The Conder Avocets.

It's against the norm that the Conder Pool Avocet pair have turned up here again this year in that they usually nest colonially....but not these two. When I arrived yesterday morning, they were at the front left hand of Tern Island, one bird was sitting on a shallow hollow nest with a little dead vegetation noticeable around the rim, the other was roosting close by, they had been observed mating (AC) on Sunday. 

When I returned later in the day at 2.05pm the pair were still on the island, but 30 minutes later one was seen in the creeks, at which time the other bird on the island also flew off and was almost certainly the one I saw at the Conder mouth on the Lune Estuary 20 minutes later at 2.55pm. These birds - reasonable to assume the same pair seen by birders every time - have been engaged in much to and fro and disappearing for long periods since their arrival at Conder Green almost three weeks ago on 6 April (AC) and it's difficult to understand exactly what's going on here.

The best of the rest....

Also at Conder Green yesterday, a Whimbrel was calling with it's rippling whistle as it flew off the pool area, 6 Shoveler seen as four drake and two female is an all time peak count of this scarcity for Conder Pool, and at best irregular at other lowland water-bodies, also 12 Tufted Duck noted. In the creeks, 3 Greenshank and 2 Common Sandpiper, a Chiffchaff was the only bird heard from the coastal path on a too windy, too cold day.

Black-tailed Godwit. Lune Estuary 29 April 2016. Pete Woodruff.

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock, probably no more than 50 gulls present, but 45 Black-tailed Godwit are either hanging on or not intending leaving, and the Avocet at the Conder mouth was almost certainly a Conder Green bird.

At Cockersand, Plover Scar at high tide held estimates of at least 1,500 Dunlin, 100 Ringed Plover, and 50 Turnstone, 3 Whimbrel were on the shore later as the tide dropped. A drake Shoveler is still on the now drying flood, with 2 Whooper Swan lingering, 2 Sedge Warbler and 5 Skylark were seen/heard. I saw only a small number of Swallow on the day, but they appear to have moved in at Gardner's and Conder Green Farm's.