....and some other birds.
Common Sandpiper Simon Hawtin
As I stepped onto the viewing platform at Conder Pool yesterday the Common Sandpiper was flying across to land on the near island, a Little Egret was the next bird seen stabbing at the waters edge taking small fry one after the other. Only 3 Goldeneye seen today, with a Red-breasted Merganser also noted. The final result of a few counts was of 15 Little Grebe including one in the creeks where I saw a Spotted Redshank.
On the canal basin at Glasson Dock 2 Goldeneye, 2 Little Grebe, and 42 Tufted Duck counted. On the Lune Estuary, although I wasn't counting here today, Bar-tailed Godwit and Golden Plover numbers appeared slightly down on last Wednesdays counts of 565 and 1,500 respectively. Eight Little Egret were seen without too much of a search, and 24 Cormorant were notable lined up along the waters edge.
Distant on Colloway Marsh I picked out the recently reported Snow Goose with a small number of Pink-footed Geese, the bird appears to have a damaged wing and sadly not likely to be moving very far again unless it rides the tides.
At Cockersands the tide was at it's height and Plover Scar held no more than 25 waders, being 15 Oystercatcher and 10 Turnstone, but 2 Rock Pipit livened the place up. Up to 400 Curlew were in fields. A mix of 50 Wigeon and Teal were in the wide ditch along with 2 Little Egret. Fourteen Greenfinch were again around the cover crop field, and a pair of Red-breasted Merganser and a Great-crested Grebe were seen on the estuary.
Brown Hare Martin Jump
I must check through my records for the Cockersands area, until I saw one yesterday I've not been seeing Brown Hare in recent months, a former stronghold here.
Thanks for the photographs Simon/Martin, much appreciated.
I read a 26 species report from Conder Estuary/Conder Pool including an amazing 6 Common Sandpiper plus seen yesterday!!
Me thinks you and I should visit the opticians and go back to school Mr Woodruff as we clearly miss birds and cannot count.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is I don't miss many birds Phil though you are perfectly right in the case of this one.
ReplyDeleteRegarding counting, I can indeed count, and I can actually read, but rarely do either.
By the way bird counts are a favourite subject of mine, lots of them I see reported are unbelievable nonsense and not humanly possible, the latest example was of one of 28,981 Pink-footed Geese....excuse me!
Thanks for looking in Phil, much appreciated.
I won't delete my reply above to Phil, but for the record think I misunderstood his comment re opticians and inability to count.
ReplyDeleteI'm now convinced he was referring to the record seen on a website of 6 Common Sandpiper at Conder Green yesterday.