End of Spring

It was a case of 'what to do' this morning as at this time of year everything has slowed down and Spring draws to an end. Usually I am a 'first light merchant' when it comes to birding and if I can't get out at first light will often not bother. But not today. I decided to have a lazy morning and went out birding mid-morning.

My first job was to empty my moth trap and I noticed that I had caught an unusual looking fly species. After a bit of research on the 'net' I found out that it was a type of Ichneumon Wasp belonging to the Ophion genera. I tried to photograph it in the egg carton but it flew off to the willows and I could only get the shot below. It is a parasitic species and lays its eggs in the caterpillars of moths!

I only caught four moths of four species and these were Heart and Dart, Flame shoulder, Common Quaker and Spectacle. The Spectacle was a first for my garden and below are a couple of pictures of it. The first illustrates why it has its name!



Before I headed off to Riossall School with Gail I noticed that the Blue Tits in my garden box were being encouraged out by the parents. After I had returned from the 'obs' I checked the box and all had fledged. Mind you I say all as there were three dead young in the box, so actually five out of the eight managed to fledge successfully.


I knew it would be pretty quiet at the 'obs' but I wanted to take the ropes off the net rides that we had used during the Spring as it would probably be August before we are ringing again there for the autumn.

On our walk round plenty of breeding birds were in evidence including four singing male Whitethroats, Greenfinches, Goldfinches, a couple of Linnets, Swallows, a pair of Reed Buntings, 3 singing Sedge Warblers and one each of singing Grasshopper and Reed Warbler. A quick scan of the sea revealed nothing other than a male Eider.

On our way home we called at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park to see if we could work out how many young the Great Crested Grebes had. After we eventually found them we could see that they had four very small young. On the 'deep' pool there were good numbers of Coot broods from small fluffy 'red-headed' chicks to older grey and white juv.'s.

Not Too Wet

We had some more boxes to check yesterday and we were a little concerned about the forecast and how much it would rain. The forecast suggested a deluge, but as Phil, Ian and I set off to check some boxes it was fine. In fact at worst there was a little light drizzle during the morning that was short lived.

Our first port of call was an owl box that Phil had put up near Scorton. We knew that there were at least two Tawny Owl chicks in it, but we wondered whether the egg that was with the tiny chicks when Phil last looked two weeks ago might have hatched. It hadn't. The two chicks were ringed and we then went to check our Pied Fly boxes in the Hodder Valley.

Tawny Owl chicks

Out of the four pairs of Pied Flycatchers that we have, three broods had just hatched and one pair were still incubating. One of the Pied Fly boxes with 9 eggs in it had hatched all nine! It will be interesting to see if they all survive.

We checked the boxes where we had ringed young last week to monitor progress and all was well. Take a look at the healthy Nuthatches below. There was one box of Great Tits that we didn't ring last week because they looked extremely unhealthy, but this week they were all fighting fit and about to fledge!


We ringed 6 Grreat Tit and 33 Blue Tit chicks. The shot below shows some pulli Blue Tits waiting in a bird bag to be ringed.

Farmland Bits and Bobs

I was hoping to be posting this evening and telling you how I had ringed a few Lapwing and Redshank chicks whilst surveying a farm in Bowland today. However, due to the inadequacies of the dealership that service my car I am having an enforced day at home without transport! The name of the dealership shall remain nameless, except to say that they manufacture Astras, Corsas, Vectras etc. Say no more!

Yesterday I was surveying a farm in the heart of Bowland, near Slaidburn. In fact this part of the world is more or less the exact geographic centre of Great Britain, or should I say Dunsop Bridge is but that's only a few miles away.

It has taken me two days to survey this farm and yesterday I was surveying the lower (southern) half of the farm which from an agricultural perspective it is more 'improved' than the higher (northern) half which has some good breeding wader habitat.

Even on this 'improved' bit there were some nice bits of habitat and in wetter, scrubbier areas I had Reed Bunting and Willow Warblers for example. Buzzards were ever present in the skies as were 15 Swifts hawking for insects. Close to the river I had 10 Sand Martins and a Dipper shot downstream.

Entering a piece of semi-natural ancient woodland I had my best bird of the day in the form of a calling Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. Unfortunately I couldn't get on to it and had to be satisfied with just hearing it! 'Lesser Spots' are particularly rare in Lancashire these days and I would be hard-pressed to actually go to a known a site.

The River

Besides the 'Lesser Spot' I had a singing Redstart in the woodland and in a mature hedgerow close by, singing Lesser Whitethroat. Other than a few Grey Herons and a single Siskin over that was about all I had.

For something different, or quite usual on this blog, I am going to finish with a couple of pictures from my mate Nigel from Canada. These pictures have just been picked at random from some recent ones he sent me, so enjoy!

Indigo Bunting

How small is that Ruby-throated Hummingbird?!

Nearly All Moths

No birding for me today as such, although once you are a birder you bird all the time no matter where you are. I suppose what I mean is that I haven't actually been out anywhere today with the sole intention of doing some birding. From my office I could hear Garden Warbler and Chiffchaff singing from the woodland, and the office window feeders have really quietened down with the most regular visitors being Nuthatches.

Talking of Nuthatches have a look at the picture below that my mate Nigel sent me from Canada of Red-breasted Nuthatch in the hand. Awesome! Thanks Nigel.


Now to the moths. In my trap this morning, or should I say this evening when I emptied it, were Light Brown Apple Moth, 4 Heart and Darts, Bright-line Brown-eye, Miller (see picture below), 2 Common Pugs and Clouded Drab.

46 Ringed...

...today and they were all pulli. Ian and I checked our boxes in the Hodder Valley and on Rawcliffe Moss. It is probably worth mentioning first of all that we have another pair of Pied Flycatchers in. So within the space of 7 days they have built their nest and laid a clutch of 6 eggs and started incubation!

Pied Flycatcher nest

Of the 46 pulli ringed the breakdown was 25 Blue Tits (including 8 from the box in my garden), 9 Great Tits, 6 Nuthatches 6 Tree Sparrows. Of course, the Tree Sparrows were ringed from boxes on Rawcliffe Moss.

Blue Tit chick

Great Tit chicks

Nuthatch chick

The boxes we have in the Hodder Valley are situated at the Wild Boar Park and walking through the woodland we had singing Goldcrest, Willow Warbler, Garden Warbler, Blackcap and a Kingfisher flying along the river. We also found Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Swallow and Wren nests and will keep our eye on them over the coming weeks.

Ian and I couldn't resist having a look at the Meerkat enclosure at the Boar Park whilst we were looking for nests and I have included a few pictures below because they are such characters!



Back at home I checked my moth trap and I had 3 Garden Carpets, Hebrew Character, 3 Heart and Darts, Shuttle-shaped Dart, Grey Dagger, 2 Common Quakers and Small Magpie Moth. The Small Magpie Moth was quite early as they aren't usually on the wing until June.

Small Magpie Moth

Quality Not Quantity

This morning I met Ian at 4.15 a.m. at Fleetwood Marsh Nature Park to carry out some ringing in the reeds and willow scrub. Three nets were rapidly put up and we hoped that we would catch a few Acros as they can still be moving until the end of May. 'Few' would become the operative word as we only ringed 5 birds and retrapped 2. However, it was all quality this morning and not quantity.

We ringed a male Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Reed warblers, Sedge Warbler and amazingly a female Goldcrest with a well developed brood patch.

Lesser Whitethroat

I say amazingly regarding the Goldcrest as they have been so scarce this spring after the hard winter. As this bird would have been a migrant you would have expected it in March or April and not late May.

Goldcrest - female

On the birding front it was relatively quiet. As I was unlocking the first gate at 4.10 a.m. I could hear a Grasshopper Warbler 'reeling' from a patch of brambles and this was the only additional species of warbler to those ringed that we recorded.

Sedge Warbler

There was no visible migration other than 2 Lesser Redpolls that moved east and the 7 Swifts and 4 Swallows were probably local breeders.

Whitethroat - male

A quick look on the 'deep' pool revealed several broods of Coots but not a lot else. Back at home I checked my moth trap and recorded 2 Flame Shoulders, Light Brown Apple Moth, Heart and Dart, Clouded Drab, Common Pug and Bright-line Brown-eye.

Even Less Moths

The only thing in my trap this morning was a Shuttle-shaped Dart!