A Crake's Progress

Sunset over the maize fields

I chose to make my post-work visit to the patch a late one yesterday.  The main reason for this was that I hoped to see whether the barn owl that has been present throughout the winter was still in the Aldcliffe area. And of course May is a pretty good month for finding off-passage short-eared owls here too.
Due to the glorious sunshine, it remained light well past 9pm and I had a good couple of hours checking a few choice spots around the site.
As it happens I didn't see any owls but I did have two rather amazing experiences - one simply confirmed something that I had suspected for some time while the other was a complete and utter surprise.
The unexpected discovery involved hearing a bird, calling from across the fields around 8.45pm. I was stood on the cycle track having just checked Darter Pool when I heard a distinct but distant rasping call coming from toward Dawson's Bank. Now, I don't have the best hearing these days and so trying to figure exactly where it was coming from wasn't easy but I cupped my ears and heard what sounded exactly like a corncrake!
It went on for around half a minute allowing me to guess that it was likely coming from the hedgerow or the area of vegetation around Bank Pool. I racked my brain trying to figure out what else it could be. After all, I hadn't heard a corncrake for a few years and I didn't want to be too hasty in identifying it as such. It wasn't a grey partridge (they had been calling earlier in an adjacent field), and although I couldn't recall what red-legged partridge sounded like off the top of my head I was pretty sure they didn't have a two-part sawing-action rasp like that!
I tried to get a little closer to figure out just where the bird was and to hopefully get a recording of it, but over the next 20 minutes or so it never vocalised again. 
When I got home later I checked out recordings of corncrake calls to see whether I was totally off the mark or not, but it just confirmed my thoughts. Oh, and for the record, red-leg partridge sounds absolutely nothing like that.
So in conclusion - a new bird for Aldcliffe but not under the most rewarding circumstances... it would of course have been fantastic to have seen it but like most birders, I heard more than a few before finally laying eyes on one even in that corncrake hotspot of the Outer Hebrides.

An otter's head

The other first of the evening concerned a mammal. As I was scanning over Freeman's Pools in the fading light (yes, still looking for barn owl) I noticed a splash, and as I got my bins on the rippled water I saw a thick tail disappearing beneath the surface. Otter!
Over the nest 15 minutes or so the otter surfaced several times, much to the annoyance of the local mallards and coot who kept a wary eye on it. I have long suspected that otters must visit this site from time to time and have seen signs to suggest as much. They have been seen in the nearby canal and at various spots along the Lune estuary, so it was quite a treat to see one so well on my local patch (and just a few minutes from home!).
As you can see I did manage a photo of sorts, but for all you know it could be discarded Carlsberg can or a dead moorhen...

Earlier today I had a quick trawl around the area but there wasn't too much going on apart from the thoroughly depressing sight of the maize fields being ploughed, putting a certain end to any lapwing broods that may have escaped last week's muck-spreading.
Heaven only knows if any pairs will get to raise any young this year, but there is at least still plenty of time for further attempts.

The only passage migrants concerned a whinchat and 3 large wheatears (no doubt Greenland-bound) plus a handful of swifts and a slow trickle of swallows.
Little ringed plover pairs were on Freeman's Pools and the Wildfowlers' Pools - the Flood having all but completely dried out, I couldn't see any there. A common sandpiper was also on Freeman's Pools.
The track hedgerows were alive with the songs of whitethroat, blackcap, chiffchaff and other common species. Lesser whitethroat seem a little on the scarce side still with just a couple heard.
A single whimbrel was near the Creek, a lone little egret was at Stodday and 5 eider were on the Lune.
Kestrel, sparrowhawk, common buzzard and peregrine were all seen and a little owl was trying its best to avoid detection at the Admiralty Wood (pictured).
Jon

A Linnet In The Dung Pile

Yesterday, it was glorious for much of the day and so after work I hoofed it down to Aldcliffe for a mooch around the patch.
Freeman's Pools were unusually quiet with just a few mallard, coot and moorhens present on the water. The mute swan pair have now constructed a formidable nest in the reeds, let's hope that they can raise a brood.
On the island, a surprise came in the form of 4 smart black-tailed godwit. Not exactly unusual in the Aldcliffe area, but they scarcely visit these pools.
A couple of singing sedge warblers were my first of the year, and one in particular showed brilliantly.
Along the cycle track I came across a neat male whinchat near Darter Pool and the linnet flock in the stubble fields had increased to a rather impressive 44 birds. I carefully scanned through just in case some odd interloper might have joined them... it hadn't.
On the Flood there were still 8 white wagtails, along with 2 pairs of little ringed plover.

Brown hare tries to avoid eye-contact...

With a day off scheduled for today, I was optimistic for a good early birdy start based on the forecast. Overnight southerly winds with drizzle in the morning - what could be better? Unfortunately our friends at the Met Office were a little off and the day started bright with the wind having switched to something more south-westerly and of course the lack of precipitation had me abandoning any ideas of hoopoes, woodchat shrikes and lesser short-toed larks.
As it happened I really struggled to find anything worthy of mention, and even the white wagtail convention at the Flood had completely cleared out.
At least 20 linnet were still kicking around, including a few rummaging around in the piles of horse manure currently occupying the stubble fields.
A lone wheatear and the on-territory common and lesser whitethroats did all they could to keep me interested but I didn't even pick up any notable vis; meanwhile stacks of redpoll and a trio of tree pipit graced nearby Heysham Obs airspace...  and let's not even mention Walney's bee-eater!
Oh well, I did see my first peacock butterfly of the year and a brown hare crouched fearfully as I passed by (pictured).

All White Now

Singing willow warbler

It seems that spring is well and truly upon us, despite the very tardy start. And although they may be later and yet to arrive in true bulk, many of our common migrants are finally present in decent numbers. Swallows are all over the place, while multiple willow warblers, chiffchaffs, blackcaps, common whitethroats and lesser whitethroats can be seen and heard around the patch. In the past few days I have also seen my first swifts of the year, plus a couple of common sandpipers. 

Recent highlights as follows:

A trawl around on Saturday:
1 common sandpiper, 1 little ringed plover, 2 white wagtail, 4 gadwall - Freeman's Pools
1 white wagtail - Frog Pond
2 little ringed plover - Wildowlers' Pools
1 little ringed plover - Reedy Corner
4 little ringed plover, 8 white wagtail - the Flood
1 common sandpiper, 2 wheatear - the Creek

Wheatear

Common and lesser whitethroats were scattered throughout the area, their bursts of song a treat to my ears. The linnet flock discovered the day before was still in the stubble fields but better still were 2 grey partridge.
Almost as good as the arrival of any summer migrants, the sight of this cryptic pair really cheered me up. Distressingly, they are the first grey partridges that I have seen on the patch since my return in December; I was starting to think they'd finally succumbed to local extinction, much like corn bunting before them.

Scanning over the river I noticed a smart drake eider come by, and then I spotted a further 3 drakes and a duck roosting up on the marsh at Colloway - local breeders, all being well.

Friday morning, I was not terribly optimistic given the non-migrant-friendly weather...
Still, the highlights included:
1 grasshopper warbler seen well creeping around in Freeman's Wood
Flock of 18 linnet in stubble field - been very scarce over the winter, so a nice discovery.
4 wheatear were on Aldcliffe Marsh.

Yet another little ringed plover pic...

Little ringed plovers continue to be seen around place with birds on Freeman's Pools, Wildfowlers' Pools and The Flood (5 in total).
1 single snipe was also at Wildfowlers' Pools
4 gadwall (no wigeon - finally gone?) were on Freeman's Pools with a few remnant teal and the 4 tufted ducks. A pair each of oystercatcher and lapwing seem to be on territory here too. Several shelduck have been roosting on the island lately.
Again good numbers of swallows moving through with plenty of sand martins, plus a few house martins and swifts.
Just c.30 alba wagtails were still on the Flood; they were all white wagtails from what I could, bar two pieds.

White wagtail

Having spent 4 days on a residential course with the RSPB, I arrived back in Lancaster  around 3pm on Thursday. I quickly headed for Aldcliffe where over the course of 2.5 hours I recorded the following:
Several swifts (my first of year) plus both house and sand martins and swallows moving through.
Apparent fall of blackcaps - at least 10 seen mostly in and around Freeman's Wood.
A garden warbler showed uncharacteristically well, along the path by Freeman's Pools.
On the marsh there were 11 wheatear & a male whinchat .
After spotting a lone white wagtail at Frog Pond, I was amazed to find a flock of 42 feeding on the Flood with just 6 pied wagtails. What a sight! Unfortunately, they were feeding so actively that a sharpish digi-scope snap was pretty much out of the question, hence the fuzzy effort here. 
The ever present little ringed plovers were much in evidence with a pair on the Flood and 1 at Wildfowlers' Pools (incidentally, another was displaying over a grotty gravel area on Lune Ind Estate last week).
Pair of gadwall & 7 wigeon were still at Frog Pond. 5 Tufted duck and 1 female goosander were seen on Freeman's Pools.

To tie in with last week's local influx of Arctic terns and little gulls, I was fortunate enough to come across a flock of 26 Arctic terns near the creek during a brief (and breezy) visit on 21st.

Jon

Bibbed Blackbird Brings Birthday Bonus

Yet another Freeman's Pools pic...

Having spent last weekend working up near Penrith, I took Monday off (it just so happened to be my birthday) and I found a couple of hours to have a good look around the patch.
With the wind having changed direction a few days earlier things were definitely starting to feel a little more spring-like!
The undoubted highlight came as I neared the end of my walk and on a whim decided to check the hedgerow behind Freeman's Pools - in the past this has turned up such spring goodies as whinchat, redstart plus both spotted and pied flycatchers - and came across a cracking male ring ouzel. This, perhaps surprisingly, was only my second ever Aldcliffe ouzel, the previous one being an autumn bird.
My occasional visits to the patch in recent days have proved reasonable with continued arrivals of swallows, sand martins, chiffchaffs, willow warblers and wheatears being the main arrivals, plus the odd blackcap or two.
A few 'winter' wildfowl are hanging in with up to 7 wigeon still around Frog Pond and a pair of gadwall commuting between there and Freeman's Pools.

Here hare, here.

I haven't seen the green sandpiper since April 11, though I did bag my first whimbrel of the season on 14th.  Just one pair of little ringed plover remain on the The Flood.
Other winter remnants included an impressive flock of 82 redwing on the 11th feeding in the fields in the company of a lone male wheatear.
A couple of strolls through the nearby Fairfield FAUNA reserve while on my way to and from the office were rewarding with up to 5 wheatears present as well as a stunning male whinchat yesterday (Thurs).
Mammals wise I haven't seen any roe deer lately but brown rats continue to be ever-present, plus low numbers of brown hares can be found occasionally (and photographed at long range...). 
My work schedule currently has me all over the place, so my updates here may continue to be a little erratic for a while - though I'll try and make more effort to maintain regular postings!
Jon

The Mipit Show

Little ringed plover (pic by Steffi Carter)

The only real downside to my having started a new job with the RSPB is that I’m no longer blessed with having the luxury of loads of time on my hands.
As a consequence my daily Aldcliffe visits have been seriously curtailed.
However, given the tediously slow start to spring I doubt that I’ve really missed all that much.
The times that I have managed to get down to the patch for a root about have been almost migrant-free in the past couple of weeks. The major exception has been the impressive run of little ringed plovers that have stopped by. The most that I have seen at any one time is 6 (5 on the Flood, 1 on the Wildfowlers’ Pools) but Gavin Thomas counted 10 in the Aldcliffe area on one visit!
It will interesting to see how many pairs set up territory this year, and more interesting still to see how many young are fledged.

There have been a couple of wheatears seen on the marsh, including one spotted by my brother Dave and his wife Steffi who were visiting from Wales over the Easter weekend. But really, only 2 wheatears reported into the second week of April? Sheesh.

Male wheatear (pic by Steffi Carter)

Perhaps more interesting still was the dead manx shearwater that Dave and Steffi found near Marsh Point – only the second record for Aldcliffe that I am aware of. That previous bird was also a tideline stiff. Incidentally, Dave and Steffi have their own blog, highlighting their exploits in Wales: Borderline Birding.
Yesterday I nipped down to the Parish after work and finally bagged my first chiffchaff of 2013. Once again, I can’t recall ever seeing my first one of the year so late in the season. Once those winds change direction (the latest forecasts suggest that will finally happen this coming weekend) we can expect the floodgates to open a touch and all being well, we should be awash with freshly arrived migrants from the continent.
The only significant movement thus far has been that of meadow pipits; hundreds of birds have been pouring through in the past week or so with many stopping off to feed in the fields and saltmarsh around Aldcliffe and Fairfield. The few rock pipits that I have been able to get decent looks at around the marsh have all been well-defined littoralis birds with distinct supercilliums, discernible wing-bars and pale outer tail feathers.
Fieldfare are still very much in evidence around the patch, just to remind us that summer is still a long way off. A group of 8 of these fab thrushes have been kicking around in recent days and I was surprised to see   around 30 feeding in the fields adjacent to Aldcliffe Hall Lane yesterday.

The view (with avocet) from Marshside's Sandgrounders Hide

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time outside the area in the last couple of weeks, including a day spent at the RSPB’s Marshside reserve near Southport. The place was positively jumping with birds; streams of meadow pipits passed through while some were engaging in flight displays and singing their heads off. Similarly, impressive numbers of skylarks were belting it out from on high.
Good numbers of elegant avocets paraded in front of Sandgrounders Hide alongside moulting black-tailed godwits.
A long-staying spoonbill (see badly digiscoped image) played hide and seek throughout the day but occasionally showed well, though somewhat distantly.

Snoozebill

Scanning over the marshes there were wigeon, shoveler and pintail to be seen as well as  few lingering pink-footed geese. Several ruff were busily feeding in the shallows with dunlin, oystercatcher and the ever-garrulous redshanks.
With news breaking of a Lancashire’s first record of killdeer this week, I was rather delighted to find myself scheduled to spend the day today at the excellent Beacon Fell Country Park in Bowland – just a few minutes away from the location of the American vagrant’s discovery. The bird was found by the RPSB’s own Gavin Thomas, who ironically found a killdeer in Ireland recently – quite probably the same bird he came across on his home patch of Alston Reservoir in Longridge!
This killdeer has been extremely elusive with more people dipping on it than actually seeing it and after my hour-long visit this evening I can now include myself in that unfortunate club. It’s not exactly a big deal for me as killdeer is one of those birds that I was seeing on a near-daily basis during my 3 years in Canada.  
Jon    

Having A Nice Chat

Stonechat

I finally caught up with my first stonechats of the year this afternoon while checking the usual haunts in the Aldcliffe area.
There were 2, both females (pictured), feeding on the saltmarsh between Snipe Bog and Cadaver Corner and loosely associating with a flock of around 20 meadow pipits. About time too!

In other exciting bird news, the little ringed plover was again on The Flood.
This is the first time I've seen this bird in well over a week, despite at least 3 visits.
Whether it's been checking out other spots in the vicinity or simply keeping a low profile I have no idea.

Stonechat, Aldcliffe

As the weather continues to chill us all to the bone it looks unlikely that we'll be getting much significant spring migrant action any time soon if the forecasts are to be believed. Maybe a little more wildfowl and gull movement associated with the icy conditions might make up for that and we may even be fortunate enough to see a scarce grebe or something equally enticing turn up somewhere in the 'hood.
I haven't been able to get out much in the last week or so (among other things, all our worldly belongings arrived from Canada on Thursday), but when I did venture out in the positively Baltic conditions there wasn't much to get excited about.
The roe deer quintet have continued to show well around Freeman's Pools and Jenny and I saw a further 3 near Ashton Hall early last week. We also had great views of a pair of amorous brown hares and killer looks at a weasel which responded well to my pishing.

Gadwall pair, Darter Pool

Wildfowl has been somewhat erratic around the pools with varying numbers of common species present. Slightly unusual was the pair of goosander on Freeman's Pools today while a pair of gadwall seem to have taken a liking to the small Darter Pool (pictured).
Now that I have actually found gainful employment my visits to the parish may well be curtailed somewhat but even with April approaching, I'm not sure I'm going to be missing much too until those winds change direction...        

The Little Things In Life...

Little ringed plover, The Flood

Managed to find an hour to get out today and go in search of Guy's little ringed plover from yesterday.
Cycling through the busy industrial estate I kept an eye out for a certain red-tailed bird but unsurprisingly I didn't spot it.
Freeman's Pools were fairly quiet with just the usual mute swan, mallard, teal, coot, moorhen, gadwall and tufted duck present.
There were good numbers of meadow pipit and curlew feeding in the Frog Pond field but the regular flock of wigeon were notable only by their absence.
At the Wildowlers' Pools it was business as usual: little egret, grey heron, teal, moorhen, little grebe, and so on. The 'resident' female goosander is still hanging around and the green sandpiper made its presence known by flying noisily off the pools and heading toward the Flood.
The Flood was conspicuously quiet with none of redshank, dunlin, lapwing, teal or black-headed gulls so often seen there of late. Not even a single moorhen, mallard or shelduck was to be seen. Even the pied wagtails had all but disappeared with just a pair of birds searching for food along the water's edge.

Little ringed plover, Aldcliffe

This wasn't looking too promising... then I noticed a lone wader, picking around in the mud toward the back of the Flood. Bingo!
I managed to get a couple of pretty shoddy pics of the little ringed plover by holding my compact camera up to my 'scope eyepiece, but you can clearly see all the defining features.
So, that's the first 'real' spring migrant to grace the parish this year - what will be next? Sand martin, wheatear, chiffchaff?
Jon