BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND.....................................................................................BARN OWL COCKERSAND IAN MITCHELL

Monday, 20 January 2014

Out Of Time....Again!

 Back In Ten Minutes!

Had a good seven hours estuary birding today but out of time for blogging....hopefully tomorrow.

The Cockersands Straight. Pete Woodruff.

When I saw the late afternoon sun on this reed-lined stretch of road at Cockersands today I had to take a pic and wonder....


Great Bustard. Copy Permitted.

....how far back in history would we have to go to see this area of Cockersands as a brilliant vast reed covered land crawling with Bittern and - out on the open grassland - the Great Bustard. 

The population of Bittern in Europe is estimated at 34 - 54,000 males. 
The estimated UK breeding population stands at 80 males. 
The UK winter population stands a 600 birds.

The Great Bustard was hunted out of existence in Britain by the 1840's....well I reckon that rings a bell!!  

2 comments:

  1. Hi Peter!!!. What a beautiful header!!!.. Great bird.. Kind regards..

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  2. Pete,
    That reed lined road wouldn't last a week here, it would be flailed down to a few millimeters off the ground!

    Courtesy of the ''tidy'' brigade :-(

    ReplyDelete