Just Swanning About ...

I'd had a tip off that there were some Bewick Swans amongst the Whooper Swans at Hundred Lane End in Banks and as I've never seen a wild one, I headed off for the darkest depths of Lancashire today.  The flock was quite well mixed, but the Bewicks are slightly smaller with a shorter neck and more black on the bill.  Pick them out if you can!

Here are some Whooper Swans doing the Hokey Cokey:

Actually, there may be a Bewick in there (back right).

Shrikey !!!

The long-staying Great Grey Shrike at Lytham Moss was my target for today as I'd missed it previously on my way back from seeing the Shore Lark at Rossall Point.  I saw the bird as soon as I got to the traffic lights on the main road and so I was fumbling with excitement as I parked up and grabbed my camera. This is one of the first shots I got:

I'm quite pleased with this photo as it's pretty close and shows the eye and beak detail quite well, despite all the flipping branches in the way.  But after about 30 seconds the bird flew off and unfortunately never came close again. Here's the only other I shot that's any good.

Although distant, this one shows the typical habitat it's been frequenting here.  The Great Grey Shrike is actually our smallest bird of prey, although you would hardly think of it as a raptor.  It eats insects and rodents and sometime even small birds such as Wrens.

A Grand Day Out at Knott-End-On-Sea

I had a grand day out at Knott-End-On-Sea at the most northerly point on the Fylde in Lancashire today where I saw Twite, Eider Duck, Curlew, Little Egret, and Redshank. My target bird was the Twite as I'd never seen one clearly before today, so mission accomplished and all the rest, especially the drake Eider Duck, were a bonus. I also met bird photographer Susan Wilson and her husband Peter who are friends of photographers Pauline Mellor-Greenhalgh and David Shallcross, both members of the Leigh Ornithological Society for which I do the website and run the Facebook group.

There was talk of a Pomeraine Skua being in the area but I'd left it too late to look for it today. However, on my way home through Pilling I did meet a birder who pointed out two Barn Owls to me along Bradshaw Lane and there were also some Tree Sparrows, Yellowhammer and Chaffinches on the feeding track there and a Corn Bunting on some telephone wires.

Like I said at the top of the post, it was a Grand Day Out.

Okay, Okay, Okay ....

I haven't posted anything here or on Flickr since September 2014. There are many reasons for this including the rise of the L.O.S. Facebook group that I set up, my dissatisfaction with the quality of the photos I've been taking and lack of time due to returning to work after a brief period of early retirement.

All the decent photos I've taken since my last post here have been posted on the L.O.S. Facebook group along with any brief reports I've done. This has become the main place I currently use on the internet because I get a lot of feedback from other birders and comments from interested people, much more than I have ever had on this blog.

I like my blog posts to be in chronological order as they are a diary of what I get up to, but as time passed it became harder and harder to resume posting and keep things in the right sequence - therefore I stopped altogether.  However, I've now decided I'll do some 'back-posting', by which I mean I'll post the reports and photos which I took last year, leave them at the top of the blog for a while and then arrange them into chronological order at a later date just to satisfy my OCD.

So now I'm going to get started again, watch this space ....

Stop Larking About!

This little Shorelark has become a real celebrity over the last few weeks and it looks as if it's here to stay for a long time yet.  Today was my second visit to Rossall Point near Fleetwood on the Fylde Peninsula because the weather hadn't been great last time I went.

Rossall Point, Fleetwood

This was only the second time I'd been to Rossall Point near Fleetwood and I seem to remember that I had great difficulty in actually finding the 'Point' on my previous visit.  This is probably because there isn't any actual piece of land that juts out into the see I as had expected, well not that I could find anyway, and also there was no obvious signage at the time.

Anyway, today I approached from a different direction and quickly saw a new tower on the promenade which has been mentioned in other people's birding reports - I'm sure that wasn't here last time I came. Better still there is a largish free car park giving easy access to the promenade and beach - just what I like!

I was here mainly for the Shorelark which is a surprise visitor on the west coast of the UK and it's generally only found on the east coast.  It had been reported here for a week or so and so I thought I had a decent chance of seeing it myself.

There were also Ringed Plovers on the beach:

And a lovely male Stonechat on the car park as I was leaving:

Five Lifers in One Day!

Today I went to Burton Mere Wetlands RSPB on the Wirral where I saw five birds I'd never seen before, namely: Cattle Egret, Red-necked Phalarope, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper and believe it or not, Whinchat.  I only got record shots of all of these except for the Whinchat which is shown below.

I also saw a Pectoral Sandpipee, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Lapwing, Teal, Shoveler, Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit, Knot, Little Egret and several superb flypasts by a Hobby as well as all the usual suspects. 

Osprey at Norton Marsh - Lifer!

Osprey at Norton Marsh, Warrington - (c) Martyn Jones

Not the best of photos but this is the first time I've ever seen an Osprey.  More of a report will follow soon.

Yellow Wagtail down Barrow Lane

Yellow Wagtail (c) Martyn Jones

Yellow Wagtail after a fly (c) Martyn Jones

Once Bittern Twice Shy

I had a great day at Elton Reservoir in Bury today going to see the mega rare Little Bittern which has been here since yesterday.  After dipping on the two White-winged Black Terns that were here last weekend, I decided on a fairly early start (for me anyway) and I arrived at about 7.45am to find at least 20 birders there already staring avidly at a willow bush in the middle distance. The bird didn't show until around 9:40am and then only very briefly with most views obscured by vegetation. After another wait it reappeared at 11:30am when it came out into the open giving great views for a few tantalising moments before flying back into the trees behind the willow bush.

Little Bittern (c) Martyn Jones
I had much better views than this terrible record shot suggests!

There must have 50 to 60 birders there at the peak viewing time, some from far flung corners of Northern England. Nice to see many familiar faces and meet some new ones, it was like a 'Who's Who' of GM Birding! And somehow the long wait before seeing the bird makes it even more exciting and special. There are some good photos around, but none from me I'm afraid. But like I said earlier, great day! Elton's having a bit of a purple patch at the moment and we're all wondering what's going to turn up next.

Little Bittern flying back into the trees - (c) Martyn Jones

Oh, yes - I just had to use that title as the bird has not been seen since my visit.

Photos by other people on BirdGuides:

http://birdguides.com/iris/pictures.asp?mode=search&tx=294&c=0&rty=0&r=0&off=435368&gallery=0&v=0

Here's one of the best taken by Jon Lowe yesterday (taken from BirdGuides):

Little Bittern at Capstick's Marsh, Elton Reservoir (c) Jon Lowes (from BirdGuides)

Pendle Hill is Dotterel City

I had a fantastic day up Pendle Hill today, one I'll never forget. Not being the fit, slim(mer) or young bloke that I once was, I had severe issues thinking about the steep climb up Pendle carrying all my photographic gear in pretty hot weather. However, with reported Dotterel sightings yesterday and good weather, I decided to go for it, thinking I'd just take my time and set myself small targets to reach along the way with plenty of time to enjoy the scenery (no, not get my breath back). This worked for me and I made it to the trig point at the top in just less than 40 minutes, a time with which I was quite happy, in spite of meeting a couple of girls walking their dog who said they'd done it in 15 minutes and set themselves a new record!

At the top it was very windy and even quite cold at times and there was nothing much about except for the odd Curlew call and plenty of singing Skylarks. Three Swifts (my first of the year) did shoot through at one point and so I thought things were looking up, but apart from some crows and maybe a couple of tumbling Ravens, I didn't see much else in my search for the Dotterel. I spoke to a bloke from Chorley Naturalists (sorry, I've forgotten your name) who usually sees the Dotterel here every year but who hadn't seen them today and he gave me a few pointers about areas they've favoured in the past. Another local birder told me he had toured the whole area and not seen them today, so things weren't looking good.

I spent an hour or so in the area around the trig point with no luck, and a couple of birders who'd come up from the Sabden path in the opposite direction to me said they hadn't seen them on the way. Whilst I was talking to them, a small bird of prey flashed past flying low over the top of Pendle Hill, which we both agreed must have been a Merlin. With this news of no sightings I was beginning to think I'd be out of luck today, so I decided to try the path along to the Scout Hut cairn which I'd been told earlier was a favoured place. However, apart from some very low flying Skylarks, some Meadow Pipits and a lone Red Grouse flying over the path, there was very little else.

Feeling a bit fed up I decided to try the trig point area again before giving up and going home, as this seemed to be where all the event reports had been. Lucky I did because quite by chance I met another local birder on the plateau near the trig point, and he told me he had just seen two and possibly four Dotterel in this area, but they had flown down the path towards Sabden. When I told him I'd never seen a Dotterel, he very kindly said he'd take me to exact place he'd seen them, which was about half a mile or more down the Sabden path in the area of the fifth small cairn on this route. We walked down the path and after a few false alarms with Skylarks and Wheatears, I eventually spotted one and then two and eventually all four Dotterel about 30 metres to the right of the path. Bingo and lifer! There were two male and two beautifully marked female birds.

We were soon joined by four other birders who were all keen like me to get some photographs. So after everyone had had a good look by observing the birds through binoculars, we slowly approached them until we got down to a reasonable distance. Then we all snapped happily to our hearts' content with the birds down to three of four metres on average. At one point we all lay down in the grass along the path and the birds walked closer and closer and eventually walked past us to within one metre, so close I couldn't focus. I knew Dotterel were pretty confiding, but I was half expecting one to jump up on my lens.

This was a truly amazing birding experience and like I said earlier, one I'll never forget. Thanks must go to the original local birder who took me to the birds and who did tell me his name, but which now escapes me. It was also nice to meet the couple from Knaresborough and Gareth Hughes and his Dad, who helped guide the birds in our direction for photos. They are some of the best bird photos I've ever taken, true frame fillers, and they'll soon be my Flickr site.

Update: 

Gareth Hughes has just sent me this great photo:

I told you it was close!