Two weeks since my last birding day, one word springs to mind about that....chronic. But I was back in business on Thursday when the day should and could have been a decent one to start and end with a geese bonanza, but wasn't.
To start with, a Fylde birder joined me on the viewing platform, with news that he had been alerted to sightings of a Bean Goose on Conder Pool earlier in the day. As the saying goes - to cut a long story short - I left Conder Pool one hour later unconvinced a Bean Goose had ever been anywhere near Conder Pool.....To end with follows later.
At least 8 Snipe were hunkered down amongst the stones and vegetation on one of the islands on Conder Pool, difficult to see let alone count, and even more perfectly camouflaged than the four Snipe in the image above, taken on Conder Pool 8 years ago in 2015. Three Pink-footed Geese were with a small group of Greylag and around 10 Black-tailed Godwit. Also noted, the Kingfisher obliged with a couple of visits to the sluice, up to 70 Wigeon, and 120 Black-headed Gull. The Stonechat pair were busy at the east end in the long grasses, and a male Ruff was seen in the creeks.
As I drove to Cockersand, I estimated at least 250 Whooper Swan in four fields, mostly distant and inaccessible, including 50% being in fields off Hillam Lane at Cockerham. The visit to Cockersand had to be a success in that I found 7 Stonechat, though the circuit proved quiet, with a Reed Bunting and a Skylark which was in song seeming to pronounce the early arrival of spring. Four Snipe came off the marsh as the tide pushed in.
On Plover Scar c.60 Turnstone and 6 Ringed Plover, and when I got back to Bank Houses, 5 Black-tailed Godwit dropped in and spent a few minutes on the shore before flying off.
To end with, the geese bonanza that wasn't....
As I got back to the motor, I was alerted with a text at 14.08....'3 Bean Geese, a White-fronted Goose, 7 Barnacle Geese, and 2,950 Pink-footed Geese' were on pasture not far from Cockersand. I was set to go but, 6 minutes later at 14.14, another text told me....'geese all flushed by someone on a quad'.....I luv these 'somebodies', lets face it, what would we do without them, well for starters there would be a few more million birds around in the countryside!
Little Egret.
It must be very rewarding to be able to watch a Little Egret in the field behind your house at Cockersand.
An Avocet made landfall on Conder Pool Wednesday at 11.00am, but didn't hang around very long flying off towards the Lune Estuary and hasn't been seen since. This bird arrived a day earlier than last year on 23 February 2022.
Sorry you didn't get to see your Bean Goose.
ReplyDeleteYou managed to see quite a bit though. Notice no mention of the Black Redstart, I haven't seen it lately either but only been a couple of times recently maybe it has moved on or worse.
Thanks for the update will need to keep an eye out for the Avocet.
Cheers Ian
Ian....The Bean Goose on Conder Pool never was, but the ones down the road certainly were, until the 'man on the quad' came on the scene. I think the Cockersand Redstart is now a 'has been'.
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking in again Ian, your contributions are always welcome.
Regards....Pete.
Our birding excusions suffered similar fates today, Pete, although yours was several hundred times as productive as mine. Yours was disrupted by a quad bike, mine by a pair of off-road youths on un-silenced trail-bikes racing round in a circuit at high speed and passing about 20 metres from the hide that I was in.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes - - - Richard
Richard....A pair of off road youths sounds pretty grim, and obviously was and always will be. I once experienced this kind of thing in an area called Barbondale, a place of outstanding beauty, and an area enriched by brilliant birds including breeding Pied and Spotted Flycatchers, Redstarts and more. They were racing down off the fells, and if I had screamed at the sight of this, I'd have been heard 20 miles away in Lancaster.
ReplyDeleteRegards....Pete.