Little And Large.

Little Gull. Copy Permitted.

Bird of the day on Wednesday had to be the Little Gull on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, and the image above is perfect for two reasons, for illustrating the bird precisely as I found it drifting downstream with the falling tide, and also for showing an adult winter bird that can appear to be void of any cap, this individual is seen to show this feature well. My bird soon came off the water but unfortunately flew more distant from me though it allowed me prolonged views on the opposite mud flat including those of a much larger adult Mediterranean Gull which came down to stand within a metre of the Little Gull to afford me views of the smallest gull in the world alongside that of one of the smartest in it's immaculate breeding plumage with full black hood and drooping blood red bill. 

Others to add to a decent bit of birding....At Conder Green, 2 Spotted Redshank, 2 Snipe, a Little Grebe, Little Egret, and a Goosander. On the Lune Estuary, at least 275 Black-tailed Godwit, 22 Bar-tailed Godwit, and a Red-breasted Merganser.

The bird on the left in this pic is a Whooper Swan at Cockersands. I reckon it's the recent Slack Lane bird moved into the field across the road with the Mute Swans, if it is it's been separated from the immature which has accompanied it on recent sightings on Slack Lane. Void of a count, the Moss Lane Whooper Swans appeared to be slightly fewer in number and were being badly disturbed and occasionally put to flight by Mr Farmer up and down with his tractor in the adjoining field. 

On Plover Scar at high tide held c.140 waders, c.80 Turnstone, also 42 Oystercatcher, 9 Redshank, 5 Dunlin, 3 Ringed Plover, and a single Knot. In two Abbey Farm fields up to 570 Golden Plover seen, 80 Curlew, and a Skylark in flight song made the day seem much more like spring than it really was, and a trample through the stubble would no doubt have proved it wasn't on it's own, 5 Brown Hare were in the same stubble field.

I found a long dead though identifiable entirely black drake Common Scoter on the shingle at Cockersands, complete with round black knob at the base of it's otherwise mainly yellow bill.
  

Goldeneye Martin Jump 

The number of Goldeneye continues to fall with 16 seen in the Conder/Glasson area on Wednesday....Thanks for the photograph Martin complete with excellent reflection.

Lune Estuary 8

Conder Pool  5

Canal Basin  3