Snowstones

I detached myself from my desk late morning and headed to the Marine Lakes to feed the Turnstones in the snow as a break from the paperwork that I was buried under. It started snowing just after first light, laid down a couple of centimetres and then by early afternoon it turned to rain. As I type this at teatime most of the snow has gone.

As I headed into the car park I could see some 'Terry's' lurking around on the snow covered grass and as soon as I put the food down they were over with lots of Black-headed Gulls and the odd Herring Gull and Starling. In total there were about 80 Turnstones coming to the food and I managed to re-sight ten leg-flagged birds which was good.

 Snowstones!

Out of the ten leg-flagged birds all had been seen fairly regularly except one bird which was the first time it has been re-sighted since ringing on 16th December 2012. I assume because of the cold snowy conditions it had come in to the feeding station as it knew that it could find food here.

 A Turnstone scrum with some leg-flagged birds amongst them.

On the way home I spotted three Oystercatchers feeding on the grassed area in front of a block of flats, so I took a few snaps.

 Oyc in the snow

A Tale of Two Mosses

Only working birding for me today I'm afraid. This morning I was towards the south of the county on Downholland Moss and had a few bits of pieces on some of the arable farmland including 50 Linnets, two Grey Pargridges, two Lapwings (a pair in suitable breeding habitat already), six Long-tailed Tits and 20 Fieldfares.

 The view from my office today

Spring Lambs

The second moss of the day was at my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss. When I arrived the Tree Sparrows weren't at the feeding station in any numbers, but in the hedgerow across the field where they fly to when disturbed. Consequently I just had 30 Tree Sparrows and ten Chaffinches. On the way off I had the Little Owl in it's usual spot.

Starting The Week With A Bang

I joined members of Morecambe Bay Wader Ringing Group today at the obs as we attempted to cannon net some wintering Sanderling. We had the assistance of the local council Rangers in closing the section of beach off where the waders had been roosting, which was a great help.

 One of the cannons used to fire the net

Setting the net

The operation went like clockwork, but unfortunately we only caught five Sanderlings, three Ringed Plovers and two Turnstones. The Turnstones were fitted with leg flags as as part of our Turnstone project.

The reason for the poor catch was simply that the birds didn't come in. We don't know where the birds were as all the sections of beach, other than the spit we were on, were covered by the tide.  It is likely that the roost was disturbed last Saturday by a car rally along the sea front and the Sanderlings moved off completely. Anyway, it was a first attempt to cannon net at this location and at least we know that it is possible so we intend to target the migrant Dunlin, Ringed Plovers and Sanderlings in Spring. I can't wait for that!

Interestingly one of the Ringed Plovers caught this morning was one of our birds ringed on 5th July 2011 that was ringed as part of a brood of two, and as Ian said to me this evening it's nice to know that it fledged successfully and survived. One of the values of ringing.

Saving myself for Spring..........

..........or that's what I keep telling myself when I am struggling to get out birding for any reasonable time mid-week. I can't wait for it to get light earlier so that I can get out before work, even if I am busy!

A quick call at my feeding station yesterday produced a Yellowhammer, 60 Tree Sparrows and 45 Chaffinches. Today I fed the Turnstones at lunchtime in preparation for an attempt to leg-flag some more birds this weekend. Some started coming in to the food and I was going to sit and hopefully re-sight some leg-flagged birds when a woman let her five, yes five, Terrier type things (you know the sort, more like articulated rats) off the lead and that was it, no more Turnstones!

A few Black-headed Gulls came in to feed after the dogs had left and the first Turnstone arrived back just as I had to leave. Hopefully things will be better at weekend.

Black-headed Gulls

 You can just make out the metal ring above the right knee on this 

Turnstone. Probably one of our birds from 2012

January's Ringing Totals

Over to the right you will see that I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group and this month we ringed 131 birds of 13 species. By this time last year we had ringed 317 birds, so we have got off to a slow start, but it has been the weather that has caused the slow start.

Below I have listed the top three species ringed for the month, as these were the only species to be ringed in double figures:

Chaffinch - 43
Goldfinch - 27
Tunrstone - 14

No time for any real birding for me today other than to feed my farmland birds. It was pouring down with rain when I walked down the track loaded with food, so I didn't linger. I recorded a male Sparrowhawk, a Buzzard, 113 Tree Sparrows, 15 Chaffinches, 11 Redwings and a Song Thrush.

If you don't subscribe to British Birds then I can thoroughly recommend you getting a subscription. The main paper this month was 'Population estimates of birds in Great Britain and the United Kingdom'. This was a cracking paper by the Avian Population Estimates Panel (APEP) that attempted to estimate the total population of breeding, passage and wintering birds in the UK.

It produces some amazing statistics and figures, and to give you a taste of these I have listed a few below:

- there are now thought to be 84 million breeding birds in the UK
- the ten commonest breeding species contribute 57% of this total
- Wren alone provides one in ten of our breeding birds
- in all 23 species exceed one million breeding pairs
- more than 8% of our breeding birds are pigeons and doves, more than double the number of all seabirds  combined
- less than 0.3% of our breeding birds are raptors or owls
- about 3% of our breeding birds are non-native species, mostly Pheasants, Red-legged Partridges and Canada Geese
- we have similarly sized breeding populations of Kestrel and Leach's Petrel, or of Scottish Crossbill and Little Grebe!

We might have one of the most studied avifaunas in the world, but this report highlights some of the gaps in our knowledge and comes up with some recommendations to improve population estimates. Some of these recommendations would make excellent projects for individual bird clubs to help fill in the gaps in our knowledge.

Another excellent short article was about the exceptional arrival of thrushes on the east coast of England in 2012. A group of observers based at Blakeney Point, Norfolk and Spurn, Yorkshire were encouraged to put together this article by Ian Newton because "published accounts of spectacular arrivals such as these are surprisingly hard to find...and when writing his New Naturalist volume on bird migration, he found very few descriptions of such events in the literature".

To cut to the chase on 22nd October 2012 Blakeney Point recorded an incredible fall of 25,000 Redwings, 4,000 Fieldfares, 3,000 Song Thrushes, 3,000 Blackbirds, 30 Ring Ouzels, 400 Bramblings, 280 Robins, 80 Goldcrests, 25 Chiffchaffs and 5 Black Redstarts.

On the same day Spurn recorded, amongst others, 23 Woodcocks, 785 Goldcrests, 35 Chiffchaffs, 57 Ring Ouzels, 1,270 Blackbirds, 10,100 Fieldfares, 885 Song Thrushes, 21,070 Redwings, 20 Black Redstarts and 2,675 Bramblings.

So, if you were impressed by that and haven't got a subscription to British Birds be sure to get one!

Almost An Owl Fest.

There was a ground frost as I unlocked the gate to the obs this morning and the wind was a biting northerly. However, it was exceptionally clear and the views were stupendous. Starting from the east I could see the Bowland Fells, to the south Snowdonia, across the Irish Sea I could see the Isle of Man with the mountain of Snaefell peeking above the horizon, the Lakeland Fells to the north and then round to the Yorkshire Dales!

As I headed along the track a ghostly figure flipped over the hedge and a Barn Owl hunted along the embankment in front of me. As I headed towards the sea wall I picked up the/a Short-eared Owl hunting over the 'rough' fields and later on I saw this bird again hunting over the dunes.

There's always Gorse in flower, but at this time of year it does make you 

think of Spring!

Pink-footed Geese were arriving at the farm fields across the road and I counted 530 dropping in. I had a quick look on the sea and it was quiet other than eight Eiders, a single Red-throated Diver, four Common Scoters and two Auk species. Part of the reason it was so quiet was that the tide was a long way out as it was just about bang on low water.

I called at the Marine Lakes to feed the Turnstones and surprisingly 43 were roosting on the island along with 52 Redshanks. I say surprisingly as it was low water and there was plenty of feeding opportunities for them out in the Bay.

 Redshanks and Turnstones

A quick look on the pools soon had me heading east to my farmland bird feeding station because of the obscene amount of disturbance from dog walkers!

 Blue and empty pools, scene of yesterday's red head Smew

I had a short walk on the moss after feeding and recorded two Grey Partridges, five Roe Deer, 92 Tree Sparrows, 25 Chaffinches, three Song Thrushes, 11 Corn Buntings and three Redwings. On my way off the moss I had my third species of owl of the day in the form of a Little Owl in it's usual spot, making today almost an Owl fest!

Down On The Farm

I apologise for the lack of postings this week, but it has been all work and very little play! I shouldn't complain too much because my office is the great outdoors, but sometimes even though I am out surveying I see very little.

Amongst all the work I made sure that my farmland birds were fed and so were the Turnstones. My farmland bird feeding station is very settled at the moment with just under 100 Tree Sparrows regularly feeding there along with 20-30 Chaffinches.

In the week I was surveying some farmland in southwest Lancs and it was in an area of intensive vegetable and salad growing, where gross margins are critical to the profitability of the crop and the land is worked hard. It's a landscape of rectangular fields, mainly on mossland, with well maintained drainage ditches around all fields.

 My office this week

I had a nice flock of 72 Meadow Pipits, that got me thinking of Spring, especially when flying off giving their distinctive flight calls. In a few weeks time we should be starting to tape lure and ring them at the obs; I can't wait! Another reminder that Spring is just round the corner was singing Skylark and Mistle Thrush, both sing beautifully and lift your spirits on a cold February morning.

Pink-footed Geese were moving around from feeding area to feeding area and I had 445 go over as I walked round. A flock of 100 Linnets and a pair of Grey Partridges rounded the morning off. 

These ancient 'bog oaks' still appear when drainage work is done