Dire.

So off I went to Conder Green yesterday full of Mondays enthusiasm which lasted about 45 minutes to be ended by a phone call. But the enthusiasm didn't get me anywhere today and bird species and numbers were dire everywhere I went, but that's birding, some you win, some you lose....but enough of this. 

To add to Mondays notes for Conder Green, 10 Little Grebe was yet another increase for this species on Conder Pool and heading up nicely to the peak count of sixteen on 18 October 2010, also noted, 6 Snipe and 24 Canada Geese. A Grey Wagtail was upstream of the road bridge, and the Common Sandpiper was in the creeks again. The Lune Estuary carried forward the dire scene with c.450 Golden Plover, 2 Goosander, a Little Egret, and a Peregrine Falcon on a distant post on Colloway Marsh.

Unbelievably dire at Cockersands saved by 2 Mediterranean Gull in a field with c.320 Black-headed Gull taking advantage of the farmer complete with tractor and plough. But waders were in short supply, with no more than 180 Redshank between Crook Farm and Plover Scar where there was just 15 waders at high tide, 9 Dunlin, 3 Ringed Plover, and 3 Turnstone. I noted 4 Wheatear and c.150 Wood Pigeon were put to flight en-mass out of a hedgerow by something....Like I said....dire. 

Apart from a few 'whites' the only butterfly species I saw was a decent c.40 Small Tortoiseshell.

 Mega Vagrants.  

Thanks to RBA we had news of two vagrants found in Ireland. The Eastern Kingbird was found yesterday in Inishbofin, Co Galway.... 

Wilson's Warbler Arkive 

....and the Wilson's Warbler which was found last Friday 20 September at Dursey Island, Co Cork, and was still there the following day, but not seen since. A little North American gem which winters in southern Texas, south to Panama, and a very rare vagrant with only one previous record, that of a bird found at Rame Head, Cornwall in 1985. This individual was seen by only a few local birders briefly for a few minutes and was never seen again.