The Black-tailed Godwit.
Whilst I was at Conder Green yesterday, up to 500 Black-tailed Godwit flew over Conder Pool from the south and dropped out of sight on to the Lune Estuary where they had obviously joined ranks with birds already feeding on the incoming tide, upstream from the Conder Estuary to form an impressive conservative estimate of 3,750 Black-tailed Godwit.
You would have to go outside Lancashire, to Marshside in North Merseyside, to exceed this number of BTG's, peak counts there were 5,000 in January, 3,000 in February....The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside 2016.
Other wader counts on the Lune Estuary at Glasson, 1,900 Golden Plover, 1,250 Dunlin, and 425 Curlew, also rans were 24 Goldeneye.
Whilst I was at Conder Green yesterday, up to 500 Black-tailed Godwit flew over Conder Pool from the south and dropped out of sight on to the Lune Estuary where they had obviously joined ranks with birds already feeding on the incoming tide, upstream from the Conder Estuary to form an impressive conservative estimate of 3,750 Black-tailed Godwit.
You would have to go outside Lancashire, to Marshside in North Merseyside, to exceed this number of BTG's, peak counts there were 5,000 in January, 3,000 in February....The Birds of Lancashire and North Merseyside 2016.
Other wader counts on the Lune Estuary at Glasson, 1,900 Golden Plover, 1,250 Dunlin, and 425 Curlew, also rans were 24 Goldeneye.
Excitement was limited on Conder Pool, with a drake Goldeneye and 17 Tufted Duck holding the fort. In the creeks, the trusted and reliable Common Sandpiper was down by the iron bridge again, also 6 Little Grebe still holding on in the creeks.
Reed Bunting. Pete Woodruff.
The female Stonechat played hard to get again at Cockersand, I had to make three visits opposite Cockerham Sands CP to find the bird, today it had the company of a Reed Bunting.
A Barn Owl was hunting over the rough land behind Lower Bank House, from where I saw 1,125 Pink-footed Geese in a field on the north side of the caravan park. One of 2 Kestrel seen was in this area, with the other over Slack Lane, at the junction of which I counted, 17 Pied Wagtail, 12 Meadow Pipit, and 4 Skylark in the 'Lapland Bunting' field. A pair of Shoveler had taken to the flood in this field again as they had on 1 February 2017, when they increased to five birds one day over the following weeks.
Twite. Richard O'Meara.
At least 70 Twite were again in the rough field behind Bank House Cottage, and 14 Eider were off Plover Scar. A few Fieldfare in flight caught my eye as I drove away from Cockersand along Moss Lane.
I'm off now, to see if I can find any Stonechats in Bowland....Back soon.
Blimey 1900 golden plovers - where do they go at high tide we never saw a single one, thought they might have been on plover scar.
ReplyDelete40+ skylarks in the field by the rough car park was nice, no singing but lots of twittering and aerial 'fights' was good to witness
Cheers
DaveyMan
An excellent number of birds seen Pete. Lovely to see the Wheatear header. A timely reminder that it won't be long until they return.
ReplyDeleteI reckon Glasson Marsh is a good bet for GP's at high tide Dave, not a location I visit, I'm always elsewhere, but as you will have seen on Birds2blog recently, large numbers in the fields at Cockersand, but never on Plover Scar.
ReplyDeleteAlways a birding highlight to see the first Wheatear, as you say, it won't be long now Marc.