BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Wednesday 5 August 2015

Cockersand'erlings.

I was pleased to find 7 Sanderling on Plover Scar at high tide on Monday where there was much coming and going of birds during the hour I spent at the scar, my best estimated peak count was of 120 Dunlin, 65 Ringed Plover, 11 Turnstone, and a single Knot. I did little wandering around today, but noted 5 Greenfinch, a Whitethroat, and saw c.170 Golden Plover over Lighthouse Cottage and going down on to the weed covered shore below the abbey again, a favourite haunt for these birds on recent visits.


Common Tern. Pete Woodruff.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, an adult Common Tern was on the buoy, with what little mud exposed on the south bank after the tide holding c.350 Redshank with not a Dunlin in sight, a 2nd winter Mediterranean GullGreat-crested Grebe scarce here these days, and 65 Mute Swan counted.

At Conder Green, 4 Little Grebe on Conder Pool sees the winter number build up here, also up to 400 Redshank and 3 Dunlin noted. A scour of the creeks showed 10 Common Sandpiper, 8 Black-tailed Godwit, and 4 Little Egret. The House Martins are visiting nests at Cafe d' Lune still, with a lone Swift over, and I saw from here c.700 Lapwing come up from the Jeremy Lane area.

Butterfly and Moth. 

Small Skipper. Pete Woodruff.

The only butterfly I saw all day was the Small Skipper at Conder Green with some interaction between these two.

Humming-bird Hawk moth. Peter Rhind.

Our garden was honoured by a visit from the Humming-bird Hawk moth which I watched for three minutes at close range moving to feed from flower to flower on our Centranthus Alba pura.

Thanks to Peter for his excellent image of this brilliant moth.

3 comments:

  1. I like that skipper image Pete.

    I read about your wader sightings and can only dream of such things on my patch, but, saying that, I did have a brilliant Green sandpiper go over today, how excited was I!!?

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  2. Hi Pete

    I'm new to your blogs and really enjoying them. I live on the Lune Estuary and love the birdlife although I'm no expert. I wondered if you've seen the family of merganser. Last week there were twelve which looked (to me) like two parents and ten juveniles. They were moving in convoy from Ashton towards Conder Green against the incoming tide. We've been here ten years and never seen that before. Not sure if it's common to see so many.

    Sue

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  3. Warren....Sounds like an excellent Green Sandpiper record.

    Sue....If you would like to send me an e-mail and I will explain your RBM record in more detail, I can't find any contact details for you. Thanks for looking in on Birds2blog, I appreciate this.

    stonechat4@gmail.com

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