September round-up

Being that I havent posted much in September, I thought I'd give an overall update on whats been happening.

The tawny owls (both are side by side in the second photo, look carefully) are still around in the small copse. I'll have a new improved nest box for them very soon.


































At least 3 juv kestrels are very vocal and active in the area. I'm converting and moving the old owl box to a taller tree for the kestrels. I think these juvs are from a successful nest up near the A59.















At 10 am today with a cold northerly blowing, I saw the first (approx 20) redwing migrating back from Siberia and Scandinavia. This is an early arrival for redwing. Theyve been gorging on hawthorn, sloe and elderberries.
Also saw 5 swallows just beginning their migration south to Africa.


Great tits - have been feeding in the hedgerows. I heard an quiet tapping noise in the hedgerow, expecting a nuthatch or finch to be the perpetrator, it turned out to be Great tits trying to open the large hawthorn berry seeds.
Bullfinch - 1 female also feeding on the haws.
Collared doves - 1 pair visit the bird bath but have been less common than usual.
Nuthatch - has visited the peanut feeder again recently.
Longtailed tits, coal tits, goldcrest and treecreepers have formed hunting parties and are seen daily, once mobbing the owls.
Jays - have been very numerous this autumn. They have also been seen daily and also annoy the owls frequently.
Little owl - seen across the road in the deserted hut again. First sighting for a while although I do hear it calling at night.
Grey Heron - a young bird has been visiting the ponds at dusk and successfully taken a couple of goldfish. Just caught him on infrared as he swallows the evidence!
















Mammal wise, the woodmice are still common in the garden. We also saw one in the beer garden at the De Lacy pub in Whalley. Grey squirrels are hanging around in the owl corner. This is a concern as I dont want them to move into the new owl box. Plenty rabbits around and a healthy population of pipistrelle bats hunting at dusk.

Insect wise, not been a good year for dragonflies. Very few seen flying in September. Red admiral, speckled wood and small tortoiseshell butterflies still seen daily. We found a few Peacock butterflies in hibernation in the woodpile.

Distractions from wildlife blogging

Wow! I havent blogged for a whole month! 2 very good reasons though.
1. the rugby world cup is on and I'm passionate about rugby
2. We are working on our new house in Billington.

I'll have a new patch to report on when we move. This is the view (click photo to enlarge) from our new bedroom window. The river calder in the foreground (not visible), Billington viaduct on the left, Whalley abbey and gatehouse ruins in the middle and Pendle hill on the distant right.








I've not had time for much wildlife watching but I have been recycling the old materials from the house to make robin/redstart boxes, a new improved owl box, a sparrow box, a kestrel box, som bat boxes and a new feeding station.





















The only new bird (in September) for my 2007 uklist is a guillemot, seen at Stonehaven bay whilst on a weekend with my friends in Scotland. My list could be 15-20 species better this year if I had done some coastal birding, but it just hasnt panned-out that way.

This rook below is visiting the garden for food frequently. It comes alone from the rookery at Clitheroe golf club and is less shy and more vocal that other crows. The carrion crow family of 6 only visit the garden in early morning with the magpies. The rook woke me with an alarm call to shoo away another stray cat that has been visiting too. I dont want the cats to take any of my garden woodmice or the voles from the owl field. I'll need to find a good deterrant.

Marshside saltflats

I found myself down at Southport again today, this time, to take Treakle for the walk of his life. We figured that, at the age of 10, he's probably never seen the sea, so we took him for an epic walk on the Southport saltflats. Of course, I took my 12x50 binoculars to see what was around.
A bracing wind blew against us on the walk out towards the sea. GBB, LBB and BH gulls scattered around in the area. A few curlews called as they moved away from us. Golden plover still in summer plumage and shelduck were also present. Thousands of waders flocked closer to the shoreline, the majority were dunlin but there was probably many species in there. Treakle also disturbed a 200+ flock of adult and juv starling feeding on the "salt truck" road.
On our return to the car park, I nipped over to the sandgrousers hide to see if there was anything new since my visit on sunday.
Ruddy duck, mallard, blackwits, coot, moorhen and a flock (a "charm" is the collective noun) of circa 50 goldfinch were all easily visible.....as was the Glossy Ibis! Typical eh? the day that I havent got my tripod and scope and its just standing there closer to the hide than it was on Sunday. A kestrel, greylag and canada geese, some heron and a little egret again too.
So nothing new for my year list but a nice long walk for us and the dog.

Typical!!! I arrived back at lunchtime....checked BIRDGUIDES BIRDMAP and the leighton moss great white egret is reported at Marshside...just afew minutes after I left! AAAaaarrrggghh

The tawny owls are back!

Or indeed they've probably just got better at hiding from me. I haven't seen them for about a month, but then I've not been up to their corner of the field for a while. As usual, one of them is still quite shy and flies off to hide in a different place, but this one still likes to pose for photos.

(Click on the photos to view a larger image)

Glossy ibis at marshside
Jill and I went to Southport for the weekend for aunty Annes birthday. This was a great opportunity to visit RSPB Marshside, to look for the GLOSSY IBIS that has evaded me for the past year.















After only 10 minutes at the "sandgrousers" hide, the ibis came out of the long grass for me. Only showing for a few seconds at a time but I eventually managed to dodgyscope it.
















10 minutes later I scored another 2007 tick in the form of a LITTLE EGRET. One of half a dozen reportedly found around marshside, but I havent seen one since RSPB vane farm in 2006. Managed another couple of dodgyscopes.




























At a closer range some shots dont turn out too bad.
This common sandpiper was scoped from 15 meters away.














Snipe














Lapwing, redshank and juv starlings















Herring gull















Juv white wagtail















Redshank













Eclipse male wigeon

I've been busy with our new house in the last week, not much chance for wildlife watching or blogging, but I am making plans to attract wildlife to our new garden in Billington.

The sun is back out this week, so plenty butterflies - peacock, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood and 1 small copper. Also 2 new moths this week, Ann (Jills mum) found a satellite.....















and Jill found a Svennsons copper underwing (which took a while to ID).















There have been nuthatches calling in the oak trees this week and bullfinches enjoying the many brambles and berry trees that are fruiting. The cuckoo pint (AKA lords and ladies) are budding in the shade of the hedgerows.


Southern hawker and common darter dragonflies have been flitting around the ponds.














I even found this common hawker in the new garden too. Apologies for this photo as I only had my phonecam with me at the time.

Camping near Edinburgh

Jill and I have been camping up in Scotland at the weekend. We stayed at a semi-wild campsite in Inverkeithing, just over the Forth from Edinburgh. The real reason for the trip was for the Scotland v Ireland rugby game at Murrayfield and to see some shows at the Edinburgh fringe festival.
The campsite (click here to link to the website) has a badger watching hut, plenty woodland and wildflower meadows. Unfortunately we didnt have time for any badger watching but I did find a family of sparrowhawks in the wood near our tent.
We were too preoccupied with our other entertainment, but we will return here to camp and enjoy the wildlife.