No Migrants For Me....

....nor any other birds sadly....but I live in hope!

 Black-tailed Godwit with Ruff. Howard Stockdale.

A disappointment in that a record was buried beneath my health scare before I could submit it to my man in Iceland. But I have now recieved the life history of a Black-tailed Godwit seen at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve 5 August 2018, subsequently recorded 31 times in 5 countries including a return to Iceland 4 times.....

5 in NW Spain 2005

3 in W Portugal in 2006

12 in W Portugal 2007

S Iceland on 12 June 2008

2 W Portugal in 2009 

S Iceland on 1 June 2009

Netherlands 2 April 2010

S Iceland 15 May 2011

W Portugal 3 Feb 2014

W Portugal 5 Feb 2015

S Iceland 23 April 2017

W Portugal 2 Feb 2018

NW England 5 Aug 2018

The bird was ringed YL-GL 13 years ago as a male pulli on 13 July 2005 in S Iceland. 

13/07/2005 Iceland,S Ice,Árnessýsla,Friðland í Flóa, 63.9001 -21.191

02/09/2005 Spain,NW Spa,Galicia,Pontevedra,O Grove 42.4962 -8.8712

04/09/2005 Spain,NW Spa,Galicia,Pontevedra,O Grove 42.4962 -8.8712

24/09/2005 Spain,NW Spa,Galicia,Pontevedra,O Grove 42.4962 -8.8712

28/11/2005 Spain,NW Spa,Galicia,Pontevedra,O Grove 42.4962 -8.8712

30/12/2005 Spain,NW Spa,Galicia,Pontevedra,O Grove 42.4962 -8.8712

27/11/2006 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

01/12/2006 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

10/12/2006 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

03/01/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

06/01/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

29/01/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

27/02/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

05/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

08/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

09/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

12/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

14/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

15/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

16/03/2007 Portugal,W Por,Aveiro,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

22/03/2007 Portugal, W Por, Aveiro ,Vouga Estuary,Aveiro Saltpans 40.6439 -8.6628

12/06/2008 Iceland,S Ice,Rangárvallasýsla,Fljótshlíð,Fagrahlíð 63.7339 -20.098

20/01/2009 Portugal,W Por,Santarém,Tagus Est,Samora Correia 38.9461 -8.8401

18/02/2009 Portugal,W Por,Santarém,Tagus Est,Samora Correia 38.9461 -8.8401

01/06/2009 Iceland,S Ice,Rangárvallasýsla,Fljótshlíð,Fagrahlíð 63.7339 -20.098

02/04/2010 Netherlands,C Neth,Overijssel,Ijssel,Zwolle 52.4959 6.06211

15/05/2011 Iceland,S Ice,Rangárvallasýsla,Fljótshlíð,Fagrahlíð 63.7339 -20.098

03/02/2014 Portugal,W Por,Setúbal,Tagus Estuary,Giganta 38.9123 -8.9297

05/02/2015 Portugal,W Por,Setúbal,Tagus Estuary,Giganta 38.9123 -8.9297

23/04/2017 Iceland, S Ice,Rangárvallasýsla,Fljótshlíð,Kollabær 63.7344 -20.070

02/02/2018 Portugal, W Por,Tagus Est,Cara Larga, Porto Alto 38.9616 -8.9205

05/08/2018 England, NW Lancashire,M'cbe Bay, Leighton Moss 54.1500 -2.8129

I'm grateful to Boddi for his prompt attention to this record, and for the life history he sent me, also thanks to Howard Stockdale for the images he achieved at the Eric Morecambe Hide at Leighton Moss on 5 August, and to Martin Lofgren for his Leach's Storm Petrel header image.

A Breath Of Life.

Sounds a little dramatic, but wasn't meant to, rather than meaning to give a breath of life to Birds2blog whilst I get back some sort of normality again, and just to thank everyone who passed on to to me their good wishes via e-mail, phone, and card, I really appreciate them all, and had no idea I had such a strong healthy following. 

 

It was also good to see Brian Rafferty back in business following a spell in hospital. Brian's Long-eared Owl is featured in my header image, and is one of two birds he saw on the the trip. The bird in the header being a juvenile, the other above an adult bird.

Pallid Harrier.  

Pallid Harrier Jan Larsson 

Pallid Harrier at Cockersand....as write. 

The Last Post....

....well hopefully not!

As luck would have it I had drafted this post last Saturday 1st September, the night before the stroke put me on the ground, and so it was almost ready to publish with a bit of an edit.

This post was always going to be titled 'My Kind Of Birding' as it was just that, being the area I was in on a nice sunny day searching for the Stonechat. But my book now reads the visit to Birk Bank was a disaster, in that I found none in four hours there. OK, so over the years I've already said all there is to be said about the Stonechat, so with nothing new to say, I'll spare the post any repeats.

Birds of note were few, 3 Red Grouse were on Birk Bank, 2 Jay flying towards the woods, a group of up to 8 Blue Tit, a Coal Tit, and a Goldcrest were in the woodlands by Ottergear Bridge. I paid two visits to Birk Bank bog, in the hope the sun had brought out any dragonflies, on my way out I saw at least one Common Darter and 2 Small Copper butterflies.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly. Warren Baker. 

On my return to the bog 4 hours later I struck gold, having stood around for about 30 minutes, I was fortunate to see a Golden-ringed Dragonfly, which I initially picked up above the tree-line before it dropped height for better views, but never came to land before being lost to view. 

There have obviously been a small number of previous records from Birk Bank, but this may be a possible first for 2018, and not being big on dragonflies, this was only my fifth Golden-ringed Dragonfly I've seen, previously one at Birk Bank, and three at Hawthornthwaite....Thanks to Warren for the excellent image.

Terned Out Nice Again!

Two adult Common Tern put in another brief appearance over Conder Pool again, one with a fish being chased by the other, but soon flew off. Although the breeders will have wandered during the summer months, for a species that breeds nowhere else in North Lancashire, with eight adult on Conder Pool at one time on 13 August, and birds seen at Glasson Dock and Cockersand, you have to wonder how many individuals have been on the Lune Estuary this year.

A lone Greenshank and 16 Little Grebe also present, and I had my fourth Kingfisher sighting in as many weeks upstream from the road bridge. 

To be honest, the creeks at Conder Green were virtually deserted, save 3 Common Sandpiper and a lone Black-tailed Godwit seen, and the channel from the iron bridge to the estuary, not a bird in sight.

I watched up to 1,640 waders being slowly pushed off the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock by the rising tide, with c.750 Redshank, similar Lapwing, 135 Curlew, 3 Dunlin, a lone Black-tailed Godwit and a Greenshank noted, with 4 Eider and a count of 32 Little Egret.

Whimbrel Plover Scar. Pete Woodruff.

The high tide wader count on Plover Scar was, 250 Dunlin, 28 Ringed Plover, 4 Turnstone, 3 Golden Plover, and a Whimbrel. An adult Mediterranean Gull was with Black-headed Gulls and 15 Eider, all drifting on a flat calm sea. A Peregrine Falcon was over flying east inland, and 12 Golden Plover came up off the shore below the abbey, accompanied by my third lone Black-tailed Godwit of the day. 

Thanks to Ana Minguez for the Hoopoe header. A little exotica to add some much needed colour to Birds2blog.