BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND..............................................................................SCAUP CONDER POOL 5 MARCH PAUL ELLIS

Friday 21 December 2018

Bowland Blue Birds.

Followers will be aquainted with the 'Blue Birds' of Birds2blog, and in 2018 I was rewarded with one or two pretty good ones on my Bowland visits, though three to Hawthornthwaite produced not a single Stonechat.

Feb 21. A winter wander around Marshaw - Tower Lodge - Winfold Fell produced 2 Woodcock of note. 

April 18. Two months later was better rewarded by 2 Ring Ouzel on the west side of Hawthornthwaite, always good to find your own away from the birding hot spot of Langden.  A pair of Stonechat were on the east side of the fell.

May 2.    At Barbondale, 4 Stonechat were seen as two pairs, and 4 Tree Pipit noted. 

May 15. At Birk Bank, 3 Stonechat seen as a pair and lone male, 13 Willow Warbler, 2 Garden Warbler, 2 Tree Pipit, and 5 Buzzard.

May 23. Three Pied Flycatcher included a pair found nesting in a tree hole, a juvenile Crossbill seen drinking on the Marshaw Wyre, 3 Spotted Flycatcher, 2 Blackcap, a Siskin and Repoll seen, House Martin nesting at Tower Lodge.      

May 29.  At Barbondale, the peak count from three visits this year was 10 Pied Flycatcher, also 4 Redstart, a Garden Warbler, and Spotted Flycatcher.

June 5. At Harrisend, a male StonechatCuckooand 4 Buzzard. At Stoops Bridge, Abbeystead, 2 Garden Warbler, and a Spotted Flycatcher, and at Christ Church, 4 House Martin nests active, and 2 Buzzard soaring overhead.

June 12/27. Marshaw  - Tower Lodge - Trough Bridge, 7 Pied Flycatcher included the tree nesting pair, a young being attended by a female at a nest box hole in the wooded enclosure, and alone female seen above Trough Bridge, where a Siskin seen and 3 Redpoll included a young bird being fed. The peak count here this year was of 12 Spotted Flycatcher, 10 Grey Wagtail, 5 Common Sandpiper included a juvenile. A Nuthatch, Mistle Thrush, and Great Tit were all seen feeding young.

June 22. At Birk Bank, 9 Stonechat were seen as a pair with a full brood of five, a lone male and lone female. An excellent 5 Keeled Skimmer were seen on the bog, and included a male and female coupled, and one ovipositing.

Aug 3. Harrisend, 9 Stonechat included juveniles, and 6 Buzzard. On Hawthornthwaite, a stunning male Merlin took off ahead of me and obligingly went to perch the far side of Catshaw Greave on a boulder.

My birding days as I knew them, ended a month later on 2 September. Hopefully 2019 will change all that, and I'd like to wish everyone who kept in touch with Birds2blog and the little interest that it hopefully created....


A VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS  

Thursday 13 December 2018

Lapwing.

Interesting material for a gap filler on Birdsblog.

Lapwing. Bob Bushell 

Bob Bushells recent post coincided with 65 Lapwing flying purposefully East over Bowerham, Lancaster today, seen as an early movement on 13 December inland from the coast. 

Iv'e often recorded Lapwing on territory at Newby Moor, Clapham, N York's on the first days of February, but I'd need to be told if this wasn't the earliest record of movement to upland breeding grounds in December.

Sunday 9 December 2018

After The Break!

After the break of fourteen weeks since the event of 2 September, thanks to my good friend Mike, I achieved a couple of hours birding in exchange for taxiing and escorting me around the Lune Estuary.

Of note on Conder Pool, 6 Goosander and 14 Wigeon. In the creeks, 3 Little Grebe seen, and a Kingfisher flew by c.150 Teal roosting on the marsh, also a Kestrel seen.


Goldeneye Brian Rafferty

On the canal basin at Glasson Dock, a decent early December count of 23 Goldeneyealso 4 Great-crested Grebe. Of note, two Goldeneye were still at Glasson on the canal basin last May.

On Jeremy Lane, 5 Whooper Swan were with Mute Swans, and with birds on the north side of Moss Lane by Clarkson's Farm, and in fields to the south side, up to 450 Whooper Swan present, and in the field south of the junction of Moss Lane/Slack Lane, 6 Bewick's Swan were seen as two adult and a full compliment of four juvenile. Six Bewick's Swan is a rewarding sight in itself, but a party of 4 immature is exceptional, another first for me in my book.


Kestrel Cockersand. Pete Woodruff.

Two sightings of Kestrel were at Bank Houses and Slack Lane, from where c.175 Golden Plover were with Lapwing, and c.250 Black-tailed Godwit seen in the air, then down in the field to the north behind Tomlinson's Farm, with a Buzzard perched atop of the hedgerow behind Crook Cottage, c.60 Twite flew over from the Bank Houses area to go down on to the marsh, a Reed Bunting seen by the Caravan Park.


Buzzard Cliff Raby

Two Buzzard were soaring over our house in Lancaster this morning.

The header image was taken on a beautiful cold and frosty December morning in 2010. Many thanks to Brian and Cliff for their photographs.