Is It A Bird!....No 2.

No....it's another butterfly, but this one didn't quite get the award as the Painted Lady did last Friday, to much bird competition this time.

Brimstone. Warren Baker @ Pittswoodpatch 

But it was good to see the Brimstone butterfly yesterday over the horse paddock at Bank Houses, Cockersands, an excellent follow-on to the Painted Lady last week. Thanks for the image Warren.  

Curlew Sandpiper. Cockersands. 20 April. Pete Woodruff.

It was also good that Sunday's Curlew Sandpipers had hung around for me to see them on Plover Scar yesterday. A visit at high tide produced the birds, one in summer plumage, the other in the process of attaining it. A return visit two hours after high tide had the same two on the scar, plus another off the lighthouse cottage car park. Also on Plover Scar, estimates of 500 Dunlin and 150 Ringed Plover, with a Whimbrel seen. 

White Wagtail. Cockersands. 20 April. Peter Rhind.

Off Crook Farm I counted 108 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Wheatear were along the headland, and I saw 3 White Wagtail including the classic in the image above for which I thank Peter Rhind. At least 100 Linnet were flighty and fragmented, and c.150 Golden Plover are still loafing around in the fields.  

The Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock showed c.120 Black-tailed Godwit, 50 Bar-tailed Godwit, and 25 Knot. And at Conder Green, a Goldeneye, at least 15 Tufted Duck, and a Little Egret were on Conder Pool. In the creeks, a Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, 3 Common Sandpiper, and the lone Black-tailed Godwit. And on the circuit, 2 Whitethroat, 2 Willow Warbler, 3 Reed Bunting, 2 Long-tailed Tit, and a Kestrel. Two pair of House Martin are repairing last years nests at Cafe d' Lune. A Stoat was on the pool perimeter, not good news for the nesting birds there. 

I watched a Dunlin come within a whisker of loosing it's life to a powerhouse Peregrine Falcons talons at Cockersands today, the falcon few off to make a strike somewhere else.