Dragonflies emerge at Bickershaw

The first dragonfly action of the year at Bickershaw Country Park today, with the highlight being a broad-bodied chaser emerging from it's exuvia. 

It's hard to believe that this broad-bodied chaser is in the process of emerging from the exuvia. The adult is considerably larger than it's larval exoskeleton. How on earth did the wings alone fit in there?

Also today lots of large-red damselflies including at least two colour forms of females, melanotum and fulvipes. Large-red damselfly is the 20th species of dragonfly / damselfly that I have recorded at the site in under 12 months. It's actually quite a common species at the site but we only started looking for dragonflies here in June last year so missed the flight period of large red damselfly.

The photo above shows the female form melanotum.

Mediterranean gull x black-headed gull x black-headed gull hybrid pairing

It's starting to get confusing now, if it wasn't already! Two weeks ago I reported on a hybrid pairing of Mediterranean gull (thought to be the male) and black-headed gull on the Mere at Martin Mere. I said at the time that the Med gull was a 3rd calendar year bird because it had black markings on the primary tips. I also said that I'd never seen the resultant offspring of a hybrid pair so was looking forward to seeing the young of this pair. Wrong on both accounts it seems! The bird facing left with the black hood is not only a hybrid Med x black-headed gull, it's also not 3cy, I think it's an adult.

The first clue is in the photo above and I really should have noticed it the first time that I saw the bird. The bill is too slim, the wrong shape and the wrong colour for adult or near adult Med gull. Then there's the hood - I realise that this can be variable depending on how the bird is behaving, but the hood clearly does not extend as far down the nape as a typical Mediterranean gull. And there are plenty of the latter about for comparison, at least 10 adults at Martin Mere at the moment, including a pure pair on the next island to this. They're like chalk and cheese!

Finally there is the wing pattern. It's almost adult black-headed gull, with the pale outer primaries. Far from being a 3cy Mediterranean gull, I think that this is actually an adult Med x black-headed gull hybrid. As it's now paired with an adult black-headed gull, the resultant offspring will be 2nd generation hybrids. That should be interesting....

Thanks to Graham Clarkson for pointing this out to me and Ian McKerchar for feedback on my photos.

Grey Plover at the sailing club

A message from Phil had me dashing to Pennington Flash this evening to see a grey plover on the foreshore of the sailing club. It was a good job that I didn't hang around, he found it at 18:10, I was there for 18:30 and by 18:40 it had been flushed by a dog walker and flew off and was gone.

Grey plover is much scarcer than turnstone and Sanderling at the Flash, and this was a first here for me.

Ruff at the Flash

A flock of five ruff on the spit today were my 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th individuals the flash. They all look like females to me, but only the bird in the photo above has bright orange legs, the rest had dull legs, and I did wonder if she was an adult with four offspring. She's certainly a smart looking bird, I love the dark speckling on the side of her breast which extends onto her flanks.

Osprey, Pennington Flash

A very brief visit to Pennington Flash this morning to see a greenshank that was reported on the spit proved very productive! I was standing outside Horrock's hide watching the greenshank when the cries of the gulls alerted me to an osprey that was circling over the southern side of the flash. It was gaining height and ultimately flew south east which seemed a bit of an odd direction. This was my third osprey at the Flash, all of which have been spring birds.

Also today, two black-necked grebes still, redshank, and three common terns. Not a bad 15 minutes!

 

It's not necessary to learn the call of the osprey, just listen out for the irate cries of lesser black-backs as they mob it!

Mediterranean x black-headed gull hybrid pairing

At Martin Mere today, several adult Mediterranean gulls in amongst the black-headed gull colony. When I started birding Med gulls were very much a scarcity but these days it seems that no black-headed gull colony worth it's salt is without a pair or two of these gorgeous white winged birds.

The two species are known to hybridise but I've never seen the resultant offspring. However, there is an apparent hybrid pairing on the Mere at the moment. The Mediterranean gull is sitting in the photo above and is a 3rd calendar year / 2nd summer bird (note the black chevrons in the wingtips). In the photo below the adult black-headed gull is sitting. I'm not even sure that the pair have eggs, but presumably they do and it will be interesting to see what the final outcome is.

Black-necked grebes, Pennington Flash

About seven black-necked grebes have been on Pennington Flash for about 10 days now, occasionally going up to 10 birds, but sometimes just one or two are present. They usually stay close together in a tight knit flotilla but today these two birds stayed apart from the rest. I'm assuming they're a pair with the larger male on the left.

♫♫ A nightingale sang in B... ♫♫

♫♫ Birkdale dunes ♫♫

News of a nightingale singing at Birkdale convinced me to leave Martin Mere early today and head for the Sefton coast. This is a rare species in Lancashire and the only one that I had previously seen in the county was way back in May 1984 at Ainsdale dunes. The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside (2008) considered it rarer than bluethroat in the county and since that book was published the species has undergone declines throughout the UK, so I'm not expecting many more opportunities in my lifetime to hear one locally.

I parked at the end of Weld road and walked south along the coast for 600m to a small group of birders staring at a clump of sea buckthorn. I had no expectations of seeing the bird given how elusive nightingales are, but just to hear it would be enough. When I arrived it hadn't been heard for 45 minutes and a rain shower didn't help, but eventually the sun came out and it started singing about 50m away. It then sang on and off for the next 30 minutes, gradually getting closer until it was little more than 8m in front of us, yet nobody had seen even the slightest movement. Like everybody else, I left without seeing the bird yet well content with the experience. After all, I told myself, the song is the main thing with a nightingale.

You can hear the bird singing in the videos below, but you'll need to turn up the volume. Unfortunately there is also a lot of wind and distant road noise. For some reason it's better if played on your mobile rather than computer. 

The interesting thing is, not only are my two records both from the Sefton coast, all other Lancashire records bar one are also from this area. According to The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside, the first county record was at Formby in 1965, followed by records from Fairhaven 1966, Freshfield 1967, Crossens 1980, Ainsdale 1982-1984 (returning bird) & Freshfield 1991. I don't have any information regarding accepted records since 2008, but I can't imagine that there have been very many. If anybody knows please let me know.

The following video is perhaps better quality and taken by Michael Binns, the finder of the bird. Thanks to Michael for allowing me to use this video.

Great-tailed grackle, Speke Hall

To tick or not to tick, that is the question. And the answer is who really cares? 

When a North American grackle sp. was found at Speke Hall back in January, it was a bit of head scratcher in more ways than one. It was thought to be a great-tailed grackle and the first question was "how did it get here?". North American birds often get caught up in weather systems and carried across the Atlantic, but this is thought unlikely in the case of great-tailed grackle which is not a long distant migrant and so less prone to the vagaries of the planets weather systems. 

It's more generally assumed that Speke's proximity to the port of Liverpool gives us a big clue. It's not unknown for a bird to get onto a ship while it's in port and stay on board for the duration of the voyage, which may take it to a different country or even to a different continent. American sparrows which turn up in the UK are often thought to cross the Atlantic in this way, and other species such as house crow have expanded their range thanks to ship assistance. This is considered the most likely explanation as to how this bird got here.

This brings us to the second and more fundamental question raised by the appearance of this grackle - "exactly which species is it?". Common can be ruled out immediately because of it's size and much shorter tail, but boat-tailed and great-tailed are more difficult to separate. However, the Speke bird has been considered great-tailed almost from the moment of it's first appearance due to it's white eye ring and flat head. I don't think these features are totally conclusive though, hence the reason why it's been referred to as a 'probable' great-tailed grackle.  Fortunately the bird is a male and it stayed around into the spring and started singing. Analysis of it's song and calls has confirmed that it is indeed great-tailed grackle.

The next question is "Can I tick it?". The rules regarding what is accepted onto the British list are set by the British Ornithologist Union Records Committee (BOURC). Ship assistance alone does not prohibit admittance onto the British list but it must not be port to port and the bird must be capable of making the journey with no assistance. This seems unlikely in the case of great-tailed grackle so it is not currently on the British list.

Ring ouzels Coal Pit Lane

I had a walk along Coal Pit Lane on the Horwich Moors today, looking for ring ouzels and managed to see 13 on the hillside near Green Nook Farm. Always an exciting bird to see, this was my largest ever flock.

Bonaparte's gull, Myerscough Quarry

A first winter Bonaparte's gull has been just north of Preston at Myerscough Quarry, pit 2, for two weeks giving me the opportunity to visit the site for the first time. The bird was showing when I arrived with about 10 black-headed gulls and was feeding by picking invertebrates off the surface of the water.

This was my ninth Bonaparte's gull in the UK and my third in Lancashire following birds at Seaforth (1990) and Heysham (2013).