Splash and Dash

I called at my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss this morning on my way to see a client in Bowland. It was clear with a moderate northwesterly wind and it was quite cold. A few birds are starting to find the seed now and there were half a dozen Chaffinch and about 10 Tree Sparrows.

 Tree Sparrow

As I walked back down the track away from the feeding station I could hear some Pink-footed Geese calling and I was expecting to see them appear over Curlew Wood from the north, and then I could hear them over head. I looked up and 76 were high 'winging' their way south.

 'Pinkies'

The weather has now changed for weekend and it is highly unlikely that we will get out ringing at the 'obs', so it will be some birding for me tomorrow and Sunday.

Windy Wednesday - Parts 1 and 2

The weather conditions were spot on for some decent seawatching off Rossall Point this morning, so by 6.30 a.m. I was sheltering behind the Coastguards Tower with Ian. The first birds I had were a few Guillemots close in on the falling tide. At the same time Ian and I both picked up a small Tern being blown east by the 30 mph westerly wind with wings flailing. It managed to compose itself and then battle west against the wind and it was then that we could see that it was a juvenile Little Tern. The first good bird of the morning. We did have a few Sandwich Terns on the move as well and these numbered 12.

The stormy conditions seemed to be stirring up the Common Scoters and 89 birds moved over the waves.

Next up were the stars of the show and we picked up the first Leach's Petrel cutting across the bay. It was interesting that the first few birds were doing this, moving in a southwesterly direction. It's as if they weren't being affected by the strong winds and being blown in to the bay. Later on they were being blown into the bay and they were passing Rossall close in moving west along the shore. In total I had 15 Leach's during the morning.

 Leach's Petrel robbed off the net

Kittiwakes moved west further out and in total we had about 8 with a supporting cast of 2 Manxies and 3 Gannets.

Ian then picked up a small Skua sp. coming across the bay shearing. As it came closer a lot of features came into view that would clinch it as a 'pale' juvenile Long-tailed Skua. Awesome! The Long-tailed was closely followed by 2 Bonxies and 4 Arctic Skuas. By this time I had to go to work as I had an appointment with a client, otherwise I would have stayed all day. This constitutes Part 1 of 'Windy Wednesday'.

 Long-tailed Skua - juv illustration; 

smilarly robbed off the net

Part 2 kicked off when I returned to Rossall at 4.00 p.m. Straight away Leach's were on the move and in total I had 12 birds west close in giving stonking views. At one stage I had a flock of four! Auks were still around on the sea and there was an even mix of Guillemots and Razorbills.

A few Gannets (3), Kittiwakes (9) and 2 Sandwich Terns moved west. I had my first Pink-footed Geese of the autumn when a flock of 76 arrived from the north and headed southwest. A Red-throated Diver flying high west was also a first for the autumn for me. Skuas were sadly lacking during 'Part 2' but a Bonxie heading west at speed close in made up for a lack of numbers by giving stupendous views. And that was it. It was time to head home and show my face to 'her indoors'.

The wind is easing tonight and veering northwesterly and it is still looking good for some ringing on perhaps both Saturday and Sunday, but we'll see.

Weekend Washout

What a weekend! As I had Friday off work I was hoping to have three consecutive days of birding, but it wasn't to be. It was wet Friday, but as you know I managed to get out, and it was wet on Saturday and Sunday, but with a moderate northwesterly wind and along with the rain I decided not to bother.

The forecast over the next few days isn't much better. I have just looked at the five day forecast, something I keep on vowing not to do as it either; (a) depresses me or (b) disapooints me when the weather doesn't live up to the forecast. Tuesday (tomorrow) and Wednesday looks like it could be good for seabirds off the Fylde coast, then on Thursday it is swinging round to the northwest. This will favour the Merseyside birders, but not us. However, dare I say it, Saturday at the moment is looking like I might get out rinigng. But mind you it will probably change now.

I will try and get out before work in the week, but if I don't get out I'll have to stick my nose in the two new books that arrived today. I purchased the new 'Bird Observatories of Britain and Ireland' (can't wait to start that one) and James McCallum's 'Wild Skeins and Winter Skies - Paintings and Observations of Pink-footed Geese'.

Twice Round

I was hoping that the rain front that came in from the west over night would drop a few migrants on my coastal patches, and it did, but it was only a few. As Ian said this morning as we both took shelter from a particularly heavy shower "it was raining just a little too hard". The wind didn't help much either as it was veering from SSE to SSW, and I think if there had been more easterly in it it would have been a better morning. There we go that's all the excuses as to why it was crap over with.

I worked three coastal patches; Mount Park, Fleetwood Cemetery and Rossall School twice. The reason for that was after I had worked all three once, the conditions improved so I went round them all again. I won't bore with you what I saw on each round and have just lumped the meagre totals together.

 The Mount

In the Mount it was raining heavily and all I could muster was a couple of Goldcrests and a single Chiffchaff. There were the usual 'ticking' autumn Robins and these too were probably migrants.

On to the cmetery and I did fair better here. The southern end was better as it was more sheltered and flicking around in the willows were 5 Goldcrests, 2 Chiffchaffs and possibly up to 3 Willow Warblers. A 1st winter male Sparrowhawk shot through and a few Swallows battled south against the wind that had now picked up to around 15 mph.

 Chiffchaff

Conditions at Rossall School were tricky to say the least and finding any migrants was virtually impossible. A few local Swallows were feeding over the fields and I had 2 heading south out at sea over the waves. The visibility ast sea was poor and consequently a quick look only resulted in 3 Common Scoters and an Eider.

On the way back to my car I did manage one migrant in the form of a Wheatear. I then headed to Fleetwwod Marsh Nature Park to see if the wet weather had dropped any waders in and it hadn't. On the pools were 22 Tufted Ducks, 2 Pochards, 30 Coots and a Little Grebe.

The local authority are in the process of re-surfacing the car park and footpaths which is a total waste of money. They don't spend a penny on managing the habitat at the site and yet they can find several thousand pounds to re-surface the car park for the benefit of the dog walkers who just spend all their time disturbing all the wildlife!

It is totally amazing that money can be found to do this when the coalition government is proposing some huge cuts in funding for nature conservation. Targets for restoring farmland birds have gone and huge cuts are proposed in agri-evironment funding to name but a few. It would seem that our current government has no concern for biodiversity in the UK at all. At least I can sleep easy knowing that I didn't vote for this shower of shite!

Birds Of The Froorland Minge

Several years ago a colleague of mine was giving a presentation of a project he had been involved in with the RSPB. The title of his presentation, and indeed the project, was 'Birds of the Moorland Fringe' but an accidental spoonerism as he read out the title of his talk caused fits of laughter throughout the room. As I was surveying a farm on the moorland fringe today it got me thinking about JC and his presentation and hence the title of my blog.

I was on a farm at the western end of Bowland that we hope to improve for breeding waders and I was carrying out a survey of all the environmental, historical and landscape features as part of the application. A number of Swallows and House Martins seemed to be steadily moving southwest during the morning and in total I had 50 and 10 respectively. The only other 'vis' was restricted to 10 each of Meadow Pipits and Pied Wagtails.

 Bowland

A large number of Starlings, probably about a thousand, were feeding in fields close to the farmstead and were very noisy until a Sparrowhawk shot through and all was quiet. There was a nice network of hedgerows on the farm but all was quiet in them other than a Willow Warbler and some 'ticking' Robins.

 Willow Warbler

I had 5 Buzzards during my walk round and I never tire of seeing these graceful raptors. In an adjacent field was some brassica 'game' cover crop and 2 Reed Buntings and 7 Linnets fed within. That was all I had bird wise today and I was hoping to get out ringing tomorrow, but the weather forecast has changed again. It is going to be clear with some raining come in over night, so I will probably still go birding as tonight and tomorrow looks likely to be the last day of south-southeasterly winds for a few days. I will find that Barred Warbler! That's jinxed it then; I'll let you know. 

Yesterday at the 'Obs'

The forecast for yesterday was marginal to say the least, but at this time of year you can't afford to miss any opportunity to get out ringing. Gary, Ian and I met at Rossall School at 6.00 a.m. and put the nets up. They were billowing a little and possibly just enough to make them obvious so that birds avoided them. There was also very little on the move and the combination of these two factors probably led to the poor catch that we had.

In total we ringed only 8 birds and these were Great Tit, Robin, 2 Whitethroats, Dunnock, 2 Swallows and a Blue Tit. On the positive side we did identify another net ride that will cut through a hedgerow hopefully intercepting any birds that move along it.

 Dunnock

Great Tit

Robin

Swallow

Whitethroat

As I mentioned before the 'vis' was quiet and all we had going over were 3 Grey Wagtails, 2 Linnets and 4 Meadow Pipits. There were 60 House Martins and 80 Swallows around but it was very difficult to tell whether they were moving through or not, as they seemed to be moving round the site in a feeding circuit.

I came across the critter below in my garden this afternoon and it is an Elephant Hawkmoth caterpillar. A cracking little 'beasty' and even more of a cracker as a moth!

Winter Feed

No you haven't slept through autumn and woke up in winter! The title refers to the fact that I put the first seed out at my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss today. I don't intend to start any ringing at the feeding station until the end of October, but it takes a couple of months for the birds to find the food and for the flock to build up.

 Peanuts and Seed

After I had put the food out I had a walk round the Moss but it was quiet. A number of Swallows, 223 to be precise, were feeding over of the wheat and barley. This anticyclonic weather that we have at the moment tends to build Swallow numbers up. A few butterflies were on the wing including numbers of Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Peacock and Speckled Wood.

 Peacock

Red Admiral

Small Tortoiseshell

Walking through the plantation I was struggling to find any birds and all I could 'notch up' were 2 Willow Warblers, Blackcap and 7 Long-tailed Tits. Walking back along the track a Buzzard soared over head and 6 Curlews headed west. Back towards the car I flushed a Great Spotted Woodpecker from a tree and that was it!

 Afternoon 'arable' Sunshine

Ringing at the 'obs' tomorrow, so hopefully that will be better.