Hard Work Little Pay.

I have to keep reminding myself were still in the last week of March, and though the calendar says it's spring the birds don't think so, at least the migrant ones don't, and won't be moving much in our direction until the weather improves and becomes more favourable for them. 

Spotted Redshank. Conder Green. Stuart Piner.

I drew a blank on lots of birds on Friday - migrant or not - with little reward for some hard slogging. I've got to be honest, I need to be seeing some 'new' birds with no disrespect to the Conder Green Spotted Redshank - which is showing moult into breeding plumage as the image above shows - and the Common Sandpiper both of which showed well again on Conder Pool, the former at rest with 35 Redshank, and the latter hiding away in a corner and seen from the fence at the west end. Also on the pool, 2 Goldeneye, with a Snipe put to flight upstream from the road bridge. A circuit almost produced a blank saved only by a Dunnock....this is serious!

I spent an enjoyable 3 hours at Cockersands, but not attributed to the birds I saw, though the days count of at least 2,500 Golden Plover was impressive, even if they spent almost the entire visit wheeling around on the wing for some reason or other and never settling at all, really frustrating because at one point I picked out a small wader in the air with them, and it would have been rewarding to grill them on the ground if only to find it had been a Dunlin maybe.

Black-tailed Godwit. Howard Stockdale.

The count still stands at c.200 Whooper Swan at Cockersands, all viewable off Moss Lane and with the Black Swan still present with them. Off Crook Farm, c.195 Black-tailed Godwit....And that was my lot for Friday 27 March 2015.

Clik the pik....and spot the ringed BTG. Yes it has a white flag on it's right leg and a ring above the flag hidden from view. It could be any one of six Black-tailed Godwits ringed in Iceland....how frustrating!

A Blackbird sang full voice in our garden this morning at 4.45am 

Thanks to SP/HS for the excellent images, including the new header, another 'pic with a difference' and much appreciated.

The Mutt Brigade. 

I make no apologies for reporting the 'Mutt Brigade' at Cockersands on Friday once again, three handlers and 15 mutts this time, a mile out into the bay and probably responsible for the disturbance of the 2,500 Golden Plover when they first set out on the shingle if the truth be known.