CH1 still hanging around

It took me six years to see tufted duck CH1 at Pennington Flash but just at the moment I can't seem to escape her. Originally ringed in France in 2017 and first seen at the flash six weeks later, she's been back and to between France and the flash ever since. At the moment I see her on almost every visit and it doesn't seem like she's got any plans to go to France this summer.

Also today, a single ringed plover on the spit, most likely a new bird as the two from yesterday morning were not seen in the afternoon.

Passage continues at the flash

A week ago it seemed that migration had all but stopped at the flash, but the past few days have proven that it's still on-going, with a mass influx of black terns and a few waders such as greenshank, turnstone, dunlin and today a couple of ringed plovers. When I first arrived this morning at 05:45 there was just the one, but then it flew up very high and I thought it was leaving until suddenly mid-flight it was joined by a second bird and the two dropped down again onto the spit. I've no idea where the second bird came from, but looking at the photos it would appear that they are male and female. Perhaps new love was found in a chance encounter high above the flash!

Also today, a single black tern was still present, and a feature of the past few days has been the masses of swift over the boat club, with at least 500 birds today.

Red kite, black terns and a turnstone at the flash

I find it slightly ironic that as this morning progressed and I reported black terns and turnstone at Pennington Flash, a real flash mega went completely unreported by the bird services. I was at the boat club and heard a commotion overhead and looking up saw a magnificent red kite quite low down. It slowly circled higher and higher and eventually drifted off north.

This was my second red kite at the flash, the first was almost six years ago to the day in 2017, yet I don't know of any other birders who have seen the species here. 

Marsh Warbler, Chapel Six Marshes

Marsh warbler is one of those birds, Savi's is another, that I've really not seen that many of. It's hard to know why really, but I guess that I saw the species quite early in my birding life and since then I've just not bothered with them. Living in north west England I'm very unlikely to come across one in the course of general birding and I'm never inclined to twitch them because they can often be very elusive. 

However today I'm in Lincoln in between two dusk breeding bird surveys so had ample opportunity during the day to call in at nearby Chapel Six Marshes to see a singing marsh warbler that was found early morning. I'm so glad that I did make the effort because this was a very special bird. It was singing on top of a bush as close as 3m from the path and at one point was creeping in the reeds less than a metre from me!

It has absolutely everything, the song, the orange gape, the lemony coloured underparts, shortish bill, rounded head, pale legs, I even had a good look at the tertials and primaries, though I'm not really sure what I'm looking for here! Well I do know, but such detail is never clear cut to me. 

Anyway, quite aside from the identification features, it was a cracking little bird and a pleasure to watch and listen to.

Common rosefinch, Kendal

I wasn't expecting much when we decided to call in for a common rosefinch at Burneside near Kendal today, because the way it was being reported seemed to indicate that it was audible rather than visible in a private garden for most of the time. The suggested viewing area from Crook Road off Plumgarths Roundabout on the A591 did nothing to convince me that things were going to be any different than expected, with the bird just about audible in between the noise of traffic, in trees a third of a mile away to the north. In fact it was even worse than I had expected to be honest, I was expecting the bird to be out of sight but close, yet the reality was that it was out of sight but miles away.

However, I looked at a map and spotted a public footpath that headed north towards the trees where the singing was emanating from. Surely that would be closer? We set off along the footpath, through a farm yard and dodging a herd of cows with calves before arriving at the line of trees that we had previously seen in the distance. Almost immediately we heard the rosefinch singing and obviously quite close, in fact it was right above us! We had to move back to get a decent view of the tree. It still took about 30 minutes of fleeting glimpses of a flying bird before finally it flew out into the open and perched on a bare branch and started singing. Now it was a fabulous view with the sun in the perfect position, a really stunning bird. It stayed here for about 10 minutes before flying over the trees and away.

The bird has a ring on it's right leg which has been read and confirms that it was ringed as a 1st sum male on Fair Isle on 13/06/2022.

Only my second ever common rosefinch and both have been singing males of a species which in my experience has been very far removed from the slightly silly name of grotfinch given to it by some other birders who to be fair, are probably referring to juveniles in autumn rather than a stunning adult male!

Gait Barrows

It's that time of year again when birding starts to go a bit quiet and we all head off butterfly or orchid hunting. Gait Barrows is a favourite spot of ours for many invertebrates as well as some nice flora. Sadly though the number of butterflies at this site as elsewhere seems to have really decreased over the years, a fact I also commented on in a previous post several years ago (opens in a new window). Near perfect conditions today at a peak time of year yet at times we struggled to see a butterfly and in total probably saw less than 30 individuals during our three hour visit. The pearl-bordered fritillary in the photo above was one of about three that we saw.

There were several Duke of Burgundy on the wing.

The year of the garden warbler

Garden warblers seem to be doing well at Pennington Flash this year, I know of at least three and possibly five singing birds. Two of them in particular are very showy for the species. Also today, two curlew flew north over the ruck and two common terns still.

Worlds End

Today I had an early morning job near Wrexham, early meaning start work at 5am. By 8:30 I was finished and made the short 6 mile journey to World's End.  I knew that I was too late in the day for any remnants of the dawn black grouse lek which in any case I usually go to in late March or early April, but I was still quite early in the morning and there's always a chance of a flying bird or perhaps a distant view of one in amongst the heather. 

Above all it was just great to be out in a place like this on such a beautiful morning and I took one of the footpaths across the moors. Sure enough after a short while a male black grouse flew up from the side of the path and circled around me before coming down again deep in the heather. There were also a few red grouse around including a female with chicks at the side of the road, cuckoos were calling and occasionally seen, usually pursued by irate skylarks or meadow pipits. Plenty of stonechats around also.

Wader fest at the Flash

So a couple of hours after writing a blog post saying that migration had stopped at the flash, I had an evening visit and found two new waders had arrived, a dunlin and a ringed plover. They seemed quite good friends and followed each other around so I'm guessing that they actually arrived together. Also present, two common sandpipers. It just goes to show that birds are still on the move at this time of year.

Great black-back and a drinker

Migration has as good as stopped at Pennington Flash, at least for the time being. The Temminck's stint from Monday was still present up to yesterday evening, but that now seems to have moved on and the flash seems very quiet. Still a few sightings to brighten up the day though, we haven't quite reached the return of the Egyptian goose levels yet.

 
Two common sandpipers were on the spit early morning to excite the small crowd of birders hoping that the stint was still present, while at least three, possibly as many as five pairs of garden warblers are singing and occasionally showing well.

 
Highlight for me though was a magnificent male great black-backed gull which for the past couple of days has been feeding on something just off the ruck. Look at the size of the bill on that bird! I'm not sure if the status of great black-back has changed at the flash, but in his book "Birds and Birdwatching at Pennington Flash" published in 1985, Dave Wilson comments "Great black-backed gulls are strictly winter visitors to the flash....." and "Recent early and late dates are 13th October 1983 and 14th March 1982". Whilst it my be generally true that they are still commonest in winter, I have records of the species from all months, including a family party of adult and two juveniles in June last year.

Temminck's stint, Pennington Flash

I arrived at the flash at 5:15am today in the hope that there might be a decent wader or two on the spit. Barry was there when I arrived and he told me that he'd just had a small wader but wasn't sure what it was and he hadn't been able to relocate it. However, within five minutes I had found a Temminck's stint right on the very end of the spit, as well as a dunlin and common sandpiper. We watched the stint for a while, noting its small size, the speckled appearance of its upperparts and its yellow legs, before I headed off home at about 6:45am.

An hour later, Bill messaged me to tell me that he was on the south side and watching the stint halfway down the spit. I decided to head back to the flash just in case the bird kept walking and eventually arrived on the scrape right in front of Horrock's. Unfortunately we couldn't see the bird from Horrock's, so we decided to head for the ruck where we would be able to see more of the end of the spit, although the light would be against us. Fortunately we decided to go via Ramsdales.

We refound the Temminck's stint on the right island in Rammies and showing really well. It was occasionally chased by lapwings or little ringed plover, but it kept returning to more or less exactly the same spot. 

It's a really smart little bird and five years to the day since the last Temminck's stint at the flash was found. I've had about 15 sightings of the species in the UK and all have been in the period 12th - 30th May.