Tuesday, 22 February 2011

Persistence.


Snow Bunting. Pete Woodruff.

A bit of persistence in birding nearly always pays off and a bit of it did do today at Cockersands where I located the 1st winter male Snow Bunting again, pity it had its back to me for the pic before flying off.

Rock Pipit. Geoff Gradwell 

Also 5 Rock Pipits two of which accompanied the Snow Bunting on the inland edge of Plover Scar. Other birds of note, 28 Turnstone, 5 Red-breasted Merganser, 3 Goldeneye, 3 Eider, 12 Blackbirds in the horse paddock at Bank Houses, 4 Whooper Swans were seen from the headland in a field some distance inland. A Redshank 'screaming' as it flew past me had a Peregrine Falcon in pursuit and luckily got away with its life on this occasion. At least 70 Linnet were at the set-aside again.

On Jeremy Lane I could only find 2 Whooper Swans today an adult and immature, the Little Owl was perched quietly on one of the beams in the old farm building. On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, 8 Goldeneye and 2 Pochard drakes were of note. On the Lune Estuary I noted estimates of 220 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Bar-tailed Godwit, and 200 Golden Plover, 3 Goosander, and 4 Goldeneye were also of note.

At Conder Green a crawl round the circuit revealed absolutely zero of note save a Spotted Redshank in the creeks, and on Conder Pool 5 Goldeneye, just 2 Wigeon drakes, 10 Tufted Duck, and 2 Canada Geese. 

And finally....


A nice little pic of the nice little Twite on the railings at Knott End. I know you will view the blog sooner or later Geoff and it was good to see you this afternoon to put a face to the name....Hope you like the pics and many thanks for them.
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5 comments:

  1. Brian Rafferty22 February 2011 at 21:17

    Pete. You had a good day and your persistence certainly paid off with the snow bunting and a nice shot as well.

    Geoff's pic of the twite is also excellent...very flighty birds never easy to photograph.Looks like another poor week weatherwise.Hope I can get out and provide you with some nice pics.

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  2. Pete Woodruff22 February 2011 at 21:58

    Yes a good day with 5 Rock Pipits taking the prize for me over the SB....don't get too many RP's in our area and not all that easy to find. Thanks for the kind gesture about getting me some 'nice pics' Brian.

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  3. news23 February 2011 at 09:28

    Glad you had a good day nice shot of SB also RP good record.Nice shot of the Twite Sorry could not be with you but you would understand in the circumstances eventually good news.JWB.

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  4. geoff gradwell23 February 2011 at 14:01

    Hi Pete
    Made my day bumping into you at last, I hope it will be the first of many and when we have more time to chat and the weather is better. I fear it may be sometime before I spend time with another Snow Bunting and thanks for pointing me in the right direction. A truly bonny bird. Like you I was made up with the Rock Pipits – but terribly 'flighty'. Look forward to our next meeting.

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  5. Pete Woodruff23 February 2011 at 14:57

    Thanks JB/GG, I've e-mailed you both and many thanks for looking in on the blog.

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