The Short List!

A short list on a restricted visit, with nothing much to shout about on a recent blast around the Lune Estuary, but I did find my first 2 Wheatear at Cockersand....well where else, seen together from the path above Plover Scar, from where I noted 82 Dunlin, 55 Ringed Plover, and 46 Turnstone.

On the Lune Estuary as viewed from Glasson, 23 Avocet were distant upstream from the Conder Estuary. More obliging were 86 Black-tailed Godwit a few were feeding below the bowling green as the tide came in, some looking smart in their advancing rufous breeding plumage, and two of which were ringed. Other interest here was up to 1,500 Knot, a number of which I don't ever recall seeing on the Lune Estuary here before, also 4 Eider were of note. 

I'm grateful to Richard du Feu and to Boddi for their help in recording the Black-tailed Godwits. I look forward to seeing the history of both these godwits from Boddi in Iceland.

Woodchat Shrike.

Todays plan was to mow the lawns, but the weather had other ideas. So to find something to fill the gap, I looked through my records of 10 years ago, to find anything of interest in my birding for 1 April, but the best I could find wasn't until May 2014.

On this day I had intended to walk the embankment south from March Point, to return via the footpath towards Lancaster.

Bank Pool From Dawson's Bank. Pete Woodruff.

Having walked just a few hundred metres, I spotted a bird atop of this tree....

Woodchat Shrike Aldcliffe 8 May 2014. Jo Bradley.

....it was instantly recognisable as a stunning male Woodchat Shrike....My passion for the birds had gone through the roof once again! 

Resolution.

Not something I've ever looked for, but no birding, and no blogging for me this week, you cannot be serious!....I've entered the record for inclusion in the Guinness Book Of Records.

But I did get something conclusive about a couple of puzzles I needed to solve.

Four-spotted Chaser. 

Four-spotted Chaser. Pete Woodruff.

Both these Four-spotted Chasers were found on the bog at Birk Bank on two different dates. But in the bottom image we see a male which shows all the right characteristics except it's abdomen that I would call olive green. I think this result is down to a combination of some photographic inaccuracy, but more likely the age of the dragonfly....I'm grateful to Graham and Roland for help in establishing these details.

Red-tailed Bumblebee.

Red-tailed Bumblebee. Pete Woodruff.

I made some further enquiries regarding this Red-tailed Bumblebee, which confused me with two bands across the body in the bottom image. They were established to be the result of a photo inaccuracy, in a photo artefact....I'm grateful to Ben Hargreaves for help in resolving what was a mystery to me.

Pellucid Fly.

Pellucid Fly. Pete Woodruff.

With its striking ivory-white band across its middle, and large dark spots on the wings, the Pellucid Fly is one of the largest flies in Britain.

Community....It Matters!

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Something wrong with the header image, I'm working on it....again.

Shrike It Lucky....The Sequel.

I was grateful for an e-mail and photo attachment informing me of a quite amazing coincidence. Following on from my post about the Woodchat Shrike at Aldcliffe 8 May 2014, the message was to tell me of a Red Backed Shrike found yesterday again at Aldcliffe. 

Bank Pool From Dawson's Bank. Pete Woodruff.

Not only is this an amazing coincidence by location and date, but this bird sounds like it was probably in the very same Hawthorn as the one found 6 years ago in 2014.

Thanks to Dan for the heads up and header image.

Garden Highlights.

A male Blackbird seen feeding two young, also saw my first young House Sparrow with quivering wings and being fed by the parent bird. The Blue Tits are back and forth to the nest box, 3 Swift seen over Bowerham, and I saw a male Sparrowhawk take out a Starling. A Red Admiral was the first to be seen this year in the garden.

Juvenile Blackbird gets interrupted from it's apple a day by two Starlings.

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I'm kept entertained in our garden, though certainly not content....I'd Sooner Be Birding.  

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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Millennium Park.

Apparently the path from Aldcliffe to Glasson Dock has the nameplate Millennium Park at the bottom of Aldcliffe Hall Lane, something I've not noticed before....learning something new every day! 

As I went under Carlisle Bridge, I was taken by surprise when a Raven - on an away day I presume - came on the scene, into the air from behind the only building left standing after the rest were demolished, put the Feral Pigeons on the rooftop to flight, and was mobbed by a Carrion Crow.

Freeman's and the Wildfowlers Pools were virtually deserted save 4 Gadwall and 2 Little Grebe on the former. A walk along the embankment was well rewarded by 3 Wheatear, and I finally caught up with 2 Little Ringed Plover on the flood. 

To Conder Green from Aldcliffe, thinly scattered warblers were, 5 Chiffchaff, 2 Blackcap, and a lone heard only Willow Warbler....image that, one Willow Warbler in five miles and as many hours in prime habitat, and not a single Swallow over either. The best of the rest was a Greenfinch feeding a young begging bird, also 12 Linnet, 12 Blackbird, a Song Thrush, Dunnock, and some small pockets of Goldfinch.

I had to get all the way from Lancaster to see my first 18 Swallow in four hours at Conder Green, 4 Common Sandpiper were seen as three downstream in the Conder channel, and one in the creeks, 2 Avocet were on Conder Pool. On the Lune Estuary, 9 Eider were hauled out....but the bus back to Lancaster is coming!

The Greenfinch.

Greenfinch Ana Minguez @ Naturanafotos 

The Greenfinch seen feeding the begging young at Stodday was a complete surprise, the species breeding season beginning late April, and with incubation, hatching, and leaving the nest taken into account I saw this young bird being fed by regurgitation at least four weeks earlier than expected.

Bank Pool From Dawsons Bank. Pete Woodruff.

I stared at this view from Dawsons Bank on Thursday whilst dreaming the Woodchat Shrike I found atop of this very bush on 9 May 2014 might be there again....Dream On!

Woodchat Shrike. Aldcliffe 9 May 2014. Jo Bradley. 

Thanks to Ana and to Jo for their excellent and much appreciated photographs. 

Mediocre!

 

Woodchat Shrike Antonio Puigg

Not connected to today's post, but it kinda reminded me of Friday 9 May, a day a little more exciting than my birding day was yesterday. 

Thanks Antonio....Excellent. 

Well I'm probably likely to try again many more times on the Conder/Glasson/Cockersands tour, though yesterdays results won't go very far to encourage me to do so, this is at best mediocre, but here goes....

Though the weather certainly wasn't dull, and I don't use this kind of language readily, I'm tempted to say my birding was dull yesterday, the count of 4 Common Sandpiper at Conder Green was a clear indication of this. Other notables were singles of Greenshank, Snipe, Little Egret, Little Grebe, with c.120 Redshank, and 3 Dunlin.

Yellow Wagtail Simon Hawtin

Two reports of Yellow Wagtail at Cockersands on Sunday/Monday had me spending the rest of the afternoon looking for these Mellow Yellows to find two in the dried out ditch running through a field to the south of Slack Lane. A good number of Swallow with fewer Sand Martin and fewer still House Martin, were feeding over the many fields having had a grass cutting day here. I saw a mobile flock of at least 30 Tree Sparrow, and picked out a Peregrine Falcon overhead before going into rocket mode to take a wader out of the sky over the Cocker channel in what must have been the easiest strike this bird has had in a long time.

Common Tern on Conder Pool.     

The female Common Tern on Conder Pool sits tight on the nest whilst the male was seen heading off to some nearby fishing ground.

I reckon with luck there should be young here by around 6 August, they are known to leave the nest in three days though they return for brooding, which means they could be seen by 9 August, they can swim at an early age, and should be fledged by 3 September. Watch this space, or better still....watch Conder Pool.  

Seen Anything Interesting?

No motor on Friday, so best get my boots on and get on down to Aldcliffe to see if the Woodchat Shrike really has gone. Not the real reason behind the days plan which was to do the hike from Lancaster to Glasson Dock via Aldcliffe, Stodday, and Conder Green. 

'Seen anything interesting'....said the nice man who pulled up on his bike at Aldcliffe to ask the question and seemed to know a little about last weeks shrike. If I'd have arrived at Glasson Dock to be asked the question again I'd have been hard pushed to give a 'yes' answer. But the truth is it's all interesting, but birding does have varying degrees of it as last Thursdays discovery showed.

I must confess when I reached Dawsons Bank at Aldcliffe Marsh, I glared inland over the area and fantasised the bird would show....But wait a minute, that's a female Sparrowhawk flying across the field to land on a post immediately below the very same bush the shrike was perched atop of eight days ago at around the same time as today. Just imagine, the consequences of this last week could well have spelt the end for this brilliant Aldcliffe find before anyone knew about it. I had seen a Sparrowhawk over the old Salt Ayre Tip just 15 minutes earlier....the same bird I reckon. 

Whitethroat Martin Lofgren 

I took notes of 40 species on the walk including, 3 Whitethroat, a Lesser Whitethroat, a Willow Warbler, and a Chiffchaff. I saw up to 8 Robin including four young, and saw 3 Dunnock, a pair of which were involved in some mating ritual, and saw the male flickering its wings whilst pecking several times at the females rear....didn't look pretty, but very interesting to observe such behaviour and a first for me. I probably saw up to 12 Blackbird, some of which were in lovely song, as was a Song Thrush.

As is usual on this birding exercise I sped through Conder Green to note Tuesdays 27 Black-tailed Godwit on Conder Pool again. From the coastal path I could see a 'few' distant Bar-tailed Godwit on the Lune Estuary, but hey up....the bus is coming!

Willow Warbler David Cookson

Willow Warbler.   

On 25 April I did my birding along the Lancaster - Glasson Dock route, and made a particular note that I had been walking 5 hours over 7 miles and heard just one Willow Warbler at Glasson Dock at the very end of the walk. Four days later on 29 April I visited Barbondale and noted in my book that I had seen/heard no more than 4 Willow Warbler in an area I expected to be 'crawling' with them. I was beginning to think maybe the Willow Warblers haven't yet arrived in number. But on Fridays Lancaster - Glasson Dock birding when I had again been covering the same time and miles I had heard just one Willow Warbler in Freemans Wood, and thereafter nil. The truth is....I'm not seeing many Willow Warbler yet anywhere I go in 2014.

Thanks to Martin and David for the excellent images of Whitethroat and Willow Warbler. 

Also many thanks to Jo Bradley for allowing me to use the Aldcliffe Woodchat Shrike as the new header for Birds2blog....A brilliant image, of a brilliant bird, in a brilliant local location.

Back Down To Earth.

It looks like the curse of other things in life has taken over my birding addiction once again, and to make matters worse it looks like lasting all this week. So my birding is set to be patchy and I'm going to be stuck with grabbing every opportunity I get - when I get it - to put in some time with the birds, which is what I did on Friday when I found myself 5 miles north of Lancaster with a little time on my hands, so off I went to take a look over the Eric Morecambe Complex at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve for a couple of hours, better than no birding at all and thankful for small mercies.

After Thursdays brilliant Woodchat Shrike experience, I think this mediocre report below is called....back down to earth. 

Sedge Warbler Martin Lofgren 

A Chiffchaff was in song when I pulled into the car park, and I heard my first Sedge Warbler from the path to the hide. I grabbed a brief look at a flight of c.40 Black-tailed Godwit which promptly dropped down out of sight at the back of the flood where I could just make out 2 Greenshank. Between this pool and the Allen Pool there are currently up to 70 Avocet with some first chicks hatched I'm told. Also noted was a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull in the midst of a large number of screaming breeding Black-headed Gull, 3 Pintail, 4 Gadwall, 4 Shoveler, and 2 Little Egret.  

House Martin Astland Photography 

A brief visit to the Lillian Hide was well worth it if only to watch at least 100 Swift hawking, with which I kept seeing a 'few' House Martin and Swallow.

High pressure on the cards mid-week, and amongst lots of other places I need to get to I have a few upland locations in mind. So here's hoping the curse of 'other things' buggers off.   

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.

Shrike It Lucky!

I had dealt with some business in Lancaster by 12.15pm, but had to return there by 2.30. My best plan 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 turn 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.

Woodchat Shrike 8 May 2014. Joanne Bradley.

Thanks to Joanne Bradley for the much appreciated excellent image. 

Taking a closer look.

On my birding days I often come across birds which I need to take a closer look at in that I wonder and question at the time of the sighting, how come this bird is here, where has it been, and where is it going. On Tuesday I found three such birds the most interesting of which had to be the adult Whooper Swan on the Lune Estuary as viewed from Glasson Dock. Taking into account the date in August I did some research about the Whooper Swan and had to consider the following....

The Whooper Swan breeds on lakes in the boreal forests from N. Scandinavia to far-eastern Siberia, with an isolated population in Iceland. So, what's a Whooper Swan doing on a river in North Lancashire on 21 August you have to ask yourself. There are not many options here, perhaps its a sick or injured bird, or a summering bird from Martin Mere where the species has in the past, in fact during the late 1970's early 1980's a free-flying flock of 15 birds were present. The only other explanation is that this bird has entered the books as the earliest Whooper Swan to arrive in this country to its wintering quarters....We may never know.

Whilst viewing the Lune Estuary I also found a juvenile Ruff with around 500 Redshank which posed more questions. This bird was probably from Fennoscandia or Russia, a ringing recovery in that regard was of a Ruff ringed in Cheshire in August 1978, was found the following year in February 1979 in N.W.Russia probably on its breeding grounds. My Ruff a Glasson Dock could well be on its way to Africa where most winter, a recovery reflecting this is of a bird at Marshside in N.Merseyside in April 1985 which had been marked in Senegal two months earlier in February. Last year I saw 14 Ruff off Hillam Lane in a field at Norbreck Farm, a record which may take me some time to equal.  

The third bird to cause me to ponder was the Sanderling which I found on Plover Scar at Cockersands. There's a lot to yet be discovered about the movements of the Sanderling, but some thin evidence suggests that many of our passage birds winter in Africa, though some do winter here. One thing for sure, I was both delighted and surprised to find this solitary creature on Tuesday, in our recording area the Sanderling is regarded as an annual spring passage migrant and a 'scarce' autumn passage migrant. 

Also on the same days birding it was interesting to find the second wave of Common Sandpiper to arrive at Conder Green, with a fall in numbers down  to low single figures since 21 birds seen on 23 July, 14 were seen today Tuesday 21 August.

And some unrelated pics to add a little colour to Birds2blog....all from España this time.

Black-winged Stilt Antonio Puigg

A brilliant image with a difference, of the Black-winged Stilt. I reckon this photograph would have puzzled lots of us as to what it was, how about you?....Thanks Antonio. 

 Green Woodpecker Ana Minguez 

Not many opportunities to photograph a Green Woodpecker in areas were I live, this is an excellent one of the juvenile....Thanks Ana.

Woodchat Shrike Isidro Ortiz

And even more definitely not many opportunities at all to see - let alone photograph - the Woodchat Shrike in this country never mind the areas where I live....Thanks Isidro.

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.