Another Disaster.

Northern Rockhopper Penguin. Copyright Angel Wanless.



If you thought the UK didn't have Penguins you'd be wrong. Nightingale Island is part of the Tristan da Cunha UK Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, the island holds nearly half the world population of the Northern Rockhopper Penguin (NRP) which is currently involved in what could well turn out to be a twin environmental disaster.

The cargo vessel above has  recently been wrecked on this island causing serious pollution from the vessels 1,500 tonnes of fuel oil which has leaked out into the sea and surrounded Nightingale Island posing a major hazard to tens of thousands of pairs of the island's NRP, thousands have already come ashore. To bring about the 'twin' disaster is, if the vessel happens to be harbouring rats which get ashore to gain a foothold their impact could be the birth of a double disaster. 

All this is seen as a truly terrible situation, and one which conservationists appear to be able to do little about, it is impossible to comprehend how on earth a modern and fully laden cargo vessel could sail straight into an island, the consequences of which are already heading towards a disaster for wildlife not least of all one of the already most threatened species of penguin the globally endangered NRP. Nightingale Island and the adjacent Middle Island hold millions of nesting seabirds and the two together have 200,000 penguins which are heavily impacted by this leaking oil.

This shipwreck appears to be a consequence of human carelessness and ineptitude and you have to wonder....shouldn't the owners of this ship be made responsible for the payment of compensation for the impact of this disaster to both wildlife and the island as a whole.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!....

Hopefully tomorrow.

Hitting the Headlines.

This is certainly worth viewing.

I did a bit of digging into my records again today and found some of interest hitting the headlines from the past which I either found or observed, but first....

Ringed Plover. Cliff Raby

A brilliant photograph of the Ringed Plover coming in to land....great stuff.

1996.

Ferruginous Duck. Skerton Weir 23 April.

Wood Warbler. Gibson Wood 1 May. *

Dotterel. (13) Ward Stone 6 May.

Wood Sandpiper. Conder Green 5 August.

Painted Lady. Path to Eric Morecambe Hide at Leighton Moss 11 August. A three figure number in excess of 100.

Black-winged Pratincole. Carnforth Marsh 25 August.

Little Stint. (70) Eric Morecambe Complex 21 September. 130 here during Sept 24-28, an all time record.
Black Brant. Pilling Marsh 21 December. **

1997.  

American Wigeon. Heysham Harbour 25 January.

Rough-legged Buzzard. Whitendale 12 April.***

Glossy Ibis. (2) Pilling Marsh 23 April.

Sanderling. (10,000) Ainsdale Beach 24 May.****

Crossbill. (30) Langden Brook 28 June.

Lesser Yellowlegs. Eric Morecambe Complex 18 October 1995 and 13 September 1997.*****

Crossbill. (50) Helsington Barrows.

* The Wood Warbler returned to Gibson Wood for five consecutive years, but not since to my knowledge.

** The Black Brant - Eastern Siberian/North American - on Pilling Marsh from 17 December 1996 until 22 February 1997 at least, is the only Lancashire record for the species.

*** This - or another - Rough-legged Buzzard at Whitendale was observed on several occasions by many birders here between February 1996 until March 1998 at least, albeit with long periods of absence. 

**** I think it may be some time - if ever - before I see the amazing sight of 10,000 Sanderling on Ainsdale Beach - or anywhere else - again.

***** The Lesser Yellowlegs were both found on the Eric Morecambe Pool at Leighton Moss and is my best 'double' to date. 

And finally....

Red Kite. Chris Raby

Another of CR's brilliant photographs, this one of the Red Kite....Appreciate these Chris.

LRP on CP at last!

Little Ringed Plover. Phil Slade

Two Little Ringed Plovers finally submitted themselves to me today having been in hiding on Conder Pool since 28 March when I was kindly informed of their arrival here, they showed today along with the 'Conder Green Trio' the Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, and Common Sandpiper.

I had the good company of JB today and we decided to start with a visit to Aldcliffe where we found a pair of Little Ringed Plover on the island on Freeman's Pools with 3 Gadwall of note on here. I also heard my first Chiffchaff whilst in this area, and as we returned to Aldcliffe a male Wheatear was seen.

At Glasson Dock on the Lune Estuary I noted distantly c.450 Redshank, 355 Bar-tailed Godwit, and 70 Black-Tailed Godwit virtually all of which were now in their stunning breeding plumage, 2 Goosander also of note here. At Cockersands, 16 Eider and 8 Wigeon were off Plover Scar, and a pair of Grey Partridge in one of Abbey Farm fields, seen sadly as one of the many farmland birds hard to come by these days, a singing Skylark was a nice reminder of the  time of year. Coming away from Cockersands it was something of a surprise to find 2 Whooper Swan immatures with Mute Swans in a field off Moss Lane, perhaps these are the two seen regularly with an adult bird on Jeremy Lane for many a week but no adult to be seen today. 

From here on the birds became rather scarce but off the A588 at Sand Villa, another 7 Whooper Swans seen with 55 Mute Swans, and on Pilling Marsh - though you get the feeling they've all departed - c.550 Pink-footed Geese were still on here this afternoon. Returning to Lancaster via Gulf Lane the 2 Little Owls seen. I couldn't help but think whilst these two birds glared at us staring at them, they were probably having thoughts of....Oh no not those two idiots again!! 

Brown Hare. Phillip Tomkinson  

JB counted the 14 Brown Hares and Swallows seen on the day and his usual comprehensive records of them and all the other birds I omit on a regular basis are HERE

Seven miles....seven hours.

And a couple more of those excellent 'mug shots' from PS the first of which is.....

Lesser Redpoll. Phil Slade

With regard to the weather it wasn't as good a day as I had hoped for for a visit to the hills, it was cloudy at times and in exposed places a stiff cold breeze, but I wanted to check out the early in the season Stonechat status in some of the Forest of Bowland uplands. It took me over five hours to find just one - apparently - lonely female. Given the majority of eggs for first clutches of Stonechat are at least starting to be laid in the second week of April I found no evidence to encourage anything other than at best a poor season, even Harrisend - where I found two pairs on 24 March - drew a blank. Seven miles and seven hours legwork to find a potential disaster in the making...not happy! 

On Harrisend it was good to soon hear the bubbling call of the Curlew one of the most evocative sounds of the upland summer, I also heard and had good views of one of my first 3 Willow Warblers, 3 Ravens gave an excellent ariel display, these birds appear to get a great deal of satisfaction out of their sky dancing antics which seems to represent nothing more than having fun, a Buzzard, Kestrel, 3 Red Grouse, and although I had no intention of counting them I noted at least 40 Meadow Pipits. 

On Hawthornthwaite from the Scorton Road access I noted 6 Sand Martins in the area, these birds are seen here every summer on every visit and some nest holes were found last year but no evidence of usage, 3 White Wagtails seen, c.20 Meadow Pipits, a Buzzard, and what I eventually identified as a female Merlin gave excellent views of some aerobatics including a couple of stoops and at one point climbing high to appear to be not much larger than a Swift....an amazing creature. Some activity noted around the small c.10 nests colony at Cam Brow. 

From the Hawthornthwaite track at Marshaw, another White Wagtail a 'classic' one this time, 3 Red Grouse, a Buzzard, 2 Kestrel, 12 Meadow Pipits, and....alleluia....a female Stonechat distant and very easily could have been missed.

In a couple of weeks things will be looking up, and the area between Marshaw and beyond Trough Bridge is excellent for some of our summer visitors not least of all the Spotted Flycatcher - I counted eleven in the area one day in 2009 - and Redstart....plus the unexpected!

And finally the second of the 'mug shots' with many thanks to PS....

Wheatear. Phil Slade  

The Pied Flycatcher.

Can't wait until these little beauties return to their favoured haunts again this summer some of which I know well. Here are a few notes of interest about this species including a little bit of history.



Male Pied Flycatcher. Brian Rafferty

The status of the Pied Flycatcher (PF) in Lancashire is that of an uncommon breeding bird, and is one that readily takes to the nest box, 54 pairs in the Lune Valley were recorded having done so in 2009. In the same year the earliest ever spring record in the county of Lancashire was that of a male found at Bowland Wild Boar Park, Chipping on 10 April 2009, the average first date being 17 April.

In South Lancashire in 1939 the first nest of a PF was found near Hoghton, it was built on a rocky ledge in a quarry and contained a clutch of four eggs, the result of this amazing record was a successful one. Prior to this discovery a nest had been found containing four eggs in a tree stump below Halton Hall near Lancaster overlooking the River Lune in May 1895, at the time this record appeared to be the most recent one of breeding outside The Lakes until the discovery of the next one at Hoghton in 1939. 

Female Pied Flycatcher. Brian Rafferty

The breeding territories of PF are soon abandoned after the young are out of the nest and family parties are notoriously difficult to detect as they feed and move about in the upper leaf canopy, although I myself was fortunate enough to find young being fed in this situation after following a pair a couple of years ago from their arrival right up to realising the young had fledged, this and another pair both used natural nest holes during the breeding season in 2010 at Abbeystead.

Worthy of a mention is the quite remarkable record of the movement of a PF ringed in the nest in the Lune Valley, North Lancashire in 1990, this bird was found the following year nesting in Germany.

Thanks for the brilliant photographs of two equally brilliant birds BR, one - or both - may well have been on Birds2blog before but....what the hell!!

The Marsh Harrier.

Marsh Harrier. Gary Jones

Well we've had a post with this title before, and we've had this photograph before with which I 'played about with' at the time and asked Gary if it was OK to publish to which he agreed....Thanks for this again GJ hope you like seeing it once more on Birds2blog.

There are currently a couple of interesting things for me about the Marsh Harrier, firstly there are five - possibly six - at Leighton Moss, and secondly I was reminded about this interesting account just a few days ago, and which I thought would nicely fill a gap in my birding.

In 1942 it was discovered that a male Marsh Harrier (MH) was making food passes to two females in Norfolk which was subsequently claimed to be the first record of a polygamous male MH. On the subject of polygamy amongst 'harriers' evidence was gathered of the same trait in the Montague's Harrier which had nested in Norfolk for the first time since the floods of 1938, in this case the male was observed mating with two females both of which went on to build nests within 275m of each other.

The MH account goes on to find a disaster taking place when - during some hot summer weather - some children playing in a shallow dyke close to the nests were the innocent means of providing evidence of the MH's tendency to desert, one of the nests was in fact deserted and three chicks perished. The second nest wasn't entirely abandoned but from the day of the disturbance onwards neither of the parent birds fed or brooded the young. From here on an amazing story of human fostering unfolded when two members of a team already studying these birds took on the role of tearing the food to pieces to feed the chicks, though in the end only one bird from the initial five survived. It was truly amazing that throughout this human intervention both adult birds would drop an abundance of food down to the nest and occasionally actually land at the nest but never once made any attempt to feed the young.

This whole affair of the young MH being fed by human hands had a very rewarding conclusion when at 45 days old it took its first flight of a few metres, then three weeks later was observed flying strongly, at this point this bird was regarded to be - in all probability - the only MH chick in the British Isles to have attained adolescence in the breeding season of 1942.

Footnote's.

An analysis of food mainly dropped - but sometimes brought - to the nest by these two adult MH's over a 28 day period in June/July amounted to 71 birds of 7 species, and 35 mammals which consisted of, 15 Rabbits, 7 Field Voles, 7 Leverets, 5 Water Voles, and a young Rat.

It's rewarding to see my Flag Counter registering my 500th US visitor, the only problem being there are two new ones since my visit to Birds2blog yesterday, so I have to welcome two at once being one from Illinios and one from Kentucky....Great stuff!

Birds....they fascinate me in a thousand ways.

Lady of the Loch.

As usual 'other things' have taken over from my birding life again this weekend - unfortunately - but here's a Birds2blog gap filler that should interest. Its an up date on what is thought to be the oldest breeding female Osprey ever recorded in the UK. There is also a book which is featured on the same page which I'd bet is an excellent read, both of which you can catch up with HERE

Then if you really want to descend into the gloom of reality then you should find out why it's still legal to import ivory and Rhino horn into the UK. Not enjoyable reading....but this is the real world and some of it is HERE

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....

But I won't until Monday and if the weather people have got it right I probably won't be birding then either.

Never a dull moment!

Ringed Plover. Geoff Gradwell

With no related pics of today's birding - other than they are birds - I decided to showcase a couple of GG's photographs.

My birding never sinks to 'dull' but now and again has a tendency to lean in that direction, but this is not with regard to the company I keep but with the birds I/we sometimes encounter, or more to the point don't encounter. Today was the Friday outing with JB/BT and....yes you guessed it we went directly to Aldcliffe where 4 White Wagtails stood out from the 2 Pied Wagtails on the flood, with 2 Meadow Pipits and 2 Reed Bunting also to note. Down at Freeman's Pools I could only find one Little Ringed Plover perfectly camouflaged on the shingle island, with a drake Gadwall and 2 Goldeneye to note, 2 Roe Deer also put in an appearance along the perimeter of the pool, and 2 Long-tailed Tits seen.

Viewing the marsh at high tide from the picnic area at Conder Green, c.200 Bar-tailed Godwit, at least 400 Redshank, a single Goldeneye on the River Lune, with 4 Red-breasted Merganser, a single Goosander, and I could see no more than 8 Wigeon here today. On Conder Pool, in truth I found nothing more than a Greenshank of note.

From Bodie Hill, 15 Eider seen. On Jeremy Lane 2 Whooper Swans - an adult and two immature - are still hanging on here. On the somewhat brief visit to Cockersands I recorded c.40 Golden Plover on the shingle at the Caravan Park end. Turning in to Crimbles Lane 2 Buzzard were together, and on Pilling Marsh a Little Egret, c.300 Pink-footed Geese was something of a pointless count as I saw several movements of birds already counted which came down to disappear below the seaward end of the marsh no doubt to join countless others already there out of view....And a good time was had by all!

And finally, well almost....

Great-spotted Woodpecker. Geoff Gradwell    

The thing I like about photographs like this one of the Great-spotted Woodpecker, is that the bird is seen in its natural environment and not like it was taken in a museum in a glass case....Thanks for these GG.

And finally....

Quite amazing that I 'stumbled upon' the following note which appears to confirm my claim in yesterdays post about the association between the Dartford Warbler and the Stonechat. Quote....On two occasions in November 1976 a Dartford Warbler (DW) was observed in company with a male Stonechat in a field of Red Clover overgrown with Sow-Thistles. The DW spent much time foraging amongst the thistles, if the Stonechat moved off while it was feeding the DW would perch on a thistle head, call and look around, apparently trying to locate the Stonechat. Once it had succeeded to do so the DW would fly directly to it and the two would perch conspicuously side by side on adjacent thistle heads, the DW would then resume feeding close to the Stonechat....unquote.

I personally think there is more to this account than meets the eye and reckon this skulking Dartford Warbler was using the vigilant Stonechat - which always has good views from its feeding perches, which is a wary bird and noisy when alarmed - as a look-out.

Birds fascinate me in a thousand ways!

The Dartford Warbler.

Dartford Warbler. David Cookson 

It doesn't come as much of a surprise that the first Dartford Warbler (DW) was discovered on Bexley Heath near Dartford in Kent in 1773, incidentally the same man who found this bird was also responsible for naming the Kentish Plover which had been first discovered in Kent 14 years after the DW in 1787 when it was then an unknown species, yet again the same man was involved with the Sandwich Tern the first of which was again found in Kent in 1784.

The DW is a species almost exclusively insectivorous which suffers adversely in long cold winters and habit loss, favoured heathlands have been converted into housing and agriculture. They previously bred as far north as Staffordshire but a massive loss of 80% of lowland heath severely reduced populations. Having barely recovered from the harsh winter of 1946-47, the winters of 1961-62-63 almost wiped out the entire British population and the number of breeding birds was thought to have been as low as twelve pairs.

The DW now breeds in most counties of the south coast of England, distribution has also expanded, and as climate change continues towards warmer summers and milder winters a further expansion in the birds range might be expected, how long before we can have them here in Lancashire, in the winter months they are known to follow Stonechats around, but finding a Stonechat now seems hard enough never mind a DW.

The bird in the stunning photograph above is that of a Dartford Warbler which has been at the curiously named World's End in Denbighshire, Wales since Wednesday 2 March....Another image with a 'brilliant' tag with thanks to DC.

Footnote. 

Interestingly also in Wales and with no stragglers further north than Staffordshire a bird was observed for two days at Tremadoc, Caernarvonshire in May 1932. 

The LRP Twitch!

Argyll Sunrise. Colin Bushell

It would have been great to have got up this morning with a sunrise like this one CB had in Argyll recently and head off out for a days birding, but not so here in Lancaster where it was dull and grey and I didn't have the day to myself for birding anyway. But I did head off out on a local 'twitch' - yes I do it sometimes - having been given the tip off from a contact about two LRP's on Conder Pool Tuesday morning, as it turned out they either left for better things, or they were in hiding, so in twitching jargon  I 'dipped' but did see a Spotted Redshank and Greenshank before leaving for Aldcliffe with thoughts that if I 'needed' to see LRP's this was going to be my best bet. With limited time before having to be back home by mid-day the plan was to do a circuit at a crawl for a couple of hours but the weather had other plans and it was reduced to a walk from Aldcliffe to Freeman's Pools where I did in fact find 2 Little Ringed Plover and noted a drake Shoveler and 2 Goldeneye on here.

All in all a bit of a miserable episode in my birding life. Still....you can't win'em all can you!

Couldn't resist this one to follow on from yesterdays 'Hobby' and you won't be able to either, and there's another three you can view here too.



And if you'd like a Red-throated Diver as your desktop background an invite to do so is HERE: