Better Late Than Never!

It wasn't looking good for a post on B2B this week, that was until I received some excellent images in my inbox which prompted the title of my post.

I've not been birding since Wednesday 25 June, that's for different reasons, not least of which is the weather, and more to the point, at the moment it's not looking good that I'll get out any time soon....But let's bury that one.

Howard Stockdale.

I received an excellent illustrated update for Conder Pool....

After the disasterous and upsetting year which the birds of Conder Pool have suffered, it was pure delight for me to see this image of the juvenile, fledged and begging to the parent bird....

Two for the price of one, with siblings attended to by the adult....Magic.

I'm not entitled to publish details and numbers, but as I have indicated previously, the birds of Conder Pool have had a disasterous year, including Common Tern chicks lost from the platform. I am also aware the Little Ringed Plover were also unsuccessful with four attempts lost to predation, and I know I'm not alone in my thoughts, that this is an upsetting reality.

On the positive, recently there has been an inflow of immature birds prospecting Conder Pool. Perhaps Arctic, Little, and Black Terns may show here again as they did last year....here's hoping. 

Thanks to Howard Stockdale for keeping me posted with news and images on Conder Pool.

Ian Mitchell.

More in the inbox, were some moths....

The Burnished Brass is a common moth throughout the UK, but no less spectacular for that. It has areas of metallic colouring on it's forewings.

Another 'two for the price of one' image, this time a pair of Buff Arches. Some colours about this moth are, smooth grey with white and russet brown, make this for me, one of the prettiest of our moths.

Thanks Ian, much appreciated, and keep'em cumin!

Martin Jump.

Martin has been sending many hours around the Sand Martins, and also experimenting with macro photography. 

This picture is particularly special to me, in that the birds right wing tip just skims the water with some precise timing.

A brilliant macro image of one of the Colletes-Plasterer Bees.

I'm grateful for these, thanks Martin.

And Finally....

An image of my own, with two of the seventeen Mediterranean Gulls on Conder Pool 25 June. This male was posing in a display to the female, or was it a female posing to the male!

In The Garden.

It's been good to see a juvenile of, Blackbird, Dunnock, Goldfinch, Great Tit, Blue Tit, and 4 Swift high overhead one evening. Also at least 3 Red Admiral and 2 Comma.

We have also had a couple of interesting wasps....

Ectemnius sp

This species of solitary wasp is difficult to ID without close inspection.

Greater Pennant Wasp

This one....I couldn't decide whether it was something out of Star Wars, or a visitor from Mars!

Birding Unplugged....

....well badly fractured anyway!

I had to taxi a family member to Dolphinholme on Tuesday, to be picked up again in three hours to return to Lancaster. The perfect opportunity for me to go a few miles up the road for a couple of hours to Hawthornthwaite, to prove that I had missed the Stonechats wintering here on my last visit 10 November.

The trip wasn't the success I had hoped for as I had made the effort to make a video of the visit, but when I got the sequences on my computer, I found the wind had drowned out most of the commentary, and three of the sequences ended up in the bin. However, I salvaged the three remaining sequences, and made a little sense of them.

Three species are mentioned in the footage, a pair of Stonechat, a Merlin, and a Hen Harrier. Two species not recorded, 12 Red Grouse, and a Wren.

View Full Screen

I note a Common Sandpiper reported at Conder Green Friday 18 December (LDBWS). This is the first Common Sandpiper to be recorded at Conder Green in winter since the last sighting of a long wintering bird of the species on 11 October 2019. Another wintering Common Sandpiper was found at Skerton Weir 25 November, was probably the same individual seen two days later from Carlisle Bridge 27 November.

An ID puzzle was these eight footprints found in the mud on the bank of the River Lune in Lancaster. I more or less immediately thought Otter, but me thinks too small....Perhaps Stoat?

 

A Little Success.

It was great to hear about the success of breeding Little Tern at Blakeney Point off the coast of Norfolk, where the terns had their most successful season in 2020, fledging in excess of 200 chicks, and being the best result for more than 25 years.

Little Tern. Martin Jump.

The Little Tern is one of the UK's rarest seabirds, and has been in serious decline nationally for up to 40 years since the 1980's, it's status in the country stands at less than 2,000 pairs, with up to 155 pairs nesting at Blakeney Point this year. 

This wonderful good news story is believed in part, to be the result of fewer homo sapiens visiting this location earlier in the breeding season during the first national lockdown, due to the terrible pandemic which is currently a world-wide scourge. Another contribution is that the Little Tern chose to nest at the far end of the point this year, further away from the mainland, with fewer visitors deciding not to go to the trouble of walking the distance. Added to this, is the fact that the birds nested in a tight group, with fewer predator's affecting the terns this year too, seeming to add credence to the strategy of 'safety in numbers'.

As a rapidly declining species, what a sight it must have been to see so many of these tiny seabirds fledging the nest as creatures still very much at risk in a year that has - and still is - a challenge to us all. 

Thanks to Martin Jump for his image of the Little Tern that made a brief appearance at Preston Dock in July 2018.

The Conder Terns.

Tragic that you can read about a colony of 900 pairs of Common Tern, said to be breeding on the shore between Formby and Ainsdale in the early twentieth century, they were being ruthlessly slaughtered by 'sportsmen'. The colony was down to fewer than 80 by 1937, and had disappeared by the late 1940's. 

Forward 50 years to the mid-90's in Lancashire, and a colony having existed on the Lune Estuary on Colloway Marsh supporting c.40 pairs in 1954, and rose to up to 250 pairs from 1978-83, but by the 1990's the colony had become extinct, in the main by human disturbance.

Into the 21st century, and as a species no better than a scarce passage migrant, not least in Morecambe Bay, all the gloom following the demise of the Colloway Marsh colony, has been lifted by an excellent and successful fifth successive year on Conder Pool as the only pair of breeding Common Tern in our recording area in North Lancashire.

In 2014, a pair of Common Tern were an excellent sight on the late date of 2 July, to add to the already impressive species list for Conder Pool, they went on to breed and to successfully raise and fledge two young on 26 August. I saw an adult and these two juvenile for the last time on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock on 12 September. 

In 2015, a pair arrived on 22 May, and went one better that year, to fledge three young on 3 July. All five of this family were last seen on 28 July on the Lune Estuary.  

In 2016, a pair arrived on Conder Pool on 6 May, to breed and to hatch three birds, but only two went on to fledge and were last seen here on 12 July. 

In 2017, adult birds arrived two days later than the previous year on 8 May, three eggs were eventually seen in the scrape on 2 June inside a pontoon now in place on the pool, on 11 June three chicks were seen, by 5 July all three had successfully fledged and were last seen on Conder Pool on 14 July.

In 2018. A pair of Common Tern were back on Conder Pool, this time one day earlier than the previous year on 7 May. Through the hostilities and the demise of three young Oystercatcher raised in the same confined space of the pontoon, they raised three young to fledging, two on 3 July, the runt two days later, all three were still in the area when IP reported them to me on Friday 13 July.

A second pair of Common Tern which had arrived for the first time on Conder Pool before the original pair had hatched chicks, appear to be having a second breeding attempt, seemingly having abandoned the first, as at Friday 13 July, a bird has been sitting again for up to 16 days.  

I'm grateful to Brian Rafferty for the 'Preston Dock' Common Tern images, and to Martin Jump for his header image of the Little Tern which he saw making a brief appearance, also at Preston Dock on Sunday 8 July.

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The Bowland Harriers.

Copy Permitted

There are three active Hen Harrier nests in Bowland this year holding a grand total of 13 chicks, the first breeding in three years since 2015.

But first....

The good - exciting even - news is that Spoonbills have bred successfully at Holkham NNR in Norfolk for the first time in 300 years and you can read all about it on the RBA website HERE 

Little Tern. Ian Tallon.

No pics of the Spoonbill but an excellent photograph of the Little Tern in flight over Foulney Island, Barrow in Furness.

And the bad news is....I feel my birding is falling apart in that I could only salvage 1.5 hours today which allowed me just about time to give Conder Green an hour on the circuit and a miserable thirty minutes to look over the Lune Estuary from Glasson Dock, not nearly a fraction of the time needed to do a half decent job of this excellent area, but there you have it and you can't win them all, but I'm beginning to think I'm loosing them all.

At Conder Green the pool remains very quiet, though with up to 250 Lapwing counted that sounds like a contradiction, also the 3 Wigeon remain site faithful. An adult Spotted Redshank in the creeks has the added interest in that it can now be separated from the c.35 Redshank by its now acquired winter white underparts as opposed to the black coat it wore just a few weeks ago, an amazing and unique transformation of plumage's amongst the waders of the UK, also noted were 7 Common Sandpiper.

On the Lune Estuary from Glasson Dock, it was a half hours hard work picking out the distant adult Mediterranean Gull but always well worth the effort to find one of these smart gulls, also another distant bird was the Little Egret over by Waterloo Cottage.

And finally....

Arctic Tern. Ian Tallon.

Another excellent in flight shot, this of the Arctic Tern, the truly amazing flying machine which even man could not compete with....long live the Arctic Tern. Thanks for the photographs Ian they are much appreciated and - not for the first time -  saved the day and added interest to the blog too.