Avocet Walkabout!

Posted on by Pete Woodruff - In Birds2blog
Image 15 July. Ian PinkertonOn Sunday, an adult Avocet accompanied by two young were observed and photographed in the creeks at Conder Green which were eventually beneath a near 10m tide.Image 15 July. Ian Pinkerton.In stating the obvious, these young won't be able to fly for up to a month yet, and this movement from Conder Pool to the creeks required a return walk of at least 100m up a grass bank from the pool, through a hedge, over long grass, then over the busy B5290, and across the marsh to the River Conder which snakes it's way through the creeks to the Lune Estuary.Image 15 July. Ian Pinkerton.This adult bird escorted these two young Avocet on a journey from one waterbody, over a busy road to another, then sometime later take them back to Conder Pool. An amazing achievement to a successful conclusion, but why....no-one ...
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Sylvias Still Dominate…Just

Posted on by The Hairy Birder - In Fleetwood Birder
This morning I met Graham and Ian at 5:30 a.m. for another ringing session at one of the pools at the Obs. We were greeted with 6 oktas cloud cover and a 10 mph southeasterly wind. The cloud cover gave some welcome cool relief to the recent hot weather, but within an hour or so the sun dispersed the cloud and it was a tad warm again!There were a few more signs of autumn this morning including the first few Pied Wagtails flying over, dispersing from their overnight roost. On the subject of Wagtails a single Grey Wagtail over was another autumnal sign, as was the single Snipe that left the pools to head out towards the river/saltmarsh to feed.From a birding perspective the pickings were slim and trying to pick out some highlights from my notebook isn't easy. Grasshopper Warblers always delight and a distant 'reeling' bird brought a smile to m...
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The Conder Terns.

Posted on by Pete Woodruff - In Birds2blog
Tragic that you can read about a colony of 900 pairs of Common Tern, said to be breeding on the shore between Formby and Ainsdale in the early twentieth century, they were being ruthlessly slaughtered by 'sportsmen'. The colony was down to fewer than 80 by 1937, and had disappeared by the late 1940's. Forward 50 years to the mid-90's in Lancashire, and a colony having existed on the Lune Estuary on Colloway Marsh supporting c.40 pairs in 1954, and rose to up to 250 pairs from 1978-83, but by the 1990's the colony had become extinct, in the main by human disturbance.Into the 21st century, and as a species no better than a scarce passage migrant, not least in Morecambe Bay, all the gloom following the demise of the Colloway Marsh colony, has been lifted by an excellent and successful fifth successive year on Conder Pool as...
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Garden Inverts

Posted on by The Hairy Birder - In Fleetwood Birder
Sadly I haven't been birding this week, but fingers crossed that will be remedied tomorrow. During the week on various excursions into the garden to look for invertebrates I spotted a humble Greenbottle Fly that looked reasonably photogenic i.e. it would remain still long enough for me to snap it! I grabbed my camera and took a few shots and below is the result of one of the better cropped pics!Greenbottle FlyI ran my moth for the first time in a while last night and out of the catch managed to identify fourteen moths of nine species as follows:Dot Moth - 2Common Wainscot - 1Common Rustic - 4Buff Arches - 1Large Yellow Underwing - 2Riband Wave - 1Heart and Dart - 1Garden Carpet - 1True Lover's Knot - 1 True Lover's KnotThe True Lover's Knot was a first for my garden and totally unexpected. They are usually found on lowland heathland an...
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Three Of A Kind

Posted on by Phil Slade - In Another Bird Blog
We had a drop of rain on Friday; the first here for several weeks, just a few showers that barely wet our parched, straw coloured lawn and briefly dampened the roof tiles. By Saturday morning we were back to sun and blue skies but I rather hoped that the scattered showers had produced a different bird or two as the birding of late has been rather predictable.So I hit Micawber Road at the usual unearthly hour in the hope that something might turn up.  Naturally I headed for Conder Green, one of the most productive of local birding sites and where a couple of extra places are but a stone’s throw away to make for an often satisfying circuit.It was good to see up to 20 Swifts hawking insects over the surrounding hedgerows this morning. That’s probably as good a count as anyone has had this year.July sees the first Kingfishers returni...
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Pied Flycatcher End of Term Report

Posted on by North Lancs Ringing Group - In North Lancs Ringing Group
Our Pied Flycatcher RAS spread across 19 upland woods in the Lune valley in Northern Lancashire has been completed for this season.Following last seasons good productivity we hoped for an increase in the breeding population. We were not disappointed, there was an increase of seven occupied nest boxes to 107 for the year,an all-time record. Of these 69 successfully produced young, down somewhat on last years total of 89. Predation by Weasels and Stoats was a problem especially at two sites.However we ringed 448 nestlings and caught 70 adult females and 34 males. Males are always harder to catch at the nest than females as they do not incubate and can be only caught for a limited time  while they are feeding the young.Our oldest bird was ringed as a nestling and caught  5 years and  362 days after ringing this year, so it was i...
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Comment on More good hen harrier news in Bowland

Posted on by Alex M - In Sky Dancer
This is incredible. I'm looking forward to the England result for the year (in terms of total Hen Harrier production). I just hope Natural England are not too involved. Congratulations to all who were involved.
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Blog Post: More good hen harrier news in Bowland

Posted on by Chris Collett - In Sky Dancer
Last month we reported that hen harriers had bred successfully for the first time in the Forest of Bowland since 2015, with two nests, both containing four chicks. Shortly after, the final egg on the second nest hatched very late, making it five.   Now we can reveal there is a third nest on the United Utilities Bowland estate, boasting four male chicks.   The third nest in Bowland. Photo: James Bray   As part of the RSPB’s EU-funded Hen Harrier LIFE project, we’ve fitted chicks in the nest with satellite tags so we’ll be watching their movements very closely during fledging and beyond.   We would like to send a big thank you to RSPB staff and volunteers, United Utilities and their tenants, and raptor workers who have all worked hard to protect all three nests, resulting in a successful season at the site.   ...
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Back To The Ranch.

Posted on by Pete Woodruff - In Birds2blog
Bowland birding was thwarted for me yesterday.Yer Barred!When I arrived at the car park on Rigg Lane, I was met by the barrier at the car park having been lowered and locked with three notices about no access, fire risk, and closed by the landowner. So it was Plan B and back to the ranch for me and some more CG updating.Little Ringed Plover Conder Pool 11 July. Pete Woodruff.Bird of the day was the juvenile Little Ringed Plover which paid a visit to the pool, 3 Common Tern adult seen, included the sitting  for 12 days bird on Tern Island, 6 Little Grebe, and an adult Avocet. An adult Redshank was guarding and calling constantly to what was probably Mondays chick, with another day/s old chick seen, making at least four young Redshank seen on Conder Pool recently.At least 150 Redshank and 5 Dunlin were ...
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Reed Warbler RAS Report

Posted on by North Lancs Ringing Group - In North Lancs Ringing Group
Yesterdays ringing on our Reed Warbler and Bearded tit RAS studies at Leighton Moss RSPB was rather spoilt by a sudden upsurge in wind mid morning. However of the three Reed Warbler retraps two were very interesting. The first had been ringed at Leighton Moss as a juvenile in late July 2016 and caught  45 days later at the foot  of the Pyrenees in the south west corner of France a distance of 1195 km. It was not recorded in 2017 but had returned this year to the same ride where it was first caught in 2016. We have 28 other Reed Warbler recoveries from Western FranceThe other retrap  was first ringed as a juvenile in late August 2011 so it was 7 years old . It had not been caught since 2014. Although a good age it is not our oldest Reeed Warbler. We have two at 10 years, two at nine and three at eight years all still going str...
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