Birdings Inspirations.

I never fail to find inspiration in my birding, sometimes by the bucketful, other times in small measure which perhaps is what my Mondays experience was.

Little Owl. Richard Pegler.

But finding a flock of at least 250 Linnet in the Abbey Farm/Cockersands Abbey area was good, I can't recall my last such number of Linnet, seeing a Little Owl in the bushes at Bank Houses horse paddock was my first here since 19 Nov 2013 and only the second one in four years, though I have a distinct feeling I may not have been looking in the right places.

 Whimbrel. Pete Woodruff.

I also found and succeeded in getting a half decent picture of a Whimbrel off Crook Cottage. These three sightings went some way to inspire me on Monday.

Wheatear. Richard Pegler.   

Also of note at Cockersands, 5 Wheatear, at least 30 Tree Sparrow around Bank House Cottage, where in excess of 100 Swallow were on the rooftop and around the cottage, 5 Little Egret were by the Cocker channel, and c.100 Golden Plover were off Crook Farm. Not for the first time this summer, the only butterfly of note was a single Red Admiral.

I have to confess, the Lune Estuary a Glasson Dock certainly did not inspire me, it was at the lowest tide I think I've ever seen there, with exposed areas I've never seen before either, yet over thirty minutes there was little that I could find to impress, with c.160 Golden Plover and 7 Little Egret all that found their way into the little black book.

Something of a brief visit to Conder Green produced a Ruff, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, and a Little Egret in the creeks. On a quiet Conder Pool, a peak count of 12 Little Grebe, and a Kingfisher was again flushed by bad fieldcraft upstream on the bends from the A588 road bridge.

The Conder Common Terns.

I've neither seen nor heard of the Common Terns from Conder Pool since they were last reported at Cockersands on Sunday 14 September. Hopefully they have departed the area and are safely on their journey south.

Thanks to Richard Pegler for the images. Richard takes classic photographs of the Little Owl as can be seen in the example above, and will see if you visit his website.