Bring 'Em On!

Little Ringed Plover Andreas Trepte

I'd been at Conder Green about thirty minutes yesterday looking over Conder Pool and was about to set off on the circuit when I found myself saying - yes I do talk to myself - all I want to see is a....when out of hiding, a pair of Little Ringed Plover....excellent. 

The Spotted Redshank is well on it's way to achieving summer plumage, and the Common Sandpiper is still waiting the arrival of some relatives, a Stock Dove here is something unusual as were 2 Brown Hare, a few uncounted Tufted Duck, and the Oystercatchers were causing a bit of a commotion probably about breeding rights. There was a good number of Meadow Pipits around and I saw my first 6 Sand Martin over the pool.

Notable on the Lune Estuary a Glasson Dock, c.325 Black-tailed Godwit, a pair of Pintail are at best scarcely seen here, and a Great-crested Grebe.

What swans to be seen at Cockersands were viewable close by from Moss Lane and turned out to be 37 Mute Swan and a Black Swan with just 2 Whooper Swan left behind. About twelve unidentified birds through the fog from Moss Lane were at Bank End. I was unable to get down to check them out, but if these were Whooper Swans then the total would have been fourteen left from a winter peak at Cockersands of 355 seen on 16 March.

Cockersands 1.30pm 7 April. Pete Woodruff. 

There was nothing nice about Cockersands when I arrived yesterday afternoon with the fog lingering, but by 3.30pm it was in fact a brilliant calm, sunny, spring day. Good numbers of Meadow Pipit were around and the Skylark was singing.

Off Crook Farm, 65 Black-tailed Godwit with 2 Knot were feeding on the dropping tide. Passerines - resident or migrant - were depressingly scarce, with 7 Blackbird in Bank Houses horse paddock, 3 Linnet, and a Wren noted. I saw my second Small Tortoiseshell of the year, and at least 18 Brown Hare. 

As I drove away from Cockersands I spotted c.100 Golden Plover had come down into a field at Abbey Farm.