A few Hours Birding

My few hours birding, during this hectic week, started yesterday afternoon when I called at my feeding station on my way back from a meeting. It was a glorious afternoon and I was looking forward to a nice walk along the 97 Hedge. However, this didn't happen because in the Big Field were 28 Shelducks (record count for me here) and I didn't want to flush them as I surely would if I had headed along the 97 Hedge. So my visit was fairly protracted.

 Some of the 28 Shelducks in the Big Field

The Green Sand was on the flood and two Buzzards were 'knocking about' the woodland. There are less birds at the feeding station now as I am slowly winding it down and gently weaning the birds off it, so just 22 Tree Sparrows today.

A quick look on the river on my way home revealed a male and two female Goosanders and 12 Curlews, but very little else.

I had a report with a deadline of today and I was confident that even with an hour and a half's birding on the coast I would still get it done so I treated myself. It was a glorious morning, if a little cold at first, with clear skies and a light southeasterly breeze.

There was some vis, but not a huge amount, mainly because we have had settled conditions for a few days now and a great deal of 'stuff' will have moved through, and with it being still early in the spring there isn't a huge amount on the move as yet. My vis totals included two Grey Wagtails, 60 Pink-footed Geese, eight Alba Wags, eleven Linnets, two Rooks, nine Meadow Pipits and a Goldfinch.

The sea was like a mill pond, albeit with a little haze, but passage at sea was fairly light. I had 30 Eiders, 25 Common Scoters, 20 Whooper Swans on the sea, 21 Cormorants, 13 Shelducks, two Red-throated Divers and a Red-breasted Merganser. I also had the male Long-tailed Duck that steamed through the water and took up residence with a pair of Eiders.

I was hoping for my first Wheatear this morning, but it wasn't to be, and I had to make do with a male Stonechat.

I was hoping to get out ringing tomorrow but the 'pea souper' we have outside at the moment has put paid to that. I might nip out for an hour between reports when it clears later and see if I can find some Wheatears. 

The Right Way

I thought it was going to be a Thrush morning yesterday as I had a Redwing over the garden in the half-light before heading to the Obs, and the first bird I had at the Obs was a Fieldfare, but they were the only migrant Thrushes I would record.

The wind had eased to a 10 mph southerly and all the vis was heading the right way (north)! Talking of vis on my walk round I recorded six Goldfinches, a Fieldfare, 54 Woodpigeons, 16 Alba Wags, a Chaffinch, 95 Pink-footed Geese, three Linnets, two Grey Wagtails and 30 Whooper Swans heading north just above the sea wall! Unfortunately I had moved away from the sea and was heading inland when I heard the Whoopers, and if I had been in the same position they would have flown low over my head giving me a good photographic opportunity. Well that's the theory anyway!

Birds holding territory included Great Tit, Wren,Robin , Woodpigeon, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Blackbird, Reed Bunting, Mallard and Skylark.

The sea was again quiet with just three Cormorants, eight Eiders and a male Red-breasted Merganser. To be fair I didn't spend a great deal of time looking as it was quite murky out there. Only 12 Snipe and no Jack Snipes on the flood and other than two Long-tailed Tits that was my morning at the Obs.

Back home I had a single Clouded Drab in the moth trap and if I kept a house list I would have added Raven as I had a single croaking bird heading northeast. Nice!

I should have been out this morning, but with numerous reports to write I thought it better to crack on and try and get out for a few days later in the week.

The Wrong Way

There was a cold southeasterly wind, perhaps 15-20 mph, blowing as I set off on my walk round the obs at first light. I had nearly full cloud cover at first, but this would lessen to about 4 oktas later.

Most of the vis, or what little I had, this morning was either heading south or east, presumably into wind. The only species where all individuals headed north was Grey Wagtail. My vis totals were four Grey Wags, five Alba Wags, nine Meadow Pipits, three Siskins, two Chaffinches and three Goldfinches.

I didn't have any grounded migrants as such, other than a single Goldcrest, but there were a number of 'off passage' Pied Wagtails and Meadow Pipits. There are two floods at the Obs at the moment and the first, more open, flood held seven Oystercatchers and two Redshanks. The second, more enclosed and vegetated flood held 18 Snipe and two Jack Snipes.  In this flood I had my first Frog spawn of the year.

Frog spawn

I had a look on the sea and it was very quiet and consequently I didn't spend much time looking and just recorded 19 Eiders and two Cormorants. Behind me in the field as I looked at the sea two Mistle Thrushes were feeding. 

 Mistle Thrush

My walk back to the car was quiet and the only other species of interest that I added was a male Sparrowhawk that landed in the copse and then got mobbed by six Magpies!

 On the way back to the car I photographed this Dandelion, or other such

Taraxacum, as it looked resplendent in the grassy bank.

The forecast is looking good for another wander round the Obs again tomorrow, but it isn't going to be quite calm enough for ringing, but it does look good for some ringing next week! I have loads of reports that need completing next week, but I will squeeze a ringing session or three in!

The Week That Was

I've had a busy week work wise this past week and all I have managed to do is a couple of visits to my feeding station to wind it down and the odd site visit with work. At my feeding station totals have included ten Chaffinches, four Yellowhammers and 89 Tree Sparrows. The Green Sandpiper has been present on the flood all week along with its 'pal' the Grey Wagtail. Two Buzzards have been present along with a drumming Great Spotted Woodpecker and 30 Linnets.

 Green Sandpiper

Earlier in the week I was running a farmland bird workshop in north Cumbria and had six Yellowhammers, Grey Wagtail and my first Raven of the year at the farm we held the workshop on.

I was on the blanket bog above Haslingden today for my sins and the only bird of note I came across was a Woodcock I flushed from amongst the Heather and Sphagnum.

Fingers crossed for a few more birds tomorrow!

End of February Ringing Totals

As is usual at this time of month I have updated the ringing totals over on the right for Fylde Ringing Group, and they are far from impressive. The wet windy weather of January and February certainly played havoc with our totals and we have a lot of catching up to do Let's hope for a settled spring.

I haven't done a top ten 'movers and shakers', but instead I have just listed below the top three ringed:

1. Blue Tit - 15
2. Yellowhammer - 12 (unusual to see this species so high in the 'charts')
3. Goldfinch - 9

The weather is looking settled next week and hopefully I'll be able to ring some Meadow Pipits at the Obs. In fact the weather looks good from tomorrow onwards for some early spring arrivals with high pressure and southerly winds. I'll be out in the morning looking for that first Wheatear.

A Wee Bit Of Vis

Yesterday morning I had a stagger round the obs in the intermittent rain. The wind direction was southwesterly, veering southeasterly and picking up from five to ten mph.

One of the first birds I had was a cracking adult make Sparrowhawk that shot past in front of me across the field and onwards, and it also was the only raptor of the morning. I mentioned in my title that there was a little bit of vis and there was just a faint trickle north that included a Carrion Crow, eight Alba Wagtails, two Grey Wagtails, two Siskins and six Pink-footed Geese. Interestingly I didn't have a single Meadow Pipit on the move, but I did have 40 grounded by the wet weather.

It was quiet on the sea and all I had were 28 Cormorants, 27 Eiders, two Shelducks and four Common Scoters.

I had to shorten my walk back and miss out the 'middle hedgerows' as the dark clouds rolled in and the heavens really opened!

Mainly Yellow With A Sprinkling Of Box Brown

Amazingly it was calm enough to do some ringing at my feeding station yesterday morning and for perhaps only the second time this winter I had to clear some frost from my car before setting off to the Moss. The day dawned with a ground frost, virtual clear skies and most important of all no wind!

It turned out to be quite a good ringing session particularly for Yellowhammers and also because 62% of the birds ringed were red-listed.

 Yellowhammer

I ringed 27 and recaptured (brackets) 12 birds as follows:

Tree Sparrow - 5 (1)
Chaffinch - 2
Blue Tit - 4 (6)
Great Tit - 2 (1)
Blackbird - 1 (1)
Dunnock - 1
Yellowhammer - 12 (2)

 Tree Sparrow

Blackbird

You can't have enough Yellowhammers

I hadn't seen any Grey Partridges for a while until this morning when I had a pair as I walked down the track on one of my net rounds. It was difficult to say exactly how many birds were using the feeding station as I was busy ringing but I would say there were 60-70 Tree Sparrows, 10-15 Chaffinches and 20-25 Yellowhammers.

Lapwings were making their presence felt by their exuberant display and I had seven displaying males plus an additional 146 birds, which I guess are continental birds on their way back east. It certainly makes the local birds work overtime with their display!

Over to the west were a number of Pink-footed Geese and I estimated there to be at least 2,100. They kept on getting flushed but I couldn't tell what by and at one time when they were flushed 21 Corn Buntings got up too.

Raptors were represented by two Buzzards and a Great Spotted Woodpecker was drumming from one of the woodlands the Buzzards were in. Talking of calling birds I had both Skylark and Siskin go over high and I could see the Skylark, but not the Siskin.

With all the Yellowhammers around that's the yellow taken care of and the 'box brown' refers to Gail and I spending a day checking and maintaining a nest box scheme for Pied Flycatchers in Bowland and some Tree Sparrow boxes at the feeding station. The boxes were in good order and out of 56 boxes we only had to replace three.

Pied Flycatcher country in winter!