Back To Birding.

By a stroke of good fortune I was able to get myself back to birding today, it would have been a full week since my last session had it gone to tomorrow as 4 December was my last time and I reckon life can be pretty boring a such times. 

Last weeks storm and high tides played havoc with Conder Green and the pool now has to be renamed Conder Lake, some fencing is on the deck, the platform has taken a bashing, the slopping invalid friendly footpath is now quite a deep trench, and a stone island is now in the River Conder leaving a gaping hole below the outflow....But what about the birds seen in a four hour rake around the Conder/Glasson area.

Of note on Conder Pool, 6 Goldeneye, 6 Little Grebe, 5 Goosander, and a Little Egret. In the creeks, it was good to find the Common Sandpiper again, a Spotted Redshank, and 2 Snipe. Small birds en-route to Glasson Dock via the coastal path, up to 30 Goldfinch, 10 Chaffinch, a Dunnock, and a Peregrine Falcon over.

Pochard. Copy Permitted. 

At Glasson Dock, on the canal basin, a female Pochard, c.55 Tufted Duck, and a Little Grebe seen. 

Lapwing Ana Minguez  

On the Lune Estuary, a Ruff found amongst the horde of at the very least 5,000 Lapwing spread about the mudflats, a minimum of 2,000 Golden Plover, and 50 Goldeneye. Barely a double figure of Black-tailed Godwit seen here today, with 4 Bewick's Swan being 2 adult/2 juvenile, and 3 Little Egret, a pair of Red-breasted Merganser, a Goosander, and 4 Little Grebe.

Barn Owl.

 Barn Owl. Howard Stockdale.

I'm reliably informed by a resident at Conder Green of a Barn Owl hunting almost nightly, and by a resident of Cockersands of another Barn Owl seen regularly in and around the lighthouse cottage area.

Thanks to Ana/Howard for the Lapwing/Barn Owl images.