Early Finish!

Today I had no plan to go into the Bowland uplands, but as the pic above shows, for the second consecutive day its just as well it wasn't the plan, this taken on the coastal path from Fluke Hall to Knott End just after lunch time. Soon after this JB and I decided enough was enough of sitting out the 'monsoon' which followed and we were on  our way back to Lancaster and an unplanned early finish. But before all this....

I had noted on Conder Pool, 10 Common Sandpiper, 3 Greenshank, c.200 Redshank, a solitary Black-tailed Godwit, and 5 Shoveler unusual on here, in fact - although I'm not absolutely certain - could be a first record....but I know a man who will. On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock I took note of c.250 Bar-tailed Godwit again, c.180 Redshank, c.50 Knot, and 2 Shelduck accompanied by 23 young. At Cockersands - where it was virtually unsafe weather-wise to get out of the car - up to 15 Goldfinch noted.

Whitethroat. John Bateman.

At Fluke Hall 4 Whitethroat, 10 Tree Sparrow, and a singing Skylark were followed by a sit in the car to shelter from the aforementioned monsoon. We decided it's always best to face up to defeat, and the elements had beaten us yet again. On our way back to Lancaster we called back in at Conder Green but, here we go again and the rains came once more....the final straw!  

Red-legged Partridge. David Cookson.

There are some birds which I never record, in fact some I refuse point blank to do so and the Red-legged Partridge is a good example, though to contradict this claim I actually posted one in my records on Monday of this week at Cockersands, my excuse here is that the single adult bird had 11 very young with it and was 'running' down the road with them following on in a line.

Rook. David Cookson.

Another example is the Rook, but again this is a rule I break sometimes, an example would be if I encounter unusually high numbers of this corvid. At the end of the day this was a good excuse for posting a couple of brilliant images from the man who isn't going to stop taking photographs until hes dead....well thank goodness for that! 

You dont have to take my word about his photography, just take a look HERE