Birdless On Plover Scar.

If like me you regard Cockersand and it's surroundings to be one of the best of local birding locations, or maybe a man with a dog, or even just a leisure seeker, I'm sorry to say you're about to find some serious disruption to your birding, dog exercising, or leisure time on and around Plover Scar.

Passing The Cockersand Light. Pete Woodruff.

Following the collision by a ship with the Cockersand lighthouse earlier this year, the structure is about to be dismantled any time soon, stone by stone and rebuilt again....No mean feat, and a few quid involved here, which may well take more than the 14 weeks estimate, not least related to inclement weather those performing the task will have to endure. 

Soon we'll be seeing a compound in the car parking area, to accommodate plant and machinery, with cranes, scaffolding, and all manner of materials needed for the task. To this end Slack Lane will be closed at the junction of Moss Lane to all but local residents, in any case there will be nowhere to park or turning space anyway.

Plover Scar Roosters. Pete Woodruff. 

So....I reckon it's goodbye to birding Plover Scar until next year, and certainly no Snow Bunting, or better still Shore Lark on Plover Scar until the year is out, and at this rate I'm never going to find the Baird's Sandpiper I've been looking for here for the past 150 years!!

I'd sooner be birding....Hopefully tomorrow, but not on Plover Scar I suspect, though no-one's clocked on to start work there yet.

Thanks for the header of the 'showy' Little Stint seen recently at Reculver in Kent....Excellent as ever Marc, many thanks.  

The Shore Lark.

The Shore Lark found last Wednesday is still entertaining visitors to the shore at Rossall Point a week later. If it happens to stay until Sunday I'll maybe pull a fast one on KT and ask if she would like to visit the Freeport shopping complex at Fleetwood to top up her Christmas present list.

My one and only sighting of the Shore Lark (SL) was a memorable one 20 years ago on New Years Eve in 1994, when my old friend and mentor John Leedal and I visited Lytham St Annes where the birds were present. I remember the day well, the weather was a mix of wind, rain, and sunny spells, and it was during one of the latter sunny spells we had excellent views of three SL together....you never forget birding moments like that, and for me fond memories of J. Leedal too.

Shore Lark. Martin Lofgren Wild Bird Gallery 

All British records of SL are believed to be of the subspecies flava which breeds in Fennoscandia and western Russia, they migrate SW to winter along the coast of W Europe, the majority of which winter around the Dutch and German Wadden Sea, with a small number regularly in Britain, especially on the east coast....

Snow Bunting. Copy Permitted.

....often with Snow Bunting and Twite. The SL is rare in Ireland, and uncommon away from the mouth of the River Dee and Anglesey. 

Summering SL occasionally occur in the mountains of north and western Scotland where they were found breeding in two summers during the 1970's, but a fledged juvenile found in 2003 was the first confirmed breeding of SL in Scotland since 1977.

I'd sooner be birding....but the 'weather bomb' has arrived and little if any chance at the moment, the whole thing has gone pear shaped.

The Shorelark.

Perhaps you'd like to take a look the video first.

I noted a record yesterday which has prompted a few brief notes about the Shore Lark - another rare bird in our area and well beyond - and was of nineteen birds at Dingle Marshes in Suffolk. This number of the species strikes me as exceptional as the birds are not recorded as a 'flocking' bird in this country and at best are usually only seen in single figures. The Shore Lark (SL) is a scarce visitor from Fennoscandia of which there is a ninety year old record of a bird at Ainsdale in December 1920, after which there was no published records of SL for forty three years until another bird reported on the shore at Fairhaven in December 1963.

The SL is remarkably rare anywhere in our area to the north of Blackpool, but single birds at Carnforth slag tips in January 1968, February 1975, April 1997, and November 1998 are the only records. Two more records of interest are of inland birds with one at Stocks Reservoir in February 1987, one on Pendle Hill in December 1990, with another one there in October 1994.

All British records are believed to be of breeders across Eurasia from S.Norway to Lake Baikal, though they have been known to summer on mountain tops in Scotland where they are also known to have bred in the past, and a fledged juvenile in 2003 was the first confirmed breeding since 1977.

It strikes me I should be taking a look in on the slag tips at Carnforth....we may be missing some excellent SL records in our area.

And finally....

Black Kite. Phillip Tomkinson

An excellent image of the impressive Black Kite with thanks to Phillip. I have a new monitor which I've had little time to install properly, as a result these pictures may be burning your eyes out as they are mine, if they are then you now know why until I get to do some adjustments.

You will have gathered I've not got out birding yet and this has now gone beyond the serious, I almost dare not suggest....maybe tomorrow.