Spectacular....again.

With JB/BT today so JB takes good care of the records on LDBWS website. But for my records today it was good to see the Common Sandpiper still on Conder Pool which makes it increasingly likely that a gamble on the bird over wintering could be a winning one. Also on the pool was a Spotted Redshank and two Greenshank. A Little Egret was on Glasson Marsh and there was seven on Pilling Marsh with sixteen Whooper Swans. There was yet another Little Egret at Fluke Hall.

Now for the Spectacular....

Not only was there four Short-eared Owls at Bradshaw Lane Head, and not only was there a Barn Owl here too, but a Merlin put in an absolutely superb performance with a prolonged and sustained attack on a small bird thought to have been a Skylark which lasted something like five minutes, a long time if you're a small bird being chased by something as competent at aerial pursuit as this bird is. The unfortunate Skylark made all the mistakes it shouldn't have made not least of all that it climbed to quite a height several times whilst the Merlin made off and away to climb higher from its quarry only to move into 5th gear and gain a speed to frighten the living daylights out of anything it had its sights on. In the end the Merlin was lost to view a split second after the Skylark had been and it left nothing to the imagination to realise the passerine had met its maker. The whole visit here was rounded off with a fly by Sparrowhawk.

The 3+1 - or the 1+3 which ever you like - was taken at Knott End earlier in the year.