Know Your Farmland birds

Today the group walk was around Tarbock looking at farmland species. We parked up by the now closed Brickwall pub and were greeted to a singing yellowhammer, swallows, swifts and woodpigeon. The idea of these walks to look at birds in their habitat and learn and understand more of the pressures they face. We headed off along the Netherley Rd towards Ox Lane and the new housing development of the old farm.

We seem to have walked into the yellowhammer capital as eventually I counted possibly 8 pairs holding territory in this small area. Whitethroat, willow warbler chiffchaff and skylark were all singing away as was a single lapwing we noted in the centre of a autumn sown crop. Farmland birds have been declining over the last 30 years due to the changes in farmland production. My favourite butterfly the orangetip was also showing its self to the group. We soon added linnet, goldfinch, robin, pied wagtail, kestrel but were have the tree sparrows gone! Further down the road we found blackcap, sedge warbler and grey wagtail. On the way back to the cars we watched a single buzzard and found just one tree sparrow close to one of the yellowhammers area. I have to say the best bit of the day was watching the swallows collecting nesting material.

Keep birding.

Chris

Know your farmland birds

The groups next field trip is Saturday 10th May. It is the 'know your farmland birds' walk at Tarbock just on the farm edge of south Liverpool. Meet at the Brickwall pub on the Netherley rd at 9.30am.
See you there.
Chris

D-Day

I have walked up Pendle Hill a few times but normally in good weather and I know how strenuous it can be. As a group of birders it is famous as a stopping off point for Dotterel and this was the target get species for the group outing.

Unfortunately being a Bank holiday the weather turned wet and nasty. There had been 7 birds the day before but they had left by 12.30. 6 of us started the accent at 10.45 and reached the split in the path or base camp. At this point Bren decided that the chest infection she picked up travelling back from Belize made the walk a bit too much. 5 of us pushed on to the summit and started the search. Meadow pipits, skylarks, wheatears were seen easily the song of curlews were also noted. We got to the wall and started looking for dotterel. I quickly found 1 then 2 more and a golden plover. As we all got on the birds were started to count and ended up with 6 of these wonderful birds.

A long walk down and a trip into Barley village helped us added a number of species such as woodland birds, warblers, ducks. A female blackcap was fly catching on the stream and a robin held about 10 flies in its beak on its way to feed its young.

We carried on checking the stream looking for the other D bird of the day. I quickly found the Dipper and got the rest of the group on to these smart birds.

A good outing for the group.

Keep birding

Chris

Debut of a new speaker

On Monday it was the groups AGM. 50 people attended and Ste Menzie gave the group his first ever talk, on birds of Catalonia. It was greatly appreciated and all thought the young man has a future, subject to me not forgetting the laser pointer.
For more info on what Ste gets up to check out his blog.http://menziebirding.blogspot.com/
Thanks Ste and well done.
Chris

There are no woodpecker in Ireland

Sorry for the lack of posts but hope to sort that out now!! Been very busy playing hide and seek!

I was recently contacted by Robin a birder in Belfast after some good spots in Liverpool to see woodpeckers. It appears that the UK have a number of birds that just aren't found in Ireland and he sent me a list of 3 woodpeckers, nuthatch, willow tit, jay, brambling, and yellow wagtail.

Sunday 13th April I collected Robin at 9am and we headed out to Moore nature reserve. We quickly saw swallow, chiffchaff, willow warbler, but no sign of the wood bangers. We walked to the feeding station just as a willow tit was leaving but it showed in the trees for awhile. We heard great spotted in the trees and then saw one feeding on peanuts.

That was 2 new birds, how about some more. A quick look in the wood on are way back and we added lesser spotted woodpecker. If only birding was this easy. We wanted the third but green woodpecker isn't a regular anymore at Moore, so we headed back to Liverpool and the Black Woods my recommendation for great spotted woodpecker.

We arrived back in Liverpool to rain but quickly saw 4 different great spotted at the Woodview rd end of the park followed up by a pair of nuthatch and stock doves. In less than 3 hours Robin had 4 new birds and lots to brag about when he got back home.

Its great to take other birders out and show them something new.

Keep Birding

Chris

BIg Garden Birdwatch result 2008

Well 'You could knock me over with a feather'

The Goldfinch top of the tree in Merseyside.

I'm lucky to see a couple in my garden throughout the year! ...O.K. own up whose being greedy keeping all the Goldies to themselves.

Full results for Merseyside, Lancashire and Cheshire on our website:

http://www.rspbliverpool.org.uk/bigwatchresult.htm

Laura

Stone the Crows ...What have they done to Sefton Park

It’s not a pretty sight, and it’s really quite sad to see the Coot’s making their nesting rafts in the mud, but were told by the council that the Sefton Park restoration will be wonderful. Something hard to imagine when you see just how many mature trees have succumbed to the chainsaw - selective thinning apparently. Yes I can understand a good de-silt (and the removal of hundreds bottles, cans, house bricks and other unidentifiable objects) will certainly benefit the wildlife in the long term: fish, shellfish and birds and there is some water remaining in the the middle of the lake, but it just seems they’ve started it a bit late, I guess the ducks will have to find somewhere else to breed this year. (Maybe it’s just as well as I noticed the part of the fencing was down around the lake and of course unleashed doggies were having a great time chasing the Mallards that were left on the mud)

So why are they doing it : The idea is that the park should to be returned to its Victorian appearance (great if we can restore the structures i.e. the bandstand, aviary café etc and keep the vandals off) but surely their intention with time was that the park would grow and mature into the vistas we see today, or should I say yesterday.... still the council state they are replanting new trees, providing alternative temporary nesting sites, refilling each lake as it completed and consulting with ecologists through out the year …I’m sure we’ll find out if they don’t, as this is certainly generating great debate on Merseyside.

By the way don't really stone the crows, it's much more fun feeding them peanuts instead!

Laura