By Way Of A Change.

It was hardly to be called pleasant, overcast and a cold breeze, but by way of a change of scenery, a wander along the promenade at Morecambe seemed a good idea. 

But in fact I started at Heysham in the hope of catching some geese before the tide drove them off somewhere south, probably to Red Nab. For a change I had timed it right, and 52 Brent Geese - 21 in the video - were driven quite close in before taking to flight. It was also quite pleasing to see 4 Grey Plover before they too escaped the incoming tide.

Brent Geese Heysham. Pete Woodruff.

I drove along the promenade at Morecambe and pulled in at Broadway where I found a Grey Seal with its head bobbing above the swell, also a pair of Great Back-backed Gull alongside it at one point.

A raft of 55 Eider were diving, making the count a little challenging, also 4 Red-breasted Merganser, and between Broadway and Teal Bay I counted 8 Great Crested Grebe.

Roosting On The Groyne At Teal Bay. Pete Woodruff.

At Teal Bay a gathering of waders included a Knot retaining traces of its summer plumage on its breast nearing the end of December! Also of note, 11 Bar-tailed Godwit and 22 Wigeon.

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I wish everyone, visitors or dedicated followers of B2B for which I am very grateful....

A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS 🎅

Seasons Greetings

Brent Goose.

It looks like this goose might be bird of the year for me, this is because I found 112 Brent Geese on the north shore at Heysham on Thursday 19 December, representing the peak count for 2024 so far. I picked out a LDBWS Annual Report for 2014 to find the Pale-bellied Brent Goose wasn't even featured anywhere in the recording area 10 years ago.

The history of the Brent Geese in number at Heysham doesn't start until 2019, when the count peaked at 43 Pale-bellied Brent Geese in March. The species was recorded then as, 'a scarce winter visitor but a regular late-winter feeding area is developing at Heysham'....This is the status still recorded in the last published LDBWS report in 2021, but surely won't be recorded as 'scarce' in the next report.   

I'm really chuffed to send seasonal wishes to all followers of B2B, dedicated, occasional, or even rarely. Chuffed because the peak count of views was 162 to a recent post. This includes my thanks to those who regularly forward news and info about the presence of birds in our area....'who needs WhatsApp anyway'....and the little army of photographers who also forward excellent images to add some colour and often excitement to the blog. 

I'm grateful to Ian Mitchell for unwittingly taking on the role of providing me with a Christmas header image of the Cockersand Barn Owl. Perfect timing Ian, I was struggling to find one when the owl arrived in my inbox....Thank You Ian. 

A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE  

The Heysham Brents.

Keen as mustard, I was off to Heysham on Thursday to keep myself up to date on the phenomenon that is 'The Heysham Brents'.

I was at Heysham a good three hours before high tide, to find 60 Pale-bellied Brent Geese and a single Dark-bellied Brent Goose feeding on the exposed skears as viewed from the promenade by the children's play area. Watching the geese as the tide flowed in, their food source eventually became submerged and the geese drifted on the tide towards Heysham Head before lifting off the sea at 12.50pm to fly south.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose Heysham 30 Jan Pete Woodruff 

Underexposed and looks darker than it really is. A record shot of the DBBG....Clik the pik  

Sending MD a text to tell him they were on their way, I got a reply a little later to say he was at Red Nab watching the geese in the hope two birds ringed in Canada would reveal their marks, and to tell me the earlier 61 birds had been joined by two more. We enjoyed excellent close views of the geese at Red Nab until they all took off at 1.40pm and flew further south, presumably to Potts Corner were they had gone on Tuesday.

The video is of the Brent Geese at Red Nab. One of the Canadian ringed birds can be seen coming into view near the end of the video, it's the second of two birds seen standing on a rock before going left into the sea.

View Full Screen

There's a more up to date website for the Heysham Brents Here 

We are only at the start of a new year, but I reckon the three visits to see the Heysham Brents are going to be hard to beat as the most interesting and inspiring birding experiences for me in 2020.

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Hardly a huge leap towards eradicating wildlife crime, but it's a starter in the right direction, and calls for a loud ALLELUIA from everyone.

The Leadhills Estate in Lanarkshire has lost its appeal against a General Licence restriction, imposed on the estate last November, after 'clear evidence of wildlife crimes' was found on the grouse moor here. The alleged offences of shot or trapped included, 3 Hen Harrier, 2 Buzzard, and a Short-eared Owl. 

Photo Ruth Tingay

This male Hen Harrier was found with its leg almost severed in a trap set at the nest, and despite valiant attempts by a top wildlife surgeon the bird died. 

Brent Adventure.

It was a bit of an adventure with the geese on Tuesday, not least because I had to turn my back on the birds for while, to avoid being hit in the face with hailstones during a heavy shower with a howler behind them coming in off the sea.

I was determined to keep up to date with the invasion, and paid a follow-up to Mondays visit to Heysham to see if I could add to the 72 and arrived at a count of 88 Brent Geese including at least one Dark-bellied Brent Goose, MD had recorded two earlier in the day.

Clik the pik....there's more to see if you do.

The path from the promenade climbs up towards Knowley's Road, from where I waited then watched the geese fly off south at 11.30am. I sent MD a text to tell him about the movement, to get a reply later to say he had seen 10 Brent Geese at Red Nab, but they soon flew off heading down the coast towards Potts Corner.

A brief look in on the shore at Half Moon Bay saw 2 Rock Pipit. 

The Brent Goose.

Brent Geese Heysham 27 January. Pete Woodruff. Clik the pik

Two distinct populations of Pale-bellied Brent Geese winter in Britain and Ireland, those from Svalbard on Lindisfarne, and those from high Arctic Canada around Strangford Lough.

Enquiries about the unprecedented numbers of Pale-bellied Brent Geese currently at Heysham - including two Canadian ringed birds - lead me to understand, that these birds are from Walney Island in Cumbria - 170 there on Tuesday. On the other hand, British wintering Dark-bellied Brent Geese all originate from the central Siberian Arctic, mostly around the Taimyr Peninsula.

I must say I really enjoyed the exercise on Tuesday despite the less than poor - pretty awful - weather conditions. It was surreal to see this number of Brent Geese at Heysham. 

Chasing The Brents.

The birds made a return to Heysham 14 days ago, when 26 Brent Geese made an appearance there on 13 January, since then numbers have fluctuated slightly. But yesterday saw an all time peak number at Heysham.

When I pulled up on Knowleys Road at Heysham yesterday morning, the birds I was looking for were immediately seen from the car. I shot off down to the promenade for excellent views from the children's play area on a fine clear morning, to find an all time peak count of 72 Pale-bellied Brent Geese, including two Canadian ringed birds.

VIEW FULL SCREEN 

At 10.50 the geese took off and flew south. Taking a guess they would follow a pattern and go to Red Nab, I followed them, but no sign when I arrived there. The next guess was the bay at Ocean Edge, and that turned out to be correct, it had been the pattern for them previously, they were still there when I left at 12.00pm.

Stonechat Ocean Edge 27 January. Malcolm Downham. 

There was a bonus bird present at Ocean Edge, with a 1st winter male Stonechat seen. Thanks for the image Malcolm, I never refuse a Stonechat on Birds2blog.

I decided to take a look at Cockersand, and calling in at Conder Green on the way, I noted 3 Goosander on the pool, and a lone Little Grebe holding the fort at high tide over the creeks. There are currently in excess of 300 Whooper Swan at Cockersand, 2 Black Swan were with the bulk of the herd in the field behind the Caravan Park, with two smaller groups in fields by Slack Lane and Moss Lane.

Lower numbers of waders than of late seen in fields were, 250 Golden Plover, 165 Black-tailed Godwit, and 155 Curlew, 15 Meadow Pipit dropped and disappeared into the grass, and c.450 Pink-footed Geese seen in the air from here were over Glasson Dock.  

Good Quality Geese....

....and 406+ good quality swans too.

Pink-footed Geese Brian Rafferty  

As I drove along Moss Lane yesterday, the geese were in fields at Thurnham and I pulled in to get good views which got better from an advantage point later off the A588 during which time c.2,000 went into the air north of Hillam Lane to make a total of at least 5,000 Pink-footed Geese which were accompanied by 3 White-fronted Geese and a Pale-bellied Brent Goose....See these geese - 'clik the pik' - as they really should be seen. Thanks Brian.

It was a biting wind to stand in and count geese, so I drove to Cockersand to thaw out, and saw 6 Bewick's Swan at Clarkson's Farm, with the herd of c.400 Whooper Swan noted again.  From here I went to check out the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, where I reckon there was initially in excess of last Friday's 550 Black-tailed Godwit, but which took off in a dread as I arrived, some of which flew south and inland towards Jeremy Lane. Also of note, up to 100 Golden Plover, and 8 Goldeneye which were both low counts, in the case of the GP's extremely so. On the canal basin I saw 3 Goosander. 

On the way to Conder Green I heard the Song Thrush singing again around Saltcote Cottage. At Conder Green, the Spotted Redshank and 2 Little Grebe were in the creeks, and the Common Sandpiper was again seen towards the iron bridge....if your looking for a guarantee to see this bird, I recommend starting here.

White-fronted Geese.

Greenland or Russian....A pretty good short video - best seen Full Screen - for White-fronted Geese ID, albeit windy and not ideal conditions, though that's what the situation often is when your trying your best to get to grips with ID.

The Big Dip!

I got out and dusted off my twitching gear yesterday to eventually get off my arse to go see a Desert Wheatear, in and around the area since last Saturday when it was first found at Fairhaven Lake, Lytham St Annes. 

The decider for me to go was a pager message claiming the bird still there yesterday morning, but 20 minutes down the M6 and unknown to me with the pager in my pocket, the message was that the earlier one was erroneous. I spent a couple of hours parading along the beach, eventually alone with not another birder in sight, in pursuit of a bird which had clearly done a runner. 

Reed Bunting. Starr Hill. Pete Woodruff.

I had to settle for 4 Reed Bunting, one of which I got one of my half decent shots, and several Pied Wagtail, to leave here and call in at Fluke Hall on the way back to Lancaster.

Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Fluke Hall.  Pete Woodruff.

When I got out of the car at Fluke Hall, from the sea-wall a Pale Bellied Brent Goose was on the saltmarsh and was the only quality bird of the day. A saunter along the coastal path to Cockers Dyke had me seeing relatively few gulls, a good number of Dunlin feeding with fewer Redshank, 10 Goldfinch, a Little Egret, and a Wren disappearing down into the sea defence boulders.

 Juvenile Gannet. Cockersand. Pete Woodruff.

Yesterday I found this recently deceased juvenile Gannet on the shingle at Cockersand.

Although I've seen nothing official about the ID of the Fair Isle Siberian Stonechat present 16-30th October, the claim is that is has been proven as maurus on DNA evidence.

All Gulls....Well Nearly.

I could only salvage a few hours a.m birding out of yesterday, so decided to go for my share of some of the Heysham gulls.

Sabine's Gull Juvenile. Heysham 3 October. Pete Woodruff.

I had excellent views of the juvenile Sabine's Gull on Stage 2 outfall where I came close to getting a half decent shot with my little pocket digi-camera, it was accompanied on the outfall by an adult Little Gull. Three Mediterranean Gull seen were a 1st winter on the outfall, and two adult on Red Nab.  

Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Martin Lofgren @ Wild Bird Gallery

The surprise of the visit was 7 Pale-bellied Brent Geese around Red Nab. Thanks to Martin for his image of the Brent Goose.

This has to be my shortest post ever on Birds2blog, but I'm hoping today changes all that....Yellow-browed Warbler....what's a Yellow-browed Warbler!

The Southern Edge And Beyond.

The southern end of our recording area and into the Fylde.

It was a good high 10.30m tide a few minutes after mid-day yesterday, so the best bet was to park up at Pilling Lane Ends and give a bit of decent coverage along the embankment to Fluke Hall, then on to Cockers Dyke along the coastal path....A good decision, and I managed to note 40 species of wader, wildfowl, and a few small land birds.

I made little attempt at counting, though I did put in some effort to estimate up to 300 Grey Plover, 500 Bar-tailed Godwit, and interestingly just one Black-tailed Godwit. Dunlin and Knot were impressive, with smaller numbers of Curlew all viewable from Fluke Hall, and the wildfowl on the sea, high figures of Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, and Shelduck. 

 Rock Pipit. Pete Woodruff.

The Skylarks were overhead all the way down to Fluke Hall where I found 3 Rock Pipit, with a Pale-bellied Brent Goose on the sea, a scarce visitor to our area which took the award for 'Bird of the Day'. A Little Grebe was on Broadfleet, and a Kestrel on a fence post in this area where I flushed a Snipe.

Pink-footed Geese. Pete Woodruff.

At Fluke Hall, at least 2,000 Pink-footed Geese were in the field behind the parking area at the end Of Fluke Hall Lane. I had nothing of note along the coastal path to Cockers Dyke, but by now had seen 15 Little Egret along the route, and when I arrived I was rewarded by up to 50 Twite with 8 Greenfinch seen.

Wren. Noushka Dufort @ 1000 Pattes 

Three Wren were seen along the path, in and out of the huge sea defence boulders, no one will ever know the number of these birds which have colonised these boulders, I've seen them over the years the entire length of the west coast which I have visited.

The Whooper Swan. 

Whooper Swan Gary Jones  

I made a count of 145 Whooper Swan today, 17 were on the sea off the embankment, 48 off Fluke Hall Lane, and 80 in a field at Fluke Hall.

Thanks to Noushka and Gary for their respective excellent images, they are much appreciated and even more so with a 'clik the pik' hopefully including the P.Woodruff efforts.

Pluggin' Away.



I could easily have gone into Bowland today - the plan - but I didn't quite like the sound of the weather-mans voice so decided to carry on plugging away at you know where.

Common Sandpiper. Pete Woodruff.

I managed a half decent pic of three of the 16 Common Sandpipers I counted at Conder Green today, also of note was the intriguing sight of a juvenile then five hours later on the return an adult Little-Ringed Plover, intriguing because since the bird/s arrived here in the spring I've probably only seen them about six times and not for the want of trying. The last two sightings were of an adult I took to be sitting on 13 June, then two adult and a chick seen on 20 June, now today's adult and juvenile. So, not for the first time the Conder Pool LRP's make a fool out of me....alternatively the birds today are passing through. Also noted on Conder Pool 3 Wigeon, and a Moorhen with three chicks, in the creeks a Greenshank, Grey Wagtail, and 15 Goldfinch of note.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, 2 Mediterranean Gull were both adult, c.300 Bar-tailed Godwit, a Greenshank, an Arctic Tern obliged at rest again for my third consecutive visit here, and c.150 Knot of which at least eight were in full summer plumage, I don't recall ever seeing this 'red dress' before on a Knot in my part of the world....or have I been birding with my eyes shut at times!

At Cockersands, Plover Scar was quite lively today with some estimates made, 500 Oystercatcher, 450 Golden Plover, 65 Dunlin, 8 Ringed Plover, and at least 5 Whimbrel. Off the scar, 56 Eider included three young, 24 Shelduck were all juveniles, and a single Red-breasted Merganser. Along the headland I saw 2 Wheatear, at least 50 Swallows gathering on a fence-line, and from the Caravan Park I saw a Pale-bellied Brent Goose though distant on Cockerham Marsh, and a Black Swan in the Cocker Channel.

Lesser Black-backed Gull. Pete Woodruff.

From my observations I reckon these two brutes made a failed attempt at breeding this year on Conder Pool. A bit of B+W photography which I just have the feeling has made an appearance on here once before.

Ringed Plover. Phil Slade

I have it on good authority that Ringed Plovers were seen today on Plover Scar with young....surely a first record.

The Brent Goose.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose. Courtesy of Stephen Foster.

On Tuesday I found two Dark-bellied Brent Geese Branta bernicla bernicla  (DBBG/BG), the first one at Knott End and another on Pilling Marsh later in the day. The Knott End bird surprised me for two reasons, firstly this bird was roosting on the beach at Knott End with Shelduck which I found rather odd if only because, like all other scarcer species of geese the BG are often to be found with Pink-footed Geese - as the Pilling Marsh bird was - though the least tied to them because of their more coastal distribution, and secondly, I hadn't realised the BG was actually smaller than the Shelduck....learning something new every day! 

The DBBG breeds on the Arctic coasts of central and western of Siberia, it is a long distance migrant with arguably the most energetically costly migrations of any other waterfowl species. The largest flock ever recorded in Lancashire was of up to 300 birds at Hundred End on the S.Ribble Marshes in late January 1929 with nothing remotely comparable to this record since. This remarkable record can be found in the notes of Clifford Oakes, and there appears to be no real indication that the status of the BG in Lancashire has changed much since the days of Oakes whose assessment of it was that of a 'sporadic visitor', an average of around 25 birds have been seen each winter since 1978/79 though this figure includes several sizable influxes the largest of which came in the winter of 1978/79 when 40 birds were recorded half of which were Pale-bellied Brent Geese Branta bernicla hrota, whereas the influx of 1990/91 involved 50 birds most of which were DBBG.

There is just one record of Black Brant Branta bernicla nigricans found in Lancashire, that of a bird on Pilling Marsh in mid December 1996, it stayed there until at least late February 1997.

And finally....

Brambling. Brian Rafferty

An excellent photograph of the smart Brambling to end the post with a splash of colour....Thanks for this Brian, much appreciated.