Eight days since I was last on the Lune Estuary....time I got my hand back in there yesterday.
The day eventually turned decent, and with the sun breaking through, a circuit around Conder Green, a visit to Glasson Dock to look over the river, and a circuit around Cockersands was all quite enjoyable.
The Avocet and Common Tern on Conder Pool are quietly going about their business of attempting to have a successful breeding programme, though the presence of the semi resident Lesser Black-backed Gull pair, and the sheep now able to trample on and around the islands with the water level considerably fallen, doesn't bode well.
Also noted on the pool, several Oystercatcher included a pair on the near island which now have two well grown young, 2 Wigeon, a Great-crested Grebe, a Little Egret, male Reed Bunting, 2 Linnet, a Swift over, and the hovering Kestrel seen again.
The Lune Estuary from the bowling green at Glasson Dock is beginning to look a little livelier with c.150 Lapwing back here, 5 Teal, 16 Eider, a Shelduck with 14 young in tow, and uncounted but probably 6 Little Egret seen.
Cockersands at low tide was void of any visible waders, 2 Sedge Warbler and a Whitethroat were the warbler representatives, with 8 Tree Sparrow, 3 Goldfinch, a Great Tit and a Chaffinch around Bank Houses horse paddock.
The day eventually turned decent, and with the sun breaking through, a circuit around Conder Green, a visit to Glasson Dock to look over the river, and a circuit around Cockersands was all quite enjoyable.
The Avocet and Common Tern on Conder Pool are quietly going about their business of attempting to have a successful breeding programme, though the presence of the semi resident Lesser Black-backed Gull pair, and the sheep now able to trample on and around the islands with the water level considerably fallen, doesn't bode well.
Also noted on the pool, several Oystercatcher included a pair on the near island which now have two well grown young, 2 Wigeon, a Great-crested Grebe, a Little Egret, male Reed Bunting, 2 Linnet, a Swift over, and the hovering Kestrel seen again.
The Lune Estuary from the bowling green at Glasson Dock is beginning to look a little livelier with c.150 Lapwing back here, 5 Teal, 16 Eider, a Shelduck with 14 young in tow, and uncounted but probably 6 Little Egret seen.
Cockersands at low tide was void of any visible waders, 2 Sedge Warbler and a Whitethroat were the warbler representatives, with 8 Tree Sparrow, 3 Goldfinch, a Great Tit and a Chaffinch around Bank Houses horse paddock.
Large Skipper. Pete Woodruff.
I was much more impressed with the butterflies than the birds at Cockersands, with at least 50 Large White, 13 Small Tortoiseshell, 6 Large Skipper, and 4 Painted Lady seen.
News from Conder Pool.
According to a report on the Fylde Bird Club website, a young Common Tern seen yesterday, with an adult bird seen to bring in a small fish. Hopefully, Avocet chick/s should be seen here by this weekend.
Tuesday's Negative.
I took this photograph through my telescope from the bowling green at Glasson Dock, these people were distant across at Conder Green with a least 12 hounds.
There are two issues here....In the first, I picked up one of these minders through my telescope with one of the dogs off the leash at the end of a Mute Swan attack, so unfortunately I saw little of the attack and can't truthfully say whether or not the bird was injured in any way, but the dog was within inches of the bird when the minder called it off, as far as I could see the bird couldn't take off from the water.
In the second issue, this activity needs to be controlled in areas like this, as can be seen in the pic above they are at the edge of the marsh and onto the mud and in my view shouldn't be there, they can and often do disturb the birds, and in this case today seriously so with the possibility of injury to a Mute Swan.
But the good news, is that I'm aware of a move afoot at last to at least address this problem.
A good number of butterflies Pete on your visit, nice to see. As for the hounds, well, I will keep the comment to myself.
ReplyDeleteLike Marc I could make some choice comments on these ''dog minders' but I'll hold fire!
ReplyDeleteGood to see you are getting some Butterflies there pete, it's pretty dismal here for them :-(
Marc/Warren....Thanks for this, particularly on the mutt issue.
ReplyDeleteNo worries about holding back on any comments as it's all been said before, but this dog could have already had it's teeth into the Mute Swan before I got on to the attack, and the bird certainly couldn't take to the wing as I watched it flap a few times presumably to try to do so, it just drifted away after the minder called the dog off.