Saturday, 14 March 2015

Short Shift, Short List.

Didn't get out of jail until 1.00pm on Thursday, but managed three hours at Cockersands/Bank End which resulted in my finding another male Stonechat


Whooper Swans Gary Jones  

I also got a better estimate of what I now find to be up to 330 Whooper Swans in the area....with 280 counted as they were disturbed - intentionally in my view - from the field they've been in for several days now by the farmer racing through them on his quad bike sending them off and on to the Cocker Estuary, another 50 Whooper Swan were in a field off Moss Lane accompanied by the 'Aussie' Black Swanan escaped and ornamental waterbird in western Europe. 


Merlin. Chris Batty.

A female Merlin dashing across the Abbey Farm field to perch on a branch, vied with the Stonechat for 'Bird of the Day' but lost my vote - naturally - in the end. At least 1,500 Golden Plover were in a field close by the Merlin when c.70 Black-tailed Godwit went over south, I saw another - the same? - 70 BTG later at Bank End, and another 18 BTG feeding off Crook Farm, 10 Eider and a drake Red-breasted Merganser were off Plover Scar, and a Little Egret seen.

An enjoyable three hours birding, but I was a little more than soggy by the time I got back to the motor, 30 minutes away from it as the tide brought the rain with it....Bugger!! 

With thanks to Gary/Chris for the excellent photographs, and to Brian for the new header of a brilliant bird coming soon to a woodland near you....hopefully.

Bonaparte's Gull....An excellent video, though it shows too large on my screen and the picture is a little distorted, I found no way to have the film shown in smaller format.


1 comment:

  1. Spot fly is a 'might' for my patch nowadays Pete, just one pair last year :-(

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