Local birding: Black-necked Grebe, Brockholes Wetland LWT, Lancs - 22nd Sept 2009.

The juvenile Black-necked Grebe remains on the Main Pool for the seventh day. This is the 5th site record since the first in 2001, totalling six individuals. Of these, 1 record (a pair) has been in spring, and four records (3juv, 1 ad) in autumn.

In your dreams Cllr John F. Wright, in your dreams!!

Lancs: Nightjar & Long-billed Dowitcher - 19th sept 2009.

Above & below: Nightjar, Leighton Moss RSPB, Lancs - 19th Sept 2009. A very, very long time coming, the first fully available Nightjar for the 1980's generation of Lancashire birders was found roosting on one of the closest Bearded Tit grit trays out from the causeway. Amazingly, it is the the second Nightjar to be found in the Leighton Moss area in the past ten days following a bird picked up injured (broken wing) at nearby Silverdale Golf Club. It is also the third Nightjar to be found in Lancs in the past ten days!!

Above & below: Juvenile Long-billed Dowitcher, Fleetwood Nature Reserve, Lancs - 19th Sept 2009. A great find by an old birding friend and 'old-school' local patcher Ian Gardner.

Brockholes Wetland LWT, Lancs & New Brighton, Wirral - 4th Sept 2009.

Above & below: Common Terns, Brockholes Wetland LWT, 4th Sept 2009. Three birds through this morning, plus an Arctic Tern briefly. A Water Rail was the only other bird of note and once again the site had no wader interest whatsoever!

The Terns kept me at Brockholes much longer than I intended, in the hope more would pass through, but after 3.5 hrs I had had enough of staring across at the expanses of Crassula, formerly wader mud, and headed for the Mersey to salvage what I could from what would be left of the tide.

Between 12:30-14:30 from New Brighton, c4 Leaches Petrel, 1 Manxie, 2 Kittiwake and num Common Tern came out of the Mersey, but pride of place went to this moulting adult Sabine's Gull which spent an hour lingering offshore around Fort Perch Rock, 13:10-14:08.

Colour-ringed Kittiwake, Irish Sea, Cumbria - 25th Aug 2009.

Black-legged Kittiwake, Irish Sea, Cumbria, 25th Aug 2009 - Photo: Paul Derbyshire

Whilst on a boat 6 miles off Walney Island, a colour ringed adult Kittiwake landed briefly. The reply received from the ringer, Jean-Yves Monnat, is very interesting and informative:

“That bird, a male, is one of "mine", indeed. It bred in 2009 at Pointe du Raz colony (Plogoff, Finistère, France, 48°02N 04°43W) on the same nest where it was first caught as a breeding adult in 1999. It bred, or tried do do so, every year on the same place since, and raised 13 chicks to independence from 1999 to 2009, which is quite a good performance.

Nevertheless, he had obviously some individual problems by the end of the season. Although we check every nest daily at fledging time, we failed to see it on it's nest from 24/07/2009 onwards, a very unusual situation, as it's chick first fledged on 03/08/2009 and left the nest (and the area) for good on 13/08/2009.

We saw it once however, but in an apparently poor condition on 11/08/2009, alone on a club: dirty (oil ?), wings hanging down, sleepy for a good while... So, I'm happy to know that he survived yet for a fortnight at least and was strong enough to travel from Brittany to Cumbria.”

Brockholes Wetland LWT and Marshside, Lancs - 2nd Sept 2009.

3.5hrs on the local patch, Brockholes, produced an adult Water Rail on the Main Pool, an increase in Teal to 45, 1 Green Sandpiper and 11 Buzzard in the air at the same time.

In the aftenoon I visited Marshside. An enjoyable few hours with 2 Merlin, 1+ juv Marsh Harrier, 30 Golden Plover, Black-tailed Godwits, 100 Redshank, 20 Ruff (6 juv), 2 Ringed Plover, 3 Little Egret and 200+ Teal noted.

Above: Merlin

Above: Ruff. Below: Black-tailed Godwit

Above & below: Golden Plover, Lapwing, Ruff and Starling.

Farmoor Res, Oxon: Marsh Tern Fest - 30th Aug 2009.

The following distant camcorder videograbs do no justice whatsoever to the scope views of this magnificent trio of Marsh Terns: Juv Black Tern, Juv White-winged Black Tern and Juv American Black Tern, watched over a wonderful and very educational three hour period at Farmoor Res.

Above: Juv American Black Tern.

Below: Juv White-winged Black Tern