A House Tick

The only bird list that I keep is a house list. Basically, that is any species of bird that I have heard or seen from my house. It could be a bird in my garden, a flyover migrant, or something calling in the darkness perhaps. The only rule that I set my self, is that I have to be somewhere within the boundary of my property, when I record any said bird species.

 

I was sat at my computer this morning entering some bird records onto the British Trust for Ornithology's (BTO) BirdTrack, when I looked out of the window and picked up a Jay heading south, and battling against the strong southerly wind that is blowing at the moment. 

 

I shouted Gail, and managed to get her on to the Jay from the back bedroom window, and we watched it head south until we could no longer see it. 

 

That was bird species number 73 for our house, so I was very pleased with that. Looking at my list, I have just realised that I need to sort it into the latest scientific order as published by the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU). In fact, I might just do that right now!

 

Not the Jay from my house this morning, but a similar view. And below is 

a Jay in the hand from 2008

 

Monitoring Monday

On Monday I was back at the same wintering bird survey site, and this time the weather wasn't as good, and it had a noticeable effect on bird numbers. I started the survey under 7 oktas cloud cover, with a 15 mph south-westerly wind, and finished it with a 20-25 mph westerly wind and rain! 

There were no Whooper Swans sadly, and Pink-footed Geese only numbered 115. There were 38 Mallards on the fishing lake, but I only had two Teal. I say two Teal, as there was probably considerably more than this, as I recorded the call(s) of Teal from two different ponds. 

The vis was virtually non-existent, other than 14 Woodpigeons, six Skylarks, a Redwing, a Grey Wagtail, five Pied Wagtails, a Meadow Pipit, 21 Chaffinches, 13 Linnets, a Goldfinch, a Siskin and a Reed Bunting. Raptors included five Buzzards and three Kestrels, but none of the Peregrines from Saturday. 

 

On the former maize field, that has now been ploughed, tilled and probably sown with winter wheat, at least 120 each of Jackdaw and Rook were foraging here. There were still Skylarks in the remaining stubbles, and I counted 58, and with them were 23 Linnets and seven Reed Buntings. 

 

Reed Bunting
 

A female Stonechat was new in, and two Cetti's Warblers were again singing from two different locations on site. A Goldcrest in a Hawthorn hedge, was the first for a while, keeping company with just one Tree Sparrow this time. I recorded 40 species in total, but the above are just the meagre highlights. 

 

Stonechat
 

I type this after a cancelled site visit on Wednesday morning due to heavy rain, again, and I've still to get another survey in before the end of October. The forecast is poor until the end of the week, so we'll see!

Survey Saturday

What a month October has been so far for weather, and I mean poor weather by that. Day after day of rain, showers, wind, and often all three. Dreich it certainly has been, and days out in the field have been at a premium. It's been a case of just taking any opportunity of a weather window and going for it, and as such, most of my days in the field have been to keep the wolf from the door, rather than for pure pleasure and indulgence. But they have been just as enjoyable nevertheless. 

 

And this brings me to 'Survey Saturday'. Saturday just gone to be precise, and I was at one of my now three wintering bird survey sites that I have this winter. I was in the west of the county, under six oktas cloud cover, with a 10-15 mph southerly wind, that was just a tad too strong for ringing. This was the first half-decent morning for some movement, but not as much was on the move as I expected. 

 

This is how the day dawned from my first VP
 

Wildfowl dominated the morning, and I had a number of Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans over, and both Pinkies and Whoopers are always good to see. The Pinkies were behaving in various ways, and some were dropping in to feed in fields just to the west of my survey site, others were obviously heading north from their roost on the Ribble to feeding areas over Wyre, and some were probably arrivals from the north. In total, I recorded 1,140 Pink-footed Geese.

 

Pink-footed Geese
 

It's hard to beat the call of Whooper Swans as they fly over, to evoke the wild places that they inhabit, whether that's their tundra breeding grounds in Iceland, or some of their wild and windswept wintering areas on coastal grazing marshes in the UK. I had 30 of these bugling beauties over, and they made my day. 

 

Whooper Swans (above & below)

 

 

In the 'also ran' category of wildfowl, were two Canada Geese, eleven Greylags, 15 Wigeon, 18 Teal and 19 Mallards. Within this particular survey area, is a fishing lake, and on there in addition to the Mallards, were two Moorhens, 17 Coots and a Little Grebe. Interestingly, from a pond next to the fishing lake I heard a singing Cetti's Warbler, and I had another Cetti's Warbler singing from a water-course that forms the northern boundary of the site.

 

There were a few raptors about, including a Kestrel, five Buzzards and three Peregrines. I had an adult Peregrine perched on an electricity pylon, and two immature Peregrines that were squabbling and flying over the currently non-existent wetland. It's still not wet enough for it to form! 

 

There was a little bit of vis, and a family party of six Ravens calling to each other as they headed east was a bonus. I always enjoy Ravens. As I hinted at earlier, the vis was a bit thin on the ground, and I recorded just 13 Starlings, a Redwing, a Pied Wag, two Chaffinches, three Bramblings, eight Greenfinches eleven Linnets and a Reed Bunting. That's more than a bit thin on the ground!

 

Not all of the stubbles have been ploughed and tilled, and on the remaining stubbles was a respectable flock of 85 Skylarks, along with ten Linnets and five Reed Buntings. Three Tree Sparrows in a hedge, with three of their 'House' neighbours, is all that remains to report. 

 

An obliging Reed Bunting that was feeding in some of the stubbles 

(above & below)

 

 

Looking back in my notebook from 1983, I did a bit of twitching on this date (23rd October) that year. On a bright, and cold morning, I headed to Pickmere in Cheshire, with some of my teenage birding mates, to see a summer plumaged Great Northern Diver. I have no idea why we went all the way to Pickmere to see a Great Northern, but we did. Anyway, we saw the bird, and as I mentioned it was in summer plumage, so I suppose that was a bonus. 

On the way back we called in at Seaforth NR on the Mersey, but saw very little other than a few Red-breasted Mergansers. However, in the fading light that day, in a Layton garden on the outskirts of Blackpool, we managed to see another Red-breasted species that had been found by ME, and that was a 1CY Red-breasted Flycatcher! So, not a bad day in all 38 years ago! Mind you, I wouldn't travel to see any of those birds now, I just prefer to bird my own patches. However, it's each to their own.

A Few Northern Thrushes At Last

I finally managed to get out ringing on Saturday morning, and an early start resulted in a few Redwings being ringed, but more of that later. 

The weather during the week has been disappointing to say the least, and I struggled to get the second wintering bird survey completed at one of my sites. I had a window of opportunity on Wednesday morning that I took, but during the morning I had a few light showers, but not enough to abort the survey. 

As I set off walking along the margin of one of the arable fields towards the maize crop, a Buzzard was perched up in a dead tree, and in the dreich half-light it didn't see me until I was close. It was far too dark for a photograph, and if it had been lighter, I wouldn't have got anywhere near it. In the same field were three Roe Deer, and as soon as they saw me, they were off. 

I didn't have as many Pink-footed Geese as in recent surveys, and I just had 910 in three skeins flying north from their Ribble roost to feeding areas north of the River Wyre. There are a few ponds within my survey area, and at one of my VPs, I look down towards a couple of ponds where seven Teal were flying round, until they decided which pond to drop in to. 

Most of the stubble had now been ploughed and tilled, and I'm guessing sown with winter wheat. As a result, there were far fewer Woodpigeons, and all I had were 13. There was still a good number of Skylarks around, and I recorded at least 66. 

The ploughing was inevitably attracting gulls, and 215 Black-headed Gulls, a Common Gull, 46 Herring Gulls and a Lesser Black-backed Gull, were all taking advantage of the feeding opportunities presented to them. It was the same with Jackdaws and Rooks, as the maize crop had been harvested, 228 and 122 respectively, were feeding on discarded cobs in the stubble. 

I mentioned a Buzzard earlier, and I had another two, as well as two Kestrels. I also had two Peregrines, a male and a female perched on a pylon, the male was at the very top of the pylon and the female about half way down. 

I just had a few Redwings here, 14 that's all, as well as two Song Thrushes and three Blackbirds. A couple of Tree Sparrows called from a hedgerow adjacent to the now harvested maize field, and a flock of 63 Linnets were mobile in some cereal stubbles. 

As I mentioned before, it was a dreich morning, and as a result there was absolutely no vis to speak of, other than perhaps very local movements e.g., the Pinkies. 

Returning to Saturday morning, it too was another dreich morning, and when Alice, John and I arrived at the Nature Park in the dark, we had full cloud cover, with some light rain and a south-easterly breeze. The light rain eased very quickly, and we got three nets up in the dark. However, I had been out listening for Redwings the evening previously without success, and none were calling this morning either. Nevertheless, we still put 'Redwing' on the MP3 players, and it did pull a few of these northern thrushes in.

 

We ringed 40 birds as follows (recaptures in brackets):

 

Redwing - 8

Reed Bunting - 3

Goldfinch - 13

Cetti's Warbler - 1

Robin - 1

Blackbird - 1

Greenfinch - 13

Long-tailed Tit - (1)

 

Redwing

 

Goldfinch
 

We also had a bit of vis this morning, including 30 Redwings, two Chaffinches, 530 Jackdaws, 20 Woodpigeons, a Meadow Pipit, 13 Siskins and three Bramblings. The direction of movement of visible migrants is always interesting. During the autumn, a number of the finches head east, and this morning was no exception, with the Chaffinches, Siskins and Bramblings all heading east. The Jackdaws and Woodpigeons however, were either moving west or south. It's probable, that the westerly moving birds, turn and head south when they reach the Irish Sea coast, which is only 2.3 km from the Nature Park, as the Jackdaw or Woodpigeon flies! 

A Little Egret, Goldcrest and a Sparrowhawk made it in to my notebook, but there were no Starlings roosting. And that was it, but at least it was good to enjoy a few northern thrushes at last!

An update on our hedgehog house in the garden; it's being used! Our regular hog has moved in, and he/she has been bringing in their own nest material to add to the hay that we provided. See picture below. 

 

Hedgehog house with nest material
 

I've got four more wintering bird surveys to get in before the end of the October, and at the moment the forecast for that period isn't very good. I'll have to keep everything crossed!

It Is October After All

The forecast on Friday evening didn't inspire me with confidence for my planned ringing session at the Nature Park on Saturday morning. I spent quite a bit of time outside in my garden after dark listening for migrants, Redwings in particular, and gazing up at the sky to see if I could get any clues regarding the weather. I didn't hear a single Redwing, and the cloud was low, and it looked a tad murky to me. 

The plan was to get to the Nature Park in the dark Saturday morning, and get at least one net up in the darkness and put Redwing on the MP3 player. I was up at 6:00 a.m. and stood in my garden again for a while, and there wasn't any Redwings going over, and that cloud base was still low, and again it looked murky. The only saving grace was that the wind was south-easterly in direction. I must admit, in view of the weather conditions I struggled to motivate myself to go out and put some nets up, when my 'gut feeling' was that there wouldn't be any migrants grounded, on vis, or otherwise. But that little over-optimistic voice in my head said, "it is October after all", so off I went.

 

Driving there I could see some light drizzle on my windscreen, and wet I hit the farm fields, looking both east and west the cloud base was low; not good. Anyway, under full cloud cover with a 10 mph south-easterly wind I put up a couple of nets in the reedbed and scrub. 

 

A couple of singing Cetti's Warblers kept me company as I put the nets up, as did one or two ticking Robins. The Starlings exited their reedbed roost, but only 200 now. The reedbeds here are just a summer/early autumn roost, and the large winter roosts locally are under the piers at Blackpool, and at Leighton Moss and Marton Mere nature reserves perhaps. 

 

A telephone conversation with Ian during the morning told me that the whole of Morecambe Bay was 'locked down' with murk to the east and north, and hence the lack of any migrants. The vis was less than a dribble, with just single figures of Grey Wagtail and Skylark. Two Stonechats are now on site, and it is likely that they will over-winter. 

 

I have noticed that over recent weeks, late summer into autumn, Blackbirds have been thin on the ground, probably as a result of the long dry spell we have had through this period. They will have struggled to forage for ground invertebrates because of the dry ground conditions. So, the three very active, bordering on agitated, Blackbirds I had this morning will have been continental migrants. 

I ringed twelve birds as follows:

Chiffchaff - 1

Wren - 1

Goldcrest - 1

Robin - 1

Chaffinch - 1

Greenfinch - 7

 

Chiffchaff
 

Sunday morning the wind had changed direction to a stiff north-westerly, too windy for ringing, and the worst wind direction possible for birding, so a few pints of real ale beckoned instead!

I was out doing a wintering bird survey this morning, and it was very quiet, and I couldn't justify writing a separate blog post detailing this morning's exciting sightings, because there weren't any, well, except one that is!

It was north-westerly again this morning, so not good, and I had five oktas cloud cover. The last time I was at this site it was the first decent morning after several days of rain, and lots of Pinkies were on the move, and if you remember, I had a Snow Goose over with some of those Pinkies. This morning I had another good bird on vis, in the form of a Lapland Bunting! I think I was nearly as surprised, as I was with the Snow Goose. As usual with these things, I didn't get any 'crippling' views, just a chunky bunting flying over calling like a Lapland Bunting! Quite bizarre, but it is October after all! 

 

One of the VP locations at this site
 

And it didn't get any better, it really was quiet. If I was to scrape the ornithological barrel for some highlights, they would include 222 Pink-footed Geese, 59 Stock Doves (a good count), six Snipe, two each of Buzzard and Kestrel, 139 Jackdaws, 93 Rooks, 13 Skylarks, singles of Song Thrush and Tree Sparrow, a Grey Wagtail and a Reed Bunting. I said it was quiet!

It's north-westerly again tomorrow, and there's going to be some rain around during the morning, so it will be Wednesday before I'm out again on another survey. 

In other news, Gail and I installed a Hedgehog house in the garden yesterday, to see if the Hedgehog that we feed every night would use it. We set our trail cam nearby, and the Hedgehog was going in and out of it straight away! We put some hay in it for bedding, and when we recovered my trail cam, we could see that the Hedgehog had taken some leaves in. Brilliant! 

 

Hedgehog house

More Geese and Some Autumnal Nostalgia

This is a post of two halves; the first half is a brief summary of yesterday's sightings during one of my surveys, and the second half is an autumnal walk down memory lane for me. 

 

I was at my wintering bird survey site number two yesterday, again in west Lancs, under 6 oktas of cloud cover, with a light south-easterly wind. No dramas this morning, just five hours of uninterrupted bird surveying. Marvellous!

Geese were certainly the order of the day, and of the Pink-footed variety, and for the first hour or so, 'Pinkies' were arriving from the south, and heading predominantly northeast. They will have been coming from their southwest Lancs roost sites, probably around the Ribble marshes, and heading towards foraging areas in the Over Wyre district towards Lancaster. It is possible that some birds might also have been motoring on towards the Solway, and even to one of my favourite places, Mersehead. In total I had 4,447 of these cracking little geese go over!

 

 The view from one of the hides at one of my favourite nature reserves;

Mersehead RSPB

 

There is lots of stubble within the area that I am surveying, although some of it was being ploughed and tilled yesterday, and the stubbles held somewhere in the region of 271 Woodpigeons, 45 Skylarks, 15 Goldfinches and 44 Linnets. Hunting over the stubbles were a couple of male Sparrowhawks and two Kestrels. The only other raptor species that I had, was a Buzzard that stood sentinel on top of a pylon. 

 

One particular field that was being ploughed, had at least 213 Black-headed Gulls and 62 Herring Gulls, that either followed the tractor, or loafed in another part of the field. It was interesting to note, that once the farmer started to till the ploughed land, they lost interest and slowly drifted away. Presumably, it was the cutting and turning of the soil by the plough that provided the greatest feeding opportunities. 

 

It was another day, with another Jay, but only one this time, flying along the edge of a field of maize. However, the best corvids were three high, flying, croaking Ravens, that headed south under the late morning sun. Rooks and Jackdaws numbered 111 and 73 respectively, and were continually flying from an area of woodland to feed on the adjacent farmland. 

 

High flying Raven
 

Other than the Pinkies, which I suppose weren't technically vis, there was a small amount of passerine vis, and again not as much as I would have expected, but I did have my first Brambling and Redwing for the autumn over, as well as 24 Skylarks, two Swallows, three Tree Sparrows, ten Meadow Pipits, six Chaffinches, two Linnets and a Reed Bunting. 

 

Of course, during the five hours I was there I recorded a number of other species, but these were the highlights. 

 

As a keen teenage birder and naturalist, before I was old enough to learn to drive, I used to walk to my local nature reserve, Marton Mere. I also joined a local naturalists group called the Fylde Naturalists' Society, and on alternate Saturdays they ran coach trips to various locations throughout Cumbria and Lancashire. This gave me the opportunity to get out to other sites, and immerse myself in habitats that I couldn't find closer to home, and more importantly, learn under the tutelage of some very fine local naturalists. As an adult, it was a privilege to return to the Fylde Naturalists' Society and talk to them about my work at the time as a Farm Conservation Adviser, and also on another occasion I talked to them about the BTO Ringing Scheme.

 

Anyway, I digress, because what I wanted to say, is that on this date in 1978 I was on a walk with them around the Silverdale area, and to be more precise, between the villages of Yealand Conyers and Yealand Redmayne. In the programme, the walk was detailed as Yealand and Berry Walk, and that is how I entered it in my notebook. 

 

As you can imagine, as a 14-year-old I had a lot to learn, but I always kept a notebook, and I still do. And looking at my old notebooks from this time they make me smile, mainly because of my rather naive use of language, and how I wrote as a young boy.

 

I can tell you that during this walk 43 years ago, it was "dull and fairly warm, and it spotted slightly". Spotted slightly? I assume that this is a reference to light rain/drizzle, weather that I would call dreich today. My description of the habitat that we walked through wasn't even as detailed as a Phase 1, and I said that the habitat was "open and dense woodland, and open fields". I tried my best! 

 

We were out from 8:31 a.m. until 5:50 p.m. Very precise! Whenever I entered field outings in my notebook at this time, I had various standard headings that I used from site to site, that I would record various details under. For example, it could be 'weather ', 'habitat' etc, but after the list of birds that I recorded, I always had a section called 'Interesting Points', and it is from the interesting points of that trip in October 1978, that I have detailed below. Please forgive my 14-year-old self, but sometimes I am reminded of some nugget of interesting information, particularly changes in the range and population of certain species, and the sighting of a Red Squirrel is a classic example. At that time, they still hung on in this part of Lancashire, which to me is of great interest. So, on with 'Interesting Points'.

 

"As we were walking at the beginning of the walk, my friend Andrew noticed a moth on a leaf. We showed it to Mr. Watson (President of the Fylde Naturalists Society) and he identified it as a Brick Moth".

 

I like how respectful I was to Arthur, calling him Mr Watson. Arthur Watson was one of the greatest entomologists in Lancashire, and he was a lovely, lovely man, and I learned a great deal from him. My first conservation hero perhaps? Arthur became chairman in 1963, and remained chairman until his untimely death in 1980. Back to those interesting points.

 

"Then in the trees there was a movement. Everyone looked up, and there was a Red Squirrel scrambling through the branches of the trees. 

 

Deeper in the woods we came across some Badger setts. These might have been disused, but we couldn't tell. On a young tree there were some deer rubbings, probably from Red Deer because of their height. Amongst the trees November Moths were around.

 

After dinner we went through some more open woodland. Amongst the Birch trees along the ground was a lot of fungi called Tricholoma album".

 

And that was it. My interesting sightings came to abrupt halt. I can tell you that the species of fungi was identified by another of my conservation heroes, and another lovely man, called Norman Woods. Norman was a brilliant naturalist, and one of those amazing people who are knowledgeable on all taxa. Norman became Chairman after Arthur passed away in 1980, and he remained chairman until 1991.

 

For a few years, during my teenage birder/naturalist period, I used to illustrate my notebook with coloured pencil drawings, and the drawing that accompanied the above 'Yealand and Berry Walk' was that of a male Pheasant, and I have posted it below.

 

Not quite Ian Lewington or Killian Mullarney standard, but I think you can tell 

what it is!
 

I really enjoyed that trip down memory lane, and I am thankful that my enthusiasm for the natural world remains undimmed after all these years, and I retain that boyish enthusiasm!

Snow Goose

Wednesday morning got off to a bad start when I arrived at first light at one of my two wintering bird survey sites in west Lancs. It was a glorious morning, with more or less clear skies, and a 15 mph north-westerly wind. The first decent day for some bird movement after several days of blocking wet weather.

The track that I usually drive down to park my car was very wet, and some heavy farm machinery had been using it to access the fields to lift some potatoes. I got half way down, and realised that if I continued, I would likely get stuck! However, my car didn't want to reverse along the wet and muddy track, so I had no option other than to drive to the end and turn round in the field if I could. Eek! 

Amazingly, I did manage to turn round, and I thought that the only way I was going to get back to the road along the track was to 'floor' it and keep moving. And so, I did, and I spent the next half a minute or so driving along with full opposite lock! I had to park in the village, and this was a twenty-minute walk to my first VP, so it put me back a bit.

 

As I said before, this was the first morning where conditions had unblocked, and it looked good for some visible migration, and indeed numbers of Pink-footed Geese were arriving high from the north, and heading south. I was stood at my VP, and I hadn't even had time to set my 'scope up, because I was busy counting all the Pinkies going over. 

 

Pink-footed Geese
 

I was counting one skein of Pinkies, when I noticed a pale bird, similar size to the Pinkies, at the tail end of the left-hand side of the 'v'. I lifted my bins, and was surprised to see that it was an adult 'white morph' Snow Goose! No photo I'm afraid, as my camera was in in my rucksack. There's always an issue with wildfowl as to whether individuals are genuine vagrants or not. There is no doubt that Snow Geese are a genuine vagrant to the UK, but telling a genuine vagrant from a 'fence hopper' from a wildfowl collection is impossible to tell. However, a Snow Goose arriving with lots of Pinkies high from the north, is probably of as genuine provenance that you could hope for. 

 

I had 2,984 Pink-footed Geese in total, and most were heading high to the south as I said previously. There were some smaller groups coming back north and west, and were probably re-orientating themselves to head to favoured feeding areas. I also had my first Whooper Swans of the autumn with a group of 14 heading west. 

 

As the morning wore on, it warmed up, and this gave perfect conditions for the three Buzzards that were making use of the thermals. The only other raptors that I had were a female Sparrowhawk and a Kestrel. I had three Jays, that continues to support my thoughts about it being a Jay autumn/winter this year.

 

Buzzard
 

There was some vis, but surprisingly not as much passerine movement as I might have expected. All heading in a general south-ish direction, I had 16 Swallows, two Grey Wagtails, six Meadow Pipits, eleven Chaffinches and a Siskin. 

 

There were a few Chiffchaffs around and I recorded three, but only one Goldcrest. Goldcrests do seem to be thin on the ground this autumn. A flock of 22 Linnets and 12 Goldfinches were mobile, and passed me at my second VP several times. The five hours passed very quickly, and it was soon time to return to my car.