More Lancs birding

I went back over to my set of fields in Lancashire yesterday to see if the 3 juvenile Marsh Harriers were still around but after a while it was evident that they were not. The site was surprisingly quiet with only a few flights recorded, the best being a Peregrine that briefly crossed my airspace at height. As the evening progressed a brief view of a Barn Owl was had, followed later by a really good look at a Tawny Owl perched up by a farm building.

The highlight came late in the evening as an adult male Marsh Harrier flew into my site to roost in a wheat field. It was disturbed several times by the farm workers who were busy combining and baling up their straw which meant I got a few more flight views of it than I expected.

An other interesting sight was the thousands and thousands of Swallows that were gathering over the farmland before flying off in a swarm to the southwest.

I'm looking forward to this site during the winter to see what else turns up, Hen Harrier hopefully!

Sociable Plovers

Killing time before my late evening survey in Lancashire today I've just come across this incredible website: The Amazing Journey: Where you can follow the migration of the Sociable Lapwing. You can experience an extraordinary migration in real-time of 9 Critically Endangered birds from their breeding grounds in Kazakhstan to their wintering areas in tropical Africa.

This is a Birdlife International Preventing Extinctions Project sponsored by the RSPB and Swarovski Optik.

The 9 birds are called Abaj, Alia, Dinara, Erzhan, Jibek, Lena, Raushan, Svetlana and Tatyana.

I can't wait to see where they will end up!

(Images Copyright The Amazing Journey)

Early Vis Mig - North Yorks

This morning I conducted a dawn vantage point survey up in the hills of North Yorkshire with a beautiful sunrise in the east and a setting full moon in the west with a nice clear sky. It was no suprise therefore that the thermals were required due to the low temperature.

The usual waders were in evidence, Golden Plover, Curlew and Lapwing, however a flock of 5, then 11 Snipe flying through was less expected as they strongly flew southwest. There was little raptor activity today, just the resident Kestrels, however as the morning hit about 0800hrs passerine migration was noted, with getting on for 150 Meadow Pipit and 250 Swallow noted flying southwest in 2 hours. In amongst these was at least 5 Wheatear (1 briefly landed right next to me) and several Linnet.

Whislt walking off the hill a small patch of plantation that generally has nothing but Willow Warbler and Lesser Redpolls seemed more 'noisy' than usual with several Goldcrest and single Spotted Flycatcher, Wood Warbler, Tree Pipit and a very showy Grasshopper Warbler all found. An interesting if not somewhat unexpected morning.

At one point I was buzzed by an RAF Merlin Helicopter as it flew about 30m overhead before landing next to me.

Apparently the pilot saw me and wanted to get my number...

You're welcome....

Lancs birding

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in North Yorkshire on a hill dodging torrential downpours and lightening which was all good fun. The poor weather may have resulted in the expected birds being absent however a party of 4 Wheatear was a nice touch, presumably dropped down by a shower. There was little else of note other than Swift, Swallow, House and Sand Martin that were all on a mission south.

Today I spent the morning in a field in the Lancashire lowlands, not really having any expectations of what I might see the morning proved very interesting. I got out of my car and the first thing I saw was a Marsh Harrier, as I got my scope and bins out to start my survey I noted several Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk in the air also. I got on the Marsh Harrier - a juvenile but straightaway was aware of another large bird behind it, a second juvenile Marsh Harrier! I watched these for about 10-15 minutes when something caught the corner of my eye, another one! Three juvenile Marsh Harriers in pristine condition quartering about ranging some distance and height but showing incredibly well. I continued to watch them on and off for 4 hours. I like harriers! They are good fun to watch! One of the birds flew fairly close to me and rather kindly flushed 3 Greenshank that were well out of sight in a ditch somewhere then it continued to put up several of the more expected Curlew and Lapwing.

Other than the Marsh Harrier entertainment came in the form a Peregrine that was seen a couple of times, the second time it nailed a Mallard before dropping in to destroy it! Otherwise it was mainly the expected Buzzard, Sparrowhawk and Kestrel that were all jostling with each other and the harriers.

Smaller stuff was not as noticeable as previous visits with a few Corn Bunting, Reed Bunting and Willow Warbler noted. Several Swift and good numbers of Swallow and House Martin were also noted.

More Quail and a Flock of TDs

Friday saw me conducting a dawn Barn Owl survey somewhere in Northish Lincs. No Barn Owls were recorded however I did see another quail, this time a bird flying into a wheat field. However the highlight of a beautiful morning was the flock of 5 Turtle Dove that flew over and round me twice before landing on a spilt grain pile. A male bird amongst the flock was seen and heard displaying to a female and at least one of the birds was a juvenile. There could quite possibly have been more than five birds as several other birds were also seen during the morning but not all at the same time as the flock of five had been seen. Other farmland birds of note included Corn Bunting, Yellowhammer, Tree Sparrow, Linnet, Reed Bunting, Lapwing etc.

I had a busy weekend conducting Best Man duties for a good friend of mine so little was had during the weekend, though we did start a 'Wedding List' from the churchyard as we were waiting for the bride to arrive!

I did get time to have a quick walk around the local patch which bird wise is fairly quite, the odd Lesser and Common Whitethroat and Blackcap being evident. Much more noticeable was the number and diversity of butterflies with Speckled Wood, Large White, Small White, Green-veined White, Peacock, Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Gatekeeper, Holly Blue and Small Copper all recorded in a 15 minute spell!

Hopefully a few warm night might produce some interesting moths at the light... we'll see...

More Quail Please

Today I was back at another site in Lincolnshire, where I'd previously found a male Montagu's Harrier in the spring. This time I was checking on breeding Barn Owls. Wading through chest/head high nettles and scrub to get to various breeding locations was not much fun however the plentiful moths, butterflies and dragon/damselflies were making the numerous stings and scratches 'OK'.

As we were walking through a grassy headland adjacent to a wheat field we flushed a tiny bird only feet from us - Quail! I don't know who was the most surprised us or it! The Quail flew up, flew round, over a hedge and dropped into another grassy area on the other side of a ditch. Not a very common sight - a bit more alive than the Quail I had 2 weeks ago in East Yorkshire that had come off second best after hitting a car.

Oystercatchers

Yesterday I had a new patch tick in the form of 4 Oystercatchers that were very vocal as they flew over, other than that not a lot else!

Recent Activities

Recent birding activities have been few and far between really, though I've been busy at work having great looks at several pairs of nesting Barn Owls, a couple of pairs of breeding Long-eared Owl and the odd Quail and Spotted Flycatcher in addition to 'nice' bits like Tree Sparrow, Corn Bunting etc.

Autumn passage has clearly started with post-breeding Golden Plover, Curlew and Lapwing all flocking up and arriving on several of my sites. A Dunlin this morning flying south through one of my sites on the Wolds was a bit of a surprise. Noticeable today was a passage of several hundred Swift all heading south.

I was pleased to get some looks of a grass snake today as well as some interesting dragonflies and am now looking forward to what the autumn will bring.

Quail and Smurfs

Had a weekend stag do in the Lake District which was great fun but I really couldn't motivate myself to go to work this morning but I'm glad I did as I found myself a Quail!

Turtle Doves and not a lot else!

Yesterday saw me travelling to a different area in Lincolnshire, surveying was very slow, one of the slowest I've ever had, however a Turtle Dove made the pulse quicken for a short while as it flew right past me between to areas of cover. There really was little else of note, however it was nice watching a pair of Yellow Wagtail tend their nest. Other bits seen included Tree Sparrow, Linnet, Swallow, Swift, Grey Partridge etc...

Honey to the Bee

Today I had the pleasure of watching a beautiful displaying male Honey Buzard as it flew around wing-clapping, a great sight! It is always nice to see that they have made it safely back from their wintering grounds and not got shot over France, Italy or Malta! Good times!

My 'Rare Birds Where and When' book (see a few posts down) has also arrived today so I will try and get chance to read through it and post a review on here in the near future.

Hare today gone tomorrow...

Spent a couple of days over in Lancashire, however the continued poor weather resulted in the cancellation of my breeding bird survey this morning. Yesterday the wind was not much fun to be sat out in, this was only slightly improved by a great look at a Peregrine that flew low through my watch area before gradually soaring to about 500m and then drifting off. The other highlight (it was a slow day!) was a cool Brown Hare that came fairly close (probably trying to get out of the wind like I was!).



I wish all of this wind had blown the Pallas's Reed Bunting a little further onto Flamborough Head or Spurn Point! On the plus side there may be another one out there somewhere!!!

Bird Photography Workshops & Tours

I've spent the day in the office writing reports today due to the poor weather which got me thinking about some more foreign travel, reminiscing of time spent in hot, sunny locations, watching top quality birds and I thought I'd share the details of my friend Glenn Bartley whom I met whilst birding in Costa Rica. In my opinion Glenn is one of the best bird photographers in the world, but don't just take my word for it check out his website.

Glenn is a professional photographer from Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He focuses on capturing intimate portraits of birds in their natural surrounds. Glenn also leads photo workshops for Nature's Photo Adventures to exciting destinations around the world such as Costa Rica, Ecuador, Belize, Trinidad & Tobago and Canada amongst other destinations.

Glenn's work has been published widely throughout North America in books (e.g. Birds in Ecuador: A Photographic Journey) and magazines (such as Birders World, Birding and Bird Watchers Digest).

Rare Birds Where and When

The occurrence and successful twitch of the Marmora's Warbler in Gwent this past week and the Lesser Kestrel at Minsmere earlier this year inspired me to look into purchasing a reference material on rare bird status and distribution in the UK, so today I've just ordered a copy of Rare Birds Where and When: An analysis of status and distribution in Britain and Ireland. Volume 1: Sandgrouse to New World Orioles by Russell Slack (pictured below). I can't wait for this book to arrive as it looks packed full of a plethora of facts and figures and has had some really good reviews, as well as winning several top awards (e.g. Birdwatch Magazine: Best Bird Book 2009). I'll hopefully be able to mark up the rares I've seen before as well as plan the next ones I'm likely to see!!!



I've ordered my copy from http://www.rarebirdbooks.co.uk/. Hopefully Volume 2: Swans to Auks will be published later this year too. You can view several sample species accounts at the above website (e.g. Blyth's Pipit and Ovenbird amongst others). For each species there is an overview of:

• Distribution
• Nomenclature
• Taxonomy
• Status
• Historical Review
• Occurrence and Arrival Patterns
• Western Palearctic or European Records

and more...

When it arrives and I've had chance to give it a read through I'll provide my own thoughts on the book here.

Marmora's Warbler

As soon as I heard that there was a first summer male Marmora's Warbler in south Wales I was very keen to add this species to both my life and UK lists, however due to work commitments at the end of the week and a date with some horses on Saturday I had a nervous wait, not helped by the negative news of Saturday afternoon/evening which delayed my start this morning from 2am till 8am. I had thought it was likely that the bird was still going to be present based on previous behavioural reports over the last few days. However I didn't want to waste the fuel if the bird had gone (eg predated during the afternoon).

I set off with my birding chum Dave from York at about 8.15 and after a rather wet journey south arrived at the site around noon. I'd literally just stepped out of the car when I heard and saw the bird briefly before it dropped out of view from a small Hawthorn bush. I'd read that the bird ranged around a sizable area so I was not too concerned that it had gone for good and about 10 minutes later the bird popped up in a distant Hawthorn bush, it was actively foraging within the bush but gradually worked its way to the top of the bush where it showed well, albeit distantly singing.

Chuffed with the views we'd just had we were amazed as the warbler flew to a bush a bit closer, then another, then it flew even closer, landing on a stone wall where it sat and sang for what seemed like an eternity, moving up the wall a few metres and singing some more - an incredible view of this super bird which left everyone awestruck.

Soon after this view the bird performed some more before flying across the road into a Holly bush where it then dropped out of view. With these incredible views we were totally happy to leave the site and head off on our journey home, very happy!



I'd like to thank Dave Perrett for letting me use his excellent photo of the Marmora's Warbler (above). You can visit Dave's blog/website at the following links http://www.dave123wildlifeblog.blogspot.com/ and http://www.david-perrett.fotopic.net/

Other birds noted in the vicinity included an almost constantly displaying Tree Pipit, several Meadow Pipit and Skylark, Whinchat, Stonechat and Cuckoo amongst others.