One To Three.

I managed just one hour each at three locations on Friday, Conder/Glasson/Cockersands. 

The first hour was at Conder Green where the star birds all put in an appearance for me plus the bonus of 3 Greenshank with the Spotted Redshank and 5 Common Sandpiper seen. Also of note, 2 Black-tailed Godwit were in stunning summer plumage, 2 Goosander, and 2 Little Egret, the surprise being a female Wigeon, though a glance at my records showed at least one drake spent last summer here. On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, up to 150 Sand Martin were hawking here with a few Swallow also seen.

Black-tailed Godwit. Lune Estuary Glasson. 29 April. Pete Woodruff.

Common Sandpiper/Black-tailed Godwit. Pete Woodruff.

On the Lune Estuary, 31 Black-tailed Godwit in variable stages of plumage were eventually joined by a Common Sandpiper....

Whimbrel. Pete Woodruff.

....and a Whimbrel which dropped in obligingly close, but remained half hidden behind a large stone for the duration of my short stay here, 14 Eider were counted but possibly more hidden by the mud-bank upstream below Colloway Marsh.

I just needed the time to check Plover Scar as the tide came in, to find at least 400 Dunlin and 50 Ringed Plover, with a 'few' uncounted Turnstone present. As I drove along Slack Lane, I pulled in to note c.200 waders in a field, seen as a pretty even mix of Dunlin and Ringed Plover, judging by the number of the latter I have no reason to connect these birds with the ones on Plover Scar earlier. The remaining 2 Whooper Swan appear to have no intention of leaving the area just yet.

Two pair of Ringed Plover today were behaving like they might nest on the shingle on the inner edge of Plover Scar, a pity they don't know that would be a bad idea, as a classic example the last time I visited, a photographer with a second mortgage camera and two mutts were out on the scar.

I'm grateful to DH for the excellent header image of the Wood Warbler he found at Stodday on 23 April. At best an uncommon bird in our area, which appears to be heading inexorably towards extinction in the county of Lancashire and beyond.