Friday......

......is JB/BT/PW day and why not. BT's car often seems to head - of its own accord apparently - to Aldcliffe were we saw at least 5 Raven on the marsh with 4 House Martin over to note, and a Whitethroat in the bushes bordering the marsh. At Freemans Pools the only bird of note for me was a Little Grebe in its fine summer coat. By the way, anyone who perchance compares my records on here with JB's on the LDBWS website may see contradictions which are not that at all as JB and I are often separated on our birding days together and therefore have differing sightings to record.

At Conder Green it was good to see at least one young Little - ringed - Plover with two adults on the pool, hopefully the other was in hiding, also the Spotted Redshank obliged yet again accompanied by 144 Redshank, be quick as it's soon going to start to 'change colour', at least one Common Sandpiper was also on here. At Glasson Dock on the Lune Estuary just 8 Bar - tailed Godwit and two distant (again) 'tern's' could only be recorded as Commic Tern's (again). From Bodie Hill 4 Eider were in flight upstream......this is all a bit desperate isn't it!

Now we're off to the Trough of Bowland where we were heading for a pleasant surprise. We first stopped off at the access track to Hawthornthwaite where I personally always see a 'few' Sand Martin milling around at the bottom end of this track and am often intrigued as to where these birds breed, well the pleasant surprise was in the finding of a small colony of c.5 nests in a bank of the stream running down from Hawthornthwaite. A Grey Wagtail was also on the stream, and a Buzzard over. I must admit there was a lesson to be learned here this afternoon as BT or myself could have trod on a downy Curlew (my camera was in the car) whilst making a diversion from the track. The lesson here is an obvious one, that upland birds breed here so......'Beware and always be aware' is a good motto here. The visit to the Marshaw/Tower Lodge area could only be described as a brief one today but 2 Common Sandpiper, 3 Redpoll in flight, a Song Thrush was full throttle, and a Goldcrest noted.

It's hard to believe on a perfect day for butterflies and having spent almost seven hours out in the big wide world I was able to record an almost unbelievable one Small Heath, two Painted Lady, and one or two Speckled Wood......problem's?

Thanks to Brian Rafferty for allowing me to brighten up the blog with his pic of a Dipper.