BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Tuesday 30 May 2017

Belatedly.

Well this is a bit of old news Blogger Woodruff!

The plan was to get to Plover Scar an hour before the 10.13m tide last Friday, but failed miserably, I got there just on high tide to find little of the scar above water.

 Turnstone With Dunlin On Plover Scar. Pete Woodruff.


But this single Turnstone was bedded down on the tideline debris, roosting with two of the 16 Dunlin, 22 Ringed Plover, and 6 Oystercatcher, whilst a Little Egret flew by.

Silver River Passes Cockersand Lighthouse. Pete Woodruff.

I decided to sit around for an hour and watch the tide ebb off Plover Scar to see if anything developed, nothing did, but pretty relaxing therapy whilst Silver River ploughed out of the Lune Estuary and into the Irish Sea bound for the Isle of Man. Meanwhile, I counted 8 Common Blue and a Red Admiral off the headland. 

On Conder Pool. 6 Avocet adult remain here with two still sitting, but no sign of Mondays two chicks, though they were seen on Sunday. The Common Tern also sits in the pontoon, flying up into the air and screeching, to see off a large gull even before it came into view. The lone Little Grebe was showing again, 185 Black-tailed Godwit were on the back terrace, and 2 Oystercatcher young were noted.

Cafe d' Lune and River Winds appear to have eleven House Martin nests total, though I can't confirm them all active yet.

A female Sparrowhawk bombed through Conder Pool putting everything to flight, including an adult Oystercatcher which unknown to me had gone into the water. I picked up this unfortunate bird swimming frantically a good distance from one island to the next in an amazing breast stoke style, in sheer panic it was flapping its wings to propel itself across the pool. On reaching the safety of dry land, the drenched creature looked wrecked but began to preen, but I noted, unless it's left wing was simply weighed down with water, I feared it appeared broken, in which case what had been a spectacular first time I've seen an Oystercatcher actually swimming, had ended in a disaster for the bird. 

The Moth.


Common Marbled Carpet. Pete Woodruff.

Many specimens of the remarkably variable Common Marbled Carpet are intricately marbled, whilst some are almost black. A common form has a large brown patch on the forewing, whilst another might have a large white patch, this brown patch one was found on our garage floor today.

2 comments:

  1. An interesting post Pete, I hope the Oystercatcher with possible brocken wing wasn't one of the pair with the roadside nest.
    All the best, Gordon.

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  2. Great Nature blog, the images are magnificent!

    ReplyDelete