Cockersand.

I've spent endless hours engrossed in birding at Cockersand, often there until dusk and beyond, and occasionally got drenched in a downpour with nowhere to hide. I always had my camera to hand for the scenery if not for the birds. 

VIEW FULL SCREEN WITH SOUND

With birds to be discovered, Cockersand sits on the chart in my book as the best in our area. Many are the times I've rocketed there in response to calls and text alerts from a birder to get gripping views of American Golden Plover (4) and Long-billed Dowitcher to mention but five.

The list of some of the birds found over the past 14 years....

2006. Broad-billed Sandpiper 15 May Maurice Jones.

2008. American Golden Plover 19 Nov Stuart Piner.

2009. Long-billed Dowitcher 13 Oct Stuart Piner.

2009. Black Redstart 9 Nov Pete Woodruff.

2011. American Golden Plover 4 Nov Stuart Piner. (Photo Stuart Piner)

2011. Kentish Plover 3 May Pete Woodruff. (Photo Mick McGough)

2012. American Golden Plover 5 Sept Stuart Piner.

2013. Dotterel 16 April Pete Woodruff. (Photo Chris Batty)

2014. American Buff-bellied Pipit 4 May Stuart Piner. (Photo Stuart Piner)

2015. Wryneck 13 April Pete Woodruff.

2016. American Golden Plover 28 Sept Stuart Piner.

2017. Lapland Bunting 24 March Pete Woodruff.

2017. Sabine's Gull 11 Sept Ian Hartley.

2018. Red-backed Shrike 27 May Kate Hughes. (Photo Ian Hartley)

2018. Pallid Harrier 16 Sept Ian Hartley.

And Finally....

I found Margery earlier in the year, she's been featured on B2B before, but certainly worth another look, and I'll swear the image of her husband is that of a birder I know!

Cockersand....The Rebirth.

I made a comment to a birder just the other day, that Cockersand seems to have died a death, I've been putting far too much time in recently, and walked many a mile in the process for poor reward. But fear not, Cockersand has renewed its claim once again, of being at the forefront of local birding with 'goodies' seen in recent days. 

On Sunday an adult male Red-backed Shrike was found in the set aside area, the last one in our area was a juvenile at Sunderland Point on 2 September 2015.

Corn Bunting Simon Hawtin

Fifteen Corn Bunting found at Cockersand last Thursday, can't go recorded without a comment on the significance of the sighting. An excellent record, unprecedented in a double figure in our recording area. A species extinct as a breeding bird, at best an irregular summer visitor, and certainly not usually this far in the north of the area. I found just one Corn Bunting in all my Cockersand wanderings on 30 May 2015, and not since....Thanks for the image Simon.

Image. Martin Jump.

In this perfectly timed photograph, the trio of Lapwing in pursuit of the Grey Heron, being a serious threat to any young they might have had with them, appear to be in the path of a direct hit from the rear gunner....'clik the pik' for the full effect.

There are thoughts by some - including me - that this might well be an attack/defence strategy by the Grey Heron as opposed to pure coincidence that the Lapwings were in the wrong place at the wrong time. One birder who has seen this picture has claimed to have observed this behaviour before, to fend of the Lapwing attack on the bird.

A perfectly timed photograph, the thoughts that this looks like intended behaviour by the Grey Heron seems plausible to me....Thanks for the image Martin. 

Shrikes!....What's This.

Juvenile Red-backed Shrike. Dan Haywood. 

This juvenile Red-backed Shrike was found at Sunderland Point yesterday and well documented by Dan with these excellent images, though as with my Wryneck at Cockersands on Monday 13 April, this bird did a disappearing act much sooner than would have been liked, allowing nobody but the finder a chance to see this little beauty.

Whinchat. Dan Haywood.

Dan had been in touch with me on Monday to alert me to some 'good stuff' he found in the Cockersands area for which I was grateful, including this Whinchat at Crook Farm. The Whinchat runs a close second to any rarity anytime anywhere in my book, a little gem. 

Dan had said he might bump into me at Cockersands on Tuesday, but as it turned out his decision to go to 'The Spurn of the West' at Sunderland Point was the best decision where he found the brilliant young butcher.

Thanks to Dan @ dansautumnoffensive for letting me use his images for the post, they are much appreciated.

Tuesday's Birds.

As for my Tuesday's birding....Well not as 'birdy' as Dan's, and hasn't really veered away from the routine yet, but my continuing to live in the land of hope I'll post my findings tomorrow.

Any Excuse....

....is a good excuse for a little 'gap filler' and a couple of brilliant photographs until I  can  get the

time to blog about today's birding experiences hopefully on Wednesday.

I've  been asked not to make  any further  comments  regarding  the Autumn Watch programme

mentioned  in my last post  and I intend  to respect the request.  However, I draw attention to the 

fact that someone somewhere  asked for the  news to be  put out to advertise the event, only for 

a supporter of Birds2blog in the comments section  to be told by the  RSPB that this was 'out of 

order'.  

These 'shrikes' are much more interesting than the garbage above, and so are the photographs 

which I recommend you 'clik the pik'. 

Red-backed Shrike John Richardson

The Red-backed Shrike (RBS) bred successfully on Dartmoor in Devon this year, the only pair of 'butcher birds' to do so in the UK having returned here for the fourth time. The RBS was driven to extinction in the UK at the end of the last century, and egg collecting remains a threat, but these birds successfully bred, got two young to fledging, and is excellent conservation news. I was going to do a piece on the RBS but after a search through the archives found I have already done one HERE 

Southern Grey Shrike Ana Minguez

Sometimes called the Steppe Shrike the first record of the species in Britain was only 57 years ago, it was found on Fair Isle, Shetland in 1956, the bird was seen as a 'pale shrike' by two observers, it avoided the mist-nets already in place in the area, but was eventually forced into a Heligoland trap by the mobbing Starlings where positive ID was achieved.

Thanks to John and Ana for the excellent photographs of these two birds.

The Wryneck.

During the latter half of the 19th century Mitchell described the Wryneck in Lancashire as almost extinct, though formerly common and described by him as then having a fairly widespread distribution. Although nesting had occurred during the 20th century, the birds status was now a rare summer vagrant. There is a record of a nest with six eggs found in Heaton Park, Manchester in June 1912, the eggs from this nest were taken by a 'nasty piece of work' who was an egg collector. In our own area in North Lancashire, Oakes reports of a Wryneck at Heysham in September 1908, and another/the same bird the following month at Overton in October. Forty years later Oakes notes another Wryneck in Yealand Conyers in March 1948.

Spring occurrences in Lancashire are rare with only four having been added to the record of a nest with seven fresh eggs found at Winmarleigh in June 1948 which represents the last breeding record in the county, though the aforementioned nest with six eggs at Heaton Park is mentioned.

As a modern birder I find it difficult to comprehend that the Wryneck once bred commonly in Lancashire and this species isn't alone in this with the Red-backed Shrike immediately coming to mind. But hey, with a late bird found at Cockersands in October 1995 theres always the possibility of a seventeenth anniversary bird turning up here in October 2012. I'm off....see you in November!! 

And now a trio of outstanding 'photographs with a difference', two birds - three actually - and a butterfly, followed by a video....

Dipper David Cookson

An amazing picture with a difference, the Dipper flying over a fast running stream/river with a heavy swell. A photograph oozing with wow factor. Thanks David.

Ringed Plover Martin Jump

So what's going on here then, something is between these two Ringed Plover, a battle of words by the looks of it. Another picture with a difference....Thanks Martin. 

Mountain Apollo Noushka Dufort

OK, so I'm saying it again....another picture with a difference. The worst summer in this country in a hundred years or not, you was never going to see one of these stunning Mountain Apollo butterflies here. Stunningly photographed too....Thanks Noushka.

Watch the video below and see the comments on Colin Bushells Blog 

Birding Monday....living in hope!

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.

The Red-backed Shrike.

Red-backed Shrike. Marc Heath.

The Red-backed Shrike (RBS) once extinct in the UK has bred for the second year in succession on Dartmoor in Devon. Sadly there is a negative side to these brilliant events in that a 24 hour watch was needed to be set up to guard against egg thieves which still roam around the world. But hey....two breeding successes this year of these 'butcher' birds fledged a total of seven young and a hope now exists that the RBS will recolonise parts of the country once again.  

Red-backed Shrike. Marc Heath.

The RBS earned the tag of  'butcher bird' because of their habit of impaling some of their prey on thorns and wire fences as a larder for later eating. They are a small bird - not much bigger than a Bullfinch - and are accomplished hunters prone to catching small birds as well as small insects, lizard, mice, and vole. They winter in east Africa to move north to breed in Europe. The UK population declined in the 1930's, and it last bred in Devon in 1970, it was eventually lost as a breeder in this country in the 1990's. Egg collecting - illegal since the 1950's - played its part in accelerating that decline and remains a real threat to this day obviously including these breeding records in Devon, hence the massive 24 hour protection they needed and were given by the volunteers on Dartmoor....a big up to all volunteers in Devon regarding the RBS's in 2010 and 2011.

By the early 1950's Clifford Oakes recorded the RBS as 'formerly a regular nester', in fact to read Mitchell's earlier accounts of the species is like something out of another world, there appears no doubt that the species was quite numerous in the first half of the 19th century and beyond. Mitchell goes on to record ample evidence that it was a regular breeder and quotes Knott End - which is a few miles from my home in Lancaster - amongst other locations where it bred regularly. However, by the closing years of the 19th century the breeding sites had been forsaken and the species had become almost extinct even as a passage bird. Over a period of almost 30 years since 1909 Oakes mentioned only two records of the RBS in Lancashire, the last was of a bird reported near Chat Moss - now in Greater Manchester - in July 1938.

On a personal level the only RBS I ever caught up with was a 1st winter bird at/around Rossall School on the Fylde which I saw on Thursday 18 September 2008.

Thanks to 'Reculver Birder' Marc Heath for the excellent photographs of the juvenile Red-backed Shrike at Herne Bay in Kent recently.

Shortie!

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock. Colin Bushell.

This has to be one of the most bizarre birds you'll ever see and is one of the many species seen by Colin on his latest trip to Peru....Thanks as ever for the pic Colin.

And this is probably one of the shortest posts I'll ever do. Not enough hours in the day today, I almost ran out of them, and especially in the case of Birds2blog I nearly did.

But I must give the east coast - and south coast for that matter - another plug to put the west in the shade again, though during my 'trawling' I've come across comments like 'who needs the east coast' and 'the west coast isn't all that bad'....Well in fact I never did called it 'bad' and could never bring myself to call it such, but lets get real and consider a couple of records I came across yesterday, those of 4,500 Goldcrests and 3,200 Robins over Holme Dunes in Norfolk - and by the way these are not typing errors - and 200+ Mediterranean Gulls at The Fleet in Dorset....anyone for the west coast!

But at the end of all this I'll always remember sights like the 200+ Sanderling at Knott End yesterday, and my first six Whooper Swans for 2010, not to mention eleven Stonechats on Harrisend recently when I thought nearly ALL was lost, and many hundreds of others over the years and all mainly in the west. My passion still gains momentum west coast birding and all.

And by the way, a Red-backed Shrike at Rossall today.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!