Time & Tide.

Snipe Brian Rafferty 

I'm pretty good at getting it wrong with my visits to the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, whilst I always know the tide times, I screw it up and arrive too late to find only a few waders hanging on to what little mud is left exposed. I managed another success in this regard on Wednesday, but I did have time to count 103 Snipe before they were pushed onto the marsh. These are amazing numbers of Snipe on the Lune Estuary at the moment, and I saw a report of 363 here on Sunday 30 October, surely an all time record.

At Conder Green, the faithful Spotted Redshank was in the creeks with the lone Black-tailed Godwit and up to 120 Teal, of the 14 Snipe seen here two were on Conder Pool, which is where six of the 8 Little Grebe were. Ten Long-tailed Tit were working their way through the bushes alongside the pool, with 2 Dunnock seen. 

On a run down the A588 to Pilling Lane Ends, 16 Whooper Swan were drifting on the incoming tide including two juvenile. Also notable from here, at least 1,500 Shelduck and 120 Pintail, although I'm not aquainted with the kind of figures this area can produce these seem high counts. Four Red-breasted Merganser were also noted, with c.150 Pink-footed Geese dropping onto the marsh.

Ruff Noushka Dufort 

As I got onto the embankment at Fluke Hall I found 4 Ruff close in on the tideline, and a walk along the coastal path as the tide dropped, waders were thinly scattered and feeding along Pilling Marsh to Cockers Dyke, predominantly Dunlin and Redshank, with 3 Sanderling, 3 Grey Plover, 3 Golden Plover, a Sparrowhawk zipped through Cockers Dyke.

Thanks to Brian/Noushka for the Snipe/Ruff images in the post, and to Antonio for the Firecrest header image....I appreciate the permission to use these very much.