Eagle owls in Lancashire
There's been a storm-in-a-teacup over this story recently

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/6698873.stm

It has now made national news, and people who've previously had no interest in wildlife are suddenly up-in-arms against these birds. Unfortunately, the pro-hunting lobby will also benefit from this negative press. I'd also point out that when the BBC aired a program on the Yorkshire breeding pair last year, one of the owls was shot dead within a week of that media attention.

My opinion is that it may be a non-native species but the rest of Europe seems to get on just fine with eagle owls. When other concerned parties claim they're worried about the effect on other local indiginous wildlife, then I'd point them to the fact that there are over 10 million cats in the UK having a much more detremental efffect.

I think I'll go up to view them this week, I used to walk in that area quite often anyway. Spectacular birds! I watched one regularly last year when I lived in Inverness. Here a pic of one I took in the city centre, sitting high above the oblivious shoppers (and not attacking their dogs!).
















Good luck to them I say.

Plenty of new wildlife in the back fields after the recent rains. Notably more wildflowers, mushrooms and bugs. Unfortunately, my hayfever has got worse too!!















We havent IDed this mushroom yet but some of the flowers we found were
Speedwell














and this Ragged robin.




















Also some mayflowers, cow parsley, forget-me-nots and red campion.

Bug-wise we've found plenty Green dock beetles (below), nettle weevils, click beetles (below), a red and black froghopper ( which we IDed here - http://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/cercopis_vulnerata.htm)



























and a new moth for the year , this "small magpie".















All the nest boxes are empty now, so the hedgrow is alive with 40+ blue tits, some great tits, a family of long tailed tits and a treecreeper pair being followed up the tree trunks by their young.















The male blackcap is still singing but I've not seen a female yet. The goldcrests (the smallest birds in the uk and not a usual garden bird) are singing every morning. They bred here a couple of years ago in the conifers.
Heres a picture from then.

Leighton Moss

Jill and I went up to Capernwray today to get her Suunto dive computer fixed. Capernwray, near Lancaster, has a dive shop which is our nearest Suunto dealer. Fortunately for me its only a couple of miles from RSPB reserve "Leighton moss". As the computer would take a fews hours to fix, we had plenty time for a Bittern hunt.

Leighton moss is a large reedbed and wetland reserve in North Lancashire. Scored a marsh harrier for this years uk list before we had even arrived at the car park.

Heres the view from 1 of the 5 hides. Click pic to enlarge.















This grey heron, mallard, coot, BH gulls, mute swans, lapwings and Black tailed Godwits were all nesting nearby the first hide. Swifts, swallows and house martins were all hunting insects on the wing. But no sign of the Bittern that we saw so easily from this hide on our last visit.
















Between hides, I found my first damsels and dragons for the year. Blue-tailed and large-red damselfies and 1 four-spotted chaser were seen. The only butterflies seen were small-white and green-veined whites.











At the second hide we found another mute swan nest and 4 doe red deer. A pair of Gadwall and a pair of moorhen were the only other sightings here. Sedge warbler and reed warbler were heard constantly but I'm not counting either (on my uk2007 list) until I get a good sighting in the open. I find it quite hard to separate the 2, just from song.
















At the last hide we visited (the one nearest the centre) we found a BH gull colony. Very noisy and not much more to see save a GC grebe nest and a scattering of mallard. So it was a short car journey to the "Eric Morecambe" hide for us.















It was high tide when we arrived at the shore hides (cos we had stopped at the Silverdale pub for lunch). At least there were a few Avocets still active. Nice elegant bird the Avocet, you can see why the RSPB chose it as the logo. Redshank, shelduck, greylag goose, oystercatcher and lots of curlew here, but no Blackwits like the last time. Got a nice clear view of a sedge warbler (better than just counting a song for my uk2007 list) on the way back to the car. I should have stopped to digiscope it but Jill was getting bored, being a non birder.















So not a bad way to kill time while we waited for the computer to get fixed, and it was ready at 4pm too. A good day, even if I did dip on the Bittern and Bearded tits. 115 species for the year.

I put my back out at the weekend, so I've not been up and about much. A medical website recommended that I exercise the joint rather than staying in bed and resting though. So I went for a short walk this morning, the weather was still and overcast.

Swallows alarm call made me look up just in time to see a sparrowhawk swoop for a kill just 20 meters from me. I could even hear the "swoosh" as it shot past! Wow! It missed the kill though and was seen off by the swallows.

Lots of noise coming from all 4 of our blue-tit occupied boxes. The male blackcap that's been singing wasnt around today. The 2 tawny owls are still roosting in the corner of the hedgerow and I found 2 or 3 "silver-ground carpet" moths also.

Heres a link to UKmoths. Its a great website for IDing any interesting moths that you might find in the UK.

In the garden today, another fresh looking "angleshades" moth. Still havent seen any "silver y's" this year. The most numerous butterfly in the garden is still the "orange tip". The dunnocks, greenfinches and robins have all fledged. Tawny owls still roosting and a little owl heard at midnight.

Digiscoping at stocks reservoir
Stopped off at the fishery first for a look and found this nice redstart inspecting the nestboxes and singing his heart out. My first redstart this year. A goldcrest was in full song too but too fast for the scope.

as usual click photos to enlarge



























I could hear a cuckoo calling as soon as I got out the car. It was calling from the hillside opposite the new hide, but scanning the trees yeilded nothing, I couldnt find him. I did get a good view of 1 of 3 singing garden warblers, on my way to the hide though.

Bit of a wader fest today. 6 Dunlin, 10 oystercatchers, 1 greenshank (years first), 4 common sandpipers, a scattering of lapwing and a ringed plover. I'm having trouble separating ringed from little ringed at distance. I cant see the eye ring even with a x80 eyepiece.
All the other usual suspects present - Canada geese, greylags, cormorants, LBB, BH and herring gulls, mallards, coot and moorhen. Didnt see either the little owls at shays or the shorties on champion moor.














Female merganser














Canada geese















Dunlin











Greenshank
















Ringed plover? with common sandpiper














Ringed plover? with oystercatcher

In the garden, I thought the male blackcap was alarm calling at me but the 2 tawny owls had changed tree roost. They flew off to their usual spot after I disturbed them.

1 day-flying "Flame carpet" moth found in front garden today.

S'been raining plenty, the last couple of days, so I've been updating my SCUBA blog instead of braving the grey skies. Out in the garden today, between showers, I found this newly hatched "White ermine" moth before its wings had properly unfolded. I put it under a leaf to shelter from the rain until they opened and then took another photo. I've collected photos of quite a few species of moth, over the years, but this year I really should get a moth trap to find some more.




























A sparrowhawk has been taking some of the young birds around the garden, and a magpie took one of the young greenfinches yesterday.
I'm pretty sure that the tawny owls are not breeding now. Shame really, cos there is plenty of prey around. I watched a wood mouse at dusk yesterday for about 5 mins.
The hedgerow coming from the owl corner, now houses quite a few families. The crow is still on her eggs (she nested at the other end of the same hedgerow last year). The robins have nested on the ground below the great tits nestbox. The blue tits have 9 eggs in the box, 100 meters from there and I'm pretty sure that the bat boxes are in use too. A male blackcap was singing from the brambles today and I hear the bullfinches call from the hedgerow on a daily basis. Its a hive of activity!

Dean Clough Reservoir

I've just been rained-off at Dean Clough reservoir but managed to digiscope the Great Crested Grebes , that are breeding there , before the weather got me.

Click to enlarge this panoramic shot




































Also seen at Dean Clough were 2 wheatears (2 f), 3 stonechat (1f 2 m), min 3 mistle thrushes, min 3 mipits, 1 pr coot, 1 pr tufted duck and 47 lesser black backed gulls on the lower res.

Nipped up to Moor Piece yesterday and got 2 crackin migrant arrivals, pied flycatcher and wood warbler. A pair of jays, garden warbler singing (didnt see it though) and plenty willow warbler around too. Very easy to watch from the road through the woods. I had the wrong equipment with me though, so I fancy an early start tomorrow to see if I can video them and record their calls.

As usual, click photo to see larger version

Owl-wise (pardon the pun), I've found a web diary of a guy in kent who's had some success with tawnies in his nest boxes. It may indeed be that my pair arent breeding this year :(
Heres a link to his very informative site-

http://www.godsownclay.com/Owl_nesting_diary/owlnestingdiar-3.html

Makes my nest box look a little rudimentary too. Maybe I'll re-furb it and install cameras before next year.

Pondering the tawnies
I'm starting to wonder about these tawny owls we have here in Clitheroe. For the last week, they've been roosting together about 4 metres up a larch tree, only 10 metres from my owl nest box.
If they have eggs already, why isnt she incubating.... and if they have young, are they just sitting in the box?? They're has already been local posting on the ELOC with a photo of young tawnies.
I suppose I can only wait and see what happens next.......

Bird massacre in Malta
Having read this shocking story in the news.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6609553.stm

......I will never visit Malta on holiday! Not that it was on my wishlist anyway, but quite alot of SCUBA divers do holiday there. Anyone who is going there should think twice about boosting the economy of such a stupid nation.

More horrific pictures here