September.

September has been a decent month for me in the past, and some searching through the records has turned up a little interest out of the little black book.

I have to divert from September to start with the oldest, and note the record of a Lesser Yellowlegs I found on the Eric Morecambe Complex at Leighton Moss on 18 October 1995, this was the first record in our area of this North American wader, it was followed by the second Lesser Yellowlegs found at the same location 2 years later on 12 September 1997 when this time I was in company with John Leedal. These two birds were the first of four more seen over the years....

Banks Marsh 6 February 1999

Eagland Hill 14 September 2002

Glasson Dock 24 September 2011

Conder Green 23 August 2015

Black-necked Grebe Juvenile Len Blumin@Flickr 

September continued to be good for me, in that I found a juvenile Black-necked Grebe on Conder Pool 1 September 2008, this bird obliged for 17 days, and was last seen on Conder Pool on 18 September.

Honey Buzzard Martin Lofgren@Wild Bird Gallery

Just 18 days after my Black-necked Grebe, I was coming back down Clougha Pike whilst doing my Stonechat survey of the area, as I reached the top of Birk Bank, on 19 September 2008 a Honey Buzzard gave me 90 seconds of pleasure as it flew by me south. 

My sighting was a part of an influx of Honey Buzzard in our recording area in 2008, thought to have been displaced Scandinavian migrants. It was one of 10 records including the first of these, which was of a juvenile female having been ringed and solar-powered satellite transmitter fitted at the nest in Scotland. This bird was known to have roosted overnight on the Cumbria border on 13 September, crossed the English Channel to France, then over the Straits of Gibraltar. It reached southern Morocco by mid-October, but by mid-November the transmitter was still at the same remote location in the Atlas Mountains, suggesting that it had become detached, or the bird was dead.

I spent many hours along with John Leedal staked out in the Rusland Valley in Cumbria watching Honey Buzzard during the early 2000's, mostly fruitless hours, but we did have our days, and we had them close one day on which I made an excellent recording of one bird calling reminiscent of Grey Plover....Halcyon Days. 

Red-throated Diver.

I was intrigued by the report on LDBWS website, of a Red-throated Diver swimming upstream in the River Conder on Friday morning. I've no doubt this sighting was seen as questionable, but I was in touch with Malcolm Sole about his report, he gave me some more details and further claimed the bird to be in winter plumage. If this wasn't the case, then the question has to be....what did Malcolm see in the creeks at Conder Green on Friday morning?  

Shrike It Lucky.

Sifting through the archives again, I found I'd had a lucky break during a two hour visit to Aldcliffe six years ago today on 8 May 2014. 

I had dealt with some business in Lancaster by 12.15pm, but had to return there by 2.30, so my best plan to get a bit of birding in was to give Aldcliffe a couple of hours, a walk along the embankment, check the flood, and return via the path back to the depot at Keyline. 

I began to make my notes having heard a Blackcap and Chiffchaff both singing, a Song Thrush always a nice bird to see, and at Marsh Point a Whitethroat, male Reed Bunting, a Dunnock, and a distant Common Sandpiper along the edge of one of the smaller pools. I turned south to do the embankment trundle, a nice little Whinchat off here would have been nice. But never mind that, I've just lifted my bino's to take a good look through the stubble field from Dawson's Bank and the hedgerow running along the edge of it when....

Bank Pool From Dawson's Bank. Pete Woodruff.

....atop of this tree was a stunning male Woodchat Shrike waiting to be spotted and to send my passion for the birds through the roof once again.

The first Woodchat Shrike for Britain was shrouded in a bit of mystery, when two brothers named Paget recorded a bird in the village of Bradwell in Norfolk April 1829. A farmer reportedly had shot the bird and had preserved it, though no trace of the specimen was ever found. Prior to this first record, there had been an unacceptable report of an immature bird in County Durham, September 1824.

More up to date and 149 years later, the first for Lancashire was found in the grounds of Rossall School in June 1978. The second also in the Fylde, was found on the dunes at Fairhaven Lake August 1987, then a year later an adult at Heysham Power Station April 1988, and 11 years later a juvenile at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve August 1999.

Today the Woodchat Shrike is an annual spring and autumn visitor to Britain, those in the spring are regarded to be overshooting adults and 1st year birds, and occur mostly from mid-April to early June, dates which fit nicely with my adult bird at Aldcliffe which was my second Woodchat Shrike, the first being a juvenile, and my records read....Watching Honey Buzzard in the Rusland Valley, John Leedal and myself were alerted to a bird at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve 28 August 1999. We shot off to LM to have good if distant views of my first Woodchat Shrike which was a juvenile.

Interestingly, the Woodchat Shrike was taken off the BBRC Rarities List in 1981, but the species as not become noticeably more common in Lancashire since then.

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My first 2 Swift over Bowerham yesterday, three days earlier than last year 10 May. We have two young Blackbird in our garden, and a pair of Blue Tits are nesting in the nest box, presumably this is the pair which performed well at the bird table, with one bird feeding the other. I can find no literature which makes any mention of this behaviour of one adult  Blue Tit feeding another, other than the male feeds the female at the nest whilst incubating.

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The Pipit, The Shrike, And The Dove.

 American Buff-bellied Pipit. Stuart Piner.

I appreciated a personal text message recieved last Sunday evening telling me of an American Buff-bellied Pipit at Cockersands, a MEGA find and a first for Lancashire. Unfortunately for those hoping to see the bird the following day they were to be disappointed as it was never found again.

The nominate race of Buff-bellied Pipit breeds from Greenland, across northern Canada, down the Rockies into the USA. It winters in southern USA and Central America. Until 28 years ago it was treated as conspecific with the Water Pipit.

In 1910 two ornithologists spent the autumn on St Kilda in the Western Isles and found 35 new species of birds to the island. In late September they were attracted by an unusual call amongst a flock of Meadow Pipits which proved to be the first Buff-bellied Pipit Anthus rubescens for Britain, though two previous claims from elsewhere were rejected. Ireland's only acceptable report was of a bird in County Wicklow in October 1967.

I'm grateful to SP for the images of Sundays bird at Cockersands.

Woodchat Shrike. Dan Haywood.

Could I ever have dreamt that four days later whilst on a prowl around the Aldcliffe Marsh area I would find my own rare vagrant in the form of a stunning male Woodchat Shrike, seen as the kind of sighting which goes to spur us all on in our pursuit of birds.

I recalled 28 August 1999 when I was with my much missed mentor John Leedal, watching Honey Buzzard in the Rusland Valley in the Lakes when news came of a Woodchat Shrike found in a hedgerow north of the Eric Morecambe Complex at Leighton Moss and JL and I became instant twitchers and went off to get good views of this bird, a juvenile and not half as attractive as the Aldcliffe male on Thursday. The LM bird stayed on all day here and was enjoyed by many visitors to the site.

A rare vagrant, though it was removed from the list of BBRC birds in 1990, by which time almost 700 had been recorded in Britain, and didn't include in excess of 60 birds recorded Ireland. The bird winters in a broad band south of the Sahara, and breeds across southern Europe, through the Balkans and Asia Minor into Iran.

The first acceptable record of the Woodchat Shrike was of a bird in Bradwell, Norfolk in 1829 which had been shot by a farmer who had the bird preserved and kept in his possession, the bird was recorded by the Paget brothers.

Turtle Dove. Howard Stockdale.

According to a report the following day whilst at the Woodchat Shrike location at Aldcliffe, another rare bird - the Turtle Dove - put in a brief appearance in flight, though no mention of this bird has been made since, it made up a trio of quality birds in our area of North Lancashire over five days. 

I'm grateful to Dan for the image of Thursdays Woodchat Shrike at Aldcliffe, and to Howard for the photograph of the Turtle Dove.

A Birthday Missed!

I missed the birthday of Birds2blog last Thursday, 4 years ago on 15 November 2008.

This is just the opportunity to congratulate myself on the determination to keep the blog afloat,  and to thank everyone who visits Birds2blog to encourage me to do so.  It's  hard to believe  I've published almost 1,000 post and had over 78,628 visitors as I write over these 4 years. This is  all very rewarding and I'll be trying to keep it up and running a little longer, but....who knows! 

When I decided to give blogging a go in 2008 I had just had an excellent run with the birds since the beginning of September, and which ends on 14 November 2008 with 19 Waxwings seen at Levens Village in Cumbria, for the sake of interest I have copied the records below.      

The four species  marked * were  all self  found and  are exciting  rewards, all of which added to my ever growing passion for the birds.

Black-necked Grebe on Conder Pool 1 Sept * 
Honey Buzzard over Birk Bank 19 Sept * 
Brent Goose on Pilling Marsh 6 Oct
Med Gulls three seen Cockers Dyke 9 Oct
Common Scoter on Conder Pool 27 Oct
Ross's Goose Cockers Dyke 28 Oct *
Scaup on Conder Pool 28 Oct
Whooper Swans an amazing 300+ in the Nateby area on Black Lane 28 Oct 
Hooded Crow over Birk Bank 29 Oct *
Pink-footed Geese an astounding c.30,000 on Pilling Marsh 12 Nov
Short-eared Owls three on Bradshaw Lane Head 12 Nov
Common Sandpiper still on Conder Pool 12 Nov
Waxwings 19 at Levens Village 14 Nov 


And the pics representing three of the birds in the list above....

Short-eared Owl Geoff Gradwell

By  coincidence  the Short-eared Owls  are once  again  currently  'performing'  in  the Rawcliffe  area as they were in the same month of November 2008 when  I saw  three of them  just as GG has recently not many miles away from mine on Bradshaw Lane. Thanks for this GG....brilliant bird, brilliant photograph. 

Hooded Crow © Photo by Szabolcs Kókay

The Hooded Crow was a great reward as I came down off Clougha on 29 October 2008 during one of my monthly 5 hour foot slogs looking for Stonechats.

Mediterranean Gull. Pete Woodruff.

This adult Mediterranean Gull frequented off Broadway at Morecambe where I took this photograph on 3 February 2010.                                  

And finally, to note....

In my post of last Thursday 15 November when I visited Cockersands I had noted a 'few' Skylark there and suggested a number were probably still in this area in stubble fields. I was  right, but it turned out to be a bit of an understatement, in excess of 100 were reported there on Sunday. Also worthy of note....In excess of 200 Little Egret at Burton Mere Wetlands yesterday, also a Whinchat seen here.  

Woodchat Shrike.

This superb image below of the Woodchat Shrike brought some excellent memories back to me.

Woodchat Shrike Antonio Puigg

As far as early records in Lancashire in the 1870's are concerned Clifford Oakes considered two Woodchat Shrike records by Mitchell as insufficiently described. A hundred years later the counties first confirmed record of Woodchat Shrike was of a bird found in the grounds of a school at Rossall on the Fylde coast in June 1978, it had taken c.400 previous records of the species in Britain and Ireland for this bird to have found its way into the record books in Lancashire. 

From a personal point of view the memories came flooding back when I recall the time John Leedal and I were spending one of our many days at the time at Rusland in Cumbria in search of the Honey Buzzards, the notes from my little black book on this event read as follows....

Woodchat Shrike. John Leedal.

Woodchat Shrike at Leighton Moss 28 August 1999.

Watching Honey Buzzard at Rusland, John Leedal and myself were alerted to a bird at Leighton Moss by a birder who had joined us at this location. JL and I decided to abandon the Honey Buzzard's and headed off to Leighton Moss to a path behind the Allen Hide where we immediately had superb views of a juvenile Woodchat Shrike perched on a branch. This bird represented the first I had ever seen and was also a first for the RSPB Reserve. A day not ending with a long list of birds but one with two excellent species in the Honey Buzzard and Woodchat Shrike.

Woodchat Shrike. Pete Woodruff.

This bird was my second of the species and had been found ten years after the Leighton Moss bird at the back side of the plantation behind Tower Lodge in Bowland on 29 May 2009. The photograph above was the best I could manage, the bird being some distance away, and with the equipment I have at my disposal.

Red-backed Shrike. Unknown.

The school at Rossall has a good record for 'shrikes', a Red-backed Shrike was found here in 2008 and I saw the bird on 18 September.

New Post....Old Pics!

I've recently had to do a serious 'sort out' and had to be ruthless in the process, meaning I had to dispose of many images passed on to me by JL over the years, not counted but certainly in excess of 450 prints. However, there were many of these images it was impossible for me to bring myself to 'trash' and I've chosen the following to share on the blog in the hope they might generate some interest. 

In fairness to John Leedal I should point out that these photographs are not of professional quality, for starters he didn't use modern technology, had no computer to edit his work, and I've had to photograph them to gain copies for Birds2blog. By the way....neither of us are from the Victorian era you understand!!

Honey Buzzard.John Leedal. 

JL and I spent many excellent birding hours staked out to see the Honey Buzzards (HB) in the Rusland Valley in Cumbria in the early 2000's, having a good number of sightings over these visits, on one day of good fortune I was able to achieve quite a good recording of a bird calling reminiscent of Golden Plover. 

Although the photograph above is a bit fuzzy it clearly illustrates the kind of views these birds could give you even though it required many hours of emptiness in between. This bird shows its outstretched Cuckoo like head, and the tail - especially when folded in - takes on a 'paddle' like shape, and there are some underpart markings to be seen here too.  

Bee-Eater. John Leedal. 

It was in June 2002 whilst on one of our HB days in Rusland, that I received news of Bee Eaters which had been found just about a half mile away from where we were 'waiting' for the HB's to hopefully show....hows that for good fortune. We had excellent views of up to five birds if my memory serves me well, including one bird feeding an insect to another....amazing stuff. In typical style JL wrote on the back of this photograph he gave me....'A thing of beauty is a joy forever'....Keats

Common Rosefinch. John Leedal.  

This Common Rosefinch was present for us at Giggleswick near Settle in North Yorkshire also in June 2002, obviously a good year for us. I recall this bird immediately giving itself away the instant I opened the car door on arrival at the location to hear it singing its head off....more amazing stuff.

Spotted Flycatcher. John Leedal. 

And finally....Nothing unusual about this photograph of the young Spotted Flycatcher, other than for two exceptions, for starters it was found at Aldcliffe in the sheep pens by the old railway crossing - obviously bred there....hadn't it - and it was found at the end of August 2002 much later than I would have expected to see such a young Spotted Flycatcher.

Something Suspicious....

And a couple more excellent photographs the first of which is....

Common Tern. Geoff Gradwell

I'm not sure whats going on here with these birds, but what I do know is that its a cracking photograph of two Common Terns grappling beak to beak in mid-air.

RBA Pager Service.

A message this afternoon via this service informed us of two Nature Reserves in North Norfolk which have recently been targeted by egg collectors, otherwise known as thieves. The message goes on to ask birders to be always vigilant and report immediately to the local police anything suspicious including car registrations and people involved....Well they can rely on me on that one, and hope they can on you too.

I recall many years ago being with my old friend and mentor in the Rusland Valley in Cumbria in the halcyon days of staking out for hours on end in the hope of views of the enigmatic Honey Buzzard (HB) with a mix of successful and unsuccessful days. On one occasion we were joined by a man who drew up in a van with ladders on the roof rack, it was blatantly obvious what this mans station was in the world of birds and his conversation left no doubt to John and I that he was a ringer and knew far more than we did about the whereabouts of these birds, but by the end of the conversation we were none the wiser as he quite rightly played his cards close to his chest and good for him.

On another occasion we were joined one day by two men who as far as I was concerned were as equally obvious as the ringer had been what their station was in the world of birds/wildlife, and on this particular day they were in the business of egg theft if only they could find out where the HB were. I reckon these two thought John and I looked like a couple of dumbos little knowing that I'd sussed them out almost the instant they had arrived on the scene to talk to us, one of them in particular - who was the mouthpiece of the pair - had written across his forehead....'you can see what a nice guy I am, but what you don't realise is that we're looking for HB to steal the eggs'....these two creeps left no more the wiser than they had been thirty minute earlier, what they didn't know was that John and I didn't know where the HB's were either.

So....please be aware, the persecution of birds of prey and stealing of eggs of several bird species and Peregrine Falcon chicks as another example THRIVES AND LIVES ON IN THE 21st CENTURY. 

And finally....

Nuthatch. Gary Jones

This Nuthatch obligingly visited GJ's garden after he baited the bird table with some tasty seeds.  

PLEASE NOTE....Blogger has had some maintenance problems and yesterdays (Thursday) post 'More like March than May' which disappeared has now returned as a Friday post, but the three interesting comments to the post which I received have still to be restored.

Clougha/Birk Bank.

I put up a new header photograph yesterday and the one above is another showing the stunning view from the top of Birk Bank, in the background are the Lakeland hills though distant and far from clear in this photograph, but if you see it for real it is pretty impressive. The header is one I took on a morning I was heading off to do the monthly observations at one of my most favourite of birding locations on Clougha and Birk Bank primarily to check out the Stonechats there. It was a brilliant morning and went on the be a brilliant day, the scene in the picture came into view as I reached the top of Quernmore Road and was breathtaking as can be seen in the header picture, I just had to take a photograph of this beautiful English countryside.

I've been going to this area on the fringe of the Forest of Bowland for almost twelve years now and the survey takes me anything up to five hours at a dawdle, I enjoy every minute of the visit which has kept me up to date on the status of the Stonechat in the area since I saw a distant bird here in 1999 when the Stonechat was certainly not a bird to be found on a daily basis, I thought at the time that I should give this area a good going over, and I'm still doing so. Although upland birding never creates a lengthy list of birds it has produced one or two bonus surprises over the years, the latest being two Spotted Flycatchers on 26 August and was a first record for me, this species certainly does not breed here and I was lucky to be at the right place at the right time to find these two off passage. I've also seen Honey Buzzard, Hen Harrier, Merlin, Short-eared Owl, and Hooded Crow to mention a few, it is also good for finding Whinchat off passage, another species which doesn't breed here anymore and has never done so in the twelve years I've been coming here though it has in the past.

I remember the walk to the summit of Clougha one summers evening with John Leedal, on reaching the top the view was stunning and JL told me how lucky I was in that it was one of those rare occasions when the panoramic view was at its best, with the mountains of the Lakes, Morecambe Bay, Blackpool Tower, Snowdonia in Wales, and the best and the rarest sight of all, the Isle of Man.

If you can appreciate the aesthetics combined with your birding you're on a winner, if you can't you're the looser.

Pink-footed Geese. Gary Jones.  

I was doing another search through my records today, this time it was of neck collared Pink-footed Geese I've seen to date, I was reminded of some of the amazing movements of these birds when you read through their sheets of histories and chose this one to illustrate how one bird inexplicably moves from one place to the other whilst perhaps not being able to understand why it should want to do so. This bird was marked as an adult in 1999 at Nautalda, Thjorsarver, C.Iceland with the collar FLY and during the winter of 2004/05 through observations and collar readings made the following movements....

On 25 September FLY was at Loch Leven in Perth and Kinross.

In just under 4 weeks FLY was seen on 23 October in Holkam, Norfolk.

And 12 days later on 4 November FLY was back at Loch Leven in Perth and Kinross.
Another 16 days later FLY was back in Burnham Market in Norfolk on 20 November.
FLY was then seen 8 weeks later on 21 January at Martin Mere in Lancashire.
And on 11 March was back again at Dowhill, Perth and Kinross.

Pink-footed Geese may make much more amazing movements within the UK during the winter months than FLY did in this example, but did they really have to go to all that trouble and fly all that distance.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!