Looking Forward....

....to Monday to get back to some normality, can't wait to see Conder Pool and a few other places in my sights. Meanwhile, thanks to Paul Baker for the excellent image of the drake America Wigeon at White Rock BC Canada of which I  reckon it not beyond the bounds of possibilities that there's one lurking out there amongst the thousands of them in our area and just beyond.

The image of the 1st winter drake Velvet Scoter is thanks to Colin Bushell and for your infomation the bird is currently at Barrow Lodge near Clitheroe if you have a desire to see it.

There is much to be said about the Sanderling but these brief notes are interesting and the species runs very close to being one of my favourite waders, in all my years of birding the best record I ever achieved in our recording area was of 130 at Cockersands on 31 May 2007 and I now await something of a repeat of this excellent record which didn't happen in 2008/9.

Inland records of the Sanderling are not unknown and of particular note is of c.20 at Brockholes Quarry  in May/June of 2000, also at Stocks Reservoir an unprecedented 12 were recorded in May 2001. There is only thin evidence of where our passage migrant Sanderling winter, the only foreign recoveries of marked birds in winter are of three on Mauritania's Banc d'Arguin and two in Morocco, but this at least does suggest that many of them winter in Africa, but there remains much to be learned about the movements of Lancashire's Sanderlings.

I've edited this post as the photograph of the Velvet Scoter and accompanying text has brought about some interesting conflict regarding sex/age. I've seen it reported as a 1st winter female, a female, and a juvenile drake, it is now widely recorded as the latter.