Saturday Birding....Who me!

I don't do weekend birding but....As a rarity on Saturday I gave Cockersands/Bank End a couple of hours to be rewarded with my first Wheatear on the shingle below Cockersands Abbey.

One or two other notes made included up to 600 Black-tailed Godwit seen, with 550 off Crook Farm, 16 with Curlews in a field, and 30 on the Cocker Estuary, c.50 Knot were also noted here, with 1,500 Golden Plover still around the Abbey Farm fields. Off Plover Scar, 48 Eider and 2 Pintail drake seen with Wigeon.

Whooper Swans Brian Rafferty

At Bank End I got close to the swans still here and beyond, and was able to get a better estimate of at least 300 Whooper Swan accompanied by the Black Swan which gets around some having been seen over recent weeks off Jeremy Lane, Moss Lane, Slack Lane, and Bank End. A lone Whooper Swan has been on Cockerham Marsh my last two visits and is possibly injured/ill though appears quite lively, a dead Whooper Swan is on the marsh in front of Bank End Farm and badly eaten into. Thanks for the image above Brian, a must 'clik the pik' for an excellent show.

A saunter through Williamson Park yesterday proved the resident Little Grebe still on the old reservoir, first found on 18 November 2013 and again 30 October 2014. In Lancaster Cemetery, at least 20 Greenfinch, 2 Jay, 2 Nuthatch, 2 Mistle Thrush, and a Coal Tit with Great Tits and Blue Tits.

Stonechat David Cookson 

I was pleased to hear of three male Stonechat up Whitendale in Bowland yesterday, with many thanks to JW for this info, and to DC for the image, appreciated and excellent on both counts.