WoodRuff !

Can't recommend the grub in the Stork from experience but the car park is always full when open and if their attention to the food is half as good as it is to their hanging basket's then I'd suggest going for it as the floral display must be second none. As for the title of this post, still not the former but two of the latter, one of which was a nice surprise but that's coming up.

At Conder Green the pool was rather quiet but a Little Egret would have caused my mobile to overload not all that many years ago and a Ruff showed well, a female Mallard was noted in charge of seven young, also Kingfisher seen on here, 2 Spotted Redshank were in the creeks as were 2 Greenshank, just 4 Common Sandpiper made me to think perhaps some 'moving on' has taken place but more to come I would suggest, a single Black - tailed Godwit noted, and at least one House Martin nest is still active at River Winds.

At Glasson Dock on the Lune Estuary, by recent standards the wader numbers were well down but at least 300 Golden Plover were the highest returning number to date, and 2 Greenshank were also to note, 2 adult Mediterranean Gull's are always a nice find. On Moss Lane a Ruff with c.500 mainly Black - headed Gull's in a field gave that 'you never know whats next' feeling. At Cockersands a Peregrine Falcon put every wader in sight to panic but the numbers were relatively small with circa 320 Oystercatcher, 160 Redshank, 140 Dunlin, 4 Knot, 3 Ringed Plover and just 2 Eider on the estuary. The best bird here today was a solitary Sanderling and I'm not convinced everyone appreciates just how scarce this species is at Cockersands.

I hot footed it (if that's possible in a car) to Pilling Lane Ends where I was committed to doing a deferred WeBS count (peeing down yesterday) which as it turns out took me just a few minutes, its surprising even on an almost 10 mtr tide just how unbelievably low the number of birds present at a location like this can be in late August, added to my own notes was another Peregrine Falcon which seemed content to 'sit' on the marsh for the duration of my visit, I also noted a 'large' number of Swallows hawking over the marsh, if I was to put a figure to them I would go for a minimum of 300.

Off Fluke Hall I estimated 30 Sandwich Tern's and 40 Grey Plover 'at rest' on the marsh though there was probably more of the latter hidden from view, also 2 Little Egret which are appearing up and down the coast again now and slowly building up to winter numbers, and the last bird of the day was a Whitethroat in the hedgerow......Isn't birding great!