Afternoon Feed

I called at my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss to feed the ravenous hordes of Tree Sparrows this afternoon. As I collected a bucket of seed from the barn three Whooper Swans flew past closely followed by a Kestrel. That's a nice start I thought. It was a pleasant afternoon and I was looking forward to a walk round.


On to the track to put the food down and I had 8 Blackbirds in the hedge but no other Thrushes. The Blackbirds were feeding on the Hawthorn berries, but I have put quite a lot of soft fruit down so as soon as the berries go there will be other food for them.

Straight away I could see that the numbers of Tree Sparrows and Chaffinch had increased. A count/guestimate as I walked down the track revealed 207 Tree Sparrows and 25 Chaffinch. Also at the feeding station were 3 Yellowhammers. Normally I don't get them feeding at the feeding station until after Christmas, but they are often present along the hedge hanging round one of the Pheasant feeders.

As I turned to head up the 97 hedge I had a Peregrine go over carrying prey and as I got to the 'top' fields 8 Skylarks got off the stubble and I flushed a single Corn Bunting. I was going to head up to the plantation but I could see that Phillip (the farmer) and his lads were working up there. They were fencing the west side of the plantation off so they could put some sheep in the field next to it and prevent them from straying into the plantation.

I then headed south along the track and back towards my car. Not much along here other than a party of 17 Lapwings going over and 8 Long-tailed Tits near Curlew Wood. On the receding floods 35 Black-headed Gulls fed alongside 4 Common Gulls. Aren't Common Gulls cracking birds?

On my way home I stopped off at Town End to have a look on the river, hoping for a few Whoopers on the grazing marsh or a Goosander on the river, but all I had were four Mute Swans and nineteen Canada Geese.

I'm not sure what to do tomorrow as there is a morning tide but the wind direction and strength, strong SSE, is all wrong for a sea watch. I suppose I'll set my alarm and have a look.

Mid-week Update

Well I say mid-week update, but I haven't got much to report other than a few 'padders'. Padders, now that's a word I haven't used for a while. I wonder if it is still used in twitcher's parlance?

I haven't had much at home this week, well because I have been at work. You know what it's like, out before light and home after dark! The other morning I noticed that the House Sparrows still liked to spend time in the hawthorn in my front garden and I had 6 as I got in my car to go to work. Mentioning House Sparrows at all is a sign of the times. As you all know they used to be very common and I can remember a time that the BTO would frown upon us if we ringed too many. Back in the early 80s the ringing group used to catch Greenfinches in a roost on the island at Fleetwood Marine Lake and with the Greenfinches roosted House Sparrows. Can you believe it that we used to ring the Greenfinches and chuck any House Sparrows that we caught! In fact I was looking at the notes section of some old field sheets recently and a member of the group wrote "desperate Eaves ringed a House Sparrow, sensible Slade threw one a way"! Now, who was the sensible one!

My office feeders have been busy with Nuthatch and Coalt Tit all week and on Monday I could hear that 2009 autumn rarity, Goldcrest, calling from the woodland! Pink-footed Geese have been a feature every morning and I have had birds going over heading south to feeding grounds from their Morecambe Bay/River Wyre roosts.

I called at Moss House Farm yesterday to top-up the feeding station, but it was virtually dark when I called so obviously I didn't have too much. In fact all I had were a calling male and female Tawny Owl. I did note that the flood waters had receded a little, but the fields were still very wet.

The weather...

...was absolutely awful this morning, well it was shortly after I had put a couple of nets up at the feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss. The forecast last night from numerous weather websites stated that it would be raining until about midnight and then it would clear and the wind would be a light (5 mph-ish) northeasterly. Wrong! I arranged to meet Craig at the feeding station at 0630 to put a couple of nets up and hopefully ring a good number of Tree Sparrows.

As usual I couldn't sleep and from 0400 until 0500, I watched the alarm clock go round until I decided to get up. I was there early and had both nets up by 0615, and I watched Phil and Will drive up the track to try their luck with Thrushes in the plantation. As I was putting the nets up I had a few Redwings and Snipe calling as they flew over in the darkness and Grey partridge called from the wet field behind the hedge.

Back at base camp (the cars) we had four Tawny Owls (2 males and 2 females) calling from the vicinity of Curlew Wood and Phil later informed me that they had 2 in the plantation. In the gloom we could see a Barn Owl perched on a fence post in front of one of the nets and I wondered whether it was attracted to the Redwing call that I was playing on my MP3 player. It then took off and headed north along the 97 hedge. Phil and Will had a Barn Owl in the area of the plantation, but theirs could easily have been the same or a different bird.

Up until now the weather was okay, if a little breezy, but then it started to rain and it never really stopped from then onwards until we took the nets down. As the day dawned we could see just how wet the fields were. I have included two pictures of the same field below; one taken yesterday and the other today. Boy was it wet!

Yesterday

Today

Two Buzzards flew along the side of Curlew Wood and one landed in the trees as the other continued west. Other raptors during the morning were a Kestrel and a juv male Sparrowhawk that shot low along the hedge, before seeing us at the last minute and flipping up and over the hedge, and back the way it came.

It was very difficult to estimate the numbers of birds using the feeding station as we did ring a few birds and we were also keeping a close eye on the weather and the nets. In my notebook I have recorded 90 Tree Sparrows, but I think that was an under-estimate, 2 Yellowhammers and single Corn Bunting. I said that we did ring a few birds and it was a few birds consisting of three Tree Sparrows, female Chaffinch and juv male Great Spotted Woodpecker. Craig was pleased as he had never ringed Great Spot before and he got off lightly as it was nice and calm in the hand!

Corn Bunt

A few wildfowl were moving a round this morning and we had 2,290 Pink-footed Geese, 24 Whooper Swans and 60 Lapwing. I know Lapwing aren't wildfowl but they fitted in here! After a couple of hours of 'shall we - shan't we' the weather got the better of us and we called it a day and took the nets down.

My notebook for 8th November 1991 reads "Desert Wheatear. Immature female, Rossall Point". And that was it! Talk about an under statement. It never ceases to amaze me when looking back at my old notebooks how sometimes I am straight to the point with very little detail and at other times I 'wax lyrical'.

Between the showers...

...I had quite a pleasant walk around Rawcliffe Moss this morning. In fact I was quite surprised at the lack of flood water as it rained heavily over night and all the fields were flooded when I was there on Thursday morning. Don't get me wrong, it was wet, but not as wet as I expected.


I called at the moss this morning to feed and also to put ropes on the net rides in readiness for the first ringing session. As always Pink-footed Geese were on the move and I had 578 go over. Down the hedge towards the feeding station 18 Chaffinch were with the 85 Tree Sparrows. The Tree Sparrows were only just arriving when I was at the feeding station hence the lower count compared with a few days ago. Presumably the bad weather had put them off from straying too far from their roost site.


A number of Skylarks were around this morning and I had 19 in total. Something was flushing all the Lapwing as I kept seeing parties getting up, but I couldn't get on to what ever was doing the flushing. In total I had 538 Lapwings flushed from the deck.

There were a few thrushes around this morning but not as many as a couple of days ago; only 1 Redwing, 2 Song Thrushes and 5 each of Blackbird and Fieldfare. As I was putting the ropes on I could see a Great Spotted Woodpecker flying down the track and periodically perching on fence posts. It worked its way down to one of my peanut feeders and fed a short while before moving off.

There is a large field to the west of where I park at the end of the track and I could see on the far side in a willow and the adjacent hawthorn hedge some large finch/bunting like birds perched up. I decided to have a walk round the field to have a look and I also thought that I might push a Reed Bunt or two along the ditch or something else out of the game cover alongside the ditch. I was right in that I pushed 5 Reed Buntings along the ditch and two Grey Partridges lifted from the game cover. As I got close to my mystery birds I could see that they were 27 stonking Corn Buntings. Nice!

Back at the car I watched seven Long-tailed Tits come out of Curlew Wood and slowly work their way along the hedge towards me and then they hopped to the next hedge and away. Fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow, and if it is okay I should be doing some ringing at the feeding station.

Murky conditions towards Bowland

The Office

I didn't get time to update my blog yesterday, so what I talk about today refers to yesterday. I hope you can follow that. It will be even more amazing if I can follow that!

I suppose I am quite lucky in that 'my office' is basically all the countryside throughout Lancashire! Or perhaps, to put it more accurately, that is my metaphorical office. My true office, in terms of 'bricks and mortar' is a square box I rent in a modern building at Myerscough College. However, it does overlook some nice woodland and I have a couple of feeders on my window that attract a good range of birds. So I can be typing some relatively uninteresting report with a Nuthatch for company two feet from me! Not just Nuthatch; Coal Tit, Great Tit, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long-tailed Tit, Greenfinch, Blue Tit etc, the list goes on.

Of course Myerscough College is itself in a rural location and therefore the chances of 'bumping into' a few birds are increased. Yesterday as I got out of my car and walked across the car park towards the office block I could hear some Whooper Swans calling and looked up and there were seven birds winging their way south. Presumably just exiting a roost and on their way to a feeding area. Then a Grey Wagtail went over calling too. Maybe I should start a car to office list and see how many species I can record!

Talking of lists, I am trailing behind in the year list challenge against my colleagues. My colleague in Northumberland has recorded 135 species on company business, in that metaphoric office and I am 5 species behind on 130 in second place. The only other two entrants in the east midlands and Staffordshire are on 113 and 101 respectively.

On my way to see a client I called in at Moss House Farm to put some food down at the feeding station. A Grey Wagtail patrolled the tailing's mountain in search of invertebrates and 30 'Pink-feet' went over. There is an awful lot of water around at the moment and a number of fields here were flooded with a few species taking advantage of the glut of invertebrates that will have been forced to the surface. No camera with me today so you'll have to imagine the wet fields. 147 Lapwing fed on the drier bits within the floods and 435 Black-headed Gulls bathed and fed alongside. As time wasn't on my side I couldn't give the Black-heads a grilling to look for something a little bit more unusual. You know what I was looking for; all white wings, heavy red bill etc.

The other species taking advantage of the floods to feed and bathe were the Starlings and there was thousands of them; literally! In my notebook I have put down 6,306, but there were probably a great deal more.

Along the hedge to the feeding station a number of birds fed. Thrushes were feeding on the berries and I had 5 Fieldfares, 5 Blackbirds, 20 Redwings and single Song Thrush.

I have now started to put some soft fruit out at the feeding station for the Thrushes, including apples, pears and quince. The only problem is that it attracts Starlings. What's wrong with Starlings you might ask; they're on the red list so they are good to ring, but have you ever extracted one from a mist net? If you have you'll know exactly where I'm coming from. Far better to catch and ring them in 'drop traps'. Although, either method they still crap all over you just as much!

Numbers of Tree Sparrows had increased to 180 and they were joined by about a dozen Chaffinch and a single vocal Brambling. Definitely a few more Bramblings about this autumn. Five Corn Buntings perched on top of the hawthorns above the seed and these were the first Corn Buntings I have had at the feeding station this winter. As I walked back to my car I had a Great Spotted Woodpecker calling.

It was then off to another bit of my 'office' near Pilling. Nothing too exciting here other than a cracking Barn Owl coming out of an old stone barn and 60 Curlews feeding on a wet field. Note to self to put a box up for the Barn Owl.

And that was my day in the office yesterday.

Looking back to bonfire night in 1983, I spent a couple of days winter birding in Norfolk. My notebook back then was always more brief and to the point than it is now. The day started at Weybourne cliffs at 05:35 according to my notebook and it was dull and misty! How on earth we expected to see anything at 05:35 on a November morning I'm not sure. If my old grey matter serves me correct we were twitching a female Pied Wheatear, that disappeared the day before, but at the time we weren't to know that. We had a female Snow Bunting and that was it, but I suppose it wasn't a bad start.

We then moved on to Arnold's Marsh at Cley and unfortunately the weather hadn't improved much as it was still dull and misty. However, we did have a more respectable 80 Snow Buntings along with a female Hen Harrier and 3 Bearded Tits. We then went to Wells Wood and had stonking views of 4 males and 2 female Parrot Crossbills drinking from a pool in the car park. Awesome! There were no other records of Parrot Crossbill in Britain that year, so the consensus of opinion is that the Wells birds were birds left over from the 1982 invasion.

Back towards the Cley for the afternoon and we had a male Shorelark in a field behind the sea-wall with a Black-throated Diver and Black Guillemot on the sea. We stayed overnight and birded again the following day (6th) and we found ourselves back at Wells at 08:00, and still it was misty. We spent some time at the 'drinking' pool trying to catch up with a possible Olive-backed Pipit that was allegedly seen late the day before, when we were at Salthouse. However, the bird never got accepted and we didn't see anything other than a pair of Parrot Crossbills.

We went back to Weybourne in the vain hope that the Pied Wheatear might turn up but all we were rewarded with was a late juvenile Yellow Wagtail and a partial summer plumaged Black-throated Diver. Desperation had us back at Wells in the afternoon but by four o'clock all we had logged were 50 Brent Geese, so it was time for the long drive home.

Stair Rods

You can see that the continuing theme for this week is rain! In fact, I didn't think I would have anything to report this week, you might think that I haven't, until weekend when weather permitting I would be out again. However, I was on a nice farm near Nateby this afternoon and as I and the farmer walked round we had a few bits and pieces.

The lower portion of his land was flooded and looking through the 'stair rods' that were hurtling to earth in great number and velocity we had 14 Whooper Swans and 2 Mute Swans on the flood.

I have borrowed the above picture from Simon Hawtin (thanks Simon) and Simon's photograph could easily have been of my birds except they were taken in good light, on a different farm and in a different year! What I mean is that the make up of birds shown here was similar to what I had today in terms of the mix of adults and juveniles.

Sharing the flood were 70 Teal and 30 Mallards, and as we walked towards the flood we flushed 15 Snipe from the saturated grassland.



Ase walked back towards the farm house along a nice piece of remnant ancient woodland we pushed a flock of 40 Fieldfare and 15 Redwings ahead of us from the scrubby edge of the woodland. It was raining hard, but it was a pleasant afternoon stroll amongst the 'stair rods'.

Rain

And there's going to be a lot more of it this week. I called at my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss on my way home and had a walk down the track carrying two full buckets of seed in the pouring rain. Nice! Through my rain lashed and steamed up glasses I could see that there was about 50 Tree Sparrows at the feeding station. Back at the barn where the food is stored two Grey Wagtails fed around the base of the 'tailing's' mountain.

What we need is a bit of colour to brighten things up and I think the picture of the Eastern Bluebird below from Nigel does just that. Now I wouldn't mind pulling that out of a mist net at Rossall School!