Cool Man!

Barbondale looking NE from the Bull Pot track.

Still pretty cool today at Barbondale, a must place for me to visit to check out the 'visitors' and 'chat' situation. A couple of my pic's taken here on a previous visit as it looked nothing remotely like this today with a cool - if not cold - breeze and cloudy grey skies but thankful for small mercies as it stayed dry for my birding six hours. I reckon some of the summer visitors will be thinking they made a wrong turn along the way and ended up somewhere near Iceland. The records are below in no particular order.

Records. 

Whinchat 4

Stonechat 3

Redstart 3

Tree Pipit

Woodcock

Wheatear 8

Willow Warbler 9 

Reed Bunting 5

Meadow Pipit 11

Pied Wagtail 4

Mistle Thrush 2

Coal Tit 3

Blackbird 3

Wren 2

Green Woodpecker

Dipper 3

Common Sandpiper 2

Buzzard 3

Notes.

An interesting days birding with birds notably missing, Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher and Wood Warbler though maybe the next few days will see these latter two here, the Cuckoo which - void of checking my records - I don't recall seeing here in at least three years, and Grey Wagtail, a species I'm not seeing much of these days and haven't seen at Conder Green for probably a year plus. You can draw your own conclusions on some of the other figures collected at Barbondale over six hours today but a single Tree Pipit, nine Willow Warbler, 3 Redstart, and eleven Meadow Pipit can hardly be regarded as phenomenal numbers over this time scale. 

On the positive side, four Whinchat were excellent but note, the record shows extra caution on duplicate counting as I had sightings of six birds but beware if you see the Whinchat in the Bull Pot track area and minutes later from the track west towards the plantation it 'could' be the same bird. I've observed today and on previous occasions that they commute across Barbon Beck regularly. Just a slight improvement on the Stonechat situation with three birds seen here today but I note with reliable information from the Forest of Bowland that my figures agree more or less with those from there on the decline of the Stonechat.

Looking west from the Bull Pot track.

So I reckon Barbondale was a generally quiet place today, perhaps a visit I'll make here again sometime in May will show some improvement in bird numbers/species and I watch in anticipation for other birders records of visits here and see if they connect with the Pied Flycatcher, Spotted Flycatcher, Wood Warbler, Cuckoo, and Grey Wagtail.