Another Futile Attempt.

Room Car with a view. Pete Woodruff.

I made another of those futile attempts to get some birding in again today, it lasted no more than a half hour and ended up with my spending another of those 'wasted life' periods whilst I sat in the car in the hope things would improve weather-wise but didn't and I could only tolerate a view through my windscreen like the one above across the canal basin at Glasson Dock for a very limited time before throwing the towel in.

I actually made a special visit to Conder Green on Saturday evening specifically to see if the Little Ringed Plover was still sitting it out, it was but by then I was convinced that the next visit I made - if the weather didn't improve - this bird was on a loser, as far as I can see today's visit proved this to be correct. Also on Saturday evening I counted 12 Common Sandpiper ten of which were stood together in a group on the edge of Conder Pool, also Spotted Redshank, and a Sparrowhawk over the pool spooked everything in sight. At Glasson Dock on the Lune Estuary a brief visit in fading light, 3 Little Egret and up to 65 House Sparrow were in and out of the bushes by the bowling green.

Little Ringed Plover. Peter Guy.

OK, so Birds2blog has already had one or two LRP pics posted over the past few months but this one is appropriate if only to accompany my personal disappointment in the Conder Pool bird which I've watched sat tight on a nest on several visits over more than three weeks only to end up with failure due to appalling wet weather.

Notes on the half hour today at Conder Green before getting my spirits quite dampend included, 7 Common Sandpiper, 2 Goldfinch, a Dunnock, and on Conder Pool up to 350 Lapwing, and something of a surprise in a Great-crested Grebe being most unusual on here, in fact I'll need to do a search to see if this is a first or not. On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock an adult Arctic Tern and 4 Goosander were noted. I also noted a build up of waders returning here but by now my telescope needed a wiper blade sweeping over it to keep off the rain and I submitted to defeat by the elements.

 

Yellow-legged Gull. Stuart Piner.

I had a text from a 'top of the range' birder yesterday to tell me of an adult Yellow-legged Gull on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock which I hoped to find today but in the short time spent there I didn't....Birding's great isn't it but would be greater if the bloody weather would buck up.

I thought this post should be edited on account of a Marsh Dagger moth at Pagham Harbour LNR today. Believed to be extinct in Britain and not recorded here since 1933 except a single migrant in East Sussex in 1996.