The Day Off!

With the motor ill in hospital on Tuesday, birding options were limited, so I opted to do the Lancaster - Glasson walk following the coastal path. An excellent birding location which was to be honest quite pathetic....the birds were having a day off.

I set out from Skerton Bridge where I saw around 50 gulls on the river, mainly Black-headed Gull, with a few Herring/Common/LBB and a GBB, then - 2 Robin aside - I'd seen not another small bird by the time I got to the flood at Aldcliffe which now has to be renamed Aldcliffe Lake, no muddy edges and not a bird in sight, the Wildfowler's Pools likewise.

I'd now covered over 2 miles, but from here no improvement. I saw nothing until I reached the railway cutting where I found 6 Blackbird, then unbelievably saw just 3 Greenfinch before I got beyond the old red bricked bridge over the railway behind Waterloo where I found my first and only Blue Tit of the day, but did see 5 Great Tit.

The rest of the way to Glasson proved to be the reality of a birding session in this area in October. Maybe it is a good example of the status of birds not being as good as we'd like to think and say it is, and as much about numbers as the low species count.

Little Egret. Pete Woodruff.

But there was a few positives on the walk along this excellent old railway route, with a count of 31 Little Egret made, nothing too surprising about that given that probably in excess of 100 will be roosting at Ashton Hall, with 159 there on 8 October last year. Two Gadwall were the only birds of note on Freeman's Pools, a Little Grebe took the honours on the Wildfowler's Pools, 3 Greenfinch at Stodday are a species not to be taken for granted these days, with 5 Red Admiral seen here, and 10 Long-tailed Tit as I approached Conder Green where I saw the Common Sandpiper at high tide, a flock of around 40 Goldfinch, and the lone Pink-footed Goose still on Conder Pool.

A Goldcrest initially made me jump to attention at Christ Church in Glasson, with a Dunnock seen, and a Migrant Hawker on the canal path, 6 Blackbird and 5 Robin were also noted along the route today.

Glad I wasn't on a 'cash for birds' scheme today!