Hilbre spring.

I've managed to get over to Hilbre recently.  I've not been for a while - mainly as I didn't fully trust my Landrover after it experienced a clutch issue after its engine rebuild. Thankfully that seems to have resolved itself and with the tides being at the right time of day for me to stay over thats what I've did. 

Hoping for an early summer migrant my first trip on Monday was disappointing. The day was cold and dull with a biting wind. I'd resolved to try and catch some more Rock Pipits for our ongoing project as they're just beginning to pair up. Theres still a couple of unringed birds about but I only managed to catch two birds that had already been fitted with an engraved blue darvic and a red 'marker' colour ring. That in itself was interesting as it gave an opportunity to see how darvic rings were faring as the oldest bird, CAK was ringed in August 2023 as an adult at the north end. As can be seen from the photo below the ring is still in good condition.

The other bird, CBB, was ringed in 2024 as a juvenile and was caught in Niffy Bay.

Again, this darvic  ring has held up well. Interestingly both birds were caught less than a metre apart and on wing length it appears that CB could be a male. It's possible that these two will now be a breeding pair and we'll continue to monitor them.

I also tried, unsuccessfully, to catch Turnstone for the flagging project we have registered for them so consoled myself by getting down low to photograph bot the wintering Turnstone and some very photogenic Purple Sandpipers.

We need to refine our catching techniques for Turnstone but thats in hand.  We've managed to ring one Turnstone so far but that has proved to be extremely successful with bird AA ringed in march last year being seen and photographed on Hilbre again this winter. It's hard to comprehend that its probably made a 6,000 mile round trip to the Arctic nd back to breed in the intervening year.

Black Scoter - 1st for Cheshire and Wirral.

Black Scoter is the American equivalent of our Common Scoter. The 1st UK record as late as 1987. Up until 2022 there had been 16 UK records including the long staying bird at Llanfairfechan that I saw in 2003 and 2004. 

Roll on 21 years and I was just about to go on holiday in Tenerife with Sean O'Hara posted a photo of a Black Scoter he'd found off the north Wirral coast at Hoylake. It was quite obviously a male Black Scoter and was associating with the large number of Common Scoter present in the area over the winter.

All week I  saw reports coming out on the bird news services and local WhatsApp groups of the Black Scoter being seen and was hopeful it would still be there on my return. Unfortunately the day after we returned I had to wait in at home for an engineer to come and fit full fibre broadband so had to wait yet another day.

Meeting up with Al we parked up and walked across to the RNLI station where we saw a few other birders forlornly looking out to sea not realising as the tide was dropping they could follow it out. We set off like a pair of Pied Pipers with the others following behind. Out at the tides edge we gradually moved further forward as the sea continued to recede. 

With a stiff breeze blowing the sea was quite choppy but we soon picked up the Black Scoter - especially when the sun shone and reflected off its huge yellow conk! It stuck out like a beacon. For the next couple of hours there followed a game of hide and seek as we advanced to the edge of the tide and the bird disappeared temporarily in the waves before popping up again. 

A great bird to see in our area following Surf Scoter a few years ago. As well as the Black Scoter we had the added bonus of 2 Long-tailed Ducks and 4 Scope. 

Black Scoter twitch

With the wind numbing our fingers (despite gloves) we decided to call it a day and walk the long way back to the shore and warmth. Another superb find by Sean O'Hara on his local patch. From Seans photo the orange tinge to the base of the upper mandible can clearly be seen. Interestingly the Black Scoter always seems to be in the closet group of Scoter just beyond the surf line and the late Martin Garner, in his Frontiers in Birding book (published 2008, ISBN 978-1-898110-47-7) notes that Black Scoter, in N America, quite often feed in the surf.

Black Redstart, Fort Perch, New Brighton, Wirral

Black Redstarts only started colonising the UK after the 2nd World War and favoured bombed out buildings and derelict sites in the south of the country. Although widespread and common in Europe they're still a scarce breeder here and are very slowly moving north with breeding attempts being made in Liverpool and Manchester.

I saw my 1st around 1976 when I was taken to see a breeding pair at a typical derelict site on the Essex coast.  They're still a scarce bird in Cheshire and Wirral and generally a coastal migrant, although they have bred, and a description species inland. I've see na few in the spring on Hilbre with the last being in spring 2023 - see here.

News that there was an apparently over wintering male at Fort Perch, New Brighton was vaguely interesting but my attention was really piqued when someone posted  photo of one of our colour ringed Hilbre Rock Pipits nearby!. When Jan suggested I might want to come along with her and our youngest daughter to an indoor soft play area, also in New Brighton, I jumped at the opportunity as long as I could check the Fort out for both birds. 

When I first arrived it was wet and there was no sign of the Black Redstart. A couple of hours later I returned in sunshine and found the bird immediately on show and at one pont came close enough for some really nice photos.

No sign of the Rock Pipit though which was a shame as although the photo clearly showed the blue darvic ring the code couldn't be read. A real shame as this represents the furthest movement for a Hilbre colour ringed Rock Pipit to date - I subsequently found out the Rock Pipit was actually seen nearer Egremont which is even further away. Thats another trip sorted.

Oystercatchers

My 1st SCAN canon netting trip of the year took place a couple of weeks ago in Bangor harbour where we set a net to catch roosting Oystercatchers at dawn.

A combination of bad luck and flighty birds (a Peregrine chasing Knot didn't help the situation) meant we didn't catch as many as we'd hoped. With a big team having a small catch was certainly more relaxed and gave time for the newcomers to discuss the ageing and sexing characteristics as will as looking at some odd moult.

The oldest bird caught was ringed in October 2005 making it nearly 20 years old. It was aged on eye colour as Euring 8 meaning we know it was definitely hatched 3 or more years ago.

An adult Oystercatcher would have been expected to have completed its post breeding moult last autumn but this bird still had unmoulted outer primaries and inner secondaries on both wings. Maybe a sign of advancing age (the bird was later found to be ringed as an adult 19 years ago) or maybe an unexplained arrested moult.

Another ageing feature for Oystercatcher is leg colour with older birds having pinker legs whilst young birds are much duller.

Euring 5 birds (born last year) are identifiable by their dull brown eye and may have some retained brown juvenile feathers as in the photos below:

Unexpected brambling in the garden

With the weather calm on 30th December and Jan having to get up early I decided to open a mist net in the garden in the hope of catching a few Redwing. No Redwings but I got a real surprise when this 1st calendar year Brambling ended up in the mist net. I'd not see one in the garden or around my local village patch this winter period. We had a single bird around the bird feeders last April but it didn't hang around.

This bird was particularly bright and was aged as a 3 male (born current calendar year) as it had a moult contrast in the greater coverts with three browner retained outer juvenile feathers with the rest being adult type that it would have moulted into during its post juvenile moult.

A stunning bird. It's not often I get to ring Brambling so it was a real treat. We did manage to ring 23 in one session on Fetlar a few years ago (see here) and this was the first I'd ringed since then.

Florida 2024. Part 4. Twin Oaks Conservation Area

Once again I consulted eBird for sites close to where we were staying and found a reference to the Twin Oaks Conservation Area. An area of scrub trails and a large lake. What caught my eye was the sheer number of wildfowl, 300 + American Coots for example, along with Snail Kites. One of the few areas this species is seen regularly.

Heading off on our penultimate day I arrived around 09.00 to disappointingly find the preserve allowed shooting and there was a fair bit of disturbance around the lake. There were still plenty of birds around but the ducks were very flighty and a long way out with only Ring-necked Duck & Mallard being close enough to identify without a 'scope. There were also several distant Belted Kingfishers - instantly recognisable by their call. The last time I'd heard one was the one I ticked as a lifer in the UK. See here.

For the 1st time during our stay I met another couple out birding. Not really birding as they didn't have binoculars but they had cameras with large telephoto's. Chatting to them they showed me photos of a Great -horned Owl they just photographed peering out of a hole in an old tree. Armed with directions I headed that way and after a search found the owl peering out of its roost. The 2nd of the trip following one heard only at the Disney Wilderness Preserve.

Whilst searching for the Horned Owl I saw good numbers of smaller passerines including Blue-gray Gnatcatchers. These small birds are extremely active and hard to photograph but I noticed one kept  sallying forth from the same tree so waited for an opportunity to get a photo.

The couple I'd met suggested I was a bit early in the day for Snail Kite as they normally saw them towards dusk but told me they frequent a swampy area on the approach road to the reserve. Sure enough my luck was in and I picked up a distant kite perched up. The distinctive bill is adapted to remove their favourite prey, Apple Snails, from their shells. As I watched another bird appeared and they both hunted slightly closer so I could get a couple of record shots.

As the sun got hotter more butterflies appeared including Zebra Longwing, the Florida State butterfly, and Queen butterfly.

Heading back before it got to hot I came across yet another pair of ridiculously tame Sandhill Cranes. Crouching down they approached me completely unperturbed by my presence.

A great couple of weeks. Although not a serious birding trip I managed some good trips out ended up with a list of 70 birds. Not a huge number but it included four lifers in Florida Scrub Jay, Pileated, Red-headed and Red-cockaded Woodpecker. I also saw my 1st ever Black Bear and a totally unexpected Nine-banded Armadillo feeding outside the back of our villa one morning. These were introduced into Florida in the early part of the 20th century and are now naturalised.

For once a trip to Disney was more relaxed. The next time we'll probably go will be for our 40th wedding anniversary in 2026 with all the grandkids so I can't see me getting much free time to go birding on that trip.

Florida 2024. Part 3. Wildlife around the golf courses.

A lot of the golf courses in Florida have extensive wetlands associated with the. Lots of these are natural lakes but many are attenuation ponds designed to hold rain water or recycled water from the sewage works  for irrigation purposes. These attract a surprising amount of wildlife and I was pleasantly surprised to see a number of waders such as Least Sandpiper, Killdeer, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilsons Snipe and Greater Yellowlegs in good numbers. Alligators and Florida Red-bellied Cooters (turtles) were also a common sight.

Least Sandpiper

Killdeer

Greater Yellowlegs with Least Sandpipers

Greater Yellowlegs

Wilson's Snipe

   

Nearly every where we went had at least one pair of ridiculously tame Sandhill Cranes whilst both Turkey & Black Vulture were omni present overhead. The golf courses were the only places I saw Loggerhead Shrikes.

Turkey Vulture

                                                                         Sandhill Crane

Loggerhead Shrike

Golf carts are essential in Florida due to the heat and many courses won't let you play without hiring one. At first I was a bit annoyed about this but I soon discovered approaching birds in the cart slowly meant they weren't disturbed whereas approaching on foot they quickly moved away. The added bonus was the 'beer buggy' that came round selling snacks and cold drinks. Birding on a hot Florida day in the comfort of a golf cart with a cold beer in the icebox provided takes some beating! 

The muddy margins of some of these pools held the waders whilst more established areas were home t oa good variety of waterbirds such as Great Blue & Little Blue Heron's , Anhinga, Pied-billed Grebes and on one memorable day my trips only Roseate Spoonbill. Great Egrets, Snowy Egrets, Cattle Egrets, Glossy Ibis and Limpkin were also fairly common.

Pied-billed Grebe

Roseate Spoonbill

Little-blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

American White Ibis

Anhinga

Some of the best views of birds such as Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler and Eastern Phoebe were of those feeding on the ground on golf courses. Using the cart as a hide meant I could get up pretty close without disturbing them.

Palm Warbler

Pine Warbler

Eastern Phoebe

Ospreys are one of the commonest birds of prey in Florida and they were s common sight fishing in the golf course lakes and ponds. Red-shouldered Hawks also utilised the fairways for hunting. Perching up until they spotted a prey item and then swooping down after it. I also saw my only American Kestrels on the golf courses.

American Kestrel

Osprey with fish

Red-shouldered Hawk

It was outside one of the golf course club houses that I saw my only Wild Turkey of the trip. Apparently it comes every morning to get fed scraps by the kitchen staff.