Autumn report

Eight weeks must be a record for a gap between posts, but I really haven't been out and about much and I don't have that many photographs either.  A week in England didn't do a lot for the lists, but it did add a willow tit at the feeders in Pennington Flash as well as the now expected nuthatch and woodpecker in my son's garden in Bolton. Nice to see them regularly even though they are on the list. 

Pennington Flash nuthatch

Pennington Flash magpie

My garden in Bangor and the coastal path have been very quiet. Even WOW has sunk into a same old, same old routine with very little of note turning up. 

I finally got the feeders up this week once the temperatures hit single figures and have had the usual suspects in to see what is on offer. On the minus side the goldfinches are absent, I haven't seen a bullfinch in weeks and greenfinch is not on the patch list for 2022. 

The coastal path is quiet now that all the migration is over, The only chances of a tick are a distant diver, a rare scoter or an infrequent raptor. I still need jay for the patch and I can't see how I have missed them so far. 

WOW was good over the late summer/early autumn but has now settled into a bit of a winter rut. Water levels are very high, so waders are at a premium. The feeders aren't up yet as it is still too mild and there is another new warden, Aoife, who is still finding her way round the reserve. The millet is under order so the godwits are usually on the far side and there are very few passerines to be seen. The Thursday morning count is around the mid-twenties and there is rarely a standout bird to be commented on although we have managed to find the odd snipe and a greater black-backed gull dropped in last week. Little grebes are showing well and we reckon there may be three pairs on the reserve. We have had a few avian flu cases among the lesser black-backed gull chicks, but it hasn't spread to other species and to be honest if we lose a lot of gull chicks the terns will be better off next year as they were the main predators of tern chicks over the breeding season. We usually have seven wintering duck species but this year only four are showing well - teal, mallard, shelduck and shoveler. Tufted duck are absent, gadwall well hidden (or at Kinnegar) and wigeon only occasional in single figures. Lapwing numbers vary but there were over 200 last week and a fine sight they are when they take to the wing. We also had a fly through little egret, good views of sparrowhawk, a mistle thrush and a pair of whooper swans dropped in for an hour or two. The following photographs were all taken at WOW over the last few weeks.

Ruff

Koniks were back - but they have gone again.

Ruff

Ruff

Grey wagtail

Ruff

Grey heron with fish

and again

and again

Teal

Mistle thrush

There is a tale behind the grey heron with a fairly large fish, which we suspect was a type of catfish. We have always wondered whether the lagoon holds fish seeing as it totally dried up last year. This year we have had a few shots on the WOW Facebook page of little grebe, little egret, greenshank and kingfisher all with small silver fish. Now we have the heron with a large fish. We have no idea how they got there - suggestions in the comments please!!

2022

193: Willow tit

NDCP

61: Treecreeper

62: Greylag goose

63: Razorbill

64: Mistle thrush

WOW

79: Curlew sandpiper

80: Mistle thrush

81: Dunnock

The one about Orlando

Yes folks we have been to Orlando in Florida, and in between the Disney experience I managed to squeeze in a few off days to go birding. There are birds in the parks, but not very many. Grackles and white ibis are common, and a lot of the lake areas have mallard, anhinga and cormorant. I am going to do a trip list (mainly for my own purposes) with a few notes. If you are bored skip to the pictures. The list is in the order I saw the birds, not taxonomic. Lifers are highlighted, a "U" represents a USA first to add to the birds I saw in my last trip in 1991. A star means the bird made it onto the 2022 list as well. 

Great egret * 
Roseate spoonbill (U) *

American crow*

Cattle egret U)*
Great blue heron*
Mourning dove*
Boat-tailed grackle (U)*
Double-crested cormorant (U)*
White ibis (U)*
Mallard
House sparrow
Black vulture  (U)*
Anhinga  (U)*
Black-crowned night heron (U)*
Tri colored heron (U)*
Snowy egret  (U)*
Glossy ibis  (U)
Osprey  (U)*

Limpkin  (U)*
Common grackle*
American coot  (U)*
Black bellied whistling duck  (U)*

Muscovy duck  (U)*

Starling

Green backed heron  (U)*

Little blue heron  (U)*

Wood stork  (U)*

Fulvous whistling duck(U)*

Purple gallinule  (U)*

Black-necked stilt  (U)*

Bald eagle  (U)*

Coopers hawk  (U)*

Northern flicker  (U)*

Yellow-rumped warbler  (U)*

Pied-billed grebe  (U)*

Collared dove  (U)

Snail kite  (U)*

Gray kingbird  (U)*

Loggerhead shrike  (U)*

Moorhen  (U)

Brown pelican  (U)*

Mottled duck  (U)*

Turnstone  (U)

Sanderling  (U)

Laughing gull  (U)*

Forster's tern  (U)*

Least tern  (U)*

Black Skimmer  (U)*

Turkey vulture  (U)*

Belted kingfisher  (U)*

Barn swallow

Mute swan

Egyptian goose

The birding days were around Lake Apopka and particularly the wildlife drive which is well worth doing. We also went to the Kissimmee Lake front at Lake Toho, Cocoa beach and the Merritt Island wildlife drive. If you get one day to bird I would recommend the Lake Apopka North Shore Wildlife Drive which is a 12-mile one way drive on a dirt road with ample opportunities to stop for pictures. It also gave the best views of alligators and is less than an hour from Orlando. 

Tri-colored heron

Limpkin

Osprey

Common grackle

 

Egyptian goose

American crow

Brown pelicans

Muscovy duck

White ibis

Lake front at Kissimmee

Boat dock at Kissimmee and site of three snail kites!!

Snail kite

Alligator

Lake Apopka wildlife drive view

Merritt Island drive

White ibis

Great egret

Great blue heron

Double-crested cormorant and brown pelican

Lake Apopka Drive view

Snail kite

Enough said

Great egret

Little blue heron

Obviously the local patches have been a bit neglected, but I did add curlew sandpiper to the 2022 and WOW lists. I missed a lot of passage waders with being away, but the Florida birds were ample compensation. The highlights were the snail kites sitting around the boat dock. I wasn't expecting them but a local birder put me on to them. The bald eagle was a flyover as we came off the Turnpike heading for Lake Apopka to look for bald eagles. It was the only one we saw despite visiting three good sites - Lake Apopka, Kissimmee and Merrit Island. The habitat and time of year meant that passerines were scarce, but there was a wide variety of waterbirds. 

2022

149: Greenshank

42 in Florida (see above)

192: Curlew sandpiper

NDCP

61: Treecreeper

WOW

79: Curlew sandpiper

Another summer update

Things are ticking along nicely and both patches have added nice birds which ae not easy to get. First WOW has thrown up a little gull, and a little egret and teal and snipe have returned. We have up to 4 common sandpipers, black and bar-tailed godwits, greenshank and dunlin. Common tern chicks are starting to fledge and there is always the chance of roseate, arctic or sandwich terns turning up. All three have been seen recently by lucky observers. The following photos give a flavour of recent activity. The greenshank was a 2022 tick, I have no idea how it wasn't seen on January 1st in Strangford Lough!!

Common sandpiper

Common tern  with fish refusing to pose

Common terns

Hooded crow and lunch (Black-headed gull chick)

Two black-headed gulls, a lesser black-backed fledgling and a little gull - the wee one with the black head

Five snipe and a black-tailed godwit

Greenshank (record shot!)

I also saw a kingfisher at Kinnegar, a hard bird to see. That puts the WOW list up to 78 for the year. 

A week in England was not productive for birds but I did add a pair of  Egyptian geese in the car park at Pennington Flash. These are common further south but not usually seen in Lancashire. 

The coastal path added a common tern and a patch megatick in the form of a treecreeper in Strickland's Glen. I have struggled with this for a long time as it is a good habitat, but have never managed to see one until today. There has been a Himalayan balsam problem for years and a local group "The Friends of Strickland Glen" have been  slowly clearing it. Today we cleared a large amount quite close to the beach which had been hidden by a recently removed fence. It was on the way back up to the car park that I saw the treecreeper - a little happy moment! As Gerry said, "You're better to be lucky than good". I like to think it was God's way of saying you did very well and worked very hard, here's a treecreeper. 

Before

Before

After

After

2022

146: Chough

147: Egyptian goose

148: Litttle gull

149: Greenshank

NDCP

60: Common tern

61: Treecreeper

WOW

76: Little gull

77: Kingfisher

78: Greenshank