BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Sunday 26 October 2014

All A Bit Routine....

....and not much of it to write about on Friday either. 


Little Grebe Antonio Puigg 

But the 18 Little Grebe on Conder Pool was an all time high and certainly not routine. The lone Greenshank was on the back terrace again, 7 Snipe were inconspicuous amongst the vegetation, 3 Goosander and up to 300 Black-headed Gull present. It was high tide and apart from the Teal and Mallard I found nothing else of note on what was left of the marsh above water.


Meadow Pipit Phillip Tomkinson 

Cockersands was definitely routine....As I got out of the motor 12 Meadow Pipit went over, and 6 Greenfinch were noted on Slack Lane. As the tide dropped the waders started to build up on Plover Scar to feed, notably Oystercatcher, Redshank, and Curlew, but 2 Grey Plover were a treat, it isn't every day you see the Grey Plover at Cockersands, a solitary Black-tailed Godwit, and c.65 Turnstone - appropriately named - are a pleasure to watch as they flick the stones over with their bill in search of a meal. Three Great-crested Grebe were off the scar, and in an Abbey Farm field, c.350 Lapwing with 40 Golden Plover mingling with them.


Tufted Duck Martin Lofgren

At Glasson Dock I counted 52 Tufted Duck on the canal basin, with a Little Grebe and Great-crested Grebe noted. By now the light was fading and having grilled a few hundred gulls on the Lune Estuary a couple of times, I was lucky to be able to see the distant Spotted Redshank.

If there was birding by floodlight I'd be there, but I'm on my way home now....'twas lighting up time.

With thanks to AP/PT/ML for the excellent photographs, they are much appreciated.

And finally....


Beech In Autumn. Pete Woodruff.  

A walk through our local Williamsons Park and Lancaster Cemetery yesterday found both locations - in particular the cemetery - to have numerous Beech with the ground below littered with mast waiting for the arrival of the Brambling, a few Chaffinch were around one yesterday. 

The tree above is at Tower Lodge in Bowland, and is one of the finest of it's kind underneath which I found 80 Brambling on 10 November 2010.

Thanks to Jan Larsson for the brilliant Redwing in the header photograph. 

4 comments:

  1. The snipe at Burton mere last weekend were really well hidden in the old yellow reeds. they blend in so well. The redwing banner is a brilliant picture. From Findlay

    ReplyDelete
  2. Room for a Little Grebe on the lakes here Pete....lots of room!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Autumn spellbound trees, that one of specially. I love the trees at this time.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Findley....Masters of camouflage the Snipe aren't they.

    Warren....I'll try to grab a LG for you.

    Bob....Pleased you like the Beech.

    Thanks to all for looking in.

    ReplyDelete