Double Six!

Sandwich Tern courtesy of Phil Slade.

Struggling for pics again but found this Sandwich Tern which will do nicely for the head of today's post, taken by a man from the Fylde, thanks Phil. Visit Another Bird Blog and keep up to date on his birding/ringing days.

Six miles in six hours - and thats a crawl - on a smart blue sky day though the breeze remains pretty chilly. I made an attempt at counting 26 House Sparrows from leaving home to arriving at Aldcliffe but I don't think its much of a contribution as it isn't easy putting binoculars to your eyes in urban areas especially when you get to Haverbreaks which is a very private place and not one to find yourself confronted by one of the residents accusing you of peering into peoples bedrooms....there's no need for me to go on like this is there, so here are the records, Aldcliffe - Conder Green....

On Freeman's Pools 2 Little Ringed Plover, on the way here in stubble 2 White Wagtail and a Green Sandpiper on the wildfowlers pool. The walk between Aldcliffe and Conder Green produced, at least 24 Blackbirds, 4 Song Thrush, 3 Wren, 3 Dunnock, 2 Willow Warbler - which is a poor return heading towards the end of April - single Chiffchaff, 3 Lesser Whitethroat, a Whitethroat, 3 Blackcap all singing males, 6 Goldfinch, 5 Greenfinch are almost an amazing record, 3 Wheatear, and my first 4 House Martin which were going to the trouble of collecting mud from the banks of the River Lune and flying almost a 1/4 of a mile to the property where they were nest building....tireless and amazing creatures.

At Conder Green there were at least 10 Common Sandpiper here today, a Spotted Redshank which can  now be picked out a mile away without optics and is almost as black as the ace of spades, a Greenshank, 3 Goldeneye still on the pool, and the Kestrel which can be seen on a daily basis hunting here and is surely breeding somewhere in the vicinity.

Although there was some good returns for my effort today, this walk was void of being regarded as alive with birds/song and lots of species numbers are low as far as I'm concerned, probably the two best examples being Wrens and Willow Warblers, a single Chiffchaff wasn't all that impressive either.