Like London buses, Yellow-browed warbler at Houghton Green Pool

A week ago I bemoaned the fact that I never have any luck with yellow-browed warblers, I think the words I used were "they avoid me or I'm doing it wrong". In the space of the past five days I've now seen a total of six yellow-broweds, two of which I've found for myself and both were first records for the sites involved! Just goes to show, perseverance pays off.

This morning I walked down the tall hedge towards Cloverdell and found a long-tailed tit flock around the sycamores next to the buildings. Almost immediately I noticed a small warbler with the flock and I suspected it might be yellow-browed, but it took me a while to get a good look at it to confirm the identification.

For such a reputably vocal species, both birds I have found recently called very little. Certainly the Pennington Flash bird did call at first, in fact that's how I located it, but most of that afternoon it didn't call. Likewise todays bird didn't call once in the two hours or so that I was within earshot. The flock moved between the hedge and the willow scrub around the pool, and the easiest way to keep up with the warbler was actually to listen for the calls of long-tailed tits. They seemed to roam quite a distance, but always returned to their favoured corner.

I put the news out but as far as I know only Austin Morley came to have a look, probably partly due to it being a midweek bird, but also perhaps a sign of how many yellow-broweds there have been in the country this autumn. Fortunately Austin connected with the bird and took some excellent photos, including the two below. You can see more photos on his blog here.

I returned in the afternoon and spent two or three hours walking around the pool, and when I left at 15:45 the bird was still present with the long-tailed tits in the corner.

I've had a few year ticks recently and my year list now stands at: 248 (Yellow-browed warbler, brambling and bean goose are the recent additions).

Thanks to Austin for allowing me to use the above two photos. The following photos are mine (obviously!).

Spot the birdy! It's right in the centre of the photo, they don't call them leaf warblers for no reason.

Join the dots! About 800 pink-footed geese flew over in three flocks.

There were also 14 wigeon, 70 lapwings, 100 black-headed gulls and 80 mallard on the pool, plus a late swallow flew over this morning.

Buzzard.

Harlequin ladybird.

The hoverfly Cheilosia bergenstammi on ragwort, identified by a combination of its hairy eyes, orange antennae, nose like protrusion and leg pattern / colouration.

This is a male Cheilosia bergenstammi because the eyes touch.

In female hoverflies, the eyes do not touch.

Yellow-browed warbler, Pennington Flash

Sometimes it pays off to move verrrrry slowly as I do when I'm looking for inverts and plants. This afternoon I was making my way clockwise around Pennington flash, I'd spent an hour or so photographing hoverflies on a newly discovered patch of ivy in Green Lane near the yacht club, and then on the opposite side of the flash I spent time trying to get to grips with a Polytrichum moss that's been causing me a few headaches recently.

Eventually, after I'd been out for a good couple of hours, I approached the area known as the Point, i.e. immediately opposite the front of Horrrock's hide on the other side of the water. I spotted a speckled wood butterfly land on a Michaelmas daisy and thought I'd photograph it to complete the collection since I'd already captured red admiral and comma. I moved towards the butterfly and heard a bird call "tsoweest". I ignored it and focused the camera on the butterfly. It called again "tsoweest" and the photograph was forgotten! It had suddenly dawned on me that it was a yellow-browed warbler calling.

I stood still and waited, and tried to mimick the birds call. Incredibly it responded and suddenly there it was right in front of me! A few seconds later though it was gone, high up into the canopy, and when it wasn't calling it was virtually impossible to follow. However it was doing a circuit and it returned on several occasions to the tree where I had fist seen it. There's been quite a few hundred on the east coast over the past couple of weeks, and a few have reached the west coast, but they tend to be coastal, and inland birds are still a decent find, in fact this is the first ever at Pennington Flash.

Over the next 10 minutes I had good though usually fleeting views of the bird and I put the news out on twitter / facebook/ Birdguides and the Manchester bird forum. Then I carried on my way, photographing inverts and plants. A couple of hours later I returned and immediately refound the bird again in the same tree. Fortunately about 20 other local birders also connected with the bird. Not a bad day! Yellow-browed warbler is not much bigger than a goldcrest, and breeds in Siberia and the northern Urals, and usually winters in southern China and Taiwan. No photographs of the bird I'm affraid, the camera had real diffficulty focusing on it through all of the branches and leaves, and it was constantly moving, never still for a moment. It was hard enough to see it at times, let alone photgraph it.

I know very little about bees, but this was an impressive individual, I assume a queen. Possibly Bombus terrestris, buff-tailed bumblebee??

Comma.

An underwing shot of the comma, showing how it gets its name!

Mesembrina meridiana (Noon Fly).

Dasysyrphus albostraitus. This is a new species of hoverfly for me at the flash. Notice the two grey lines on the thorax.

This is an interesting moss, it's a type of Polytrichum, but which one? It's most likely P. formosum, especially in this habitat, but it has some characteristics which don't quite fit. The jury is out at the moment.

Red admiral. There were several of these on the wing today.

British Soldiers lichen, Cladonia cristatella, presumably so named at a time when camouflague was considered ungentlemanly!

Syrphus ribesii on Michaelmas daisy, a common hoverfly on one of the most attractive plants there is at this time of year. This is a female because it's eyes don't touch and it's S.ribesii because it's hind leg has a completely yellow femur.

Didea fasciata on wild angelica, one of my favourite hoverflies

Didea fasciata.

Sphaerophoria scripta.

This on of the plait mosses, so named because it looks like it's been plaited. This is Hypnum jutlandicum, heath plait-moss.

This is one of my favourite lichens, Cladonia portentosa. As a group the Cladonia lichens are sometimes known as reindeer-lichens because they form a primary source of food for reindeer

Cladonia portentosa.

Oak Artichoke Gall, caused by the Artichoke Gall Wasp (Andricus fecundator). which lays its eggs in the buds.

Ivy bees on the Great Orme (also a booted warbler)

Dawn this morning found me walking across the sands of Dee from West Kirby to Hilbre Island in great anticipation. The winds were set south-easterly, it was a cloudy start to the day, the Great Orme was nowhere to be seen (always a good sign) and yesterday there had been three yellow-browed warblers trapped and ringed on the island. It was looking good for a repeat performance. Unfortunately it never materialised, and the best we could manage were a couple of chiffchaffs, plenty of meadow pipits, a reed bunting and a grey wagtail. I had planned to stay on the island over the tide, but when news broke that yesterdays booted warbler was still present and showing well on the Great Orme, I decided to cut short my visit to Hilbre and left at about 10:45.

By 12:30 and courtesty of a lift off Hilbre by the friendly obs guys, I was watching this little beauty in gorse bushes right alongside the limestone pavement car park on the Great Orme, my first ever booted warbler and an exceptional record for the west coast.

It wasn't in the least bit timid and would occasionally fly towards me and land in gorse or on the ground just a few feet away.

UK Life list: 415, Year: 245 (Booted warbler)

I've often wondered why this species is called "booted" warbler. Not particularly apparent from in this photo, but on other pictures I've seen of the bird you can clearly see that its feet are a shade darker than its pink legs, giving it a "booted" look. You have to use your imagination a little though!

After watching the bird for a couple of hours I decided to head to Llys Hellig drive, or Millionaires Row as I believe it is also known. This is a narrow road on the lower slopes of the west side of the Great Orme with some big houses and some large gardens. There had been a couple of firecrests reported here and a briefly seen yellow-browed warbler. I managed to pick up a firecrest pretty quickly, but I couldn't find any sign of the yellow-browed warbler. I always struggle with yellow-broweds, there might be unprecidented numbers in the country right now, with even quite a few on the west coast this week, but I don't usually get a sniff of one. It's just one of those things, they avoid me or I'm doing it wrong!

However, there was plenty of ivy in flower along the road, and in between searching for crests and warblers, I turned my attention to inverts. Most of the hoverflies I saw were Eristalis species, mainly tenax, but I became aware that there were loads of these bees on the ivy. At first I had dismissed them as honey bees, but the bands on their abdomen looked a lot more prominent than those on honey bees and I took a few photographs. Sure enough, it turns out that these are ivy bees Colletes hederae, a species which was first recorded in the UK in 2001, in Dorset, but which has spread north over the past few years. Even so, Llandudno is by far the most northerly site in the UK for the species, and is completely isolated from all of the other sites by perhaps 100 miles or so. You can access the NBN Gateway maps here to see the full distribution of the species in the UK.

Feeding primarily on ivy pollen, this bee has to time it's flight period with the autumn flowering of the plant, making it the last solitary bee species to emerge. Only the female has a sting, which she uses only when seriously prevoked. These bees are completely harmless to humans and are a success story, being an important pollinator of ivy and one of the few bee species which is actually spreading.

A Manxie at Pennington Flash

There was a very unexpected Manx shearwater on Pennington Flash today. It joins a growing list of oceanic species which I have seen at the flash, often in good weather. I remember once watching a Leach's petrel on a balmy July day and thinking it would never be repeated, only to see a second bird a couple of years ago. Then there was the long staying adult Sabine's gull which stayed for most of August last year.

Todays bird was quite tatty looking and and initially was struggling to fly. However after a while it did make it into the air, before flopping back down almost immediately. Over the time I watched it, it appeared to get stronger on each flight, until eventually it flew around the flash for a minute or so before landing again. It was still present when I left, but apparently shortly after it flew around the flash and headed off over the trees near the car park never to be seen again. Hopefully it made it back to the sea.

It didn't appear to be oiled and apart from it's tatty wings it looked reasonably ok.

It had a close encounter with a lesser black backed gull, and I didn't think it was going to make it, especially when another couple of gulls joined in, but it did manage to escape by swimming away low in the water, almost like an otter! The gulls just seem to take their eyes off it and lost it.

Didea fasciata at Newton-le-Willows station

Another cracking hoverfly at Newton station today, this cracking Didea fasciata. Not was rare as Xanthandrus comtu from the other day, even so Didea fasciata is a mainly southern species and pretty scarce in the north west.