Conder Pool 26 March.

Other notes from Conder Pool, numbers of godwit continue to fall, with just 280 Black-tailed Godwit today, they were accompanied by at least 10 Knot. Also 15 Avocet in view, and 5 Tufted Duck noted, the Shoveler have departed.

 Cockersand.

My second migrant species was the 2 Wheatear male, seen off the headland. 

Wheatear. Pete Woodruff.

I'm not seeing the Tree Sparrow at Cockersand in anything like the numbers that used to be, though I did find 40 here last September. this time just 3 Tree Sparrow were around Bank Houses, 2 Stock Dove were in a field. The number of swans are dwindling, with no more than 160 Whooper Swan in fields off Moss Lane. I noted 3 Buff-tailed Bumblebee.

Deceased Gannet Plover Scar 2 April. Pete Woodruff.

Lune Estuary.

The estuary at Glasson Dock was near deserted 3 hours after high tide, but 10 Avocet saved the day. If this number is in addition to the birds seen on Conder Pool 3 hours earlier - I ran out of time to call back and check - the grand total would be 25 Avocet. A pair of Red-breasted Merganser were also to note. I saw not a single Wigeon here today, but a few lingering gulls also added a bit of life to the area. 

Red-tailed Bumblebee.

Bombus lapidarius. Pete Woodruff.

In the garden this week, I found my first Red-tailed Bumblebee of the year. 

October Chats.

Being the last visit to Hawthornthwaite Fell was on 11 July, I hadn't realised my birding had made such a dramatic nosedive, but I was here on Tuesday, and also back on Harrisend again to find 15 Stonechat on the day.

I was only on the track up Hawthorthwaite for 15 minutes before I found 6 Stonechat, all in this small area of heather looking east in the picture. The birds were mobile, and moving generally south east. Walking on for about 50 metres, when I looked again there was no sign of the birds.

Other than the chats, I saw just 4 Red Grouse and several airliners in the couple of hours spent here.

Whilst spending a few therapeutic minutes by Cam Brook, I was reminded of the smart male Ring Ouzel I saw here on 27 May. This was my fifth consecutive year of finding the mountain blackbird on Hawthornthwaite, only one sighting of which I ever had evidence of breeding here and was a female in flight with food in its bill. 

There was also a pleasant 3 hours spent on Harrisend, where I found 9 Stonechat. As with the Hawthorthwaite birds, five were together in a small area of gorse. Also 4 Raven over and 3 Red Grouse seen.

Clougha Pike From Harrisend. Pete Woodruff.

Wish I had a pound for every Stonechat I've ever seen atop of this remnant of the Hawthorn. I reckon I could get myself a couple of bottles of Jack Daniel's in for Christmas!

The Gannet.

There was a little sadness about a walk along the promenade at Sandylands last week, when I found the corpse of an adult Gannet on the shore, seen as a possible victim of avian flu.

Only a vagrant Albatross in the Western Palearctic is a larger seabird than the indigenous Gannet. Of the worlds breeding population, 48% are found in Scotland. This year there was a 90% breeding failure of Gannet on Bass Rock.

Turtle Dove.

Turtle Dove Hest Bank. Howard Stockdale.

A 1st winter Turtle Dove has been at Hest Bank since 13 October. There has been a mix of opinion about the bird, some seeing it as a sickly bird, dicing with death at the hands of the mutt brigade and their charges, others saying the bird looks well as it does in Howards image, it feeds well, and is a tame individual. Whatever....the bird would be better advised to stay put at Hest Bank, up to 100,000 Turtle Dove are shot annually on migration over Malta.  

Bearded Tit.....Another one of those must see images.

Bearded Tit Leighton Moss. Martin Jump.

Many Thanks to Howard and Martin for sending me these excellent images.

And Finally.

Hummingbird Hawk-moth. Peter Rhind.

Couldn't possibly end this post without mention of the brilliant Hummingbird Hawk-moth which gave us about 60 seconds of pleasure as it checked out the Verbena in our garden yesterday afternoon.

Pity I didn't get a pik of the moth, but I did get 30 seconds of comic relief with these two ponies at Heysham in the week....You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!

FULL SCREEN....SOUND ON

The Triple Whammy.

It was one thing to get a phone call in the evening last Wednesday, but everything got a lot more interesting as it went along and blew me a little off balance.

Snow Bunting Plover Scar 16 October Clik the pik

I got news of a Snow Bunting found on Plover Scar that afternoon which I went to see the following day, and was rewarded with excellent views.

Cattle Egret Cockersand 16 October Clik the pik 

I then received a set of photographs of the Snow Bunting, but hey up, there's also included with the set, an excellent image of 2 Cattle Egret in a field...well blow me over! 

Then, as if that wasn't enough to be going on with at Cockersand. On my return from seeing the Snow Bunting on Thursday, Bob who was sat in his car at the car park by Lighthouse Cottage, tells me that recently he had seen a large seabird in the field between Crook Farm and Crook Cottage which he had identified as an immature Gannet.

Many thanks for call from Martin, the images from Ian, and the heads up from Bob about the Gannet....What next!

Two For The Price Of One!

Having counted 14 Little Grebe, 11 Redshank, 3 Snipe, and a Curlew, I briefly saw two birds whizzing across the back side of Conder Pool yesterday, to disappear into the far west corner, at the same time a Kingfisher appeared out of the same corner, and promptly landed on the recently placed depth marker for three seconds before flying off and away. 

So there's me thinking I'd seen two Kingfisher, one of which was still at the west end out of sight. But hey, 2 Common Sandpiper flew out of the corner, one chasing the other around the pool, so the wintering bird now has an unwanted visitor to it's territory....well it did have!

Wheatear Plover Scar. Pete Woodruff.

At Cockersand, as I arrived I saw up to 160 Jackdaw come up off Plover Scar, a clear sign there would be no waders there today. But a Wheatear put in an appearance before I set off on the circuit to find c.50 Tree Sparrow, 4 Skylark - probably more if I'd have tried harder - 2 Reed Bunting, and a Kestrel hovering over Bank Houses. At least 550 Herring Gull were lounging in a field off Slack Lane, with 3 Pink-footed Geese, and 4 Stock Dove noted.

When I got back to the Lighthouse Cottage, the tide had dropped enough for waders to return to feed. There was a good count of 14 Ruff, with 8 Bar-tailed Godwit, 4 Turnstone, and good numbers of uncounted Redshank and Lapwing. Also off here, an adult Mediterranean Gull, 3 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Eider, and I found a dead juvenile Gannet amongst the driftwood.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson, up to 1,000 Golden Plover were across the river below Colloway Marsh, where I saw my first 4 Whooper Swan. Also noted, 450 Redshank, 110 Curlew, 85 Snipe, and 3 Ruff. From the thirty I saw on Tuesday I found only 10 Shoveler and 4 Wigeon, 8 Little Egret and 6 Grey Heron were in a group, with a Great-crested Grebe seen. 

Come in No 4 you're times up!!

Garden Birds.

Long-tailed Tit. Warren Baker.

A flock of 15 Long-tailed Tit came through our garden this morning.

The Savick Park Willow Tit.

Thanks to GG for the Willow Tit header. A species that gets no better than a rare visitor in Geoff's recording area on the Flyde, and long time extinct in North Lancashire and beyond, but this one comes to his garden.

Great stuff Geoff....Nice one.

The Big Dip!

I got out and dusted off my twitching gear yesterday to eventually get off my arse to go see a Desert Wheatear, in and around the area since last Saturday when it was first found at Fairhaven Lake, Lytham St Annes. 

The decider for me to go was a pager message claiming the bird still there yesterday morning, but 20 minutes down the M6 and unknown to me with the pager in my pocket, the message was that the earlier one was erroneous. I spent a couple of hours parading along the beach, eventually alone with not another birder in sight, in pursuit of a bird which had clearly done a runner. 

Reed Bunting. Starr Hill. Pete Woodruff.

I had to settle for 4 Reed Bunting, one of which I got one of my half decent shots, and several Pied Wagtail, to leave here and call in at Fluke Hall on the way back to Lancaster.

Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Fluke Hall.  Pete Woodruff.

When I got out of the car at Fluke Hall, from the sea-wall a Pale Bellied Brent Goose was on the saltmarsh and was the only quality bird of the day. A saunter along the coastal path to Cockers Dyke had me seeing relatively few gulls, a good number of Dunlin feeding with fewer Redshank, 10 Goldfinch, a Little Egret, and a Wren disappearing down into the sea defence boulders.

 Juvenile Gannet. Cockersand. Pete Woodruff.

Yesterday I found this recently deceased juvenile Gannet on the shingle at Cockersand.

Although I've seen nothing official about the ID of the Fair Isle Siberian Stonechat present 16-30th October, the claim is that is has been proven as maurus on DNA evidence.

Another Compromise....

Another compromise with KT on Sunday when it was suggested we paid a visit to Fleetwood to take a look round Freeport, but - said I - only if it also includes a look in on Rossall Point....and off we went. 

 Gannet David Cookson

Well, no birds at Freeport!....but when we got to Rossall Point a Gannet was soon seen far out to sea flying south, and a Whitethroat performed nicely for us around the bushes on the perimeter of the golf course.

 

Sanderling Brian Rafferty   

But the interest was on the beach at high tide when 14 Sanderling included the very interesting sight of one carrying rings, duly and appropriately submitted. The result of this could be quite exciting and the sort of thing which fires me up no end when it comes to my birds/birding. A call at Conder Green on the way home produced a female Scaup on Conder Pool. Hardly to be called a full days front line birding, but....good enough for me, and certainly much better than no birding at all.

Temminck's Stint. Copy Permitted.

This morning I responded to an alert of a Temminck's Stint at Conder Green, but an hour spent there searching didn't have a result. The bird had been seen around 8.10am and flew over Conder Pool, landed for 5 seconds on a mud bank in the creeks, then did a disappearing act. 

Thanks to DC/BR for the excellent photographs.

Filling the gap....again!

Not for the first time I'm filling the gap between my birding opportunities to keep Birds2blog head above the water and afloat, and not for the first time it is with some excellent photographs from some of the photographers who grant me the permit to publish their work....all in the name of keeping Birds2blog interesting and colourful. 

Ever since the day I abandoned photography to pursue birding and my passion for the birds, I've never lost sight of an intense interest in the art of freezing a moment in time with an image and those who achieve and produce them. This time all four images are certainly 'pics with a difference' and are stunning in their own right....and there's an American at the end!

Gannet David Cookson

DC captioned this remarkable photograph of the Gannet 'Ghost-rider in the sky'....WOW!

Common Blue Damselfly Marc Heath 

I told MH that I had never seen anything quite like this photograph of the Common Blue Damselfly.... A remarkable photograph.

Swallow Brian Rafferty    

BR appropriately titled the post 'Special Moments' in which this picture of the three young Swallows appears. If he doesn't mind I'd like to caption it 'Goal'....well thats what they're shouting is it!

Nuthatch Warren Baker 

The Nuthatch has the ability to walk along the underside of branches and up and down trees, like the one WB caught in this excellent photograph.

 

Pectoral Sandpiper Tim Kuhn 

The most numerous Nearctic wader on this side of the Atlantic, there could be a Pectoral Sandpiper near you, they're all over the place in the UK as I write. Thanks Tim....its a beauty.

Treat yourself to some brilliant photography and visit all these websites sometime.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....but not looking good until next week, which makes me not feeling good either.

The disappearing act!

But first a brilliant photograph.

Gannet David Cookson

The Gannet and its offspring showing the art of photography at its best....Great stuff DC, much appreciated.

I don't reckon to know the up to date facts about the High Speed 2 rail line, it may well be underway or in the pipeline for all I know, what I do know is that in excess of 20 ancient woods need protection along the route of this speed-rail line. Another example of the kind of destruction faced by more ancient woodland in need of protection is that of more than 80 acres from a quarry in Kent, and there will be many more examples we don't know or hear about. 

Ancient woodland has formed part of our landscape since the Ice Age. In the 21st century it now covers less than 2% of the UK with lots of them - along with the animals that rely on them for survival - still under the threat of airports, new roads, and leisure facilities. Over 40 species associated with woodland died out in the UK last century and many more are at risk today in the UK which is one of the least wooded places in Europe. Only 12% of the UK's landscape is wooded compared with an average of 44% in other European countries.

Nearly 50% of the ancient woods that survived until the 1930's has since been lost or damaged by agriculture, development, or planting by non-native conifers for commercial forestry. A wide range of birds nest inside the cavities of the older trees and are dependent upon them for the bulk of their food. The Lesser-spotted Woodpecker needs a large territory full of insect-rich wood, a reduction of this is leading this bird to the brink of extinction and I wonder if the Lesser-spotted Woodpecker is perhaps one of the first casualties of our modern landscape. 

And finally....

Black Starling. Ana Minguez

The Black Starling, I love the contrasting colours between the birds yellow bill, red legs, and black plumage, and....

Thekla Lark. Ana Minguez.

The Thekla Lark, both of which - unless you travel outside the UK - you may never see. Thanks to Ana Minguez for the brilliant photographs. 

Sitting it out!

In brief....

It was a bit difficult today, for starters it was late when I got out birding, the tide was only a couple of hours from high and the waders 'disappeared', and there's a 'howler' still blowing, which reminds me....I was given some interesting statistics today when someone who had measured the wind speed yesterday, told me it had gusted several times at 65mph at Cockersands.

Gannet. David Cookson.

So I decided the best bet was to sit it out in the motor at Cockersands and put it to the sea-watching test, and see what  - if anything - happens. Well, I never really expected it to be the best sea watching location in the land but at least there was a little action and I ended up with 7 Gannets in two hours, including three lingering close in, three on the sea also close in, and a distant individual, also a Great Skua flying out of the bay. Also noted from the motor - not my kind of birding - during the watch, a Whimbrel, 2 Eider, and a Great-crested Grebe.  

With a few minutes to spare on the way home, I called in at Conder Green to see 2 Spotted Redshank both adults, and 2 Greenshank. On Conder Pool 5 Little Grebe, and 2 Wigeon drakes.

And being that seabirds are the topic....

Kittiwake. David Cookson.

Here's another of DC's excellent photographs, this of the Kittiwakes obviously not seeing eye to eye. If it's brilliant photographs you're after....they're all HERE 

Hit for six!

I gave Conder Green/GlassonDock/Cockersands a good six hours today and deserved better than I got for the effort....but enjoyed every minute of it.

Little Egret. David Cookson

With the exception of one seen from the Grisedale Hide at Leighton Moss on 10 May, I saw my first Little Egret since 1 April today, it was on Conder Pool, also on here, 7 Greenshank, a single Black-tailed Godwit, and a pair of Moorhen were feeding three young. On the circuit I counted 8 Common Sandpiper, heard a Sedge Warbler singing like it was the beginning of May, also a singing Reed Bunting, a Dunnock, House Martins still visiting nests at River Winds, and a Grey Wagtail seen was my first at Conder Green in at least two years.

Common Tern. Geoff Gradwell

At Glasson Dock on the Lune Estuary I found an Arctic Tern conveniently - though distant - at rest with 250-300 Bar-tailed Godwit and c.200 Knot, also noted a similar number of Dunlin. A Peregrine Falcon on the left over of a tree trunk on Colloway Marsh was waiting patiently to change the landscape once it took to the wing. Whilst searching for an Arctic Tern photograph I came across the above Common Tern, a rather impressive result for the effort. Thanks GG....nice one.

At Cockersands I found my second Little Egret on Plover Scar and noted at least 3 Whimbrel with others heard during the visit, also c.250 Golden Plover all appeared to be of European origin, c.250 Oystercatcher, 50 Dunlin, 74 Eider, and 5 Greenfinch were a 'must' to be noted. I saw my second 'early' returning Wheatear of the autumn here.

Gannet. David Cookson

More impressive stuff with the Little Egret and Gannet, with thanks to DC. I found a 'not too long' dead adult Gannet this afternoon on the shingle at Cockersands.

Clement. Courtesy of BTO.

Are you keeping up with Clement and Co.

Old Books....Good Books!

I've mentioned before on Birds2blog about the book stall often on Market Street in Lancaster where KT finds some good second-hand books and occasionally buys them on my behalf.

This 'Wild Birds of the Americas' is now one of the latest additions to my library thanks to the stall and KT.

According to the introduction in the book published in 1977, Terence Michael Shortt is claimed to have probably seen and sketched from life more species of the worlds birds than any other person alive. Well I'm not too sure about such a claim, but thats not the purpose of this post. I chose a couple of colour plates from the book, the first of which is the Blue-footed Booby.

Blue-footed Booby. Terence Michael Shortt.

There are a couple of reasons why I chose this illustration, the first of which is because of the explanation why this species is so called. They suffer the maligning appellation of booby, 'a silly dull-witted fool' because the guileless birds often alighted on the deck or rigging of ships allowing themselves to be added to the ships larder, the implication being that any animal that has no fear of man is stupid....a sorry indictment of the human race I'd say.

The second reason I chose the 'booby' is because it reminded me of a rather large one which befell someone somewhere today when a Brown Booby was reported this morning to be later claimed as a being a Gannet. Take heart all ye who hath fallen into the trap of mis-id, a club I'm man enough to admit being a member of....are you!! 

    Peregrine Falcon. Terence Michael Shortt.

There are a number of excellent colour plates by this man and the Peregrine Falcon is another example.

Peregrine Falcon. Brian Rafferty.

But BR has achieved some excellent images of the Peregrine Falcons nesting on a church in Preston.

Peregrine Falcon. Brian Rafferty.

I think this is a brilliant photograph of the juvenile which appears to be looking skywards to its parent and wondering if the next meal is on its way. You can see more of these stunning birds on BR's website HERE  

The Short List.

I just about managed to squeeze in a couple of hours birding today which didn't amount to anything like exciting, but any birding time is good time.

Gannets. David Cookson.

But first a photograph of the Gannets on Bass Rock with my thanks to David who is currently posting his account and pictures of the visit HERE and is recommended reading/viewing.

I didn't get to Conder Green until 10.45 this morning and was surrounded in just about every direction by some pretty heavy rain showers but actually escaped all of them which made a pleasant change for me avoiding my 'staring out the windscreen at the rain' routine. I made the best of a circuit here and noted most of the birds on offer which amounted to very little, but I'm beginning to sound like the 'anything about' man who often turns up in the hides I'm in at places like Leighton Moss.

On Conder Pool Mondays four Greenshank were again in hiding behind one of the islands, the juvenile Great-crested Grebe and 3 Wigeon were all the pool had to offer save a Brown Hare which made a cautionary walk through some shallow water, by the way....can these creatures swim? A Spotted Redshank and 10 Common Sandpiper were in the creeks, and at least 34 Swift went over going south.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock which was by now well taken over by the tide but which had conveniently pushed c.950 Dunlin in close and which I grilled in the hope of the 'odd one out' along with c.650 Redshank, so the return of the waders continues. And so ended my brief birding day and my 'short list' was complete....better things to come surely! 

At least 30 Swift over my house as I end my write-up at 8.50 pm.  

The Teal Bay Goodie!

Gannet. Gary Jones.

If I can be excused for using some repetitive words on the blog, the excellent in flight Gannet photographed at Bass Rock by Gary Jones has absolutely nothing connected to the post but is a brilliant piece of work for which I thank Gary very much.

Searching through old records is an excellent pastime and one which is guaranteed to turn up something of interest. Arriving at the LDBWS Annual Report for 1994 I was delighted to come across a record of mine which from the moment I set eyes on the bird was going to be a 'first' for the area. As I recall I had hardly turned off the car motor on my arrival at Teal Bay on 19 November 1994 when I saw a Charadrius on the groyne, instantly it wasn't either Ringed, or - perhaps even less likely - Little Ringed Plover not least of all because it didn't even look like one but it also had black legs....KENTISH PLOVER....heck!!

OK, now these were the days before the mobile and I knew someone who'd be really interested to hear about this bird and off I shot to Heysham with the news. Now I'm not exactly sure about the finer details on my arrival at Heysham but am almost certain 'egg and bacon' comes into the story here....'a Charadrius with black legs at Teal Bay and all other characteristics to match has to be a Kentish Plover hasn't it'....I said, upon which I was followed the full length of Morecambe promenade and back to Teal Bay only to find some activity by windsurfers hadn't helped to keep the bird on the groyne and it had made its departure much sooner than either of us would have wished for.

Now the story about this little wader becomes an even more interesting one in that - what had to be - the very same bird was seen a 'couple' of hours later at Rossall Point, Fleetwood where this individual had returned to winter for its fourth consecutive year and was found with 50 Ringed Plovers in the high tide roost near the old coastguard station where it was subsequently often found by an admiring number of birders until at least 4 February 1995. This same individual eventually went on to complete its sixth winter in this area of Fleetwood but was noted to wander a little more this time on occasions and made visits to Knott End, it was last seen on 21 March 1997 and never returned to winter here again.