Steve's wildlife and photography blog

Back to reality

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 22:09:00 +0000

Following the wonderful trip to Bulgaria last week it was back to reality with a thump as I ventured up to Dean Clough for the first time in a couple of weeks. All the passage migrants had moved on as expected. While I was a way Janet Davie had a cuckoo by Upper Dean Clough but I wasn't to be so lucky.

The visit had two purposes - to check for Stonechat and to see if there were any odonata. I was pleased to see the male Stonechat by the upper res and I am hoping that this is a breeding pair. It was with the female up a few weeks ago but has been missing on my previous few visits. The usual common resident bird species were present and its always nice to have a Redpoll flying around and one duly did while I was looking at damselflies by the waters edge. A Linnet flew over calling too.

I counted 10 blue-tailed damselflies and one large red (my second large red of the day having had one in the garden earlier).

There was an an abundance of white butterflies which were predominantly green-veined with at least 50 and probably over 100 around the reservoirs. There were also 10+ Orange tips and a Red Admiral.

Hopefully this spell of fine warm weather will continue to produce good conditions for invertebrates.

A quick check of Parsonage on the way home and there is a growing area of stony mud around the upper res - it may turn something up. Resident wise a pair of coot had four chicks. A pair of tufted duck didn't have any.

Blue-tailed damselfy, Upper Dean Clough

Stonechat 1m
Kestrel 3
Great spotted Woodpecker 1
LBB Gull 23+
Black-headed gull
Herring gull 5+
Reed Bunting
Meadow Pipit
Skylark
Linnet
Redpoll
Coot
Mallard
Tufted Duck
Canada Goose
Great-crested Grebe
Woodpigeon
Swallow
Magpie
Carrion Crow
Grey Heron

Odonata
Blue tailed damselfly 10 UDC
Large red damselfly 1 UDC

Lepidoptera
50+ Green-veined White
10+ Orange tip
1 Red Admiral

Dean Clough and Parsonage June

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 22:01:00 +0000

Odonata are now in evidence at Dean Clough.

03 June
Common Blue damselfly -Enallagma cyathigerum 10+
Four-spotted Chaser - Libellula quadrimaculatta 2 min. This is a new site record according to the Lancashire dragonfly atlas -surely a case of under-recording rather than recent colonisation.

On June 1st a Wall Brown was on the path by the gorse bush above the upper res. There are still plenty of green-veined white and Orange tip on the wing.

Bird wise. The Stonechat pair were around the upper res on the 1st but with no confirmed evidence of breeding yet. An adult and two juvenille Grey Wagtail were on Dean Brook. Green Woodpecker was also in Dean Brook wood.

A Little ringed plover was on Upper Parsonage on the 3rd June, where there is now plenty of exposed mud due to the prolonged dry spell.

Common Blue damselfly -Enallagma cyathigerum, Upper Dean Clough

Four-spotted Chaser - Libellula quadrimaculatta, Upper Dean Clough Reservoir

Wall Brown, Dean Clough

Stonechat female

Stonechat male

Dean Clough Glaucous Gull

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Mon, 07 May 2018 19:01:00 +0000

An early morning visit to Dean Clough on the 7th turned up this 2nd calendar year Glaucous gull which was the only gull on the water. It was a bit too distant for a decent photograph but this record shot isn't too bad. Still a few Wheatear's around but no sign for several weeks of any Stonechat.

Glaucous Gull - 2nd calendar year

On the 9th there five Wheatear around the track north of Dean Clough lower res, and a few Redpoll were heard. One alighted briefly allowing a nice photo. There were up to five singing male Reed Buntings, three singing Skylark and the usual numbers of Meadow Pipits. No Grasshopper Warblers heard or seen yet.

Persistent disturbance by dogs is likely to mean there will be no breeding waterbirds at Dean Clough this year (not counting the Dippers that have bred on Dean Brook). The Great Crested Grebes were down to one pair today.

Redpoll

Meadow Pipit

Wheatear

Scotland, May 26th - June 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Fri, 29 Dec 2017 20:13:00 +0000

e spent the last week of May on a family / wildlife / activity holiday in a quiet glen just south of Oban, Argyll. We enjoyed some very good weather during the middle of the week with two cloud free days but with some rain at the start and end of the week - well it is Scotland! We did some cycling and walking on the cooler days, but the highlights were two warm and sunny days midweek, when we visited Glasdrum Wood by Loch Creran, and took a boat trip to the Treshnish Isles, Staffa and Iona.

The reason for the trip to Glasdrum Wood was to look for the chequered skipper butterfly. Extinct in England since the mid 1970s, its range is now restricted to an area around Fort William in Scotland - although it is believed that there are probably several undiscovered colonies in the right habitat.

Chequered skipper, Glasdrum Wood, Loch Creran

Northern small pearl bordered fritillary, Glasdrum Wood, Loch Creran

Puffin, Lunga, Treshnish Isles

Razorbill, Lunga, Treshnish Isles

Great black-backed gull, Lunga, Treshnish Isles

Shag, Lunga, Treshnish Isles

Fulmar, Lunga, Treshnish Isles

Corncrake, Iona

Dean Clough and Parsonage Reservoirs

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Fri, 15 Sep 2017 19:42:00 +0000

Today saw the first real influx of Pink-footed Geese on the back of favourable northwesterly winds with several skeins reported from various areas of east Lancs. I was busy in the morning but had the afternoon free so decided on a walk round Dean Clough and a check of Parsonage to see if there were any migrants about, and hoping to catch some of the the pink-feet.

The only migrant activity of note was a steady flow of Swallows and House Martins, with at least 50 of each passing through in an hour or so and 3 hoo-weeting Willow Warblers.

A Green Woodpecker flew over and a presumbed second was yaffling below the dam. Alsp below the dam was the Stonechats - 2 adults, 2 juveniles, and along the north side of the main res another juvenile with a male by the upper res, making a total of six.

There were also three Grey Wagtails below the dam and I got a photo of one of the adults. At first I put this down as a female, but I later decided that I wasn't sure if it was a male or female, as it was now in its winter plumage when both sexes have white throats. I checked the id guides later at home and despite the decent image below still wasn't 100%.

Grey Wagtail

I also got the following photos of the juvenile when it flew up the main res and landed on the upper res outflow.

Grey Wagtail

I'd seen the Grey Wagtails in he vicinity of the main res outflow but wasn't sure if they had bred given the levels of disturbance from dog walkers so it was nice to see the juvenile.

There was a pair of Little Grebe on the upper res which have been there for a few weeks now along with the obligatory pair of coots and two Great Crested Grebe on the main res. There was also juvenile GC Grebe on upper Parsonage along with a pair of Tufted Duck. Around 250 Lapwing were feeding on the north side of upper Parsonage but there were no other waders evident - not surprising given the high water levels.

A Brown Hawker was patrolling the south-west corner of upper Dean Clough and two Red Admirals headed south.

Green Woodpecker 2
Stonechat 6
Grey Wagtail 3
Willow Warbler 3
Goldcrest 1
Meadow Pipit
Goldfinch
Reed Bunting
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe (2 DC, 1 juv UP)
Coot 2
Tufted Duck 2 (UP)
Mallard
BH Gull
LBB Gull
Cormorant 1
Kestrel 1
Pied Wagtail
Carrion Crow

Jan 6 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 21:48:00 +0000

I've pretty much abandoned this blog for no particular reason (procrastination) and it's been dormant for over three years. I read through some of the older posts and now regret not keeping it up to date as there are some great memories and photos documented here, so I'm going to make an effort this year write up the blog more.

The year started cold and bright and a walk on Longridge Fell was pleasant but uneventful bird wise. I'm always on the look out for Crossbill here but no luck today. The highlight was close views of a buzzard.

On the 2nd a visit to Barrow gave the opportunity for some great photos of Waxwings of which there have been more than 100 here recently. A wintering male Blackcap also put in a brief appearance.

Later in the afternoon I went down to Brockholes to see if the two Bitterns would be showing and they were, putting on a great display both flying in to the usual patch of reed bed below the Osprey platform. Despite the distance they were away and the reducing light levels I got some good photos including the flight shot below and some video of the two birds.

Also the Grey Wagtail that has been wintering close to the house was joined by another on the 5th when both were on the driveway. All in all a pretty good start to 2017.

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Mon, 14 Oct 2013 12:13:00 +0000

Trip Report - Portugal 10th-12th October 2013 including crossing the Bay of Biscay on 7th October 2013.

I had the opportunity to visit Portugal which involved driving a van to the Algarve for an event run by my family’s business and as a reward I had an expenses paid opportunity to stay on for two or three days to do some birding, which I accepted without hesitation. I was away for seven days and include below the sightings from the non-birding days, because, well there is no such thing as a bird-free day if you’re a birder is there?

I travelled with my non-birding companion on the Portsmouth-Bilbao ferry which departed at 22:00 on Sunday 6th arriving in Bilbao on Tuesday 8th at 07:45. For some reason, the ferry called in at Roscoff in northern France on the Monday morning to pick up passengers. This gave the opportunity to scan the harbour for gulls where there was an adult Mediterranean Gull with the Herring, Lesser Black-backed and Great Black-backed gulls as well as two Shag. There was also some visible migration with c40 Meadow Pipits passing over head in a southerly direction, along with two Grey Wagtails.

We left port and headed westerly along the Brest coastline where 1 Guillemot, 2 further auk sp. and several Gannets were added. The vis-mig of Meadow Pipits continued until about 11:00 am with small groups of birds flying westerly close to the ship. Although none alighted on the ship it seemed they were approaching it (as a landmark?), with most outpacing the ship and heading determinedly westwards and not towards France! A Manx Shearwater was added as the only one of the trip and the first cetaceans were sighted when 8 Common Dolphin appeared at 12:00. This was to be the first of many Common Dolphin sightings during the day, but along with 5 Bottle-nosed Dolphin seen about an hour later were the only two cetacean species during the trip. This was partly due to both seasonal and daily timing. October is quite late for the migrating large whales and the most productive deep waters of Biscay were traversed during the hours of darkness. However, since Killer Whales were seen in Biscay in recent weeks I was ever hopeful (in vain).

The rest of the trip across the relatively shallow shelf area of north-eastern Biscay produced an abundance of common dolphins with a total of 102 seen in continuous small groups.

Common Dolphins, Biscay

Other sightings included an un-expected Great Shearwater which was flushed by the ship in flat-calm conditions, several Bonxies and a surprise Song-Thrush which appeared to alight somewhere on the ship but not in a publicly accessible area. There were also three butterflies and a moth, none seen well but the butterflies were possibly Red Admirals.

We arrived in Bilbao on Tuesday morning in darkness facing a 12 hour drive to the Algarve. The focus was on the driving but inevitably a few birds were seen including many Common Buzzard and Red Kites along with about 100 Griffon vultures at different locations. There were many tantalising views of distant raptors which is the norm when driving across Spain. Clouded Yellows were amongst the most apparent butterflies seen during the rest-stops with various species of mainly blues (I had no butterfly id guide with me, and decided not to test the patience of my co-driver by chasing around the scrub after insects while he made the essentials brews!)

Wednesday was the final non-birding day but the hotel grounds, perched on a cliff-edge, produced Yellow-legged gulls, a Peregrine, Wheatear and Sardinian Warblers as new birds for the trip, along with several Cory’s Shearwater offshore. Wheatear was to become the bird of the trip as everywhere I went there were immaculate juveniles in large numbers, some of which gave excellent photo-opportunities.

Wheatear, Cabo de Sao Vincente, Portugal

Thursday 10th October

The first birding day proper involved a frustrating delayed start as I couldn’t pick the hire car up until lunchtime. However as I was at Faro airport, Rio Formosa west was the obvious first stop. After seeing a flock of Azure-winged Magpies in some pines I eventually reached an area of marshy open wetland where an Osprey was perched distantly on a telegraph pole. The first open water, in sight of Faro airport, delivered Greater Flamingo, Black-winged Stilt, Cattle Egret and Cetti’s Warbler along with a decent selection of waterfowl including Red-crested Pochard, Gadwall, Coot, Mallard, Shoveler, Wigeon, Little Egret and Great Crested Grebe. An Osprey seen over the salt-pans was presumed to be the earlier bird.

I then headed inland to Fonte Benemola, which with hindsight was a mistake. It was an incredibly hot afternoon, and although this green river valley added a few common birds to the trip list it was hard going in the heat with most birds skulking in the dense shrubbery. Also no raptors were seen during the 90 minutes there. I am sure this would be a great location in spring, but on a hot October afternoon was frustratingly unproductive, so I headed back to the coast.

The next stop was Pera Marsh, which was one of the highlights of the trip. Although much of the marsh appeared to have been drained (and there was some “habitat improvement” work being undertaken), there was enough open water and mud to hold an excellent selection of birds which included; White Stork, about 150 Glossy Ibis, Cattle Egrets, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Dunlin, Little Stint, Spotted Redshank, Black-tailed Godwit, Golden Plover, Kentish Plover, Ringed Plover, Snipe, Knot, Sanderling, Avocet, Black-winged Stilt, Black-headed Weaver, Little Grebe along with gulls and wildfowl already seen. The gulls were scanned for Audouin’s and Slender-billed, but none were found either here or anywhere else during the trip, but both apparently occur.

Friday 11th October
I headed to the southwest corner of Portugal today and first stop was the watch-point at Sagres. Although this area gets good numbers of juvenile raptors that have mis-navigated and are too far west for Tarifa, my morning visit proved quiet, as it had been the previous day according to other observers there. The three hours spent there produced up to eight Booted Eagle, Griffon Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, several Sparrowhawk, Peregrine, and a small flock of Red-billed Chough.

I then went to the nearby lighthouse at Cabo de Sao Vincente, where among the Wheatears were two Black Redstart. A couple of hour’s sea-watching surprisingly produced very little apart from Gannets, and five Mediterranean Gull.

On the way back to the hotel I called in at the Alvor estuary. A good selection of waders, gulls (and Wheatears!) were encountered but only Bar-tailed Godwit was added to the list. The visit was ruined by a British ex-pat who let his large dog run out onto the salt marsh flushing the birds. I won’t print what I called him here, but as he was tattooed and bigger than me, I whispered it under my breath.

Saturday 12th October

The last day saw me inland at Castro Verde. Well, all I can say is what a magical place! My first stop was by the roadside when I saw a shrike, which turned out to be an Iberian Grey Shrike – the first of seven seen during the day. The obvious difference to the familiar Great Grey Shrikes seen during the winter in the UK is the darker tone of the grey mantle and head. I have only had one previous – five second- view of this species, in Spain, so to see seven in a day was excellent. My next stop was the LPN visitor centre (translated as the League for the Protection of Nature and the Portuguese equivalent of the RSPB). The centre was open, but I had to ring the door-bell for attention and I think I was the only visitor that day. The young lady present gave me some pointers for sites and suggested a walk around the reserve where I may see Great Bustard and Black-bellied Sand-grouse which was one of my two target birds. The other being Little Bustard which she informed me hadn’t been seen for some time. Ok, I thought, October is not the best time, but I set off on the walk optimistically nonetheless. Within 15 minutes an unfamiliar bird flew overhead giving an unfamiliar call, but was silhouetted so I didn’t get a great view. Stone-curlew came to mind first, but I knew it wasn’t. A minute or two later a small flock appeared giving the same call and this time I had great views of four Black-bellied Sand-grouse. A second flock appeared, again giving great views at which point I picked up another unfamiliar bird which I followed. The unmistakeable black and white wings and distinctive jizz gave it away as a Little Bustard! It gave sustained flight-views as it flew around me in a big arc and landed about 200m from the visitor centre buildings. Later attempts to relocate it on the ground failed, but I could not be happier with the excellent flight views it gave – surely better than on the ground views in this season anyway. More small groups of Black-bellied Sand-grouse passed adding to a total of 30. Little Owl was added to the list and distant raptors all proved to be Common Buzzards or Red Kites. Back in the car park, more Wheatears were joined by a Black Redstart.

After an exhilarating first hour I set off around some of the other sites in the area looking for Great Bustard and raptors. However, what started as a calm if cool morning became an even cooler and breezy afternoon. Despite extensive scanning of some great looking habitat I failed to see any Great Bustards, but a few more trip species such as Calandra Lark, Corn Bunting and two Hoopoe, along with the shrikes made the afternoon enjoyable.

Black Redstart, Castro Verde

All too soon I had to head back to the hotel and the trip was effectively over. I missed a few target birds, but given the whistle-stop nature of the trip, trying to cram in as much different habitat as possible, as well as birding alone this was inevitable. The drive down through Spain took us through Extremadura and I was almost salivating at the habitat passing us by. After the experience of the similar terrain of Castro Verde, Extremadura will I think be on the agenda for next spring.

The Iberian peninsula is rivalling Scotland for my favourite birding location and the beauty of the Algarve is that there are some excellent sites close to the tourist resorts. So even if you are travelling with non-birding companions as is often the case for birders with non-birding partners, there is some excellent birding on offer even if you only have two or three days to spare.

I prepared for the trip with excellent Finding Birds in Portugal by Dave Gosney, which gives GPS co-ordinates for most of the locations and has been updated in 2013. I pre-programmed most of these into the sat-nav which made navigation simple. One word of advice for anyone visiting these sites in a hire car. Many of the tracks are rough and the potential for damage to the car bodywork is high, so I would recommend taking out the extra insurance cover if it is offered (it cost me an additional £14 for the three days).

Bird List

Mute Swan,
Shelduck,
Wigeon,
Gadwall,
Teal,
Mallard,
Shoveler,
Red-crested Pochard,
Common Scoter,
Cory’s Shearwater,
Great Shearwater,
Manx Shearwater,
Northern Gannet,
Cormorant,
Shag,
Cattle Egret,
Little Egret,
Grey Heron,
White Stork,
Glossy Ibis,
Little Grebe,
Great Crested Grebe,
Red Kite,
Egyptian Vulture,
Griffon Vulture,
Black Vulture * a potential bird seen at great distance, but not well enough to rule out Griffon,
Sparrowhawk,
Common Buzzard,
Osprey,
Kestrel,
Peregrine,
Moorhen,
Coot,
Little Bustard,
Black-winged Stilt,
Avocet,
Golden Plover,
Lapwing,
Ringed Plover,
Kentish Plover,
Curlew,
Black-tailed Godwit,
Bar-tailed Godwit,
Knot,
Ruff,
Sanderling,
Dunlin,
Little Stint,
Green Sandpiper,
Spotted Redshank,
Redshank,
Snipe,
Great Skua,
Guillemot,
Black-headed Gull,
Mediterranean Gull,
Lesser Black-backed Gull,
Herring Gull,
Yellow-legged Gull,
Great Black-backed Gull,
Black-bellied Sandgrouse,
Rock Dove,
Woodpigeon,
Collared Dove,
Little Owl,
Hoopoe,
Iberian Grey Shrike,
Red-billed Chough
Azure-winged Magpie
Magpie,
Carrion Crow,
Calandra Lark,
Crested Lark,
Crag Martin,
Cetti’s Warbler,
Sardinian Warbler,
Fan-tailed Warbler,
Wren,
Starling,
Spotless Starling,
Blackbird,
Song Thrush,
Robin,
Black Redstart,
Stonechat,
Northern Wheatear,
House Sparrow,
Grey Wagtail,
Pied Wagtail,
Meadow Pipit,
Serin,
Cirl Bunting,
Reed Bunting,
Corn Bunting,
Black-headed Weaver * one seen at Pera Marsh, part of the naturalised population there

Cetaceans

Common Dolphin,
Bottle-nosed Dolphin

Lepidoptera

Red-Admiral,
Clouded Yellow,
various species of blues and several moths species evident

Odonata

Several species seen, but no attempt to id was made given the time constraints

Elephants and Tigers in the Garden!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 21:40:00 +0000

A superb catch of moths in the trap this morning with over 200 moths of about 30 species. Pick of the bunch were eight hawk moths - 5 elephant and 3 poplar. There were also several garden firsts including Ruby Tiger and Garden Pebble.

Elephant Hawk Moth

Ruby Tiger

Who needs Africa!

Common Lizard, Bowland

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 21:27:00 +0000

I snatched a few brief hours in Bowland, and given the warm weather decided to look for Adders. I didn't get any pictures of an Adder but I did see one on the path about 3 metres in front of me. Unfortunately, it saw me too, and quickly moved off under a rock. I decided to stakeout the rock to see if the Adder would come back out to bask in the sun, but after nearly half an hour all I saw was some movement in the shade as I think the adder moved further out of view. However, I did notice something moving on the other side of the rock, which I initially thought was the snake, but was in fact a Common Lizard. The lizard froze to the spot. I am not sure if it was aware of me or the Adder but it barely moved for twenty minutes. Whether the Adder knew it was there or not I don't know but it would have been intriguing to see what would have happened if they came face to face.

Common Lizard, Bowland, Lancashire

There were several summer migrant birds in the area too including Spotted Fly-catcher, Wheatear, Garden Warbler, Willow Warbler and Blackcap.

Hoverflies

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sat, 25 May 2013 17:00:00 +0000

Several hoverflies in the garden today availing of the now abundant nectar sources, including Rhingia Campestris. Hoverflies are important pollinators and predators of aphids.

Rhingia Campestris

Swifts at last

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sat, 18 May 2013 07:37:00 +0000

I've finally seen a swift this year, with three flying north over Mellor on May 17th! I think this is the latest date I've ever recorded. Yet again it has been a cold week. Other late records include cuckooflower which is normally out in April around here. I still haven't seen any orange tip butterflies, but that is also partly down to me as I've not been out enough. There have been several green-veined whites in the garden during the week though, when the wind drops and sun breaks through. Silver birches are just coming into leaf and the Ash still has a week or two to go. The Ash is always last but surely its not waiting until June!

Overdue butterflies

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:26:00 +0000

The butterflies are late this year, just like everything else in the garden. In previous years, orange-tips, small whites and green-veined whites have all been seen by now, but this year there have been none. The first butterflies to appear were two small tortoiseshells on 14 April, and there were five more enjoying some rare warmth on the 20th. Back on the 14th there were few flowers open in the garden and thus few nectar sources, however by the 20th there was plenty of aubrieta on display in the walls which was to the liking of the small tortoishells as the photo shows.

Small tortoiseshell nectaring on aubrieta

Moths at last

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 15:12:00 +0000

The incessant cold weather and strong easterly winds that have been ever present for most of the last couple of months have meant no mothing in the garden. The trap did go out on a couple of occasions on mild January nights but produced nothing.
Last night was the first evening with mild temperatures and little wind for several weeks where I had time to put the trap out, and at last a few moths were caught. Not a great total, but any signs of spring are welcome this particular year.

1 Hebrew character,
1 Common Quaker,
1 Clouded Drab,
2 Oak Beauty's (one of which is pictured below)

Oak Beauty

Frog chorus

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 17:01:00 +0000

I counted over 40 frogs in the pond today and about 20 lots of spawn. About three or four weeks later than usual but better late than never. The sound of the frogs croaking (singing?) was an absolute delight when I went out into the garden at lunch time - one of the benefits of working from home today! I took a few photos, including the one that is now the new blog banner. Here's another.

Common Frog

Both pictures: D300 & AF-S Nikkor 300mm, @ ISO 200/f4, with tripod

Very satisfying to think that this little bit of amphibian habitat did not exist 3 years ago.

Barn Owl

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 18:05:00 +0000

After several failed attempts I finally managed to grab some reasonable photo's one of the Barn Owls that frequently quarters the fields next to the house. Here's the best of them.

Redwing Migration

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 21:45:00 +0000

I have been following the growing interest in monitoring birds migrating at night by making long running sound recordings and analysing the resulting sound files to see what species called while flying overhead. "Vis-mig" is fascinating and this has been a great week for it with ideal weather setting up perfect "fall" conditions on the east coast. Huge numbers of thrushes and finches have been on the move with over 21,100 Redwing, 9345 Fieldfare and 2675 Brambling recorded at Spurn on Monday 22nd alone! I had heard some Redwings flying over the house earlier in the week and thought it would be a good time to experiment to see what I could record.

I left a portable recorder with a built in microphone and a 4gb memory card outside in the garden for the evening. The batteries went flat after about 4 hours but not before a 2gb sound file had been recorded. The file covered the period between 17:20 - 21:00 and using a freely available software program called Audacity I reviewed the file. Audacity can display the spectrogram of the file which shows a picture of the sound by graphing sound frequency against time.

The picture below shows the call of a migrating Redwing flying over the house. The red pattern at the bottom is low frequency background noise. The Redwing call is the down-sloping red line between 8 and 6 khz. (I used another freely available program called Raven Lite available from Cornell Labs to print the spectorgram)

Redwing spectrogram recorded 25th October, Mellor, Lancashire

There were 25 Redwing calls recorded in the file over a three hour period as well as a Tawny Owl and some as yet unidentified sounds, some of which I think are high-pitched mammal sounds - such as mice and shrews - but some are other birds.

This is my first ever attempt at recording night migrating birds and my equipment and techniques will need some tweaking to improve the quality of the recordings, but i am more than happy with the first night's results. Ultimately I'd like some way of automatically processing the large files to pinpoint the high-frequency sounds for further investigation. Some programs have been developed to automatically identify certain American birds, so it would be interesting to see what's available for European migrants.

Brambling

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:08:00 +0000

It's been a good week in the garden bird-wise. On Sunday I heard and then briefly saw a Brambling. Unfortunately, I didn't get great views as it flew up into the tall Ash tree and was in silhouette against the setting Sun. Nonetheless, it was the first Brambling of the year and a new bird for the garden. Then on Tuesday, while sat at my desk, staring out of the window for inspiration I saw a Redwing fly into the beech tree at the bottom of the garden where it stayed for few seconds before flying off. This caused me to pay at bit more attention to the activity around the feeders where there was the usual assemblage of common birds as well as...another Brambling! This one (if it was a different one) stayed around for a while and I took some respectable record shots of it.

Male Brambling, Mellor, Lancashire, 23 October 2012

Other interesting stuff in the garden this week included Tawny Owl, Sparrowhawk and Woodmouse.

Letter to Nigel Evans MP re: The Badger Cull

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 13:51:00 +0000

Letter to my MP Nigel Evans regarding the Badger Cull and upcoming debate in parliament on October 25th 2012.

Dear Mr Evans,

Over 100,000 people, myself included, have signed a petition that has resulted in the proposed pilot Badger Cull being given a parliamentary debate on 25th October 2012. This is the first time the Badger Cull has been debated in parliament and is an opportunity for the government to by held to account for what is evidently a mistaken policy.

I am strongly opposed to the cull for the reasons below, however I must first state that my view is based on the science and economics and not in sentiment or emotion.

1. The scientific evidence does not support a badger cull. The final report of the independent scientific group on Cattle TB which conducted the Randomised Badger Culling Trials made the following conclusions and recommendations in 2007:

1. On the basis of our careful review of all currently available evidence, we conclude

that badger culling is unlikely to contribute positively, or cost effectively, to the control of

cattle TB in Britain (10.48 and 10.92).

2. We conclude that there is substantial scope for improvement of control of the

disease through the application of heightened control measures directly targeting cattle.

Therefore, we recommend that priority should be given to developing policies based on

more rigorous application of control measures to cattle, in the absence of badger culling

(10.57 and 10.93).

2. Indeed there is strong belief in the scientific community that badger culling may make TB in cattle worse http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/oct/14/letters-observer

3. The cull will not provide value for money for the taxpayer either and the costs of the cull will exceed the benefits to the farmers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19981171

4. The government is on the wrong side of public opinion as shown by this recent poll http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/agriculture/farming/9618598/Badger-cull-right-or-wrong.html and risks losing credibility in its wider environmental policy (remember this is supposed to be the greenest government ever).

5. Vaccination is the only long term solution to control Bovine TB in Badgers and thus reduce transmission to cattle and is being successfully trialled in several locations including Wales http://wales.gov.uk/topics/environmentcountryside/ahw/disease/bovinetuberculosis/?lang=en and Cheshire http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/116790/cheshire-badger-vaccination-trial-hailed-a-success.aspx, although it is too early yet to observe any results.

Bovine TB is a serious issue and is devastating to the farmers whose cattle are affected by it. Both they and the public deserve that government takes the issue seriously and gets the policy right. Unfortunately, the government has chosen a policy that will fail to make any long term impact on TB rates in cattle, waste tax-payers money, give farmers false hope of a solution, divide communities in the areas where culling will take place, and cause unnecessary destruction of, and distress to, badgers.

The cull is a mistake. The debate in parliament on Thursday, which has cross-party as well as public support, is a opportunity for the government to reassess the evidence, stop the cull, and consider the more appropriate alternative of vaccination.

Regards

Steve Flynn

Jan 2, 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0000

Lunch at the in-laws in Blackpool this morning, which just happens to be within 3 miles of the Tundra Bean Geese on Lytham Moss. On arrival in Blackpool I was relieved to note that I had "accidentally" left my scope and bins in the car - how fortunate! Half an hour later Tundra Bean Goose was my first Lancashire tick of the year and as I was back at the table for lunch.

The geese were at the back of the a field close to the road-side and adjacent to the runway landing lights of Blackpool airport. The first thing I noticed was the Pink Foot as its lighter blue-grey back stood out amongst the Beans. The light was excellent and I enjoyed several minutes of full power x60 views of these scarce Lancashire visitors, getting excellent view of the plumage and bare parts. An approaching aircraft flushed the geese which then gave brief flight views before circling round and landing in the same spot.

A good start to the New Year bird list.

Gulls and Geese

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 21:27:00 +0000

Taking advantage of some free time over Christmas I headed up to Heysham where there has been a first winter Glaucous Gull in recent days. It was high tide when I arrived and I walked down the sea-wall in front of the power station from the Red Nab rocks stopping to photograph some close Kittiwakes and a not so close juvenile Little Gull. Another birder arrived and he continued towards the wooden jetty where he found the Glaucous Gull loafing with some other large gulls. The glaucous briefly flew close while my camera was still in its bag before heading back out to the end of the wooden jetty. Along with eight species of gull there was also a couple of Guillemots on the sea, at least two shag, two Red-breasted Merganser and a few Pink-footed geese which flew over. While chatting with the other birder he told me that eight White-fronted geese had been reported from Rishton Reservoir, so I decided to head home while there was enough light to call in at Rishton.

I arrived at Rishton with about 30 minutes of daylight remaining. The white-fronts were all in clear view on the far side of the reservoir with the Canada goose. flock. There were six eurasion white-fronts (two adults and four juveniles) and two Greenland race birds which are likely to be the two present before Christmas, (and which I failed to see one Saturday morning). It was very educational to see both races together; the Greenland race clearly darker than the eurasians with the bill differences clearly apparent, even with the dull and fading light. Of note, the adult eurasions frequently showed aggression to the Greenlands if they came too close, but not to any of the Canadas.

Some photos of the gulls and guillemot below. The Little Gull was rather distant but I've included it because is nicely shows the upperwing comparison with the juvenile Kittiwake; the Little Gull showing a dark secondary wing bar and the Kittwake showing umarked white secondaries.

Glaucous Gull in flight

Glaucous Gull on Wooden Jetty

Guillemot

1st winter Kittiwkae

Adult Kittiwake

1st winter Little Gull

January odds and ends

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:59:00 +0000

Family commitments and a bout of the winter vomiting bug kept me home most of the month but I managed a few free hours birding on Saturday 22nd January. I headed for the Ribble marshes which were unfortunately severely fog bound. An hour at Hesketh Out Marsh produced only an indeterminate number of Pink feet flying in an unknown direction which were heard but not seen, six Whooper swans, a few Teal, Wigeon, Curlew and redshank on the marsh, again mostly heard rather than seen. The passerines around the car-park were limited to Linnets, Reed Buntings and Chaffinches. With visibilty not much more than 50 metres I cut my losses and headed inland.

Calling in at Brockholes on the way home the day way rescued by a Barn Owl hunting by number one pit. I only managed a dim photgraphic record shot in the murky dusk light. There were a few Redwing around the reserve along with about 100 Lapwing and small numbers of Pochard, Goldeneye, Gadwall, Mallard and Teal, as well as the ubiquitous coot. Below is a photograph of the man made sand martin wall which is looking rather unattractive at the moment - a bit like the rest of the reserve it must be said. Still a few more weeks and all will be different.

On Saturday morning January 29th we had the pleasure of watching four foxes for nearly four hours close to home. There appeared to be some sort of territorial behaviour going, with field boundaries being patrolled, and scent marking taking place. January is the peak of the mating season and also the time that last year's litter will be forced to disperse by the parents if they are still in the family group. There didn't seem to be any conflict between any of the four foxes but it seems likely that one of the foxes was a female attracting the attentions of at least a male. Were the other two foxes last years litter or rival males? Hopefully they will put further displays in the next few days and reveal more about their lives, maybe even revealing the location of this years den?

Unfortunately one of the foxes was lame in the front right limb. Although it wasn't apparent how serious the injury was, hopefully it will only be temporary. The picture of the fox below in the field (not on the wall) is the lame one.

Visiting the in-laws later in the afternoon at South Shore in Blackpool seemed like a good reason to call in at Fairhaven Lake for the Red-necked Grebe that is still present. It was duly found at the unfrozen eastern end of the lake where it did nothing for half an hour except drift round in the centre of lake out of range for any decent photos - it didn't even lift its head so I didn't even see its bill! Most boring bird of the year so far!

The lame fox

One of the other three foxes

The soporific Red-necked Grebe

About six weeks before the new tenants arrive?

Late for School

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:49:00 +0000

I was late taking Annie to school today because at 8:30 this morning a roe deer walked across the field belonging to the neighbour right up to our garden. I fired off the photo below from the bedroom window before going into the garden to see if I could get a better picture. Unfortunately, the deer had gone, frightened by a passing car. However as I was standing in the garden a snipe flew over my head and landed next to the garden pond but out if sight! This was a new bird for the garden - obviously, but on checking the BTO Atlas website it was also a new bird for the tetrad, which is arguably more important.

On the way back into the house I photographed this suitably Christmassy Robin portrait. By this stage, Annie was late for school, but what an excuse "My dad was stalking a deer and a snipe in the garden"!

The deer got me thinking about how many mammals I had seen in or from the garden and the total is a respectable 11: Roe deer, fox, stoat, brown rat, house mouse, field vole, common shrew, mole, grey squirrel, rabbit and common pipistrelle bat. Hedgehog is notable by it absence, which is a sign of the times - it's over a year since I last saw a live hedgehog and that's probably the only one in five years (I don't count flat ones).

Badger culling - a bad idea

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:20:00 +0000

On 8th December the government's consultation on Bovine TB ends. I've read the consultation document and the government makes it clear it want to pursue a policy of culling badgers.

I've got no problem with culling, per se, if its use can be justified on ecological grounds. e.g. controlling deer populations (although I'd rather see natural predator control such as lynx and wolves being reintroduced, but like that's going to happen!). However the badger cull proposals have got it wrong.

There is little doubt that Bovine TB is transmitted from badgers to cattle, and that persistent widespread culling reduces TB rates, but only modestly and only in the culling areas. The neighbouring areas see an increase in infection rates and even the culled areas have high rates of TB in the cattle herds - just lower than before the cull.

Badger vaccinations which are now available don't have any of the drawbacks of culling and would cost about the same to implement. The government argues that vaccinations don't protect or remove already infected badgers. True, but the culling approach doesn't see benefits in terms of reduced infections in cattle until the 4th year anyway, and that's about the lifespan of a badger (infected or not). Vaccinations could make headway in terms of achieving herd immunity in badgers by this time. The government plays down the vaccination benefit as it's based on a model (there is little field evidence as the vaccine has only been available since March 2010). But despite decades of failed culling attempts it is pinning all its hopes on one (scientifically sound) study - the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT). This is curious because the Independent Scientific Group set up to monitor the trial concluded in 2007 that "badger culling is unlikely to contribute usefully to the control of cattle TB in Britain, and recommend that TB control efforts focus on measures other than badger culling". The government's decision to ignore this advice can only be politically motivated, because the science and the economics behind culling don't stack up.

You can read about the government's pro-culling interpretation of the RBCT in the consultation document here.

You can read the Independent Scientific Group's view of the trial here. Paragraph 15 on page 21 sums it up nicely.

In a nod to the "Big Society" the government is proposing to hand over the problem and the costs of dealing with it to landowners. It wants to come up with a proposed solution and expects the implementation to be managed at a local level. However I can't see how it will work. Any application to cull or vaccinate will need be part of a plan covering at least 150km2 -treating smaller areas is proven to be ineffective. Somebody has got to coordinate that locally and all the landowners have got to be part of the plan for it to work. It must be applied consistently for at least four years and comply with all the relevant licensing requirements . Oh and it must be paid for by the landowners. To make matters worse those in the culling area have got to tell the farmers outside the treated area why it's a good idea and that they are likely to see an increase in TB in their cattle as a result of the cull! This is because culling disrupts badger's normally stable socially structure and causes them to move around more and mix with other badger groups, which increases the spread of TB outside the culling zone - it's known as perturbation and is the main reason culling doesn't work.

Culling is proposed to be done by shooting (either trap the badger in a cage and shoot it or shoot free ranging badgers). The government is relying on evidence from the Game Conservancy, which is (deliberately?) misquoted in the consultation document, that enough badgers can be located and shot to make the culling effective. I think the evidence to support this is very weak. The Game Conservancy asserts that it would be easy to find and shoot the first few badgers, but as the numbers decline and they get harder to locate "appropriate incentives" would be required for the marksmen to carry on doing the work. Read their report here. Where is the evidence that the appropriate incentives would be paid (by the local landowners) to ensure the requisite number of badgers is killed humanely (and disposed of appropriately) to make the cull effective? You can image a bounty of £x per badger and the shooters make a few quid in years one and two, find the going tough in year three and abandon in year four for another area with a higher badger population. If this were to happen, the evidence suggests the cull would have been a waste of time. Implemented at a local level, there is little chance that hundreds of badger culling programmes would be carried out with the necessary rigour and fully funded to their conclusion that would be required to achieve a successful outcome (in terms of cattle TB control).

One final point on the Game Conservancy, for which I do have some - qualified - respect. If you ask a pro-shooting organisation how to control badgers, don't be surprised if they tell you it's a good idea to shoot badgers.

The other method of shooting, is to trap first. But if you are going to the effort of trapping a live badger, then why not vaccinate it instead of shooting it? This would do away with the well documented problems that culling causes and be a step in the right direction towards herd immunity.

I also have an issue with the licensing. Given the quite frankly appalling level of abuse of wildlife legislation and pitiful level of prosecutions and sentencing in this country I have very little confidence that that any culling on the scale needed will be conducted in an ethical and humane way and policed accordingly.

Vaccinations, which are not likely to cost more than culling, are more likely to meet with local approval and therefore more likely to succeed in achieving the necessary coverage. I can't imagine that there are many areas of 150km2 in the country where all the necessary landowners can agree on a policy of culling and then finance it to its conclusion, however if the policy was to vaccinate I would imagine no shortage of community volunteers and conservation agency support to assist landowners in tackling the problem.

One of the arguments against vaccination is that it doesn't remove infected badgers. This is a short-term view that is not credible if the vaccination plan is given longer to work (say 10 years or more). Culling only likely to work after four years and without vaccination TB infected badgers will eventually return. Vaccination will be cumulative from year 1 and can carry on until the necessary herd immunity is achieved. Once achieved the savings to the farmers and government (it currently costs £63 million per year to deal with TB in cattle), will pay many times over for the cost of the vaccination programme.

Because vaccination at present requires capturing and injecting the badger (an oral vaccine is less than 5 years away however), the government is peddling the view that shooting is a more viable option for landowners. Reading between the lines I suspect the government thinks it will be easier to sell the solution to farmers if culling is part of the package - vaccination alone being more costly to implement initially and with a longer time before it starts to payback. I think this view is mistaken, but the government seems to want to absolve itself of any responsibility by handing down an unworkable solution.

There is another side to this debate which is that there is evidence that TB in cattle can be controlled by cattle measures alone and this is not being given enough prominence by the government, but this is a wildlife blog and I'm not going any further into that side of the debate.

Culling badgers is ineffective and is not a long term solution. It is costly, difficult to police, and is socially and morally unacceptable. Vaccination needs to be given time to prove that it works. This is the only acceptable way forward likely to lead to a successful outcome for badgers, cattle and farmers.

Lancs Wildlife Trust have more information on the subject. If you've got time do your bit.

Pink-Footed Geese

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 21:09:00 +0000

A few enjoyable hours today at Marshside and my current favourite birding location, Hesketh Out Marsh produced the following highglights.

Hesketh Out Marsh. 250+ Golden Plover in the fields with similar numbers of Lapwing, 2+ Brambling in the hedgerow by the car park, 12 Tree Sparrow in with a mixed flock of finches, several hundred Skylark over the Marsh, 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Snipe, 1 female Marsh Harrier and one skein of Pink feet over. Wildfowl and waders were visible in far distance but the marsh was frozen solid and most of the birds had moved off to the mud or fields.

Same picture at Marshside with most of the freshwater pools frozen solid save for a few isolated unfrozen sections. Wader numbers much reduced on my last visit but plenty of wildfowl with good numbers of widgeon and Pink-footed geese on the ground.

As high tide and dusk approached I stood on the salt-marsh and marvelled as skein after skein of Pink feets flew low overhead from the estuary to their roosting areas.

Pink-footed geese flying in to roost over the saltmarsh, Marshide

Waxwings

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Flynn) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 10:25:00 +0000

Arriving at work this morning I noticed 6 waxwings in the trees in Tesco car park. This is the third time I've seen them in this location so far this winter but don't have any photos yet. So I turned round a went home for my camera. When I got back 20 minutes later they had gone.

So if you want to see some photos of waxings, look on someone elses blog.