Keeping Up The Pressure.

On Friday, determined as ever to keep up the birding pressure - particularly on the Lune Estuary - I found myself checking out Conder Green on the usual 'you never know' principal, to find in the creeks, the faithful Spotted Redshank and Common Sandpiper - I never tire of these you know - along with 'the' Black-tailed Godwit, 8 Snipe, and three of the 7 Little Grebe seen, the other four on Conder Pool where an all time best count was made of 10 Goosander.

Goldeneye on the Lune Estuary.

Goldeneye. Jan Larsson @ Vingspann

My first 4 Goldeneye of the winter were on the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock where the only substantial counts of Goldeneye in the county of Lancashire were made last winter, my peak count being 56 on 26 January which were actually on the canal basin....Thanks to Jan Larsson for the photographs. 

Forty two Snipe and another lone Black-tailed Godwit were my only other notes on the Lune Estuary today, and off Bodie Hill, at least 1,000 Golden Plover were on Glasson Marsh.

The landward end of Plover Scar now holds just about all the stonework being dismantled from the lighthouse to the base, presumably reassembling is the next move. On the seaward end, c.450 Oystercatcher and 45 Turnstone. In the ditch north of Bank Houses, 60 Wigeon were grazing and 5 Teal seen as 31 October.

I saw a huge mixed mass of disturbed birds come up out of a field to the north of Bank End Farm including up to 2,000 Golden Plover and a large number of Lapwing. 

The Robin.

Robin. Peter Rhind.

On Saturday last I saw the report of a Robin sat on six eggs. The bird clearly as confused about the mild weather as we are, the Robin breeds from early March, though rarely, their nests can be found in any month of the year. Thanks for your excellent image of a Robin at Cockers Dyke Peter.