Sign Of The Times..

Turtle Dove. Author Unknown.

Malta's spring hunting referendum resulted in the country voting in a national poll to allow the privilege of a few to continue to kill for fun in spring. The rapidly declining Turtle Dove and Quail will be/will have been legally shot this spring, along with other species in their thousands. 

Truly amazing this isn't it, it's all illegal under the terms of the island's membership of the EU, and as such they could be thrown out, but nobody does anything about it, or more to the point maybe doesn't want to do anything about it.  

Quail. Author Unknown.

It is unfortunate that amongst other campaigners, an independent team led by Chris Packham last year to address this issue and to confront the shooters, has had no impact this time, but I'm convinced nobody will be giving up the fight against this tragic situation both in Malta and elsewhere in the world.

Meanwhile some slaughtering back home.... 

An interesting thread developed on a local website I visit daily, interesting if only for the one response to a brief comment I made regarding the disappearance of three male Hen Harriers in Bowland recently. 

I've deleted the authors name as I have no permission to publish it and am not prepared to do so without it. Iv'e also deleted the opening comments which are irrelevant to the main subject, but otherwise have copied word for word what was said in the thread but not including the sign. 

Pete Woodruff.

Everyone - birders or not - should be aware that three male Hen Harriers have gone missing from active nests in Bowland.

Anonymous

….but I did notice that beneath the road sign denoting the boundary of the Forest of Bowland ANOB (between Dolphinholme and Abbeystead) someone had added a second handwritten sign which read 'Twinned with Malta'.

Pete Woodruff

This is an excellent piece of info 'anonymous'.

 

The sign you mention is presumably the one depicting the Hen Harrier, which in itself is - and always was - an insult to the species, totally inappropriate, and should have been dismantled years ago. 

Now more bad news. 

More bad news from me is that 'other things' have taken me over for at least four days, but looking like the possibility of a week off the road with no birding/blogging. 

Well, that won't drastically change anyone's life at all....but it certainly will mine. 

Beauty and the Beast....

....and some records.

I thought I'd start the post today with a beauty and the beast pic. Well, I don't know about you but I soon get fed up to the back teeth with too much scientific stuff connected with birds or anything else for that matter.... 

  

Blue Tit. Warren Baker  

Representing the beauty, if you can't say Ahhhh!....at the sight of this delightful young Blue Tit then I reckon you've lost all sense of feeling in your life.

Lammergeier. Mike Watson.

Representing the beast, this brute of a Lammergeier which Mike encountered on his recent Catalonia in Spring trip.

Bar-tailed Godwit. Pete Woodruff.

I was in the good company of JB today and we were both pleased to see the c.220 Bar-tailed Godwits in the Conder creeks again, this is a new experience for me with the species being here almost at the beginning of June, also Common Sandpiper and Greenshank noted. JB enjoyed the BTG's whilst I did a quick circuit to find 3 Whitethroat - a good year it seems -  2 Reed Bunting, House Martins nesting at River Winds and now apparently at Cafe d' Lune. From the old railway bridge I could see 9 Eider and 2 Wigeon on the Lune Estuary, and watched a Tree Sparrow - not a species in my book as seen very much here - feeding a single young, and a Buzzard overhead. On Conder Pool the pair of Lesser Black-backed Gulls are nesting here, and a solitary Black-tailed Godwit flew on to here. 

At Cockersands which was looking more than a little deserted today, at least 40 Eider seen, also noted c.60 Dunlin. A Whitethroat sang close by whilst - with a little persistence in a stake out - the singing male Quail was heard in the field behind the lighthouse car park. A brief look in at Aldcliffe produced a Little Ringed Plover on the flood.

Seakale. Pete Woodruff.

I was grateful to JB for pointing out the Seakale to me at Cockersands this afternoon. The species is listed as being in need of protection having been noted by botanists and other scientists as requiring the need to preserve. The Seakale is a member of the Mustard family, its habitat is on sand or between rocks on the beach, and on primary dunes as far north as Central Scotland, it likes salt and can survive flooding and burial in shingle.

Learning something every day....I luvit!

A couple of 'pipers!

There are a couple of 'sandpipers' currently in the country which interest me, one of which is quite close to home at Brockholes LWT Reserve in Lancashire and is....

Spotted Sandpiper

The Spotted Sandpiper (SS) is a North American wader which winters in the USA south to Uruguay and is now an annual visitor to these shores, in Lancashire the SS have always been found on reservoirs. A pair was found with a nest on Skye in the Highlands in 1975 but the breeding attempt failed. Another point of interest is that only four records exist in GB prior to 1950, there are also several records of birds wintering. The adult SS is a striking bird, but juveniles are much more subtly different to the closely related Common Sandpiper. I've personally only ever seen one bird at Stocks Reservoir on 18 May 2010. The first record of SS in Britain goes back to 1849 in Whitby, N.Yorkshire. As is usual with old records like this one the unfortunate individual was shot in the company of Dunlin.

The other 'sandpiper' is....

 Terek Sandpiper

A Terek Sandpiper (TS) is currently at Hauxley NWT Reserve in Northhumberland. The TS ranges Northeast Europe and Siberia and winters in S.Africa, S.Asia, and Australia. It is curious to note that there are no records in Britain prior to the 1950's, curious in that it is an easy bird to identify and is not likely to have been a bird overlooked. In Lancashire the only record of TS is that of a bird at Seaforth in June 2000, whilst the first record for N.W.England was at Frodsham in Cheshire in April 1999....the same individual? 

The first record of TS in Britain was of a bird found in 1951 at The Midrips in East Sussex. A couple of notes of interest about this bird was that it walked down a mud bank to wash every food item before eating it, and the second record of TS was that of a bird seen in Suffolk three days later which was thought to have been the Sussex bird.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....but I could see these three absent days coming last Friday, hopefully things will change tomorrow Tuesday. I take note of a Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper reported yesterday. Today a singing male Quail in a field by Lighthouse Cottage, and 2 Avocet on a pool south of Crook Farm, all four records at Cockersands.  

Old Records....again!

Towards Raven Castle. Peter Guy.

But first another excellent B/W photograph which PG has kindly sent me today. I know this area intimately and with passion, and if you know the top of the Cross of Greet area to look east then so do you. Nothing new to say anymore about brilliant pictures like this Peter except a sincere thank you.

Old records make fascinating reading although the ornithological history of Lancashire doesn't extend much - if any - further back than the 19th century. I'm lucky to hold in my library a copy of 'The Birds of Lancashire' by Clifford Oakes (1953) who - soon after the publication of the book - became the first chairman of the then newly formed East Lanc's Ornithologists Club (ELOC) in 1955.

For the sake of it we'll take a look at the first and last species to come under Oakes's 'microscope' in his book which was - amazing considering I decided to post the photograph above - the Raven which he begins by referring to it as a scarce and local resident and a bird described by a predecessor called F.S.Mitchell as 'exceedingly rare' in his book of the same title published in 1885, Mitchell went on to prophesy its extinction in 'a question of a few years'. Oakes goes on to say, despite persecution and exploitation by egg-collectors, the bird still breeds on the northern hills and occasionally wanders as far south as the Bowland Fells in autumn and winter, whilst singe birds have appeared at rare intervals in the coastal districts of the Ribble Estuary. He goes on to mention a pair found breeding in the Cartmel Valley in 1910, this being the only record of breeding outside the traditional haunts during the present  20th century. The account of the Raven ends by recording that it used to nest in Wyresdale and in the Clivinger Gorge near Burnley over 100 years ago. Localities bearing such names as Raven Crag, Raven Clough, Raven Holme, and Raven Winder are frequently to be found on the Ordnance Survey maps of the eastern and northern hills giving indication of the wider distribution of the species in former days.

Today the Raven is referred to as a scarce breeding bird in Lancashire, but a species who's rise continues unabated with records from all corners of the county. If you search thoroughly through recent records you'll find them like a pair breeding on pylons at Heysham and Penwortham, breeding in Silverdale and the Lune Valley, and a bird seen displaying in Liverpool in 2008.

And the last in Oakes book is the Quail which in 1953 he described as 'formerly common and widespread' now a scarce and irregular summer visitor to south Lancashire, and very rare north of the River Ribble. Oakes only gives a brief account of this species but one note is of interest when he says....'there has been a gradual decrease since the advent of the 'mowing machine' and there is abundant proof of many which are killed at harvest time'....

Well Mr Oakes if you're ever offered a chance to return to earth I'd suggest refusing the offer as you're almost certain to die afresh with shock within minutes of your arrival here to witness the results of the 'mowing machine' in the 21st century.

And finally....

Waders. Phil Slade.

I love this photograph of the Ruff with two Spotted Redshanks, a perfect example of the birds to be currently found  at Conder Green with the latter probably set to winter here again....Thanks for this Phil, it means a lot to me being taken where it was, and what it illustrates.