Beanz Meanz...

....excellent with four in one today after much effort and determination.

My highlights of the day with JB were....At Conder Green where 2 Spotted Redshank and 2 Greenshank were in the creeks as was the Common Sandpiper. On the canal basin at Glasson Dock a drake Scaup. I'm confident I could make quite a lot of money taking bet's on who found this little beauty. The Lune Estuary was almost void of wader's today notably Lapwing, Dunlin, and Golden Plover, but 110 Black - tailed Godwit were counted also c.1,000 Bar - tailed Godwit. Also missing were number's of Wigeon and Goldeneye of which just c.35 and 10 were counted.

The only bird's of note at Cockersands were 3 drake Eider. From Moss Lane the number's of Whooper Swan's and Bewick's Swan's were almost impossible to assess for various reasons not least of all distance and half hidden bird's, but were almost certainly the same as seen last Friday at this location which was 42 and 3 respectfully.

On Pilling Marsh a Little Egret was distant as were a large number of Pink - footed Geese which I planned to get closer to but was saved the trouble because by the time we arrived at Fluke Hall Lane they had begun to come of the marsh and conveniently dropped into the fields here. A detailed scan through them revealed four Tundra Bean Geese, by far the best sighting ever of this species in our area for me and probably going to be a long time before a repeat of such a record. A Little Egret flew over the wood here and down into a ditch inland.

By now the weather was playing its part and a desperate ride to Knott End to see if the rain would relent was at least rewarded with c. 80 Sanderling, a species which rarely goes any further in our direction than here save perhaps the odd stray towards Fluke Hall.

The (not impressive or convincing) pic's are at least relevant to today's birding and show the 4 Bean Geese (in the lower one) despite any photographic details which may falsely indicate otherwise, and also despite the fact that two of them did nothing more than show their a***'s (two right hand birds) in every shot I took.