Resurrection!

Well my birding has been very patchy of late, in fact it's been non existent to be honest, but I'm working on getting myself out of the hole I find myself in. Meanwhile, there's some resurrection on the horizon in some areas starting with a fledged c.6 week old juvenile Tawny Owl seen in Bowland.

This is the best image available, a phone shot for the record. I've decided to keep my mouth shut about details on this one....Schedule 1 birds and all that!

The Lancaster Orchids.

It was good to find the orchids again this year east of Lancaster.

Southern Marsh Orchid June 2026. Pete Woodruff.

This time I found at least 120 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid, a slight improvement on last year, when I made a count of up to 100 spikes.

Common Spotted Orchid June 2026. Pete Woodruff.

My count this year, was of 48 Common Spotted Orchid, better than last year when it was 25 spikes.

Garden Birds.

Our birds have had a good breeding season so far this year.

I managed to get some footage of the Blue Tit feeding young, also Great Tit, Goldfinch and Dunnock all have young, and a Blackbird with a juvenile. The House Sparrow has done well with a total figure of at least 40 adult and young.

Who knows how many adult and young Starling have visited us over the past few weeks, it could have been a three figure number, and included this bully juvenile on the apple.

Garden Bees.

The garden bees were busy on Sunday with the weather warming.

Red Mason Bee. Pete Woodruff.

The Mason Bees were back and forth to the hotel....

The Blue Mason Bees were filling in the holes, with an upstairs neighbour having a nosey!

Blue Mason Bee. Pete Woodruff.

....this one was resting on the roof. I think these will leave later than their red cousins, but both will have gone by the end of July.

Common Carder Bee. Pete Woodruff.

A Common Carder Bee was nectaring on Viper Bugloss.

Conder Pool.

It's good to see the Common Terns have taken control of the platform, and even better to hear they have started to produce this years chicks. The news from Conder Pool gets better by the day, when two new Common Terns arrived yesterday.

The Avocets are also having a good season, and adults have already succeeded to guide chicks off Conder Pool, to cross the busy B5290 to the River Conder. I have no accurate figures, but I get the impression there are at least 20 Avocet chicks with 5 nests to hatch.

There seems to be no end to the good news from the pool this year, when a new Avocet arrived here to breed. This is a bird ringed at Boulais in France 20 June 2008, according to its history, a much traveled 18 year old Avocet.

I am grateful to Howard Stockdale for this update with news and images from Conder Pool. 

Mainly Dragons....

....but with some bees, a few notable butterflies, some chats, and a few other birds.

Grisedale Brook.

Grisedale Brook. Pete Woodruff.

Along the classic acidic upland stream that is Grisedale Brook, I spent a couple of hours looking for, but only finding one Golden-ringed Dragonfly, it was seen briefly flying upstream from Holme Wood, and despite waiting several minutes for its return, it failed to do so.

Golden-ringed Dragonfly Grisedale Bridge July 2022. Pete Woodruff.

Something of a disappointment today, in that I found just the one compared to 12 Golden-ringed Dragonfly here 2 years ago on 14 June 2023. 

Bird sightings were a bit sparse, but at least it was good to see a male Stonechat. Otherwise, a Willow Warbler, Meadow Pipit, Pied Wagtail and Goldfinch seen. A Buzzard was overhead mobbed by Carrion Crows. Butterflies were a Painted Lady and Small Tortoiseshell, with 3 Red Admiral and 2 Small Heath.

Hawthornthwaite.

Bombus monticola Hawthornthwaite 18 June. Pete Woodruff.

I was pleased to find a Bilberry Bumblebee on Hawthornthwaite on Friday. Last year I found 5 Bilberry Bumblebee 2 days later than this one on 20 June 2024 at Birk Bank.

Bombus sylvestris Hawthorthwaite 18 June. Pete Woodruff. 

The Bilberry Bumblebee was accompanied on the same patch of Clover, by what I believe to be a Forest Cuckoo Bee. Strange, because its name seems to indicate other than moorland, but this is a bee that can be found in a variety of other habitats too. I was of course also pleased to find 4 Stonechat which were seen as two breeding pairs alarm calling and behaving like they had young around, also 2 Painted Lady seen.

Birk Bank Bog.

Birk Bank Bog. Pete Woodruff.

It was good to find the bog now replenished and holding water, there are distant pools around the middle, and certainly more water along the side of the boardwalk than I saw on my visit a month ago on 16 May, and where most of the action was on Friday.

Even more of a delight was finding 4 Keeled Skimmer, they were eventually seen as coupled pairs. Also present, Broad-bodied Chaser, Four-spotted Chaser. With Large Red, Blue-tailed, and Azure Damselfly.

Keeled Skimmer Birk Bank Bog. Pete Woodruff.

Butterflies seen, 6 Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Red Admiral, and Small Tortoiseshell.

The Lancaster Orchids.

Southern Marsh Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

Brilliant to find up to 100 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid again this year. Also in the area, 25 Common Spotted Orchid, and a decent count of 6 Ringlet butterfly.

Purple Hairstreak.

Purple Hairstreak. Ian Mitchell.

Steve Graham found 2 Purple Hairstreak atop of an Oak on Wednesday 18 June, and claims them to have been 3 weeks earlier than he expected, and his earliest ever record.

Wool Carder Bee. 

Wool Carder Bee Haslam Park 18 June. Martin Jump.

The Wool Carder Bee was rare up to the 1990's when the first records came from Heysham and Hornby in 1992/93. Until this time, this bee wasn't common anywhere in GB, but has spread to Scotland considerably since, where there are records which were confined to the south east 20 years ago.

Excellent find in Preston. Well done and congratulations Martin. 

The Header.

The excellent image of two adult and a 2nd summer Mediterranean Gull on Conder Pool certainly qualified for the header image. Thanks to Howard Stockdale.

And Finally.

Common Tern Conder Pool. Ian Mitchell.

Just as I was about to publish this post, in my inbox up pops another excellent image of a Common Tern. In the message, Ian Mitchell says....'it looks like this Common Tern has bagged itself a good sized Sand Eel'....Can't disagree with that, and many thanks for sending it to me, much appreciated Ian. 

Early Peaking Numbers!

There were some impressive numbers to be seen on Thursday. I started my day at Conder Pool where - after an earlier visit to find c.700 - I returned there at high tide to find up to 800 Redshank. To say this is my best count ever of Redshank here is a bit of an understatement, and has you wondering if this early returning wader is the result of a poor breeding season. I have no records for 2023 yet, but for comparison the Morecambe Bay WeBS count for July 2022 was 553 Redshank.

Another peak count at Conder Green on Thursday, was at least 20 Common Sandpiper which I counted from upstream from the railway bridge, to downstream in the Conder Channel. Conder Green is traditionally the place for good counts of this wader, rated only below Skippool where 31 Common Sandpiper were recorded 29 June 2022.

Other notes from Conder Pool excluding the Common Tern colony and Avocet, third time lucky for me to pick up the adult Little Ringed Plover, I understand only one chick survived to fledging this year. Also seen, 15 Greenshank of which the nearest corresponding date for comparison was 12 Greenshank here on 17 July 2023. The long staying 'black' Ruff and 3 Black-tailed Godwit, and there was a small group of 18 Lapwing to note on an island.

 

In the midst of the Redshank horde was an adult Mediterranean Gull hidden by a Black-headed Gull, but one of the three Black-tailed Godwit stood out amongst the Redshank.  

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson, 3 Mediterranean Gull, 12 Avocet, up to 130 Curlew and 250 Lapwing, a lone adult Common Tern and a female Eider, 16 Little Egret and 62 Canada Geese.

I watched a House Martin enter a nest at the crossing cottage, and a Chiffchaff was at Saltcote Pond were I saw not a single dragonfly.

Garden News.

Recent goings on in the garden have been, a recently fledged Blackbird, the video made from the patio window in the dull early morning light at 5.27am on Friday, with adult Goldfinch on the feeders. The Robin also returned yesterday, last years return date to the garden was a day later on 13 July.

iRecords.

I was pleased to see my 8 Bilberry Bumblebee on Birk Bank, and up to 100 Southern Marsh Orchid in Lancaster records accepted.

One For The Orchid Buff's....

....and a moth, a dragonfly, and some flycatchers.

I've had an interest in orchids for a few years now, especially any to be found in the Lancaster area, an interest that increased when I found the Bee Orchid here some years ago now with my good friend and mentor John Leedal. 

Bee Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

The Bee Orchid is seen as one of the best known and loved of its kind, its flowering is sporadic, which accounts for failures to find it at the same location year on year, and contributes to why I've not seen it for 4 years since June 2020.

But my visit here this time turned out to be a bit of a revelation when I found what I regarded to be a good count of Northern Marsh Orchid. 

Southern Marsh Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

I can't claim the record of orchids found at this site east of Lancaster to be the first, but I can certainly claim it to be the first record of up to 100 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid here as opposed to any records in previous years of misidentified Northern Marsh Orchid. 

Southern Marsh Orchid Detail

This is the link to an end piece I wrote following the discussion that ensued on Wild Orchids of the UK website Orchids

Small China Mark.

Small China Mark. Pete Woodruff.

A nice Small China Mark on the canal towpath. Fairly common around still and slow-moving water, the larvae are semi-aquatic feeding on duckweed, and building floating cases from fragments of the food plant.

Emperor Dragonfly.

Emperor Dragonfly Birk Bank 6 June. Ian Mitchell.

The Emperor Dragonfly is referred to in The Dragonflies of Lancashire and North Merseyside Steve White and Philip H. Smith, as....'remains absent in the uplands'....though this reference was published in 2015, and I await a reply from Steve see if this is still the case with the species in 2024.

Pied Flycatcher.

I was grateful to AC for confirmation of up to 6 pairs of Pied Flycatcher in the Marshaw-Tower Lodge-Trough Bridge area, with five boxes taken, and a tree nesting pair as I had suggested a couple of weeks ago. On a trip into Bowland on Thursday, it's a pleasure for me to report on his behalf, evidence of possible breeding Spotted Flycatcher Tower Lodge area, and a pair of Redstart at both Marshaw and Abbeystead both with breeding evidence....Great Stuff AC. 

I was grateful to Ian Mitchell on three counts, 1) for forwarding me the record and image of a male Emperor Dragonfly at Birk Bank, 2) for info that the record of Bilberry Bumblebee at Birk Bank has been officially accepted, 3) for the excellent header image of the same Bilberry Bumblebee.

A Little Interest Here And There.

Top of my list for recent interest is the Orchid I found in Lancaster. The discovery developed into something a little more interesting than I expected when I first came across the plant, in that I had recorded it as a Northern Marsh Orchid, but having sent a picture for definitive ID, I found a spilt of opinions between the Northern and Southern of the species. 

Southern Marsh Orchid. Pete Woodruff.

In the end and with the help of a leading expert in the field, I decided it had to be a Southern Marsh Orchid Dactylorchis praetermissa that I had found along the canal towpath near Lancaster.

Early Bumblebee. Pete Woodruff.

More interest came in the garden, with the appearance of a few smart Early Bumblebee Bombus pratorum complete with it's fluffy body pile, most were investigating the contents of our Water Avens.

Many thanks go to Ana Minguez who posted a great little video of a Kentish Plover. 

This instantly prompted me to recall the two Kentish Plover I found, the first one as far back as 30 years ago on 19 November 1994, when I remember seeing a plover with black legs at Teal Bay in Morecambe. Halcyon days, and I recall receiving rich compliments from the recorder at the time, when he wrote in the LDBWS Annual Report 1994....'The wintering Rossall bird was intercepted on return passage by P.Woodruff at Hest Bank, before disturbance by a windsurfer saw it's perhaps premature departure. Thanks to PW for driving to Heysham to inform me'.

Kentish Plover Plover Scar. Photo Courtesy Fylde Bird Club

The second Kentish Plover I found was on Plover Scar at Cockersand 13 years ago on 3 May 2011. This bird had the distinction of being only the second record this century, the last one at Marshside North Merseyside in 2004.

Picture Gallery.

I have received some excellent images recently, the authors of which are appropriately credited and much appreciated.

Martin Jump caught this shot of the Avocet seeing off a Spoonbill at Newton Marsh 15 May.

Howard Stockdale got this stunning shot of two stunning Mediterranean Gull, at Conder Pool 25 May.

Ian Mitchell claimed the first Painted Lady of the year in our area, it was around the trig point on Nicky Nook 21 May.

Whilst I wait for the weather to improve and the dragonflies to put in an appearance, all of this has filled the gap in B2B nicely.