The Spoonbill.

Its good to have a first record of Spoonbill on the Lune Estuary, moving around a little but spending a lot of its time at the mouth of the River Conder, the bird has been in the area for a 'few' weeks now.

Thorburns Birds.

An excellent example of the Spoonbill, Flamingo, Black Stork, and White Stork from the equally excellent book 'Thorburns Birds'.

The Spoonbill breeds at scattered sites in Europe, it bred in East Anglia, probably until the 17th century. But the Spoonbill was seemingly extinct as a breeding bird until the late 1990's.  Clifford Oakes mentions the first Lancashire record which is of a bird on the Ribble during 1840. More modern records show the first as being five birds at Ainsdale in 1958, with two birds in July 1963 at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve where almost half the 'modern' records have been, and where the Spoonbill has been seen virtually annually since 1970.

By the late 1990's despite there being an increasing number of summering birds in the country there had never been any breeding Spoonbills suspected in the country, but a major surprise came in 1999 when a pair raised two young on the marshes of the south Ribble representing the first successful breeding in Britain since the 17th century....unfortunately they have not returned in subsequent years.

It is pleasing that I - like many other people - have seen the Spoonbill on recent visits to Glasson Dock where the bird can be viewed from the bowling green....an excellent record for the area. 

Waving goodbye....

Swallow Martin Jump

We've started to wave the Swallows goodbye for another year. I watched several individuals and groups fly past me going south last Friday with a mammoth task ahead of them. I reckon when we eventually see the records for 2012 we'll find the year has been at best a poor breeding season for the Swallows. One of the most amazing things about this species is that if the perch we see this individual on in this image is anywhere near its natal site, this bird could  again be found on this very post next year....mind blowing facts.

Thanks Martin, a brilliant image of the young Swallow with a lot of flying to do and an unforgiving desert to cross to reach its wintering grounds in Africa. 

  
Pink-footed Geese Brian Rafferty

And in a matter of a few weeks we'll be seeing the Pink-footed Geese dropping in in their thousands like these two to winter in areas like Pilling in the north Fylde.

And finally....

Peregrine Falcon Brian Rafferty

Yet another of those 'can't resist this one' images of an incredible Peregrine Falcon food pass with the adult above dropping prey to the juvenile below....Pretty impressive stuff Brian, thanks a lot for this and the PFG.