Free Again!

With JB today and thank goodness for that as my mentality was going downhill fast and I'd not been birding for three full days and was approaching the point of no return.

At Conder Green up to 20 Black - tailed Godwit were in the creeks and 6 House Martin were around 'River Winds'. A Starling was observed on the mud bank teaching its young to become a 'wader' which it had obviously done itself as it was probing for and feeding its young on the worms it took from the mud. On Conder Pool a Little - ringed - Plover obliged yet again. On the basin at Glasson Dock the Mute Swans have 7 cygnets and the only other bird of note was a Great - crested Grebe. The Lune Estuary was virtually void of bird life but 3 Eider and - a bird not often seen here - a Ringed Plover were to note.

At Cockersands - where the day was more reminiscent of the end of March rather than May - 3 Turnstone were in their amazing summer plumage, and a mix of c.40 Dunlin and Ringed Plover was about 20/20, 10 Eider flew downstream towards the lighthouse then did a 'u' turn back upstream, I reckon this is about as bleak as it can get at Cockersands. On Moss Lane we saw our first two young Lapwing.

As we drove towards the access track to Hawthornthwaite we saw a pair of Oystercatcher with a young bird. In the Marshaw/Tower Lodge/Trough Bridge area 4 Spotted Flycatcher were excellent finds, also 5 Grey Wagtail, 5 Mistle Thrush, a Jay was a little unexpected, a pair of Great Tit were observed feeding young at a nest site, also a Coal Tit seen to enter a nest hole, and a Brown Hare was noted as a first here for me.

Something interesting - if worrying - happened today in that a visit to Christ Church at Abbeystead where House Martin's have traditionally nested here for years was void of a single bird, but another Spotted Flycatcher here was a reward for the absence of the House Martin's.

The pic of the Lapwing is courtesy of Brian Rafferty.