Snow bunting, New Brighton

A windy day on the North Wirral coast but it was nice to catch up with the four snow bunting that have been there this winter.

Three Siberian chiffchaffs, Martin Mere

I had an early start this morning and headed for Martin Mere again hoping for more views of the Siberian chiffchaffs P.c.tristis that have been present. As soon as I arrived at the viewing area near the sewage works I heard and then saw a tristis and with it was a more typical collybita chiffchaff. 

Yesterday I'd read a submitted description of a tristis from Northumberland which stated that the bird had responded well to playback (i.e. a recording of a tristis call) but that a nearby collybita had ignored it. I'm not really a big fan of using playback but given that Siberian chiffchaffs are certainly not breeding at Martin Mere, especially at the end of January, there didn't seem too much harm in trying, at least it would help confirm the identification.

The tristis immediately responded and came towards me but the collybita ignored the call and continued on it's way down the hedge line. The perfect result! It got better though, because almost immediately a second tristis appeared and joined the first. They were both calling to each other so I no longer needed the playback and instead just watched and photographed them. Suddenly I realised that there was another bird calling behind me and this flew over me and joined the other two. Now I had three Siberian chiffchaffs calling excitedly all around me, coming as close as 3m and allowing me to fire off a few close range photos. 

Fortunately this was one of the brightest periods of the day with the sun hidden behind just the flimsiest of cloud cover, and the birds certainly seemed to respond to the increased brightness and warmth. They just stayed near me for about 10 minutes calling and feeding, and at no time during this period did I see the collybita return.

Now that I had three tristis at close range it was interesting to see the subtle differences. I'm not sure that I managed to capture all three in the photographs, but certainly I have two. One of them (the third bird to arrive today), has a distinctive mark on the right hand side of its face.

Another look at the Martin Mere Sibes

On Monday I called in at Martin Mere to look for the Siberian chiffchaff Phylloscopus collybita tristis  that has been reported at the sewage works. I didn't have a lot of time but managed to locate not only the original bird but also a second Siberian chiffchaff candidate. Then when I got home I did my usual trick of researching the identification of the species and realised that there were at least a couple of features that I hadn't noticed. Doh! One of these days I'll research the id before I go! Also, in my photos the bird appeared to show a slight yellow hue which didn't look quite right, so I wanted another look in the field and perhaps hear it call again.

So with a free morning today I headed back to Martin Mere to try to fill in the gaps in my identification. I managed to see one bird quite well for a period of about five minutes during a four hour wait, though I can't say if this is the original bird or the second bird. 

A couple of Sibes at Martin Mere

I went to Martin Mere today hoping to see a Siberian chiffchaff P.c.tristis at the nearby sewage works but ended up seeing two birds, plus a regular British bird P.c.collybita. For a more complete write up of these birds see the next post from Martin Mere on the 25th.

It was a very enjoyable visit to Martin Mere with a brambling at Janet Kear hide and at least four marsh harriers.

Male brambling at the Janet Kear hide.

Drake pintail.

Alexandra Park, Oldham

There's been a magnificent adult Caspian gull at Alexandra Park in Oldham over the past few days so I decided to call in for a look. 

I find it very uncomfortable birding in these types of places with lots of the general public hanging around and families feeding the ducks. I never like walking around with binoculars and a camera and I wouldn't dream of taking my telescope, that's just a non-starter. 

Anyway, I'd spent an uncomfortable hour and a half looking very suspicious with no sign of the gull when suddenly I saw a likely contender flying over one of the lakes. It circled around allowing me to confirm the identification before heading off over the trees to the south west and was lost to view. It repeated this about three more times over the next half hour before finally landing on the lake. Unfortunately it only stayed there for a minute before flying off and I didn't see it again despite waiting for another two hours.

It's a beautiful bird and well worth the effort. Pity it didn't stay longer.

Todd's Canada Goose, Banks Marsh (again)

Another great walk at Banks Marsh with lots of interest. A male hen harrier hunted the extreme north eastern end of the marsh close to the southern most bank of Hesketh Out Marsh, and at least two marsh harriers and an adult peregrine were in the same area. There are still thousands of wigeon on the marsh and they are often disturbed by marauding great black back gulls, while goosander and red-breasted merganser were less expected. With high tide just after midday waders were well represented with several grey plover and lots of knot and dunlin as well as the usual redshank and lapwings. A flock of about 30 twite was up and down the bank.

Two or three thousand geese are still at Banks but most are out of view through a combination of extreme distance and tall vegetation. I did manage to once again pick out the dark Todd's Canada goose but again at long distance. Fortunately though it does stand out as significantly darker than the pink-feet it associates with and even when it has it's back to me I can pick it out. In the photos on this post you can see that it is smaller and much darker than the nearby feral Canada's.

I travelled to Banks via Plex Moss and Southport where there were hundreds of geese visible from Marine drive but I couldn't pick out anything unusual. Many more were hidden though in the long grass of the outer marsh. I only knew that they were there because every now and then they would fly up briefly, but then drop down again out of view.

The Todd's Canada goose (second bird from the left) doesn't really associate with the feral Canada's but there are hundreds of the latter on the saltmarsh and obviously their paths cross every now and then. When they do the differences are obvious, the Todd's is smaller, darker (especially on the breast) and shorter necked, but also the white face is not so white, it's more dusky white.

Water Pipit, Daisy Hill

A water pipit at Daisy Hill sewage works, Westhoughton today was a returning bird from last winter which I didn't see so it was nice to catch up with it at last. It showed pretty well, feeding on the filter beds with about 12 meadow pipits, two grey wagtails and a couple of pied wagtails. 

Sewage works are always interesting places to watch birds such as pipits. They feed on the ground but constantly need to keep looking around because the perforated pipes of the filter bed are always moving at a slow, steady pace towards them, pouring water onto the bed like a moving waterfall. If the pipits aren't careful they could get a soaking so every few seconds they need to fly up and over the pipe or sometimes land on it. When they do land on it occasionally they stay on for a few laps having a preen or just looking around. It's quite comical to watch really.

Snow Goose and Snow Bunting

This morning the snow goose was on Downholland moss with about 1000 pink-footed geese and later flew to Plex Moss.

The snow bunting flock just north of Southport pier has now increased to six birds.

 

Chasing geese on the Sefton coast

The Richardson's cackling goose which was found on Banks Marsh by Stuart Darbyshire just over two months ago, could so far best be described as either elusive or distant. What a surprise then that it should turn up today on the saltmarsh at Marshside, 200m south west of the RSPB car park near the old sand plant, and show at a distance of little over 100m.

It rounded off a fabulous day of goose watching on the Sefton coast.

What a stunner this bird is! Somebody said to me that it was a good job that it was with pink-feet so that you could see how small the bird is because otherwise you might mistake it for a Canada goose! I can't agree with that, it's nothing like a Canada goose. Short necked, petite and with a tiny bill, it's just a beautiful bird, the highlight of this winters goosing for me.

When it first turned up in December I did wonder if it might be the bird from early 2021 which started out at Longton Marsh and then moved to Lightshaw Flash, however it's clearly not that bird, the white face is a different shape and it's paler breasted. It's probably a good job that it isn't that bird given that it ultimately ended up on the car park at Pennington Flash, albeit only for one day! This bird however has far better credentials and is more than likely a wild bird. For a comparison with the Longton marsh / Lightshaw / Pennington Flash bird click here (opens in a new window).  

Black Grouse lek

It was a cold and frosty morning with not a breath of wind and since I was in the area I thought that I would take a slight detour and visit a black grouse lek in North Wales. I arrived about 20 minutes before sunrise and almost immediately saw grouse at the lek site. I watched them from the car for the next 30 minutes or so and counted at least 15 males.

I love watching these leks, the air is full of hissing and cooing noises and the birds run around the lek site chasing other males. There's private battles going on everywhere until eventually for some reason not obvious to me one will turn tail and run with it's opponent in hot pursuit. That's not the end of it though, one or both birds often spot other birds and join battle with them. I don't know how the winners are determined, but presumably it's obvious to the usually unseen females.

Glossy Ibis, Cheadle Hulme

This spectacular immature glossy ibis was in a field at Cheadle Hulme.