Terned Out Nice Again!

Two adult Common Tern put in another brief appearance over Conder Pool again, one with a fish being chased by the other, but soon flew off. Although the breeders will have wandered during the summer months, for a species that breeds nowhere else in North Lancashire, with eight adult on Conder Pool at one time on 13 August, and birds seen at Glasson Dock and Cockersand, you have to wonder how many individuals have been on the Lune Estuary this year.

A lone Greenshank and 16 Little Grebe also present, and I had my fourth Kingfisher sighting in as many weeks upstream from the road bridge. 

To be honest, the creeks at Conder Green were virtually deserted, save 3 Common Sandpiper and a lone Black-tailed Godwit seen, and the channel from the iron bridge to the estuary, not a bird in sight.

I watched up to 1,640 waders being slowly pushed off the Lune Estuary at Glasson Dock by the rising tide, with c.750 Redshank, similar Lapwing, 135 Curlew, 3 Dunlin, a lone Black-tailed Godwit and a Greenshank noted, with 4 Eider and a count of 32 Little Egret.

Whimbrel Plover Scar. Pete Woodruff.

The high tide wader count on Plover Scar was, 250 Dunlin, 28 Ringed Plover, 4 Turnstone, 3 Golden Plover, and a Whimbrel. An adult Mediterranean Gull was with Black-headed Gulls and 15 Eider, all drifting on a flat calm sea. A Peregrine Falcon was over flying east inland, and 12 Golden Plover came up off the shore below the abbey, accompanied by my third lone Black-tailed Godwit of the day. 

Thanks to Ana Minguez for the Hoopoe header. A little exotica to add some much needed colour to Birds2blog.