Spring In The Air!

Skylark. Pete Woodruff.

Despite a cold and windy day and the threat of the return of the beast from the east, a Skylark was singing it's never ending flight song at Cockersand on Thursday, making it sound like spring if it didn't feel or even look like it.

Noted off Crook Farm, 4 Bar-tailed Godwit and 52 Curlew, one of the Crook Cottage garden Tree Sparrow was seen, with a Goldcrest also here in the conifers. A field off Slack Lane was quite lively, with at least 10 Skylark, 35 Meadow Pipit and a similar count of 35 Linnet seen.

A drastically reduced c.450 Golden Plover were initially in flight as seen on Tuesday, to eventually settle in the Abbey Farm field. The c.60 Twite were in the rough field behind Bank House Cottage, 2 Stock Dove were seen. On the flood 4 Shoveler were seen as two pair, and a Sparrowhawk flew out of a ditch ahead of me with small prey in it's talons.

Pochard Conder Pool 15 March Pete Woodruff.

A 2nd class image of the 1st class Pochard female on Conder Pool again, the bird appears to think it's one of the 11 Tufted Duck it accompanies, it dives, rests, and preens with them. Also 22 Wigeon, a Goldeneye, and Goosander drake hauled out. In the creeks, the Common Sandpiper and a lone Little Grebe.

The Corn Bunting.

Thanks to Simon Hawtin for his header image of the Corn Bunting, the status of which in our recording area is of an irregular summer visitor, and hangs on the edge of extinction here.

I found a Corn Bunting at Cockersand on 30 May 2015, it is the only one of the species I ever found in our recording area despite a 'few' years birding, unfortunately the record was missed and never published beyond Birds2blog.