After The Break!

If you've been following Birds2blog during 2010 - either on occasions or even daily - I'd like to thank you very much, your interest and support is much appreciated and I hope you found something of interest from time to time. Whether or not I can maintain the blog - and it survives another year - remains to be seen.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE.



Some delayed records from yesterday - Friday 23 December - when I ran out of 'blogging' time but had the opportunity to get out birding after a six day unavoidable and unplanned break.

High Tide Roosters. Pete Woodruff.

Apart from the snow giving the show away these four Turnstones and a Lapwing could have been photographed roosting at high tide at any time of the year, but they looked a little forlorn and you couldn't help feel they were probably feeling hungry too. There was some pretty worrying sights today with birds obviously on the hunt for food and sitting around sometimes in places you wouldn't expect to see them - and you can approach them too - in particular the Lapwings sat in fields looking like they were lost in a sea of ice and snow. Sorry for the drama....just seeing things realistically.

With BT - JB had wisely decided to give it a miss today - we first went to Conder Green where I noted a fair number of small birds flitting from bush to bush searching for food, in particular Blackbirds of which the day produced them 'around every corner', Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush, c.12 Fieldfare, and a single Redwing. Birds noted in the Conder channels, up to 200 Wigeon, 4 Little Grebe, a drake Shoveler was very unusual here, and 48 Mute Swans, c.120 Pink-footed Geese (PFG) > south.

On the canal basin at Glasson Dock c.150 Tufted Duck and 4 Pochard drake were in a large ice free area with the uncounted Coots around the boats in the marina. On the Lune Estuary, at least 120 Goldeneye, a drake Eider and Red-breasted Merganser were also noted, otherwise the tide had taken over the area. On Jeremy Lane, 16 Whooper Swans and c.3,000 PFG. On the length of Moss Lane, probably around 100 Fieldfare seen. And at Cockersands, 22 Turnstone and 3 Grey Plover were close by the car park as in the pic above, otherwise....high tide. At the set-aside just c.30 Linnet, also noted was a Kestrel, and along the way to and from here 11 Brown Hare.

Driving away from Cockersands....



....it was looking a little angry as we drove by the snowy landscape looking across to Abbey Farm.

In a field SW of Cockerham we stopped to estimate another c.5,000 PFG in a field along with another Brown Hare. Off Gulf Lane, c.70 Fieldfare, a Buzzard, and yet another c.1,500 PFG. On Pilling Marsh I counted the 'swans' as they flew off towards Fluke Hall Lane where - when we arrived there - the combined total was at least 200 Whooper Swans.

Barn Owl. Brian Rafferty 

During the visit to Cockersands I had excellent views of a Barn Owl, seen last week by JB/BT in my absence. At Fluke Hall I had the good fortune to see and have a conversation with a man who knows a thing or two about these brilliant creatures which I was told had a good breeding season in 2010 in the Rawcliffe and surrounding area, the figures he gave me were exciting to say the least, he also told me that he knew about the one at Cockersands.