Well my birding has been very patchy of late, in fact it's been non existent to be honest, but I'm working on getting myself out of the hole I find myself in. Meanwhile, there's some resurrection on the horizon in some areas starting with a fledged c.6 week old juvenile Tawny Owl seen in Bowland.
This is the best image available, a phone shot for the record. I've decided to keep my mouth shut about details on this one....Schedule 1 birds and all that!
The Lancaster Orchids.
It was good to find the orchids again this year east of Lancaster.
Southern Marsh Orchid June 2026. Pete Woodruff.
This time I found at least 120 spikes of Southern Marsh Orchid, a slight improvement on last year, when I made a count of up to 100 spikes.
My count this year, was of 48 Common Spotted Orchid, better than last year when it was 25 spikes.
Garden Birds.
Our birds have had a good breeding season so far this year.
I managed to get some footage of the Blue Tit feeding young, also Great Tit, Goldfinch and Dunnock all have young, and a Blackbird with a juvenile. The House Sparrow has done well with a total figure of at least 40 adult and young.
Who knows how many adult and young Starling have visited us over the past few weeks, it could have been a three figure number, and included this bully juvenile on the apple.
Garden Bees.
The garden bees were busy on Sunday with the weather warming.
The Mason Bees were back and forth to the hotel....
The Blue Mason Bees were filling in the holes, with an upstairs neighbour having a nosey!
Blue Mason Bee. Pete Woodruff.
....this one was resting on the roof. I think these will leave later than their red cousins, but both will have gone by the end of July.
A Common Carder Bee was nectaring on Viper Bugloss.
Conder Pool.
It's good to see the Common Terns have taken control of the platform, and even better to hear they have started to produce this years chicks. The news from Conder Pool gests better by the day, when two new Common Terns arrived yesterday.
The Avocets are also having a good season, and adults have already succeeded to guide chicks off Conder Pool, to cross the busy B5290 to the River Conder. I have no accurate figures, but I get the impression there are at least 20 Avocet chicks with 5 nests to hatch.
There seems to be no end to the good news from the pool this year, when a new Avocet arrived here to breed. This is a bird ringed at Boulais in France 20 June 2008, according to its history, a much traveled 18 year old Avocet.
I am grateful to Howard Stockdale for this update with news and images from Conder Pool.
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