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

Saturday 13 January 2018

Birding Till Dusk....Again.

Anchors Aweigh. Pete Woodruff.

Yes, birding until dusk at Cockersand again, and saw the FRI LAKE with pilot ahead approaching the lighthouse, sailing out of the Lune Estuary and into the Irish Sea during one of the west coasts famous sunsets. Meanwhile, I was watching the male Stonechat still foraging on the tide wrack near Crook Cottage in the half light of dusk.

Merlin. Cockersand 11 December. Pete Woodruff.

Also of note earlier, a male Merlin was on the old stone gate post opposite the first kissing gate near Lighthouse Cottage, also a Kestrel here was one of two seen, the second at Bank Houses. Up to 50 Twite were in the rough field by Bank House Cottage, and I found only the male Stonechat opposite the caravan park, with no sign of the female. Five Stock Dove were in a field from where I saw 3 Reed Bunting together, and c.1,500 Golden Plover were in the field they've  favoured in recent weeks off Slack Lane.

With the exception of a good number of Lapwing and Redshank, I saw nothing near three figure counts of any other waders on the Lune Estuary at Glasson, but noted 14 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Snipe, 4 Goldeneye, 3 Goosander drake, a Great Crested Grebeand the lone Whooper Swan still on the south end of Colloway MarshOn the Canal Basin, 2 Pochard drake were the 'mega' birds of the day, with 45 Tufted Duck.

At Conder Green, of 3 Little Grebe seen, one was on Conder Pool, with two in the creeks. Also on the pool, 32 Wigeon, and the same count of 32 Curlew, with a Dunnock by the viewing platform, a Greenshank was seen off the bridge down the channel.

Thanks to Richard O'Meara for the Reed Bunting header.

4 comments:

  1. I'd love to get a decent shot of a Merlin, Pete - or even a decnt sighting of one! Seeing that would have been an absolute highlight for me. Best wishes - - - Richard

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'd like to get a decent shot of a Merlin too Richard, I suppose this one makes just about half way to that. As my favourite raptor, the bird was a highlight for me too, but the Stonechats dropped it into second place today and always will.

    Thanks for comments Richard.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A belated Happy New Year Pete. Look forward to another year of reading your blog. a nice selection of species seen there and love the top photo of yours. Would look nice framed I expect.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy New Year to you too Marc, and many thanks for your kind words and commitment to following Birds2blog.

    ReplyDelete