......well back to birding anyway
and thats perfectly normal to me.
and thats perfectly normal to me. Perhaps I should deal with today's pic which I've posted for the sheer excitement of seeing the Gannet in the image as it plunges towards the sea, it has absolutely nothing to do with anything that follows but so what. My thanks to David Cookson for the pic.
I spent the best part of two hours peering into bushes and nooks and crannies everywhere at Conder Green this morning plus despite counting them a dozen times as they dived continuously I could only find 9 Little Grebe on Conder Pool, also the Kingfisher seen, I could win money taking bets on guarantees of seeing this bird here at the moment, 5 Snipe were also seen and 'the' Ruff was in the creeks again.
On the canal basin at Glasson Dock I counted at least 70 Tufted Duck and noted 2 drake Pochard. On the Lune Estuary I noted circa numbers of 800 Lapwing, 720 Bar - tailed Godwit, 650 Knot and 160 Dunlin, I saw no more than 10 Golden Plover here today, 2 Red-breasted Merganser, a most interesting count was 9 Goosander, a Little Egret was over by Waterloo Cottage, and an adult Mediterranean Gull was the star bird.
At Cockersands I managed yet again to 'miss' a Curlew Sandpiper obviously this years boggie bird for me, an adult drake Scaup was with 45 Eider, 4 Red-breasted Merganser, and a Peregrine Falcon revealed c.1,500 Knot and was eventually mobbed briefly by the noticeably smaller Kestrel, I made no attempt at counting unimpressive numbers of Redshank and Dunlin but did note a solitary Turnstone and Grey Plover.
Pilling Marsh at high tide had been deserted by the PFG and I had just counted 23 Whooper Swan from Lane Ends towards Fluke Hall when fifteen decided to relocate elsewhere inland, of the eight remaining six where immatures, 3 Little Egret where also on the marsh.
Between Fluke Hall and Cockers Dyke at least 450 Pink-footed Geese were on Preesall Sands and I saw three more Little Egret. By the time I reached Cockers Dyke I'd run out of time but did establish no Med Gull/s and nothing out of the ordinary amongst the waders but don't like the 'out of time' situation and couldn't do any counting, otherwise the day for me had certainly been birding and after a six day absence that's ......back to normal.
Not a bad day at all
ReplyDeleteHey Pete! Glad to see you got the dowitcher on your local patch. Nice one. Bet it's been hiding on the Ribble somewhere while I've been out here?
ReplyDeleteColin
Puerto Maldonado, Peru 22/10.
Hi Pete,
ReplyDeleteEarly Wednesday evening 3 Teal, 2 male, 1 female seen on Conder Creek (I am the worst bird watcher in the world but even I am sure I am not mistaken here - although I daresay this is not a sighting of any great significance.
Peregrine seen 'setting to flight' a flock of unidentified birds in trees behind the Stork pub as well.
What I wanted to ask you was - despite having my new binoculars I was having trouble identifying two large flocks away in the distance on the Lune estuary at Glasson Dock:
One comprised a good number of smallish white birds - Knot?
Beyond these - The other was a larger flock of small, shimmering, golden coloured birds - Golden Plover? (quite beautiful in the evening light)
Are there any tricks to recognising flocks from this distance?
good see you happy and back to normal pete, good luck for the weekend birding!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carol. Not a bad day at all......all birding days are not bad days at all.
ReplyDeleteColin looking in on Birds2blog all the way from Puerto Maldonado in Peru......what more could I ask for of my dedicated followers. Looking forward to seeing 'The Birds of Peru.'
Chris, looks like an e-mail is the order of the day on this one.
Warren I assure you I've never been other than happy but thanks for your comments as always.