It has been a cold start to spring so far. Don't get me wrong, there have been some warm spells, but generally, even though it has been quite sunny, it has been cold.
On one of those warm spells, about ten days ago, Gail and I decided to have a walk along the Wyre estuary from the quay, in the hope of a few insects. As we were driving there, I said to Gail that it looked like a good afternoon for a raptor, an Osprey perhaps. Just as I had said that, I picked up a female Marsh Harrier that was approaching the road from our right! It crossed the road behind us, but even though I pulled into a lay-by, it had disappeared behind some woodland.
We parked up at the Quay, and we started to have a look at the waders that were trying to feed/roost on the last bit of exposed mud. Gail then picked up a butterfly, making a short sea crossing as it crossed the flooded Quay, and it was a beautiful Brimstone butterfly.
We had nine Black-tailed Godwits, 116 Redshanks, 15 Knots, and four Oystercatchers all feeding on the last remaining mud. Wildfowl numbers have started to drop now, and we recorded just two Shelducks, and 13 Teal.
In the scrub along the old sea wall, we enjoyed watching four Chiffchaffs, fly-catching in the warm sun. Trying to get a decent photograph, was a different matter however!
The only plants flowering that we could find were some Dandelions, and they are such an under-rated plant, and immensely important for early insects as a source of pollen and nectar. And they are beautiful! However, Sapiens, have labelled them a 'weed', whatever that is. Whenever I hear people talking about weeds, I always say "do you mean wildflowers"? For some reason, 'we' don't like groups of plants and animals that are successful, and give them a derogatory name. It shows how flawed Sapiens are as a species.
We didn't record any more butterflies, but we did have at least six Buff-tailed Bumblebees feeding on the catkins of Goat Willow, and we were successful in locating just one Jumping Bristletail on the sandstone slabs of the quay wall.
The following morning I was up early for a solo jaunt to the Nature Park, and I had a bit of 'vis' under 7 oktas cloud cover, with a stiff east-south-easterly wind. It was too windy to put any nets up, so it was a pure birding visit to our ringing site.
Straight away I was recording some vis, not huge numbers, but better than recent visits, and I had 111 Meadow Pipits, eight Linnets, two Carrion Crows, five Lesser Redpolls, a Brambling, three Whooper Swans, and a Sand Martin all heading in a northerly direction.
I had five singing Cetti's Warblers, four singing Reed Buntings, and a singing Skylark. I had my best count of Shovelers for the winter/spring with 38 males, and 15 females, 53 birds in total. Other wetland species on the pools were seven Moorhens, seven Mute Swans, seven Black-headed Gulls, three Lesser Black-backed Gulls, 20 Tufted Ducks, 17 Coots, a pair of Gadwall, 12 Mallards, eight Little Grebes, three Greylag Geese, and six Canada Geese.
I thought I was going mad at one point during this visit. I was trying, unsuccessfully, to photograph a pair of Stonechats, and I caught a glimpse of a white rump flying away. Great,Wheatear, I said to myself, and then I couldn't see it. I thought that surely I hadn't managed to string a Wheatear, but then when I turned a corner on the path, there it was feeding on the verges that bordered the path, and flying up to perch on the fence. In addition to the female Wheatear, a Chiffchaff was all else that could be considered as grounded.
As there was some vis over the Nature Park I decided to call in at The Mount, as this is a good vantage point to record vis, as it overlooks the Wyre estuary and Morecambe Bay. Meadow Pipits were still on the move, and I had 59 head east, as well as 41 Woodpigeons, seven Chaffinches, six Goldfinches, an Alba Wag, a Jackdaw, two Linnets, and three Lesser Redpolls.
Sat outside Burton's Tea Room, enjoying a Latte, I added four Sparrowhawks to the vis total. Grounded migrants here were limited to singles of Chiffchaff and Goldcrest.
The following day, during a warmish spell, we had a walk down to the Wyre Estuary. Along the margins of the path lots of Colt's-foot was flowering, and insect-wise we had Red-tailed and Buff-tailed Bumblebees. Chiffchaffs seemed in plentiful supply, and we recorded seven singing.
Meadow Pipits were still filtering through, heading north, following the river to the mouth of the estuary. All we had on the river were eleven Wigeon, and ten Tufted Ducks on the reservoir made it into my notebook.
Five days ago, we were back at the Nature Park under full cloud, and a light southerly wind. With the cloudy conditions we were hopeful of ringing a few birds, and that's what we did, just ringed a few, namely a male Blackbird and a Chiffchaff!
We had our first Willow Warbler, singing away, of the spring, and he was joined by three of his Chiffchaff cousins. We didn't have any other grounded migrants. On the pools were 19 Coots, seven Moorhens, two Little Grebes, 25 Tufted Ducks, 17 Shovelers, two Canada Geese, a pair of Teal, three Greylag Geese, and eight Mallards. And that was it.
The following day I was at the Point, to hopefully record some passage on the sea and on visible migration. I had full cloud cover, with a 15 - 20 mph south-westerly wind. I sheltered in front of one of the buildings, but this meant that I would miss any vis flying behind me, other than registrations of calls.
There was some vis, and interestingly a lot of it was heading north-east across Morecambe Bay, when usually the direction in spring is easterly. I suspect that they were taking advantage of the south-westerly wind, that wasn't too strong, as a bit of a tail wind. My vis totals were, six Goldfinches, ten Woodpigeons, a Skylark, a Chaffinch, 48 Meadow Pipits, eleven Linnets, eight Carrion Crows, a Lesser Redpoll, and an Alba Wag.
When I first arrived on site, there was a flock of eight Grey Plovers out on the mud in the Bay with 20 Dunlins. I'd just entered them in my notebook, and they were off. Grey Plovers are like this, I suspect that they had feeding out in the Bay overnight, and at first light they move off before being disturbed, as this is what usually happens.
As the tide came in it pushed some waders up the shore to roost, including 31 Oystercatchers, a further 18 Dunlin, 18 Turnstones, 68 Sanderlings, and 20 Ringed Plovers. The sea was quiet, as it always seems to be these days, and I do wonder whether the large numbers of wind turbines out in the Bay are having a displacement effect. I recorded nine Cormorants, 108 Common Scoters, a Red-throated Diver, four Eiders, and three Gannets.
Walking back to my car a Rock Pipit landed on the beach, and proceeded to do what it says on the tin, and perched on a rock!
I headed over to the cemetery to have a look for any grounded migrants, but I didn't record anything, so I had a look at some of the common wildflowers that were flowering. They might be common, but they are utterly gorgeous.
A couple of days ago, Gail and I were back at the Nature Park for our last ringing session in March. We had full cloud cover, with a light south-easterly wind, and we did expect to perhaps ring a few more birds than of late, but we ringed less, a single Chiffchaff. We did have an interesting recapture of a Cetti's Warbler however. This bird was ringed as a first calendar year bird at Eastriggs Depot, Eastriggs, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland on 22nd October 2024. This was a movement of 119 km due south to us at the Nature Park. You can see a picture of the bird below, and a Google Earth image of the ringing location and site of recapture.
Pink-footed Geese were on the move from first light, and we had 2,320 heading high to north. Apart from a couple of Sand Martins we didn't record any vis, which surprised us. After we packed up we had a look on the various pools and counted 22 Tufted Ducks, 20 Coots, four Little Grebes, six Mallards, nine Moorhens, 19 Lesser Black-backed Gulls, six Mute Swans, 110 Herring Gulls, a male Teal, two Shelducks, and 17 Shovelers.
We did have our first Whimbrel, a calling bird that remained unseen. Three Chiffchaffs were perhaps grounded, and a Great Spotted Woodpecker commuted between the water treatment works and local houses.
I was in Bowland yesterday for a meeting at my client's farm near Slaidburn. On the way I had a Red Kite drifting over the fields alongside the river. They are still scarce in Lancashire, and spring is the best time to record them.
Before the meeting I had a quick drive around the fields that we manage for breeding waders, using the track network, and there seemed to be plenty of Lapwings in. At least 15 - 20 individuals, with some displaying, some loafing, and two sitting females.
I had only 3 - 4 pairs of Curlews, as it was obvious that more were to arrive. A single Redshank, a couple of Snipe, and a handful of Oystercatchers nearly completed the suite of breeding waders that we have here. The only breeding species that I didn't record was Common Sandpiper, but they will be back on the farm in the next few days.
The forecast is saying that it will remain dry until at least the middle of the month, but overnight temperatures will remain low, it certainly needs to warm up.
