Snow bunting, New Brighton

A windy day on the North Wirral coast but it was nice to catch up with the four snow bunting that have been there this winter.

Three Siberian chiffchaffs, Martin Mere

I had an early start this morning and headed for Martin Mere again hoping for more views of the Siberian chiffchaffs P.c.tristis that have been present. As soon as I arrived at the viewing area near the sewage works I heard and then saw a tristis and with it was a more typical collybita chiffchaff. 

Yesterday I'd read a submitted description of a tristis from Northumberland which stated that the bird had responded well to playback (i.e. a recording of a tristis call) but that a nearby collybita had ignored it. I'm not really a big fan of using playback but given that Siberian chiffchaffs are certainly not breeding at Martin Mere, especially at the end of January, there didn't seem too much harm in trying, at least it would help confirm the identification.

The tristis immediately responded and came towards me but the collybita ignored the call and continued on it's way down the hedge line. The perfect result! It got better though, because almost immediately a second tristis appeared and joined the first. They were both calling to each other so I no longer needed the playback and instead just watched and photographed them. Suddenly I realised that there was another bird calling behind me and this flew over me and joined the other two. Now I had three Siberian chiffchaffs calling excitedly all around me, coming as close as 3m and allowing me to fire off a few close range photos. 

Fortunately this was one of the brightest periods of the day with the sun hidden behind just the flimsiest of cloud cover, and the birds certainly seemed to respond to the increased brightness and warmth. They just stayed near me for about 10 minutes calling and feeding, and at no time during this period did I see the collybita return.

Now that I had three tristis at close range it was interesting to see the subtle differences. I'm not sure that I managed to capture all three in the photographs, but certainly I have two. One of them (the third bird to arrive today), has a distinctive mark on the right hand side of its face.

Another look at the Martin Mere Sibes

On Monday I called in at Martin Mere to look for the Siberian chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis  that has been reported at the sewage works. I didn't have a lot of time but managed to locate not only the original bird but also a second Siberian chiffchaff candidate. Then when I got home I did my usual trick of researching the identification of the species and realised that there were at least a couple of features that I hadn't noticed. Doh! One of these days I'll research the id before I go! Also, in my photos the bird appeared to show a slight yellow hue which didn't look quite right, so I wanted another look in the field and perhaps hear it call again.

So with a free morning today I headed back to Martin Mere to try to fill in the gaps in my identification. I managed to see one bird quite well for a period of about five minutes during a four hour wait, though I can't say if this is the original bird or the second bird. 

A couple of Sibes at Martin Mere

I went to Martin Mere today hoping to see a Siberian chiffchaff P.c.tristis at the nearby sewage works but ended up seeing two birds, plus a regular British bird P.c.collybita. For a more complete write up of these birds see the next post from Martin Mere on the 25th.

It was a very enjoyable visit to Martin Mere with a brambling at Janet Kear hide and at least four marsh harriers.

Male brambling at the Janet Kear hide.

Drake pintail.

Alexandra Park, Oldham

There's been a magnificent adult Caspian gull at Alexandra Park in Oldham over the past few days so I decided to call in for a look. 

I find it very uncomfortable birding in these types of places with lots of the general public hanging around and families feeding the ducks. I never like walking around with binoculars and a camera and I wouldn't dream of taking my telescope, that's just a non-starter. 

Anyway, I'd spent an uncomfortable hour and a half looking very suspicious with no sign of the gull when suddenly I saw a likely contender flying over one of the lakes. It circled around allowing me to confirm the identification before heading off over the trees to the south west and was lost to view. It repeated this about three more times over the next half hour before finally landing on the lake. Unfortunately it only stayed there for a minute before flying off and I didn't see it again despite waiting for another two hours.

It's a beautiful bird and well worth the effort. Pity it didn't stay longer.

Todd's Canada Goose, Banks Marsh (again)

Another great walk at Banks Marsh with lots of interest. A male hen harrier hunted the extreme north eastern end of the marsh close to the southern most bank of Hesketh Out Marsh, and at least two marsh harriers and an adult peregrine were in the same area. There are still thousands of wigeon on the marsh and they are often disturbed by marauding great black back gulls, while goosander and red-breasted merganser were less expected. With high tide just after midday waders were well represented with several grey plover and lots of knot and dunlin as well as the usual redshank and lapwings. A flock of about 30 twite was up and down the bank.

Two or three thousand geese are still at Banks but most are out of view through a combination of extreme distance and tall vegetation. I did manage to once again pick out the dark Todd's Canada goose but again at long distance. Fortunately though it does stand out as significantly darker than the pink-feet it associates with and even when it has it's back to me I can pick it out. In the photos on this post you can see that it is smaller and much darker than the nearby feral Canada's.

I travelled to Banks via Plex Moss and Southport where there were hundreds of geese visible from Marine drive but I couldn't pick out anything unusual. Many more were hidden though in the long grass of the outer marsh. I only knew that they were there because every now and then they would fly up briefly, but then drop down again out of view.

The Todd's Canada goose (second bird from the left) doesn't really associate with the feral Canada's but there are hundreds of the latter on the saltmarsh and obviously their paths cross every now and then. When they do the differences are obvious, the Todd's is smaller, darker (especially on the breast) and shorter necked, but also the white face is not so white, it's more dusky white.

Water Pipit, Daisy Hill

A water pipit at Daisy Hill sewage works, Westhoughton today was a returning bird from last winter which I didn't see so it was nice to catch up with it at last. It showed pretty well, feeding on the filter beds with about 12 meadow pipits, two grey wagtails and a couple of pied wagtails. 

Sewage works are always interesting places to watch birds such as pipits. They feed on the ground but constantly need to keep looking around because the perforated pipes of the filter bed are always moving at a slow, steady pace towards them, pouring water onto the bed like a moving waterfall. If the pipits aren't careful they could get a soaking so every few seconds they need to fly up and over the pipe or sometimes land on it. When they do land on it occasionally they stay on for a few laps having a preen or just looking around. It's quite comical to watch really.

Snow Goose and Snow Bunting

This morning the snow goose was on Downholland moss with about 1000 pink-footed geese and later flew to Plex Moss.

The snow bunting flock just north of Southport pier has now increased to six birds.

 

Chasing geese on the Sefton coast

The Richardson's cackling goose which was found on Banks Marsh by Stuart Darbyshire just over two months ago, could so far best be described as either elusive or distant. What a surprise then that it should turn up today on the saltmarsh at Marshside, 200m south west of the RSPB car park near the old sand plant, and show at a distance of little over 100m.

It rounded off a fabulous day of goose watching on the Sefton coast.

What a stunner this bird is! Somebody said to me that it was a good job that it was with pink-feet so that you could see how small the bird is because otherwise you might mistake it for a Canada goose! I can't agree with that, it's nothing like a Canada goose. Short necked, petite and with a tiny bill, it's just a beautiful bird, the highlight of this winters goosing for me.

When it first turned up in December I did wonder if it might be the bird from early 2021 which started out at Longton Marsh and then moved to Lightshaw Flash, however it's clearly not that bird, the white face is a different shape and it's paler breasted. It's probably a good job that it isn't that bird given that it ultimately ended up on the car park at Pennington Flash, albeit only for one day! This bird however has far better credentials and is more than likely a wild bird. For a comparison with the Longton marsh / Lightshaw / Pennington Flash bird click here (opens in a new window).  

Black Grouse lek

It was a cold and frosty morning with not a breath of wind and since I was in the area I thought that I would take a slight detour and visit a black grouse lek in North Wales. I arrived about 20 minutes before sunrise and almost immediately saw grouse at the lek site. I watched them from the car for the next 30 minutes or so and counted at least 15 males.

I love watching these leks, the air is full of hissing and cooing noises and the birds run around the lek site chasing other males. There's private battles going on everywhere until eventually for some reason not obvious to me one will turn tail and run with it's opponent in hot pursuit. That's not the end of it though, one or both birds often spot other birds and join battle with them. I don't know how the winners are determined, but presumably it's obvious to the usually unseen females.

Glossy Ibis, Cheadle Hulme

This spectacular immature glossy ibis was in a field at Cheadle Hulme.

Caspian Gull, Redgate recycling centre

Great though it is to see a Caspian gull at long range in the roost at Pennington Flash in the last few minutes of daylight, it's quite refreshing to visit a recycling centre and see one well in bright sunlight for prolonged periods. I can understand that birding at a tip might not be everybody's cup of tea but I think that it's worth spending some time watching these birds at close range so that when I do see one come into the roost I'm confident about what I'm looking at. 

The 1st winter bird currently at Redgate recycling centre in Gorton, Manchester is a really magnificent bird, with a gleaming white head, distinctive dark neck collar, long legs, classic pear shaped head and long black bill. Quite unmistakable. 

At the tip it's also possible to observe the birds behaviour. Caspian gulls are very aggressive towards other gulls and adopt this diagnostic "albatross-posture" when threatening them and long calling. Herring gull never does this, that species always calls with it's wings closed. 

What a bird, classic long legs, pear shaped head and long black bill.

Todd's Canada Goose, Banks Marsh

Sometimes when a bird is described as "distant" I think, yeah, what they really mean is they can't get frame filling photos, but it's still going to be a decent scope view. Very often this holds true, but when we talk about "distant" at Banks Marsh, believe me, we mean "distant".  In places the geese can be nearly 3km distant, though usually most are between 1 - 1.5km. They're often also feeding in amongst long grass so that the best you can  hope for is a view of their heads when they stand alert as some perceived danger approaches. Add to that the difficulties that the weather can present and the relative lack of observer coverage on week days and it's little wonder that birds such as the Todd's Canada and Richardson's cackling goose can go missing for a couple of weeks. Today I spent from 9:15 to 14:00 at Banks and in that time I was the only birder north of Old Hollow farm.

 
However, I did manage to find the Todd's Canada goose with a couple of thousand pink-foots during one of my excursions south of Old Hollow. The bird was with about 1000 pink-feet at a distance of about 1.2km (about three quarters of a mile). Fortunately it's a really distinctive bird, unmistakable being very dark and nothing like the feral Canada's. It's also worth noting that it never associates with the other Canadas, it's always with the pink-footed geese. Also with the flock about 12 barnacle geese. 

1st winter Caspian Gull, Pennington Flash

A cracking 1st winter Caspian gull came into the roost again at Pennington Flash this evening following it's first appearance yesterday. I love this plumage, it's really  distinctive.

Lindisfarne

The three people who most influenced my life long passion for wildlife were my Dad, Peter Scott and Richard Perry. My Dad of course started it all when I was little more than a toddler, but not by buying me a pair of binoculars because actually he didn't, we shared binoculars until I was about 16. No, it was more to do with the way in which he loved wildlife that influenced me.  He wasn't really interested in seeing any one species, it was the overall spectacle that he enjoyed. He could quite happily walk out on a saltmarsh without binoculars because it was the wild, wide open spaces that he loved, with skeins of geese flying over as curlew and redshank called all around and wigeon flew up whistling as a harrier quartered the marsh. He also liked to experience all of this alone, feeling that he couldn't connect properly if he was distracted by others. Needless to say he didn't do twitches or bird watching groups, he'd rather be out on the marsh all day with not another person in sight.

Peter Scott was probably the nearest my Dad had to a hero. They'd both served in the second World War in the navy on MTB's (Motor Torpedo Boats) and Peter Scott's paintings perfectly captured the landscape view that my Dad had of nature, with the emphasis very much on evocative scenes rather than the individual bird. To my Dad he was a kindred spirit and in my youth Peter Scott's books were on the bookshelf and his paintings on the wall and they heavily influenced my view of wildlife.

At some point in my mid-teens my Dad gave me a copy of "At the turn of the tide" by Richard Perry a highly evocative book about coastal and in particular saltmarsh birds, and this book reinforced my love of wild places. The close proximity of Martin Mere allowed me to see many of these species close up and the nearby Ribble and Dee estuaries allowed me to experience the wild landscapes that my Dad loved so much. This was all neatly tied together by the fact that Peter Scott was head of the Wildfowl Trust, the organisation which owned and managed Martin Mere. I was a member of the Wildfowl Trust many years before I joined the RSPB.

Little wonder then that I grew up loving wildfowl and waders in wide open places and even though I turned out a slightly more sociable creature than my Dad, still I prefer to be alone and if I do go on twitches I tend to pick and choose depending on where the place is.

It was another of Richard Perry's books that first led me to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in the early 1980s. "A Naturalist on Lindisfarne" was published in 1946 and is an account of the birds that he saw during his time on the island in the 1930s and early 1940s.

The pale-bellied brent geese which winter in Ireland and western parts of the UK including Hilbre and Anglesey, breed in Arctic Canada. On the south and east coast of the UK the wintering flocks of brent geese are dark-bellied birds from Arctic Russia. The birds which winter on Lindisfarne are pale-bellied birds from a third population which breeds on Svalbard (formerly Spitzbergen). Lindisfarne is in fact the only regular wintering place in the UK for this population of brent geese. 

According to Ian Kerr in his book "The Birds of Holy Island", in the nineteenth century the wintering flock of brents on Lindisfarne was predominantly pale-bellied and usually numbered around 6000 birds. However, by Perry's time in the first half of the 20th century this had changed due to hunting on their breeding grounds which had caused the pale-bellied birds to decline and the brents on Lindisfarne, were now almost exclusively of the dark-bellied race, numbering 2-3000 birds. Since the 1950s a further change has taken place and following a recovery of the Svalbard population, the majority of brents currently wintering at Lindisfarne are again of the pale-bellied race and typically number around 3000 birds. Dark-bellied birds now only occur in very small numbers. 

Why the dark-bellied race should apparently increase and then decline almost in tandem with the fortunes of the pale-bellied birds I'm not sure. It would almost seem like the pale-bellied birds were out competing them, but it may just be a coincidence. Whatever the reason, these geese were the main reason why I wanted to visit Holy Island today.

In total I saw about 1500 brents today and they're just a wonderful sight and sound. Their enigmatic "r'rot, r'rot, r'rot" calls are the background music to a visit to any east coast saltmarsh. I could watch these birds all day today and tomorrow, and I can well understand why my Dad wanted to be alone in these wild places.

Eastfield and Fisherrow

Eastfield is little more than 1km from my apartment for the week at Fisherrow harbour and I spent the day birding here. Nothing new to report but more great views of seabirds, ducks and waders.

I started off just after sunrise at the harbour. Lots of red skies in the early daylight, beautiful to see but also a precursor of a cold weather system moving in from the west bringing with it the threat of snow to the west of Scotland. No snow here on the east coast today but after the calm and gentle start the wind picked up and it was bitterly cold.

Fisherrow to Gullane Point, East Lothian

Another great day in East Lothian, spent mainly at Fisherrow and Musselburgh, but also including a short dash to Gullane Point to see three drake (two adult) surf scoters. Four species of scoter seen today including the American white-winged scoter which has been a bit hit and miss recently. Also at least 40 drake long-tailed ducks, two Slavonian grebes, red-throated diver plus eiders and variety of waders. An adult Mediterranean gull was surprisingly a Scottish tick for me!

The white-winged scoter has been distant recently but it's still identifiable given good light and no more than a gentle breeze. It's one of those birds which when you're looking for it seems almost impossible at distance, you'd think it's only subtly different to velvet, yet when you see it it stands out as being obviously different. It has a different jizz, it often holds it's head forward unlike velvet and it's more bull necked. It's head profile is more like an eider whereas velvet has a concave bill, it's blacker than velvet, with a pink bill not orange, with much less colour on the bill and a much more distinct white tick behind the eye. Imagine how easy it is to pick out a drake surf scoter in good light, likewise that white tick really stands out on a white-winged scoter, but you need good light. If it's dull and windy it's a struggle unless it's closer in.

Goldeneye, Musselburgh

It was a beautiful day in East Lothian today and one of the greatest pleasures was to watch goldeneye displaying on the river Esk at high tide.

Taiga bean geese, Slamannan Plateau

Both species of bean geese are pretty scarce visitors to the UK and before today I'd only ever seen taiga bean geese singularly in amongst flocks of pink-foots on the Lancashire mosslands. However just south of Falkirk is the Slamannan plateau, an upland area of improved grassland, juncus pasture and bogs, rising to a height of around 170m. This area holds over 50% of the UK population of taiga bean geese, around 200 birds.

I called in here in November but failed to see any bean geese, however today was a different story. First stop  was on the B803, Bank street just before the Primary school at the village of Slamannan. It's a nice raised up spot and gives great views over the fields below. Straight away I spotted a flock of 18 taiga beans and a little closer 10 whooper swans. Then I took the minor road west, about a mile north of Slamannan and came across a second flock of around 59 taiga's. 

There are also at least 200 pink-footed geese in the area, but apart from a couple of individuals with the larger of the two bean goose flocks, they didn't mix today, which I was quite pleased about, because it was nice just to experience a more or less pure flock of beans.

Ring-billed Gull, Strathclyde Loch, Glasgow

The long staying ring-billed gull is back for another winter at Strathclyde Loch and as always it makes for a good pit stop on the way north. Today it was off the first car park just before the sailing club and showed very well although the the light was very harsh.