Lift Off

We arrived back in the UK just yesterday following 14 days in sunny Skiathos. I’m hoping that blog readers haven’t deserted Another Bird Blog in its absence so I put together a few pictures of Greece so as to get the blog up and running again. Hopefully there will be local birding news soon after the essential catching up with friends, family, post and emails. 

It’s a four hour flight from Skiathos to Manchester and for once Manchester Airport was bathed in Greek-like sunshine. 

Lift Off - Skiathos Style

The town of Skiathos is the only built-up area of the island of Skiathos. It is situated on the south-eastern tip of the island in a windless bay which separates the island of Bourtzi in two. The area of the old and new harbours holds few birds where the requisite Yellow-legged Gulls can be seen flying over the buildings and the waters, occasionally resting on the rocky shore but rarely frequenting the many boats moored there, as if they are not welcomed by the fishermen. 

Yellow-legged Gull

The Bourzti - Skiathos

One morning as we walked the old harbour there was an unfamiliar gull waiting for hand-outs from a man gutting small fish. As this was a shopping for gifts and tourist photo day I had only my 50mm lens so took a couple of shots when I realised the bird to be a Caspian Gull. 

Caspian Gull

I think the current situation is that the pink-legged gulls of Britain and other northern countries are still called Herring Gulls Larus argentatus, the yellow-legged ones from the Mediterranean, the Atlantic coast of Iberia, Morocco and the Atlantic Islands are called Yellow-legged Gulls Larus michahellis. The ones that have pale pink or pale straw-coloured legs, and which breed north of the Black Sea, in the Ukraine and east of there, are called Caspian Gulls Larus cachinnans. 

At the wooded Bourtzi there were resident House Sparrows and passage migrants of both Willow Warbler and Chiffchaff, and along the quayside the resident and ubiquitous but fairly unapproachable Hooded Crow. The only other crow noted during the holiday was Common Raven, numerous around the high tops and rugged coast of the north of the island. 

Hooded Crow

Skiathos Town

Further along our walk and frequenting a waterfront restaurant was another gull, this one a juvenile bird which I suspect is also a Caspian Gull, but I’m far from being a gull fanatic so stand to be corrected.

Caspian Gull

Walking east towards the airport there are numerous waterside restaurants, one of which is splendidly named αλκυόνα - Kingfisher. We stopped for a delicious Greek salad without spotting a Kingfisher however the shallow clear waters and the often rocky shore looks eminently suited to the species. 

Greek salad

Near the airport lake and along the quieter shore were water birds represented by Great White Egret, Little Egret and Grey Heron, plus more Willow Warblers, Chiffchaffs and unseen Sardinian Warblers. 

Little Egret

Skiathos

Little Egret

 Great White Egret

There's more Greek delight soon from Another Bird Blog. And hopefully back to the patch tomorrow.

Linking today to Skywatch Friday.

Miles Away

Sorry I haven’t been posting much but I’m not at home, I’m in Greece, staying on the island of Skiathos to be precise. 

This is mainly a sun holiday for Sue and I although regular readers of this blog will know that binoculars and camera always go on holiday with us. 

Skopelos

I’m home in a day or two and will post news and pictures of our trip, birds and views of the beautiful Sporades islands of Skiathos and Skopelos. In the meantime here are a few photographs from the same place in 2013. It’s so good we decided to return. 

Flying Cat at Alonissos 

One of the highlights of our stay is day exploring Kastro in the north of Skiathos where Eleanora’s Falcons are guaranteed during the month of September, a time when the falcons feed on the millions of small birds migrating through the Greek islands. It’s a fair old bumpy journey to get to Kastro and then a trek over the rocks to reach the Greek flagged promontory. It’s well worth the effort to watch the magical and acrobatic Eleanoras in action. 

Eleanora's Falcon

Jimny

  

Kastro, Skiathos

There are lots of Alpine Swifts here and in fact all over the island where they tear across the sky at breakneck speed. There’s a good number of Bee Eaters around too and they often feed up high in amongst swifts, swallows and martins.

Alpine Swift

Bee Eater

Skiathos

We’re staying on the south coast where there’s often scrubby habitat, reeds and remnants of pine forest just yards from the tourist beaches. They make good spots for shrikes, wagtails, pipits and chats.

Red-backed Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

That's all for now, it's time to head off for our evening meal.

Taverna - Skiathos

I'm not blogging for a day or two so apologies if I don't catch up with everyone.  We are back home in a day in or two and I promise to do so then. 

Log in later for more news, views and photographs from Another Bird Blog in Greece.

Do It Again

Monday was almost a rerun of Sunday’s birds except that I managed a few pictures today without resorting to beg, steal or borrow them. 

In the half light of Burned House Lane a Barn Owl flew across the car’s path, the owl illuminated in the headlights for a second or two until it veered off over the fields and left none the worse for dicing with death. Next came 2 Kestrels on roadside telegraph poles, one at Head Dyke Lane, and the other near Horse Park Lane. Our local place names are mostly ancient and often very descriptive, but please don’t ask me the meaning of Scronkey, a hamlet near Pilling. 

In a tree next to the road at Cockerham was a Tawny Owl in exactly the same spot as Sunday morning. It’s just a stand of old trees and perhaps not where anyone might look for a Tawny Owl but as the owl flew back into the dark canopy I made a mental note of the exact location. It’s handy to know regular spots for regular birds which aren’t necessarily easy to see or photograph. 

Tawny Owl

 

Maybe there was a miscalculation or perhaps it was the morning mist which led to a count of only 200 Swallows at Glasson on Sunday. They were back in force this morning by way of a minimum of 1000 birds congregated around the moored boats and pontoons. In the cropped picture below, just part of a large yacht, are approximately 80 Swallows, so it not difficult to imagine ten or twelve times that number. The Swallows loaf around and feed over the water for about an hour before they begin to disperse in small groups and head off in all directions. There was a Common Tern fishing the water again, the one which does a circuit and then heads off towards Conder Green. 

Swallows

The Common Terns were very active at Conder Green where the adults still take food to a youngster on the island, its bigger sibling now almost independent and flying off to fish the creeks with mom or dad or resting up on the island amongst the Lapwings. 

Common Tern and Lapwings

 Juvenile Common Tern

Sunday’s Ruff was still about, feeding in the far creek and then later on the pool. The other waders today - 4 Greenshank, 4 Snipe, 1 Black-tailed Godwit, 30+ Redshank and 70+ Lapwing. Below is a distant and far from best-ever picture of a Greenshank which shows how the species eats small fish as well as invertebrates. 

Greenshank

Needless to say the Kingfisher put in an appearance although if people need to see it at close quarters it is best not to wear bright clothes and to approach the screen with caution. Birds have eyesight far keener than our own. Ears are their second most important sense with a range similar to that of humans. 

Kingfisher

Six Little Grebes, 2 Little Egrets, 2 Grey Heron and 3 Wigeon completed the count here so I walked the railway path to Glasson and back looking for finches and warblers while breakfasting on the plentiful Blackberries. At one point the noisy complaints of Swallows pointed me to a Peregrine coasting towards Glasson, the Swallows had broken off from feeding high to gang up on the raptor; their highly tuned senses had spotted the Peregrine before me. The raptor carried on flying; the Swallows lost interest and returned to base, their forewarning to others had done the trick. 

There was a good sized flock of tits roaming up and down and across the hedgerow, Long-tails, Great and Blue, a flock which held three or more Chiffchaffs. There were no Coal Tits amongst the flock and it’s a species I’ve not seen lately, and as far as I could tell no warblers other than the Chiffchaffs, although lots of Robins.

Robin

A gathering of 50+ Goldfinches also held several Linnets but neither species is especially good at sitting still for cameras. 

Linnets

Goldfinch

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday and Our World Tuesday in Australia. Oh no, is it Tuesday already? Looks like I will have to do it all over again soon.

A Ruff Old Morning

In the half-light of dawn the Kestrel of Head Dyke Lane was where it often sits atop one of two telegraph poles. Birds are such creatures of habit, just like the birders who watch them. It was too dark for a photo and asking for trouble to stop along this double white-lined stretch of the A558, one of the most dangerous roads in England. 

In the tree tops at Lane Ends I counted 41 Little Egrets waiting for the off, any minute now. And then through Cockerham I spotted a roadside Tawny Owl as it too saw the car’s headlights slowing to make it fly back to the nearby trees. 

A heavy autumn mist lay across Conder Green and the River Lune, so much in fact that there was no point trying to bird watch until the sun lifted a little more. At Glasson Dock the boats were enveloped in misty light as early rising Swallows and Starlings attached themselves to any masts which reached into the emerging sunshine. 

Misty Sunrise - River Lune

 Glasson Dock

A few Swallows were feeding low across the water as frrom the left a Kingfisher appeared amongst them, slowed as if to stop and then vanished once more into the gloom. There was a Common Tern doing a hunting circuit but too fast with no light for a picture, and then a croaking Grey Heron flying out of and back into the mist. 

After a while the mist cleared enough to count the Swallows at about 200, a drop from recent counts, and the Alba wagtails at 20+, also a fall from the highs of late. 

Swallow

The towpath walk gave a couple of Chiffchaffs and a Great-spotted Woodpecker but otherwise quiet. By now folk were stirring, the overnight camping anglers and the first doggy walkers on the path so I high-tailed it to Conder. 

Black-headed Gull

First check was the far creek where a small, juvenile Ruff picked along the sand, my first Ruff of the autumn. The Ruff fed on its own, away from the usual assortment of 2 Greenshank, 7 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 6 Curlew, 30+ Lapwing, 20+ Redshank and 20 Teal. 

Ruff - Photo credit: Aaron Maizlish / Foter / (CC BY-NC 2.0) 

On the pool - 3 Common Tern, 7 Little Grebe, 1 Grey Heron, 1 Cormorant, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Wigeon. And in the vicinity - 50 Goldfinch, 1 Kestrel, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Chiffchaff, with the hedgerow and the old orchard quiet following an overnight clearout of the birds from Friday and Saturday. 

There have been a lot of Chiffchaffs this week with many dozens being reported along the coast, even one migrant juvenile in my own garden on Saturday where they are but occasional visitors. 

Chiffchaff

I called back at Lane Ends, Pilling hoping to see Wheatears but there were none, just 1 Green Sandpiper, 1 Buzzard, 25 Goldfinch, 2 Skylarks and lots of folks out for the sun. 

Yes, the pun was highly unoriginal and the morning slightly disappointing but it’s nice to add Ruff to the autumn list of Another Bird Blog. 

Bush Bashing

There was a fair amount of bush-bashing from me today without too much success in the way of rarities, just the common warblers. Oh well, shouldn’t complain, it was a lovely morning and I saw loads of birds. 

For readers unfamiliar with the term “bush-bashing” it refers to migration time when bird watchers look in suitable areas of habitat in the hopes of finding fresh-in migrant birds, the rarer the bird the better. Despite the frightening terminology there is no actual demolition of trees and hedgerows it’s more like a slow, thorough and meticulous search with ears pricked in the hope of seeing or hearing something out of the ordinary. 

That’s not to say the occasional over enthusiastic birder keen to impress or make their mark won’t occasionally tap a bush with a stick or chuck the odd rock into a hawthorn hedge to encourage an as yet unseen bird to show. Thank goodness for Birder’s Law Number One, “The welfare of the bird is paramount”. 

Glasson first stop and stopped in my tracks to watch a Grey Heron grabbing the early morning rays with help from a built in solar panel. I don’t think it was drying off as Cormorants do, just enjoying the morning sun like me. 

Grey Heron

Sunrise - The River Lune- Skywatch Friday

From the entrance to the car park I spotted the outline of a Kingfisher sat on the ropes of the sunken boat but as the car scrunched over the gravel towards the towpath the bird flew off. Not to worry, there would probably be a Kingfisher at Conder Green. And there was. 

Once again a good number of Swallows around the boats and something like 500/600 but no sign of the Hobby of wishful thinking, just a Common Tern hunting for fish. Along the towpath - 40+ Alba wagtails, 1 Grey Wagtail and further along 2 Chiffchaff. 

Pied Wagtail

The warblers were mostly at Conder Green, skulking along the old railway line or flitting through the trees of the long neglected orchard, with a Willow Warbler, 3 Chiffchaff, 2 Whitethroat and 2 Blackcap. There was evidence of Chaffinches on the move by way of their autumnal “pink-pink” calls and extra birds around than of late. 

Chaffinch

Meanwhile, and over at the pool a Kingfisher turned its back on me and the 7 Little Grebes left their usual safety margin of many yards. Here at Conder Green it’s easier to get pictures of a Kingfisher than it is to snap a Little Grebe. 

Kingfisher

Little Grebe

Waders today - 6 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Greenshank, 3 Snipe, 2 Common Sandpiper, 60+ Lapwing, 30 Redshank and a couple of Curlew. 

Black-tailed Godwit

Odds and Sods - 20 Teal, 4 Cormorant, 4 Common Tern, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Wigeon. 

 Grey Heron

The next picture of a juvenile Starling is for students of moult and those who like to age and sex birds in the field. During the summer and autumn young Starlings have a complete moult of all their juvenile feathers, gradually replacing them with adult type ones. Their moult can last from May/June right through to late September but can vary geographically or according to the individual bird. It’s certainly a weird looking specimen. The poor thing looks like it was dragged through a bush backwards. 

Starling 

Please join Another Bird Blog soon for another bash at birding.

Linking today to Anni's Blog and Eileeen's Saturday Blog.

Moving Wheatears?

There may have been a number of Wheatears on the move this morning. Four of them were fence hopping and playing “chicken” with the passing traffic along Backsands Lane and later I would catch one with a good layer of fat in preparation for migration. 

 

Wheatear

Wheatear

At Fluke Hall were 3 Jays moving through the tops of the trees, their noisy squawking a sure indication of autumn. Overhead 2 Buzzards harassed by a single crow were climbing on the morning thermals and drifting slowly inland. Later on I heard Buzzard calls again so maybe the two were migrants. Not so the two Mistle Thrushes, a species I haven’t seen or heard here for a few months but they were in their regular trees once again. 

There is still so much greenery it’s hit or miss to find skulking warblers unless they call with three obliging in the shapes of Blackcap, Whitethroat and Chiffchaff. There was a single Wheatear below the sea wall where many people walk so no chance of setting a trap. 

A roadside Kestrel obliged but briefly before it shot off and calling to another one that I couldn’t see. 

Kestrel

I walked to the wildfowler’s pools and found 2 Green Sandpiper, 18 Pintail and 40+ Teal. The Teal and Pintail were arriving in small groups from the outer marsh where at some distance I could see 2 Grey Heron and 11 Little Egrets. Finches are very scarce along the sea wall this year, a traditional spot for both Linnets and Goldfinches on the thistles and fireweed which grow in profusion. Best I could manage today, just 18 Linnets and 8 Goldfinches. A “few” Meadow Pipits and Swallows but no obvious signs of migration from those two species. 

Linnet

There was a single Wheatear, a hungry individual which took less than a minute to find the mealworm and become the object of my attention. Although not especially large or heavy at 97mm wing and 27.9 respectively it was carrying a good amount of fat. It’s an adult male. 

Wheatear

Wheatear

More birds, more pictures soon from Another Bird Blog. 

Linking today to Theresa's Run A Round Ranch.