Briefly Birding!

Think we may have had that title before, it sounds a little repetitive, and boring too, but Thursday's birding really was at the lower end of the excitement scale for me. But a couple of scans through at least 1,500 gulls on the Lune Estuary at Glasson uncovered 2 Mediterranean Gull, both adult, one moulting, one in winter plumage, wader numbers were at a low, but a distant Greenshank was good.

Conder Pool held 9 Little Grebe, my best count to date this autumn, by the same date last year - 17 August - 15 Little Grebe were present here. In the creeks, 4 Common Sandpiper, and along the coastal path I found 3 Whitethroat with a juvenile still being fed. A total of 7 Speckled Wood were seen along this path and on Jeremy Lane, where thirty minutes on foot found my tenth Painted Lady. 

The Purple Patch.

Purple Heron. Noushka @ 1000-Pattes 

A juvenile Purple Heron was found at Leighton Moss RSPB Reserve yesterday afternoon, it was seen from the Griesdale Hide at 1.19pm.

Being the largest reed bed in Lancashire, it's not surprising that Leighton Moss dominates Purple Heron records, since the first in 1970 to the present day, it holds ten records, including one in 1974, which summered from mid-May to the end of July, but this current one stands out as the first juvenile bird, and certainly the first in August, all the others have been adult/1st summer birds, with all records being in May/June with the exception of the last one at Leighton Moss which turned up 21 years ago in April 1996.

The Purple Heron breeds as close as France and Spain, but it occurred in Britain so frequently that by the end of 1982 it was removed from the BBRC Rarities List, and became tipped as a potential colonist, a tip that came good when a pair bred at the RSPB Dungeness Reserve in Kent June 2010.

The current Purple Heron at Leighton Moss is still present today to at least 11.15am. 

Thanks to Noushka for the excellent in flight adult Purple Heron and Cattle Egret header.