The Great Auk.

The Great Auk is shown in the brilliant artwork of Thorburn, centre bottom in the plate below. 



Auks. Archibald Thorburn.

The Great Auk was a flightless North Atlantic sea bird, ancient remains of which have been found to prove it occurred  in the North Atlantic and Northern Britain for a considerable period of time. The bones of three adult birds were found below Viking level at the Jarlshof settlement, Mainland Shetland. In 1549 it was mentioned as being found on the Western Isles, and 240 years later in 1789 a Great Auk was said to have visited St Kilda. Bones found in old sea caves at Whitburn proved that it frequented the British coast, but by the mid 19th century it was on the verge of extinction which eventually came about through the activities of human hunting and persecution....The story of its last sighting gave me a distinct feeling of nausea.

Five men  - which I can only describe as idiots - came across a sleeping Great Auk on Stack-an-Armin, St Kilda in July c.1840. One of these men  - who were completely immersed in the beliefs and superstitions of the time - grabbed the bird by the neck and proceeded to confine the creature in a *bothy for three days. The bird was suspected of being a master of wind and weather and was blamed for causing a violent storm, it was cruelly clubbed to death with a large stone in a prolonged attack....executed as a witch! It was the last Great Auk to be seen alive in Britain. 

*A small hut or cottage for use as a mountain refuge.

Hunting With Eagles.

It may be three days before I get out birding again so meanwhile, please take a look at these two 'whats this got to do with birding' videos. I personally have some reservations about this first one, but who am I to want to see an end to age old traditions but....shouldn't the Eagle be Wild and Free.

This one is a short sneaky look at the new Madagascar series, the music might annoy you....it did me!



I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!

Hard at times!

It was a bit hard at times today and if the fog had been forecast I didn't know it had been, it played a major part in disrupting my efforts for a couple of hours at Conder/Glasson, followed by more than a couple at Morecambe around the tide again....but I did my best. Be warned there are three 'so whats this got to do with birds then' photographs to follow the one below, all credited to yours truly. 

Wood Pigeons. Logging off at Conder Green! 

Although it was hard work at times because of the fog my day was already made up ten minutes out of the car at Conder Green when I found a male Stonechat in the horse paddock on the left just past the Stork Hotel, almost certainly SP's 29 January bird. The place was virtually void of any waders today and the circuit produced just 4 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting, and a Song Thrush heard in good song only. On Conder Pool, the Jeremy Lane of late  immature Whooper Swan was with 8 Mute Swans, also 4 Goldeneye noted. 

On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, 10 Goldeneye and a Great-crested Grebe. The Lune Estuary was almost blocked out by the fog but I managed to filter through it to find a Spotted Redshank, counted at least 100 Golden Plover, and 3 Goosander drakes through the murk. At Bodie Hill the fog lifted temporarily to see Tuesdays 120 Black-tailed Godwit and - surprise,surprise - a Little Egret on Glasson Marsh....long time no see here! On Jeremy Lane the Little Owl seen.

At Morecambe by 1.30pm I was confident the day had improved to become sunny but I was proved wrong and the fog banks kept coming and blotted out anything offshore rendering the birding a bit of a half hearted affair. But at Teal Bay where the tide was pushing the birds out of the fog and into view I noted 720 Lapwing 650 Curlew, 96 Bar-tailed Godwit, 75 Wigeon, 24 Eider, 6 Goldeneye, and 3 Great-crested Grebe, a Peregrine Falcon passed by at least twice.



This was what turned out to be the last fog bank to pass through Morecambe as seen from Broadway where I counted 120 Turnstone on the groyne, an excellent count for the species.

By the time I reached the Stone Jetty it had become a spring like late afternoon, thought the birding had fallen flat on its face unfortunately, but....

LR66 was looking good again in the brilliant sunlight and flat calm sea.

One or two bits!

A bit late this evening for posting and not having got any birding in today, nothing to report. However, you may have seen in my post on the Wheatear and my commenting the males will have already left their wintering quarters in Africa and that birds could be seen on the south coast by late February....a bit of an understatement if the report I got this afternoon can be found to be genuine when two Wheatears were seen today near Halton Lea Gate, Midgeholme, Cumbria.

Swallows. Cliff Raby

Well the Weatears in Cumbria may well be early but the sign of things to come like the Swallows above will need a little more time before we can witness this kind of amazing spectacle....Pretty impressive stuff Cliff and thanks a bundle for allowing them on to Birds2blog for us all to enjoy.

Blackpool Storm. Peter Guy.

So whats this got to do with birds then, obviously nothing it's just a brilliant piece of photography taken last week at Cleveleys with my thanks to PG.

And finally, I just watched David Attenborough's new three part series 'Madagascar'....if you missed it thats unfortunate and I strongly recommend you try to catch up with it if you can as it is excellent, and if you can receive it in HD....WOW!

Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Well there's never really any guarantee but always a satisfaction to any birding as far as I'm concerned and today I had the company of JB, a birder who sees birding and wildlife in very much the same light as I do which makes our association all the more interesting.

Short-eared Owl. Pete Woodruff.

I only once had the opportunity to get a pic of the SEO with the sort of third rate photographic equipment I have today and this is the result from a couple of years ago. JB and I had excellent views of one of these brilliant creatures today quartering a field, the bird has been seen previously by us on 21 January.



Conder Green was a little on the quiet side this morning with nothing more than a single Goldeneye in the Conder channel below the railway bridge with another four on Conder Pool where I decided to become a recorder extraordinaire - well not quite -  for a few minutes and noted everything in sight, 5 Tufted Duck, 16 Wigeon, 32 Mallard, and 12 Mute Swans, in the creeks at least 80 Teal. A return visit on the way home produced a Greenshank and a Grey Plover.

I kept my recorders hat on at Glasson Dock and on the Lune Estuary noted estimates of, 5,000 Lapwing, 400 Redshank, 450 Dunlin, 465 Golden Plover, 45 Curlew, 36 Bar-tailed Godwit, 14 Black-tailed Godwit, a Spotted Redshank, 325 Wigeon, 29 Shelduck, and 3 Goosander drakes. Off Bodie Hill I noted c.120 Black-tailed Godwit and 4 Goldeneye drakes.

At Cockersands on my second attempt I finally caught up with the1st winter male Snow Bunting which - thanks to me freezing still when I found it - came within touching distance below the embankment overlooking Plover Scar. Also noted here, 2 Goldeneye drakes, and at least 90 Linnet at the set-aside.

On Pilling Marsh, 10 Whooper Swans, c.300 Pink-footed Geese (PFG), a Little Egret, and a distant Peregrine Falcon. At Fluke Hall, myself and about a half dozen other birders made no contact with anything amongst the c.1,500 PFG. Off Lancaster Road another c.4,000 PFG and 45 Whooper Swans seen, and a trip down Union Lane produced just 5 Corn Buntings.  

And finally....

Great-crested Grebe. Cliff Raby

Another reminder of the season to come. Thanks for this Cliff....excellent and much appreciated.

Coming Soon!

Wheatear. Pete Woodruff.

No other bird heralds the spring for me more than the Wheatear and I look forward to finding my first one of 2011 in early March when I start looking seriously at places like Cockersands where I've found most of my first Wheatears in the past.

The spring migration of this bird is quite a protracted affair and the first migrants of oenanthe will by now have already left their wintering grounds with the males on average leaving a week or two before the females, in exceptional cases some of these male birds could be found on the south coast by the end of this month. Incidentally, birds of the 'Greenland' race leucorhoa undergo what is probably the longest transoceanic migration of any other passerine.

Today breeding in the UK is chiefly on altitudes above 300m in Scotland, northwestern and southwesten  England, Wales, and western Ireland, but Oakes described the Wheatear as a mossland breeder, claiming them to be holding their own on several mosses into the mid-twentieth century, he eventually blamed increasing urbanisation for a decrease on the Fylde and Sefton coasts where none nested on the latter dunes after 1955 and with no reported breeding on the mosslands in more than 25 years. The Carnforth slag tips - which have laid claim to fame with a Shorelark there recently - was a long-established colony with nearly a double figure of Wheatear pairs breeding there in the 1980's which had declined to two during 1998-2004.

The last sighting of Wheatear has usually been made by the end of October, but records of birds in late November are frequent and include one seen at Sunderland Point on 24 November 1985, a sighting only surpassed by one seen at Rossall Point three days later in the same year on 27 November. I'll be on the lookout in a few weeks time, though if 2010 is anything to go by it will be 23 March when I found three birds on Clougha at over 300m....perhaps birds already on territory by then.

And finally, an excellent pic and a couple of notes....

Snow Bunting. David Cookson

I keep coming across 'photographs with a difference' lately and this one of the Snow Bunting is no exception....Brilliant David and many thanks. 

MEGA NEWS.

The Slaty-backed Gull had turned up again yesterday at Hanningfield Reservoir in Essex but not seen since. Today a Belted Kingfisher - a common waterside bird throughout North America - was found at Co. Derry, 10 miles SE of Londonderry.

Ready made gap fillers!

There's always some excellent 'gap filler' material on the Internet when I look for it between my birding days, and it's also often easy to find local and quite appropriate stuff for Birds2blog as the link which follows illustrates. If you'd like to see some pretty amazing....stunning....and excellent photography - including the familiar name of David Cookson - all you need to do is click Photo of the Year 

Although a little further afield this one created some interest for me and if you're a Dragonfly enthusiast it'll interest you too.

And some birds from even further afield can be seen here in....

The Worlds Rarest Birds photo competition

View more presentations from martinfowlie.

Mr Parker....fully charged!

Plus a 'chat' an 'owl' and a 'duck'.

But first I think you should take a look at this about the very nice Mr Parker, bearing in mind there are of course no convictions yet and being acquainted with the law of this land of ours who knows what'll happen, but as far as the story goes so far You'll like it ....well you should do!

Stonechat. Copyright Granted.

Another fine image of a male Stonechat which escaped from Conder Green without my knowing it had ever been there on 29 January.

The Short-eared Owl (SEO) in our area of Lancashire is a scarce upland breeding bird and winter visitor which finds itself on the Amber List as a Species of European Conservation Concern. I get the impression they are a little thin this winter but I was lucky enough to find one in the mist and murk of 21 January in the Rawcliffe area.

This bird breeds chiefly on heather moorland from Staffordshire to the Pennines and north to Scotland where it is absent from the highest parts of the north and west. It breeds in the Outer Hebrides on the Uists - but not on Lewis or Harris - and Orkney, but not on Shetland. The SEO has a need for short vegetation which is rich in small mammals with which the populations of the bird fluctuate with vole cycles, therefore the more abundant the voles, the more successful the owls. In Oakes time they were regular breeders in areas in Bowland and he names Ward Stone amongst them, he refers to the bird as 'a very scarce and local resident, though formerly known as a breeder on coastal mosses including Cockerham and Winmarleigh'.

As is often the case - very nearly always in my view - if you read about the histories of birds of prey you will come across the causes of highs and lows in their fortunes being attributed to humans, in particular the lows which are usually connected with persecution. How little things have changed over the years - though once again in my view - have done so for the worse in many respects which brings us nicely back to the lovely Mr Parker who - if you don't mind my reminding you - is not just a gamekeeper....but the bloody head one.

There are no ringing recoveries outside the UK but known data indicates that  large numbers of SEO's come to GB during the winter many of which are from Fennoscandia and eastern Europe as far as Russia.

And finally....

Wigeon. Brian Rafferty

Yet another of those 'out of the ordinary' pics with the drake Wigeon coming in to land....really appreciate this Brian.

Oh I do....

.....like to be beside the seaside!

The groynes along the promenade at Morecambe have become popular roosting sites for some of the waders in the bay as my miserable attempt at photographing a few of them today might indicate.

I decided it would be a good idea to check out the promenade again today either side of the tide starting at Teal Bay where I could only find 2 Scaup female from the previously recorded six of late, also to note here were 12 Pintail and just 3 Bar-tailed Godwit amongst the Oystercatcher throng with unimpressive numbers of Dunlin, Redshank, and Curlew. Some kind soul keeps putting up fat balls here and 3 Long-tailed Tits and a Dunnock were showing interest whilst I was here today.

Off Broadway an adult Mediterranean Gull, at least 20 Goldeneye also off here was exceptional by recent standards. Other birds noted along the way to the Stone Jetty, 38 Eider, 3 Red-breasted Merganser, and at least 13 Great-crested Grebe, on the jetty groyne 15 Turnstone were of note.

It turned out to be a pleasant birding morning at Morecambe with some decent sunshine though a pretty unfriendly wind which is forecast to become even more strong and unfriendly with heavy rain thrown in for good measure.

On arriving back at the motor I felt a strange magnetic feeling come over me and twenty minutes later found myself at Conder Green where I found a Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Common Sandpiper, 3 Grey Plover, and 4 Little Grebe. Conder Pool was quiet but 4 Goldeneye have taken up there.

And there ended my contribution to the recording of the birds of Morecambe Bay - well a mere fraction of it anyway - and Conder Green.

And finally....

Kestrel. Peter Fletcher.

I was more than a little impressed when I saw this photograph of the Kestrel by moonlight. Many thanks for letting me have this for Birds2blog, it is much appreciated Peter.

    

Uneventful....

....or eventful dependant on your viewpoint.

I drove down to Pilling this morning thinking....if six 'geese' species/races are going to be in the same field again as they were yesterday then PW may as well be in on the action, but they weren't and I left Fluke Hall prematurely not least because there was too many cars/dogs and bird-chasers around for my liking, not a goose in sight, and....this is not 'My Kind of Birding'. I called in at Pilling Marsh, returned via Cockerham Moss and arrived at Cockersands an hour and a half after leaving home without a bird entering my notes.

I pulled up outside Crook Cottage and counted 155 Black-tailed Godwit and at least 420 Dunlin noting them in the book before someone arrived on the scene to tell me he'd seen the Snow Bunting on the shingle below Cockersands Abbey swiftly producing a pic of the bird on his camera display....'may as well go and see this scarcity' and thanks very much for the info.

I spent the next 2.5 hours between the Abbey and the Caravan Park - including venturing out on to Plover Scar - to no avail. I'm going to cut this story short now as it's beginning to hurt and gives me a rough idea - though I don't know the reality of it - of what it's like to drive at 120 mph all the way to Devon from Inverness to find the 'mega' has done a bunk! And here's something else which did my head in....a guy had ventured way out onto the beach at Cockersands with 15 dogs of mixed breed - yes 15 - and put to flight a few thousand wildfowl/waders. I reckon 'pillock' is about as polite a description that I can come up with to avoid calling him what I really thought he was. I called in at Glasson Dock to find the estuary almost deserted again save 15 Black-tailed Godwit feeding quite close.

So thats it....next year I'm going to buy a season ticket to support a football team fighting to gain some recognition in the game and help pay the expenses for Manchester United. This birding lark - excuse the pun - is a waste of time and it's taken me all this time to find out.

Short-eared Owl. David Cookson

This SEO has already made an appearance on Birds2blog but it's the very bird I found on 21 January in the Out Rawcliffe area and which DC photographed on the same day unknown to me....Thanks for this David, excellent is the word.