Back to normal......

......well back to birding anyway and thats perfectly normal to me.

Perhaps I should deal with today's pic which I've posted for the sheer excitement of seeing the Gannet in the image as it plunges towards the sea, it has absolutely nothing to do with anything that follows but so what. My thanks to David Cookson for the pic.

I spent the best part of two hours peering into bushes and nooks and crannies everywhere at Conder Green this morning plus despite counting them a dozen times as they dived continuously I could only find 9 Little Grebe on Conder Pool, also the Kingfisher seen, I could win money taking bets on guarantees of seeing this bird here at the moment, 5 Snipe were also seen and 'the' Ruff was in the creeks again.

On the canal basin at Glasson Dock I counted at least 70 Tufted Duck and noted 2 drake Pochard. On the Lune Estuary I noted circa numbers of 800 Lapwing, 720 Bar - tailed Godwit, 650 Knot and 160 Dunlin, I saw no more than 10 Golden Plover here today, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, a most interesting count was 9 Goosander, a Little Egret was over by Waterloo Cottage, and an adult Mediterranean Gull was the star bird.

At Cockersands I managed yet again to 'miss' a Curlew Sandpiper obviously this years boggie bird for me, an adult drake Scaup was with 45 Eider, 4 Red-breasted Merganser, and a Peregrine Falcon revealed c.1,500 Knot and was eventually mobbed briefly by the noticeably smaller Kestrel, I made no attempt at counting unimpressive numbers of Redshank and Dunlin but did note a solitary Turnstone and Grey Plover.

Pilling Marsh at high tide had been deserted by the PFG and I had just counted 23 Whooper Swan from Lane Ends towards Fluke Hall when fifteen decided to relocate elsewhere inland, of the eight remaining six where immatures, 3 Little Egret where also on the marsh.

Between Fluke Hall and Cockers Dyke at least 450 Pink-footed Geese were on Preesall Sands and I saw three more Little Egret. By the time I reached Cockers Dyke I'd run out of time but did establish no Med Gull/s and nothing out of the ordinary amongst the waders but don't like the 'out of time' situation and couldn't do any counting, otherwise the day for me had certainly been birding and after a six day absence that's ......back to normal.