A Dead Loss!

Well not quite....birding's never a 'dead loss'.

With a search of the Lune Estuary ongoing yesterday for a missing person - with the RNLI and a helicopter involved - I thought it best to avoid the area and decided to walk the route to Glasson Dock from Lancaster, though if it had been a job paid on results....I doubt if I'd have got any pay at all!

I made notes of 43 species, though very few counts were made - more to the point very few needed - but included, 14 Blackbird which was 26 down on the count of 40 made at the end of last year on the same route on Tuesday 30 December, 5 Robin were also of note, 7 down on the count of 12 on the same date. 

Gadwall Jan Larsson

I always like to see the Gadwall and some seen on Freeman's Pools yesterday. On Aldcliffe Marsh c.120 Pink-footed Geese, a single Black-tailed Godwit was on the flood with up to 240 Redshank, and just one Little Egret seen the entire length of the walk.

At Conder Green, a Sparrowhawk seen, with a casual count made of 6 Little Grebe on Conder Pool. On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, 56 Goldeneye counted, and c.60 Goldfinch appeared to be intending to roost in trees by the bowling green.

Land Management.

Land Management. Pete Woodruff. 

This is an ongoing Land Management exercise at Aldcliffe below the landward side of Dawsons Bank around the wildfowlers pool area. I shudder to think what the full plan is here, but the four men I watched armed with a chainsaw each were in no way engaged in coppicing, though some of this kind of management is taking place along the hedge as the picture above illustrates. However, wildlife can do without this kind of habitat loss, and the debris in the field is definitely not all the result of coppicing, some of it are trees/bushes taken out. From where the picture above was taken, previously the field and beyond could only be seen through gaps in the trees...I reckon when this job is finished a large area of habitat will have gone forever for no good reason.