09/04/2012 Frodsham Marsh, Cheshire

Chiffchaff: Once again after spending the day working from home in front of the laptop I was keen to enjoy some of this sproing sunshine and I headed down out in the search of water pipit,  this time at Frodsham Marsh. 

Again, no water pipit, but plenty of other nice birds including three black necked grebes on tank no.6, a single wheatear near the pipes near tank no.4 and a very nice male yellow wagtail briefly in the flooded area off Lordship lane. 

I wouldn't describe the flooded field as a flood anymore, it's drying out fast and is more like a muddy muddle. A few more days of dry weather and I fear it will no longer be wet at all.

In a patch of reed near tank no.3 there was  male chiffy belting out its song, the sound of springtime. I watched it as it foraged amongst the reeds and a hawthorn which was now in leaf. 

A lovely little bird to while away the late afternoon with.  

Meadow Pipit: I spent much of my time watching the flooded field as this is the area the water pipit has been favouring.

Birds were still visiting the flood, including pied wags, reed bunts and mipits, some of which came pretty close as the foraged wider across the muddy field.

I really like frodders, a place I learned by birding skills when I was a child. Although now its seems like a place I rarely visit, perhaps something that needs to change. 

08/04/2021 Carr Lane Pools, Hale, Cheshire

Channel wagtail (M f flava × flavissima): After work I drove down to Carr Lane Pools to unwind and attempt to pick out a water pipit.  From Town Lane looking onto the pools from the bridge I counted at least nine white wags, dozens of meadow pipits, two little ring plover and a single stunning Channel wag, but no water pipit.

Carr Lane is becoming well known for having breeding Channel wags, these little beauties are the commonest variety of blue-headed wags that we in the north of Britain typically get. 

Channel wags are a type of blue-headed wagtail and that form due to a pairing of yellow and blue-headed interbreeding.  This results in a wagtail that exhibits a washed-out blue/grey-head, often more extensive white in the supercilium, ear-coverts and throat. 

The wind was picking up and came with a bitter cole bite, so after staying a while I was forced to seek the warmth of my car heater. 

05/04/2021 Exmouth, Devon

Northern Mockingbird: It's been over 30 years since thge last northern mockingbird was spotted in Britain and while it was found during the height of the Covis lockdown, with tight restrictions on on people's ability to travel anyone who caught a glimpse of the north American bird was very lucky indeed.

The last time a mockingbird was spotted in the UK was in the 1980s - the first in 1982 at Saltash, Cornwall, and the second in 1988 at Horsey Island, in Essex. 

Northern mockingbirds are the only mockingbird commonly found in North America. While they typically have a short home range, some birds do move south in the harsh winters - so been spotted as far away as Britain is a pretty huge feat. 

This bird turned up during the height of the national lockdown and although I'm sure some birders and twitchers went to see it I think the overwhelming majority have waited, like myself until travel restrictions were eased in order to travel such a long way to see it.

05/04/2021 Newlyn Harbour, Cornwall

American Herring Gull: This especially tame first winter AHG was found towards the end of lockdown back mid March, so again I had to hope and pray to the birding Gods that it would stay until I got a chance to go once the travel restrictions had been lifted. 

By the time I arrived the bird was pretty close on the rocky area within Newlyn Harbour it was quite approachable until a local came past with her pack of small Yorkshire terriers which put all the gulls up, including the AHG.  It flew off over the harbour wall and was relocated on the nearby fish market roof. 

The bird remained upon the roof for sometime before coming back down and rejoining the other gulls loafing on the shoreline of the harbour. 

Amongst its European counterparts this bird really stood out like beast. 

The bird is distinctly bigger then a European herring gull with a gray-brown, dark tail, a brown rump with dark bars, dark outer primaries and pale inner primaries.

 

AHG breed across Alaska and northern Canada, south to the Great Lakes and along the Atlantic Coast south to North Carolina. they over winter from southern Alaska south to Mexico and from the Great Lakes and Massachusetts south to the Caribbean and Central America.

I love Cornwall, it's a place I plan to spend more time at as the baby grows up and seek some family staycations.

  

 

03/02/2021 Local Site, Wigan

Barn Owl: With the longer evenings and recent good weather I've been spending more time out at dusk on a few of the local sites close to home, hoping to count a few of the local barn owls. 

It's always a special day when you have an encounter with a barn owl, they are magnificent birds. This individual was not shy and quartered right past me on two occasions before gliding off over the rough grassland. 

As a schedule 1 breeding bird I'm always conscious  about posting precise locations of barn owl in the breeding season, so forgive me for being vague in the title description. 

 

01/04/2021 Lightshaw Flash, Wigan

Osprey: I spent an hour this morning at leightshaw Flash, it's only down the road. There were a pair of garganey present, presumably the same pair I photographed earlier this week at Pennington Flash. I was also treated to an unrung osprey flyby from the canal heading towards Penny.

A brief but very pleasant morning despite the change in the weather. 

29/03/2021 Pennington Flash

Garganey: Today we are riding the crest of an optimistic wave as lockdown restrictions are eased and folk are allowed to travel freely across the England.  Perhaps some folk are waiting for me to publish photos of the long staying mockingbird, but alas I've not seen it yet as I've been trying to header to the aforementioned restrictions.

Instead toady I stayed local once more and after work I headed out to enjoyed the last of fisrt spring warmth down at Penny to pick up a pair of garganey which were found a few days ago by Phil Rhodes. 

This cracking looking drake was accompanied by a female who were giving me the runaround, but relocated in Ramsdales Bay. Both birds were elusive to say the least as they seem to favour feeding behind one of the small islands on the scrape.  

Always a nice bird to connect with, the drakes are lovely looking things.  

18/03/2021 Mythop, Blackpool

Green-winged Teal: This bird was formerly split in December 2000 and given full specific status by the British Ornithologists' Union's Records Committee. 

It doesn't really seem that long ago. 

The green-winged teal is the American counterpart of our own Eurasian teal and the drake's are identified by an obvious vertical white stripe at the front of the flanks which Eurasian Teal does not. This remains the single most striking feature to look out for when scanning through a flock of Eurasian teal.

Disappointingly I witnessed a photographer enter the farmers field and approach bird. The bird was subsequently flushed along with all the other birds and he even disturbed a pair of lapwing which were going mad, before he spotted me scoping from the lay-by and hurried away back to his car. 

17/03/2021 Undisclosed Site

Black-necked Grebe: Today I found myself working on a waste services plant carrying out a preliminary ecological appraisal, but it wasn't all that bad as I got the chance to see these beautiful birds on a local lake.  

Their favoured habitat is shallow, eutrophic waters, usually with extensive fringing vegetation and often floating aquatic plants, and a site preferably sheltered from strong winds.

If I had to pick a favorite grebe species I think I would choose black-necked grebes, they are not only charismatic, stunning birds but they in a way an embolism of the north west as they breed by at Woolston Eyes NR

Some of my earliest memories birding as a kid are birding the inland lakes of Moore NR and Runcorn searching for these grebes, hoping find one that's on its way to Woolston to breed. 

There were three birds on this particular lake, it had appeared that two had already paired up while the single bird was frantically calling. They won't be breeding here and will soon be off to their regular breeding site. 

09/03/2021 Platford Green, Hornchurch, London

Baikal x Eurasian Teal: Take a look at this absolute beauty. This is the presumed hybrid Baikal x Eurasian teal that was found last week on a duck pond in Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London.

Hybrid ducks are famously difficult to identify, typically they exhibit intermediate characteristics  from both parent species, but can show patterns resembling a third species or even some patterns and colorations existing in no true duck species anywhere in the world.

However,  this hybrid bird exhibits both partners, with its striking green nape and head pattern from its Baikal parentage and its lack of black head, its  black eye tear shape replaced by a rusty brown and its spotty pinkish breast from Eurasian teal parent. 

The bird was associating with a small flock of mallard and was never far away from them, even when the mallard moved out of the water and up onto the grassy bank to feed the small teal followed.  And when it stood out of the water to rest and sleep it was always close to some loafing mallard. 

Whatever the identity and origins the birds parents is, it was still such a great bird to catch up with. 

Special thanks to Tom bell, a local lad and West Ham fan who was there to show me the bird and some of the cracking images he took earlier in the morning. Top work mate.

Just the usual caveat - again I was sent to carry out a survey near London and after the survey on my way home I topped off briefly at this pond  and when I met Tom Bell it was socially distanced.  

07/03/2021 Bantons Lake, Lancashire

Pied-billed Grebe: In order to keep the self fladulating twitter warriors at bay, I have to continually explain my movements and whereabouts. Some folk enjoy twitter shaming as ifs like some sort of pathetic, preadolescent sport.

As I've mentioned before Dawn is from Carnforth and her 92 year old Gran lives in Warton. So when she reached out to us for some help with groceries I was happy to help and thought it would be a good opportunity to take the 10 minute detour off the M6 near Lancaster to see this rare bird.

The bird showed really well, if a little distant as it fed furiously close to the island in the middle of the lake.

This is my 3rd PBG I've seen in the UK and the 2nd one I've had in Lancashire, but the fisrt that showed pretty well. 

02/03/2021 Ness Gardens, Wirral

Common Crossbill: Enroute to an early morning winter bird survey not far from neston took me right past Ness Gardens where there has been a flock of crossbill hanging about for about a week or so. 

As I arrived the light was dreadful and made worse by the light sapping Scots pines that bank the edge of the visitor attraction. Scots pines have  have reddish bark towards the crown of the tree and brown bark towards the base. The needles are twisted and provide a thick blanket that blots out the light.  

 

The birds were already busily feeding on the small pine cones and chirping in the low branches, viewed from the public footpath off Neston Road.

Pine cones and their seeds were falling like confetti.

There has been up to 15 birds seen within this flock but I count 5 birds while I was there. 

Common crossbill are normally found in the Scottish Highlands, the New Forest and the Forest of Dean so to have them on a small pine plantation on Wirral is a bit of  treat.  

Crossbill have to be in my top five best UK birds, for a relatively small passerine they are gregarious, chunky  birds, the males are scarlet red and the females and juvs are a bright green. 

And they have that bizarre, cross-tipped bill, which it uses to prise out and eat the seeds from pine cones.

Really smart looking birds.