Ynys-hir

There can't be many more beautiful RSPB reserves than Ynys-hir. Plenty of pied flycatchers today, but no redstarts or wood warblers so far. A really beautiful day to be in mid Wales.

 

A surprising highlight for me was a very dark, square headed & presumably feral cackling goose today, from Ynys feurig hide. I'm thinking Taverner's B. h. taverneri.

I saw about five pied flycatchers today.

Black-winged stilt, Marshside

It might have been comfortably my worst ever view of a black-winged stilt in the UK, but playing by my rules the bird at Marshside today was a Merseyside tick bringing my total to 277. Even more impressive was this stunning Russian white-front, and another Todd's Canada goose, the third on the Ribble this year. A horrible day in the north easterly wind though.

 

Scaup, Pennington Flash

There was a cracking drake scaup showing well at fairly close range off Horrock's hide at the flash this afternoon.

Channel wagtail, Dairy Farm Road, Rainford

Last year there was a channel type wagtail in fields adjacent to Dairy Farm Road. I say "channel type" because it wasn't a classic, having yellowy / green ear coverts. I didn't see that bird but yesterday it was seen again along the same stretch of Dairy Farm Road so I decided to call in for a look today.

Since channel wagtail is a yellow x blue-headed hybrid then I suppose that any combination of their genes constitutes a channel wagtail. In this case it may be a second or third generation hybrid, in other words perhaps one of its grandparents was a blue-headed wagtail but the blue-headed genes have been watered down further by it's parents being channel x yellow.

Yorkshire Moors

It was one of those surveys this morning when it felt like I should be paying them rather than the other way round. 

We arrived at our destination in the half light of dawn and the first bird of the day was a cuckoo calling distantly on site, and a couple of willow warblers were singing in a coppice. 

I set off on my route and walked past a small lake where four whimbrel went up calling and headed off east. 

The air was full of the calls of red grouse and curlew, but also greylag geese, of which there seemed to be a large population on the moor, with at least 40 birds present and at least four pairs with tiny chicks. 

Suddenly I caught sight of a barn owl hunting over the moor and heading towards me. It was an unusually pale bird, almost completely white except for some small tan patches on its wings. I watched as it flew towards me at quite close range.

In the same area a short-eared owl appeared and hunted for a few minutes before landing on a post and keeping a watchful eye on me.

On a nearby quarry lake with four teal, two pairs of shelduck, little grebes and tufted ducks, a little ringed plover displayed.

Black terns and little gulls at Pennington Flash

An exceptional day today at Pennington Flash today started with news of two black terns and four common terns. 500+sand martins were all over the flash and mid morning I heard a whimbrel calling and then saw it as it circled around the spit three times before flying away north. 

This afternoon two little gulls were found off the boat club, where there was also a drake mandarin. A little egret flew from the heronry and landed out of view behind the spit and a common sandpiper landed on the side of the ruck.

An early Black Tern at Carr Mill Dam

An incredibly early summer plumage black tern at Carr Mill Dam today raised the excitement levels a little. It was of particular interest because it is apparently the first in the UK this year and currently the only bird in the country, the winds have been completely wrong to produce black tern and it is very possibly the earliest ever Lancashire record. 

We discussed the possibility of it being an adult American black tern and in certain light if you tried hard you could see a pale leading edge to the wing and the underwing looked particularly pale, almost white. Unfortunately though the pale leading edge didn't go far enough around the wing, it needs to go past the carple joint for American, and most of the time the underwing looked grey rather than white. The clincher though was the body, which was grey rather than jet black which is a requirement of the American bird.

It was first found on Thursday (7th April).

Little Gulls

Two adult little gulls and two house martins with 100+ sand martins were the highlight from today at Pennington Flash.

Mandarin at the flash

No sign of the red-necked grebe this morning but still plenty to see at the flash. A pair of common scoter spent the day in the middle along with four wigeon, meanwhile nine black-tailed godwits and the drake garganey were from Horrocks hide. The highlight for me though was this drake mandarin, a new species at the flash for me, which was initially off the boat club but later I found it showing very well at Plank Lane marina.

Red-necked Grebe and Whooper swans, Pennington Flash

This stunning red-necked grebe was the headliner in a spectacular week at Pennington Flash. The bird was found yesterday evening at about 6:45pm and remained throughout today. I nipped out yesterday and saw the bird in half light from the ruck but returned the today for better views and spent most of the day watching it. At no time did I see the bird dive and the only feeding actions I saw involved flycatching and surface feeding, which is actually not surprising since BWP says that the species eats mainly invertebrates, especially aquatic and terrestrial insects and their larvae, and to a lesser extent fish. This image and the video below were taken from Mossley Hall farm when the bird made a rare excursion into west bay for a sleep.

The video shows the red-necked grebe flycatching.

The grebe also raised it's feathers when a female goldeneye came close, which I believe is threat display, which apparently occurs during halts on migration as well as in breeding area, by both sexes but especially males.