A Southerly Direction.

A trip south along the A588 on Thursday, had me down Crimbles to find 2 Ruff on the flood, with 82 Lapwing, and a few Redshank and Curlew. A Barnacle Goose was with up to 450 Pink-footed Geese on Cockerham Moss, and along Gulf Lane at least 450 Whooper Swan including just 27 juvenile in a flooded corn field opposite Cockerham Moss Edge Farm, c.30 Tree Sparrow were in the area.

Pink-footed Geese Brian Rafferty     

I drove on to the viewpoint at Pilling Lane Ends to see several thousand Pink-footed Geese  distant and way out on Pilling Sands, no attempt to count, but probably at least 30,000. Along Fluke Hall Lane, 95 Whooper Swan, and at Fluke Hall 8 Long-tailed Tit in the hedgerow. Forty five minutes at Cockers Dyke sifting through at least predominantly 900 Black-headed Gull, had me find an adult Mediterranean Gull. 

On the way back to Lancaster, little more than a glance over Conder Pool showed 7 Goosander, and quick notes on the Lune Estuary in fading light, another adult Mediterranean Gull, a Greenshank, and a Peregrine Falcon squat on the weedy stones planning the next attack at low tide.

The Hawfinch.

As a scarce breeding bird in Britain, there is an unprecedented influx of Hawfinch taking place the true origin of which is not known. Although a small number of migrant Hawfinch are seen annually in autumn, but from early October this year single birds and even flocks have been seen at coastal watchpoints away from traditional breeding sites. Observations have also been made in other European countries and noted to have been higher than average counts of the Hawfinch.

Thanks to Antonio for the new header, and to Brian for the PFG....Brilliant images, brilliant birds.

Birdings Golden Rule.

Take a look at the previous post if you've not already done so. The 'Mystery Bird' brings about my referring to one of my 'Golden Rules'.

WITH MY BIRDING SKILL THERE'S THE NEED TO ACCEPT HUMILITY WITH ERROR.

The Mystery Bird which visited our garden is of course a young Woodpigeon. You wouldn't think I was the owner of the brilliant BWP reference book which tells me the Woodpigeon can start to lay mid-February and that the bird in our garden could be almost 2 months old....SHUKS!!....Learning something new every day. 

OK....So having made a fool of myself I'm not prepared to leave this post void of a pic or two....three actually.

 Pheasant Brian Rafferty

The Pheasant. A bird I would imagine ignored by almost every right thinking birder, it's so stupid it walks out into the road in front of your car, they do it by the dozen in the Forest of Bowland. But one thing for sure, when it comes to having character and being colourful, this bird is a winner. Thanks Brian....yet another image with a difference.

 Hawfinch Noushka Dufort  

The Hawfinch. The elusive bird many of us find difficult to get onto our 'list'. Thanks Noushka....you didn't just get this one onto your list, you achieved an excellent photograph of it too. 

Grasshopper Warbler Simon Hawtin   

The Grasshopper Warbler. I've been birding a couple of years now, but I've never seen a Grasshopper Warbler as well as this one. Thanks Simon....brilliant.

Driving Me On.

A favourite motto of mine regarding my attitude to birds/birding is....

Not what you will see
But rather what you might
The element of surprise
Never fails to delight

A decision to do the walk to follow the River Lune from Lancaster - Glasson Dock was a wise one on Wednesday last week and turned out to be the epitome of my motto when I found six Little Ringed Plover (LRP) on the flood at Aldcliffe a record which - until I find out or am told otherwise - is an all time best count of the species in this area and certainly on this excellent flood. However, I note in a search through my records that the Aldcliffe six pail into insignificance regarding numbers of this species of wader seen together in a sighting when I find a visit to the Kent Estuary at Halforth in July 2006 produced an amazing sixteen LRP's. The surprises and unpredictability of birds never fails to intrigue me, these are the kind of experiences which drive me on every time I leave home for a days birding....And then there was the Jack Snipe on Conder Pool last Wednesday too....nice one!!

The migrants are coming.     

Yesterday I received the news that snow had been falling on Friday in the south of Toulouse in France, the first time it ever has done here as late as early April according to my correspondent. But the weather has improved over here in the past two days and now perhaps we should hopefully see some northbound migration in the country and into our area.

Garden Birds.

Siskin. Richard Pegler. 

Visits to our garden feeders have increased once again with 6 Siskin seen here on Friday last week.

Brambling/Redpoll. Richard Pegler.

Richard has had some excellent visitors to his suburban garden, last year he collected the record of 32 species, a much better tally than we hope to ever achieve in our garden. Thanks for the excellent photographs of the male and female Siskin, the Lesser Redpoll and Brambling, they are much appreciated Richard   

The Mega.

Killdeer Tim Kuhn  

A Killdeer was at Alston Reservoir at Longridge this morning at 10.10am. The bird was on Alston Wetlands and stayed until 11.00am when it flew off NW, it returned at 11.22am and stayed until 11.50am when it flew off once again, this time NE never to be seen again. The Killdeer breeds in North and Central America, South America from Peru to northern Chile, and the West Indies. 

Whilst here I noted 2 Little Ringed Plover and a Raven over. 

On The Outside!

The Outside Bog. Unknown.

Anyone wishing to do so would be justified in accusing me of diverting too far away from birds on Birds2blog today in posting the pic above, but, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't resist what I would consider to be the best political statement of the century requiring no caption whatsoever, a picture speaking volumes.

But back to the birds....

It was interesting to see the report of a Stonechat seen at Leighton Moss Thursday last. It was a male seen atop of the reeds near the Bearded Tit grit trays. I don't recall seeing a single record of Stonechat anywhere in the vicinity this year, and few reports from anywhere in our recording area in the breeding season, which prompts the thought, where is this bird from, and has it bred around this area this year.

And a couple of excellent images to be going on with....

 Hawfinch. Phillip Tomkinson.

Not many opportunities to see - let alone photograph - the Hawfinch as well as this one, but PT made good use of his opportunity on this occasion.

Bittern. Phillip Tomkinson.  

Not many opportunities to see - let alone photograph - the Bittern either, but PT made good use of his opportunity on this occasion too. For all we know this image could well reflect the sum total of Bittern at Leighton Moss today as I suspect this may well be the case....But now someone is going come forward to tell us I'm wrong on that suggestion.

Thanks to Phillip Tomkinson for the two excellent photographs. 

And finally... 

Putting a smile into birding.

For all the birding ID 'goofs'....don't worry I'm one too. A Wilson's Phalarope reported this morning was later identified to be a Spotted Redshank....Mmmmm!!  

Today's Quickie!

Another of those short posts today to help keep the old blog up and running along with a couple - well three actually - of those excellent 'customary' pictures which hopefully will interest you. 

You may have noticed I've put a link to the Portland Bill Observatory in my sidebar, an excellent site for keeping in touch with whats arrived and what hasn't as in the case of the Stonechat. A 'run' through the month of March on the website will uncover the virtual absence of any Stonechat arrivals, virtual save a solitary bird noted as an assumed continental bird on 12 March....this is serious. An e-mail from Martin at the obs confirms my/the general view that the Stonechat was amongst the worst to suffer at the hands of the two winters prior to 2011/12 and there appears to be no sign of any migrants to talk about arriving in the country....time will tell. The good news is that the obs does have a pair of resident Stonechats around.

And the three customary's....

Montagu's Harrier. Mike Watson.

The stunning Montagu's Harrier taken by MW on his recent travels to places far away....See Here

Hawfinch Colin Bushell   

If you need some guarantee of finding the Hawfinch, apparently you need to get yourself off to Sizergh Castle near Kendal in Cumbria where they appear on an almost daily basis, and they are actually inclined to 'come to you' in the car park, even better than armchair birding....car seat birding!

Collared Dove Warren Baker

And finally the Collared Dove....An excellent image of a largely neglected bird, and a good looking bird too!

Thanks to Mike/Colin/ Warren for the pictures, much appreciated. 

Second post in two days!

No credit needed for this image of the Hawfinch, a bird lots of us go mad to see let alone to find, but not in someones mitt like this unfortunate individual. Please read on....

OK....so this a big surprise, two posts in two days on the partially closed down Birds2blog from a birder who isn't a birder at all at the moment....well a lot more than a moment I'm afraid. 


But wait a minute, I'm going to come across as a big mouth with a big shout - well at times I can be - but can I ask you to put away your optics, your twitching gear, your tick book and pencil, and your birding ego for a while and take time to keep up to date on all the negative things happening on a daily basis in many parts of the world to our wildlife and in our case especially the birds.


Please take a look at some people who actively do something to try to stem if not stop the slaughter of birds....Committee Against Bird Slaughter (CABS) HERE


Well this is Birds2blog, so to brighten things up, how about these three brilliant wader images....

Purple Sandpiper David Cookson 

Greenshank Brian Rafferty

Bar-tailed Godwit Marc Heath

Thanks to DC/BR/MH for the usual and consistent excellent photographs I'm allowed to share on Birds2blog.

Treat yourself....

Before we proceed please treat yourself to probably the best video you're ever likely to see from an ornithological point of view, you only need to  CLICK HERE ....you do need speakers attached to your computer though!

Welcome to Birds2blog....Whether you're new here, visit occasionally, or better still daily, then I hope you find something here which is of at least a little interest to you now and again and thanks for looking in, I really appreciate it.

The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is a highly charismatic stint-sized wader as you have just seen, the bird has this extraordinary bill shape which is obvious even in the young chicks, it also goes without saying it is a rarity, the population of which is 'optimistically' estimated at between 2,000 - 2,800 pairs.

I've been searching through my old records once again today and have - as always - come up with some of the things lost from memory. The picture of the Hawfinch above is taken from an old 100 year old book I posses the title of which is 'British Birds In Their Haunts' the author is Rev.C.A.Johns, was published in 1910, and is brilliant.

Over the years I have had some quite good encounters with the very secretive and overlooked Hawfinch the population of which in our county is unlikely to exceed ten pairs, but my experience of this bird definitely puts this figure in the shade, at least in the county of Cumbria where on Claiffe Heights in the Lakes I observed over thirteen visits between 1997-1999 counts in double figures on five of these visits, the best of which was twenty birds on 24 January 1998, a figure I never exceeded anywhere and probably never will. Over the years another excellent site for the Hawfinch has been Witherslack and again between 1997-2001 over ten visits here, I recorded a maximum of eight birds on 4 November 1997. Other locations I have seen the Hawfinch have been all in Cumbria at Garth Row, The Row, and Beetham. Of course like every other birder in our area I have also seen them - predictably - at Woodwell.

It's no secret, a look in 'comments' in my post 'The Common Sandpiper' reveals the fact that protocol doesn't play a part in the essays I've been doing recently and is brought into question, perhaps now is the time to put this to rights at least in part. In the above write up on the Hawfinch there are about twelve words which are attributed to my looking up the total population of  the Hawfinch in our county in the book illustrated above, the rest is based on personal observations and records. The source for the very brief details on the Spoon-billed Sandpiper was 'Shorebirds' Hayman, Marchant, and Prater.

Incidentally, I have two copies of the book illustrated above one of which is a signed copy by all three authors Steve White, Barry McCarthy, and Maurice Jones, the latter I know personally and looking through my files this afternoon I came across a 'pile' of correspondence I have had with MJ over the years and perhaps this is an ideal opportunity for me to thank him anew for his generous communications regarding all manner of things ornithological. The spare book is yours if you would like to make me any offer considerably lower than you would pay for it - £40 - in a bookshop, if you happen to be the only one to make an offer and it is only for £5 then its yours. E-mail me here merlin4@tiscali.co.uk and make your offer.