Fylde Tick - 27/08/11

With a Fylde list of 217 species you would imagine that I had seen pretty much all the common resident and migrant species to occur in the area, however one big gap had always been Redstart which I had never managed to connect with on spring migration. Well on Saturday I tried to rectify this when I recieved a text in the evening off Len saying that there was a juvenile near to Cockersands near Glasson and luckily my dad agreed to take me to try see it. We easily found the right field and started to scan along the hedgerow along the edge where a few birds were perching before dropping down onto the recently plowed ground to search for insects. There were several Robins doing this and after a short while I spotted the juvenile Redstart about 20 metres away in the last hawthorn bush before it dropped down allowing me to see that it was a very orange example, almost as bright as the Robins it was feeding with! It continued to feed for the next 10 minutes allowing for very nice views until it disappeared into the depths of the bush and out of sight so we headed home very happy. This was my 218th Fylde bird, and took my British and Fylde yearlists up to 192 and 187 respectively.

Wryneck Dip - 26/08/11

On Wednesday a Wryneck was found on Horwich Moor, right on the border of Lancashire and Greater Manchester however it disappeared on Thursday before being re found on the morning of Friday. Ash and Aaron thought it was worth a look so we headed off in the morning arriving on site about 11:00 and after a quick look round we found the area where it had been seen last and also a couple of birders who informed us that it hadn't been seen since about 8:30. In the fields next to the woods where it had been seen were a few Pied Wagtails including on melanistic bird that was very dark, a sooty black colour all over. The birders said it was last seen flying over the road where we viewing up onto the moors above us so we decided to head up there but unfortunately all we could find were 7 Wheatear, 3 Kestrels and a Tree Pipit. Despite this disappointment a nice surprise was found on the slate bank next to the road as we passed on the way down, a gorgeous Wall Brown butterfly, a new species for all 3 of us. It gave great views however it didn't like to sit still for very long and whenever it did land it was always in an awkward place! Got a few half decent shots and the best 2 are below. This is my 28th species of British butterfly and my 12th new species of the year.

Brilliant Bat Walk - 24/08/11

The birding during the day was pretty poor however I was looking forward to the evening as I was going on a bat walk around Stanley Park with a few of the rangers, Ash, Aaron, Dave and some of the public. We started around 9pm and set off with a load of torches and a few bat detectors which quickly picked up the clicking of a Pipistrelle Bat flying around the edge of the bowling greens so we all stopped to look. Whilst we were doing this a large moth flew in front of Ash's face and with some excellent net skill he managed to catch it and upon placing in a pot we could see it was an Old Lady moth, my first ever of this large species, and further round a Crescent moth in the gardens. Walking down towards the lake we saw a Brown Long Eared Bat and then over the lake itself we watched at least 4 Daubenton's Bats picking insects off the surface of the water. On the boathouse we found 3 more Old Lady moths resting on the wall

Walking up along the edge of the northern lake and then across the road into the woodland gardens we saw several more Pipistrelle Bats however there wasn't much else about until the definate highlight of the night was found on the way back to the visitor centre. Walking along the western side of the north lake Ash spotted a couple of moths resting up on an oak tree so we went to investigate and found that it was covered in at least 40 moths including 5 absolutely beautiful Red Underwings, a new species for me and probably my new favourite species out of all the ones I've seen. I hadn't taken my camera since I wasn't expecting to need it but luckily Ash did so the below photo is one of his and shows how nice they were. 4 new moths and 2 new bats meant a very good night and hopefully I will be doing another event at the mere on wednesday.

Shard, Bank End and Glasson - 23/08/2011

Went out looking for a yeartick or two Over Wyre and although I didn't find any there were plenty of good birds around. I stopped off at the Shard Bridge first of all on the way out to chekc the wader and gull flocks to see if anything had dropped in. There were at least 400 Black Headed Gulls in one large flock however they were a bit distant so I could only find one adult Mediterranean Gull amongst them. A couple of Little Egrets fishing in the shallows and a flock of 127 Golden Plover were the only other sightings of note so I moved on the Bank End.

It was just over a year since my last visit to Bank End when I saw a couple of juvenile Yellow Wagtails with the Pied Wagtail flock on the marsh here. Well a feeling of de ja vu occured as once again I was looking at a pair of juvenile Yellow Wagtails only this time they were accompanied by a nice adult female. Amazingly these are my 8th, 9th and 10th Yellow Wagtails of the year in the Fylde despite having only ever seen 1 in the past.

The final stop was at Glasson to look out over the river at the waders however it was just the usual fair with several hundred each of Golden Plover and Lapwing along with about 90 Redshank and 50 Dunlin.

The Patch - 22/08/11

My first check of the patch for a while as I hope to find a good migrant here some time during the open so I will be visiting a lot more in the next couple of months. In the crematorium a pair of Sparrowhawks circled overhead and a male Kestrel hunted over the neighbouring fields. On the pond the 2 White Cheeked Pintails were still in residence along with 48 Mallard, 2 Coot (including the colour ringed bird) and a family part of 4 Canada Geese. From here I went to Bispham Marsh which was surprisingly quite however the first few ducks are starting to arrive back and I had 2 each of Shoveler and Teal on the south half, the only migrant passerine was a Whitehtorat in the scrub to the south of here. Although the birds weren't mind blowing the dragonflies certainly made up for it with a male Emperor on the crem pond, a male Common Darter in the scrub and at least 7 Migrant Hawkers which seemed to be everywhere.

Skippool Creek - 20/08/11

Just catching up with a few days birding since I got back off holiday. I decided to check Skippool Creek to see how the wader numbers had changed since I went away but surpringly they were pretty similar. The adult Spotted Redshank had completed it's moult into winter plumage and had been joined by a juvenile bird. There were more gulls about with at least 3 Mediterranean Gulls (2 adults and a 2nd winter) and an adult Yellow Legged Gull in the area before they were all pushed off by the tide. The total for the watch was:
2 Spotted Redshank
3 Mediterranean Gull
1 Yellow Legged Gull
2 Greenshank
8 Ringed Plover
47 Black Tailed Godwit
1 Golden Plover
39 Dunlin
60+ Curlew
300+ Redshank
350+ Lapwing

France Day 11 - 18/08

A full day driving meant not many birds seen in France at all except a few each of Buzzard and Kestrel however after crossing the channel things started to pick up a bit, although the weather went downhill. We headed round the south of London and then up the M40 as we hoped this would be quieter, however I also hoped that I would be able to connect with the bird most associated with that particular stretch of road. After a flock of 6 Canada Geese flew over the motorway my dad spotted the first of 14 Red Kites (yeartick) including a few giving great views of what has to be one of my favourite species. This was the last addition to the trip list and took it to a grand total of 84, 9 more than my target. The full list is below with the highlights in bold:
Little Grebe
Great Crested Grebe
Black Necked Grebe
Cormorant
Night Heron
Great White Egret
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Mute Swan
Canada Goose
Gadwall
Mallard
Shoveler
Honey Buzzard
Red Kite
Marsh Harrier
Montagu's Harrier
Sparrowhawk
Buzzard
Osprey
Kestrel
Pheasant
Moorhen
Coot
Oystercatcher
Little Ringed Plover
Lapwing
Common Sandpiper
Mediterranean Gull
Black Headed Gull
Common Gull
Lesser Black Back Gull
Greater Black Back Gull
Herring Gull
Yellow Legged Gull
Common Tern
Little Tern
Black Tern
Whiskered Tern
Feral Pigeon
Woodpigeon
Collard Dove
Turtle Dove
Cuckoo
Tawny Owl
Swift
Green Woodpecker
Grey Headed Woodpecker
Great Spotted Woodpecker
Sand Martin
Swallow
House Martin
Meadow Pipit
Grey Wagtail
Pied Wagtail
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Black Redstart
Stonechat
Blackbird
Mistle Thrush
Sedge Warbler
Reed Warbler
Blackcap
Chiffchaff
Long Tailed Tit
Coal Tit
Blue Tit
Great Tit
Nuthatch
Short Toed Treecreeper
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion Crow
Raven
Starling
House Sparrow
Chaffinch
Goldfinch
Greenfinch
Reed Bunting
Corn Bunting