BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND..................................................SPOTTED REDSHANK RIVER CONDER HOWARD STOCKDALE

Tuesday 14 January 2014

The Saturday Short List.

To start with....

Teal. Noushka Dufort.

Not connected to the post, but an excellent image of the female Teal, especially if you want to study upperpart plumage details.

A pretty decent day again on Saturday got me out and birding though nothing more than a short list achieved, though another excellent count made.

At Conder Green the Common Sandpiper obliged once again but only after a search for it and found down by the railway bridge, a smart drake Goosander was the only other bird of note in the creeks Also quiet on Conder Pool, with 4 Little Grebe and 3 Goldeneye noted. 

At Glasson dock, on the canal basin, 6 Goldeneye, a Little Grebe, and a female Pochard. On the Lune Estuary a minimum of 6,000 Lapwing, 2,000 Wigeon, 1,200 Dunlin, 450 Black-tailed Godwit, 250 Redshank, 15 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, and a Goosander.

To be honest Cockersands today was - pardon the pun - a 'dead duck', but a look behind Lower Bank House produced an excellent 15 Blackbird, better still 4 Song Thrush, and 2 Fieldfare.

The excellent count.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock an excellent count of c.1,450 Bar-tailed Godwit

I received an e-mail from a birder who was at Glasson Dock the day before me - Friday 10 January - who claimed over 1,000 Bar-tailed Godwit, adding he'd never seen so many here before. I certainly haven't, and although I've done only a little record searching and have no figures for 2013, a peak count of 3,735 was made at Ocean Edge in February 2012.  

And to end with....


   Continental Cormorant. Noushka Dufort.

Also not connected with the post is this excellent image of the Continental Cormorant P.c.sinensis and was a reminder of one I found on the canal basin at Glasson Dock on 28th February 2011.

Thanks to Noushka - 1000-Pattes - for the excellent photography in this post.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Pete!
    I am amazed at the numbers of water birds and the many species you see where you are, but as I might already have told you (in an e-mail I think!) here inland 3 hours from the Atlantic and also 3 from the Mediterranean sea, we are lucky if see mire than 10 species of ducks and shore birds.
    I'll have to come and visit you one day!! ;-)
    Did you have problems to link the pictures to the posts?
    Not that it matters, but I was just wondering!
    Cheers, keep well

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  2. Adam....Thanks.

    Noushka....You will have seen my e-mail by now.

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