Once More With Feeling.

Whooper Swan. Pete Woodruff.

It was a pleasant sight on Monday to find 9 Whooper Swan in a field off Moss Lane at Cockersands, these were seen as 6 adult and 3 juvenile, it was also good to find at least 60 Fieldfare in a hedgerow by Abbey Farm. Also of note, 22 Greenfinch were in the small cover crop on Slack Lane, a Song Thrush always nice to see, with 4 Blackbird and a Wren noted, c.600 Wigeon were off Plover Scar in the low water channel.

At Conder Green, 3 Goosander and 15 Wigeon were on Conder Pool, with a Spotted Redshank and Snipe in the creeks. On the trodden footpath along the edge of the marsh below the picnic area c.40 Goldfinch were seed feeding with a Grey Wagtail looking a little out of context with them. I walked the length of the coastal path from Conder Green to Glasson Dock noting an obvious influx with at least 20 Blackbird seen, also 4 Great Tit, 4 Robin, 3 Blue Tit, 2 Wren, a Song Thrush and Dunnock.

Goldeneye Jan Larsson @ Vingspann  

A bit of a search produced 13 Goldeneye which had returned to the Lune Estuary at Glasson, with 3 seen from Bodie Hill, 2 seen from the bowling green, and 8 on the canal basin. Wader numbers from the bowling green were quite low and no more than 4 Black-tailed Godwit were seen, a drake Red-breasted Merganser and up to 200 Common Gull noted. A distant Merlin was on Colloway Marsh surveying the landscape. 

Little Grebe.

I saw 10 Little Grebe on Monday, 7 were on Conder Pool, 2 in the creeks, and a single on the Lune Estuary. These grebes make this movement every winter, having assembled late autumn/early winter and spent time on Conder Pool, they tend to move on to the creeks and the River Lune, I'm not sure why they do this.

Mute Swan.

The Mute Swan were absent from the river at Glasson Dock again on Monday, though 16 were on Jeremy Lane, and 5 were on the marsh at Conder Green, they were the only ones I saw whilst in the area 5 hours, during which time I had noted 50 bird species.

Stonechat Warren Baker @ Pittswood Birds  

I was grateful to AC and NMM for passing on to me the two Stonechat they saw at Wrampool over the weekend, now added to my records.

Thanks to Jan and Warren for their images, much appreciated.