Dabchick Late Brood News

Juvenile barn swallow

I've been making a point of checking the patch every morning this week but sadly my efforts have gone mostly unrewarded, as far as unusual off-passage species are concerned.
Given the volume of ace birds being seen elsewhere in the recording area (eg yesterday I dropped in at Leighton Moss and saw 24 curlew sandpiper, at least 4 ruff and a couple of spotted redshank) it seems only natural that Aldcliffe will have a few waders passing through, right?
Wrong.
Nonetheless, it's been interesting to see the daily changes regarding common birds. Chiffchaffs and willow warblers have been moving through in numbers, and the swallows and house martins have been gathering in increasingly larger flocks.    
The first wigeon arrived early in the week and the number of teal continue to build. I've been scrutinising the latter for the odd garganey but alas none have yet shown up.

The number of little grebe on Freeman's Pools have peaked at 6 birds and today (Friday) I was able to confirm my suspicions of a late breeding attempt with one grebe in the company of a recently hatched youngster. This seems to be a regular occurrence at Aldcliffe with this species. They clear out completely in the spring, returning late in the summer and have a crack at a late brood. Perhaps the habitat just isn't good enough early on and only once the vegetation has grown up significantly does the site offer suitable nesting habitat?
Another bird really increasing in number as the days go by is little egret; I saw at least 8 today without even really looking.

Green sandpipers continue to show both on the Flood and at the Wildfowlers' Pools. The week's high count came this morning with 6 present.
A juvenile little ringed plover had remained on the Flood throughout the week, but it looks as though it may have finally moved on as I couldn't locate it today.

When I went out to see if I could see last weekend's wood sandpiper on Sunday morning I missed it, arriving at Aldcliffe too late. Pete Crooks has seen it on the Flood at 7.30am but it was flushed by a dog walker seemingly engaging in practice for the Noisiest Man In The World competition.

All was not lost however, and I did see an adult female marsh harrier hunting along Dawson's Bank and I also spied my first post-breeding wheatear out on the marsh.

Jon

Wood You Believe It

I got a message from Guy McLellan saying that he'd found his second Aldcliffe wood sandpiper of the season this afternoon - a juvenile on The Flood.
Once again, I was well out of town with work and unable to get along to see it.
Pete Crooks reported it as still being present up to 4.55pm.

All The Fun Of The BirdFair

Me and TV's Nick Baker. Sort of...

The work load's been a bit heavy of late and as a consequence my visits to Aldcliffe have been, at best, few and far between.
Nonetheless, it hasn't been all bad as I spent the weekend down at Rutland working at the Birdfair. 
This was my first visit to the event since I last went in the mid/late 90s (the exact year escapes me...) and it was quite a privilege to attend as part of the RSPB team.
I didn't get to see too much of the fair as I spent the majority of my time on the RSPB stand handing out free checklists (we gave out over 9,000 of them over 3 days!), selling raffle tickets (£15,000 trip to Antarctica for 2 as the first prize), and signing up new members to the society.
And on the plus side, I had red kite drifting over the campsite I was staying on two days in succession.

In my absence, Aldcliffe regular and finder of spoonbills and yellowlegs, Pete Crooks posted the following on the LDBWS site on August 19th:
"The flooded field at the end of Aldcliffe Hall Lane proved to be very productive following the morning rain - 1 juv. Ruff, 5 Green Sandpiper, 4 juv. Little Ringed Plover, 9 Snipe, 1 Whimbrel and c.80 Goldfinch"

I did manage a brief check on the following day but it was pretty birdless by comparison. A single pair of juv. little ringer plover were on the Flood, a single mobile and noisy greenshank was flying around and 3 golden plover were flushed off the marsh along with a large flock of lapwing when an adult peregrine came blasting through accompanying a younger bird carrying prey.
 
Jon

Torn Between Two Plovers

After spending the day today out wandering around the Lyth Valley area with Jenny I squeezed in a quick late afternoon visit to Aldcliffe for a spot of leisurely, if blustery, birding.
Three little egret were on the island at Freeman's Pools, alongside a couple of stately grey herons. There wasn't much else showing bar a few mallard, coot, moorhen, the resident mute swan family and a tufted duck.  
I could only see two green sandpipers at the Wildfowlers' Pools. A few snipe, around 60 curlew and another little egret were also here.
On the Flood there were 4 little ringed plover but perhaps more interesting was a single ringed plover. Although considerably commoner on the whole, ringed plovers are pretty scarce in the Aldcliffe area, usually preferring the wider sandier stretches of the estuary.

Moth fans may like this pic I took of a Magpie (Abraxas grossulariata).  
We came across it while trundling around near Crosthwaite. Or rather it came across Jenny's face after she flushed it, much to her delight (not). It crawled into a dry stone wall where it posed badly and made getting a decent shot all but impossible.
The Magpie is a really smart looking insect though I have to say that I'm not all that familiar with the species, despite the fact that it is apparently reasonably common.

Jon 

Wandering warblers

Another quick walk round on Saturday afternoon revealed 4 lrp's on the Flood.
A green sandpiper and snipe were at Wildfowler's.
Approximately 50 goldfinch were at the bund.
During my morning walk around Scotforth it became evident by the calling in the bushes along the railway track that warbler migration is underway. 6 chiffchaff, including a singing bird, were heard in various bushes along the cycle track.

Guy