Hilbre Island

I had a quick walk over to Hilbre Island this morning with my two sons, the first time all three of us have been over together for a good few years. Highlight for me was the sight of two ravens playing on the wind at Middle Eye.

I didn't do a full count of the brent geese, but there were at least 300 pale-bellied birds as well as two dark-bellied.

Bewick's Swans, Frodsham Marsh

A family party of four Bewick's swans on Frodsham marsh today, off Lordship Lane, were my first for four years and brought my 2021 year list to a nice round 250 species. They've really declined over the past couple of decades, at one time they outnumbered whoopers at Martin Mere with 500 there as recently as 1997 and my record count was 818 in 1990. Even more impressive, when I visited Welney in Norfolk in 1990, there were 2000+ Bewick's swans. I doubt there are 2000 Bewick's in the whole of the UK these days. It's a real shame, they're such lovely petite swans.

The best place to view these birds is from the footbridge over the M56, accessed from Smithy Lane, Helsby.

Also today, 20 whooper swans and three marsh harriers.

Belted Kingfisher, River Darwen, Roach Bridge

Finally! Since I last saw the belted kingfisher at Redscar Wood on the River Ribble on 25th November, I've looked for it on eight subsequent occasions prior to today, three times at the original site, three times along the canal at Withnell Fold, and twice here on the River Darwen. I've drawn a blank on each of these occasions. I even called in here at Roach Bridge on Monday and left an hour before BirdGuides reported that it was just 1km upriver. 

For a while it looked like I might miss out today as well, the bird was seen this morning up to 11am but then flew high upriver before I arrived and was not seen again for three hours. Would it return? There seems to be no certainty with this bird and on past form it might have gone missing for another two weeks and then turned up at a completely different location. 

However eventually it did return and I felt that it was only fitting given all of the effort that I have put into relocating this bird that I should at least be rewarded with the excitement of finding it for myself when it reappeared today..... and when I did spot it, what a sight it was! A belted kingfisher flying down the river towards me with a large fish in it's bill, slate blue upperparts with a white belly and a dark band across it's chest. Totally unmistakable! It perched up for 30 seconds on an overhanging branch before flying again and calling, landing in a tree on the other side of the river. 

A couple of minutes later it was back again, this time perching on a dead branch in the middle of the river, where it proceeded to eat its fish before flying back to the cover of the tree.

I watched it on and off for the next 30 minutes or so until finally it flew back upriver and perched high in a dead tree about 0.5km away. It stayed here for a few minutes before flying down to the river and I lost it behind the vegetation. I stuck around for another half hour but the light was now going rapidly so I packed up and left. 

I saw it for longer and closer on the Ribble but it was against the light for long periods, and I was too concerned with getting photos to really appreciate the bird. Today I made an effort to try to spend more time watching it. Both were great experiences though.

The track to the field might not be as bad as the fabled (and over exaggerated) death slope on the Ribble, but it is now getting very muddy and slippy and it would be easy to end up on your backside. Wellingtons are definitely recommended. I can't rule out going again because when there is such a fabulous bird locally you can't see it too many times in my opinion. However the farmer has now introduced a £10 entry charge to access his field, which I don't mind paying once, but when you've already seen the bird twice it's not so great. So if I do go again, I might just view from the bridge which is where I would really like to see it and it's free!

Videos of the bird below...

Waders on the Ribble at Redscar Wood

I had decent couple of hours birding on the Ribble at Redscar Wood today, with a nice little array of birds. On one of the shingle banks there were three redshanks, two green sandpipers and a common sandpiper, the latter being surprisingly only my second ever in December. Two little grebes fished in the middle of the river and a kingfisher from the far bank, where there was also a grey wagtail. Overhead a couple of skeins of pink-foots flew past totaling about 150 birds. In the woods there was a good selection of birds calling including nuthatches and goldcrests.

Birding insanity in Lancashire

It's now just over three weeks since I saw Lancashire's belted kingfisher at my first attempt. I just turned up at Redscar wood on the banks of the Ribble and after a scramble down a slippy bank got onto the bird immediately and watched it for about the next hour as it perched in various trees and bushes and flew around calling. Fabulous views of a fabulous bird and a great experience. 

Twenty three days later and the slippy bank now seems the easy bit, the hard bit is the bird actually being present in the first place. I've tried to see it again on another six occasions and discounting an incredibly brief possible sighting of the bird on 7th December, I've failed every time.  Not that anybody else is seeing it, all three sightings recently on the Leeds / Liverpool canal have been by non-birders. However one of them took a photo of the bird and there is no doubt that it is the belted kingfisher.

So I just keep looking, I'd go again tomorrow if I could get away with it but Elaine already thinks I'm insane. I'll wait until she's distracted by work on Monday and slip away again for another search. I'm sure that when I do see it the experience will be so much the better for all of the pain I've endured recently.

Brief encounter with a yank at Banks

I spent another day trying to get a better view of the Richardson's cackling goose at Banks but there was no sign today. It's probably still in the area but so many geese are way out on the saltmarsh, well out of scope range even at 60x. Still, it was a good day with two short-eared owls, three merlin, four peregrine and two great white egrets, plus all of the usual waders and wildfowl. 

I must have walked several miles back and forth along the sea bank. It was a generally dull and at times murky day, which was part of the problem when searching for the cackler, but in the morning there was a little sunshine and during one such period I saw three golden plover flying towards me. They flew right over my head and then banked away and turned back over the marsh and far away. As they turned the sun caught their underwings and I was delighted to see that one of the birds clearly had a grey underwing and axillaries which contrasted nicely with the much whiter underwings of the European golden plover. It was either an American or Pacific golden plover, with the former much more likely and in fact there have been a couple of sightings on the Ribble earlier in the autumn. 

Unfortunately I was unable to get a decent photo of the bird. The photo above is the yank and the photo below is the European. Unfortunately I didn't manage to get the birds in the same photo, however both photos have been lightened to the same amount and you can clearly see how much the white stands out on the European bird.

Red-breasted merganser, Banks marsh

A drake Red-breasted merganser on one of the pools on the saltmarsh at Banks marsh this morning was a very unexpected visitor. Also today a pale-bellied brent goose with the pink-footed geese, plus two barnacle geese. I didn't see the cackling goose but it is still around.

A week at Banks Marsh

Photo: Richardson's cackling goose,
Banks Marsh.

I've spent much of the past week in between jobs at Banks marsh near Southport. It's always an awesome experience and this week has been especially so with stormy and wet low pressure weather systems sweeping in from the west. Sometimes it's been difficult enough to stand up let alone look at birds through the optics, while at other times it's been painful and tiring, battling forwards against strong winds and ferocious hail showers. The weather though is exhilarating and fits the scenery perfectly, vast landscapes and vast skyscapes, these are the kind of views to feed the soul, is there a wilder habitat anywhere in the UK?

The marsh is full of birds, wildfowl, waders, passerines and raptors. Huge flocks of wigeon and teal feed on the saltmarsh, where the commonest waders are curlew, redshank, dunlin, oystercatchers and lapwings, but there are also flocks of golden plover and when a high tide drives them in, knot and grey plover. Passerines include flocks of starlings, skylarks and meadow pipits.

These birds get little peace from a selection of raptors including merlin, peregrine, hen harrier and short-eared owl, and often the whole flock flies up and swirls around, the enigmatic whistles of the wigeon filling the air. 

There are thousands of pink-footed geese on the marsh but they are spread out over large distances and picking out anything different can be a challenge. This week with the flocks there have been Todd's Canada, snow goose and the star attraction, a Richardson's cackling goose, but none are easy to see. Today I spent five hours walking back and too along the sea wall, scanning the salt marsh on one side and the farmland on the other yet only at the end of the day did I eventually catch up with the cackler, and had no sighting at all of the other two rarities. 

Fortunately about half way between Crossens pumping station and Old Hollow Farm I met a birder who had just relocated the cackler and he got me onto it straight away. It was distant, the photo above was taken on 45x scope, 3x phone and then cropped, so goodness knows what that makes it. Probably about 200x magnification. The bird was over 1km distant and by the time I saw it at 14:45 the light was rapidly fading. Still, a great bird and one I hope to see a bit closer in the coming days. I've seen several Richardson's cackling geese over the years, but this bird has the best credentials of all to be a wild bird. I have seen wild cackling goose previously on Islay and at Caerlaverock, but these were all Ridgeway's cackling goose minima.

There are also about 300 Canada geese on the marsh but they are usually way out and the Todd's Canada and the cackling goose don't associate with them, they stick with the pink-foots. The Todd's is a very dark bird and slightly larger than the pinkies but smaller than the regular Canada's, whereas the cackler is paler and smaller than the pinks.

Caspian gull, Redcar Tarn

Tremendous views of a 3rd winter Caspian gull at Redcar tarn, Keighley this afternoon. 

precautions.tricky.sudden

Ah the modern world. Three words can pin you down to an exact location anywhere in the country.

precautions.tricky.sudden

Before I set out for Redscar woods on the Ribble today I thought it best to take the precaution of letting Elaine know where I was going. After all, it is a bit of a tricky slope to get down at the best of times and today I expected to be there alone following a run of six consecutive no-shows by the belted kingfisher. I didn't want to have an accident and end up lying on the banks of the Ribble for the next couple of days. So I looked on the what3words app and it gave me the three words above as being closest to my proposed destination at Tunbrook inlet. If I'd been allowed to chose my own three words to summarise the events of today, it probably would have been these three. Now all I had to do was explain to Elaine what action to take if I didn't come home. Just give the three words to the emergency services! Half an hour later I was on my way....

I arrived at precautions.tricky.sudden at 9am, to find the river at a borderline height of about 1.8m. Borderline because the bird has never shown when the river has been over 1.75m, apart from one very brief sighting on 27th November which was not reported on Birdguides. To make matters worse, Storm Barra was rapidly approaching from the west, the wind was getting up and it had started raining, albeit intermittently at first. Apart from the discomfort this caused, water levels were only likely to rise.

No sign of the belted kingfisher here but there was plenty to keep me entertained, little egrets, ducks and little grebes, plus a nice variety of woodland birds. Best of all an awesome peregrine suddenly appeared and repeatedly dived at a duck before flying away north over the wood.

After an hour or so I was getting cold so I decided to move location further down river. Apart from the advantage of getting the blood circulating again, it would allow me to view a different section of river, which seemed a good idea since I wasn't aware of anybody else looking for the bird today.

I made my way to the same location that I was at last Thursday which gave me a view down the river towards the weir near Brockholes. Almost a soon as I arrived at exact.guilty.dining I saw it but then it was gone, lost behind trees and vegetation as it flew up stream, back towards my previous location. It was all a bit too sudden, it took me by surprise as I was setting up my scope so it was a balancing act as I looked through my bins with one hand and tried to hold up the tripod with the other. It was clearly a largish bird, flying like a kingfisher, with white patches on it's wings and a white belly. Nothing else it could be but the view lasted about 0.56 seconds. Or was 0.57? Either way, it was too brief. I couldn't even tell how far it had flown. Was it worth going back to precautions.tricky.sudden or should I just stay here and wait? It was easier to choose the latter so I settled myself down and waited. I didn't see it again.

By noon Storm Barra was getting a little too close for comfort so I decided to head for home. It was pouring down and the wind was getting quite alarming. I reported the bird as a possible because of the brevity of the sighting. If I hadn't seen the bird 12 days ago I wouldn't have allowed it on to my list based on todays view, but I did see it 12 days ago and it looked good to me.

Redscar Wood, River Ribble

The usual viewing area for the belted kingfisher at Tunbrook inlet on the Ribble was a little crowded when I arrived this morning, it wasn't very comfortable and I couldn't see much of the river, so I climbed back up to the footpath at the top of the cliff and then walked along the river and through Red Scar Wood towards Brockholes. Eventually I dropped down and found a viewing position that allowed me to view a different part of the river. I didn't see the belted kingfisher, but then nobody did, but I did have an excellent few hours all alone watching the bird life on the river.

There were a couple of green sandpipers on the opposite bank as well as two or three little egrets. Kingfishers flew back and forth and there were several goosander and mallard. Woodland birds included nuthatch, great spotted woodpeckers and a few thrushes and tits. An altogether more relaxing experience with the outside chance of finding the star bird for myself.

Pale-bellied brent geese, Hilbre Island

Photo: Pale-bellied brent goose,
ringed in North Wales.

There's been record counts of pale-bellied brent geese at Hilbre this winter, with over 400 birds present. Today we counted 408 plus at least 3 dark-bellied brent. The flock includes at least one bird ringed in Arctic Canada, two from Iceland and one ringed in North Wales.

Pale-bellied brent are not that common in England, the majority of brent are dark-bellied from Arctic Russia which winter on the south and east coast. Pale-bellied brent breed in Greenland and winter in Ireland, but there is an overspill to Wales, western England and Scotland.

Photo: Dark-bellied brent goose.

Photo: Dark and pale-bellied brent geese.

Belted Kingfisher, River Ribble

The Ribble's near mythical belted kingfisher which has been just upriver of Brockholes, opposite Redscar Wood, since at least 8th November, finally gave itself up to a wider audience today.

Before today it was as elusive as a sighting of Father Christmas because despite extensive searches of the river by a dedicated band of experienced birders over a nearly three week period it's only been seen very briefly on one further occasion since the initial sighting. This is partly because large parts of the river are inaccessible, private or just downright dangerous in places, and there's even been stories about birders being injured in tough and difficult terrain when trying to get down to the river. 

Largely because of these issues there's been some uncertainty surrounding the bird, with the only photo available being of poor quality leading some commentators to suggest that it was actually a photograph of a great tit! It didn't look much like a great tit to me but neither could I be sure that there was a belted kingfisher in the photo. 

So when the bird was reported again this morning for the first time in 11 days I almost didn't bother going because I was so certain that I had no chance of seeing a belted kingfisher today, let alone surviving to tell the story. However thank goodness I did go, because this was certainly no great tit!

I parked at Preston Crematorium and then a short walk was followed by a scramble down a steep cliff to the banks of the river. It wasn't so much the steepness of the cliff that was the problem, it was the fact that it's a mud slide down to the river, and great care was required. 

The bird was on show about 200m down river when I arrived but after a few minutes it flew towards us and past us calling as it went before perching on top of a hawthorn bush on the other side of the river about 100m away. It stayed here for another 5 minutes or so, often displaying its crest before flying across the river to our side but frustratingly out of view.

Over the next 30 minutes it was seen well both in flight and perched until I decided to leave at about 14:30. I believe that it remained here until about 14:50 when it disappeared east along the river and was not seen again all day. If previous form is anything to go by that'll be the last sighting until about mid December. 

My first in the UK but I have seen them on both my trips to New York in 2009 & 2012. This brings my UK list to 438 and my North West list to 374. A great bird and well done to the original finder and also the locals who persevered with the search even when it seemed a lost cause. It's the fifth for the UK with the last "twitchable" bird in Staffordshire in 2005, though there was a single day bird on the Isles of Scilly in 2018.

Altcar Withens

There's currently a few thousand geese feeding on fields at Altcar Withens, just outside Formby. Two days ago the snow goose was with them, but I didn't see it yesterday or today. Amazing how a large white bird can go missing for long periods, especially when it's associating with the well watched Lancashire Pink-footed geese flocks. Prior to Sunday it hadn't been reported since 28th October! I'm pretty sure that it wasn't in the Rainford area during that period because I and others have watched that area extensively over the past few weeks so where's it been? And where's it gone now? If it was feeding here two days ago with all of these geese, you'd surely think that it was a reasonable bet that it would still be here?

Snow Bunting, Southport

Four immaculate snow bunting are on the shore at Southport at the moment, just north of the pier, showing very well.

Bearded Tits on the grit trays, Leighton Moss

Just for change from all of the goose action recently, Elaine and I headed up to Silverdale and did one of our favourite walks from the Leighton Moss saltmarsh car park to Crag Foot, through Grisedale Wood, down to Leighton Hall, across the public causeway at Leighton Moss, around the reserve, over Woodwell cliff to Gibraltar farm, around Jack Scout to Jenny Brown's Point and across the saltmarsh back to the car. I beautiful walk on a glorious day.

Todd's Canada goose, Rockcliffe Marsh, Cumbria

Another day spent at Rockcliffe Marsh watching the impressive barnacle goose flocks, and today I finally came up trumps and managed to find a few different birds. 

It just goes to show how vast this area is and how difficult viewing can be that despite spending nearly three full days scanning through these flocks, it was only in the last half hour before I left for home that I spotted that for which I had been searching, the Holy Grail, a cracking Todd's Canada goose. It was a moment of high elation I can tell you and goodness knows what anybody who saw me would have thought. A lone figure standing for hours near Esk Boat House in a slushy mixture of mud, water and cow sh#t, silent and motionless, unmoved in the teeth of a gale and battered by heavy showers, relentlessly watching, who suddenly leapt up, punched the air and shouted "a f*!king Todd's!" and then returned to his silent vigil. But that's exactly how it was.

What a stunning bird it was, it had everything including a long and ridiculously thin snake like neck. A classic Todd's and hands down bird of the trip this week.

Ross's x barnacle goose hybrid at Rockcliffe Marsh, Cumbria

Today I came across this remarkable looking hybrid goose on Rockcliffe Marsh on the English Solway, with 500 barnacle geese. It's similar in size and structure to barnacle goose but it has pink legs and bill, with a dark back and flanks and my initial impression was that the most likely parentage was either blue phase lesser snow goose x barnacle or Ross's goose x barnacle. My problem with the latter was that the dark flanks seem to indicate that one of the parents must be a blue phase bird, but blue phase Ross's goose is extremely rare to the extent that some authorities consider that they only exist because they are themselves likely Ross's x blue phase lesser snow goose hybrids.  Only 1 in 10,000 Ross's geese are blue.

However, having discussed the bird with @BirdHybrids my concerns about the dark flanks and back seem to be unfounded. They have commented "Ross's x barnacle hybrids typically (not always) show dark flanks. Presumably the genes for dark flanks are carried by all Ross's geese and are just not normally expressed in pure [white] birds - hybrids often show characters that aren't present on either parent.". Furthermore, Ross's x barnacle hybrids are often slightly larger than either Ross's or barnacle, as appears to be the case with this bird. This in itself is interesting and leads to further questions. For example, why would all Ross's geese carry the genes for dark flanks when blue Ross's geese are virtually unknown and may only be hybrids themselves?

It also begs the question, is this bird the result of a wild pairing or was one or both parents feral or escapes from a collection? The bird is unringed and with huge flocks of wild geese, around 15,000 across the wider marsh, but the barnacles wintering on Solway breed in Svalbard whereas Ross's goose and lesser snow goose are from North America. However there was also a North American vagrant Canada goose with the flock (Todd's).

It's not unknown for escaped geese to join up with wild flocks and often accompany them back to their breeding grounds, so perhaps at some point an escaped or feral Ross's goose has paired up with a wild barnacle? Personally I prefer to believe that both parents were wild, but we'll never know for sure. Whatever it's parentage and origin, it's a great looking bird and one which I was delighted to see. For further reading on blue Ross's goose from an American birder, I recommend this blog post (opens in a new window).

A very similar looking bird was photographed in Norfolk in 2009 and this bird or one very like it has been seen in the Caerlaverock area for several years.

Rockcliffe Marsh

Rockcliffe Marsh on the English Solway is a vast expanse of saltmarsh stretching almost as far as the eye can see, and most of it is private and inaccessible. However, if you can find a spot to park there are places where you can get a view over the marsh and the spectacle today was quite breathtaking, with an estimated 15,000 barnacle geese and another 1000 pink-foots. From a distance the barnacles stand out like freshly fallen hailstone on a bright day in early spring, but when they fly their numbers are so vast that they look almost like a murmuration of starlings and the noise is deafening.

Powfoot and Caerlaverock

The Solway Firth has long been one of my favourite winter birding areas yet despite being a regular visitor for over 40 years, it was only last year that I first visited the coastal village of Powfoot just a couple of miles outside Annan. I loved it so much that it was my first choice when I was looking for a holiday cottage to stay for a few nights this week. The cottage I booked is ideal, right on the estuary, I can birdwatch from my front room window and watch the thousands of waders as they come and go with the tide, whilst in the evening shortly after dusk I can stand outside and hear the evocative calls of geese as they fly over the village to roost. A very atmospheric place.

It's also only a 20 minute drive to Caerlaverock National Nature reserve which is the jewel in the crown of this area. Right in the heart of the NNR is Caerlaverock Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve which is always the place I head for first. However today the hides were very quiet and I didn't stay long because all of the action seemed to be in the surrounding area, plus I've really gone off hides especially in these post covid days. I want to be out in wide open spaces not cooped up in a hide with other birders who may or may not take Covid seriously.

However, on the approach road to the WWT centre I came across a flock of around 5000 barnacle and 300 pink-footed geese and in total I estimated about 7000 barnacles in the area. Then I parked just past Caerlaverock castle and walked along the coast for a couple of miles back towards the WWT centre. It was a tremendous experience with wide open views and the wild calls of waders, and best of all I saw two hen harriers, a female and a young male, plus a merlin and some twite.

Scoter at Musselburgh

I'm having a short winter break in south west Scotland this week, based at Powfoot near Annan, and this morning I drove up to Musselburgh near Edinburgh for a look at the sea ducks. About a week ago the white-winged scoter returned for it's third winter here and there are also three surf scoters with the flocks of velvet scoter. 

Whilst they're nowhere near as far out as the scoter on the Welsh coast, they are still distant and a scope is essential. Even then it's not easy with the birds constantly diving, chasing each other around and disappearing in the swell and any amount of wind shaking the tripod makes it virtually impossible. Despite the viewing difficulties and the similarities with velvet scoter, the white-winged scoter still stands out pretty well given a half decent view. It's not just the bill shape and colour and the more prominent white tick behind the eye, the white-winged scoter has a different jizz which is noticeable even at distance. It looks slightly larger, it's bull necked and it has a head profile more like an eider due to it's long swollen bill. It also sometimes swims in a different way with it's head held forward. It's a cracking bird and I was pleased to be able to pick it out for myself today and then get everybody else onto it.

I love birding in this area, quite apart from the scoter I must have seen 30 long-tailed ducks, mainly all drakes in spectacular plumage, as well as lots if Eider, mergansers and red-throated divers, plus waders and a small flock of twite.

Despite the poor quality of the photos the white-winged scoter clearly stands out, having a pink bill as opposed to the yellow bill of the velvets. Also the extent of colour in the bill is less than on the velvets, and even in the photo above you can see the different head profile. Velvet scoter has a more concave bill whereas the white-winged scoter has an eider like profile. In the photo above it's obviously the righthand bird. Is it my imagination or does the head colour of the American bird seem blacker than the velvets? This seems to be consistent across all of my photos but it's probably not much use in the field unless you it had close views in perfect weather, in which case the other identification features would render the head colour irrelevant!

White-tailed plover, Blacktoft RSPB

I know what your thinking, "He's back again! Is this guy obsessed with the white-tailed plover?". I do understand, but please bear with me. 

First off, I've got a job near Goole until at least the end of December and possibly for the rest of the winter so photos of the white-tailed plover are likely to keep appearing here. Blacktoft is just a 10 minute drive away from my hotel and it's either this or go back to my room.

But secondly and more importantly, when the bird first turned up at Blacktoft at the end of September it was in full moult and was just about the scruffiest individual I've ever seen, making even last years bearded vulture look well presented. It's a very different bird now and seems to be approaching full plumage, with a smart silvery grey breast and pinkish tones to its white underparts. Quite stunning in fact. Hopefully it will stay all winter.

If your memories of the bird are something like this then I recommend another visit. This was the plover on 2nd September, about a week after it was first seen. If ever proof was needed of why it's always worth a second (and third and fourth) look at a long staying bird then this is surely it. I reckon if you've only seen it like this then you've only got half a tick. To get the full tick you need to see it now.

Pink-footed geese, Bickerstaffe

Having decimated the fields at the north end of the Old Coach Road, the pink-footed goose flock in the Rainford area has now moved to fields behind the Sandpiper at Bickerstaffe, where today I estimated 5000 birds. Still nothing different with the flock unfortunately, but an exhilarating experience non-the-less.

Dairy Farm Road had five corn buntings and a few yellowhammers and skylarks, whilst at Moss Lane an adult peregrine mobbed a buzzard on a pylon.