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.

 

Two rushed weekends...

After several fruitless trips looking for the Glossy Ibis, last weekend started as intended relaxed day.  Just a potter round our local RSPB reserve to see what was about. The usual culprits were about, a largish gathering of lapwings doing their usual impressions of squeaky toys, and weaving through them were a small group of curlew sandpiper. We were treated to a brief view of a Water Rail slinking for cover. Suddenly the lapwings sprung into the air, and wheeled around alarm calling... Then above we saw the grey and white shape of a sparrowhawk coming over. The hawk wasn't interested in the lapwings, but in something behind the reeds; probably one of the snipe who were being rather elusive this morning. Anyway, it didn't seem to get anything, as it came stomping around the reeds with no sign of a kill. For a few minutes it looked more like a gull hunting worms than a hawk! And then it decided enough was enough, and headed off  to the other side of the reserve. By sheer chance I got a shot mid-takeoff - it's very grainy as the light was bad, and quite a distance away, but gives a good view of the underwing patterns.

So there we were, gently relaxing, when the phone gave a quiet tinkle - a facebook alert saying that the Ibis were back at Horwich, and this information was less than an hour old... Quick decision to be made, but in reality there was only one answer - quickly pack up and dash back to the car for the hours drive to Bolton.  All the while thinking, how long would they stay this time??

We needn't have worried; as we arrived there were a couple of birders by the side of the road, and a quick glance into the field as we pulled into the layby confirmed that the Ibis were still there.

We got out, and watched as the four birds worked their way around the field, at times less than 6 feet away from the wall where the watchers were gathered. Thankfully they didn't seem at all bothered by our presence, which was just as well as there was quite a stream of  cars and vans arriving, birders tumbling out and scuttling across the road; it seems we weren't the only ones who had been struggling to catch up with these delightful birds.

Why this field? These birds had visitied several local spots, and clearly found some safe spot to roost at night, yet again and again they were returning to this spot; there must have been something particularly attractive to them. Perhaps it's the slight hollow at the bottom, where water seems to gather, not as a pond, but rather a distinctly more marshy patch? Talking with a local who had grown up in the area, he said that this field had always been a hot-spot for visiting birds, so it seems that whatever it is that is there, this was no mere random choice of field.

Having finally caught up the the Glossy Ibis (and clocked up something like 460 miles in the process!), we decided to stop off at Pennington Flash on the way back, and resume the leisurely day.. This was our first visit to this country park, and a right gem it turned out to be. Each of the ponds had a hide, and each hide revealed something different. Nothing particularly rare, but such a variety of woodland and wetland birds. One pool revealed these goosander amonst the many teal. These look similar to the female red-breated merganser, but can be distinguished from them by the sharp border on the neck and the slight downward dip on the end of the bill.

On another pool there was an pinky-orange colour on a distant post; suddenly it became an electric blue flash as the bird came to a closer post; a kingfisher!  Then it came even closer, to a post right in front of the hide, and gave a five minute display of fishing before heading back down the pool. There is something special about these birds, and the experience was electrifying...

Moving on to another pool revealed this character. A shy bird, usually heard cackling at the top of trees rather than seen, this Jay was moving to and thro on the mound in the scrape, oblivious to our eyes. Seen in the open, the plummage seems quite exotic with it's own blue flash.

Another pool, by now to dark for photographs, revealed a group of cormorants, lined up with their wings streched out to dry, and then a mass of rooks and corvids taking off from the trees above and circling above calling, a good ending to a long day.

This weekend was by necessity much shorter, enforced by other commitments. We could just grab enough time, first to dash to West Kirby at high tide to see the Brent Geese that gather there at this time of year, and then to Derby Pool to catch the Snow Bunting that has been on the embankment there for the last few days. This bunting, like the Glossy Ibis, seemed to show little fear of man, only flying off as cyclists passed within inches, and then returning straight back to the sea wall, working it's way along the edge looking for insects.

 Hopefully this little beauty will stay a while, but only time will tell. In the meanwhile it's back to work, and beginning to plan for next weekend!