White-winged black terns, Marton Mere

Two adult summer plumage white-winged black terns were at Marton Mere near Blackpool today. One of the birds is really stunning, the other a little less so. I'm not sure if it's a male / female thing, or perhaps one is a full adult, the other a second year, but both are really fabulous birds. This is the first time that I have seen more than a single white-winged black tern in the UK, though I did see a flock of 200 in Greece a many years ago.

I always struggle with photos of flying birds, especially terns, but fortunately these birds were following a repetitive feeding pattern so I tried manually focusing on the lilly pads and then just waited for them to come back. These were easily the best I achieved all afternoon, I'm happy with them. 

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The osprey saga continues

I was in Horrock's hide at 13:20 when an osprey appeared at the western end of Pennington flash. My obvious assumption was that it was the adult female which has been frequenting the flash since Tuesday, and in fact I'd gone back this afternoon precisely because I expected that bird to reappear mid-afternoon following a very early morning appearance today at 06:20. 

However, though the bird circled over the water a few times it clearly wasn't for staying and it drifted off over the main car park and east, but not before flying right over my head enabling me to fire off a few reasonable photos which clearly show that this osprey was in fact a 2nd calendar year bird and not the adult female.

It's just about conceivable that this is the same bird which roosted 4th-7th May, though if it is, where it's been for the past 10 days is a mystery. Perhaps it's more likely that this is the fifth osprey of the year at the flash and the fourth in the past two weeks!

What a mad year!

Note the damaged tail of the adult on the right and compare with the bird on the left. Also the barring on the underwing coverts of the lefthand bird compared to the pure white of the adult female. Another bizarre twist in the story of ospreys at the flash this year.

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Osprey again, fishing in East Bay

The osprey at Pennington Flash continues to perform well. Yesterday it was present from about 10am to 12:15pm, and today came in over the spit at 8:45am then headed to East Bay where it spent most of it's time with the occasional foray over to the western end always harassed by gulls. It dropped into the water on at least four occasions and on the first three came up empty handed. On the final occasion it came up with what looked like a bream and headed off west with the fish at 9:20am. Great to see such a sight just a 10 minute walk from home!

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Osprey on the way to Asda

I'd just got home from an early morning visit to the flash when I got a call from Bill at 9:15 informing me that there was an osprey over East Bay. Having had some decent views over the past week I didn't feel the need to rush back, but waited until I'd got my shopping list together and was ready to head to Asda which would take me past the entrance to the flash! 

I arrived back at the main car park at about 9:45 and saw the osprey through the trees even before I'd parked the car. I walked down to the shoreline and joined a couple of other birders who were watching it and stayed until about 10:25 when the bird flew right over our heads and was lost behind trees. I left then to do my shopping, but messages from John who arrived after I'd gone confirmed that the bird was still present up until at least 11:00 when it was seen to head towards Lightshaw.

This is clearly the same bird that was present on Tuesday, you can see the damage to the tail which is obvious in photos from both days. This bird is an adult and probably a female.

Further analysis of photos from last week confirm that it is a different bird from the two which were present between 4th - 7th. One of those birds was clearly a 1st summer while the other, which I didn't see, looks like an adult male and has damage to a primary feather which is not evident in the photos from this week. The bird which I saw on 24/04/2026 is a different bird again, so that's at least four ospreys at the flash so far this year, two of which have stayed for a couple of days or more, quite unprecedented.

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Temminck's stints, spoonbill and ruff at Marshside

May is the month for Temminck's stints, in fact in the UK I've never seen the species outside May. So today I decided to call in at Marshside since I was in the area, to catch up with two that have been in front of Nel's hide over the past few days.

They performed admirably, coming as close as 5m but unfortunately the light was always a little against them. Still, can't complain, these were probably the closest view that I have ever had. Now we just need one at Pennington Flash.

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Knot Martin Mere

On the Mere today, a summer plumage knot, only my fourth ever at Martin Mere, this was the second this year.

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Another day, another osprey at Pennington Flash

I nearly went to Martin Mere this afternoon to see the reported turnstones which I thought would be a new species at the Mere for me. On checking my database, it turns out that I've had several sightings over the years, including a flock of 20 in 2004 which I've somehow managed to forget about. So I decided to stay at Pennington Flash.....

At about 14:20 I was watching a 1st summer drake pintail and four dunlin on the spit from Horrock's hide when suddenly all of the gulls went up. I dashed outside and there was and osprey flying over East Bay. 

For about 30 minutes it was flying around East Bay and for a while it was even over the bay off the car park. Then it moved towards the sailing club so I also moved there. When I arrived it was still flying around the western end and I watched it for a few minutes, before it headed back to East Bay. Finally it returned to the sailing club for another 10 minutes before flying high and heading off west at about 15:50. A fabulous sight. Also at the sailing club, a ringed plover.

Comparing photos, I'm pretty confident that this is a different bird to the one that was roosting at the western end last week. Todays bird has a much more prominent breast band and looks like an adult to me, probably a female. Last week's bird I think was a first year bird. That's the third osprey I've seen at the flash so far this year and probably the fourth in total.

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Osprey at Pennington Flash

Early Monday morning and again yesterday, an osprey was found roosting in trees at the western end of the flash, so yesterday evening I went to Green Lane and waited to see if it would come in again to roost. Sure enough at 7:15pm it did. I watched as it approached from the direction of Lightshaw surrounded by it's entourage of lesser black-backed gulls, before circling around the western end and then appearing to land in trees near Mossley Hall, but out of view from Green Lane.

This morning I was back at Green Lane at 5:30am to see if the bird was still present. I was joined by a couple of other birders and at first we couldn't see the osprey in the half light. However, at about 6:30am it was picked up on top of a telegraph pole clearly eating a fish. It was hard to believe that it had been fishing before we found it, the calls of the gulls alone would surely have betrayed it's presence, so perhaps it was a fish from the night before.

After a short while it flew into trees at the side of the outflow and perched there in full view for at least another 90 minutes. I moved to Mossley Hall Farm and watched it from there.

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Dragonflies emerge at Bickershaw

The first dragonfly action of the year at Bickershaw Country Park today, with the highlight being a recently emerged broad-bodied chaser drying out next to its exuvia. 

It's hard to believe that this broad-bodied chaser has just emerged from the exuvia. The adult is considerably larger than it's larval exoskeleton. How on earth did the wings alone fit in there?

Also today lots of large-red damselflies including at least two colour forms of females, melanotum and fulvipes. Large-red damselfly is the 20th species of dragonfly / damselfly that I have recorded at the site in under 12 months. It's actually quite a common species at the site but we only started looking for dragonflies here in June last year so missed the flight period of large red damselfly.

The photo above shows the female form melanotum.

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Mediterranean gull x black-headed gull x black-headed gull hybrid pairing

It's starting to get confusing now, if it wasn't already! Two weeks ago I reported on a hybrid pairing of Mediterranean gull (thought to be the male) and black-headed gull on the Mere at Martin Mere. I said at the time that the Med gull was a 3rd calendar year bird because it had black markings on the primary tips. I also said that I'd never seen the resultant offspring of a hybrid pair so was looking forward to seeing the young of this pair. Wrong on both accounts it seems! The bird facing left with the black hood is not only a hybrid Med x black-headed gull, it's also not 3cy, I think it's an adult.

The first clue is in the photo above and I really should have noticed it the first time that I saw the bird. The bill is too slim, the wrong shape and the wrong colour for adult or near adult Med gull. Then there's the hood - I realise that this can be variable depending on how the bird is behaving, but the hood clearly does not extend as far down the nape as a typical Mediterranean gull. There are plenty of the latter about for comparison, at least 10 adults at Martin Mere at the moment, including a pure pair on the next island to this. They're like chalk and cheese!

Finally there is the wing pattern. It's almost adult black-headed gull, with the pale outer primaries. Far from being a 3cy Mediterranean gull, I think that this is actually an adult Med x black-headed gull hybrid. As it's now paired with an adult black-headed gull, the resultant offspring will be 2nd generation hybrids. That should be interesting....

Thanks to Graham Clarkson for pointing this out to me and Ian McKerchar for feedback on my photos.

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Grey Plover at the sailing club

A message from Phil had me dashing to Pennington Flash this evening to see a grey plover on the foreshore of the sailing club. It was a good job that I didn't hang around, he found it at 18:10, I was there for 18:30 and by 18:40 it had been flushed by a dog walker and flew off and was gone.

Grey plover is much scarcer than turnstone and Sanderling at the Flash, and this was a first here for me.

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Ruff at the Flash

A flock of five ruff on the spit today were my 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th individuals the flash. They all look like females to me, but only the bird in the photo above has bright orange legs, the rest had dull legs, and I did wonder if she was an adult with four offspring. She's certainly a smart looking bird, I love the dark speckling on the side of her breast which extends onto her flanks.

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Osprey, Pennington Flash

A very brief visit to Pennington Flash this morning to see a greenshank that was reported on the spit proved very productive! I was standing outside Horrock's hide watching the greenshank when the cries of the gulls alerted me to an osprey that was circling over the southern side of the flash. It was gaining height and ultimately flew south east which seemed a bit of an odd direction. This was my third osprey at the Flash, all of which have been spring birds.

Also today, two black-necked grebes still, redshank, and three common terns. Not a bad 15 minutes!

 

It's not necessary to learn the call of the osprey, just listen out for the irate cries of lesser black-backs as they mob it!

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Mediterranean x black-headed gull hybrid pairing

At Martin Mere today, several adult Mediterranean gulls in amongst the black-headed gull colony. When I started birding Med gulls were very much a scarcity but these days it seems that no black-headed gull colony worth it's salt is without a pair or two of these gorgeous white winged birds.

The two species are known to hybridise but I've never seen the resultant offspring. However, there is an apparent hybrid pairing on the Mere at the moment. The Mediterranean gull is sitting in the photo above and is a 3rd calendar year / 2nd summer bird (note the black chevrons in the wingtips). In the photo below the adult black-headed gull is sitting. I'm not even sure that the pair have eggs, but presumably they do and it will be interesting to see what the final outcome is.

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Black-necked grebes, Pennington Flash

About seven black-necked grebes have been on Pennington Flash for about 10 days now, occasionally going up to 10 birds, but sometimes just one or two are present. They usually stay close together in a tight knit flotilla but today these two birds stayed apart from the rest. I'm assuming they're a pair with the larger male on the left.

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♫♫ A nightingale sang in B... ♫♫

♫♫ Birkdale dunes ♫♫

News of a nightingale singing at Birkdale convinced me to leave Martin Mere early today and head for the Sefton coast. This is a rare species in Lancashire and the only one that I had previously seen in the county was way back in May 1984 at Ainsdale dunes. The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside (2008) considered it rarer than bluethroat in the county and since that book was published the species has undergone declines throughout the UK, so I'm not expecting many more opportunities in my lifetime to hear one locally.

I parked at the end of Weld road and walked south along the coast for 600m to a small group of birders staring at a clump of sea buckthorn. I had no expectations of seeing the bird given how elusive nightingales are, but just to hear it would be enough. When I arrived it hadn't been heard for 45 minutes and a rain shower didn't help, but eventually the sun came out and it started singing about 50m away. It then sang on and off for the next 30 minutes, gradually getting closer until it was little more than 8m in front of us, yet nobody had seen even the slightest movement. Like everybody else, I left without seeing the bird yet well content with the experience. After all, I told myself, the song is the main thing with a nightingale.

You can hear the bird singing in the videos below, but you'll need to turn up the volume. Unfortunately there is also a lot of wind and distant road noise. For some reason it's better if played on your mobile rather than computer. 

The interesting thing is, not only are my two records both from the Sefton coast, all other Lancashire records bar one are also from this area. According to The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside, the first county record was at Formby in 1965, followed by records from Fairhaven 1966, Freshfield 1967, Crossens 1980, Ainsdale 1982-1984 (returning bird) & Freshfield 1991. I don't have any information regarding accepted records since 2008, but I can't imagine that there have been very many. If anybody knows please let me know.

The following video is perhaps better quality and taken by Michael Binns, the finder of the bird. Thanks to Michael for allowing me to use this video.

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Great-tailed grackle, Speke Hall

To tick or not to tick, that is the question. And the answer is who really cares? 

When a North American grackle sp. was found at Speke Hall back in January, it was a bit of head scratcher in more ways than one. It was thought to be a great-tailed grackle and the first question was "how did it get here?". North American birds often get caught up in weather systems and carried across the Atlantic, but this is thought unlikely in the case of great-tailed grackle which is not a long distant migrant and so less prone to the vagaries of the planets weather systems. 

It's more generally assumed that Speke's proximity to the port of Liverpool gives us a big clue. It's not unknown for a bird to get onto a ship while it's in port and stay on board for the duration of the voyage, which may take it to a different country or even to a different continent. American sparrows which turn up in the UK are often thought to cross the Atlantic in this way, and other species such as house crow have expanded their range thanks to ship assistance. This is considered the most likely explanation as to how this bird got here.

This brings us to the second and more fundamental question raised by the appearance of this grackle - "exactly which species is it?". Common can be ruled out immediately because of it's size and much shorter tail, but boat-tailed and great-tailed are more difficult to separate. However, the Speke bird has been considered great-tailed almost from the moment of it's first appearance due to it's white eye ring and flat head. I don't think these features are totally conclusive though, hence the reason why it's been referred to as a 'probable' great-tailed grackle.  Fortunately the bird is a male and it stayed around into the spring and started singing. Analysis of it's song and calls has confirmed that it is indeed great-tailed grackle.

The next question is "Can I tick it?". The rules regarding what is accepted onto the British list are set by the British Ornithologist Union Records Committee (BOURC). Ship assistance alone does not prohibit admittance onto the British list but it must not be port to port and the bird must be capable of making the journey with no assistance. This seems unlikely in the case of great-tailed grackle so it is not currently on the British list.

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Ring ouzels Coal Pit Lane

I had a walk along Coal Pit Lane on the Horwich Moors today, looking for ring ouzels and managed to see 13 on the hillside near Green Nook Farm. Always an exciting bird to see, this was my largest ever flock.

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Bonaparte's gull, Myerscough Quarry

A first winter Bonaparte's gull has been just north of Preston at Myerscough Quarry, pit 2, for two weeks giving me the opportunity to visit the site for the first time. The bird was showing when I arrived with about 10 black-headed gulls and was feeding by picking invertebrates off the surface of the water.

This was my ninth Bonaparte's gull in the UK and my third in Lancashire following birds at Seaforth (1990) and Heysham (2013).

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Brent geese and black-necked grebes at Pennington Flash

I was just about to leave the house to head for the flash this morning when I got a message informing me that there were 11 brent geese in the middle. These would be a new species for me at the flash so I was keen to get there as soon as possible. Five minutes later I arrived at Green Lane near the sailing club, when I got another message informing me that there were also 10 black-necked grebes present!

I was getting my gear out of the car and spotted what had to be the brents flying away towards the east. I was gutted that they appeared to be leaving before I had a chance for a decent look but consoled myself that at least I had seen them. However, they circled back round and by the time I got to the viewing area they had landed again. I set up my scope and digiscoping equipment and started to take a video. The brents consisted of 10 pale-bellied birds and one dark-bellied. I still hadn't seen the black-necked grebes at this point because I was focusing solely on the geese, but I needn't have worried because as I was videoing the brents, the grebes swam behind them in a tight knit flotilla! An amazing sight! 

I watched the brents and grebes for about another 30 minutes but I knew that the geese would go soon because as usual on a Saturday morning the open water swimmers were starting to come out with their usual back up boats. For a while the geese dodged the swimmers but eventually at about 08:45 they'd had enough and flew up and high, before heading off east. 

The brents which winter in our area, i.e. Hilbre Island and the North Wales coast are pale-bellied birds with just the occasional dark-bellied and I guess this is where todays birds originate from, since the east coast birds are mainly dark-bellied with the exception of those on Lindisfarne and I'm not sure why those would head our way, especially at this time of year. I was on Hilbre last week when there were still 100+ pale-bellied and a few dark-bellied brents present. Interestingly the pale-bellied birds in our area breed in Greenland and do not generally go to the east coast of England, so it seems a bit of a strange movement for them to appear at Pennington Flash in the middle of April and even stranger for them to head off east.

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A spring morning on Hilbre

My intention had been to go to Martin Mere this morning, but news of a male Sardinian warbler caught and ringed on Hilbre Island first thing made me change my plans. It's always a longshot twitching a bird such as this, they often just disappear into dense vegetation following release, never to be seen again. On top of that, I reckon it takes me two hours from leaving home to arriving on the island. This morning was fairly typical, it took me one hour 15 minutes to battle my way through Liverpool in rush hour traffic to get to the car park in West Kirby, then I had to get my gear together, get my wellies on and walk across the sand and occasional rocks for 3.1km (2 miles) in order to get to the area where the bird had been released. By the time I got to the island, I'd already met a couple of other birders walking back who hadn't seen the bird and Birdguides was reporting no further sign since release. Oh well....

It was a truly glorious morning on Hilbre, I didn't see the Sardinian warbler but there were only two of us looking and the bird may well still be around. Hard to be too disappointed on a day like this, and birds I did see included several wheatears, willow warblers, grasshopper warbler, chiffchaffs, 110 pale-bellied brent geese, 4 eiders, a few common scoter, sandwich terns plus the usual waders. I don't go to Hilbre anywhere near enough and days like today make me think that I should!

Photo: Sardinian warbler, Cyprus March 2026.

The crazy thing is of course, when I was in Cyprus two weeks ago, Sardinian warblers were very numerous, in fact they were a bit of a pain when looking for other, rarer silvia warblers such as eastern orphean, eastern subalpine and Cyprus warbler. I've never seen one in the UK though.

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A morning on the Ormes

I was up early this morning and on the Great Orme for 6:30 to see the sunrise, then parked up near the limestone pavement and had a walk looking for migrants. 

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Brent geese at Red Wharf Bay

An impressive flock of at least 67 pale-bellied brent geese were still at Red Wharf Bay on Anglesey today.

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Homeward bound - almost.

Well that's it. The holiday was over and I was heading to the airport to hand back the hire car. I'd had a good day, I started birding at first light, 5.30am and hadn't stopped until now, 2.30pm, a full nine hours birding. The car was due back at 3pm so I reckoned I couldn't squeeze much more out of it. Wrong!

My phone beeped, I instinctively pulled the car over, read the message and turned the car around. I was heading back to Mandria! It was a 10 minute drive back and then I would need another 10 minutes to get to the airport when I left, so with just 30 minutes before the car was due back, that would leave me 10 minutes birding. I had to rely on the bird showing immediately and well, and also pray that it wouldn't be flushed by some over zealous birder or photographer. Or even a child. Oh well, in for penny.....

Swings on a childrens playground on the beachfront at Mandria. Nothing unusual about that you may think. Until you look closer and see that there's a long-eared owl sat in the hedge behind! It's on migration and had just flown in off the sea exhausted and landed in the first potential cover it could find. 

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Agia Varvara and Anarita Park

It's only as recently as last December that I first "discovered" Agia Varvara and even then although I was aware that there were three sets of pools, I only went to the middle set. This holiday, spurred on by advice and reports from other birders, I managed to get to the other two sets, the top pools and the motorway pools and they've been a revelation. 

Today the motorway pools had three species of crake, little x 2, spotted and best of all my first Baillon's of the trip. Very similar to little crake, there are subtle differences that enable us to tell the two species apart. Most obvious is the streaking on the flanks of Baillon's, similar to water rail, which little crake lacks. Baillon's also has better marked upperparts with lots of black and white speckling which again little crake lacks. Finally something that I have never been able to see, little crake has a small red mark at the base of the lower mandible. These crakes are smaller than starlings, they're generally pretty shy and even when they do show well they're often moving quickly either feeding or heading for cover which usually consists of a reedbed. Seeing a tiny red dot on the base of the lower mandible is just beyond me. I suppose if you get a decent photo it might be visible, but not with my camera! I'll just rely on seeing the streaky flanks!

Baillon's crake.

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Kourion Stadium

I decided to spend most of my last full day in Cyprus at Kourion stadium near Episokpi. It's just a wonderful place, especially at this time of year with many colourful flowers and some great birds hopping around on the ruins, including Cretzschmar's buntings, eastern black-eared wheatear and Cyprus wheatear.

Cretzschmar's buntings are just fabulous birds, the combination of the grey head with a white eye ring and the red /brown of the wings and body just works so well!

This annoyed little guy is a singing male Cyprus wheatear. Some of my best views of this species have been at the stadium.

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