....And A Bunting Bash!

 Snow Bunting. Cockersands. Copy Permitted.

Yesterday I spent the entire last hour of decent daylight only to fail on a bash around Cockersands looking for a Snow Bunting, two Snow Bunting actually according to the pager message at 3.00pm, and a backup from a reliable source about exactly where they were/had been. Other notes made at Cockersands, 10 Bewick's Swan were all adult, 32 Golden Plover with Lapwing off Crook Farm, and 2 Little Egret on the Sunderland Point side of the River Lune.

Red-breasted Merganser Brian Rafferty 

Four Bewick's Swan were in a field off Jeremy Lane, with 72 Mute Swan in another field on my way to Glasson Dock where I saw the Red-crested Pochard, immature drake Scaup, and 3 Pochard on the canal basin. On the Lune Estuary to note, up to 900 Golden Plover, 40 Goldeneye, 30 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Red-breasted Merganser. c.100 Common Gull, and a Little Egret, c.350 Canada Geese were on Colloway Marsh. 

At Conder Green, 4 Goldeneye, 20 Wigeon, and 2 Goosander were on Conder Pool with a Wren scolding in a bush next to the viewing platform. A Spotted Redshank and up to 200 Teal were in the creeks, and a Little Egret was in the Conder channel.

Little Grebe. 

There are 14 Little Grebe in the Conder/Glasson area covered yesterday, with 7 at Conder Green, 6 on the Lune Estuary, and one on the canal basin.

Grey Partridge.

Grey Partridge Simon Hawtin  

Four Grey Partridge seen in the Abbey Farm stubble field bring me to think maybe I cease to record the species based on I'm not prepared to record birds which are considered to be reared solely for the shooting industry, whilst the wild species is considered to be extinct, the Red-legged Partridge and Pheasant are another two examples which have never been seen recorded on Birds2blog. Having made my daily visit round the blogs I support, I found something I think you might like to take a look at. I have resisted the temptation to go into a rant which would have been to second everything PS says in his post.... These Sporting Times 

Thanks to Brian and Simon for the excellent Merganser/Partridge images.

RCP @ GD.

A female Red-crested Pochard was found on the canal basin at Glasson Dock last Saturday, the bird remains there this Wednesday morning and I had good views of it on Monday.

Red-crested Pochard Female. Hans Schick.

The Red-crested Pochard (RCP) breeds in scattered populations across Europe, and more abundantly through Central Asia to North West China. 

A naturalised population of RCP is being established in Britain, it is especially centred on Cotswold Water Park where numbers in the early 1990's stood at up to sixty birds but now probably stands at in excess of 130. Smaller numbers occur at gravel pits in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, and Lincolnshire. There appears to be no doubt that natural vagrancy occurs though this is difficult to substantiate, the species is kept at more than 200 wildfowl collections in Britain....so lots of wires to hop over!

The status of the RCP in Lancashire must be considered to be downright dubious, and there is no real evidence that it has ever occurred in a wild state in the county, even though there is a wild population of several thousand in Spain, with much smaller numbers close to our shores in France and Germany. 

The first record of RCP in Lancashire was of a bird at Leighton Moss in June 1965, it was seen there again two months later in August, and a male wintered at Scorton in 1973-74, there has been a string of Lancashire records since but a natural vagrant has yet to be proved. 

I'm grateful to Hans Schick for the use of his image of the female Red-crested Pochard.

Stonechat.  

Stonechat Brian Rafferty

As the Stonechat has had no mention on Birds2blog for a few weeks, I'm unable to resist this brilliant image of the one BR saw at Rossall Point recently. The bird was seen on the golf course perimeter, an almost guaranteed annual sighting here. Thanks Brian, another excellent picture of the delightful little Stonechat.  

Bewick's Beauties....

....and a few other birds.

With a little searching Conder Green put on a good show again yesterday with 2 Spotted Redshank, a Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, and a Grey Plover all in the creeks. On Conder Pool, 8 Little Grebe, a Little Egret, an influx of 32 Wigeon, 3 Goldeneye, 3 Snipe, 2 Tufted Duck, and a Reed Bunting which I saw along the coastal path en-route to Glasson Dock.

I found 22 Bewick's Swan, six - including two immature - on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, and sixteen in a Cockersands field included three immature....Thomas Bewick (1753-1828) ornithologist and the best-known English illustrator of his generation.

Also of note on the Lune Estuary, the build up continues with 58 Goldeneye seen, also c.180 Black-tailed Godwit, 60 Dunlin, and 1,550 Wigeon noted.

Red-crested Pochard. Pete Woodruff.

The female Red-crested Pochard found on the canal basin on Saturday obliged and was reasonably close in today, though the pic above is the best my humble little pocket digi camera could do about it, a seriously cropped pic is a bit of an understatement. Also on the basin, the immature drake Scaup, at least 95 Tufted Duck, 3 Pochard being two drake and a female, and a Little Grebe.

By the time I reached Cockersands the daylight was about to start to disappear in around an hour and I squeezed in Crook Farm to Plover Scar to note c.2,500 Dunlin, 107 Black-tailed Godwit, and 3 Bar-tailed Godwit feeding on the mudflats, with 25 Turnstone on Plover Scar, and 160 Wigeon and 2 Eider drake off here. 

And finally....

 Long-eared Owl Noushka Dufort

I think the the post deserves a couple of decent photographs, and they don't come any more decent than this. So here's the long and the short of it!....

Thanks for the Long-Eared Owl Noushka....Excellent.

Short-eared Owl David Cookson 

Thanks for the Short-eared Owl David....Excellent.

Oh no....not another Stonechat post!

If per chance another Stonechat post on Birds2blog - well what do you expect - is likely to bore you I'd suggest moving on. But I did manage to find an excellent image below of a close relation just to break the monotony.



Whinchat. David Cookson

A Summary.

It was interesting to find in the introduction in the LDBWS 2010 Annual report, in relation to some severe winter weather in the winter 2009/10 the Stonechat was the most seriously affected species.

Anyone observing this species as I have for in excess of 12 years - especially in the Clougha/ Birk Bank (C/BB) area, couldn't help but see and record the results of this prolonged period of freezing temperatures being the demise of this smart little chat. Concentrating on this area and others - not alI in the LBWS recording area - I had noted an upturn in the status of the Stonechat from zero here on C/BB in the late 1990's to - for example - an amazing 11 pairs on 21 March 2007. However, by an awful coincidence when I visited here a month later in April the 'Guardians of the Countryside' had decided a 'burn' was a good idea and used it as another tool in their armoury for 'control' under the cover of land management. It goes without saying that the result of this 'good idea' was that the 23 birds I saw in March was reduced to 4 though I'm not suggesting that this event was the sole reason for 4 birds to be left from the 23 found but it sure didn't help and I just wish these people would have taken their torches elsewhere on this occasion.

My observations of the Stonechat on C/BB proved that the upturn in the status of the species which began at the end of the 90's had peaked around 2005/6 and that by the end of the winter of 2009/10 they had virtually disappeared from just about everywhere though I won't labour the issue with statistics here. However, if I was to compare last years Stonechat records on C/BB with those of 2007 when I visited every month of the year, by contrast when I scaled down my surveys in 2011 at 9 locations, I made just 4 to C/BB by which time the Stonechat had been virtually lost making my efforts almost pointless and we were unfortunately almost back to the late 90's with the species. That said, I did find a male up there on 23 July, and a female on 25 August.


Another previous stronghold was on Harrisend, though this area also only produced 4 birds on 24 March from 6 visits in 2011. I concluded that these were migratory birds passing through as I found not a solitary bird up here despite three more visits in June/July/August by which time I had given up on the Stonechat here too. 


It is interesting to note my figures for 2010 agreed with the RSPB findings on the United Utilities Estate on the Bowland Fells where, by comparison to a full survey 66 pairs of Stonechat were found in 2007 representing 50% more than those found in 2010.


Rest assured....I shall renew and pursue the Stonechat relentlessly in 2012 whilst bearing in mind my record of 12 Stonechats on Newby Moor, Clapham on 1 February 2005. 


Well, not being able to leave Birds2blog void of a couple of photographs, how about these....

Black Redstart. Geoff Gradwell 

The smart little Black Redstart which has been present at Knott End for 'a while' now. Thanks for this GG. 

And here's one to put you on your guard if you think you found a Red -crested Pochard. This bird was found at Marton Mere recently and as it turned out....its a hybrid! Thanks for this goes to Cliff Raby  

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!

The Barnacle Goose....

....and two ducks.

This winter has been exceptional for Barnacle Geese in our recording area, I've personally seen 54, with 23 on Pilling Marsh, 7 of Fluke Hall Lane, 8 flying south at Cockersands, and 16 on Aldcliffe Marsh just a few days ago and which have been present here since Thursday 18 November. Void of searching my records I'd say this number of 54 exceeds all my previous sightings of Barnacle Geese over my entire birding years in this area by something like fifty. 

Barnacle Geese. Phillip Tomkinson



There are very few records of any UK ringed birds in America, but at the end of November the first British ringed Barnacle Goose was reported at Orchard Beach in New York 5,204km from where it was ringed in 2002 on Islay, an island in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. Barnacle Geese are in any case rare in North America so this is certainly a bird to qualify as 'MEGA'. This individual was frequently seen on Islay since it was ringed - along with one of its parents and a sibling - until it disappeared in 2005, the other two are still seen around Islay.

Interesting stuff, and the bird has now moved 50 miles north east of Orchard Beach to Stratford, Conneticut where the bad news is that the bird has an injury to its left leg. If I hear more about this bird It'll get a mention on Birds2blog....watch this space! 

And finally....

'Two Ducks' Colin Bushell

The first winter drake Scaup at the top, and the Red-crested Pochard below were see at Southport Marine Lakes in November by Colin.