Autumn Range

Sat in the west hide at Connah’s Quay this morning it felt as if autumn had arrived as a cool north-easterly breeze coupled with a blanket of grey cloud welcomed me as I opened up the shutters.

The mudflats were very quiet for waders and wildfowl with only modest numbers of the commoner species. There were however, hundreds of Black-headed Gulls and I resigned myself to working my way through them for a Med Gull until the tide had pushed further in.

An hour later – and still no Med Gull – I gave up and had another scan down the channel. A small wader caught my eye amongst a group of three Redshanks and as I trained my scope on the bird a cracking juvenile Curlew Sandpiper emerged – superb!

With the water rising and a few more people arriving in the hide, things then started to improve. I found a pair of adult Yellow-legged Gulls roosting with twenty or so Lesser-black Backed and albeit at distance, I just managed to pick out a couple of Turnstones amongst the Oysties over towards Flint.

Frustratingly, I also thought I had found a Little Stint, but with nobody else being able to find the bird and it also being too far for a positive id, it will have to go into that long list of probables…

Next on the agenda was a hunting juvenile Marsh Harrier found by KLJ quartering the edge of the marsh on the far bank of the river.

With an hour so to spare a trot down to the bunded pools was in order and as has been the case in recent weeks they were chocker with Blackwits, Redshank, plus a count of Greenshank somewhere in the teens, and a single moulting Spotted Redshank.

All in all, pretty darn good. A boost to my Flintshire list too this year - now approaching credibility at 156!

Connah’s Quay 26.08.10

1 Curlew Sandpiper (juv)
13 Greenshank
1 Spotted Redshank
2 Turnstone
2 Yellow-legged Gull (adult)
1 Marsh Harrier (juv)

Until later.

Old Haunts

With lightish southerly winds and rainfall early doors, I headed over to the Point of Ayr in anticipation of a decent flush of migrants.

As I entered Talacre a showy Tree Pipit suggested early promise, but any hopes of a decent fall soon evaporated as I walked further into the dunes. Three Wheatears and four Common Whitethroats was as good as it got and with the numbers of dogs and people increasingly looking like Crufts meets the Kumbh Mela, I headed for the sanctity of Garth Wood.

Eerily quiet for late April, things soon picked up when I heard a male Pied Flycatcher singing further up the path. When I got close to where it was scratching away, I realised it was from the precisely the same spot that I had seen a male bird last year!

I watched it for a good fifteen minutes, but with the bird retreating higher and higher up into the canopy, I left it to keep working on attracting a lady.

The area of farmland behind Garth Wood had been extremely productive for Yellowhammers last year, but worryingly they are absent this spring, despite yards of suitable hedgerow.

With a spare hour remaining, there was just enough time to pop into Connah’s Quay on the way back. Around a hundred Blackwits were feeding on the edge of a retreating tide and six Wheatears flitted around the surrounding sheep fields.

The bunded pools were largely empty, but a quartet of cracking Greenshanks made up for the absence of any other birds.

Until later.

The Jet Set

Two Common Sandpipers feeding on the edge of the rapidly drying out bunded pools, plus a Whimbrel poking around the perimeter of the Ash Pool were evidence, finally, of some wader movement at Connah’s Quay this morning.

Migration fascinates me – as I’m sure it does many – and I always imagine how many country stamps these birds would have in their passports - should they have the need to carry one!

With no fear of foreign cultures, unfamiliar cuisine, and no language barrier, many birds are true citizens of the world and a humbling reminder that we human beings didn’t invent the concept of the ‘global village’.

It was also quite ironic to watch a giant airbus wing being freighted along the River Dee - all the fuss we have to go through to do something birds take for granted...

The Black-tailed Godwits must be making final preparations for take off too – many of the birds are now in full breeding plumage. They must make a fabulous spectacle on their breeding grounds; it’s good to know that there is more to Iceland than cod, dodgy banks and Kerry Katona. (And now it appears, ash clouds).

Unexpected visitors included a brace of Twite that put in a brief appearance in front of the west hide – the latest I have ever recorded this species on the estuary.

Connah’s Quay NR 14.4.10

2 Common Sandpiper
1 Whimbrel
1 Greenshank
1 Spotted Redshank
1,100 Black-tailed Godwit
350 Redshank
250 Oystercatcher
30 Curlew
20 Knot
2 Twite
1 GC Grebe

Until later.

Who Polices The Police?

Spring may have sprung, but winter still refuses to give up the ghost as people in Scotland especially feel the brunt of a valedictory cold blast.

Early Wheatears, who only last week were probably feeling smug after claiming all the plumb upland territories, will doubtless be staring incredulously at the snow piling up around them now!

Still, the weather was okay at Connah’s Quay this morning - some excellent visibility too – with the only fly in the ointment a few spells of early rainfall, that were actually a blessing as they brought down three Swallows and two Sand Martins over the Ash Pool – my first of the year!

The Ash Pool was also playing host to around one thousand one hundred Black-tailed Godwits that had chosen to cram themselves together on the small island. Some of the birds looked absolutely mustard in their newly acquired breeding plumage, although a good many of them are still waiting for a visit to the spray shop.

A male Peregrine was the only other bird of note, almost certainly one of the pair from the power station. You would imagine that this nest was in one of the safest locations possible, but there are rumours that this nest has been raided in the past and that in other years there has been very low productivity.

With the level of security at Rockcliffe – laissez-faire attitude to every Tom, Dick and Harry walking on the nature reserve notwithstanding – it would be practically impossible one would assume to reach the nest without detection?

It would be good to know who, if anybody monitors this nest and if there are any suspicions as to whether the nest has ever been tampered with. After all, the Deeside Naturalist Society is hardly going to raise this issue to the authorities at E.ON and risk souring relations with them is it?

Connah’s Quay NR 30.03.10

1,100 Black-tailed Godwit
450 Oystercatcher
3 Greenshank
2 Sand Martin
3 Swallow
2 Chiffchaff
1 Peregrine (male)

Until later.

P.S - Interesting article on Sparrowhawks in the Spectator a few weeks ago:

http://www.spectator.co.uk/essays/all/5831788/part_3/lets-not-mess-with-the-sparrowhawks.thtml

Just Passing By...

Nothing stirs the soul more than the sight of some good visible migration, even if the hundreds of birds conducting the combined ground and air invasion of Talacre Dunes this morning were practically all humble Meadow Pipits.

It is hard to quantify precisely how many there were, but a conservative estimate would be 600 plus, whilst a widely ambitious forecast (I will call that a labour estimate) would be in excess of one thousand. A liberal approximation would probably be about correct, but I assume you have stopped listening now.

There were a few other species knocking about, most notably ten Wheatears behind the lighthouse - including eight on one single bush. A few Zilpzalps provided some background music, although they were mostly drowned out by the wheezing Greenfinches.

Buoyed by a decent fall I headed over to check the old colliery site where I was greeted with another four Wheatears, a pair of Stonechat and yes, you guessed it, even more Meadow Pipits.

Also probably just passing through was a rather scruffy looking male Merlin (Merlin Haggard? (one for C&W fans)), that was probably thanking its lucky stars at the steady stream of breakfast entrees passing before its very eyes!

On the way back home there was just enough time to pop into Connah’s Quay, where I bumped into Cohen Senior and KLJ. Scanning through the logbook, I was lamenting the lack of Twite on my radar this winter – especially as two flocks of forty and twenty birds had been seen only this week.

Someone was clearly listening up there today, because no more than a minute later a flock of eight birds was dispatched towards the west hide. After a quick bath in the stream they were off flying over the Dee and towards the marsh – Krishna must have been in a playful mood today!

Point of Ayr 25.3.10

Meadow Pipit – many
Wheatear 14
Merlin 1
Skylark 30+
Stonechat 2

Connah’s Quay NR

Twite 8
Wheatear 2

Until later.

Let's Dine

Wildfowl were the order of the day at Connah’s Quay this afternoon with good numbers of Shelduck, Teal, Mallard and Wigeon on the bunded pools.

The Wigeon – numbering around six hundred – were incredibly nervous and alert and when not being spooked by fearsome predators such as a Spotted Redshank, Carrion Crow and a Kestrel, the flock grazed in a peculiarly manic and purposeful fashion – they must have had quite an appetite for some reason.

It is only speculation, but maybe after such a harsh winter many of the ducks are in poor shape and now it is a race against time for many to build up fat reserves before undertaking a punishing migration.

Other birds on the reserve included my first Stonechat of the year in Flintshire, feeding on the small strip of rough grassland at the back of the larger sheep field. It is only over the last three or four days that these little passerines have started to reappear at their traditional sites after being absent during the winter – perhaps they have just started to fan out and establish breeding territories.

The area around the west hide was quiet with the waders spread thinly across the mudflats – the notable exception being the Blackwits that were huddled together Penguin fashion at the river’s edge.

A scan across the marsh revealed an adult female Marsh Harrier – presumably the same bird seen at IMF yesterday – using the strong easterly wind to hover over the White Sands area – clearly in Wales and number 113 for my Flintshire list!

Connah’s Quay 23.02.10

600 Wigeon
65 Teal
40 Mallard
150 Shelduck
600 Black-tailed Godwit
1 Greenshank
1 Marsh Harrier (adult female)
1 Bullfinch
1 Stonechat

Until later.

Whiteout

Comfortably numb probably best describes how I felt in the west hide at Connah’s Quay this afternoon. For a change the wind was not blasting through the shutters, but the pervasive fog and cold cloaking the estuary gradually permeated through my clothing chilling me to the bones.

No matter, as there was a good turnout today of both birds and birders, with regulars Keith and Bob amongst a good crowd on the reserve over high tide.

Waders were again the star attraction with perhaps ten thousand roosting on Oakenholt Marsh - the lion’s share made up from Lapwing, Knot, Dunlin and building numbers of Black-tailed Godwit.

Soon after the birds had settled a male Peregrine attacked the roost and sent all the waders into the air. The pulsating groups of birds seem to make all manner of shapes as they twisted and turned and today they appeared to be running through the various illustrations of human internal organs, including passable attempts at Kidney, Heart, Lung and Liver!

On the bunded pools, a good count of Wigeon and Teal was to be had, but the area was strangely devoid of any of the rarer ‘shanks and the faint call of a Spot Red was the only evidence today that any were about.

However, it is very seldom that Connah’s Quay fails to produce at least one thing unusual and on the way back to the car the four of us was treated to decent views of an adult female Hen Harrier drifting over the embankment behind the pools.

Until later.

Water Feature

Yet another excellent morning at Connah’s Quay before high tide - the star bird being a very showy Water Pipit feeding with a flock of five Rock Pipits on the edge of the stream in front of the west hide.

It is by no means easy separating these two species - especially when the Scandinavian race of Rock Pipit comes into the equation. Fortunately, the elevation of the hide afforded good views of the bird’s tail and with all other features matching up, the clear white edges running down the feathers clinched the identity.

The pipits fed for a good ten minutes before they were spooked by a handful of alarmed Teal – alarmed because clumsy me had been as subtle as a bull in a china chop when trying to open another shutter!

Other highlights included spectacular views of fifteen hundred Black-tailed Godwits towering over hundreds of Dunlin and Knot busily weaving around their long legs, whilst the bunded pools played host to a couple of Spotted Redshanks, three Greenshanks and the resident Kingfisher.

A trip around the fringes of Burton Marsh with Stan in the afternoon paid dividends too as we enjoyed some extremely close views of hunting Short-eared Owls. Clearly the owls have to look to the perimeters of the marsh for food following the big tides as I have heard reports of birds quartering the paddocks behind the old baths at Parkgate, whilst Stan had noted two birds in the field at Denhall Lane.

As the rain steadily became more organised (to use the BBC weather term!), we were then treated to a classic end to a winter’s afternoon – a big flock of Pinkies flying directly over our heads and if my counting was up to scratch yesterday then there were four hundred and fifty nine of them!

Connah’s Quay NR 15.02.10

1,500 Black-tailed Godwit
800 Dunlin
400 Knot
400 Oystercatcher
3 Greenshank
2 Spotted Redshank
1 Kingfisher
1 Water Pipit
5 Rock Pipit

Until later.