The Cormorant.

Cormorant. Pete Woodruff.



On Monday I found the Cormorant in the photograph above at Glasson Dock. In all my years birding it is by far the best opportunity I ever had of studying this species at close quarters in particular in the photograph once I got it off the card in my camera and on to the computer. I know at least one consultant of mine  - with my appreciation for comments on this bird - who agrees with the claim that it is indeed a strong contender of the subspecies 'Continental Cormorant' sinensis. 

Cormorant ID is shrouded in confusion when it comes to claiming sinensis, in the past some believed ID was achieved by the amount of white feathering on the head but this is now known to be erroneous and claims are now based upon the shape/size of the gular patch. Breeding adults are whiter-headed than the British Cormorant but the amount of white in the latter varies increasingly with age and older carbo may be very white headed and are not separable from sinensis by this feature. They breed in the Netherlands, south and central Europe east to Asia, India, and China and are more migratory than British Cormorants with some moving south to Egypt and the Persian Gulf.

In Mitchells day the Cormorant in Lancashire was regarded as 'numerous' only on the Mersey sandbanks with just single figures at other coastal sites, but Oakes added the Lune, Wyre, and Ribble to the list of major sites but never quoted any figures.

The first British record of Cormorant of the subspecies sinensis was of a bird at Christchurch in Hampshire in 1873 and was accepted by the BOU 58 years later in 1931. Evidence of conclusive proof was provided when a bird found in Newhaven, Sussex in February 1936 had been ringed in Germany in May three years earlier in 1933.

Tomorrow - if the weather is suitable - it is quite possible I'll go up Clougha/Birk Bank, if I do I'll be more than a little surprised to find a Stonechat up there, if I find two I'll be more than a little amazed, but....birds never cease to amaze me!

The Med Has It!

Brown Hare. John Bateman

Lots of Brown Hare activity at Cockersand now being the month of March and thanks to JB for the photograph and for accompanying me on my birding today. And....heres another pic below with two more to follow.

Waxwing. Brian Rafferty

RS has got me going with the Waxwings and one outside his window at home got him going too, in any case we're soon about to have seen the last of them until who knows when. Photographs of Waxwings don't come any better than the one above....Thanks BR.

We decided to head off to Knott End this morning but the Conder Green magnet pulled us in there first but we just took in the pool briefly which held just 2 Goldeneye and 2 Little Grebe of note, and a Spotted Redshank obliged in the creeks. At Knott End an adult Mediterranean Gull eventually took the prize for the day. A brief look into the Rawcliffe area produced a Buzzard. I hear of sixteen counted in the area recently, I'm not aware of the status in 2011 but historically this sounds like a mega count to me.

In the stubble fields off Fluke Hall Lane c.180 Golden Plover with c.100 Lapwing, and 10 Skylark noted. At Fluke Hall just 14 Linnet of note. On Pilling Marsh, at least 5,000 Pink-footed Geese, and at Sand Villa I counted at least 75 Whooper Swans with no Bewick's Swans seen here today. 

At Cockersands, c.700 Dunlin and a Grey Plover, though I think JB may have seen more of the latter and other species, if he did you can find out HERE On Jeremy Lane 3 Whooper Swans seen as yesterday being an adult and two immatures. Off Bodie Hill, 2 Bewick's Swans, 20 Goldeneye, c.100 Black-tailed Godwit, and c.30 Bar-tailed Godwit. On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock I concentrated on mainly c.650 Black-headed/Common Gulls to no avail, and otherwise noted just 2 Little Grebe with yesterdays c.2,000 Pink-footed Geese still on Colloway Marsh.

And the penultimate pic....

Kingfisher. David Cookson  

As far as I'm concerned photographs of the Kingfisher don't come any better than this one....Thanks DC.

And....

Bluethroat. Phil Slade.

Photographs of the Bluethroat don't come any better than this one either....Thanks PS.

And a good time was had by all! 

What Four!

Goldeneye. Brian Rafferty

Monday means four hours birding for me at the moment, well more than a moment as it may take a while for me to get the situation changed by negotiation. So I was at Conder Green this morning where I eventually found 2 Spotted Redshank and 2 Greenshank, followed by a singing male Reed Bunting, 42 Wigeon in the channel below the railway bridge, with another six Wigeon on Conder Pool where a Little Grebe was to note, also 3 Goldeneye and 45 Common Gull. At Glasson Dock on the canal basin I noted 2 Pochard drakes, 3 Goldeneye, 34 Tufted Duck, and a Great-crested Grebe. 

On the Lune Estuary the most notable thing here was the miserable count of 55 Wigeon, surely a minimum count of mega proportions in winter at this location, also of note were reasonable estimates of 650 Bar-tailed Godwit, 280 Golden Plover, 130 Dunlin, and 4 Goosander. On Colloway Marsh at least 2,000 Pink-footed Geese were distant. On Jeremy Lane, 3 Whooper Swans were an adult and two immature, and the Little Owl on view again.

The visit to Cockersands was almost a non-event but I had to note one of the locations traditional few wintering Grey Plovers, a Dunnock got into my records here, and I could count only 19 Linnet on what I now understand to be a small section of the field under the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme which obviously serves the same purpose as the - mistakenly named by me - set-aside. If you haven't already done so you may be interested in what a contributor to Birdsblog has said in a comment on my post 'Set-aside'. Although I hadn't set out to do a count today I found 14 Brown Hares in the Cockersands area without any difficulty.

And Finally....

Teal. Brian Rafferty

It had to be yet another of those 'BR pics with a difference' showing the drake Teal on a virtual vertical take off, and at the top of the post a pair of Goldeneye engaged in display. Thanks for the two pics Brian....both helping Birds2blog to look more interesting.

Revolution and a couple of pics.

R + L. Richard Shilling.



If you've been following Birds2blog for any length of time, you'll know that I don't allow politics or controversy on to the blog....well not too much of it if I can help it though there's lots of both surrounding the birds.

Richard Shillings latest post is really good both with regard to his latest creation and the excellent write up below his illustration above. In any case I've not 'plugged' RS's website recently so he was overdue this one which - as always - I'd recommend you take a look at HERE

And the pics....

Great-crested Grebes. David Cookson

This photograph of the Great-crested Grebes engaged in courtship display is both beautiful and brilliant. Thanks DC....nature at its most breathtaking. 

Otter. Ian Tallon.

And a nice pic of the Otter recently discovered in the Lakes at Ambleside. Thanks for this, I liked it so much that I edited the post to put it up....nice one Ian.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....and hopefully will be for a couple of hours tomorrow.

Birds on the brink.

Please take a look at this interesting video on the Sociable Lapwing. It's four minutes long and mostly talk but I enjoyed what I heard and I think you will too.

This video also highlights some tracking studies being undertaken on the Sociable Lapwing. The species is one of around 200 critically endangered birds throughout the world. Fascinating stuff which we should all take an interest in albeit some methods in the high tech 21st century may have some of us wondering if we really should be interfering with nature to this extent.

If you use the link in my sidebar 'BirdLife International' you'll find plenty of interest with much more reading on the Sociable Lapwing including a record count for the country of at least 90 Sociable Lapwings found at Salalah in Oman on 25 December 2010, plus all manner of bird related things some subjects of which make for 'hard to take' reading. 

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!....but won't be until Monday at the earliest.

Set-aside.

A few brief notes about the Linnet and how they - and many other farmland species - could be helped but don't seem to be. 

Linnets. John Bateman.

The Linnet - a widespread though declining species in Great Britain - is referred to in our area as fairly common but scarce in winter. In Oakes day in Lancashire he considered it to be a common and widespread resident, particularly abundant on the coastal plains both north and south of the Ribble. Today there are many aspects of the status of the Linnet which remain unclear including the breeding status since the 1970's. The bird is recorded in most of  GB but not in the Highlands of Scotland, Shetland, and large parts of the Hebrides. Many Linnets remain around the breeding sites throughout the winter, whilst others undertake extensive movements to winter as far south as Gibraltar.

The Linnet is a bird with the need  for shrubby vegetation to provide safe communal roosting sites and for seeds which can be collected either in low-growing shrubs, herbaceous vegetation, or on the ground. The dependence of the Linnet on seeds has left them vulnerable to the effects of intensive agricultural intensification. But there is a great deal of confusion in the reasons behind the decline of the Linnet population and one of many suggestions is that hedgerow management - how tidy they all are when trimmed down to size - could play a large part in that nests are much less concealed and therefore more prone to predation.

Set-aside at Cockersands. Pete Woodruff. 

One thing for sure is that the almost tiny set-aside at Cockersands developed last summer - when I took the photograph above - has proved beyond doubt the importance of this kind of exercise. This small area of winter seed was initially taken up by Greenfinch and Linnet in mid October 2010 and a count of in excess of 100 birds was made by me on 15 November since which at least 70 Linnets have remained to this day whilst curiously the Greenfinch deserted the area completely.

So, can we have some more set-aside please, more to the point....why haven't we!

Two ones and a two!

Red-throated Pipit. Phil Slade   



This RTP is currently in my sidebar where it doesn't get the justice it deserves neither for the bird or the photograph. It's another of PS's fresh from Egypt, a smart bird and thanks Phil....I gave Conder Green an hour followed by the same at Glasson Dock, followed by a couple along the promenade at Morecambe from Teal Bay to the Stone Jetty.

Conder Green remains quiet again today although three of the 'specials' showed well with 2 Spotted Redshank and a Greenhank in the creeks, also noted were c.120 Teal and the traditional Grey Plover. On Conder Pool - which is now a lake following the recent 10m+ tides - just 4 Goldeneye of note, from here I saw c.250 Pink-footed Geese over Jeremy Lane. The Lune Estuary from Glasson Dock produced nothing to add to my sightings on Tuesday but I noted at least 420 Golden Plover, 300 Dunlin, 350 Common Gull, 2 Goldeneye, and 3 Goosander.

Lesser Black-backed Gulls. Pete Woodruff.

Well you can tell by the quality its one of my photographic achievements of the seven 'Lesser Yellowlegs' on the groyne at the Stone Jetty this afternoon, and between here and Teal Bay I noted, 32 Eider, 21 Goldeneye, 9 Great-crested Grebe, 3 Red-breasted Merganser, and 3 Scaup one a drake.  

So when I look at the results from some serious five hours birding its not all that impressive if your out to 'collect some targets' and birds to make you jump up and down with glee and the need to 'get the news out', but thats not the be all and end all of my birding, and Morecambe Bay is never going to be the birding hotspot of the UK, so I'll settle for the achievements of what I saw which are all recorded here.   

Crocus. Warren Baker

ITS SPRING!!

Pics2blog....

But first another interesting  - if sad and tragic - read about the ever suffering Hen Harrier

Kestrel Young. Phil Slade

I came across - well searched for them actually - some more excellent photographs amongst which I found these two young little beauties which will one day become....

Kestrel. Phil Slade

Two smart little raptors like this male Kestrel.

Sparrowhawk. Warren Baker

Now this bird with the staring eyes you wouldn't want staring at you if you was a small bird, was the very same individual photographed a few days later in the garden of a birder in Kent - whose website I follow daily - and which was observed to take out another bird regular to the feeders in the same garden which was a....

Sparrowhawk/Great-spotted Woodpecker. Warren Baker

Great-spotted Woodpecker....Not a nice sight but nature at its rawest and the price to pay by the bird for visiting the feeder, and the price to pay by us for putting out the feeders. 

And a couple of 'gulls' I'm not likely to misidentify if/when I come across them....

Iceland Gull. Colin Bushell.

Yet another smart bird, an adult Iceland Gull on the Isle of Islay where Colin visited this very month. Thanks for this Colin....nice one.

And finally....

Slender-billed Gull. Phil Slade

I think I'm going to know this bird if I ever find one. I missed a Slender-billed Gull in Norfolk for one day on 5 May 2000, I arrived at Cley the following day. Another one of PS's Egypt specials on his recent visit there....Excellent photographs as ever Phil and many thanks.

Persistence.

Snow Bunting. Pete Woodruff.



A bit of persistence in birding nearly always pays off and a bit of it did do today at Cockersands where I located the 1st winter male Snow Bunting again, pity it had its back to me for the pic before flying off.

Rock Pipit. Geoff Gradwell 

Also 5 Rock Pipits two of which accompanied the Snow Bunting on the inland edge of Plover Scar. Other birds of note, 28 Turnstone, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Goldeneye, 3 Eider, 12 Blackbirds in the horse paddock at Bank Houses, 4 Whooper Swans were seen from the headland in a field some distance inland. A Redshank 'screaming' as it flew past me had a Peregrine Falcon in pursuit and luckily got away with its life on this occasion. At least 70 Linnet were at the set-aside again.

On Jeremy Lane I could only find 2 Whooper Swans today an adult and immature, the Little Owl was perched quietly on one of the beams in the old farm building. On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, 8 Goldeneye and 2 Pochard drakes were of note. On the Lune Estuary I noted estimates of 220 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Bar-tailed Godwit, and 200 Golden Plover, 3 Goosander, and 4 Goldeneye were also of note.

At Conder Green a crawl round the circuit revealed absolutely zero of note save a Spotted Redshank in the creeks, and on Conder Pool 5 Goldeneye, just 2 Wigeon drakes, 10 Tufted Duck, and 2 Canada Geese. 

And finally....

Twite. Geoff Gradwell

A nice little pic of the nice little Twite on the railings at Knott End. I know you will view the blog sooner or later Geoff and it was good to see you this afternoon to put a face to the name....Hope you like the pics and many thanks for them.

Crossbills at Helsington Barrows.

Crossbill. Simon Hawtin

In the late-spring to mid-summer period of 1997 there was an exceptional influx of Crossbills in the North West Regions of Wales/Cheshire/Lancashire/Cumbria and including the Isle of Man, and a total of 1,340 birds were seen at 43 different sites. During this period some long staying Crossbills - 50 on one visit  made - were at Helsington Barrows near Kendal in Cumbria and John Leedal and I visited the area on a few occasions. John took several photographs over the visits and some of the results developed into something of much interest to us. Eventually I was in touch with an authority and made some comments in an initial letter which read something like....

'Through his photographs John Leedal and I have realised the presence of a male individual which displays it's odd distinctly yellowish feathers. In one picture this bird is perched next to a female Crossbill which gives the opportunity to compare and appreciate the greyish-green upperparts of this male, but the main features noted were the distinct yellow crown and mantle, the vent was also distinctly yellow and notably lacking in notches'.

Although 1st winter males are variable in plumage detail this Crossbill was in due course featured in an annual report in which it was referred to as a possible xanthachroistic male seen on five visits to Helsington Barrows showing yellow feathering around the body, with some hint of red, with the exception of the mantle, back and upperwings which are coloured as female.  

Over the years I've come to appreciate some adult males can resemble females as opposed to being mainly reddish, whilst others appear distinctly orange in tone. Even 14 years on this Crossbill at Helsington Barrows in 1997 remains intriguing to me.

Many thanks for the pic Simon....long time no see.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!....and hopefully will tomorrow at least for a couple of hours.