The Tuesday Marathon....

....better late than never.

Bird of the day on Tuesday whilst on Jeremy Lane counting 10 Whooper Swan and noting the Black Swan with them, was the male Stonechat, another fluke as I had given the bird only a moments thought supposing it had moved on since I first found it on 27 January and certainly wasn't looking for it today, but a movement a half mile away took my eye and there he was on the fence posts, déjà vu....gems and flukes again.

To my shame I decided to ignore the swans off Moss Lane this time and drove by them in the field, but a birder I saw later gave me the figures of 285 Whooper Swan and a single Bewick's Swan there.

At Cockersands, waders noted off Crook Farm, 18 Black-tailed Godwit and 12 Knot, with at least 500 Dunlin strung out along the shoreline to Plover Scar, 32 Eider, a pair of Red-breasted Merganser were off here. A 'good number' of Turnstone were strung along the shingle, seen off the headland at high tide.

Shoveler Noushka Dufort  

A female Shoveler with the Wigeon was the big surprise, never seen one at Cockersands in my life before as a bird known to avoid marine waters. 

Mistle Thrush Antonio Puigg

Another surprise came in the form of 6 Mistle Thrush in a tree together with up to 40 Fieldfare by Bank Houses. Other birds noted in the Cockersands area, c.20 Meadow Pipit, 14 Greenfinch, a Reed Bunting, a local Kestrel, and 2 Brown Hare.

At Bank End, 2 Whooper Swan were on Cockerham Marsh by the Cocker channel, with 2,500 Golden Plover here, c.50 Pintail seen void of a search with probably many more in the area, 3 Black-tailed Godwit noted. Back at Crook Farm, 1,500 Golden Plover had come down on the mud as the tide receded, and at Crook Cottage another 9 Mistle Thrush were in a tree top here.

Goldeneye Brian Rafferty 

On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, 41 Goldeneye and 39 Tufted Duck counted, and on the Lune Estuary, c.2,000 Golden Plover, 11 Goldeneye, 9 Snipe, and c.350 Common Gull of note.     

At Conder Green the Spotted Redshank obliged yet again, as did the Common Sandpiper down by the iron bridge. On Conder Pool, 6 Little Grebe, 2 Goldeneye, 34 Wigeon, 3 Tufted Duck, a single Snipe and Black-tailed Godwit, 34 Wigeon, and the singing Dunnock by the viewing platform again. From here I saw probably 7,000 Pink-footed Geese over the Jeremy/Moss Lane area. 

Thanks to Noushka, Antonio and Brian for the excellent photographs.