I don't celebrate new year, and in fact most years Gail and I are in the land of nod well before midnight. There are two dates, or times in the year, that are important to me, and these are the two solstices. For me, the winter solstice is the new year, and our ancestors thought the same. They are a fundamental part of the natural rhythm of the seasons, and not some date constructed and imposed upon us. Being connected to nature, and being in tune with the changing of the seasons is all that matters, as far as I am concerned, and we try to live by the seasonal changes in the natural world.
Having said all that, I am writing a blog post with a title Kicking The Year Off, which hints that I might be looking at our forays into the natural world at the start of the year, and I suppose that is true. It is very hard not to get carried along by modern life, and it isn't easy to stop the world and get off. We do try!
I know I don't really need to tell you this, but the weather through December has been awful, with prolonged periods of wind and heavy rain, and thwarting any meaningful attempts to get out in the field. So, as far as December is concerned, I don't have anything else to add since my last post.
If I kept a year list, and I don't, nor am I criticising anybody that does, it is each to their own, but I would have started the year with a species that I don't normally see on the 1st January, and that is a Barn Owl. On New Year's day, we were taking our Grandson, Alex, home. It was just coming dark, and as we headed along a lane close to home with a wide grass verge, backed by a mature Hawthorn hedge, a Barn Owl came drifting along in the gloom. I love the buoyant flight of a Barn Owl, constantly lifting and dropping, and almost looking like it could get blown away on the merest whisper of a breeze. They are 'all head', or that's how they look to me, with those large eyes and facial discs, as if the rest of the body has been designed to carry that head, because that's where all the prey detecting kit is found. Superb!
We've had three walks from the Quay and down the Wyre Estuary since the start of the year, making the most of the cold, calm, frosty weather we have at the moment. In fact, we have signed up for the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) Winter Gull Survey (WinGS), as the Wyre Estuary site forms part of this local patch of ours. So, on 21st January, for a couple of hours leading up to dusk, we will be counting all the Gull species flying downstream to the estuary to roost. We are really looking forward to it. Gail is going to design a recording sheet to take into the field, so I can shout out the numbers and species of Gulls as they fly past, and she can quickly enter them onto the sheet. Team work.
Our first walk along the Quay was on 4th January, and we encountered the over-wintering Common Sandpiper close to the boats in the Quay itself. In fact, a Chiffchaff further along gave it more of an early spring-like feel. I'm feeling a sense of Deja vu as I write this, because I know I have said that before. We are just carrying on it would seem, where early December left off.
A few wildfowl were in the channels, namely 22 Mallards, six Teal and 58 Wigeon. That's the birds taken care of, the only other thing I will mention is that we found some Ragwort and Smooth Sow-thistle in flower. It was our intention to take part in the Botanical Society of Britain and Ireland's (BSBI) New Year Plant Hunt, but the weather was absolutely appalling on the survey dates, so it was impossible for us to take part. Maybe next year.
We were back at the Quay the following day and both the Common Sand and the Chiffie were still in residence. Wildfowl numbers were similar with 20 Mallards, two Teal and 46 Wigeon, but there were a few more waders with 52 Redshanks and eight Oystercatchers. Out in the mouth of the estuary on the muscle beds of Great Knott, Oystercatchers here numbered at least 900.
On 6th January, under clear skies with no wind, we were at our friend's farm near Nateby for a ringing session at the feeding station. We were fairly busy, so birds recorded whilst we were walking back and forth to the net, extracting birds, ringing them etc were limited, but we did have twelve Redwings, 20 Tree Sparrows, a Great Spotted Woodpecker, two Fieldfares and a Raven. All this was to the soundscape from the wetland of calling Teal and Wigeon. A few days earlier, when we had called to top the feeders up, there were at least 40 - 50 Wigeon and about 300 Teal on the wetland.
We ringed 25 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):
Chaffinch - 4
Tree Sparrow - 9
Great Tit - 3 (5)
Blue Tit - 9 (8)
Coal Tit - (1)
Nuthatch - (1)
Dunnock - (1)
We have got a busy week coming up, but hopefully we'll be back at the feeding station next weekend for another ringing session.
Our final recent walk along from the Quay was yesterday, and we had a few more waders. High tide was at about 0730, and we got there at about 1000. The tides at the moment are very low, just over 7 metres, so all of the mud in the Quay doesn't get covered. There were 55 Black-tailed Godwits, 332 Redshanks (Quay & estuary), seven Oystercatchers, 40 Golden Plovers (flying downstream), six Dunlin and six Knot, which are always good to see feeding in the Quay. Out on Great Knott, we estimated that there were somewhere in the region of 1,300 Oystercatchers.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but it was grand to be out stretching our legs in the sunshine. We've got a wintering bird survey on the other side of the Ribble tomorrow, so we are looking forward to that, but it will be a cold one!
Over on the right you will see that I have updated the ringing totals for Fylde Ringing Group for the final time in 2023. One new species for the year was ringed for the year in December, and this was a Sparrowhawk. I haven't produced a 'top 5 ringed for the month', as we only ringed 29 birds during December, and no species made it into double figures. I have, however, listed the 'Top 10 Movers and Shakers' below.
Top 10 Movers and Shakers
1. Goldfinch - 201 (same position)
2. Blue Tit - 146 (same position)
3. Chaffinch - 130 9same position)
4. Great Tit - 107 9same position)
5. Sand Martin - 101 (same position)
6. Greenfinch - 83 (same position)
7. Meadow Pipit - 45 (same position)
8. Lesser Redpoll - 43 (same position)
9. Linnet - 40 (same position)
Redwing - 40 (up from 10th)
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