Here and There.

Mediterranean Gull. Pete Woodruff.

Starting with another example of one of my stunning photographs - I use the words loosely - of the adult Mediterranean Gull with c.320 Black-headed Gulls and 4 Common Gulls on Conder Pool this morning. Also on the pool, a Kingfisher, the resident 3 Wigeon, and a Little Egret. On the circuit here I noted 2 Spotted Redshank, 3 Greenshank, 4 Common Sandpiper, and c.180 Redshank in the Conder channel below the old railway bridge.

On a bit of a 'where should I go next' day I decided to see if the Yellow Wagtail would show at Bank End, it didn't after sifting through 25 Pied Wagtails, but it was a good decision to come here if only for the female Marsh Harrier which flew towards me going north and over Bank House Farm.

Another rewarding decision was to give Aldcliffe a go and do the circuit. With the trees in full leaf during the summer months there are very few places along the track to Marsh Point  where you can view the Freeman's Pools but having looked it over from the gate there was little to note save 3 Grey Herons roosting on the island like folded umbrellas, and a pair of Moorhen had a successful brood of six small young which will need at least four more weeks good luck to steer clear of predation. The return via the embankment was the reward with my first coastal returning Wheatear, 3 Green Sandpiper and a Greenshank were on the wildfowlers pool, and a Snipe was on the flood where a Green Sandpiper had been 1.5 hours earlier but had presumably gone to make up the three on the pool, otherwise the possibility of four GS here today.

On my return on the embankment I realised how big the maize field is - it really is BIG - and couldn't help but wonder how many Lapwings had paid the price of choosing this field to breed this year.

And finally....

Solitary Sandpiper. Paul Baker.

Well I didn't find one of these today, the Nearctic counterpart of the Green Sandpipers I saw at Aldcliffe this afternoon, with similar habitat preferences it breeds in Alaska and much of Canada, and is one of the rarest North American waders in Britain, so if I think I'm watching a Green Sandpiper in September and it flies off showing a dark rump and tail I reckon I may just shout Tringa solitaria.