Crossbills and a 'chat'.

Crossbills. Brian Rafferty. 

Something of a coincidence, BR has had a day in Bowland this week and not only found Crossbills, but also took full advantage of doing so by achieving excellent photographs of the birds. This follows yesterdays post which referred to the 'unusual' bird at Helsington Barrows in February 1997 having been suggested through a photograph as being a possible 'xanthachroistic' male Crossbill by a reliable ornithologist whose knowledge on such matters I respect. I went on to claim never having found the meaning of the word, I should add including it not being in the Oxford Concise English Dictionary. In the comment section GG offered me an explanation which I intend looking into, thanks GG, meanwhile, I remain confused. Thanks to BR for the photographs.

Stonechat. Antonio Puigg.  

This is a photograph of an African Stonechat saxicola torquata which I found on Antonio's website. Having already been in touch with Antonio Puigg he agreed to allow this image on Birds2blog....Many thanks Antonio.


I don't usually allow Birds2blog to become too scientific as I feel much of it is beyond the interest of the average birder, and when I start to try and read about subjects like 'A Molecular Phylogeny of Stonechats', 'Sequence and Taxonomy', together with DNA samples, etc, etc, its time to give up, but by way of a change this is a interesting picture of a species I'm not acquainted with though the differences to the ones I am are subtle. To go deeper into confusion, as I see it there are 14 subspecies of the African Stonechat saxicola torquata and to try to study illustrations of the varying amounts of chestnut on the breast of males of the various subspecies - which is the main distinguishing criteria - may well be generally understandable but some of the subtleties would be beyond me in the field let alone in an illustration....I think I should leave it there, don't you!!  


And finally....

Siskin David Cookson

Spot the difference between DC's Siskin, and....

Serin. Antonio Puigg.

AP's Serin....not a lot! 

This is serious!

More to the point....very serious. I'm not going to 'get out' again today and staring at this monitor is definitely not good for the mind or soul but that's what I'm doing right now. So to help combat the ill effects all this is having on me I did the following research with my thanks to John Wilson who allowed me access to the LDBWS Annual Reports from the societies birth in 1959....

I did some 'digging' into the archives and as always came up with some interesting results from the 1990 LDBWS Annual Report. I also decided to give Lamberts (Lancaster) Ltd a plug with the front and back cover of the report from 20 years ago.

The year was noted in the report as an interesting one which included a Night Heron, Serin, and singing Marsh Warbler all at Heysham. Other notable records included a mass arrival of 95 Black Terns at Leighton Moss on 2 May which represented the largest number recorded in the area but which was a fraction of the in excess of 1,000 recorded in North-West England as a whole.

There was two attempts of breeding by the same pair of Mediterranean Gulls both of which ended in failure. Other negative news for 1990 was the no breeding success of 'terns' or Bowland raptors the latter which thankfully has now changed for the better  in 2010. Another record which had a particular interest for me was that of a Black Stork which many observers saw soaring over Leighton Moss. Five years later this is a species which I myself had the good fortune to find in flight over Little Fell Lane east of Lancaster on 24 April 1995. More interesting records appeared in this report with up to four Black Grouse recorded on Beatrix Fell, and two pairs near Hollins. This was the year my birding friend JB had the the good fortune of finding a White-winged Black Tern at Leighton Moss and then earned himself some honour in pursuing the bird to Dockacres, and then went on to Heysham to alert fellow birders who were there out of 'telephone' circulation which resulted in a large number of people having cause to be grateful to John for his efforts regarding this sighting and getting the news out. Of course I take particular note that no breeding records of Stonechat were discovered in 1990. It was noted in this report that a Subalpine Warbler found in Freeman's Wood in Lancaster in 1989 had been accepted by BBRC. 

To end, I note my name is absent from this report as of course it will be, a clear indication of my 'late' arrival on the birding scene....How I will always wish I'd have taken an interest in birds many years sooner than I did. 

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING!