Review of the Year 2010 - Part 1

Another new year, so another round up of the past years birding. I am going to be splitting up the review into 4 sections covering 3 months; each will be a few days apart so that people have a chance to finishing reading one before starting the next. Anyway here goes with January to March.

January

Usually New Years day is quiet for me and my parents had said that they wouldn't take me out, however since the drake Ring Necked Duck that had turned up at ICI Reservoir on the 29th had been relocated on Fleetwood Marine Lakes my dad agreed to take me down there, great views were obtained. A high tide at Warton Marsh on the 3rd meant that a few local birders were down there at midday, however unfortunately the tide only covered the outer marsh so it didn't flush anything closer too us. Luckily a Short Eared Owl performed admirably, along with 2 each of Peregrine Falcon and Merlin. A report of an American Bittern at Marton Mere on the 16th meant that the next day I was down there early and stayed for the whole day, and although the yank didn't show up, 2 Bitterns, 1 Cetti's Warbler (lifer) and an adult Yellow Legged Gull were good consolation.

The 30th provided the first full days birding of the year with a trip up to Aldcliffe near Lancaster, and Leighton Moss. I located the beautiful redhead Smew on freeman's pool at Aldcliffe pretty quickly and it showed well albeit a bit distantly, then on to Leighton Moss where the 4 Snow Geese (lifer) that had been present for a few months were showing well with the large Greylag Flock in front of Lilian's Hide. Dubious origins as with any snow geese but they arrived and left at the right times with a wild greylag flock which goes in their favour.


February

The month started cleaning up yearticks and dipping an adult drake American Wigeon on the River Lune at Cockersands. However on the 7th I was at Glasson; after already seeing Brent and Barnacle Geese on the way there; and whilst scanning along the river bank picked out the American Wigeon (lifer) with a group of Eurasian Wigeon. Typically I had left my phone at home so it by the time I put the news out the light was going, luckily someone connected with the bird that evening and it continued to show for the next 3 days.

I'd always wanted to visit Gigrin Farm in Wales to see the Red Kites being fed, and when a juvenile Black Kite turned up their in January, I planted the idea in my parent's minds that a weekend in the area might be a nice holiday, and amazingly they agreed! The 19th-21st of February were probably 3 of the best days of my life, with 3 days of snow in a gorgeous cottage by a river which had a garden full of birds. The garden held both Willow and Marsh Tits and a Tawny Owl, whilst Dipper and Kingfisher were seen on the river. Gigrin Farm was carpeted in snow on the Sunday and the hide was packed with birders and photographers. The most amazing site I've ever seen ensued with 80+ Red Kites coming to feed from the meat that had been put down, performing some stunning aerial displays.

It took 30 minutes but eventually the Black Kite (lifer) appeared and gave mind blowing views allowing for some great photos, just a sample below.

March

A quiet month by rarity standards, with no lifers added however a number of scarce birds were seen including one of Britain's finest. An adult Mediterranean Gull on the Playing fields opposite Stanley Park on the 6th showed well and allowed for some photographs.

The next day I headed up to Leighton Moss to try and get a few good birds that had been in the area. After turning off the motorway you drive through Yealand Redmayne to reach the reserve, but whilst driving through the village I noticed 3 birds of prey above us, so I asked my dad to pull over so I could get a better look. The first 2 birds were Buzzards however when I looked at the third the pale underside and barring on the chest immediately shouted an accipiter. The size and shape immediately ruled out Sparrowhawk which only left one of the most awesome birds in our country, an adult male Goshawk. It circled over for about a minute before the Buzzards drove it away and it flew fast northwards, and a Great White Egret at Leighton made for a very impressive day. On the 21st I saw the Ring Necked Duck back at it's original site on the ICI Reservoir and I managed to get the hat-trick of American Ducks with a Green Winged Teal at Marshside on the 27th, rounding off a good start to 2010.

Ringing Recoveries

I'm still waiting for the information on the Pink Footed Goose (White LPT) that I saw on Warton Marsh on the 3rd, however I have received the details on the mystery coot from Stanley Park and a Mute Swan that I photographed on Fleetwood Marine Lakes last year.

It seems that Kane had made a slight error when entering the details of the Coot into his database and that it wasn't anything exciting, it was an adult male ringed at Stanley Park on 13th December 2010. I'm hoping to get back there on Saturday to specifically try and photograph more combinations, will report back then if I am successful.

Last week Zac Hinchcliffe photographed a Mute Swan with the blue darvic ring BX4 at Fleetwood Marine Lakes. I make a point of photographing the rings on the Mute Swans whenever I visit the marine lakes so I knew that this bird had been present at least a year. However once again Kane stepped in and emailed us both saying that it had been ringed on 24/09/2006 at Fleetwood Marine Lakes, so had been in the area for at least 4 years.

Return of the Geese

For the first time in what seems like an age, a noisy flock of Pink Footed Geese over school today certainly brightened up my day. My house is on one of the main flightlines from the Ribble to the Pilling/Cockerham region, the 2 areas where there are the largest numbers of birds present, which means that throughout the winter I get thousand of geese passing over my house and the neighbouring fields, and occasionally alighting briefly too. I always check the flocks as they go over just in case they contain something more interesting, a single Barnacle Goose in October being the only of note, however with plenty of other species in the area (Red Breasted, Bean, Brent and White Front), there is always a chance something will one day grace my airspace.

Will also report back tomorrow on a couple of recent ringing recoveries that I reported, including the mystery coot from mondays post ;) tune in tomorrow to find out where it came from.

Livening up at Last

Whilst walking home from school this afternoon in glorious sunshine,; for what felt like the first time in weeks; I noticed how much more active the local birds were, and also how noisy they were. Just outside of school a small flock of Long Tailed and Blue Tits were flitting about a Hawthorn bush, along with a Song Thrush that gave a half hearted attempt at a song, before giving up and returning to feed.

Down Derby Road the resident Goldfinch flock was in a tall alder flock and numbered 6 birds, I have had Lesser Redpoll with them the last 2 winters but none so far this year. A berry ladened bush next to the path that never seems to have any birds on it finally delivered today with 7 Fieldfare and 6 Redwing gorging themselves. A Mistle Thrush flew over calling as did a Pied Wagtail and a male Chaffinch. Finally as I reached the top of my street, the high pitched call of a Goldcrest rose from a small area of bushes, how they have managed to survive the recent weather I will never know!

Colour Ringed Coots

Over the past 2 years, north-west ringer Kane Brides, along with the help of others has been colour ringing Coots, mainly at Southport Marine Lakes and Stanley Park in Blackpool. I have seen several of these colour ringed birds while I've been out and about and have photographed all of them. Of the 23 birds I've photographed so far some of the more interesting movements have been:

GC59952 - A juvenile female bird ringed at North Duffield Carrs in the Lower Derwent Valley NNR in Yorkshire as a part of a different colour ringing scheme. It was first noted at Preston Docks in mid November but was missing a colour ring. Luckily a ringer managed to read the metal BTO ring which confirmed it as this bird. I photographed it still present at Preston Docks on 01/01/2011.

GR05429 - Adult bird ringed at Southport Marine Lakes 11/01/2010. I photographed this bird at the De Vere Hotel next to Stanley Park on 26/03/2010, the first time it had been seen away from the marine lakes and a distance travelled of 17km. I then photographed it again on 02/01/2011 at Stanley Park, showing that it has now been in the area for over 9 months.

GR24400 - Adult bird ringed at Stanley Park on 03/12/2010. I photographed it at Stanley park a month later on 02/01/2011, not very interesting? Well it was seen at Pennington Flash in Manchester on 31/12/2010, which means that it had moved there after being ringed then come back to the park in 3 days, probably after the flash froze over.

And finally a bit of a mystery. This bird (Left Leg - purple over red, Right Leg - Dark Blue over Metal) was at Stanley Park on 02/01/2011, however Kane doesn't know when or where it was ringed and is currently trying to find out any information on the bird, so it could be another bird from Yorkshire or maybe further afield? Only time will tell, can't wait to find out though.

Limited time, Limited sightings

I didn't have much time to get out today because I've got exams in the next 2 weeks so have to revise allot. High tide was around 2pm but I only had the morning which limited where I could go, so I decided to punt at Fleetwood area in the hope that I could locate the waders at Cleveleyes and find the Purple Sandpiper. However the weather had other ideas and it was blowing a gale when I got there and there didn't seem to be any waders at all on the beach :(. A couple of Eiders and a Red Throated Diver offshore made for the only year ticks of the day.

I was hoping to go and see the Great Northern Diver at Fleetwood docks but I don't know how the access works to the site or where to view from so my mum didn't want to give it a try so I headed home quite demoralised which I seem to be feeling allot recently, hopefully the birding will improve in the next week.

2011 Yearlist - 97 species

Day of Two Halfs

Definitely one of those days where the morning if completely different to the afternoon. I started off with a drive over wyre to look for the 1st winter Red Breasted Goose which has been with a Pink Footed Goose flock near Stalmine for the past few days. Unfortunately the Pink Footed Goose flock was as far away from all the roads as possible so very difficult to view, and although there were at least 600 birds there I couldn't locate the bird. However I did finally manage to add Pheasant to my yearlist!

Then it was up to the Fleetwood area where I quickly added yearticks in the form of Red Breasted Merganser and Turnstone on the marine lakes. We then went to Cleveleyes to look for Purple Sandpiper with the Turnstone flock however the beach was packed with dog walkers so the waders never stayed still long enough to be looked through. Will definitely be going back tomorrow. At this point it seemed that the day was going from bad to worse, but hopefully my final target would be more obliging...

Getting out of the car at Fairhaven Lake I immediately spotted the Red Necked Grebe (lifer 255) on the water next to the near back. Unfortunately as always seems to be the case when I go to Fairhaven the light was terrible and it started to rain so I only managed a crap record shot as it swam away into the centre of the lake. If the weather is nicer tomorrow I will go

get some better shots.

2011 Yearlist - 95 species