Foot Soldiering.

With the weather half decent on Monday and no wind, I thought the best idea was to do a stroll through some ideal habitat for the odd Yellow-browed Warbler to turn up perhaps, sounding like a 'proper birder'....not before time!!

Old railway routes given back to nature always make for ideal habitats for birds, there's one in the Lakes which can/could turn up numerous Wood Warblers in a season....not in October of course. So of I went from the bus station in Lancaster to dawdle, stop, look, and listen along the coastal path to Glasson Dock. Well, I was kidding myself really, to do this lengthy stretch any justice for 'finding' birds would take you a full long day at least....but I did my best and managed to collect at least 50 species, most of which I expected to find and I'm not going to labour the list on here, but notable were as follows....

A Jay flew across the River Lune from St Georges Quay to Ryelands Park, a few minutes later a lone Goldeneye was seen on the river. 

 Will you help save Freeman's Wood  

I arrived at Freeman's Pools to note 10 Gadwall and 3 Little Grebe. The flood at Aldcliffe has now become a lake large enough to take boats - well almost - as has the wildfowlers pool where I saw 5 Little Grebe of note, and by the time I got to Conder Green - adding to the 50 list along the way - I'd seen 7 Little Egret. 

Looking over the marsh at Conder Green. Pete Woodruff.

At Conder Green I found 2 Spotted Redshank and noted 3 Snipe and a Goosander. On Conder Pool I found the number now in a double figure and counted 10 Little Grebe and a Goldeneye, by which time one of those unfriendly showers which come down by the bucketful had arrived and I had to dive for the cover of a small bridge over a culvert. 

Conder Creeks. Pete Woodruff.

I got a little fed up of waiting for the rain to cease so I hot-footed it to Glasson Dock to find a juvenile Scaup - the recent female now disappeared - on the canal basin, by which time....my bus was coming!

Birding days like this are all very well but, there's no way I'm being weighed down with a telescope and tripod for a six mile hike. OK, you don't need a telescope to find passerines hiding in the bushes, but birding otherwise with half your optics left at home....I'm afraid it's a bit like going out without your pants on.

Footnote.

A quick search revealed all the websites I found about Freeman's Wood - including the link above - were badly out of date....Anyone out there have any updated one's as Birds2blog might generate some support.