Old Coach Road, Rainford

A male marsh harrier was at the back of the sprout field on Clare's Moss this morning, spending most of it's time over Simonswood Moss, but occasionally coming into St Helens airspace. Also, little egret with cattle at Brown Birch farm, male Stonechat on the fence near the prefabs, 500 pink-footed geese on the ground at the junction with Dairy Farm Road and 3 corn buntings & grey partridge Dairy Farm Road.

Dairy Farm Road, Rainford

It's been a really good winter in and around St Helens this year, and today two of the star birds performed brilliantly at Dairy Farm Road. First off we saw the female hen harrier quartering the sunflower field to the south of the road, and a few minutes later a barn owl appeared over the same field.

At least 300 pink-footed geese are in the area plus a couple of corn buntings.

Ring-necked duck, Carr Mill Dam

The St Helens ring-necked duck finally made it to Carr Mill Dam today and showed well at the northern end from Nineteen arches. Pity my camera was on the wrong setting.....

So after initially being found at Taylor Park, it's now also visited Eccleston Mere, Victoria Park and Carr Mill Dam. Where to next?

Stodday

I was surprised to come across four cattle egrets in fields alongside the coastal footpath on the River Lune today. I visit this area a lot but these are the first I've seen here. Little egrets were in double figures and there's a been a noticeable build up of curlews, spread across the saltmarsh and fields.

Satellite male ruff, Martin Mere

I was in the area today so called in at Martin Mere for a brief visit. Right in front of the Discovery hide was this impressive "satellite" male ruff. Also today at least one Siberian chiffchaff still at the sewage works, adult Mediterranean gull, great white egret, two avocets on the mere, barn owl and at least five marsh harriers.

These satellite males are interesting birds. As most birders know, (though not everybody so hence the explanation here), male ruff in breeding plumage have spectacular ruffs like Elizabethan gentlemen which is what gives them their name. Males take part in what's known as a leck where they battle to impress the females. It's similar to rutting stags.

The ruffs come in a variety of colours but birds with white ruffs are known as satellite males. They're not usually very successful when it comes to breeding except that they sometimes hang around the edge of the leck and when a female shows interest in mating with a dominant male, the satellites take their opportunity by getting in quick while the dominant male is still at the leck, mating with the female and then running away!  🤦‍♂️

I don't know if the satellites remain satellites for all of their life or if they can become dominant males themselves. The bird in the photo is not yet in full breeding plumage.

Hen harrier, Rainford

A female hen harrier has been hanging around the Rainford mosslands since at least Christmas, but it can be hard to catch up with, ranging from New Cut lane near the A580 all the way north to Dairy Farm road. To date I've seen it four times, the first three were from the Old Coach road on Clare's Moss but today I finally caught up with it at Dairy Farm road.

Shore Lark, Oglet

At the third attempt today we finally caught up with the overwintering shore lark at Oglet shore. It took a while to find even the flock of 100 skylarks that it was with, but eventually we found it and it showed pretty well, despite what the photo might tell you!

It was the perfect day for looking for the shore lark, great light and no wind.

Kumlien's gull, Widnes

The Mersey's cracking Kumlien's gull is back for it's third winter and is now an adult.  Today it was again on the roof of WSR recycling in Widnes. It's quite a subtle Kumlien's and there has been some confusion because BirdGuides persisted in putting it out as a 3rd winter bird, which it clearly isn't. Unfortunately in the absence of a 3rd winter Kumlien's, some observers have seen this bird and called it an adult Iceland due to it's less than classic Kumlien's features. If you see what I mean 😆🤦‍♂️

Orchids on the Aphrodites Hills trail

We found a beautiful walk that we'd never been on before on the Aphrodites Hills trail above the Aphrodites Hills resort near Kouklia. There weren't a lot of birds about but I was delighted to find a couple of species of orchid in flower including this one, which I think is Ophrys flavomarginata. It's one of several members of a group of orchids from the eastern Mediterranean which fall under the umbrella name Ophrys umbilicata, also known as Mount Carmel orchid. They're all very similar but as it's name suggests, Ophrys flavomarginata has a yellow margin to the lip which is easily seen in these photos.

Mandria

Photo: Anatolian chiffchaff P.c. brevirostris
Mandria, Cyprus.

We unexpectedly ended up spending the second week of the holiday in an apartment in Mandria, which was great because it's one of the best birding sites in the region and it gave me the opportunity to really explore the place. 

There were hundreds of corn buntings, larks, pipits, finches, sparrows, serins and woodpigeons, plus many wagtails, zitting cisticolas, stonechats and chiffchaffs. There were at least four singing black francolins.

Throughout the holiday I kept a list of all of the chiffchaffs that I could identify to race from their calls. In the end I heard at least 259 'peeps' and only two 'huweets', the 'peeps' being brevirostris and the 'huweets' either collybita or abeitinus. Only a small study but clearly the overwhelming majority of chiffchaffs in Cyprus at this time of year are brevirostris. 

Part of a flock of Spanish sparrows.