A Wader Moment In Bowland.

Though it was a good sunny and windless day on Wednesday, it was a generally dull day for me in Bowland, not least because I found no Stonechat on my first venture of 2018 on to Hawthornthwaite Fell, though I reckon the two seen on my last visit on 27 December and previously 15 November, were keeping their heads down and in hiding from me this time.

Red Grouse Richard Pegler 

On the way up to the summit, the sum total of birds seen on this visit were 20 Red Grouse and 2 Wren. Driving away from here I saw a single Fieldfare in flight at Cam Brow, and a Kestrel perched was the only raptor seen all day. 

In three and a half hours between Marshaw and the foot of Whinfold Fell where I saw 8 Red Grouse, I found just 11 species, including a Dipper and Grey Wagtail on the Marshaw Wyre.

The other seven....

Blackbird

Chaffinch

Coal Tit

Lapwing

Mallard 

Robin

Wren

The Woodcock.

Woodcock. Noushka @ 1000-Pattes 

At Marshaw a moment of excitement came when a bird flushed just a few metres away from me, then just 30 seconds later a second bird also flushed and flew away....they were 2 Woodcock in a small damp woodland clearing.  As a bird of crepuscular habits, I was lucky to see these two daylight birds, but I recall going to Birk Bank with John Ledall one early evening before dusk many years ago to watch the Woodcock roding over the treetops.

By coincidence my last Woodcock seen was also two birds, and also in the same area of Bowland, one in the plantation at Marshaw, and later another in the plantation behind Tower Lodge 3 years ago on 18 March 2015.

Thanks to Richard and Noushka for their respective images.

Friday 23 February.

I escaped yesterday, but had only got to Conder Green before a call back home to attend a problem ended the day for me, but I had seen 6 Little Grebe, a Goosander, and the Common Sandpiper in the creeks, with a Kestrel hovering overhead.