Harbour & Bay.

On Tuesday I decided to give Heysham Harbour another visit and on getting out of the motor it was good to hear the first bird in song being the Song Thrush. Most birds seen on my way to the sea wall were in song....

Robin Noushka Dufort

Robin

Blackbird

Dunnock 

Wren

Greenfinch

As I approached the outfalls I was disappointed to see them void of birds even though the high tide was three hours away. But I spent a good hour at the south wall to see a Red-throated Diver flying into the bay some distance off the harbour mouth. However, this bird obliged and came down on to the sea hopefully for me to get a better look, but it then behaved unobligingly and promptly dived to soon disappear behind the north wall.

Guillemot at Heysham Harbour. Janet Packham.

In the harbour I saw a Guillemot around the power station water intake, and watched a Kittiwake flying around the harbour mouth.

Scaup at Middleton. Janet Packham.

I decided it was time I went to see for myself the long staying drake Scaup on Middleton Pond. I doubt if I'm on my own in thinking this is likely to be the same individual present on the canal basin at Glasson Dock in November/December 2013. In my brief visit I also noted 2 drake Pochard.

A walk along the promenade from Broadway to Teal Bay at Morecambe was healthy and very pleasant on a good sunny day, but it was a struggle to find a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, 2 Great-crested Grebe, and probably the only 2 Goldeneye anywhere in or around Morecambe Bay to the exclusion of the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock. I made a decent count of 56 Eider.

And finally....Stonechats again. 

Stonechat Martin Jump 

The Stonechat passage moves on apace, and I was more than a little pleased to find This Record And no less pleased to find a record of six Stonechats on Lytham Moss Monday 3 March on the Fylde Bird Club website. A personal thank you to JR/FB for reporting these sightings. This years local migrant Stonechat records stand at 14 and that represents a good spring passage in my little black book.

My thanks to Noushka for the Robin, and to Janet - Heysham Observatory - for the Guillemot and Scaup images, and Martin for the Stonechat, they are all excellent photographs and much appreciated.

Nine2five.

Not exactly the early bird - I rarely am these days - but I was on parade yesterday at 9.00am and did a full eight hours, starting in the locality before a trip down the A588 to Fluke Hall.

There was an impressive 200+ Black-tailed Godwit on Conder Pool when I arrived, a Spotted Redshank was at rest with Redshank, the Common Sandpiper was 'bobbing' away in the creeks, but not long before we won't know this wintering bird from its relatives when they arrive in the coming weeks. Seven Little Grebe and 4 Goldeneye are dwindling numbers of these two species here.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, a gathering of up to 300 distant waders appeared to be in a descending ratio of Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, and Dunlin. Two Red-breasted Merganser, 18 Goldeneye on the estuary, and 7 Goldeneye on the canal basin continues the dwindling winter numbers theme. 

Meadow Pipit Phillip Tomkinson 

The Whooper Swans off Moss Lane are still present in a 200 plus number from a moving car. Off Slack Lane 3 Whooper Swan were an adult and 2 immature.  Cockersands was hard work and little to show for it, with 12 Eider off Plover Scar which was beneath the 10.50m tide. Also at least 20 Meadow Pipit, a Kestrel, and c.150 Pink-footed Geese flying purposefully north.

Twite. Copy Permitted.

The trip to Fluke Hall was well rewarded by my second spring Stonechat and c.30 Twite, up to 250 Pink-footed Geese were put to flight when Mr Farmer came along in his tractor to empty a slurry tank in the field. A Small Tortoiseshell on the coastal path was my first this year. 

The Sand Martins are here.

Sand Martin Simon Hawtin

Three Sand Martin yesterday over Rimmers Marsh at Marshside RSPB Reserve Southport.

Hints Of Spring.

Spring is just around the corner and Friday was as close to it that we've been so far with some good sunny spells and the wind almost disappeared, and with a path which runs along the south side of Freeman's Pools lively with birds it was certainly beginning to sound and look like it. 

Wren Marc Heath

Activity along the tree lined path included....

Wren two displaying

Blue Tit investigating a hole in the side of the old Black Poplar tree

Long-tailed Tit 

Great Tit 

Chaffinch

Goldfinch
Robin  

A mixed flock of c.50 Fieldfare and Redwing came into the tree tops and promptly departed so not allowing me to get any ratio on them.

On Freeman's Pools, no more than twenty birds in total....

Goldeneye 2

Little Grebe

Gadwall 

Wigeon 

Teal

Shoveler drake

Little Egret  

A Buzzard came overhead and crossed the river to soar over the old tip, a single Goldeneye was on the river off Marsh Point, and on the marsh, c.250 Pink-footed Geese, and 2 Little Egret. On the wildfowlers pool, less like a lake than of late, 18 Redshank noted, and 6 Tufted Duck had taken to the flood which still resembles a lake though considerably smaller in size.

From here I went south on the coastal path which to be honest was rather uneventful, but on the walk from Aldcliffe - Glasson Dock the totals were....

Dunnock Warren Baker  

13 Blackbird

  7 Robin

  5 Wren

  4 Long-tailed Tit

  2 Dunnock

  2 Greenfinch

Thanks to MH/WB for the excellent images.

WOT NO BLUE BIRDS IN THE POST 

And a couple of pics taken on Friday....

 

One of many scourges of the countryside. 'Human Remains' kindly dumped at the bottom of Aldcliffe Hall Lane, all bundled into bags....how thoughtful!

And one causing me to be puzzled about what this object is set up on the wildfowlers pool. A cylindrical object, appears to be made of hay bound in chicken wire, open at one end possibly both, and placed on a post. I'll reserve my thoughts on this until I find out what it really is....anyone? 

Five Around The Estuary.

I parked the motor at Conder Green at 11.30am and returned at 4.30pm, so gave the Conder Green/Glasson Dock area of the Lune Estuary a full five hours yesterday.

Grey Plover Brian Rafferty 

The first bird I found at Conder Green was a lone Grey Plover in the creeks, annual here in the winter months but rarely more than a single bird. Also noted here today, 2 Spotted Redshank, a Common Sandpiper, 5 Little Grebe, 12 Wigeon, and a Little Egret. Notable were 16 Lapwing on Conder Pool, more notable was not a singe Lapwing or Golden Plover on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock as viewed from the bowling green. But up to 320 Black-tailed Godwit were present along with at least 16 Bar-tailed Godwit, and with little over double figures each of Redshank, Curlew, and Dunlin the estuary was beginning to look like it was summer. 

Black-headed Gull. Pete Woodruff.

I don't recall the last time I saw as many 'gulls' on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock with in excess of 5,000 mainly Black-headed Gull and a good number of Common Gull. It took me the best part of an hour to find a smart adult Mediterranean Gull complete with full black hood amongst the hordes which made huge areas of mud look like large white blankets, and I don't believe for one minute my MG was the only one in this mass. On the south end of Colloway Marsh, c.60 Pink-footed Geese.

Numbers are still reasonable in the area, with 57 Goldeneye seen....

50 Lune Estuary
  4 Conder Pool
  3 Canal Basin

Stonechats.

Stonechat Marc Heath 

I've documented Stonechat records in our area and the Fylde for the year so far and migration appears to have got off to an early and good start with my personal first at Cockersands on 18 February. Today I received a record of five birds at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve, a record I regard as brilliant....thanks for these BD they are much appreciated.

Many Thanks to BR for the Grey Plovers, and to MH for the first winter male Stonechat, they are much appreciated....Did you 'clik the pik'. 

....And I Got A Soaking!

Sparrowhawk. Howard Stockdale.

The Sparrowhawk has made good use of the huge section of this felled tree as its lookout post, carried and dumped at Conder Green by the recent storm driven high tide.

Goosander Warren Baker

Yesterday on Conder Pool, 3 Goosander, 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 10 Redshank, 4 Goldeneye, and at least 10 Little Grebe still here but maybe not for much longer, 2 Spotted Redshank were in the creeks. 

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, the winter wader numbers are falling now, but noted were c.250 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, c.250 Redshank, minimal number of Lapwing, pair Red-breasted Merganser, and 30 Goldeneye. A Peregrine Falcon was distant on Colloway Marsh, and 65 Pink-footed Geese were over going south. On the canal basin, 5 Goldeneye and a drake Red-breasted Merganser. 

Off Moss Lane, the Whooper Swans have move further inland and away from view, but I've no reason to suspect anything less than the 275 still present and counted last Tuesday 18 February. I saw 4 Bar-tailed Godwit off Crook Cottage....set off to do the 'rounds'....turned and went off hot-foot back to the motor to escape a downpour heading my way over the bay, which I failed to do and got a soaking, at which point I threw in the towel. 

Thanks for the images Howard/Warren....Excellent and appreciated.

The Petition.

Fearnan. Keith Brockie.

This is Fearnan, the satellite tagged Golden Eagle whose life had barely taken off before it was found dead by poisoning in 2013. Murdered on an Angus grouse moor at the hands of an industry incapable and unwilling to move out of the Dark Ages and into the 21st century. There are numerous accounts of this sad story and a short illustrated one can be seen Here  

The image above is currently at the top of my sidebar as a link to a petition calling for the UK government to introduce a system of operating licences for upland grouse shoots.

Would you urgently consider signing this petition please as it closes this Thursday 27 February but has already attracted in excess of 10,300 signatures which will now trigger a response by the government.

The Little Gull.

The Little Gull has the distinction of being the smallest gull in the world, and if you'd like to see them in multiples you may like to go to Liverpool late March/early April.

Little Gull Arkive 

Brought about by the recent storms and gale force winds the Little Gull (LG) has turned up at coastal sites in our area and on the Fylde, some of which have reached three figure numbers.

Historically the LG was an extremely scarce bird in Lancashire, the first signs of change came around 1965 with the county's first large flock appearing in 1968 when 137 were seen at Formby Point on Merseyside. Two years later came the creation of freshwater lagoons at Seaforth. Today the LG's alternate between Seaforth and Crosby Marine Lake according to food supply which consists of hatching chirohomid midges which are the magnet that draws the birds to the freshwater lakes. The LG's stop off here on their migration from Ireland where they winter off the east coast, though a northern wintering ground has been proved and significant wind-induced counts have been made at Rossall Point since 1970, but this northern location remained unknown until a survey boat found in excess of 200 LG feeding in an area c.10 miles offshore south of where the Shell Flat merges with the Lune Deeps.

There seems little doubt that the Seaforth birds in late March/early April are heading to their Finnish breeding grounds and ringing recoveries appear to confirm this. The birds move off from Seaforth overland across the Pennines, over the North sea, and on to the Baltic. Few large spring flocks have ever been seen away from Seaforth in Liverpool, but one was of 215 recorded at St Annes in April 1981. 

Although there is no apparent change in the number of midges hatching today, the LG no longer gathers at Seaforth/Crosby in autumn as they did in the past, the reason for this is uncertain, and guesses are that they now move directly to their wintering grounds, or that these wintering grounds have changed.  

There have been few breeding attempts by LG in Britain, though they have been observed attempting to nest-build at Seaforth and at Leighton Moss. A nest on the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire was predated and an adult bird killed, and records of juveniles with down on the head and primaries incompletely grown in NE England appears to represent successful breeding. 

I was pleased to see three wind-blown 1st winter birds at Heysham on Tuesday 11 February, and they are still to be seen there in variable number....a beautiful Little Gull indeed.

Winter goes on....and I'm sure everyone is as fed up as I am with this dreary cold, wet and windy weather, the wettest winter in this country since records began in 1910. 

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!

Bay Birds....

....and the ramblings of a lunatic.

After an appointment at 2.00pm in Morecambe on Wednesday I decided to give a look into the bay for a couple of hours from Broadway to Teal Bay. Not the most exciting area of the bay for birds but an adult Mediterranean Gull at Teal Bay was a nice find, with 17 Bar-tailed Godwit and c.275 Dunlin coming in to feed as the tide dropped, a Little Egret could be seen at Hest Bank from here. 

Great-crested Grebe Astland Photography 

I saw 7 Great-crested Grebe along the way, also 4 Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Eider, and 3 Goldeneye.

Siskin David Cookson 

Three Siskin visited our garden today, two had paid visits on 2/3 March 2013, so this is a peak count and an excellent garden record.

And the lunatic from the dark ages speaks out.   

With no names, no pack drill, and keywords highlighted by me. This is a letter to a Scottish newspaper recently from a man BIG in the world of 'Gun Sports'.  A dangerous combination of lack of knowledge and the misfortune of having been gifted with an inactive brain is shown here, the problem is....too many people listen and take note of what he says and does. These are the kind of dangerous people we need to continually worry about, and continually ask....what are we going to/can we do about them for the sake of our wildlife.

 Sea Eagle Martin Lofgren 

Sir,

Listening to and reading about the Sea Eagles, I found most of it incredible and so ‘too bad’ as far as the loss of lambs was concerned, they didn't even mention hogs or ewes.

Then, for Mr W to say....'Sea Eagles are here to stay'....surely it’s time for him to vacate his perch and if that is the view, what a precarious position hill sheep farmers and crofters are in.

Nothing short of complete eradication will do, and it is the same for the Pine Marten, both should be absolutely destroyed. The NSA, the CC, and the CF should be backing this to the hilt. 

Will Mr L or Mr W do anything about the Sea Eagle? No, they didn't even prick their ears until a danger to our native eagle was mentioned and, for Mr L to say they are a tremendous tourist attraction is rubbish. If, like me, he had spoken to tourists from all over the world over the last 20 years, he would know they don’t come for one attraction but to see as much as they possibly can. The oblivion of the Sea Eagle wouldn't matter and, indeed, would be an absolute blessing for the countryside and its animals.

Grand Weather....

....Grand Birding....Grand Finale.

The River Conder is still running fast with flood water and of the 10 Little Grebe I found yesterday seven were in the river, the other three on Conder Pool where I noted 22 Wigeon, a Snipe and Little Egret.

Goldfinch Noushka Dufort 

From Conder Green I legged it to Glasson Dock, on the way along the coastal path, c.25 Goldfinch flew by, 8 House Sparrow were of note, and 3 Dunnock, one of which was in song, the other two behaving as a pair with one chasing the other. Noted on the Lune Estuary, a smart adult Mediterranean Gull with almost full hood was with several hundred mainly Black-headed Gull, 2 Ruff with uncounted Redshank, c.65 Black-tailed Godwit, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Little Grebe, and at least 2,000 Wigeon. A drake Red-breasted Merganser was on the canal basin. 

Off Moss Lane, I made an excellent count of 275 Whooper Swan with the Black Swan also still in their company, and off Slack Lane another excellent count of 16 Bewick's Swan of which four were immature.

At Cockersands, on Plover Scar 20 Turnstone were in view, with a solitary Knot and Ringed Plover. On the circuit, 4 Fieldfare were again in the field behind Lower Bank House where I had seen two on 11 January. Also of note, 7 Blackbird, 3 Tree Sparrow, a Grey Wagtail, Dunnock, Kestrel, and 5 Little Egret.

Merlin Simon Hawtin 

From the headland I picked out a distant Merlin, it was my lucky day, because as I walked along the headland the bird moved perches five times in fifteen minutes whilst I wasn't watching, but I picked it out on every move to its new lookout post before it eventually flew off and out of sight. 

As I headed back to the motor the Merlin was set to be my 'Bird Of The Day' until....

Stonechat Cockersands 18 February. Copy Permitted.

....a smart male Stonechat came into view to give me my first and the first known record of the species in the LDBWS recording area for 2014 ....A Grand Finale.

Goldeneye.

The count in the Conder/Glasson area yesterday amounted to 64 Goldeneye....

45 Lune Estuary 

12 Canal Basin

7 Conder Pool

Thanks for the Goldfinch Noushka, the Merlin Simon, and the Stonechat CP, they are much appreciated. 

The Barn Owl Part 2.

I was privileged to get some local Barn Owl records from 2013 to follow on from the national records in my post The Barn Owl on 30 December, which puts us in the picture on the status of the Barn Owl in 2013 in a local context.

Barn Owl. Geoff Gradwell.

Out of 74 boxes checked 18 were occupied by two birds on at least two occasions, in 8 boxes only 1 bird was seen on at least 2 occasions, some boxes were visited on 5+occasions, in total 6 pairs laid eggs, 3 pair deserted their eggs before hatching but still occupied the box, a pair hatched 2 young but the young disappeared before they were 30 days old, and 2 pairs reared 5 young.

The birds being in poor condition at the start of the breeding season in 2013 are regarded by these observations as the major factor, a sure sign that the numerous birds seen hunting during the day in last year's winter told its own story. However there is optimism for 2014, as boxes checked have resulted in 40 Barn Owls having been found roosting in them. Furthermore the owners of the property on where they are, have expressed their concern that they have not seen them, which is a good sign that they are finding enough prey during the night time.

Kestrel Warren Baker

It has also been recorded and noted with interest that Kestrels had a poor breeding season in 2013, and most that had fledged had been fed with birds and not their more usual prey of small mammals. 

Little Owl Richard Pegler

On the plus side, some excellent news is that of 14 pairs of Little Owls that bred in 2013 had averaged 1.2 young per pair....

 Tree Sparrow Arkive 

....and at least 1,002 Tree sparrows had fledged in the breeding season of 2013.

Thanks to Bob Danson. 

I'm grateful for these records kindly supplied along with permission for me to post them on Birds2blog. Also thanks to Geoff/Warren/Richard/Mike Wilkes for four excellent images to accompany this interesting set of local records for 2013.

Prince Charming!

OK....This is going to be short, but it's serious and needs to be addressed, and I'd like to put Birds2blog to good use to do that. 

Wild Boar Noushka Dufort 

I had little interest in listening to Prince William and his pop Charles involved in discussions regarding wildlife crime, having just returned from a hunting trip to Spain to shoot Wild Boar, well they shoot wild 'other things' in this country anyway. Actions which are not only hypocritical but which show an absolute disregard for animals and wildlife. 

Out shooting wild animals one minute and hosting a ­conference on wildlife crime the next, you need to ask the question whether anyone can be expected to take these blue blooded guys serious when taking to the platform to talk about how to protect wild animals. But wait a minute....Here's a royal correspondent who likes to have his say in their defence, even though this isn't the first time he's been heard talking through his rear....'Such a trip to Spain is a world away from shooting endangered species for profit'....I think he missed the point don't you.

But we have to give the prince some credit when he comes up with some terrifying facts and says things like....

Rhinoceros Portraits of Nature

'More than 30,000 Elephants were killed last year, amounting to nearly 100 deaths per day. In the past 10 years 62% of African forest Elephants have been lost, and if this rate continues the forest Elephant will be extinct within ten years. A Rhinoceros is killed every 11 hours, and as recently as 100 years ago, there were as many as 100,000 wild Tigers living in Asia, today, there are believed to be fewer than 3,200 left in the wild'.

But these people are all a load of hypocritical 'wildlife lovers' and definitely not to be taken seriously. 

Much more to say on this but....I did say at the top of the page that it was going to be short.

Thanks for the Sanglier image Noushka it is excellent and much appreciated. And thanks to Gary Jones for the Rhinoceros, also excellent and much appreciated,  though the subject matter I used them for is both terrifying and sad.