In and out of the soup!

Eagland Hill. Pete Woodruff.

For the first three hours we were in and out of banks of fog some of which came close to 'pea soup' thick and much worse than my pic shows, but it eventually cleared and made into a pleasant if cold day.

With JB/BT we first called in at Conder Green where we didn't move from the lay-by at the pool from where I noted 8 Little Grebe in the creeks, and 6 Wigeon on Conder Pool before we were off to Knott End where the tide was well in and was about to push the birds off the beach, but I noted c.20 Sanderling and 2 Wigeon on the sea which I thought quite unusual here, up to 50 Twite also off the esplanade.

In and around the Eagland Hill area we saw 2 Buzzard. On New Lane I saw at least one Reed Bunting, and a Brambling was with a flock of c.60 Chaffinch. On Bradshaw Lane a solitary Corn Bunting and 2 Stock Dove noted. On Taylors Lane, c.2,500 Pink-footed Geese (PFG). From Fluke Hall I watched 68 Whooper Swans (WS) come off Pilling Marsh flying south, and noted 42 Bar-tailed Godwit on the beach.

On Pilling Marsh I counted another 11 WS and a 'large' number of distant and many hidden PFG, and again saw the Peregrine Falcon perched on the same post as Tuesday. From Gulf Lane another c.20 WS distant inland and in the air, another c.2,500 PFG, a Buzzard, and a Little Egret fishing in a ditch.

I have no idea why, but we then went to Cockersands to spend three minutes at the lighthouse, followed by another three at the Caravan Park end, though the latter location gave us excellent views of the Barn Owl, we saw the Black Swan from Moss Lane which appears to have lost the company of the immature Whooper Swan which I've seen with it on two previous sightings recently.

Sparrowhawk. David Cookson

I have good reason to post the above brilliant image of the male Sparrowhawk....Thanks David. 

I was busy at the time but couldn't help overhearing a conversation on the radio this morning with a so called 'pigeon fancier' who was calling for 'getting rid of Sparrowhawks', this guy I understood to make two claims, firstly the birds are deemed by him as a 'pest' because of their habit of taking out Pigeons, and secondly he claims a policy is in place in Scotland whereby eggs are 'legally' removed from any nests found with the view that control is the way forward here....I think someone needs to have a word in this mans ear, if I knew who he was I would be more than willing to do that.