The Brambling.

Buzzard. David Cookson.



Not a Brambling, but a stunning photograph of a stunning bird in flight. Please take at look at DC's WEBSITE for more photography of this calibre. Thanks David.

Finding at least 80 Brambling yesterday near Tower Lodge in the Trough of Bowland was something of a surprise if only because I've seen very few reports of the species anywhere in the county as yet this winter, but it's early days though not so for the Waxwing of which there appears to be thousands of them.

The Brambling breeds in a broad band stretching from Norway in the west, through Russia to the shores of the Bering Sea. The birds have a strong preference to beechmast as a food source and is less of a farmland bird than it's close relative the Chaffinch. Wintering flocks in Britain have usually dispersed to the continent by mid-April though there may be occasional stragglers, early autumn migrants, or even the results of nesting attempts during June-August, the nesting records of which I have little knowledge though I do know of some breeding in Scotland without ever establishing a permanent presence there.

It's pretty sad that in the 21st century we can read of a good number of ringing recoveries being related to birds having been shot or trapped, a good example of which is, of eleven recoveries in Italy all but one bird had been the victim of hunting by humans of some sort. Another example of the misfortunes of the Brambling - though this one natural - is that unlike the Chaffinch which migrates mainly by day, Brambling movements are often nocturnal which can leave exhausted birds grounded along the east coast of Britain during the day having made what appears to be a direct crossing of the North Sea in the autumn.

Taking into account the reality of global warming and milder winters across Central and Northern Europe you have to wonder if numbers of Brambling wintering in Britain will diminish as they become able to find enough food further north.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!

  

The Perfect Day....

....in more ways than one.

There's still some 'Autumn Gold' around but before I saw this one I was on Harrisend in the morning to learn the Stonechats have deserted. The visit here served as another reminder that you don't use much pen and paper on upland birding, but it was the perfect day with no wind, wall to wall sun, and I'm looking forward to one or two more like it this winter. Upland birding is brilliant, you can talk to yourself all day long with nobody around to call the men in white coats to come and take you away. I found just one each of five species in two hours on Harrisend, in the order of sightings, a Raven, Meadow Pipit, Kestrel, Buzzard, Red Grouse, and a Wren.

I changed my plans about three times today, when I left Harrisend I was going up Hawthornthwaite Fell from the Scorton Road access but drove by having decided to go up the access track to the same fell from Marshaw, as I approached the gate I noted some activity which turned out to be 3 Coal Tit, a Great Tit, and 4 Chaffinch. By the time I'd walked 50 paces up this track I changed my mind and plan yet again and decided to give the rest of the day to a thorough look over the distance from Marshaw Farm-Tower Lodge-Winfold Fell which took me three hours including a look at the front and rear of the plantation behind Tower Lodge and noted, 2 Mistle Thrush, 5 Long-tailed Tits, 2 Jay, and a Treecreeper. 

About 300 mtrs east of Tower Lodge I had seen a good number of 'finches' flying away from me some distance and into the sunlight through the trees, I was now inwardly screaming but managed to console myself with thoughts of seeing them again on my return from the fringe of Winfold Fell where I saw just 4 Red Grouse. On the way back, Alleluia....movement on the ground and I reckon I'd found the birds which escaped me an hour earlier, very mobile, into the trees then back down again, I eventually estimated at least 80 Brambling with 2 Nuthatch in my sights at the same time as a bonus.

My photographic efforts are - at the top - of one of the many superb Beech still maintaining it's autumn colours by the Trough Road near Tower Lodge, and the lodge - hidden on the left - as you come down the track past the plantation.   

Doing the rounds again....

....well 'sumovum'....means some of them!

Nothing spectacular or professional about the pic but I was a bit surprised to see a little snow on the Bowland fell tops today, the pic taken from Glasson Dock where I watched a definitely spectacular aerial display by at least 8,000 waders - Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit - of which I could never have produced a ratio figure if I'd have viewed them all day, not from the distance they were, they were a tightly mixed group at the mouth of the Conder, and although it is of no value for recording purposes a sighting here last year on 6 November was of c.4,000 Knot and c.2,000 Bar-tailed Godwit and is probably a reasonable indicator of what I saw today. Also noted were the first 18 Goldeneye on the River Lune here and is hopefully another indicator of the good numbers found here during the winter 2009/10, and 7 Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Little Egret were on Colloway Marsh.

I had first been to Conder Green where a drake and female Goldeneye were on Conder Pool, as was a Little Egret moderately photographed above. In the creeks were 2 Spotted Redshank, a Greenshank, a Kingfisher was upstream from the road bridge, and 5 Little Grebe were also in the creeks, no wonder I can't find them on the pool when the little buggers are in the creeks. At Cockersands the tide was well advanced and I spent little time here but noted up to 240 Oystercatchers being the guardians of Plover Scar as ever, 14 Turnstone were also of note, and 8 Snipe took to the wing to escape the tide.

On Fluke Hall Lane I was delighted to find 2 Bewick's Swans with 7 Whooper Swans in the brilliant condition stubble field, also - with my recorders hat on once again - I counted/estimated 320 Lapwing, 260 Redshank, 120 Dunlin, 22 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Golden Plover, and 5 Snipe.

It's worthy of note that on this day last year I found a 1st winter/female Black Redstart at Cockersands where I also found a male Stonechat which I eventually referred to as the wisest Stonechat around as it fed daily on the tide wrack whilst most of the others perished in the big freeze, this bird stayed here until the last time I saw it on 22 February this year, another male was found on the same date of 9 November at Conder Green.

MEGA NEWS. 

A Pied-billed Grebe was found today on Hollingworth Lake in Greater Manchester reminding me of the summer plumaged bird found on Dockacres 13 years ago on 24 May 1997 staying until 8 June to the delight and satisfaction of the many. 



The Cetti's Warbler.

Fallow Deer. Brian Rafferty.

With no photographs of the Cetti's Warbler the excellent one of the beautiful stag Fallow Deer is good enough to headline today's post. You can keep up with Brian HERE 

I see the excellent news of a singing Cetti's Warbler (CW) found in Northhumberland yesterday, evidence of the species expansion northwards taking a giant leap whilst creating the hope the bird will winter there and be the forerunner of colonisation there.

The first CW to be found in GB was in March 1961 in Hampshire with breeding confirmed in 1972. In our county of Lancashire the first record is of confirmation in November 1990 at Marton Mere of a bird heard singing there the previous month, this bird stayed at Marton Mere until late March 1991. At Leighton Moss a bird was seen in late October 1995 and trapped and ringed there two days later, coincidentally this bird stayed here until March 1996 an almost identical length of time as the first recorded one did at Marton Mere,  this/another bird was found at Leighton Moss later the same year in October 1996. 

Yesterday at Fleetwood Nature Park two CW were trapped and ringed, and news on the LDBWS website in the 'Sightings' section says the fourth CW this autumn was trapped and ringed just a couple of days ago making the news on this species improving and becoming more exciting by the day it seems. I have no idea of the current national status of the CW but by 2006 there was a figure of 1,400 singing males, numbers being up on the figure of just over 1,000 in 2004.

It's always good to see something positive happening in the bird world both around us and worldwide, and whilst its easy to read that most CW's are to be found in the south of England, SW and East Anglia, it's also good to see they are now in places nearer home like Marton Mere, Fleetwood Nature Park, north at Leighton Moss, and now even further north in Northhumberland....where next! 

Landart by Richard Shilling. 

I've often been thanked for pointing people in the direction of Richard Shilling's Landart from Birds2blog and these are two recent additions to his ever growing collection, 7 Dogwood Colour Strips on the left, and Autumn Beech Sun Curtain. If you don't already know about Richard, he takes no materials with him on his mission's and collects all he requires to create his art from around the location, he never ceases to amaze me and a visit HERE as a relief from the birds is recommended to see for yourself.

Hardly Exciting!

Dull-capped Attila. Colin Bushell.

A little exotic thing to start with from one of CB's trips to Peru, though the birds name hardly matches the beautiful rustic colour of it's plumage. But the birding today with JB/BT was anything but colourful, I don't think dark and grey can ever be called colourful, and the dark and grey turned to rain soon after lunch so....hardly exciting! 

As ever BT's car seemed to head off to Aldcliffe of it's own accord and as we drove down Aldcliffe Hall Lane we saw a female Kestrel perched on a fence post, a smart little falcon which I love to see, also noted were at least 10 House Sparrows. Down the lane at the gate overlooking Aldcliffe Marsh which was awash with the high tide, 6 Little Egret were over on Colloway Marsh with another just north of the gate we were stood by. As we drove through Stodday a Buzzard was overhead.

Wigeon and Little Grebe. John Bateman.

At Conder Green 2 Little Egret here, also of note were 7 Little Grebe on the pool with a single Wigeon and the Common Sandpiper showing too. Definitely no circuit today and we were off to Glasson Dock where - if you'd like a little advice - there's little  point in attempting to observe birds on the Lune Estuary from here up to 2 - 2.5 hours either side of a high tide. From Bodie Hill another 3 Little Egret on Glasson Marsh with another over by Bazil Point. At Cockersands - where by now we had to put up with some typical November damp turning to rain weather - we struggled to note 20/10 Greenfinch/Linnet in the 'set-aside' flock, and noted a single Grey Plover from the car park. The most interesting sighting here was that of a Grey Seal which some people had told us at Glasson Dock we had just missed by minutes, but the creature obligingly showed well here, close in eating a quite large fish, great stuff....who needs Autumn Watch! 

Whooper Swans. Gary Jones.

On Pilling Marsh it was pretty hopeless trying to count but estimates of at least 3,000 Pink-footed Geese, 300 Greylag, and 50 Whooper Swans were all distant in the murky grey yonder and no apologies for nice round figures, also up to 3 Little Egret seen. In the stubble field off Fluke Hall Lane 5 Whooper Swans were a family party of two adult and three juveniles. Thanks for the Whooper Swans in flight Gary, and for the Wigeon and Little Grebe John....both excellent photographs and much appreciated.

Raptor Persecution and....

....three Americans!

I think you may be interested in THIS where you can also link to the government press release on the subject. The request to the RSPB now is....please make a move in the direction of the government to bring this law to England and Wales post haste, where the problem of persecution continues and - in my opinion - possibly gets worse.

There are three American birds to note in the UK at the moment one of which was found on 31 October in the south east of Ireland at Tacumshin in Co Wexford and is a Northern Harrier Circus cyaneus hudsonius - previously Marsh Hawk - and is the American race of the Hen Harrier Circus cyaneus in relation to which the males plumage is darker, as is the females which is more rufous in colour. Another is an American Bittern (AB) in Cornwall, apparently access to the location of the bird is closed after Sunday for some reason. This bird is superficially similar to the European Bittern but is slightly smaller and has several differences some subtle, I think if one ever pops briefly out of the reeds at Leighton Moss you'll need to be pretty smart to claim it as an AB. On a local level the most famous AB has to be the one found at Marton Mere, Blackpool in January 1991 which almost completed a four months stay there until May. The third is the long staying Green Heron also in Cornwall.

Please take a look at the video of the Northern Harrier which is over 3.5 minutes long, but stick with it as it is quite good, only the man near the end of the video worried me a little though he confesses to only taking photographs but I was uncomfortable about him. 

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!

Northern Parula.

Northern Parula. Tiree, Inner Hebrides Sept 2010. SP.

On 25 September a Northern Parula was found on Tiree, Inner Hebrides, this bird created some interest for me for a few reasons. The Northern Parula (NP) breeds in the eastern half of N.America, and winters from Mexico south to Nicaragua, and from southern Florida south through the West Indies.

The first record of NP in Britain was as recent as 44 years ago on Tresco, Isles of Scilly in October 1966 when a man and his wife told a visitor at the same hotel they were staying in of a mystery bird they had seen earlier in the day feeding with Goldcrests, rushing off to the location described to him he eventually caught a glimpse of the bird which instantly solved the mystery and he claimed the bird to be a NP. However, there had been an earlier record of the species than this one, it was of a bird seen and caught on board a ship in September 1962, but this individual died after the ship had docked at Southhampton in Hampshire. 

The NP is unmistakable amongst the American Wood-Warblers and is often regarded as the prettiest of them all, small and multicoloured. This individual is unusual in that most - if not all - previous vagrants to the UK have been in S.W.England and S.Ireland, though one was found dying in Wigan, Lancashire in November 1982.   

You can read about this bird, when, where, and how in the finders article on the RBA website. 

On a personal level....

Stonechat. David Cookson.

I never tire of seeing excellent photographs of any subject in particular those of birds, and certainly would never do of the Stonechat. I'm desperately overdue visiting many upland location favourites of mine to keep tabs on the species, that said, the prospects of birding anywhere for me are not looking good at the moment but I'm doing my best to change that situation. Thanks for the photograph DC, looking forward to seeing you sometime again soon. Also thanks to SP for the NP photograph.  

Not Much Fun.

Twite. Phil Slade.

I thought I'd made a big mistake this morning, by the time I reached Conder Green it was raining and I spent the first 30 minutes doing one of those staring through the windscreen routines wondering if I should be doing something more useful with my life, but it cleared up and I managed to complete the three hours I had to spare to devote to my birding before having to be back in Lancaster by 3.00pm, though I'd have to  regard today and it's weather as not much fun. I didn't see any Twite like the one in the photograph above but expect to I will somewhere soon. Thanks for the pic Phil.

I didn't get to do the circuit at Conder Green so only half the task achieved today, on the pool I counted 10 Little Grebe, and a Goosander was the only other bird of note, come to think of it was probably the only other bird....full stop! In the creeks the Spotted Redshank obliged as did a Little Egret. The platform overlooking Conder Pool was as far as I got today and I was off to Glasson Dock where a quick check over the canal basin gave me my first Goldeneye this year, 3 Little Grebe were of note on here.

On the Lune Estuary where the tidal and flood water were still covering much of the area 155 Golden Plover, a solitary Bar-tailed Godwit, and a pair of Red-breasted Merganser were all I noted before taking cover from the second of a few showers I had to dodge today.

I decided if I was going to have to go through another sulking period I may as well do it at Cockersands whilst I see if it clears up again which it did for just enough time to estimate 40/35 Greenfinch/Linnet at the set-aside whilst a Snipe went over and a Little Egret was seen on Plover Scar. In one of the Abbey Farm fields I became a dedicated recorder for a while and counted c.750 Lapwing, 125 Redshank, 450 Curlew, a few as yet uncounted Brown Hare are showing in this area again now. Driving down Moss Lane a small raptor seen briefly in flight down a ditch was almost certainly the 'possible' Merlin seen in the area on 18 October....next time I'll nail this bird!

I was out of time....I'm sick of birding against the clock!  

A RBA MEGA alert this morning at 9.40am was of an American Kestrel in Suffolk, south of Felixstowe at Languard NR, but by 12.40pm it had been re-captured as an escaped bird with a metal ring on its leg.

Waxwings....again!

Bohemian Waxwing. Mike Watson.

No apologies for another post about the Waxwing, though you will notice this time I decided to give the bird its full and proper name. The race which we see here in the UK are from Scandinavia and carry the scientific name Bombycilla garrulus. The first record of Bohemian Waxwing in Britain is of a bird 330 years ago in January 1680 at York. Today the birds are regular winter visitors to the UK which vary in numbers from a 'few' in some years to c.10,000 as is the record for the winter of 1995/96.

There appears to be a pattern of the influxes with first arrivals in eastern Scotland and north-east England and this seems to have been the case this year. If you look through the old records of Oakes, he reports large influxes into Lancashire at both sides of the turn of the 19th century noting most to be in the north of the county. He documented what he called 'the most important visitation' during the severe winter of 1946/47 when we get a mention in our area of a bird in Cockerham in December followed by a build up in numbers when 200 were in Carnforth at the end of the month.

Bohemian Waxwing. David Cookson.

In recent years there have been some interesting ringed recoveries, an example being of two birds ringed in October 2004 in Aberdeenshire both of which were seen in Barrow in December, these two birds have the added interest of being seen at the very same location as Mike Watson's, David Cookson's and Brian Rafferty's birds, observed and photographed as seen on Birds2blog, two more birds from the same catch in Aberdeenshire were also seen in December in Burnley, one of which was later seen in Buckinghamshire in January 2005. These records clearly show the speed at which these birds can move through the country.

Thanks to Mike and David for letting me put these photographs on here, please visit their websites - which can always be linked from my sidebar - for excellent records and photographs both here and further afield.         

Wot no Waxwings!

Waxwing. Brian Rafferty.

Well the title and the photographs for today's post was never easier 'cos I ain't seen none yet and BR  - who has - took some pictures with a difference in that they show the Waxwing with wings spread to give us some of the finer details of the birds spectacular plumage like....

Waxwing. Brian Rafferty 

....these two do. Great stuff as always Brian with my thanks.

As for me, well I went off on a 'short shift' to check if anything was happening at Conder Green, Glasson Dock and Cockersands that I didn't know about only to discover nothing was, but....it's gotta be done!

Conder Pool appears to be down to 6 Little Grebe at the moment, with 2 Wigeon and 3 Tufted Duck amounting to a quiet scene which the Kingfisher illuminated by putting in an appearance. On the circuit I found a Rock Pipit and wondered how many may have been lurking on the marsh along with the Snipe waiting to be put up by a 10mtr tide, 2 Snipe were the only waders of any note, and a Reed Bunting seen. The best bird here was the Grey Wagtail I found which quiet amazingly is my first here since 28 January 2008 twenty one months ago.

At Glasson Dock I noted c.650 Golden Plover none of which resembled an American Golden Plover the 'possible' of which was reported yesterday, c.5,000 Knot and 250 Bar-tailed Godwit were also of note.

At Cockersands I decided to take a close look at the 'finches' here again and got some conclusive evidence that there are probably up to 200 birds in the area as the ratio today was c.80 Greenfinch, 10 Linnet, and 6 Chaffinch, the Greenfich/Linnet ratio being round about the opposite on Thursday last. Three Reed Bunting and a Grey Plover were the only other birds noted as by now I was once again out of time....and here's me thinking the days of running out of time were behind me! 

For the past few days I've been watching a Coal Tit from our kitchen window, this bird is taking seeds from a feeder and on Saturday morning whilst I was in and out of the room a few times I estimated it visited the feeder up to 70 times in thirty minutes and took them off obviously to bury/store them somewhere and flying off in three different directions to do so. Whilst I'm not suggesting this bird spends the whole day doing this kind of 'work' as it blatantly isn't and couldn't, but the bird and this behaviour fascinates me.