Lancashire moors

Two species of Cottongrass (which is actually a sedge), Common Cottongrass and Hares tail Cottongrass. Both are common in moorland areas. Notice that Hares tail terminates in a single piece of cotton, whereas Common terminates in more than one.


I found this Drinker moth caterpillar on the moors.

Eccleston Mere

Sand Martin 4
Common Tern 2 adults
Oystercatcher 2
Kingfisher 1
Nuthatch 1
Tufted Duck 2 males
Great crested Grebe 3 pairs with chicks
Coot 40 adults with at least 5 chicks

These were the first Sand Martin I have seen at the mere for several weeks. The start of a return passage perhaps??

Anglesey

Common Rosefinch, Point Lynas

Common Rosefinch 1 1st summer singing male
Lesser Whitethroat 1 singing
Manx Shearwater 50
Black Guillemot 7
Chough 4
Gannet 5

Common Rosefinch, formerly Scarlet Rosefinch, is also known as grotfinch in some birding circles, presumably because its name promises so much, yet most individuals that reach our shores are immature birds in autumn, which don't look too disimilar to a Corn Bunting. They also often occur on the Isles of Scilly where they are in the company of more exciting American vagrants.

Todays bird however was quite a happy, charming character I thought, almost comical looking, and best of all he had a lovely little song. Yes he was a 1st summer male, with not much sign of any scarlet, but give the guy a break, he was doing his best.

He led us a bit of a merry dance at first, no sign of him for an hour, then he was singing but always distantly and out of view, until at last he flew up onto a wire right in front of us and proceeded to sing for us for about 5 minutes. Good job he did, because this was probably my most embarassing bogey bird of all time, and it was nice to get it on the list!

Not that the wait was too depressing, what with Lesser Whitethroat singing, Black Guillemots in the bay, Choughs on the cliffs and a decent passage of Manx Shearwaters out at sea.

Not bad, Greenish Warbler, White-spotted Bluethroat and Common Rosefinch all singing on consectutive weekends!

UK 388 (Common Rosefinch), North West 345, Year 207 (Common Rosefinch, Manx Shearwater, Puffin (at South Stack))



Who could not like this friendly little guy, singing his heart out in such beautiful surroundings? Be honest, he's no worse than lots of other birds, and in a years time he'll be more impressive than most!

South Stack

Puffin 4
Chough 5
Manx Shearwater 5
Razorbills
Guillemots
Gannet 2
Stonechat 1 male

Choughs.


Honeysuckle growing in amongst the heather and Six-spot Burnet Moth.

Cors Goch

Dragonflies
Variable Damselfly
Large Red Damselfly
Azure Damselfly
Four-spotted Chaser

Flowers
Lesser Bladderwort
Early Purple Orchid
Fragrant Orchid
Common Spotted Orchid
Common Rockrose



Cors Goch. Male Variable Damselfly.


Female Variable Damselfly


Female Large Red Damselfly and Lesser Bladderwort Utricularia minor. This charming plant is related to the butterworts and has no roots, just leaves which have tiny bladders that trap small invertebrates by using a vacuum mechanism. The animals are then digested for nitrogen compounds! Just to rub salt in the wounds, insects are also used to pollinate the flower!

Eccleston Mere

Common Tern 3 adults
Mute Swan 3 adults
Tufted Duck 1 male
Swift 300
House Martin 50
Swallow 50
Coot 38


It was not exactly a good day to be photographing plants, but Bee Orchids are always worth a photograph. I first found Bee Orchid at the mere about 15 years ago, but this is the first I have seen for about 8 years.

Eccleston Mere

Common Tern 2 adults
Grey Wagtail 1
Mute Swan 1
Swift 300
Tufted Duck 1
Cormorant 2 flew over

No sign of last nights Common Sandpiper.

Eccleston Mere

Common Sandpiper 1 calling at 11pm during a bat walk around the mere this evening.
Mute Swan 2 adults
Swift 300

I've noticed that in the first part of the night at least, peak bat activity at Eccleston Mere is from about 30 minutes after sunset and for the next hour, after which it seems to drop away. So at the moment that's from about 22:00 to 23:00. I've not stayed overnight (so far!) and I've not been there before sunrise, so I don't know how those periods compare.

First bat tonight was a large Noctule, a fast flying species with intermitant glides. By the time we reached the southern end of the mere at about 22:20 there were several Noctules flying together about 8m over the water, and they were a pretty decent view through binoculars in the half light. Noctules tend to fly around the southern half of the mere from the stream outlet, around the southern shore and up the eastern shore up as far as the metal bridge. In a single night I might record 20 Noctules.

Because I follow the same route each evening at about the same time, I usually see the first Soprano Pipistrelle in the south west corner, but by the time I go home they're more or less all around the mere. Common Pipistrelle is also recorded all around the mere but is slightly less numerous. These two species are commoner than Noctule at the mere and they fly around the edges of the woodland and are small and fast flying.

Daubenton's is probably my favourite bat at the mere, and is perhaps the commonest. With a full moon glistening off the water, you can see them flying all over the mere, right out to the middle. They fly low over the water and often make it ripple as they glean insects off the surface, though they catch most of their prey in the air.

Perhaps there are other species, Serotine has been possibly recorded once, Brown long-eared is a probability, and more than likely Natterer's and Whiskered occur, but these species are difficult to identify with just bat detectors.

During the day there are hundreds of Swifts over the mere, and the scene is repeated at night, though the Swifts are replaced by bats. It wouldn't surprise me if there were at least as many bats over the mere at night as there are Swifts in the day. A truely magical sight.

 

Possible Serotine at Eccleston Mere

Over the past few nights I've taken a more sophisticated bat detector to the mere in order to try to record some of the bat echolocation calls. Once recorded, I can then download the data onto my computer and analyse it in software packages such as Kaleidoscope View Pro and AnalookW.

Below are a couple of sonograms produced by AnalookW based on a small part of the recordings I made on Friday evening. The two Pipistrelle species, Soprano and Common, are relatively straight forward to identify, broadcasting at 56khz and 45 khz respectively. Noctule is also quite easy (at least in this area) broadcasting on 20khz and making quite a distinct slapping sound on the bat detector.

More difficult are the Daubenton's, which belong to a group of bats know as myotis bats, which have very similar echolocation. This group also includes Natterer's and Whiskered Bats, which are possible in our area. In the case of myotis bats, other factors need to be taken into account to confidently identify them, and in this case I am confident that they are Daubenton's due to the way in which they feed low over the water, at times almost picking insects off the water.

A fifth species was possibly recorded on Friday, the much rarer Serotine bat. This is a large bat, not too disimilar to Noctule, with a frequency of about 25khz. Serotine is largely a southern species, though there are a few records from the midlands and into the North West, with one record on the NBN Gateway from Clock Face. Kaleidoscope immediately identified this species as being present, but I'm not sure about the degree of certainty. However, I've compared the sonogram with known Serotine sonograms and the results do look good for that species. I've also shown the sonograms to a couple of more experienced bat experts who seem reasonably satisfied with the identification. I'd be very interested to hear from anybody who has more experience of Serotine to get their opinion. It's all a process of learning after all.

Other bats which may be present at the mere include Brown long-eared Bat which has evolved a very quiet echolocation (hence the big ears!) so that moths can't hear it approaching. This means that it's quite difficult to pick up on bat detectors and at such a busy bat site as Eccleston Mere it gets drowned out by the louder species.

A fascinating subject!


This sonogram shows Soprano Pipistrelle at around 56khz and Noctule at around 20khz. There may also be Common Pipistrelle on the sonogram, at 45 khz.


This is the Serotine sonogram (25khz) which also has Noctule and Common Pipistrelle. Their are lots of bats at Eccleston Mere, all flying around each other and in all directions, and their calls get mixed up. In the center of this sonogram, you can see that the call drops to a little below 25khz, which could be the Serotine going lower, or it could be the Noctule going to a higher frequency. At busy sites this is one of the problems with identifying bats from their echolocation. Bats do change frequency a little depending on what they are doing, and as they get closer to prey.

I'm still very much learning about bats and their echolocation, so if anybody has any comments about my identification, or any other aspect of bat echolocation please let me know.

Birding from the M6 / M56

Yesterday there was a report of a Bee-eater over the M6/ M56 junction. Today I was stopped in heavy traffic in the same area and was entertained by a Hobby hawking for insects over the motorway!