Change of Wind Direction and Increased Strength Brings in the Gannets, 29th September 2008

Overnight the wind had veered to a WNW force 3-4, so seawatching was the order of the day. Unfortunately the tides weren't in my favour as high tide wasn't until 1150 and I was at Rossall Point at 0725! This meant until the tide started to run in I would have to look over a lot of sand to 'get' to the sea! Someone should dismantle the Coastguards Tower and move it further west to Rossall Scar that way you would always be looking over the sea.

Coastguard's Tower at Rossall Point giving valuable shelter

for seawatching

I knew that I would need at least another day of strong westerly winds to bring in Leach's Petrel so I was hoping for a Skua or two and looking forward to some Leach's in a few days time. No Skuas materialised but numbers of Cormorants remained fairly high at 74 and there were no Shags today.

Numbers of Oystercatchers had built up to 581 but numbers of other waders were fairly low. Although to be fair as I was stood in one place for several hours I was reliant on them flying past me. 11 Curlews were pushed off the muscle beds along with 50 Knots and 3 Snipe flew high west.

Roosting Oystercatcher at Rossall Point

'Real' seabirds were represented by 87 Gannets, 3 Guillemots and a single Manx Shearwater that battled west along the tide edge. 14 Eiders bobbed up and down on the swell and 5 Common Scoters scurried along the horizon.

Pink-foot Arrival, 28th September 2008

Overnight the wind had swung to a northerly direction and a weak front was supposed to drop south, although by the time it got to Lancashire it was forecast to have petered out and it did. No drizzle and no carpet of grounded migrants. It was very clear at first light at Rossall Point and as the wind was northerly I knew there would be some Pink-footed Geese arrivals. Unfortunately in terms of seawatching a northerly usually 'kills' it at Rossall Point.

Sure enough the first birds I saw this morning were 40 Pinkies taking off from their overnight roost on the flats. Later in the morning there would be further arrivals of 210 birds all heading high to the south.

Wildfowl would be a feature of the morning with an increase in the number of Eiders on the sea to 17. Very few Common Scoters were around and I only had a distant group of 5. Sea-watchers on the Isle Of Man probably had stonking views!

I had my first Red-breasted Merganser on the sea for the autumn and a male Scaup that flew west was nice. Perhaps the best wildfowl of the morning was the single pale-bellied Brent Goose that came in from the west and landed on the sea straight in front of me giving excellent views. It rode the breaking surf for a few minutes before taking off and heading west.

Large numbers of Cormorant were around again this morning with a total of 87 birds. There doesn't seem to be the same southerly movement at the moment but nevertheless they do seem to be building up. Not as many Shags this morning, only 2, and after yesterdays pathetic attempts at photographing them I didn't even try this morning.

Walking along the dunes I got very close to a male Kestrel perched on a post. I thought I might have a go at photographing it, but as soon as I started to lower my tripod legs it flew off! The same happened later on when I tried to photograph a Wheatear. These birds seem to know when you want to photograph them as I am sure that both birds would have been happy to let me continue to watch them!

Whilst counting the waders feeding on the muscle beds I caught sight of a Peregrine 'steaming' in. This bird made several attempts to catch a Knot. It would climb and then dive down towards a Knot feeding on the muscle beds. What amazed me was how 'un-bothered' the Knots seemed to be and there was no panic amongst them at all. Consequently it didn't take long for the Peregrine to catch one and then fly off to the flats to devour its' breakfast.

Talking about the muscle beds; out of the corner of my eye I saw an all white bird approaching from the west and as soon as I got my bins on it I could see that it was a Little Egret. It landed on one of the pools besides the rocks before flying off after a couple of minutes. I did manage to get a record shot of it before it flew off, but the picture is so awful it is for my records only!

The only grounded migrants of the morning were 5 Wheatears and the vis would be equally as meagre. Even though it was northerly I must admit that because it was very clear I would have expected a number of Pipits at least, but instead all I had was a handful of Mipits, Linnets and Alba Wags.

I mentioned counting waders on the muscle beds and totals included 334 Oystercatchers, 10 Curlews, 61 Knots and later I had a small flock of 10 Sanderling on the beach.

As I touched upon earlier the sea was very quiet and the only movement I had were 7 Guillemots and a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver.

I had to go to Rawcliffe Moss afterwards to feed 'my' farmland birds and I asked Gail if she wanted to join me. Numbers of Tree Sparrows were still the same with about 20 feeding on the seed along with a few Chaffinch.

Pinkies were still arriving and we had 364 go over very high heading south. Vis was similar here as to Rossall in that there was very little. The most notable movement was probably that of 24 Skylarks plus smaller numbers of Mipits, Chaffinch, Linnets, Goldfinch and single Siskin.

A male Stonechat was a nice surprise in the '97 hedge. We call it the '97 hedge because a couple of years ago in early autumn we ringed 97 birds out of two very short nets intersecting the hedgerow.

A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers and flying Green Sandpiper later we headed home.

Chaffinch - female

The One That Got Away, 27th September 2008

At 0755 I picked up a large Shearwater moving west off Rossall Point. I picked it up when it was straight out and didn't have long on it before I lost it out of sight. As soon as I saw it I thought "what the f*ck" and the panic set in. All sorts of thoughts raced through my mind like "why does that Gannet look like a Fulmar"! And on jizz it reminded me of a cross between a Gannet and a Fulmar. The upperparts were dark and because I wasn't thinking straight I didn't look at the tail. It had a dark cap and I thought I could see a dark shoulder mark. The underwing was pale with dark markings. I phoned my mate Ian to see if he was on the coast further south, but alas he was in the cemetery looking for grounded migrants. It will just have to go down as one that got away; but my notebook does read 'possible Great Shearwater!'

Let's rewind to first light at 0655 and the first bird I had when I got out of the car was a calling Goldcrest. The weather was cold with a 10-15 mph southerly wind and out in the bay the visibility was quite poor. The only other grounded migrants were 5 Wheatears.

I walked along the top of the dunes heading west and then came back east along the foreshore seawatching and looking out for vis. The vis was fairly slow, probably because of the blocking conditions further north. I had 15 Pied Wags over, 8 Snipe, a meagre 16 Mipits, 13 Goldfinch, 4 Grey Wagtails, 37 Linnets and a couple of Swallows. A Rock Pipit dropped in and showed very well. I tried to get a few shots of it and they are so awful that I won't share any of them with you.

Good numbers of Cormorant were on the move this morning and I had a total 58. In addition to the Cormorants we had 4 Shag that landed on the sea fairly close in and I attempted to get a few pictures. Attempted is the best word to describe the results as you will see below.



Waders were chased around by the usual bird scarers and as such there were only 215 Knot, a handful of Turnstones, 19 Sanderling and 30 Ringed Plovers.

Turnstone on the beach at Rossall Point

The sea could best be described as slow but steady. Wildfowl were represented by 14 Common Scoters, 2 male Eiders and auks by 4 Guillemots. Sandwich Terns numbered only two and I had a 1st winter Little Gull and later 2 adult Med Gulls flew east. Two juv. Arctic Skuas went west during the morning and both were close in giving cracking views. Talking of cracking views, we had a summer plumaged Red-throated Diver fly past very close in, virtually right above our heads. In addition to this bird we had another 2 and single Great Crest west.

Not too bad a morning but it would be even better if that Rustic Bunting on Walney crosses the bay tomorrow morning!

If Only West Was East......25th September

......then we would be getting the likes of Rb Flicker, Melodious, Brown Shrike, Siberian Thrush, Wryneck etc, I could go on, on this coast!

I have been out of circulation the last two days as I have been at my staff conference in Staffordshire and the best bird I could muster down there was a solitary Raven. Today one of my fellow Fleetwood birders tried his hardest in all the best migrant spots and could only manage 5 or 6 Goldcrests and 2 or 3 Chiffies. He said the best bird of the morning was a Redwing in Mount Park! Mind you did come up with the goods in the form of a juv. Hobby this evening over the ICI Pools.

On my way back from Staffordshire I called in at the feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss to put some food down. Tree Sparrows had built up nicely to 20 birds and I had a Corn Bunting fly over. Other species included 57 Goldfinch, 5 Grey Partridges and singles of Common Buzzard and Kestrel. In the hedgerow adjoining Curlew Wood were 3 Goldcrests and a Chiffchaff.

Corn Bunting - from another day

Plenty of Common's but no Honey's

Am I the only birder not to connect with a Honey Buzzard over the past few days?! I made a quick call to my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss this morning and had 7 Common Buzzards. In fact it was a warm morning and the Buzzards plus 3 Kestrels and a female Sparrowhawk were making use of the thermals.

I didn't have time for a proper mooch round but noted that Mipits, Skylarks, Chaffinch, Alba Wags, Goldfinch and Grey Wags were all on the move.

The only Buteo I have a picture of is this Rough-legged Hawk (Buzzard) in the hand in Canada. I know Honey isn't a Buteo but you know what I mean.

Early Promise Failed to Deliver...Again!, 21st September

At first light walking along Rossall Point I had a couple of Goldcrests in a patch of Brambles behind the dunes. The wind was southerly and the edge of a weak front lay across the bay. This could be interesting I thought. A little further on and a Phyllosc dropped out of the sky and dived into the bushes next to the Coastguard Tower. It turned out to be a Chiffchaff, but you just never know! Then in terms of grounded migrants it dried up.

Even the vis didn't really get going with only a handful of Mipits, Pied Wags and Swallows overhead. On the strength of the Crests and the Chiff I decided to have a look at a couple of other sites. Back in the car park and some tw*t had 'keyed' a scratch across the back of my car. Probably some b*stard bird scarer owner!

I had a look in Mount Park, but nothing so it was on to the Cemetery. Mipits were still moving overhead and the only grounded migrants were 6 Goldcrests. I decided that it was a little too quiet and thought that I would be better cutting my losses and returning to fight another day. I phoned 'her indoors' and ordered a bacon butty!

Back at home as I type this the Mipits are still going over and I have had my first Pink-footed Geese of the autumn with a flock of 25 south.

My mate Nigel in Canada sent me the pic below of some young Ospreys in the nest that he ringed this year and I thought that I would use the pic to brighten the page up.

Raptor Fest - Day Two, 20th September

Or the alternative title could be 'wot...no dog shit!'

Joking apart it was delightful to be birding and ringing in the centre of the Fylde on a glorious morning without the continuous disturbance by bird scarers. We put eight nets up in a broadleaved plantation on Rawcliffe Moss.

At first we thought the vis would be good because quite a bit of stuff got on the move at first light, but my mid-morning it had dried up. A quick phone call to Ian on the coast confirmed that passage was light over the coast as well even though the visibility was good over Morecambe Bay. Some of the vis totals included 3 Grey wagtails, 75 Meadow Pipits, 45 Chaffinch and 8 Siskins.

The ringing was quite good and it was what I would call a 'grappling' morning as we had to grapple with a few lively birds. Grappler number 1 was the following beasty below.

Grappler no. 1 aka Jay

Grappler numbers 2 and 3 were two Great Spotted Woodpeckers and one of them is shown below.

Grappler no. 2 or was it 3?

The rest of the catch was a nice mix including 8 Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, 6 Meadow Pipits, Coal Tit, Linnet and Treecreeper.

Meadow Pipit - we had a good selection of juv.'s & adults

I mentioned in the title that today was 'raptor fest day 2' and that was because again we had a nice selection of raptors; no Honey Buzzards though! We had 3 Common Buzzards, 4 Kestrels, Marsh Harrier and a male Peregrine carrying prey. The Marsh Harrier was a long way off and viewing it you had to look into the sun. Later we had another Harrier that looked smaller and showed a white rump (possibly); but like the Marsh Harrier it was a long way off. It was probably a Hen Harrier as there has been one around for a while on Rawcliffe Moss, but we'll never know.