Day off today, so I nipped down to Cabin Hill for a quick circuit round the site in bright August sunshine before the cloud rolled back in again.
Nothing spectacular, but at least it's starting to feel a bit more autumnal now, with several Chiffchaffs in the the willows and Jay there alongside one or two titmice flocks.
Buzzard, Kestrel and Sprawk all up, and easy to locate thanks to the local Jackdaw population which battered hell out of any passing raptor on a regular basis, a particularly pale Common Buzzard getting the worst of it.
You could hear the poor thing's pitiful wailing above the din of the Jackdaws from a quarter of a mile.
Common Blues and Gatekeepers around the fading August flora, although the Harebells and Sea Holly are still good.
Out on the beach the regular Linnets were bounding about the strandline, with three young Wheatears there too.
Spent a bit of time with them, trying to get some pix in the shimmer, but it wasn't easy.
Crept and crawled about on the sand and managed to get reasonably close.
Whimbrel on the upper shoreline briefly before some cyclists sent it off back out onto the low tideline which seemed a million miles away over the sun-bleached sand.
Too far to wander out there today, so I just stuck with the Wheatears, real characters.
Equally characterful, but in the grumpy stakes, was this Natterjack, looking like he had the hangover from hell.
Is it me, or are all Natterjack Toads the spitting image of Winston Churchill?
Walked back off the site down Range Lane, then headed up to Marshside for a quick shufty.
Blackwits roosting on the Sandplant lagoon, and 13 Curlews off Sandgrounders.
Polly's Pool had a flock of 93 Lapwing and four Ruff, but otherwise the reserve was still a bit, well...
Never mind, it can only get better as autumn progresses.
Tides are excellent from Sunday, so keep you fingers crossed for a decent blow.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Possible Turtle Dove around 5.30pm at the bottom of Long Lane and Scalfold Lane today but too distant to be 100 % sure .
Britain’s loudest bird, once extinct in the UK, has enjoyed its best year since records began, says a new survey by the RSPB and Natural England. The bittern is bouncing back, following intensive conservation efforts, which has seen its population rise over the last 15 years from 11 males in 1997 to 104 this year.
Bitterns are highly secretive wetland birds and live most of their time within dense stands of reed, making them very difficult to count. However, the males have an amazing ‘beatbox’ ability, where they fill their gullets with air which they release to make a booming ‘song’ which can be heard several kilometers away, enabling scientists to determine the bird’s population.
This summer, researchers found evidence of at least 104 ‘singing’ or ‘booming’ males, principally in East Anglia. However, the bird has also recolonised the Somerset Levels (in 2008), where surveyors found 25 males, up from 14 in 2010. Following an intensive period of habitat management since the mid 1990s, Somerset is now the second most important county for booming bitterns in England, after Suffolk, which recorded 33 boomers. Norfolk, with 23 booming males, was third.
The news in the North West of England was less positive with only one booming bittern, which was recorded at RSPB Leighton Moss in Silverdale Lancashire.
Robin Horner, Area Manager for the RSPB’s North West Reserves said: “We have been carrying out ongoing reedbed restoration work at Leighton Moss to improve conditions for the species. Furthermore, as part of Morecambe Bay Futurescapes, our landscape scale conservation project, we are also working with local landowners in the area to create a network of wetland habitats for suitable bitterns.
“It is a long-term project and although it will probably take several years before we see any tangible results, we hope eventually to be able to replicate the success that bitterns are enjoying in East Anglia and in Somerset.”
The bittern has had a rollercoaster history in Britain, as the bird was extinct as a nesting species between 1886 and when it recolonised the Norfolk Broads in 1911. The bird’s population rose once more until the 1950s when another decline brought the population to a recent low in 1997.
Seventeen out of every 20 English booming bitterns (85%) were recorded on nature reserves and overall almost two thirds (65%) of booming bitterns in 2011 were recorded on Sites of Special Scientific Interest.
The bittern still faces several threats, including sea level rise, where freshwater sites along the coast could be inundated by saltwater. Additionally, a potential issue is the need for sites suitable for nesting bitterns to receive on-going management.
The number of booming males recorded in the top five counties during the 2011 survey is highlighted below (The figures in brackets refer to the figures in 1997): Suffolk 33 (4); Somerset 25 (1); Norfolk 23 (3); Cambridgeshire 7 (0); Lincolnshire 4 (0).
The survey also recorded the number of nesting bitterns. A minimum of 63 nest have been confirmed in England at 26 sites, compared to the low point of six nests at four sites in 1996. With 21 confirmed nests, Suffolk was also the best county for nesting bitterns in 2011. Somerset was second with 19 confirmed nests and Norfolk was third with 11 confirmed nests.
Since the mid 1990s the European Commission has provided EU LIFE funding for two bittern conservation projects to create new reedbeds or manage existing ones. Of the 63 nesting bitterns, 37 were recorded on sites included within these projects.
The bittern monitoring programme is jointly funded by the RSPB and Natural England, through the Action for Birds in England programme.