Odonata Pool getting a little Otter?

 

Dan here.

 

Soon after spring ends, autumn begins at Aldcliffe with the first returning Green Sandpipers. Two were at the Wildfowlers Pools this afternoon. A Snipe there was also telling.

 

A minimum of seven Little Ringed Plovers were present, with at least three of these being fledged juveniles. Two LRPs seen cutting north over Freeman's Wood may have been additional.

 

Much younger than the juv LPs were two downy Lapwing chicks-- looking to be around a week old. 

 

Songbird young out and about included Whitethroat, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Goldfinch (pictured) and Robin.

 

Adults in song included a Lesser Whitethroat in Freeman's Wood, a Skylark over the marsh and a Linnet in the hedgerow.

 

Although the air temperatures were not particularly high, sunny spells encouraged me to check out Darter Pool for odonata and I found c250 Blue-tailed Damselflies, 8 Common Blue Damselflies and three Emerald Damselflies (pictured below). Dragons here comprised an early-ish teneral Common Darter, a Four-spotted Chaser and 3-4 Male Emperors.

 

As its name suggests, this trackside pool at SD 45770 61053 is great for dragons and damsels-- and if it were to be filled in to increase maize yield, or allowed to silt and dry up on account of the flourishing willows, it would be a great loss to the area.

 

What looked suspiciously like Otter spraints were also seen at Darter Pool's margins. I can't imagine there's much in the way of fish here, perhaps a roving Lutra lutra has been here for molluscs, Moorhens or amphibians-- several young Common Toads were seen today. 

 

Butterflies weren't too spectacular, with just a Large Skipper, a Red Admiral and few each of Meadow Brown, Speckled Wood and Small Tortoiseshell noted.

 

DH.

 

Kindergarten Crop

After what seems a lifetime, I managed to get out for a trot around the Aldcliffe patch yesterday (Tues) morning. The theme of the day was definitely youngsters, and first of all I made a quick check at one of the little ringed plover nest sites and was delighted to see that the 3 chicks were still present and growing nicely.
Other random LRPs included a pair at the Wildfowlers' Pools and singles at The Flood and Freeman's Pools.
The mute swan pair on Freeman's Pools have fairly new cygnets and the early coot brood has dwindled to just two birds, but these are well grown now.
In an around the maize fields signs don't appear to be very encouraging as far as post-ploughing/seeding lapwing nests are concerned with no sign of any young there. On a more encouraging note, a batch of day-old-ish grey partridge chicks were seen here with both parents.
There's still lots of singing going on along the pathway with lesser and common whitethroat, blackcap, chiffchaff and willow warbler all still belting it out alongside the resident breeding songbirds.

In insect news, my first Emperor dragonflies of the year were a pair at Freeman's Pools while the seemingly ongoing colonisation of four-spotted chaser continues apace with an active pair at Darter Pool.

Jon

Week Finish

Dan here, with the main points of interest from a few visits this week.

The south, east and north of our isles seemed to be groaning with scarce migrants this week but if the NW of England was, nobody was finding them---myself included.

Never mind. Vis-mig-wise I mustered two late Sand Martins heading N, and a slightly unseasonal northbound Lesser Redpoll.

A count of 22 House Martins feeding over Freeman's Pools in showery weather was a good one, perhaps thanks to an increase in numbers using eaves in the Willow Lane area this year.

A pair of Arctic Terns has been noted daily, elegantly flapping round the estuary as far up as Marsh Point, and also getting cosy in the thriftier parts of Colloway Marsh south. I imagine rising water levels will scupper any hopes of a tern colony ever re-establishing itself there. Any wealthy conservationist/engineers fancy designing and helicoptering in some concrete nest platforms?

I watched a pair of Peregrines hunt down, kill and eat a Woodpigeon on the low tide mud near Gull Bank. The female was wearing the trousers and ate the majority while the male looked on. It's the first Peregrine sighting I've had here since mid-March.

Young birds are very much in evidence throughout, including five Goosander ducklings (down from 7 on May 13th) in the company of their mother. Recently-fledged birds ranging in size from Grey Herons to Chiffchaffs and Blue Tits are out and about, and flocks of post-breeding Starlings (circa two-thirds juveniles) have been numbering up to 300. Lapwings seem to be faring a little better than last year, with several full-size juvs seen, and two or three adults on eggs. No pitter-patter of LRP chick feet heard yet.

A pair of Grey Partridges looked rather exposed (and dare I say it- forlorn?) in a recently-harvested silage field and I feared that they might have lost a clutch to the machines.

An incubating Oystercatcher was highly agitated by a thoughtless traipser exercising her dogs way out on the thrift-covered saltmarsh. The irony is that at least half of the legion of marsh-wanderers will be animal and nature-lovers, who I picture tuning into BBC Springwatch (increasingly beyond parody!) and weeping at the sight of a Weasel chobbling a Dunnock brood...or something.

The old wildfowlers sign stating 'conservation area-- please keep to the footpath' has recently been re-painted but for many Aldcliffe users, ignorance is bliss.

Black-headed Gull numbers have been building recently with up to 150 adults per visit. I would guess that they are failed breeders taking an early bath.

In large wildfowl news, c100 Greylags have been feeding in and around Heaton Marsh, and the Aussie abomination (Black Swan) is still using Colloway Marsh north.

In one of the few warm spells this week, I noted c30 Common Blue Damselflies (with several pairs in tandem) at Darter Pool, and c15 Common plus 3 Blue-tailed damsels at the shallow pond by the eastern viewing area of Freeman's Pools.


DH.

The Aldcliffe Broads

Dan here.

The patch was bank holiday busy this afternoon, and instead of fretting about the next big bird I took it relatively easy and enjoyed the fair weather (a bit like normal people might).

My new camera seemed to enjoy the diffuse brightness too and I like this shot of a male Common Whitethroat taken near Freeman's Wood. Four were noted, and also four Lesser Whitethroats.

Chiffchaffs were of course very early this year so the first four fledged young shouldn't have been so much of a surprise. Other hedgerow bambinos included Long-tailed Tits and Greenfinches.

Bird of the afternoon was for sure the Broad-bodied Chaser pictured above. Although common elsewhere, this is only my 3rd or 4th patch record, and the first away from Freeman's Pools.
This male was at Stodday picnic site. It was perhaps an off-passage migrant, being some way from still freshwater, unless the sewage works tanks fall into their suitable habitat category.

Particularly after yesterday's martinfest, the parish was remarkably hirundine-free during my visit, with just two Swallows seen as they fed over the saltmarsh.

DH.

Wake of the Flood

Hello. Dan here.

This evening I returned to the parish in the kind of rainstorms that would have had Noah phoning out for more supplies.

As the deluges subsided I had a brief look around and to my surprise dozens of Swallows were nattering in the hedgerows. Some were emerging from deep in the foliage and heading off, while others were drying out on more exposed perches as pictured below.

Whether they were passage migrants driven into the nearest cover, or local-ish breeders feeding at Aldcliffe thinking the rains had set in for good and were bedding down, I'm not sure. However, I've not seen spring roosts of this species here before, and a few minutes later they were dispersing (with three or four Sand Martins in the mix too). No House Martins were noted.

At least twenty Swifts were hawking over the patch as dusk began to fall. I checked the pools (old and new) but what few waders I saw were on territory. A rainbow showed up to the south east and Song Thrushes, Blackbirds, Chiffchaffs and Dunnocks began to sing.

Steve Ryder of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust (which manages Freeman's Pools) e-mailed me to say that two Avocets were present there a couple of days ago.

DH.