Signs of spring on the Great Orme

It may have been a cold and dull mid-February visit to the Great Orme but there were still plenty of signs of spring and better days to come! The cliffs are no longer completely empty, because here and there on the ledges I could see the white shapes of fulmars already on their nests and occasionally one would glide past me. I saw my first ever fulmar on the Great Orme way back in 1973, an unbelievable 53 years ago, and at the time my Dad told me the story of how his brother, my uncle, had once climbed up to a fulmar nest and been squirted with smelly oil! Served him right in my opinion.

On the water there has been a clear build up of auks since my last visit in January, with rafts of them sitting at the base of the cliffs. 

At the moment the majority seem to be the jet black razorbills with just a handful of the dark grey guillemots, and it was noticeable that so many were in full breeding plumage already.

I don't know anything about the ecology of these auks, do they pair for life or is this rafting part of the process of finding a mate? I'm not sure, but there didn't seem to be any aggression between rivals, they just sat there bobbing up and down on the water. What the trigger is for them to go onto the cliffs I can't say, probably just consistently better weather I suppose. Nobody wants to be clinging onto a cliff with your offspring still in an egg, in the teeth of a gale I guess....

A weekend in North Wales

A weekend break in North Wales started with a lesser yellowlegs on the River Clwyd at Rhyl. This is actually the third time that I have seen this bird, but both of the other two visits resulted in poor views and no photographs, so not particularly good for a blog post. Today was different, for one thing I went along the track on the west side of the river rather than the east and this meant that I was closer to the bird but also the light was better allowing me to get great views of this North American rarity.

The bird has been present since before Christmas.

Another look at the white-fronts at Lightshaw

First stop this morning was Lightshaw Flash to see if the Russian white-fronts were still present. I'm pleased to say that they were and since I now had my scope with me I was able to get a better look at them and attempt some video and hopefully get some better photos.

Yesterday I counted 27 birds but I was informed by another birder later in the evening that he had seen 30 so I took his word for it. This morning I could only get to 29 birds so I don't know if that was the actual figure yesterday or maybe one bird has left alone. 

Anyway, of the 29 I reckon that there was a minimum of four definite 1st winters and at least another three which were probable young birds. You can see birds in the photos with no white faces and they look smaller and younger, these are what I'm calling definite 1st winters. There are also birds with just a small amount of white but which still look like young birds to me. These are the probable 1st winters.

What a great sight this is! One of the difficulties in counting these birds is that they were mixed in with greylags and a single pink-footed goose. Obviously the greylags are a lot bigger but even so at distance they could confuse the issue.

Having said that, out of all of the white-fronts I have seen over the past week, this flock did stay together most of the time. The birds in North Lancs were scattered throughout the large pink-footed goose flocks. Perhaps they're more intimidated by the significantly larger greylags.

Russian white-fronted geese, Lightshaw Flash

I just had a feeling that Lightshaw Flash would be the best bet for Russian white-fronts in my area of Greater Manchester so we decided to have a walk there from home this afternoon and found a nice flock of 30 birds. I saw them first from the canal towpath but they were quite distant and viewing was through branches so we walked around to what's left of the eastern viewing screen and saw them much better here.

It's great when a plan comes together!

This is the view from the canal towpath.

White-front spectacular in North Lancs.

With ever increasing flocks of Russian white-fronted geese being reported at various locations in North Lancs over the past few days there was only ever going to be one place for me to go today. 

I headed first for Bradshaw lane on Pilling Moss where yesterday 500+ white-fronts had been reported in a single field. Parking is difficult down here and viewing almost impossible, but miraculously I managed to find a spot for one car and then walked down a track for 100m which gave me an open view of the field where the goose flock was, albeit at a distance of about 500m (1/3 mile). The wind was blowing on a dull day with occasional showers and viewing was difficult at that range, but even so I managed to count at least 300 white-fronts and a few barnacles in amongst the pink-footed geese. 

The largest flock of Russian white-fronts I have ever seen is 3000+ at Slimbridge back in 1983, but since then I've never managed more than 150 even at Slimbridge, so to get 300+ in North Lancs where the species is historically quite scarce was a thrill to say the least. Prior to this year my highest count anywhere in Lancashire was 23 at Marshside in 1993, but in a typical year I'm lucky to see more than two or three in the county. 300+ is just mind blowing and an experience not to be missed. It may never happen again in my lifetime.

Nearby just south of Stronkey I counted 67 white-fronts with 1500 pink-footed geese, before I moved on to Cockersands Abbey, which is where most of the photos in this post were taken with the exception of the last two. 

There were no geese at all in the field where we had seen so many on Sunday, but on that walk two days ago we had also come across 38 white-fronts just east of Crook farm. Since I could hear the murmur of geese on the ground in that direction, I decided to check out the area again.

Geese from the east continue to flood in

The influx of geese from the continent continues apace amid impressive scenes at Cockersand Abbey just south of Lancaster today, with at least 68 Russian white-fronted geese and 60 barnacles in amongst 1000s of pink-feet. Thirty Russian white-fronts were in the main pink-foot flock just north of the abbey, with another 38 just east of Crook farm a little further north. All but three are in the photos. I didn't have a scope with me so may well have missed a few more white-fronts, especially 1st winters, so goodness know how many there were in total. 

The barnacle geese are also here in unprecedented numbers and will have originated from the same areas as the white-fronts. These are not from the Svalbard population which winters on the Solway or from the Greenland population which I see every year on Barra and overwinters on the Hebrides, these are from the Russian population which overwinters in Germany and Holland.

A white-fronted goose chase across the mosslands

A wild goose chase across the mosslands today, hoping not to miss out on the (unprecedented?) Russian white-fronted goose influx that has been happening all over the UK in recent days, with double figure counts in many places and over 100 at a few. I started at Plex Moss where there had been a few white-fronts reported yesterday in amongst large numbers of pink-footed geese. Finding the goose flocks was not a problem but picking out the white-fronts was still a challenge. Probably at least half the flock was hidden and out of view, but even so I managed to pick out at least 10 adult white-fronts with around 1500 pink-footed geese and a few greylags. Then I headed down Carr Lane on my way to Martin Mere and found another couple of goose flocks but no more white-fronts.

Three Russian white-fronts had been reported at Martin Mere this morning, but when I got to the UU hide and viewed over Plover field, I immediately saw eight adults, then suddenly there was another and finally three more popped out from behind some reeds! Twelve birds at least, all adults. Later I made my way to the Ron Barker hide and found another adult on Sunley's marsh with greylags, bringing my total for the day to 23 birds. That'll do for starters, at least now I don't feel left out.

Mediterranean gull EW31770 sets a new longevity record

On Saturday I reported seeing a ringed Mediterranean gull at Pennington Flash. By taking a few photos of the ring from different angles I was able to get the number which I sent off to the BTO. Turns out it was ringed at Belmont reservoir, Lancashire on 23/06/2007 by the late DJ Sowter, an amazing 6797 days ago or, 18 years 7 months and 9 days!

That's impressive enough, but amazingly this makes it nearly 5 months older than the previous oldest known Med Gull in the UK from a ringing recovery, and of course at the time of writing, the bird is still very much alive and continuing to set new records.

I've also received further information that the bird was the only young to hatch out of a clutch of three and was not large enough to be colour-ringed at the time, hence the metal ring only.

Mediterranean Gull EW31770
 as a chick in 2007.
Photo © Steve Martin. 

Remarkably this is the same bird as a nestling, being held by the late Roy Rhodes, on the day it was ringed by Dave Sowter in June 2007.

It just shows how worthwhile it is to read these rings.

Russian white-fronted geese, Martin Mere

Martin Mere joined in with the influx of Russian white-fronted geese today, with four flying around the mere for 10 minutes. It appeared that they were going to land on Plover Field but finally they headed off south, a family party of two adults and two juveniles by the looks of it. 

I thought the day couldn't get any better, but then I managed to relocate a knot that was reported yesterday, only my third sighting ever on the reserve. Other birds today included 32 oystercatchers, 29 ruff, 50 black-tailed godwits, ring-necked duck, three species of egret, plus the usual wildfowl and raptors. Not a bad day. 

Great northern diver, Scotman's Flash

 A juvenile great northern diver has been on Scotman's Flash at Wigan for the past two or three weeks and often shows well.

Mediterranean gull, Pennington Fash

Adult Mediterranean gull on rocks just off the car park at Pennington Flash this afternoon, also 63 pochard, 22 goldeneye and a single great white egret. I think I've managed to read the gulls ring from various other photos that I have, and I've submitted it to the BTO. I'll post the results here when I get them.