How Many?

I didn't realise that there was a Starling roost at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park until I was stood overlooking the main pool in the half-light this morning and I could hear their clamorous calls emanating from the reedbed on the east bank.


As usual I was too early this morning and as I often do found myself waiting for it to come light. The weathermen had also got the forecast all wrong for today, not just in the timing but in what the weather was actually going to do. Mind you I suppose it is easy to criticize the poor old weathermen, but unfortunately as birders we rely heavily upon their forecasts. It kept on raining and I had to keep on retreating to my car and taking shelter. This went on for over an hour and in the end I got fed up and went home, but not before I saw a few birds.

The Starlings were quite late in getting out of bed and it was virtually full light before they exited the roost. My idea was to try and photograph them as they came out of the roost and count them at the same time. That idea went all wrong when they came out like a flock of Exocet missiles and my mobile was ringing at the same time, which completely distracted me. So there was no photograph and just how many were there? I had to give it my best 'guesstimate' and I decided that there was probably about 9,000 birds. Below are a couple of pictures of Starlings in the hand taken recently in my garden.


Out on the pools the wildfowl numbers remained fairly stable with four Pochards, 34 Coot, 22 Tufted Ducks and two Mute Swans. Looking over towards the estuary I could see a flock of 32 Linnets that were dropping onto a piece of 'rough' land earmarked for some house building and a flock of 75 Pink-footed Geese went over heading west towards their feeding grounds at Rossall.

Delving into the archives once more I find myself ringing at a site in west Norfolk at a place called Ingoldisthorpe Hall on 6th December 1986. It was one of those bright, calm, frosty days and it was a new ringing site for me and this was the first session. The seventh bird of the morning to be ringed was an adult male Firecrest! Stonking! Now, what might surprise you is that I wasn't overly excited about this bird at the time because exactly a week earlier I caught a juvenile male Firecrest at my regular ringing site of Snettisham Common. In fact even to this day a framed picture of this bird graces the wall of my study. In fact I can look up at it now.

I only ringed 16 birds that morning at Ingoldisthorpe Hall and in addition to the Firecrest the only other bird of interest that I ringed was a male Nuthatch. I did see another good bird though in the form of a cracking male Hawfinch that I saw twice over lunchtime and the early afternoon.

Oh for some calm, frosty weather and an opportunity to get out ringing!

Same Old, Same Old

The title refers to both the weather and the birds at the moment. It was my intention this morning to have a walk round Rawcliffe Moss once I had fed the Tree Sparrows, but the weather put paid to this. Looking at the forecast last night it was one of those 'will it or won't it' situations in terms of whether it would rain this morning and it was a 'will it' morning. It did clear up later on but it was too late for me.

As usual at the barn as I picked up the seed a Grey Wagtail fed at the base of the tailings mountain. I must take a picture of the 'tailings mountain' for you so you know what I am on about. Up to this point I was optimistic because it wasn't raining, but as I drove down the lane to the track it started to rain and didn't stop all the time I was there.

Getting out of the car I noticed that Phillip had been clearing the ditch in an attempt to try and stop his land from flooding as much, as you will appreciate from some of the pictures I have posted on here recently.


As I was looking at the cleaned-out ditch thirty Jackdaws noisily flew east and 405 Pink-footed Geese flew west.


There were a large number of corvids and Woodpigeons feeding in stubbles on the neighbouring farm and this is probably where the Jackdaws were flying from and the 'Pinkies' to.


Walking down the hedge I pushed eight Blackbirds along it and I could hear Redwing calling and at the same time a group of eleven Fieldfares were coming in to feed. There are still a large number of berries along this hedge and when the sun came out momentarily they gave off a red hue.


Tree Sparrows numbered 224, or thereabouts, and they were accompanied by 18 Chaffinch. As I walked back towards the car I thought to myself that I hadn't seen Yellowhammer recently and one flew out of the hedge and a couple of Corn Buntings went over calling. Calling birds would be a feature for the next minute or three as I had calling Buzzard and Great Spotted Woodpecker, both of which I couldn't see. Back at the car the sun came out briefly again and the first bird I recorded in my notebook was a Reed Bunting sat on an exposed branch along the ditch in the sun.

Mexican Wave

It wasn't as cold as yesterday as I stood looking out to sea at Rossall Point this morning. It was fairly clear with a stiff southeasterly wind. In fact there was quite a swell that surprised me. I was a few minutes later this morning than yesterday so the most obnoxious dog walker known to man that I described to you yesterday was already a long way down the beach. He was of course still flushing stuff but not at the same time as I was trying to scope the birds which meant that I was more relaxed!

There weren't quite as many Oystercatchers this morning, only 132, but numbers of Sanderling had increased to 171. I never tire of watching Sanderling and they were as entertaining as always. As the tide was running in I was watching them feeding frantically along the waters edge whilst there was some sand and mud still available for them to feed on. As the tide came in and covered their feeding grounds they proceeded to roost, being pushed progressively higher up the beach and on to the shingle. It was interesting to look at individuals strategies when disturbed by the waves. They were all roosting on one leg to prevent heat loss and when disturbed by the tide some of them dropped their other leg and ran forward a couple of feet and started to roost again, whilst others would just hop forward on one leg. Some of the birds were allowing some of the spray to splash over them and bathe in the shallow water, with one or two birds taking it a little too far and being nearly knocked over.




Numbers of Turnstone had increased to 38 and Ringed Plovers decreased to 11. Other waders included two Curlews and 11 Grey Plovers. Raptor wise all I had was a single Kestrel at first light, but talking to Frank and Alan later, they had a Peregrine come in off the sea.



The sea was more productive this morning and I had 18 Eiders, nine Cormorants, Shelduck, female Goldeneye, three Auk sp., two Great Crested Grebes and a single red-throated Diver. The Common Scoter this morning were doing their 'Mexican wave' and therefore I had quite a good count for here. As birds took off they would push other birds into the air, creating the effect of a Mexican wave or perhaps you would describe it as a 'domino' effect. In all 299 Scoters took part in the Mexican wave!

Heading back to the car I bumped in to Peter who was filming the waders for one of his wildlife films and at the coastguards tower I bumped into Frank and Alan who were trying to bag a species or two for their Fylde year list. The three Stonechats were still around the dunes, but sometimes venturing forth on to the beach to forage for invertebrates in the tidal wrack.

Brass Monkey Weather

My other half had to go to Castleford in West Yorkshire today for her sins which meant an alarm call of 06:00 and I decided to get up with her. I knew that I only had a couple of hours available this morning so I wanted to make sure that I was at Rossall Point for first light. An hour and a half later and I was sat in the car park waiting for it to get light enough to start birding! There was a heavy frost this morning, in fact the frost was lying on the beach.


I didn't really want to start my blog today by complaining about dog walkers (again) but I wanted to mention an absolute plonker of a bloke that walks his overweight, bow legged dog (just like himself) along the beach every day flushing all the waders. Ian has tried to talk to him in the past, but he is one of those ignorant tossers that just ignores you and does his own thing. The reason I am mentioning him now is that soon after I had started birding he arrived and started flushing the waders that I was trying to count!

As you walk on to the sea front from the car park there is an area of shore that waders like to feed on and today was no exception with 11 Grey Plovers and 10 Turnstones. Just to the west of here on the beach, as the tide ran in, 392 Oystercatchers were roosting. And then everything was up and away as the resident tosser came staggering along the beach with his dog like some zombie extra from a Michael Jackson video.

Out on the sea it was quiet and all I had were 36 Eiders, 27 Common Scoters and 36 Cormorants. Most of the Common Scoters were a long way out, but I did have a couple of females close in giving stonking views. No sign though of Ian's female Velvet Scoter from yesterday. There is a shingle island developing off shore and I have noticed recently that if the high tides are fairly low the Cormorants abandon their 'Wyre Light' roost and roost on here instead.

Just past the Coastguard's Tower I had a calling Rock Pipit, but I couldn't get on it, and the Stonechats were feeding on the dunes and on the sea front. The usual two males and a female were present and were as confiding as usual, and 70 'Pink-feet' headed the wrong way and flew north over the bay!

Twenty Sanderling and forty Ringed Plovers dropped in to roost and somehow managed to avoid being flushed by 'you know who' but did eventually get flushed by another dog walker later on.

Ringed P

Sanderlings

The forecast for tonight is rain, that has started as I type, but it is supposed to clear early tomorrow morning so hopefully I'll get out for an hour or two.

Cold Northerly

It was bitterly cold this morning, mind you it is the end of November so I suppose it should be. It was one of those 'other days' again so I had to go to Rawcliffe Moss to feed the Tree Sparrows. As it was such a cracking morning I planned to have a walk round after 'feeding time' and that's exactly what I did.

Walking down the feeding station hedge a number of Fieldfares were feeding on the remaining hawthorn berries and counting up I had 42 altogether on my walk round. At the feeding station there is plenty of soft fruit that I have put out, so hopefully when the berries go the Fieldfares will take to feeding there.

There were a number of Chaffinches around this morning mainly in two areas; the feeding station and the field 'not in agricultural use' behind the badger set. The birds at the feeding station were obviously feeding on the seed that I had put down but in the field behind the badger set I am not sure what they were feeding on exactly. At the feeding station there were 25 birds and at the badger set 43, but on my walk round I had a grand total of 86.

Six Reed Buntings were present this morning but they were comprised of single birds alongside wet ditches in various places on the farm. Woodpigeons numbered 171, but this was nothing in comparison to the 3,500 that I had recently. As I was putting the seed down, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a small raptor flying low rapidly towards Curlew Wood. I got my bins on it and I could see that it was a male Merlin. It pulled up and perched up in one of the trees looking at me. It stayed there for a few minutes and then headed back from where it had come.

Pulli male Merlin. Look at those eyes!

Tree Sparrows yet again hit another peak for the winter with a total of 268 this morning. When flushed they fly across to a hedge that runs up to Curlew Wood that is opposite the feeding station. If I had brought my scope with me this morning I might have got a half decent shot of them in the field as the light was fantastic. Maybe 'half decent' was a bit optimistic. However, you will have to make do with a picture of the hedge that they fly to!


There were also good numbers of Blackbirds and Blue Tits around this morning and I had 23 and 18 respectfully. Ten of the Blackbirds were in the hedge with the Fieldfares and the rest were scattered around the farm. Talking of thrushes I also had five Redwings in the plantation and four Song Thrushes along the '97' hedge.

I then headed up towards the plantation and past the 'L' wood; so called because of its L shape! As I passed the L wood I noticed that the shooters had cut their ride in it. Last winter I walked this regularly and sometimes flushed up to three Woodcocks. I had a walk today, but unfortunately not a single Woodcock.

Inside the L wood

As I expected the plantation was very quiet with 15-20 Godlfinch being the only birds of note. I stood and watched the Goldfinch feeding for a while as they delicately picked seeds from the alder catkins.

The L Wood from the north

The L Wood from the south

Inside the plantation

It was then back towards the car and the rest of my walk was fairly quiet with five Skylarks, three Meadow Pipits and two Corn Buntings.

On my way home I took a slight detour to Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park. In fact I nearly gave todays blog the title of 'why they don't they take it home?' Have a look at the disgusting picture below and you will see exactly what I mean. Disgusting, dirty, lazy bar stools!


Four Reed Buntings called from various parts of the reedbeds and I had a flock of five perched in a hawthorn on the edge of Fleetwood Marsh. On the pools the widlfowl numbers were similar to a couple of days ago with 33 Coots, 16 Tufted Ducks, three male Pochards, four Shovelers and 16 Mallards. A number of Gulls bathed on the pools but I couldn't pick anything unusual out from the 34 Herring Gulls, seven Great Black-backed Gulls and 110 Black-heads.

I had a walk to Fleetwood Marsh in the hope that there might be an odd Twite knocking about, but other than three Linnets there was absolutely nothing.

Fleetwood Marsh

They Got It Right

I was hoping they wouldn't, but the weathermen got it right for this morning. I only had a couple of hours to go birding from first light this morning as I had a nephew arriving from South Wales mid-morning. The forecast was for rain for a couple of hours from about 0600 onwards and then it was forecast to clear. I set my alarm for 0700 hoping that the weathermen would have got the timing wrong as usual and I would manage a couple of hours birding before the rain came in. It wasn't to be; as the alarm sprung into life I could hear the rain on the conservatory roof.

When I got up an hour later it was still raining but within an hour of that it stopped and as it was calm I put up an eighteen foot net up in the garden for a couple of hours. On my garden's standards I did okay ringing 10 new birds and retrapping two as follows:

Goldfinch - 4/0
Great Tit - 2/0
Blue Tit - 2/0
Starling - 2/0
Dunnock - 0/2

The forecast at the moment is for it to be dry in the morning with a 12-14 mph northerly wind. Probably too windy for birding, but I should get out birding, I hope!

A Change Of Scene

I have to warn you that I am going to have a rant shortly about f*cking dog walkers and their dogs at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park! Anyway, more of that in a moment. It wasn't really a change of scene this morning because Rossall Point is one of my local patches, but it certainly felt like that as I hadn't been there for a while.

As I pulled into the car park I could see Ian walking along the top of the dunes. By the time I had caught up with him at the Coastguards Tower he had been seawatching for about three or four minutes and had a Bonxie fly west just before I got there! I set up next to Ian and started to watch but it was fairly quiet. Nine Eiders, single Kittiwake, 14 Common Scoters, Great Crested Grebe and two Red-breasted Mergansers and that was it!

A few waders came back to feed on the falling tide including 140 Oystercatchers, 330 Knots and 30 Turnstone. As we were seawatching Barry joined us and shortly afterwards Ian had to leave. The only birds Barry and I had after Ian left was a flock of 15 Whooper Swans that flew west over the golf course.

There were literally hundreds if not thousands of Gulls on the beach all spread out from Cleveleys to Fleetwood, feeding presumably on food washed ashore by the recent gales, like star fish for example. We had a scan through the Gulls but couldn't locate the adult Glaucous or Yellow-legged Gulls that Ian had seen yesterday. I do emphasise the word 'scan' and not 'grill' as there were just far too many for me to grill.

I then moved onto Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park and this is where I had a minor altercation with a dog walker. Anyway, before more on that, below are some serene pictures of the Nature Park.

Main Pool

Causeway Between the Pools

Shallow Pool

Views Towards Bowland

I had a look on the main and shallow pools and had three Mute Swans, 27 Coots, four Shovelers, two Pochards, 13 Tufted Ducks and 10 Mallards. I then went to have a look on the artificial pools as the wildfowl can be close and there are good opportunities to photograph them as well as Gulls and the picture below shows what greeted me!

Two large f*cking dogs chasing the Mute Swans across the pool and being encouraged by their halfwit owners! I photographed their unruly hounds and made sure that they got an eyeful of me scoping them.

Anyway I calmed down, a bit, and they started to walk round the pool towards me after getting their mutts out of the water. I had decided that I wouldn't speak to them as there was no way I could be courteous and hoped that they didn't speak to me as that would be 'red rag to a bull'. Can you imagine my amazement when one of the owners (bloke) said to me "have you seen anything interesting?" I was apoplectic and replied "I might have done if your f*cking dogs weren't swimming around the pool". I then went on to tell them in no uncertain terms that it wasn't a dog swimming pool and it was a nature park not a f*cking dog park. Anyway, they didn't reply (wise move on their behalf), walked off and I tried to photograph the Black-heads on the pool.


I called at my feeding station on Rawcliffe Moss this afternoon and the flood water was back with a vengeance. Between Fleetwood and the Moss I had called at home and left my camera behind so I couldn't take any pictures of the flooding. If you think back to the pictures I showed last week, well it was twice as bad today, in fact it was like one large lake that swept across both sides of the road. I picked up the seed and managed to drive through the flood to the track to the feeding station that was soggy, muddy, but not under water.

As I walked down the track along the hedge a few thrushes, nine Blackbirds and three Fieldfares, flew along in front of me and I had cracking views of two calling Buzzards soaring on a week thermal in the sunshine. At the feeding station 195 Tree Sparrows were present with a single Reed Bunting and only a handful of Chaffinches. Back at the barn there were 20 House Sparrows in the hedge opposite the buildings.