Fog Bound,Ice Bound.

Not the best of weather for a trawl

round the patch as the pic illustrates.... but it has to be done.

If anywhere has an entitlement to be advertised as a good birding spot to spend an hour now and again - or better still every day - Conder Green has. Within five minutes of leaving the motor at the car park in the picnic area I had found a female Stonechat, Greenshank, 2 Spotted Redshank, and the Kingfisher all from the iron bridge. On the circular back to the car park I noted a Little Grebe, a Reed Bunting, a Dunnock, a Grey Plover, and by way of a change I counted up to 100 Teal in the channel. The pool as expected was frozen but 6 Wigeon held on to a small area of water, the place was otherwise deserted.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock I was barely able to pick out c.20 Goldeneye, c.70 Dunlin close by were the only birds in view through the 'soup'.

Things were no better at Cockersands but I could just count 'about' 250 Redshank and Dunlin, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Turnstone, four Red-breasted Merganser, and c.900 Knot. A Little Egret was in one of the Abbey Farm fields along with c.200 Golden Plover and 4 Brown Hare.

On Gulf Lane the Tree Sparrows were around but uncounted again, and at Moss Edge probably in excess of 6,000 Starlings. At the west end of Gulf Lane were c.5,000 Pink-footed Geese, despite going through these birds a couple of times over 30 minutes I could find no odd one's out though many of them faded into the mist. I also noted a Sparrowhawk, and 2 Brown Hare.

On Fluke Hall Lane there was 85 Whooper Swans of which about 10 - 12 were juveniles.

If you are reading this, and have read other posts on this blog I really appreciate that. Enjoy your birding in whatever form it takes as thats what its all about, enjoying and learning, I do all the time, every time.

Thanks again for taking a look and......A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Scaup.

The female Scaup turned up again on the basin at Glasson Dock yesterday after an absence of a week or two, last seen by me during a WeBS count on the River Lune off Bodie Hill on 14 December.

My IT wizard turned up unexpectedly this evening so had to cut short my computer 'fun' for tonight. Hopefully the equipment will work much better after he performs his special brand of expertise......

......normal service will resume as soon as possible!

Overdue.

A day round the 'patch' with JB today was well overdue but didn't quite produce the birds we know are there, but also didn't take any of the edge of the tour....it never does as results aren't everything. But the Stonechat's here and at Cockersands (four in total) didn't show, the White-fronted Geese at Aldcliffe didn't, and the Whooper Swan - presumably the one with 200 Mute Swan's on Jeremy Lane 9 December - at Glasson didn't.

c.2,000 Pink-footed Geese were too far away on Heaton Marsh and the fields beyond this morning. I'm not sure I personally ever saw PFG here in December and certainly never in this number if I did.

Two Spotted Redshank and 2 Greenshank were again at Conder Green, also two Little Grebe, and a Grey Plover were to note.

On the canal basin at Glasson Dock the female Scaup here again today, the drake Pochard number increased to eleven, c.100 Tufted Duck and a Goldeneye were also on here.

On the Lune Estuary the Goldeneye number also increased to at least 100 counted today which didn't include the ones 'under' whilst panning through them. Some more 'at least' numbers were 1,000 Bar-tailed Godwit and Knot. A Little Egret was on Glasson Marsh.

A brief visit to Cockersands was another mis-timed one at high tide but revealed 5 Turnstone near Plover Scar, a species always of note.

On Gulf Lane some uncounted Tree Sparrow were almost certainly the c.40 birds seen here on Friday 13.

On Pilling Marsh the only bird to note was a single Little Egret. Obviously the wrong time here as we missed the Bean Goose and 2 Barnacle Geese here this morning. Interestingly there wasn't a 'goose' in sight late afternoon.

On Bradshaw Lane Head 2 Short-eared Owl gave excellent views here again today.

The pic as always has nothing to do with 'birding' but is of the Central Pier many moon's ago in a thin shroud of mist, and - if you look hard enough - several hundred Starling's going to roost which they did in their thousands.

Thanks and Merry Christmas.

If you've been taking a look at the blog since I started it up recently I'd like to thank you and hope you found at least a little something of interest on it and didn't find anything 'grandiose' or scientifically inaccurate as I'm not guilty of either. Please continue to follow it up and let me have your comments if you feel that way inclined as I'd love to see them positive or negative.

The pic is about as near to a Christmas one as is possible within my picture library and was taken many years ago in the Coniston area of the lakes where I spent many of my days off work in a previous life before 'birding' took me over - and 'dumped' photography - which I wish it had have done fifty years ago instead of only a mere thirty.

Thanks again and......MERRY CHRISTMAS.


Pete Wooduff.

Return....

....to the patch to note the highlights.

At Conder Green, the best bird here had to be the male Stonechat seen again, 2 Greenshank, a Kingfisher, 6 Little Grebe, 2 Snipe, and 2 Goldeneye.

On Glasson basin - where the marina looked nothing remotely like it does in this picture - 4 Goldeneye, and 10 drake Pochard are still increasing in number, where do all the females go?

On the Lune estuary a Merlin and later a Pergrine Falcon both succeeded in putting to flight in sheer panic in excess of 18,000 waders, wildfowl, and gulls, also noted 2 Little Egret. I reckon the female Scaup of late is lurking somewhere on the river here.

At Cockersands lighthouse another male Stonechat, and at the Caravan Park another male Stonechat seen. In the Bank Houses paddock, 10 Blackbirds, a Song Thrush, c. 40 Linnets, and 4 Meadow Pipits. Five Grey Partridge seen just down the road from here in Abbey Farm fields.

An enjoyable - if bloody miserable day weather wise - checking the birds of the area whilst hoping for something 'new' which does happen occasionally but not often enough perhaps.

I have a distinct feeling this may be my last 'birding day' until next Monday to which I can only add roll on next Monday......better still roll on Easter!

Good Birding....

....bad weather, which turned on JB and I in just the same way that it did on Friday last, but before we finally let it grind us down....

At Conder Green a Stonechat NEVER fails to please me, also a Greenshank in the Conder channel. It was good to find the wintering Common Sandpiper on Conder Pool before flying off to the creeks. Eight drake Pochard on Glasson bowl means the number slowly increasing but a female never in sight. On the Lune Estuary there were several thousand waders, wildfowl, and gull's which JB has already comprehensively reported on the LDBWS website. My notes include a Little Egret below Waterloo Cottage, and (by way of a change for me) I noted at least 400 Common Gull here today whilst looking for a Med Gull. From Bodie Hill c.80 Goldeneye is an ever increasing number of this species on the River Lune here. A 'few' Redwing were still around on Moss Lane.

At this point of the proceedings we almost both agreed to throw in the towel in a miserable low mist and heavy drizzle, but decided to continue on to Pilling where at least we did have the reward of a Barn Owl on Fluke Hall Lane, an area never seen before in both our records. On Pilling Marsh the usual and now expected Little Egret - but just the one seen today - and c.500 Pink-footed Geese brought the day to a positively miserable end in a damp pea soup.

Visitors to the LDBWS website and RBA pager owners will have noticed mention of a frustrating 'grebe' which instantly appeared to large for Black-necked/Slavonion Grebe and to small for Great-crested Grebe which 'should' have made it a Red-necked Grebe. John's account indicates the frustration which followed and until/unless someone reports otherwise - hopefully tomorrow - the claim remains a firm 'possible' only.

I never took a Barn Owl pic in my life but the Tawny Owl above was an excellent find a couple of years ago in the Forest of Bowland.

Notes....

....from my book on bird behaviour.

Many years ago now I staked out one day at Out Rawcliffe to see a Barn Owl which had been interesting me over a period in it's daytime feeding habits and during the 20 minutes I was there I took note of a Yellowhammer. I decided to time the bird which was singing constantly during the 20 minutes and timed the song - which was repeated eight times per minute - resulting in my discovering this individual singing an amazing 160 times....some songster!

Another bird seen one day at Witherslack was a Song Thrush, a species I had no idea was given to mimicry. However, I saw this bird on two consecutive visits at the same place and was heard to mimic a Green Woodpecker with remarkable accuracy.

I think most of us know the Starling is a perfectionist at mimicking other birds and the one I saw and heard on a wire above our house one day certainly thought it was a Curlew....amazing stuff!

The cloudscape was taken from the Clougha track....well where else!

Aborted....

....by the weather which took a turn for the worse

early afternoon. But not before a couple of hours doing a round with JB/BT during which we found 120 Whooper Swans behind Head Dyke Farm where we attempted to gain permission to get closer to the birds but failed because we couldn't find anybody on the farm premises to grant it. Also a Little Egret seen from Head Dyke Lane. Up to 6 Little Egret were on Pilling Marsh, and one Little Egret on Glasson Marsh. Earlier we had seen Tree Sparrow's on New Road opposite North Woods Hill Farm, and c.20 at the feeding station on New Road. At Eagland Hill c.5,000 Pink-footed Geese here. And at Conder Green the only birds seen were 3 Little Grebe through a wound down car window which invited a passing motorist to drench JB and myself with about two gallon of rain water standing on the road surface, obvious confirmation that someone of illegitimate origin had just driven by.

Botanist's may be interested to see the Marsh Gentian in the pic. A rare plant I prefer not to name the location of on the internet, but which - with the help of my late mentor John Leedal - we found after much searching in Sept/Aug 2004. Subsequent visits over a couple of weeks during these two months turned up eight spikes which I recall excited JL considerably to say the least......halcyon days! I've not the faintest idea where else this plant can be found, but do know the species is a protected one.

Half Day

Only managed three hours after lunch today before the weather turned nasty.

A Merlin put an impressive minimum of 8,000 Knot, 650 Bar-tailed Godwit, 255 Golden Plover, and a 'no idea but a lot' number of Lapwing to flight on the Lune at Glasson Dock, 18 Goldeneye were counted here. At Conder Green 2 Greenshank, a Spotted Redshank, 4 Goldeneye, 5 Little Grebe were on the pool, and 3 Grey Plover in the channels, and singles only today of Fieldfare.

I noted c.400 Golden Plover on Glasson Marsh but wondered if some were from the count earlier at Glasson Dock. On the basin just a drake Goldeneye to note and not even the regular drake Pochard's seen today.

A badly timed visit to Cockersands at high tide showed just a couple of hundred Oystercatcher and 6 Turnstone on Plover Scar, with c.40 Black-tailed Godwit in fields, and a 'few' Tree Sparrow. Over Cockerham Marsh c.5,000 Pink-footed Geese seen.

The pic of Cockersands Abbey was taken on a much more pleasant day in the summer with the monstrous power station cunningly hidden behind the ancient abbey.

Hunting Strategy.

I had read an article in a previous edition of British Birds about the hunting strategy of Eurasion Sparrowhawk Accipiter nisus which prompted me to write another which was subsequently published in the January 2005 issue.

This bird was observed from the Public Hide at Leighton Moss on 3 September 2003. The bird appeared in flight over the full length of the pool then perched out in the open on a dead branch. During the next twelve minutes I watched it fly across the water to the reed edge a distance of something like 150m in the direction from where it had first come, and without landing turned and flew back to the perch it had come from. This bird repeated this same manoeuvre three more times, always taking the same direct flight path and to the same area of reed edge, always turning without landing, and returning to the same perch. On each occasion flight was fast and direct whilst notably not as rapid as it would have been whilst chasing prey. I was now watching this bird crossing the pool for the fifth time, but this time it disappeared into the reeds at the precise point at which it had turned on the previous four sorties and emerged with a small unidentified prey item and flew off.

As far as I could see, this individual appeared to know that prey was in the reeds all the time and if this was a planned method of hunting it is one which I have never witnessed before and on this occasion at least, was a successful one.

Sparrowhawk image Pete Woodruff.