Ladies Day!

When I left the car on Rigg Lane today I could never have believed the spectacle I was about to witness for the next five hours whilst I was on Clougha/Birk Bank. 

At the head of my records today are the truly amazing 149 Painted Lady butterflies which flew by me at the rate of 30 per hour, an experience I shall never forget. Conversely I was equally amazed at not seeing a solitary Green Hairstreak up here today......Mmmmmmm!

Not quite up to the standard of the 'butterfly' excitement was finding 7 Stonechat, though in itself this was a bit of a surprise but the downside was the fact that for the second year running there are no juveniles at the end of May to show evidence of any first brood success's. However, the seven birds seen today tells me that it is reasonable to suggest five pairs of Stonechat here at the moment, though the three lone males can only suppose this as a 'possibility'. Incidentally, one Painted Lady reached the end of its journey in the bill of a male Stonechat which showed to good effect its ability to behave like a 'flycatcher'. Also to note was 21 Willow Warbler, 6 Red Grouse, at least 12 Meadow Pipit which were seen as nothing remarkable, 5 Wren, and a Mistle Thrush. A return five hours later to the bog (no not the toilet there are none here) to see if I could find Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary had me jumping up and down at what I thought was a Clouded Yellow butterfly but turned out to be a Brimstone Moth.

Thanks yet again to Brian Rafferty for the male Stonechat pic. With just a £60 camera these days I can't take them as good as this any more. With my sincere apologies to JC and his 'Birding Aldcliffe Blog' for unintentionally violating copyright laws and using the same title for my post today which was completed one hour and five minutes after his......Erhum!

Songs of Praise.

An excellent bird was found today and we are often reminded with requests to 'get the news out'. Well on this occasion the first thing I must do on behalf of every interested birder is to thank Jeff Butcher who was in the right place at the right time and who then promptly sent his wife Jenny off in the car to find somewhere she could receive a network for her mobile in order to alert us all to the find. I then have a personal thank you for calling back BT and myself who had given up the ghost on this one and were virtually out of sight of BA - sorry Bob my memory only serves me for a few hours these day's - when he called us back to say he had relocated the bird.

My day with JB/BT had taken off only minutes earlier when the trusted RBA pager alerted to inform me of a female Woodchat Shrike 2.5 miles east of Abbeystead behind Tower Lodge on the Trough Road by the plantation and off we went. A male and female Redstart gave excellent views whilst we scanned for the 'shrike', and also noted in the area a Buzzard and 3 Grey Wagtail. A brief visit to the Langden Intake produced a Cuckoo and singing male Blackcap and another Grey Wagtail to note.

Down to Abbeystead and Stoops Bridge rewarded us with excellent views of a Tawny Owlet which was roosting by the tree which is being used again this year by the Pied Flycatcher of which the male also gave excellent views as it peered into the nest hole to check if things were going to plan......great stuff this! The day ended on a perfect note when at Christ Church we found the House Martin's had arrived on a 'better late than never' theme and I counted up to ten bird's, the Spotted Flycatcher was also seen here again today.

The Woodchat Shrike is the fourth area record, the last one I remember well because John Leedal and I abandoned a Honey Buzzard watch in the Lakes to chase off to just west of the Allen Hide at Leighton Moss ten years ago on 28 August 1999 to see a juvenile there. 

Back to today and at least I got a half decent pic of the smart little Tawny Owlet at Abbeystead, and nothing like a half decent record shot of the Woodchat Shrike in the Trough of Bowland which I couldn't possibly put on here.

Breeding Season Protocol.

There has been a discussion on the LDBWS website regarding the title of my post today, if you've not seen it I strongly suggest you take a look at it and make your own decision about what has been said there on the subject.

The purpose of this part of the post is to illustrate with the picture on the right which was taken recently whilst checking some nest boxes at a location I am involved in with John Wilson. I don't just think....I know the picture explains perfectly why - for the past two years - I have had no intention of disclosing publicly the location for these nest boxes, apart from this, anyone who is up to date on whats happening within the LDBWS area or anyone who needs to, will know very well where they are and I have now mentioned them for the very first and last time on this blog and am not likely to mention them again elsewhere. I don't really need/have to say this but I'm going to....the people who - unlike us - have no interest whatsoever in the wildlife we have around us obviously don't all go to Blackpool.

On a much more lighter and enjoyable note, following a recent telephone conversation with John Wilson I found myself today in the company of - and guiding - five excellent birders from the Emerald Isle, better known as 'The Dubliners'/'The Irish Contingent'/'Chris & Co'....take your pick. We were at Barbondale where these guys were hoping to see - in particular - Pied Flycatcher and Wood Warbler, as it turned out from that point of view I must reluctantly say the day was a failure. However, as I've said many times before - and as we all agreed today - birding wouldn't be the same if birds were seen to order and the observations we made including Redstart, Tree Pipit, Wheatear, Green Woodpecker, and Stonechat were enjoyed to the full. I wouldn't dream of listing all the birds as it would represent nothing more than the old record played all over again, but after the party had left me to go to see the Eagle Owl/s I spent another hour or so here and found my first Spotted Flycatcher of the year for Barbondale.

From Barbondale I went to visit the long overdue and neglected Newby Moor where I was a little more than disappointed to find just one pair of Stonechat with a single juvenile from a first brood. This is at a place where for the past ten years I've been watching a healthy population of this species go from strength to strength....well what was I expecting following the appalling spring we've had. At least 4 Sedge Warbler were seen, and I noted 5 Linnet, 2 Willow Warbler, no more than 6 Meadow Pipit and a Reed Bunting.

I reckon I had a poor result today for all the effort put into it but wouldn't want to sound ungrateful. The best title for this post should perhaps have been 'A Mixed Day'.

Free Again!

With JB today and thank goodness for that as my mentality was going downhill fast and I'd not been birding for three full days and was approaching the point of no return.

At Conder Green up to 20 Black - tailed Godwit were in the creeks and 6 House Martin were around 'River Winds'. A Starling was observed on the mud bank teaching its young to become a 'wader' which it had obviously done itself as it was probing for and feeding its young on the worms it took from the mud. On Conder Pool a Little - ringed - Plover obliged yet again. On the basin at Glasson Dock the Mute Swans have 7 cygnets and the only other bird of note was a Great - crested Grebe. The Lune Estuary was virtually void of bird life but 3 Eider and - a bird not often seen here - a Ringed Plover were to note.

At Cockersands - where the day was more reminiscent of the end of March rather than May - 3 Turnstone were in their amazing summer plumage, and a mix of c.40 Dunlin and Ringed Plover was about 20/20, 10 Eider flew downstream towards the lighthouse then did a 'u' turn back upstream, I reckon this is about as bleak as it can get at Cockersands. On Moss Lane we saw our first two young Lapwing.

As we drove towards the access track to Hawthornthwaite we saw a pair of Oystercatcher with a young bird. In the Marshaw/Tower Lodge/Trough Bridge area 4 Spotted Flycatcher were excellent finds, also 5 Grey Wagtail, 5 Mistle Thrush, a Jay was a little unexpected, a pair of Great Tit were observed feeding young at a nest site, also a Coal Tit seen to enter a nest hole, and a Brown Hare was noted as a first here for me.

Something interesting - if worrying - happened today in that a visit to Christ Church at Abbeystead where House Martin's have traditionally nested here for years was void of a single bird, but another Spotted Flycatcher here was a reward for the absence of the House Martin's.

The pic of the Lapwing is courtesy of Brian Rafferty.

Part Time Birding!

Things didn't go as planned today on account of the weather....so whats new there. At one o'clock I left Cockersands for Harrisend being due to check the area out. Unfortunately the section of my brain which should tell me to act sensibly had obviously broken down and I could see I was heading towards poor weather but just kept on driving and in fact when I arrived here the misty heavy drizzle was upon me and I sat in the car hoping it would pass over but no such luck and forty minutes later I pointed the bonnet towards Lancaster with the usual sulky expression on my face when these things happen and cut short some excellent birding opportunities....Ah well!

On Conder Pool things were very quiet and I was compelled to note every bird I saw. One of the Little - ringed Plovers obliged and I noted 15 Black - tailed Godwit with not a single bird having two legs to stand on, a female Teal was of particular note, 7 Tufted Duck, 3 Mallard, 3 Redshank, 4 Oystercatcher,and a Lapwing were the full complement on here today. On Glasson Basin c.20 Swift were a joy to watch as they hawked for insects in their masterly life on the wing. I never fail to be amazed to think the young from this years breeding will spend something like the first two years of their lives on the wing without ever touching terra firma....mind boggling stuff. From Bodie Hill I counted 19 Eider and again saw what appears to be the pair of resident Grey Partridge here for the fourth consecutive visit.

At Cockersands 2 Common Tern were at rest on the red number 8 buoy, the waders were reduced to 12 Dunlin and 39 Ringed Plover, the Eider were also reduced to just a single drake, a Wheatear, 2 Skylark, and only 4 Sedge Warbler heard along Moss Lane today and from here on it all went downhill.

Well at least I got a pic out of the days efforts and although I didn't realise at the time of taking the picture it clearly separates the male from the female Ringed Plover.

Hail......

......summer is here.

I had to shelter under the trees from not one but two hail showers the second of which lasted for several minutes and was quite heavy....and I thought it was 21 May!

It was important for me to revisit Barbondale again to check out the birdlife and see what was/wasn't present here, it's also as important to note the birds 'missing' as those seen. A significant absentee was the Spotted Flycatcher closely followed by the Cuckoo. Other birds not seen today included the Wood Warbler and the Dipper which was something of a surprise as I had the stream in view most of the five hours I was here.

Pied Flycatcher. Brian Rafferty.

The good news from Barbondale again this year is the presence of the Pied Flycatcher albeit I only found a female at one location and a singing male up to a quarter of a mile away at another, maybe two pairs, or a pair with the singing male trying to attract a second mate being that the male Pied Flycatcher is notorious for its behaviour in which it will acquire a distant territory in order to deceive the second female about his first one.

Sightings worthy of note today other than the obvious 'prescriptive' birds, a Common Sandpiper, at least 4 Grey Wagtail, I saw only one male Wheatear, heard only one Tree Pipit, and noted 3 Stonechat, the best bird had to be the male Whinchat seen as one of our summer visiting gems, hopefully a female may be sitting. The other bird of note was the Green Woodpecker which was again 'yaffling' on and off for the entire duration of my visit as it has been for my two previous ones here.

Thanks to Brian Rafferty for his Pied Flycatcher.

And the winner is......

......ten lines below.

With JB today we found the birds a bit of a struggle but it wouldn't be the same if you knew what you were going to see/not going to see would it. As always JB's records will mention many more birds than mine do here though today was a little more quiet than I would like to think the norm is.

At Conder Green at least 10 Black - tailed Godwit were in the creeks again but the day got off to a poor start with the Conder Pool Little - ringed Plovers keeping their heads down and out of sight. At Glasson Dock on the Lune Estuary an Arctic Tern salvaged the visit here from a zero with excellent views of the bird fishing. On Jeremy Lane the winning bird of the day was a female Whinchat and I'm grateful to John for letting me use his photograph of this bird. In fact the day for me was a roaring success if only for seeing this excellent bird, and a roaring success for John if only for photographing it. Up to 4 Sedge Warbler were also noted along the lane.

At Cockersands the net result of our efforts was 26 Eider off Plover Scar, c.100 'waders' were a mix of approx 60 Ringed Plover and 40 Dunlin with a solitary Turnstone accompanying them. The struggle to find the birds today ended at Fluke Hall Wood were we saw a Spotted Flycatcher with the other 11 (16 May and a superb record) nowhere to be seen.

Late on Duty.

With a bucket full of enthusiasm for some birding today I looked out the window this morning and my enthusiasm died an instant death with no explanation necessary as to why. But by the time I'd had some breakfast it was looking decidedly improved and off I went albeit by now it was 11.00am, but at 10.15 a Curlew Sandpiper was reported at Cockersands and this is where I decided to head as to be perfectly honest I'm getting fed up of getting reports of 'things' at Glasson Dock and Cockersands in my absence.

As I walked along the headland at Cockersands in the direction of the Caravan Park and having reached the second kissing gate, I lifted my binoculars to check a 'gull' over the field by the restored old farm building to find a Fulmar had been slightly blown off the sea. The bird gave excellent views as it lingered around the headland and eventually in the area of the lighthouse. So Cockersands has thrown up one or two birds of interest recently and with this birding game......whats next you ask yourself. Also noted here on the circular, at least 40 Eider were around the lighthouse area and from the road on the return 4 Stock Dove were seen today, 2 Skylark were in song like it was 18 May but really felt like 18 March, and 9 Sedge Warbler in song is a clear indication of a good number here this year.

From Bodie Hill 2 Grey Partridge were seen here again and are presumably the same two seen on 30 March/3 April, also a Wheatear on the marsh. At Conder Green a single Little - ringed Plover was on Conder Pool, but a bigger surprise was a Spotted Redshank in the creek, this bird wasn't as advanced into summer plumage as the long staying bird/s which haven't been seen recently and is obviously a 'new' bird. Also in the creeks were c.24 Black - tailed Godwit, 2 Reed Bunting, and a singing Reed Warbler was in the reeds upstream from the A588 road bridge.

I think the Mallard in the pic at Conder Green thought it was a Grey Partridge!

Ringed Plover.

On Thursday of this week I counted up to 350 Ringed Plover (RP) on Plover Scar at Cockersands which is by far the highest personal count of the species anywhere in the recording area of LDBWS, but some subsequent searching through the various annual reports has turned up some interesting figures.

The WeBS count for May 2000 on the Ribble indicated the importance of the estuary as a feeding ground for passage birds including the RP, and in this year the count recorded 5,432 RP. However, from this year up to and including 2007 there was some quite interesting figures from the Ribble Estuary varying from the high count in 2000 to a low of 356 RP in 2002 and the nearest count to compete with 5,432 RP was in 2003 when 4,300 RP were recorded.

Nearer to home and in terms of available LDBWS reports up to 2007, I searched back for just 5 years and the most notable spring passage in 2003 was at Fluke Hall where 82 RP were recorded on 1 May. By contrast just 38 RP was the figure recorded for the May WeBS count. In 2004 the count was 67 RP and in 2005 the spring passage was referred to in the LDBWS Annual Report as 'again a non event' and the WeBS count was once more as low as 48 RP. In 2006 I found an interesting figure in that by something of a coincidence a count of 450 RP at Cockersands on 14 May - the same date/place as my 350 RP this week - was referred to as 'an exceptional count' and the WeBS count in this year was 479 RP. So through a little 'quickie' research I concluded it was no surprise my count of 350 this week was a personal best - in the LDBWS recording area - for the RP.

On 3 December 2008 I counted 170 Turnstone between Teal Bay and Broadway and referred to this in my notes as an excellent number for the species between these two points......I'm off to read some more Annual Reports now!

Three Circulars.

As it stands today we are having the third year in a row void of anything like spring weather and today followed the same pattern of late though the wind had eased somewhat.

On the first of the days circulars at Aldcliffe this morning I struggled to discover anything of note and in fact it took me the best part of two hours to find a Whitethroat soon followed by a brief Lesser Whitethroat which I heard only. A Little Egret was on the marsh and Freemans Pools held just a pair of Gadwall, a pair of Little Grebe, and I was fortunate to just about make out the head of a Little - ringed Plover on the far side of the island. A Green - veined White and Orange Tip were the only butterflies - other than a few 'whites' - seen in the entire day....no surprise there.

At Conder Green two pair of House Martin are nest building at River Winds, c.30 Black - tailed Godwit were in the creeks again, and just one Little - ringed Plover was seen on Conder Pool. Things were so desperate on the Lune Estuary from Glasson Dock that I counted the Mute Swan's and found there was 175 of them, as I was about to throw in the towel here I spotted 4 Eider almost out of sight beyond Waterloo Cottage.

At Cockersands from the lighthouse car park I thoroughly grilled c.620 Dunlin for 30 minutes or more and every single bird was black bellied. I reasonably estimated 350 Ringed Plover here today which represents by far the highest count of the species I ever encountered anywhere within the LDBWS recording area, two 'terns' were far too distant for my skills to ID and have reluctantly gone into my records book as Commic Tern's, 9 Whimbrel were also seen from here. On the road section of the circuit I saw/heard 4 Sedge Warbler, noted 6 Swift over, and heard one Skylark in song......well as far as the weather was concerned I certainly didn't feel like singing today.

The Little Egret was on Aldcliffe Marsh today pictured along with the backside (it does go under a few other descriptions) of a sheep.