Anything Interesting?

People often stop and ask 'anything interesting' and it's always good to see how keen they are to listen to what you have to tell them. But there was nobody around to tell and show them the Great White Egret on Wednesday. I had found the bird out on the marsh from the coastal path as I walked from Conder Green to Glasson Dock, from where I saw 3 Blue Tit, a Great Tit, 2 Robin, a Dunnock, and a Blackbird, it was good to hear a Song Thrush singing by Saltcote Cottage.

On the Lune Estuary, the godwits had finally arrived with a half decent count of 350 Black-tailed Godwit, 5 Bar-tailed Godwit were over the other side of the river. Also of interest was my latest count of 42 Goldeneye, being an increase of five since the last peak count of 37 on 16 January, 25 Snipe and a drake Red-breasted Merganser seen.     

Shoveler. Noushka @ 1000-Pattes  

A Shoveler pair stole the show for me on the estuary, seen as a scarce breeder at Leighton Moss, irregular elsewhere and certainly so here where they were good to see today. 

There was another count of interest on Conder Pool where 37 Tufted Duck were showing, 7 Snipe, 5 Little Grebe, and a drake Goosander were also of note, and the Spotted Redshank was seen in the creeks again.

Dunlin/Turnstone. Pete Woodruff.

At Cockersand, the Plover Scar high tide roost consisted of up to 335 waders and two corvid, 250 Dunlin, 70 Turnstone, 15 Oystercatcher, and 2 Carrion Crow rummaging. A Sparrowhawk flushed 4 Snipe then perched close on the marsh on a large driftwood, at least 80 Twite were still in the field by Bank House Cottage and were accompanied by a lone Greenfinch, c.120 Curlew were in the same field, 6 Tree Sparrow were at Bank Houses, up to 22 Skylark came down into a field, I reckon entering this field might have flushed more. On Slack Lane I saw a Reed Bunting, and the Whooper Swan herd have now moved south to Bank End, distant and uncounted today.

Golden Plover on the Lune Estuary. 

Notable after the huge numbers in fields at Cockersand on Monday including 3,000 in one field alone, in five hours on the Lune Estuary on Wednesday around Conder/Glasson/Cockersand, I found not a solitary Golden Plover.