The Friday Sortie.

Sparrowhawk. Warren Baker

With JB/BT yesterday we saw 3 Sparrowhawks with one over the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock being mobbed by a couple of Black-headed Gulls, one on Gulf Lane gliding below a hedge-line above a ditch, and another being mobbed by c.50 Meadow Pipits over Broadfleet, Pilling.

The day started by standing at the gate overlooking Aldcliffe Marsh, a Greenshank seen, Little Egret, and c.600 'geese' were estimated as 350 Canada Geese and 250 Greylag. At Conder Green stood on the old railway bridge I observed a personal first regarding numbers when a wisp of 35 Snipe flew off the marsh before soon returning back on to the banks of the River Lune. Seven Goosander were noted on the River Conder, and on Conder Pool 3 Red-breasted Merganser, 7 Little Grebe, and 32 Tufted Duck probably displaced from the canal basin at Glasson Dock. On the Lune Estuary I noted a Spotted Redshank, estimates of up to 5,000 Lapwing, 2,500 Golden Plover, 250 Redshank, 300 Curlew, and 150 Bar-tailed Godwit.

Off Bodie Hill another c.2,500 Lapwing, c.250 Golden Plover, and a Little Egret, 450 Wigeon were on the river. Driving not much more than a half mile from Bodie Hill to Jeremy Lane up to 20 Magpies were of note in this short distance. At Cockersands where I walked the headland from the lighthouse to the caravan park to meet up again with JB/BT, 5 Wheatear were seen and 22 Eider were off the abbey.  

Little Owls. Marc Heath



A detour along Gulf Lane gave us 2 Golden Plover looking quite lost stood in the centre of a large field of short grass, but we failed to find the resident Little Owls here. The photograph above of the two in Kent is my kind of picture in that it illustrates the birds in their natural surroundings....great stuff Marc.

Little Owl. Mike Watson

In this photograph the Little Owl shows how adept it is at catching insects like this unfortunate cricket....another great picture Mike.

On Pilling Marsh - from where we had seen large numbers flying inland as we drove towards here - I estimated at least 2,000 Pink-footed Geese still on the marsh when we arrived, 3 Little Egret were also seen. At Fluke Hall another Little Egret and a Wheatear seen.  

And finally....

I want to share these two photographs with you. They were taken yesterday on the shore at Fluke Hall and are two more of my - maybe soon to become famous - 'Human Remains' pictures illustrating the kind of people with who we have no choice but to share this fragile planet of ours.

Thanks to WB for the Sparrowhawk, and to MH/MW for the Little Owl photographs. As with all photographs on Birds2blog....EXCELLENT.