BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Friday 14 January 2011

The Whizz Kids!


Well I was wrong on my prediction in yesterdays post about being back home with JB/BT by 2.00pm as we got an extra 45 minutes added to the day compared to last weeks homecoming. However we still did some 'whizzing around' again with little lingering and - in my view - tried to cram in too many locations in the time scale....end of whinge! I've decided not use my usual 'circa' to describe my counts today which are as accurate as possible in all cases. The photograph below has no particular connection with todays events other than they are of birds and are both stunning ones which hopefully add some much needed class to the blog.

Short-eared Owl. David Cookson  

So we started at Eagland Hill were at least 4 Bewick's Swans were with 48 Whooper Swans and at least 1,000 Pink-footed Geese (PFG). We followed here with the first of our 'nipping in' at Fluke Hall where I noted 950 PFG distant on the sands. On Pilling Marsh another 250 PFG with 6 Whooper Swans distant, 2 Little Egrets, and an absolute minimum of 950 Shelduck. In the field opposite the entrance to Pilling Lane Ends, 320 PFG and 70 Greylag. Pulling in at Braides - if only to say hello to a Fylde man whose name I can never remember - I noted a Buzzard on the coastal embankment thanks to the man whose name I can never remember but whose initials I recall as being PS.

At Cockersands the set-aside appears to be reduced to 34 Linnet seen today. And here is the place I definitely needed time to spend sifting through at least 2,500 wildfowl in the Cocker Channel, the ratio of which I'll never know given the short period spent there, but in numerical order were, Wigeon, Mallard, Teal, and Pintail.

From Bodie Hill, 45 Black-tailed Godwit, 450 Lapwing, 500 Wigeon, and a distant Greenshank over by Bazil Point. At Glasson Dock - another good place t'would have been good to linger at today - 2,200 Lapwing, 850 Wigeon, and 450 Golden Plover....well Alleluia to the latter record. 

And finally....

Great-crested Grebe. David Cookson

Thanks for the photographs DC, excellent stuff and much appreciated once again.   

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