An Enjoyable Chat!

Stonechat Simon Hawtin   

Two enjoyable chats actually....The best one had to be the female Stonechat at the Caravan Park end of Cockersands. The other chat - also at Cockersands - was with a couple I met who gave me the info that they had seen 10 Brown Hare here earlier. I immediately told them they had made my day in telling me this, and proceeded to give them some up to date info on the Brown Hare in the Cockersands area. So perhaps its looking like they may have 'moved a little' rather than 'disappeared a lot'....here's hoping.

Song Thrush Astland Photography

I find it hard to believe I even attempted to go to Cockersands again today let alone spend three hours there following last Thursdays Arctic like experience. The first bird I saw here was a Song Thrush by Crook Cottage, a bird I'm always pleased to find, not an every day occurrence any more unfortunately, a once familiar and popular garden songbird, now in serious decline - in particularly on farmland - the bird now has the distinction of being a Red Listed species.

Wigeon Martin Jump

I have to confess the visit to Plover Scar was not a riveting experience. not least because of the persistent icy cold howler from the east. Birds I noted were, 50 Knot, 4 Grey Plover, and 2 Ringed Plover, off here were c.150 Wigeon and 12 Eider. A Little Egret has obviously taken up residence in the area, I have seen this bird almost every visit for a few months now and it spent a lengthy time here in 2012, today it was around the body of water which runs west from the road north from Bank Houses. I saw just one Brown Hare, and not a solitary Whooper/Bewick's/Mute Swan in this area today.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock I counted at least 450 Black-tailed Godwit being almost half the number seen here a week ago, 35 Goldeneye, and noted a pair of Pintail, very unusual on this section of the River Lune. On the canal basin, a drake Pochard and 2 Little Grebe noted. I then had to make a hasty exit from birding back to Lancaster.

Mrs Mutt Was Here....OK!!    

I make no apology for the mention - and the shock - of finding not one but two Mrs Mutts at Cockersands today with a grand total of 28 unleashed dogs, one parading the entire length and breadth of Plover Scar, and - lo and behold - when I got to the Caravan Park end another Mrs M and her mutts parading the length of the Cocker channel.

And finally....

Grasshopper Warbler Phillip Tomkinson  

Coming soon to a location somewhere near you, the Grasshopper Warbler....if you're lucky.