An Interesting Trawl.

A very interesting visit to Bowland and the birds of Marshaw - Tower Lodge - Trough Bridge.

My sightings for the day started with a Siskin I found drinking in the Marshaw Wyre by the plantation at Marshaw, from where I saw a pair of Lesser Redpoll and a few Sand Martin of which just one individual was seen to enter a nest hole in the bank upstream from the green bridge.

Birds seen on or around the length of the Marshaw Wyre, where my main interest was with sightings of 3 Dipper at three locations, one of which I reckon had a nest nearby, and was behaving with a small fish like it was food for young. I counted 6 Grey Wagtail with no evidence of breeding or young, also 5 Common Sandpiper with young hopefully to be seen in the coming weeks.

Three pair of Pied Flycatcher are occupying three nest boxes. This male was singing around the box, which I was able to stalk to close range with trees for cover....Pity about the wind pollution in the footage, the bird was singing nicely.

It took four hours for me to find Spotted Flycatcher, two were seen as a pair which eventually took off to see two other birds off which I strongly suspected to be two more flycatchers. If they were, there are only 4 Spotted Flycatcher here this year.

The supporting cast was, 4 Mistle Thrush, a Song Thrush, Long Tailed Tit, and 3 Dunnock. A clattering of 38 Jackdaw flew west, and 10 Willow Warbler were mostly heard, though one gave excellent close views, and in a short watch at Tower Lodge, I saw just one House Martin which eventually entered a nest. 

A Curlew gained maximum height at the top of a dead tree to advertise its territory....Don't recall ever hearing this call by the Curlew.

Banded Demoiselle.

Banded Demoiselle Garstang 27 May. Pete Woodruff.

A saunter along the Lancaster Canal and River Wyre at Garstang, resulted in finding 6 Banded Demoiselle. 

Ian Mitchell sent me an interesting image of a Large Red Damselfly at rest on an exuvia. Along with some comments from an expert, and given it was seen on an acidic bog, I'm suggesting this is the larva case of a Four Spotted Chaser.

Ian struggled to get this image of a Little Emerald being uncooperative amongst the Bilberry. There was an emergence of this moth, of which I also saw c.12 on my last visit to Birk Bank 22 May.

Edit.

Worthy of the edit, this Painted Lady was on Sandylands at Morecambe this afternoon. A rapid flier and strong migrant, they are expected to arrive in Britain in June, this is my first in May.....Make my day!

A Twitching Double.

A text to AC on Friday morning to ask if there was any news on an Iceland Gull seen on Thursday at Knott End was negative, but resulted in a good day for both of us when he suggested I met him at Eagland Hill.

 VIEW FULL FRAME

The weather was perfect with calm sunny conditions, and a Purple Heron was out in the open in a field opposite Birk's Farm and giving excellent views with the bonus of a Barn Owl flying over the herons head, to return complete with a vole in it's talons. Also, up to 30 Corn Bunting close by, they were up and down on to the telephone wires in varying numbers.

On to the sewage plant on Backsands Lane at Pilling, and more excellent views, this time of a Siberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis, with the advantage of the bird being accompanied by a 'yellow' collybita, as opposed to our bird being overall much paler. Also seen, a Grey Wagtail and Pied Wagtail on the beds. In the field opposite the works, c.350 Pink-footed Geese and 230 Curlew. At Fluke Hall, up to 900 Pink-footed Geese, also noted 7 Blackbird in 50m of hedgerow, and a lone Tree Sparrow. 

Over our house on Friday, at least 450 Jackdaw at 4.05pm flew NW towards Aldcliffe. This is a daily occurrence, but I'm struggling to work out where exactly they go to roost. When we lived elsewhere in Lancaster 8 years ago, we saw the Jackdaws gather nightly towards dusk on the  top of the tower block at the then called St Martins Collage - now the University of Cumbria - when they would fly off towards Ashton Hall, where 900 Jackdaws were recorded going to roost on 15 December.

The Purple Heron.

The Purple Heron has the reputation of an over-shooting spring visitor with some even through to October. It breeds as close as France and Spain, but many records are linked to breeding colonies in the Netherlands. I reckon this bird should really be wintering in sub-Saharan Africa, and certainly not in a field at Eagland Hill on the Fylde in January.

The first record of a Purple Heron in Britain was at Middlesex in 1722, but although today it is regarded as an annual vagrant to Britain, the next record didn't come until 88 years later in 1810. Since 1983 the species ceased to be considered by the BBRC, by which time over 700 records had been accepted.    

Plover Scar Delivers.

There was a spectacular mix of corvids on the Lune Estuary on Thursday as viewed from the bowling green, they were all over the place and impossible to count, they numbered at least 500, with a maximum of probably up to 700. In order of numbers, the highest being up to 50% Rook, with Carrion Crow, and Jackdaw, they were on the mud, and scattered widely on the south end of Colloway Marsh, many distant with little if any chance of separation.

Otherwise, the estuary was on a quiet day, though up to 350 Golden Plover were present, and 3 Goosander were noted, also the crippled Curlew Sandpiper made it's third appearance for me in 14 days, still hoping on its left leg, the right one tucked under its belly.

Snow Bunting Plover Scar 17 October Pete Woodruff Clik the pik

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Cockersand with a Snow Bunting which showed well though often quite mobile and well camouflaged when it went way out on Plover Scar amongst the shingle. Seen as an early record for Snow Bunting, most of which are singles found on the coast from around mid-October, these tend to pass through quickly, this one hasn't been seen since Thursday seeming to confirm this, most turn up during November to January. 

A male Kestrel, was the only other bird I noted at Cockersand, and a Painted Lady in mid-October may well be my last of the year, in which case my tally for this brilliant butterfly in 2019 would be 417.

Gorillas In The Mist!

Birds in the mist actually....Tuesday was hardly the best day for a murky trek along the coastal path to Glasson Dock, but that was the plan so off I went.

I found nothing to record on the River Lune between Skerton Bridge and Freeman's Pools, where 15 Wigeon, 5 Goldeneye, 5 Gadwall, and a Little Grebe were in view through the mist. 

I was soon regretting not having my telescope with me when I arrived at the Wildfowlers Pools which is now a brilliant wetlands and was host to at least 450 Black-headed Gull and 150 Teal, also 3 drake Goldeneye, 2 drake Gadwall, and best in my book a drake Shoveler, seen as a bird in line with the Pochard in it's scarce resident breeding status at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve, and irregular at any other waterbodies in our area.

Bullfinch. Richard Peglar.

The best birds of the walk were seen along the upper track at Aldcliffe, when I came across a stunning male Bullfinch accompanied by two female. Notable along the route to Glasson, 43 Goldfinch were seen in two small flocks, and at least 32 Long-tailed Tit were also seen in two flocks in procession through the trees, 23 Blackbird, 8 Robin, and 3 Song Thrush. At Stodday, c.225 Carrion Crow were in a field with a few Rook and Jackdaw seen.

 Glasson Dock. Pete Woodruff.

I had enjoyed the birds and the walk as always, but by the time I got to Glasson Dock the weather had worsened, and the EEMS SPIRIT was tied up, unloading, and fogbound.

With thanks to Richard Pegler for his excellent Bullfinch images, and to Ana Minguez for the header image of the Blue Rock Thrush. An extremely rare vagrant to Britain, of which the last was of one found in Gloucestershire on 14 December 2016.

Last And Best!

On Tuesday I walked from the car park on Rigg Lane, up Birk Bank, went across the top, back down to cross Ottergear Bridge, past Cragg Cottage, down Littledale Road, on past Gibson Wood with it's excellent past record for Wood Warbler, and arrived back at the car park on Rigg Lane 3 hours later to hear and chase around until I eventually found and had excellent views of my last and best bird of the day, a Garden Warbler.

Garden Warbler. Jan Larsson @ Vingspann 

I noted 16 bird species in the 3 hours on this circuit, including at least 10 Meadow Pipit, 4 Wren, 2 Willow Warbler, a Song Thrush and Mistle Thrush, 3 Curlew were over, two west and one east, 25 Jackdaw off Rigg Lane, some of which were harassing Lapwing with young, a Brown Hare was in the same field. The big surprise on the top of Birk Bank was when nine young Red Grouse little more than a fortnight old, exploded out of the undergrowth almost from under my feet, they flew off a short distance all calling noisily followed by the female. Never seen anything like it before, a first for me, and didn't know the Red Grouse could have a clutch of up to nine. 

Thanks to Jan for the Garden Warbler, the views of my bird were as good as this one.  

The visit to Birk Bank was to get an update on the two pairs of Stonechat seen here on 5 May, but disappointingly I made contact with none. However, a much better result was on Harrisend, when I found a pair of Stonechat with two - possibly three - young but never saw them together....an excellent record.

Also of note on Harrisend, 13 Meadow Pipit, 3 Linnet, 2 Willow Warbler, a Reed Bunting male, and a Mistle Thrush which came up off the moorland with food in it's bill, to fly towards trees in excess of a mile away from me and out of sight....had this Mistle Thrush really flown over two miles for a morsel of food presumably for young.

Small Copper. Warren Baker @ Pittswood Birds

It was good to see the first Small Copper of the summer on Harrisend. Thanks for the butterfly Warren. 

Birk Bank Dragonflies.

I saw a - too distant for my liking - Dragonfly over the bog, but colouration and the fact it was small and looked like a giant wasp in flight leads me to suggest it was a female Broad-bodied Chaser.

Keeled Skimmer (male) Marc Heath 

In 2015 two - possibly three - male Keeled Skimmer were found (Steve Graham) in August at the bog on Birk Bank which appears to be suitable habitat and brings the hope that colonisation may now take place here, hopefully I may see for myself this summer. Thanks to Marc for the Keeled Skimmer at Hothfield Common in Kent.  

Marshaw Delivers.

With the weather more settled now and some good sunny days, I was off to Bowland again on Tuesday to get an update on the state of the birds between Marshaw and Trough Bridge via Tower Lodge.  

       Siskin. David Cookson.

OK....This is about just five birds, but they made it a decent start to the visit, and I'm talking quality not quantity here. 

Birds need water to drink, and they bathe in it on occasion's too, and as if to will the birds to come to me, I had been stood on the iron bridge leading to the grit road over the Marshaw Wyre only a few minutes when a pair of Siskin dropped in on the stream, briefly bathed and were off. Only a few more minutes later I picked up 2 Lesser Redpoll atop of the pines which also dropped on to the stream to drink. But better was to come, when I saw a movement in the trees in the small plantation, I initially thought I'd found my first Spotted Flycatcher of the day, but it was a female Pied Flycatcher which gave me excellent views when I went after the bird and found it flitting around in the plantation.

Dipper. David Cookson. 

Also on the Marshaw Wyre here, a small number of Sand Martin with Swallow, the four Common Sandpiper including two young - which I saw on my last visit here seven days ago on 23 June - were seen again with another adult found upstream from here. Also a various points of the Wyre, 4 Dipper included a young bird, and 4 Grey Wagtail.

Of the 25 species seen in five hours, others of note were from four sightings of Spotted Flycatcher up the track from Tower Lodge, to eliminate duplication I reckon I saw three birds which were seen as a pair and single bird. A total of 4 Nuthatch, no more than 4 Willow Warbler, 3 Coal Tit, 3 Mistle Thrush, a Dunnock, and a Treecreeper seen. Two Jackdaw were feeding two young at Marshaw, and the only raptor was a lone Kestrel.

Thanks goes to DC for the Siskins and the Dipper in flight with a tasty meal in its bill.

Ian Kinley.

Some visitors to Birds2blog will have known Ian, and I was sorry to hear that he had died. I only met Ian on a couple of occasions, but he was readily recognised as a nice man who was a well versed and dedicated Cumbrian birder who will be sadly missed by those who knew him, and especially birders who were always close to him.   

Same Again Please.

'Birding....an essential ingredient for inner satisfaction and well-being'....Pete Woodruff Thursday 12 September 2013.  

Raven Martin Lofgren

I was back at Conder Green on Tuesday morning for the same again, raring to go and see if there was anything new around. It was actually pretty quiet, though Conder Pool saw some activity due mainly to 2 Raven juvenile accompanied by c.50 Jackdaw which for some reason were chasing a Black-headed Gull around for several minutes and in the process upsetting a good number of Lapwing, a few Redshank, and everything else on the pool. All of a sudden it all calmed down and they were gone....Excellent Raven Martin, Many Thanks.

Little Grebe Richard Pegler  

Five Little Grebe were on the pool, the sixth bird which joined them on 4 and 5 September seems to have disappeared. I've closely watched these grebes which seem to have an excellent food supply in the pool, they appear to easily catch and feed on lots of small fry. Also noted 5 Snipe, 2 Wigeon, and 8 Teal, a Greenshank and Little Egret were all that could be seen in the creeks with much fresh water still flooding down the Conder....Lovely image of the Little Grebe Richard, Many Thanks.

An increase in number on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock with c.650 Golden Plover, also to note, an adult Mediterranean Gull, estimates of 5,000 Lapwing and 400 Redshank, 4 Wigeon, 2 Goosander, and a Little Egret.

At Cockersands high tide, Plover Scar held a possibly slightly higher number of Dunlin and Ringed Plover than of my last three visits, with 5 Curlew Sandpiper present here today and 4 Turnstone. Two Little Egret flew by me off the headland, 4 Wheatear and c.25 Linnet were noted. An adult Mediterranean Gull was in a freshly slurried field with up to 400 Black-headed Gull and several Common Gull.    

Back To The Lodge.

The Marshaw - Tower Lodge - Trough Bridge area actually, and my sixth visit on Tuesday since the first on 3 May. I couldn't think of anything I'd rather have done on a nice sunny day than to check out anything new since my last visit here on 5 June. I decided to note in my little black book every bird species seen this time - something I'm a little remiss in not always doing - and some not seen which I will elaborate upon at some other time. But two species to note now which I didn't see were the lone singing male Pied Flycatcher and the Cuckoo/s, both/all of which will have made their moves south no doubt.

The species count seen was 19....

Oystercatcher

Curlew

Lapwing

Common Sandpiper

Mistle Thrush

Chaffinch

Pied Wagtail

Grey Wagtail

Dipper

Swallow                                                                             

Siskin

Nuthatch

Spotted Flycatcher 

Redstart

Willow warbler

Great Tit 

Wren

Wood Pigeon

Jackdaw

Marshaw Wyre. Pete Woodruff.

If there's a success story on the Marshaw Wyre in this area its the 11 Grey Wagtail seen this visit with 12 seen 29 May, presumably good breeding numbers though Iv'e not lingered to confirm. The Oystercatcher are also breeding up here again this year with at least one young seen, 4 Common Sandpiper were seen as two pairs also breeding, 5 Mistle Thrush seen.    Five Redstart and 3 Siskin were excellent, though numbers hardly impress particularly with respect to the latter. I was here 1.5 hour before I heard my first Willow Warbler and heard only two more after this, 2 Nuthatch.

Spotted Flycatcher David Cookson

I had  hoped  for more but  only found 5 Spotted Flycatcher, with two seen as a pair the reality is of a possible four pairs this year. Brilliant image of a brilliant bird....Many Thanks David.

Small Heath Marc Heath 

Birds aside, 7 Small Heath butterflies were the obvious best sighting of the day....Another brilliant picture Marc.

And finally....Joining the 'Cull Club'.

If you are reading this and your'e a 'gull' on the Ribble Estuary, whatever you do steer clear of Warton Aerodrome as another license to cull you and a few hundred other relations has been issued to avoid the risk of air strikes by the aircraft in the area....YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!    

To the hills.

This won't take long - though the survey did - and I didn't use much ink and paper either. And look....a post with no blue or red highlights! 

I was off into the hills on Tuesday, up Clougha and Birk Bank to be precise, for the first time for more than five months on 26 March. I spent the customary five hours and walked about eight miles during which time and distance I searched intensely for the Stonechat to no avail. 

OK, so we know the Stonechat on Clougha, Birk Bank - and many other upland locations I'm acquainted with - met its end following the second successive harsh winter. But a pair wintering on Clougha in March brought some hope, though I would suggest the summer which followed dashed any hope for many ground nesting birds like the Stonechat and was pretty well equal to the harsh winter they had just endured and survived. So it won't take long to write up my Stonechat report for 2012....or today's records either.

You can't help but wonder what a days birding in an area like this would have been two or three hundred years ago, what species and what numbers of birds would you have encountered. Today I recorded just eleven species which probably didn't total more than 100 birds in the five hours including the 'painfully obvious' top four on the list which I was certain to see and on this ocassion had no intention of counting.

The list....

Carrion Crows

Rooks 

Jackdaws

Swallows 

Great Tit
Kestrel 

2 Wren

4 Wheatear 

2 Raven
10 Lesser Black-backed Gulls overhead on thermals 

21 Red Grouse

Out of the history book....

Savi's Warbler. John Leedal.

I was looking through my stock of JL's old pics once again and came across this one of the Savi's Warbler at Leighton Moss in 1991. John took this from the Jackson Hide and I remember the day like it was yesterday. The picture isn't the best one in the world, but a Savi's Warbler nevertheless. The bird has an amazing song very much like that of the Grasshopper Warbler as can be heard in this recording....

Kentish Plover. John Leedal.

And this one of 'the other' Kentish Plover. This bird returned to Rossall Point at Fleetwood for about six consecutive winters, and is the very same individual I found on the groyne at Teal Bay on 19 November 1994 and was found back at Rossall Point later the same day....Halcyon 'Birding' Days. 

American Golden Plover. Copy Permitted. 

An American Golden Plover was found at Cockersands yesterday 5 September and was seen again today....I think there may be more about this on Birds2blog later.

Turtle Trade.

But whats this got to do with birds on Birds2blog....well nothing, but I reckon these are the sort of issues we really need to keep up to date with and from a personal point of view my passion doesn't end with birds but continues through the whole range of wildlife and related matters throughout the world. So if you don't mind the diversion then please read on.... 

Tesco Turtles.

If you don't link to the Wildlife Extra website from my sidebar from time to time I think you should, there's a mountain of info on there and currently includes an interesting story I think will sicken you and will hopefully give you food for thought on whether or not we should all buy our bread and milk elsewhere until the powers that be put a halt on this barbaric practice. Your link is Wildlife Extra 

On a lighter note....

Grey Plover. Geoff Gradwell  

An excellent photograph from GG of the Grey Plover showing its diagnostic black axillaries - contrasting with white underwing-coverts - which are always present and are a unique fieldmark for this bird. It is the best photograph of it's kind I've seen in ages. One thing for sure you're not going to confuse this species with any other 'plover' once you've seen the 'soot' under this birds armpits.

Jackdaws. Brian Rafferty

Another of those pics I can't resist showing, an excellent pose by these two Jackdaws and photographically as good as they come. Thanks to GG and BR. 

I've seen one or two records of Sand Martin and White Wagtail today, in the case of the former - as I write - the nearest one being at Brockholes Quarry LWT.

Keep Moving....

....or freeze to death.

Freeman's Pools. Pete Woodruff.

I decided the best bet was to do the walk from Skerton Bridge to Glasson Dock, the alternative was to stand around counting waders/gulls/geese and freeze to death and I wasn't really up for that. Above was the view over the 100% frozen Freeman's Pools obviously a no go birding area until we have a thaw. On the perimeter fence I saw a Wren and couldn't help but wonder how long these tiny birds could survive this continuous frost. 

Herring Gull. Pete Woodruff.

This brute was on the River Lune at Green Ayre and I grilled a few hundred other 'gulls' between here and Marsh Point to no avail but found 4 Little Grebe, 26 Goldeneye, 3 Goosander, a Tufted Duck, and 4 Grey Heron. On Aldcliffe Marsh I found a similar number of 1,000 'geese' seen on Thursday 25 November, being c.650 Greylag and c.320 Canada Geese, 12 Barnacle Geese are also still here having decreased in number since sixteen were reported a week earlier on 18 November. Before I had any chance to grill these birds any further two 'tankers' with dogs decided to exercise them out on the marsh with the obvious result, c.10 Fieldfare were seen, and  from here I saw an estimated 2,000 Pink-footed Geese in the air over fields between the A683 by-pass road and Oxcliffe Road.

Between Aldcliffe and Conder Green I noted at least 54 Blackbirds, 6 Blue Tits, 5 Robins, and 3 Song Thrush, 2 Wren, c.160 Wigeon were on the river, and c.120 Dunlin noted below Nansbuck Cottage. At Conder Green, the Common Sandpiper put in an appearance, with 2 Greenshank, 4 Little Grebe, a Goosander, Snipe, and 10 Dunlin feeding in the creeks, 5 Long-tailed Tits were by the old railway bridge.

A healthy walk taking in the birds which will continue to struggle as this weather looks set to continue in which case it may well become more serious than a struggle for them.

And finally....

Jackdaw. John Bateman.  

I readily rate this photograph of the Jackdaw as a winner. Thanks for this John....excellent.