A Complete Blank!

This is not good, and I get no enjoyment from creating this post which is to report a week completely void of any birding, depressing stuff and I can't go on like this, things must change....and soon or else.

Floods have been the areas to check recently, though a flood anywhere anytime is always worth a check and if you live in the same area as I do one at Aldcliffe is as good as they come. But  three particular floods have been in the news in the past few days, and all have hosted some 'good birds'.

Wood Sandpiper Dave Appleton 

A flood viewed from Lancaster Road near to Lousanna Farm at Out Rawcliffe - which I know well and drove past many hundreds of times during my days delivering car parts - held a nice Wood Sandpiper this week along with a number of Ruff which reached a double figure in one report I saw. Another Wood Sandpiper was present during the week on another flood at Todderstaffe Hall on the Fylde. I can offer no accurate number but I recall going into the Allan Hide at Leighton Moss with John Leedal one day to find c.8 Wood Sandpiper together, a record I never equalled since....Thanks for the photograph Dave.   

Pectoral Sandpiper Colin Bushell

On yet another flood NW of Garstang and east of Lathwaite, a Pectoral Sandpiper was present this week too with another on Banks Marsh. The Pectoral Sandpiper is the most numerous Nearctic wader on this side of the Atlantic, in excess of 1,400 were noted between 1958-85 an average of over 50 birds a year. The one in the image above was in Manu, Peru 2010....Thanks for this Colin.

Lesser Snow Geese Geoff Gradwell  

I think the biggest 'Lancashire' surprise of all this week was the appearance of Lesser Snow Geese on the Fylde coast where the number peaked at thirteen at Cockers Dyke on Pressall Sands. The image above is of seven of these thirteen birds which were also over Rossall Point at Fleetwood...Thanks Geoff.

And finally....

Common Sandpiper Antonio Puigg

I wonder if the Common Sandpiper will winter again at Conder Green, this bird was photographed 'nodding off' recently in Spain....Many thanks Antonio.

And the MEGA news today was of a Yelkouan Shearwater past Whitburn Steel in Co.Durham.

I'D SOONER BE BIRDING....NEXT WEEK OR ELSE!!

Gone with the wind!

And some showers to dodge....

River Conder. Pete Woodruff.

When I rounded the corner by the Stork Hotel at 11 o'clock this morning I was more than a little surprised to find I thought I'd read the tide table wrong but no, this was the River Conder in spate the likes of which I've personally never quite seen before. The shot above of the river going under the A588 road bridge shows how it would look at the height of a c.8m tide, yet that had been nearly five hours earlier at just after 6.00am.

I never expected to find any birds in the creeks with this volume of water racing down, but my second surprise of the morning came just a few minutes after the first when  I found 5 Greenshank and 2 Spotted Redshank all feeding on the edge of this torrent of water. Also noted was a single Bar-tailed Godwit, on Conder Pool the number has increased to 5 Little Grebe on here, a Common Sandpiper had me wondering when to start thinking this may be this years wintering individual, and 3 Wigeon, c.40 Goldfinch were over by the old railway bridge.

Spot the Spotted. Pete Woodruff.

The Lune Estuary also gave the impression of high tide and amazed me at the volume of water racing down past Glasson Dock to the sea around the corner. Here the birds were very thin and no sign of the previously reported Curlew Sandpipers, but I noted on what little mud was above water c.350 Redshank, c.20 Dunlin, and 2 Goosander were distant dots. A return here two hours later gave me 2 Spotted Redshank one of which is in the pic above - it's the one in the centre behind the Lapwing - but I couldn't help thinking these could be the two earlier birds seen at Conder Green.

Juvenile Knot. Brian Rafferty  

At Cockersands where one or two gusts of wind were almost of blow you over force, through a very shaky telescope I eventually found 2 Curlew Sandpiper in company with c.65 Ringed Plover, 40 Dunlin, 6 Turnstone, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, and a juvenile Knot.

Mega News. Courtesy of RBA. 

Yelkouan Shearwater. Copyright  Dave Appleton 

Some recent 'Mega Birds' in the UK have been, a Yelkouan Shearwater past Cley, Norfolk 29 Aug, a Fea's Petrel past Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire 31 August, a Black-browed Albatross past Kilnsea, East Yorkshire, 1 September, and a Madeiran Petrel past Pendeen Watch, Cornwall 6 September....wonder where all these four birds are now.

Thanks to Dave Appleton for the brilliant photograph of the Yelkouan Shearwater.