An excellent start......

......but soon became hard work. But I left few stones unturned, and few nooks and crannies not searched in seven hours, and if I'd have been doing it as a job of work I'd have wanted sixty quid minimum and thats cheap......very cheap.

At Conder Green on the pool much excitement - well it doesn't take much to excite me - with four Little - ringed Plover, seen as two adult, a juvenile, and a young bird, also noted 4 Common Sandpiper, the smart summer plumage Spotted Redshank, and a Lapwing (not last Tuesdays) with at least two chick's, and a couple of House Martin over the pool. A brief halt at Bodie Hill produced at least 16 Eider, a 'few' Swift were around, and a 'tern' in the haze over the river frustrated the hell out of me and has to be recorded as a 'Commic' Tern which to be honest is a bit of a nonsense in my book.

At Cockersands where waders were virtually non existent, and anything else was pretty hard to find, about 6 Tree Sparrow were around Bank Houses, 2 Sedge Warbler were in song along Moss Lane, 4 Linnet, a male Reed Bunting, and a Kestrel were all noted.

On Pilling Marsh a Peregrine Falcon saved my day here. At Fluke Hall a Little Egret, Whitethroat, Kestrel, a Skylark was in full song overhead and I've often wondered if anyone ever timed these birds in song flight as they must hold 'some' records for timed song period.

The butterfly score was a little improved today but still remain desperate to find. At Pilling Lane Ends, Painted Lady, Common Blue, and Meadow Brown were all singles. At Fluke Hall, 5 Painted Lady, and single Meadow Brown and Small Tortoiseshell.

I've not yet worked out why the line below sometimes ends up an arms length down the page. Well at least the pic of the Six - spot Burnet is one of my efforts in this post.