Hunt The Celeb's.

There's little purpose in this post, other than to point out a failure to find the birds. 

Against my better judgement, I decided on a 'Hunt The Celeb's' on two dates, there having been a selection in the Heysham Harbour area recently, with a list including....

Glaucous Gull
Iceland Gull
Little Gull
Mediterranean Gull
Shag
Brent Geese

Chough 

Wednesday 24 January was my first failure date. The session started in good style and an encouragement to move on to my hunt at Heysham Harbour, when I soon found the Chough and Stonechat at Half Moon Bay. But 2 hours later, and in pretty difficult windy conditions and a gust almost blowing me off the south wall and into the sea at one point....I found bugger-all.

The hunt on Tuesday 30 January for a repeat 2 hours at Heysham, also had the same miserable 100% failure rate when again I found bugger-all. Imagine, not one bird from seven possibles, despite constantly grilling, including in excess of 300 mainly Black-headed/Herring Gulls at Red Nab/Outfalls/Harbour. Ironically, this day ended as the first attempt had started on 24 January, when I went to see the Chough and Stonechat, and found them both again within 15 minutes of arriving at Half Moon Bay.

  

Wot No Birds & No Piks

Most of lifes rewards can be found in birding....that's my take on it anyway.

The Iceman Cometh!

Iceland Gull Mersey Birders 

On Wednesday morning I decided it was time I got myself off to Heysham Harbour to see the juvenile Iceland Gull. Half way along the sea wall I was caught in a hail storm, not lasting long but I got quite wet all the same. But none of this worried me as my efforts were well rewarded and the bird afforded me excellent views, perched on two occasions, and by the power station intake where it was in company with assorted species and ages of c.30 other gulls and was easy to pick out without optics even at a distance....a really smart bird. Thanks to Mersey Birders for the image. 

The Lune Estuary magnet took a hold of me as I left Heysham and by the time I got to Conder Green the not yet high tide was lapping up against the A588. I found 3 Spotted Redshank  - three also seen here 4 October - taking refuge on what little marsh was left above water, with a Greenshank, and Snipe. Noted on Conder Pool - all the fours - with 4 Little Grebe, 4 Goldeneye, 4 Goosander, and a Little Egret.

At Cockersands, 14 Greenfinch, 6 Meadow Pipit, and 2 Skylark, 8 Snipe flushed off the marsh as I walked the path to Bank End, c.30 Wigeon and a Little Egret were in the wide ditch beyond Bank Houses Cottage, I saw the Kestrel again, and I reluctantly record 5 Grey Partridge though I somehow have positive feelings about these Cockersands birds being wild and not reared for 'sport'....but who knows.

Mute Swan Ana Minguez 

Off Moss Lane I saw 2 Bewick's Swan in a field with 3 Mute Swan, and 4 Bewick's Swan in a field off Jeremy Lane were 2 adult and 2 juvenile, an hour later 4 Bewick's Swan in flight past me going downstream on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock were almost certainly the Jeremy Lane family seen earlier. There was little of note on the estuary save c.80 Black-tailed Godwit and a pair of Red-breasted Merganser.  

Thanks to Ana for the beautiful study and excellent image of the Mute Swan.

Just to be going on with....

....a bit of news and some pics - five actually - until I can get out birding again....

2nd Winter Iceland Gull Ronald Surgenor  

A 2nd winter Iceland Gull was on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock yesterday. The bird was  on Glasson Marsh initially, then west of the marsh before flying off.

Snow Goose. Copy Permitted.

This intermediate morph Lesser Snow Goose is/was doing the rounds with Pink-footed Geese since first being found SW of Cockerham on 13 January.

Snow Bunting Martin Jump  

A Snow Bunting was found on the beach opposite the old Lifeboat Station at Morecambe on Sunday.

Wheatear Brian Rafferty  

I'll be looking in earnest for my first Wheatear probably - but not necessarily - at Cockersands, not sure it will be in the next couple of days with the weather as it is, but I'll be looking just the same.

Sand Martin Simon Hawtin  

And the canal basin at Glasson Dock will be a good place to find my first Sand Martin if I haven't already found one elsewhere beforehand.

And finally....

A Little Ringed Plover was at Marbury Country Park in Cheshire yesterday....Conder Pool here we come!!

Drawing your attention....

....to an excellent illustrated story....A couple of links to more on the 'Icechat' in the previous post....And three excellent photographs.

Surprise, surprise, another post despite my early retirement from birding!

Photograph courtesy of Martin Jump. 

Martin Jump paid a visit to Newton Marsh, a decision he made to be at the right place at the right time to witness and photograph nature in the raw. I have no intention of 'stealing' Martins story and you can read his account, and view his excellent illustrations if the whole event HERE

If it was the first time you heard about the Stonechat in yesterdays post and you remain interested in this remarkable event you can get more on the story HERE and a little more HERE


And the three excellent photographs are....

Grey Wagtail.Geoff Gradwell

The 'wagtail' with the longest tail....an excellent shot of this bird in its natural habitat and its brilliant reflection....nice one GG.

Iceland Gull. Cliff Raby

A nice bird at Marton Mere, Blackpool. Good numbers of the species at various locations at the moment especially up north with double figures in Scotland.  An excellent image of this bird Cliff.

Short-eared Owl. David Cookson

Well you can never tire of 'owl' pics of this calibre, another excellent shot of this stunning bird with its undercarriage down....nice one DC.         

Thanks once more to Martin/Geoff/Cliff/David for the excellent photographs. 

Pics2blog....

But first another interesting  - if sad and tragic - read about the ever suffering Hen Harrier

Kestrel Young. Phil Slade

I came across - well searched for them actually - some more excellent photographs amongst which I found these two young little beauties which will one day become....

Kestrel. Phil Slade

Two smart little raptors like this male Kestrel.

Sparrowhawk. Warren Baker

Now this bird with the staring eyes you wouldn't want staring at you if you was a small bird, was the very same individual photographed a few days later in the garden of a birder in Kent - whose website I follow daily - and which was observed to take out another bird regular to the feeders in the same garden which was a....

Sparrowhawk/Great-spotted Woodpecker. Warren Baker

Great-spotted Woodpecker....Not a nice sight but nature at its rawest and the price to pay by the bird for visiting the feeder, and the price to pay by us for putting out the feeders. 

And a couple of 'gulls' I'm not likely to misidentify if/when I come across them....

Iceland Gull. Colin Bushell.

Yet another smart bird, an adult Iceland Gull on the Isle of Islay where Colin visited this very month. Thanks for this Colin....nice one.

And finally....

Slender-billed Gull. Phil Slade

I think I'm going to know this bird if I ever find one. I missed a Slender-billed Gull in Norfolk for one day on 5 May 2000, I arrived at Cley the following day. Another one of PS's Egypt specials on his recent visit there....Excellent photographs as ever Phil and many thanks.

The Snow Bunting.

Iceland Gull. SP.



A few brief notes with no photographs of the Snow Bunting but to add some interest to the post this image of the juvenile Iceland Gull currently either on Bourbles Pit or Cockers Dyke in the Knott End area is an excellent substitute with my thanks to SP.  

It only takes a glance at the 2009 LDBWS Annual Report to see the Snow Bunting (SB) is a scarce winter visitor to our area with just two birds - both male - seen in that year which actually could very easily have been the same one in both records nearly two months apart.

In Lancashire as a whole the bird is regarded as a 'fairly common winter visitor' with the average number recorded over 22 years to 2005 being 120 annually. However, the SB is a bird prone to wandering during the winter and some duplication is very likely. You have to search back in history to find numbers like the 200 SB's found at the West Lancashire coastal hamlet of Hundred End over 80 years ago in 1929.

The SB visits habitats along the coast in Lancashire and on moorland summits, during a notable influx in 1984 a sighting of 50 birds was recorded on Clougha Fell, this was in the days when I myself totally disregarded this area which - for over more than 12 years - has become one of my most favourite upland birding haunts. As far as the coast is concerned the only place I personally ever found the SB is at Cockersands.

Ringing recoveries in Scotland seem to suggest the majority of wintering SB's are of the Icelandic race insulae but some have the opinion that birds resembling the Siberian race nivalis are also thought to occur. The only ringing recovery was that of a bird found dead in Liverpool in 1990 which had been ringed in Kent in 1988.

I've always had a liking for a gamble but one thing for sure, I'm not having a bet on finding a SB anytime this winter, though thats not to say I won't do.

Three interesting reports I've seen today are those of a Velvet Scoter on the River Lune in Lancaster, 1,000 Brambings in Grange-over-Sands in Cumbria, and even more interesting to me personally, a male Stonechat at Fluke Hall yesterday, thanks for that one BD, much appreciated.

And finally....

Buzzard. Gary Jones
  

More variation in the post with an excellent in flight shot of the Buzzard with my thanks to Gary.

Iceland Gull.

But first....

Bowland. Peter Guy.

Anyone who follows Birds2blog will know how much I appreciate any/all photography and I can no longer resist posting this excellent image of the early morning sunrise through the trees just on the east side of Trough Bridge near Tower Lodge. Thanks for this Peter....pretty impressive stuff.

Iceland Gull. Ian Tallon.

There's been - and still remains -  an Iceland Gull (IG) at Preston Docks since 19 November, the bird was first found on the River Ribble the day before. The IG is a regular visitor to Britain and in the main are immature birds, they breed on cliffs and offshore stacks across northeast Canada, Baffin Island, and east to Greenland, they winter south to New England, the eastern Great Lakes, Iceland, and northwestern Europe.

From over 550 ring recoveries only seven were of movements outside the local breeding area, two of which were immatures which reached northern England and northeast Scotland, they are the only two IG's ringed in Greenland to be recovered here, another one demonstrated the potential for movements from Greenland to North America with this individual recovered in Labrador.

Although there is variation from year to year estimates wintering in Britain are between 100-200 annually, as is often the case influx years are related to unfavourable weather conditions further north. A small number of reports involve long staying birds with an extreme case of one in Dublin, Ireland from October 1968 for over eighteen months until May 1970.

The vast majority of winter records in Britain are of birds of the race glaucoides which breeds in Greenland, but there are also records of the race kumlieni which breeds further west into Canada, but the degree of plumage variation is such that it is difficult to establish a clear distinction between the two and many birds cannot be readily distinguished in the field, as a consequence the British Birds Rarities Committee have taken the stand that records of birds showing characteristics associated with kumlieni should not be differentiated from those of glaucoides.

Some brief data of a bird which interests me very much. Thanks for the photograph Ian, I'd suggest some telepathy at work here as you sent me the pic at the same time I'd decided to 'look up' this fascinating gull.

It was excellent to see at least 50 Waxwing the nearest to my home they've ever been, in trees by Bowerham School this afternoon.