First time in five week's....

....out with BT that is. My thanks to Chris Batty for saving the day to start the post with an excellent image of a 1st winter Mediterranean Gull.

It's Friday and I'm with BT so we start with the customary call to Aldcliffe but curiously don't move from the gate at the bottom of Railway Crossing Lane, nothing new there then....but look I've said this before, not complaining just stating fact's. We saw up to 40 Linnet by the water treatment plant on the lane with a Mistle Thrush and about three each of Redwing and Fieldfare in the field behind. Stood by the gate no more than 80 Pink-footed Geese could be seen distant on Heaton Marsh.

When we arrived at Conder Green I suggested we tracked down yesterdays Twite and got as far as Nansbuck Cottage behind the golf club before returning empty handed as they had obviously moved on. Conder Pool was devoid of anything remotely resembling 'excitement' and 5 Snipe were all I could record and we're now 2.5 hours into our birding day and this post is already representing little more than a bird-less diary....Oh dear!

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock even the impressive count of c.3,000 on Tuesday was reduced to around 100 Bar-tailed Godwit today and I noted just 42 Goldeneye. On the canal basin there were 3 Goldeneye, and 4 Pochard drake of note. From Bodie Hill a Little Egret was on Glasson Marsh, a Mistle Thrush and just 3 Fieldfare seen. On Jeremy Lane the 5 Whooper Swans were now detached from c.200 Mute Swans which were in another field and I reckon will have become extremely unpopular with the farming community as the field in question was a crop field and if I can be excused the pun they were 'having a field day in it' feeding contentedly.

At Cockersands things were very thin at the lighthouse end with 46 Black-tailed Godwit and 5 Red-breasted Merganser of note. On just the one occasion today things 'buzzed' briefly at the Caravan Park end when a Short-eared Owl appeared from around the corner from Bank End and hunted in front of the CP for a few minutes before disappearing from whence it came.

I can barely bring myself to recall the rest of the day, as we drove towards Pilling via Gulf Lane a blanket of fog began to develop and by the time we reached Pilling Lane Ends it was 'pea soup' stuff, a motor down to Fluke Hall proved futile and another drive to the feeding station on Bradsaw Lane produced 3 Grey Partridge, in itself a good record but....Oh dear again, and we're now on our way home to Lancaster.

And so ended a day which epitomised the unpredictability of birding.

                                          

And my thanks to Colin Bushell for also saving the day to end the post with an excellent image of a female Red-crested Pochard.