Jan 2, 2012

Lunch at the in-laws in Blackpool this morning, which just happens to be within 3 miles of the Tundra Bean Geese on Lytham Moss.  On arrival in Blackpool I was relieved to note that I had "accidentally" left my scope and bins in the car - how fortunate! Half an hour later Tundra Bean Goose was my first Lancashire tick of the year and as I was back at the table for lunch.

 The geese were at the back of the a field close to the road-side and adjacent to the runway landing lights of Blackpool airport.  The first thing I noticed was the Pink Foot as its lighter blue-grey back stood out amongst the Beans.  The light was excellent and I enjoyed several minutes of full power x60 views of these scarce Lancashire visitors, getting excellent view of the plumage and bare parts.  An approaching aircraft flushed the geese which then gave brief flight views before circling round and landing in the same spot.

A good start to the New Year bird list.

Gulls and Geese

Taking advantage of some free time over Christmas I headed up to Heysham where there has been a first winter Glaucous Gull in recent days. It was high tide when I arrived and I walked down the sea-wall in front of the power station from the Red Nab rocks stopping to photograph some close Kittiwakes and a not so close juvenile Little Gull.  Another birder arrived and he continued towards the wooden jetty where he found the Glaucous Gull loafing with some other large gulls.  The glaucous briefly flew close while my camera was still in its bag before heading back out to the end of the wooden jetty.  Along with eight species of gull there was also a couple of Guillemots on the sea, at least two shag, two Red-breasted Merganser and a few Pink-footed geese which flew over. While chatting with the other birder he told me that eight White-fronted geese had been reported from Rishton Reservoir, so I decided to head home while there was enough light to call in at Rishton.

I arrived at Rishton with about 30 minutes of daylight remaining.  The white-fronts were all in clear view on the far side of the reservoir with the Canada goose. flock. There were six eurasion white-fronts (two adults and four juveniles) and two Greenland race birds which are likely to be the two present before Christmas, (and which I failed to see one Saturday morning).  It was very educational to see both races together; the Greenland race clearly darker than the eurasians with the bill differences clearly apparent, even with the dull and fading light. Of note, the adult eurasions frequently showed aggression to the Greenlands if they came too close, but not to any of the Canadas.

Some photos of the gulls and guillemot below.  The Little Gull was rather distant but I've included it because is nicely shows the upperwing comparison with the juvenile Kittiwake; the Little Gull showing a dark secondary wing bar and the Kittwake showing umarked white secondaries.

Glaucous Gull in flight

Glaucous Gull on Wooden Jetty

Guillemot

1st winter Kittiwkae

Adult Kittiwake

1st winter Little Gull

January odds and ends

Family commitments and a bout of the winter vomiting bug kept me home most of the month but I managed a few free hours birding on Saturday 22nd January.  I headed for the Ribble marshes which were unfortunately severely fog bound.  An hour at Hesketh Out Marsh produced only an indeterminate number of Pink feet flying in an unknown direction which were heard but not seen, six Whooper swans, a few Teal, Wigeon, Curlew and redshank on the marsh, again mostly heard rather than seen.  The passerines around the car-park were limited to Linnets, Reed Buntings and Chaffinches.  With visibilty not much more than 50 metres I cut my losses and headed inland.

Calling in at Brockholes on the way home the day way rescued by a Barn Owl hunting by number one pit.  I only managed a dim photgraphic record shot in the murky dusk light. There were a few Redwing around the reserve along with about 100 Lapwing and small numbers of Pochard, Goldeneye, Gadwall, Mallard and Teal, as well as the ubiquitous coot.  Below is a photograph of the man made sand martin wall which is looking rather unattractive at the moment - a bit like the rest of the reserve it must be said. Still a few more weeks and all will be different.

On Saturday morning January 29th we had the pleasure of watching four foxes for nearly four hours close to home.  There appeared to be some sort of territorial behaviour going, with field boundaries being patrolled, and scent marking taking place. January is the peak of the mating season and also the time that last year's litter will be forced to disperse by the parents if they are still in the family group. There didn't seem to be any conflict between any of the four foxes but it seems likely that one of the foxes was a female attracting the attentions of at least a male.  Were the other two foxes last years litter or rival males?  Hopefully they will put further displays in the next few days and reveal more about their lives, maybe even revealing the location of this years den? 

Unfortunately one of the foxes was lame in the front right limb.  Although it wasn't apparent how serious the injury was, hopefully it will only be temporary.  The picture of the fox below in the field (not on the wall) is the lame one.

Visiting the in-laws later in the afternoon at South Shore in Blackpool seemed like a good reason to call in at Fairhaven Lake for the Red-necked Grebe that is still present.  It was duly found at the unfrozen eastern end of the lake where it did nothing for half an hour except drift round in the centre of lake out of range for any decent photos - it didn't even lift its head so I didn't even see its bill!  Most boring bird of the year so far!

The lame fox

One of the other three foxes

The soporific Red-necked Grebe

About six weeks before the new tenants arrive?

Late for School

I was late taking Annie to school today because at 8:30 this morning a roe deer walked across the field belonging to the neighbour right up to our garden.  I fired off the photo below from the bedroom window before going into the garden to see if I could get a better picture.  Unfortunately, the deer had gone, frightened by a passing car.  However as I was standing in the garden a snipe flew over my head and landed next to the garden pond but out if sight! This was a new bird for the garden - obviously, but on checking the BTO Atlas website it was also a new bird for the tetrad, which is arguably more important.

On the way back into the house I photographed this suitably Christmassy Robin portrait.  By this stage, Annie was late for school, but what an excuse "My dad was stalking a deer and a snipe in the garden"!

The deer got me thinking about how many mammals I had seen in or from the garden and the total is a respectable 11: Roe deer, fox, stoat, brown rat, house mouse, field vole, common shrew, mole, grey squirrel, rabbit and common pipistrelle bat. Hedgehog is notable by it absence, which is a sign of the times - it's over a year since I last saw a live hedgehog and that's probably the only one in five years (I don't count flat ones).

Badger culling - a bad idea

On 8th December the government's consultation on Bovine TB ends. I've read the consultation document and the government makes it clear it want to pursue a policy of culling badgers.

I've got no problem with culling, per se, if its use can be justified on ecological grounds. e.g. controlling deer populations (although I'd rather see natural predator control such as lynx and wolves being reintroduced, but like that's going to happen!). However the badger cull proposals have got it wrong.

There is little doubt that Bovine TB is transmitted from badgers to cattle, and that persistent widespread culling reduces TB rates, but only modestly and only in the culling areas. The neighbouring areas see an increase in infection rates and even the culled areas have high rates of TB in the cattle herds - just lower than before the cull.

Badger vaccinations which are now available don't have any of the drawbacks of culling and would cost about the same to implement. The government argues that vaccinations don't protect or remove already infected badgers. True, but the culling approach doesn't see benefits in terms of reduced infections in cattle until the 4th year anyway, and that's about the lifespan of a badger (infected or not). Vaccinations could make headway in terms of achieving herd immunity in badgers by this time. The government plays down the vaccination benefit as it's based on a model (there is little field evidence as the vaccine has only been available since March 2010). But despite decades of failed culling attempts it is pinning all its hopes on one (scientifically sound) study - the Randomised Badger Culling Trials (RBCT). This is curious because the Independent Scientific Group set up to monitor the trial concluded in 2007 that "badger culling is unlikely to contribute usefully to the control of cattle TB in Britain, and recommend that TB control efforts focus on measures other than badger culling". The government's decision to ignore this advice can only be politically motivated, because the science and the economics behind culling don't stack up.

You can read about the government's pro-culling interpretation of the RBCT in the consultation document here.

You can read the Independent Scientific Group's view of the trial here. Paragraph 15 on page 21 sums it up nicely.

In a nod to the "Big Society" the government is proposing to hand over the problem and the costs of dealing with it to landowners. It wants to come up with a proposed solution and expects the implementation to be managed at a local level. However I can't see how it will work. Any application to cull or vaccinate will need be part of a plan covering at least 150km2 -treating smaller areas is proven to be ineffective. Somebody has got to coordinate that locally and all the landowners have got to be part of the plan for it to work. It must be applied consistently for at least four years and comply with all the relevant licensing requirements . Oh and it must be paid for by the landowners. To make matters worse those in the culling area have got to tell the farmers outside the treated area why it's a good idea and that they are likely to see an increase in TB in their cattle as a result of the cull! This is because culling disrupts badger's normally stable socially structure and causes them to move around more and mix with other badger groups, which increases the spread of TB outside the culling zone - it's known as perturbation and is the main reason culling doesn't work.

Culling is proposed to be done by shooting (either trap the badger in a cage and shoot it or shoot free ranging badgers). The government is relying on evidence from the Game Conservancy, which is (deliberately?) misquoted in the consultation document, that enough badgers can be located and shot to make the culling effective. I think the evidence to support this is very weak. The Game Conservancy asserts that it would be easy to find and shoot the first few badgers, but as the numbers decline and they get harder to locate "appropriate incentives" would be required for the marksmen to carry on doing the work. Read their report here. Where is the evidence that the appropriate incentives would be paid (by the local landowners) to ensure the requisite number of badgers is killed humanely (and disposed of appropriately) to make the cull effective? You can image a bounty of £x per badger and the shooters make a few quid in years one and two, find the going tough in year three and abandon in year four for another area with a higher badger population. If this were to happen, the evidence suggests the cull would have been a waste of time. Implemented at a local level, there is little chance that hundreds of badger culling programmes would be carried out with the necessary rigour and fully funded to their conclusion that would be required to achieve a successful outcome (in terms of cattle TB control).

One final point on the Game Conservancy, for which I do have some - qualified - respect. If you ask a pro-shooting organisation how to control badgers, don't be surprised if they tell you it's a good idea to shoot badgers.

The other method of shooting, is to trap first. But if you are going to the effort of trapping a live badger, then why not vaccinate it instead of shooting it? This would do away with the well documented problems that culling causes and be a step in the right direction towards herd immunity.

I also have an issue with the licensing. Given the quite frankly appalling level of abuse of wildlife legislation and pitiful level of prosecutions and sentencing in this country I have very little confidence that that any culling on the scale needed will be conducted in an ethical and humane way and policed accordingly.

Vaccinations, which are not likely to cost more than culling, are more likely to meet with local approval and therefore more likely to succeed in achieving the necessary coverage. I can't imagine that there are many areas of 150km2 in the country where all the necessary landowners can agree on a policy of culling and then finance it to its conclusion, however if the policy was to vaccinate I would imagine no shortage of community volunteers and conservation agency support to assist landowners in tackling the problem.

One of the arguments against vaccination is that it doesn't remove infected badgers. This is a short-term view that is not credible if the vaccination plan is given longer to work (say 10 years or more). Culling only likely to work after four years and without vaccination TB infected badgers will eventually return. Vaccination will be cumulative from year 1 and can carry on until the necessary herd immunity is achieved. Once achieved the savings to the farmers and government (it currently costs £63 million per year to deal with TB in cattle), will pay many times over for the cost of the vaccination programme.

Because vaccination at present requires capturing and injecting the badger (an oral vaccine is less than 5 years away however), the government is peddling the view that shooting is a more viable option for landowners. Reading between the lines I suspect the government thinks it will be easier to sell the solution to farmers if culling is part of the package - vaccination alone being more costly to implement initially and with a longer time before it starts to payback. I think this view is mistaken, but the government seems to want to absolve itself of any responsibility by handing down an unworkable solution.

There is another side to this debate which is that there is evidence that TB in cattle can be controlled by cattle measures alone and this is not being given enough prominence by the government, but this is a wildlife blog and I'm not going any further into that side of the debate.

Culling badgers is ineffective and is not a long term solution. It is costly, difficult to police, and is socially and morally unacceptable. Vaccination needs to be given time to prove that it works. This is the only acceptable way forward likely to lead to a successful outcome for badgers, cattle and farmers.

Lancs Wildlife Trust have more information on the subject. If you've got time do your bit.

Pink-Footed Geese

A few enjoyable hours today at Marshside and my current favourite birding location, Hesketh Out Marsh produced the following highglights.

Hesketh Out Marsh. 250+ Golden Plover in the fields with similar numbers of Lapwing, 2+ Brambling in the hedgerow by the car park, 12 Tree Sparrow in with a mixed flock of finches, several hundred Skylark over the Marsh, 1 Green Sandpiper, 3 Snipe, 1 female Marsh Harrier and one skein of Pink feet over. Wildfowl and waders were visible in far distance but the marsh was frozen solid and most of the birds had moved off to the mud or fields.

Same picture at Marshside with most of the freshwater pools frozen solid save for a few isolated unfrozen sections. Wader numbers much reduced on my last visit but plenty of wildfowl with good numbers of widgeon and Pink-footed geese on the ground.

As high tide and dusk approached I stood on the salt-marsh and marvelled as skein after skein of Pink feets flew low overhead from the estuary to their roosting areas.

Pink-footed geese flying in to roost over the saltmarsh, Marshide

Waxwings

Arriving at work this morning I noticed 6 waxwings in the trees in Tesco car park. This is the third time I've seen them in this location so far this winter but don't have any photos yet. So I turned round a went home for my camera. When I got back 20 minutes later they had gone.

So if you want to see some photos of waxings, look on someone elses blog.