Southern Comfort....

....is an American Liqueur originally created by bartender Martin Wilkes Heron in New Orleans in 1874. 

But what's this got to do with birding except I went on a trip south down the A588 on Tuesday which turned out to be a good idea, and had one or two nice rewards.

Pied Wagtail. Peter Rhind.

The flooded and wrecked field to the west of the car park at Fluke Hall was quite lively and I saw eight species, including up to 35 Pied Wagtail, 30 Skylark, a few Linnet, Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch, Meadow Pipit, and a Rock Pipit, but the best was a count of at least 130 Twite.

A walk along the coastal path to Cockers Dyke had me watching a Buzzard engaged in an ariel survey over Hy-Fly Game Hatcheries....I call that living dangerously. I saw 4 Little Egret on the way, and at the dyke, a mixed flock of 200 Dunlin and knot dropped in, with a good number of distant waders of which I could just pick out c.40 Grey Plover and 3 Bar-tailed Godwit, at least 450 Curlew were scattered along the shore. At Pilling Lane Ends I found 2 Dark-bellied Brent Geese with c.4,500 Pink-footed Geese, also noted off here, in excess of 100 Whooper Swan. 

Bewick's Swan. Jan Larsson @ Vingspann 

On the way back to Lancaster I noticed a group of swans on Moss Lane at Thurnham from the main road, turning down the lane I found 4 Bewick's Swan were with 32 Mute Swan. As I drove off Jeremy Lane, I saw a brief Barn Owl in flight, but by the time I found somewhere to park the motor to go look for the bird it was lost.

Unable to drive past Conder Green, I panned Conder Pool for three minutes in the semi-dark to see 5 Little Grebe and a drake Goldeneye, with thirteen still on the canal basin at Glasson Dock on Monday which I overlooked noting in my last post.

And a good time was had by all....but storm Frank was on the way and was showing it's effect yesterday, with devastating results in places.

Many thanks to Peter and Jan for the images.