Delayed Action.

By the time the weather improved and I got myself sorted it was 11.45 when I arrived at Aldcliffe where I did a circuit followed by another circuit at Conder Green and the trio of the day at Cockersands.

At Aldcliffe, it was never going to be a day of birdsong and discovery, apart from the odd Wren or two the place was silent but as I got to Freemans Pools one of the the first birds I saw was a distant, half hidden and resting wader but more on this later. I noted a Little Grebe, 4 Goldeneye and 8 Gadwall possibly nine but had to bolt from a heavy hail shower. Along the embankment 2 Wheatear m/f, a Little Egret, and a Green Sandpiper was on the wildfowlers pool. When I got back to the car at the bottom of Aldcliffe Hall Lane I met Steve who I told about the wader on the pool and said I was going to check the bird out armed with my telescope which I had left in the car for 'walking comfort', Steve followed on his bike. I had told him of my suspicion about this bird and by the time I got back here it was slightly more alert and through the scope it was what I had thought, a Greenshank. The LRP's which I had hoped to 'twitch' I 'dipped' on....well if I'm going to twitch I'll need to learn the language !

At Conder Green the Common Sandpiper obliged as did one of the four (yesterday) Spotted Redshank, also a Greenshank, 2 Grey Plover, and a Snipe. From Jeremy Lane a Little Egret was in a field here as it/one had been a few weeks ago on one or two occasions. On Moss Lane there are still 8 Whooper Swan's though one has detached itself and was in a field with Mute Swan's half a mile up the road opposite Gardners Farm.

At Cockersands between Crook Farm and Lighthouse Cottage I noted c.400 Dunlin, and a 'few' Knot. Also c.260 Golden Plover in a Abbey Farm field, up to 15 Linnet, a Skylark, Reed Bunting, Sparrowhawk, and counted at least 12 Brown Hare.

I note at 9.15 pm there are no more than 50 RBA pager messages today including just four in Lanc's - something of a 'low' national record I would think - indicating not a few birders out and about but that the spring has come to a grinding halt. That said there has been an arrival of some early Swallow's which will be thinking they went wrong somewhere along the way. The one in the pic is from last summer.