Driving Me On.

A favourite motto of mine regarding my attitude to birds/birding is....

Not what you will see
But rather what you might
The element of surprise
Never fails to delight

A decision to do the walk to follow the River Lune from Lancaster - Glasson Dock was a wise one on Wednesday last week and turned out to be the epitome of my motto when I found six Little Ringed Plover (LRP) on the flood at Aldcliffe a record which - until I find out or am told otherwise - is an all time best count of the species in this area and certainly on this excellent flood. However, I note in a search through my records that the Aldcliffe six pail into insignificance regarding numbers of this species of wader seen together in a sighting when I find a visit to the Kent Estuary at Halforth in July 2006 produced an amazing sixteen LRP's. The surprises and unpredictability of birds never fails to intrigue me, these are the kind of experiences which drive me on every time I leave home for a days birding....And then there was the Jack Snipe on Conder Pool last Wednesday too....nice one!!

The migrants are coming.     

Yesterday I received the news that snow had been falling on Friday in the south of Toulouse in France, the first time it ever has done here as late as early April according to my correspondent. But the weather has improved over here in the past two days and now perhaps we should hopefully see some northbound migration in the country and into our area.

Garden Birds.

Siskin. Richard Pegler. 

Visits to our garden feeders have increased once again with 6 Siskin seen here on Friday last week.

Brambling/Redpoll. Richard Pegler.

Richard has had some excellent visitors to his suburban garden, last year he collected the record of 32 species, a much better tally than we hope to ever achieve in our garden. Thanks for the excellent photographs of the male and female Siskin, the Lesser Redpoll and Brambling, they are much appreciated Richard   

The Mega.

Killdeer Tim Kuhn  

A Killdeer was at Alston Reservoir at Longridge this morning at 10.10am. The bird was on Alston Wetlands and stayed until 11.00am when it flew off NW, it returned at 11.22am and stayed until 11.50am when it flew off once again, this time NE never to be seen again. The Killdeer breeds in North and Central America, South America from Peru to northern Chile, and the West Indies. 

Whilst here I noted 2 Little Ringed Plover and a Raven over.