Spring is almost here

It's always worth a trip to New Brighton in winter. On the highest tides, the pontoon in the marine lake becomes a refuge for local waders. There will dozens of redshank with a good smattering of dunlin. Often there will be a local speciality, the Purple Sandpiper, but on this occasion the highlight of the day was tucked in with the redshank, this Greenshank showing a nice contrast in leg "shank" colour. 

Another local treat was this Kingfisher, not a mile from home. The poor light robs the colours from the picture, but a real delight to see. We've seen reports of a bird at this site for some time, but this was the first time we'd actually seen him. It seems such an insignificant bit of water, with all sorts of junk dumped both on the banks and in the water itself, yet there must be enough life to support this fisher, and hopefully we'll see many more times.

We managed a return trip to Pennington Flash, near Wigan. The hides there provide great views, such as these of a Reed Bunting and a Bullfinch. The only downside with a popular place is that it can get crowded, and sometimes you meet a 'character'; we found one photographer with a lens the size of a rocket launcher running up and down in the hide, pushing the lens right out of the window in an attempt to get a 'better' shot.  Needless to say the end result was the sight of lots of bird's bottoms disappearing rapidly into the trees. Sigh - time to move to a different hide...

Not quite as far away is Woolston Eyes; this is a much quieter place, not least because you need a key to get in! Woolston has been the scene of some amazing Starling murmerations this year, with some estimates as high as 500,00. The Starlings have been starting to arrive just before dusk, groups of birds flying in from all directions to merge with the growing mass. Sometimes a large group of maybe a 1,000 birds, other times just dozen birds at a time, indeed, even single starlings, each flying up to the main stream, and disappearing into the mass. Every now and again a sparrowhawk flew into the mass, and each time clear air formed around the hawk, like an invisible forcefield was around it. The mass of birds stratched from as far left as we could see to as far right; the sky was full of swirling wings. And then a group would peel off and dive into the reeds with a sounds like that of heavy rain, and then another group, and another, and another, until there was one final group. They too would dive into the reeds, and the sky was empty. Fascinating, and well worth the rushed trip from work, and the dark trip home.

 

Not far from Woolston is Moore Nature Reserve, no key needed, yet still much quieter than Pennington. From wigeon and teal whistling in the ponds, to the raptors soaring over, the wary goldcrests flitting around the trees, to the raucous great spotted woodpeckers pushing all out of the way at the feeders, there is much varied birdlife around. Even waders dropped in, these curlew feeding in fields by the road in.

Wherever you find woodland you are likely to find a great spotted woodpecker. These large birds, about the size of a starling, are easily identified, black and white with a bright red spot on their underparts, like this one.

As well as the great spotted, Moore has a small number of Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, it's star resident. The Lessers are a smaller bird, not much larger than a sparrow. They lack the red under-spot, and have more white on their backs, in almost a polka-dot pattern. 

Alas, they are not just lesser because they are smaller, they are also lesser seen - this is an increasingly uncommon bird. The most likely threat to them is from loss of habitat; they need an established wood with a good canopy. It's very important for the survival of this delightful birds, and many like them, that we protect established woodlands. The government is keen for economic growth - with good reason. However, they have indicated that they are willing to allow developers to destroy established woodlands, to replace them with newly-planted woodlands elsewhere. This policy makes no sense from a wildlife point of view - it could take a hundred years or more for a new woodland to mature sufficiently to again support Lesser Spotter Woodpeckers. So, please, support your local woodlands, and help to protect them.

 

And to finish, a 'cutey' shot, again at Moore, of a Grey Squirrel nonchantly munching on his lunch, seemingly oblivious to our presence.

 

A strange ol' weekend

The weekend started with promise. I'd noticed some tweets from local birders about a Turtle Dove in Leasowe, just a couple of miles from home. A quick dash after work, and we managed to find the bird while there was enough light to take a few pictures. What this bird, more usually found in the South and East of the country, is doing here is a bit of a mystery, but welcome nonetheless, especially as this species is declining and considered under threat.

As much of a mystery is this Snow Goose, found on the river Clywd at Rhuddlan.
While this goose is wandering around quite happily, it's not a natural wild bird at all. Most likely is that it has escaped from some wildfowl collection or other, and it has been reported in the Rhuddlan area for about a year now, so clearly happy with it's location.

At the same place we saw a seal cruising up and down the river. Presumably it had come up the river with the tide, and hopefully found its way out the same way. What we didn't see though was the Glossy Ibis that had been reported here.... So we went over to Bolton to check on the four that been there for the last week or so. When we arrived there was a birder just packing up. We asked about the Ibis, and he replied along the lines of, "Oh yes, they're just over there... Oh, wait a minute, they've gone...."

Sigh, for all the joy of seeing the Turtle Dove we had the frustration of not finding the Ibis - that's three trips to Bolton now, and one to Clywd, and no joy.  And then we get home to the news that one was seen flying into one of our local reserves, Inner Marsh Farm at RSPB Burton Mere Wetlands just as it was closing!!  Argh!!

So Sunday afternoon we dash down to IMF, to find that there was no news... The Ibis has again evaporated...  Instead of rushing around looking for it, we decided to stay for a while and check out the pools at IMF.

Among the delights were a good number of Snipe. Unlike at Conwy the previous week, these Snipe were less keen to be seen - there is one in this photo - but can you see it ?!?

 In with the many teal and lapwing there were about half-a-dozen curlew sandpiper. These small waders could be seen busily moving through the groups of other larger birds, busily dipping for food, head moving rapidly up-and-down. It took quite a few photos before we finally got one shot with the distinctive curved beak clear of the water.

 Also in the pools were around two doxen Golden Plover. These handsome birds with their short dark bills brightened up everyone's day with their 'kindly' faces, as one observer put it.

 Several time during the afternoon the flock of lapwings took to the air, wheeling around. Clearly something had spooked them. We searched the skies for signs of a Peregrine or a Harrier - but couldn't see anything. Yet something had them on edge - indeed at one point, as the lapwing took off, all the teal hurried from the four corners of the pool to gather in one cluster at the deepest point. Perhaps there was a fox around? We didn't see anything, but clearly there was something around tht was perceived as a threat.

The highlight of the afternoon had to be this Greenshank, moving around the pool, seemingly oblvious to the excitement - perhaps with its extra size it felt safe from whatever was around. Certainly it was clearly comfortable, and gave good views to those watching.

 So despite the frustration of fruitlessly searching for the Glossy Ibis, the weekend had it's rewards. While seeing a new bird always brings a feeling of satisfaction, there is as much satisfaction from seeing the more familiar, but perhaps seeing a bit more of their behaviour, learning a little more about their behaviours and characteristics.

Last Day of 2012

I'm sure that not all birding is like this, but the last day of 2012 brought some comfortable surroundings.  On a windy and stormy day we decided to head down to New Brighton front just in time for High Tide. The tide was right up to sea-wall, and in the marine lake was a jetty. This jetty was obviously a welcome place of refuge, as there was quite a crowd.

Right by the marine lake is a cafe/bar, so we could sit in shelter, with a nice cup of coffee and a bowl of chips, with plenty of space on the table to spread out the field guide and notebook, and try and work out what we could see...

Loads of Dunlin...

Loads of Redshank...

Loads of argumentative Turnstones...

A sprinkling of Purple Sandpiper (we think!)...

And a solitary Greenshank....

A very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours :-)