Firstly, apologies for the general lack of blogging over the last week or so - been mighty busy, not least with a demanding, yet superb, chainsaw training course, which I'm still in the middle of.
And as we all know, chainsaws and birding don't really mix...
Still n' all, good to hear a Greater 'Pecker drumming in the garden at Dempsey Towers before work this morning, with a Siskin or two calling, while I enjoyed watching Ringed Plover back on the Green Beach while on patrol at the weekend (about 40 Twite at Weld Rd on Sunday).
Working/training down at Rimrose Valley today, and the relative peace of lunchbreak provided a nice Goldcrest flitting about, with Long Tailed Tits, Goldfinch etc and both Buff Tailed and Red Tailed Bumblybees in sheltered areas.
Headed out onto Plex this evening after work, with the last rays of the afternoon sun strafing the peaty Lancashire soil.
Mighty parky, with a strong breeze ripping over the fields, but I wanted to have another look at the flock of Yellowhammers feeding in the stubble up from the new Plex Brow conversion place.
I'd tried and failed to get a good look at 'em on Friday, when a Raven came through heading south, and only three Yellowhammers were in the field, but there were at least ten birds tonight, with six Reed Buntings and a big fat Corn Bunting.
Given that the golden rule of mossland birding is "NEVER GET OUTTA THE CAR", this feeding flock can be quite frustrating to count accurately and watch well - the birds fly out of the stubble and into low willow and hawthorn, but drop into the ditch as soon as you approach.
At least one or two of the Yellowhammers were managing half-hearted attempts at song this evening, which almost made me think it was warmer than it was...
30 odd FIeldfare and as many Starlings in the stubble with 'em, with the usual Buzzard, gamebirds and Lapwings, whose wailing calls are not quite at the full-on cardiac arrest levels of springtime yet.
Thanks to Chris Tynan for providing me with details of his latest ringing return of a colour banded BHG, W-E8UX.
Chris had the bird on Southport Marine Lake on December 4th last year.
It had been ringed in Amsterdam on March 5th, 2011 as a female, at Nieuwmarkt, then reported from Orstedparken, Copenhagen on March 25th, before Chris connected with it at the end of last year.
Since his sighting, the bird was seen yesterday (6.03.12), again in Copenhagen (the Svanemollebugten district if you really must know) - a nice sequence of records showing that even our BHGs have some interesting migration tricks up their sleeves.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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The Annual Results for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden BirdWatch survey have just been published, revealing nearly five times as many gardens with Goldfinch but half the number of gardens with Song Thrush.
Highs: Numbers of the dazzling Goldfinch in gardens have reached an all-time high. Far more householders saw this species in 2011 compared with 1995, when BTO Garden BirdWatch started. This meteoric rise has seen Goldfinches rocket from number 20 in the garden bird ‘league table’ to number 10.
National differences: England topped the podium for Goldfinches in 2011, with 58% of gardens visited during a typical week, compared with 53% in Wales and 49% in Scotland. Meanwhile, Welsh gardens boasted the highest reporting rate for the handsome Bullfinch, which is coming into gardens increasingly. Scottish gardens were best for both Starling and Greenfinch – although numbers of these species in gardens across the UK last year were at their lowest in almost a decade.
Lows: After a succession of cold winters, numbers of the diminutive Wren visiting gardens have dropped. Compared with the long-term Garden BirdWatch average, as calculated from 1995–2010, around one in three householders have now lost this beautiful songster. Another cherished voice that is ebbing away is that of the Song Thrush, with half as many gardens visited during a typical week last year compared with 1995.
Hi John. My long-stay (3 months) back garden Blackcap was singing loudly from the depths of the Pyracantha this morning, in competition with an assortment of Robins, Wrens, Dunnocks and Great Tits. He survived the winter on a diet of fat balls and apples, roosted in the Ivy with the 30 odd resident House Sparrows and joined them in the bird bath or in the shallows of the pond.
Chiffchaff singing away on Rimrose Valley this morning, then two, possibly three, Stonechats in the dunes at Ainsdale in the afternoon.