BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND..................................................SPOTTED REDSHANK RIVER CONDER HOWARD STOCKDALE

Thursday 21 April 2016

A Pleasant Sunny Day....

....for pleasant sunny birding.

I called in twice at Conder Green on Tuesday, and got no further than the viewing platform on both occasions, the first visit was at high tide when a Greenshank was with 24 Redshank roosting on the marsh, and on the second visit six hours later, I found 5 Common Sandpiper, three in the creeks and two on Conder Pool which was quiet and held 6 Tufted Duck, a pair of Canada Geese and a few summer resident Oystercatcher

I watched a Lesser Black-backed Gull make a Gannet style dive on Conder Pool to completely submerge itself and surface with a large crab in it's bill, take it to land, and with the help of it's equally handsome and brutish mate, thrash the unfortunate creature to pieces and eat the lot - claws and all - in under 10 seconds. 


Black-tailed Godwit. Pete Woodruff.

It's a pity my pic of the c.350 Black-tailed Godwit on the Lune Estuary is a botched job as the birds were stunning to see in their breeding plumage ready for the off to Iceland anytime soon. Little else to note here other than 4 Eider drake, and 2 Red-breasted Merganser.

At Cockersands, 3 Wheatear, 2 Skylark, a Reed Bunting, and a Sparrowhawk. I saw 4 Linnet, but had noted a decent flock of around 50 small birds come up out of a field with c.250 Golden Plover which were almost certainly Linnet. At least 400 waders were feeding between Plover Scar and Long Tongue as the tide dropped, noted as c.350 Dunlin and 50 Ringed Plover, 4 Whimbrel were my first of the year, and 8 Eider were off the scar.

A Barn Owl was seen from the headland around the Bank Houses area, which I've not seen here since 9 March, c.40 Swallow in ones and twos, with a single Sand Martin were over and all north, and 2 Whooper Swan are the left overs from a peak count of at least 400 in the area on Thursday 3 March. I saw up to 10 Small Tortoiseshell on the day.

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