Rock On!

Rock Pipit. Jan Larsson @ Vingspann  

It was good to find 3 Rock Pipit at Cockersand on Thursday - I'd seen one here on 4 October - at one point they were in the same view as a Meadow Pipit and a Wheatear obviously with no intention in mid October to continue it's long migration haul into Africa, though the latest report in 2015 was of three Wheatear on Withnell Moor, Chorley on 4 November, and the latest Lancashire record is of one at Jubilee Tower in Bowland on 27 November 2011, hard to believe this individual ever returned to it's winter quarters in Africa.

On the way to Cockersand, 4 Whooper Swan were off Moss Lane in a field with c.50 Mute Swan at Clarkson's Farm.

Snipe. Pete Woodruff.

The Lune Estuary was relatively quiet, 28 Snipe were hunkered down and cryptic amongst the weed covered stones, c.250 Golden Plover and an unremarkable number of Lapwing were on the Colloway side, low numbers of Redshank and Dunlin were feeding as seen from the bowling green, and a Red-breasted Merganser and Great-crested Grebe were noted, a Peregrine Falcon was distant on Colloway Marsh.

I legged it along the coastal path to Conder Green to see just a couple of dozen birds, 18 Goldfinch, 3 Robin, a Wren and Blue Tit. On Conder Pool, as on my last visit here I found only 5 Little Grebe, with 12 Curlew, 4 Snipe, and 2 Meadow Pipit. The faithful Spotted Redshank and Common Sandpiper were with 4 Little Egret in the creeks.

The Meadow Pipit in the header posed nicely for me at Cockersand on Thursday with a slightly better photographic result than my usual half decent or worse efforts, though a little fuzzy, and not as sharp as it should be to be claimed anything like a winner....Note the longer and straighter hind claw compared to that of the shorter and more arched Tree Pipit.