Friday 26 July.

Setting aside the exciting events concerning the Common Tern fledglings, 5 adult Common Tern were in flight over Conder Pool in the afternoon, they were all noisily screeching in the area where the juveniles were and also over the pontoon, but nothing came of the commotion, and it eventually quietened down.

With a slow build up in number on Conder Pool, 6 Little Grebe were seen today, and a Greenshank and Stock Dove were of note. In the creeks, 7 Avocet were seen as two adults with four growing young, but I failed to find the single young with the other adult, this bird being the lone survivor of three chicks seen on Conder Pool 17 July, also in the creeks 10 Common Sandpiper.

On the Lune Estuary, 8 Greenshank, 2 Common Sandpiper, up to 250 Redshank, no attempt to count, but probably c.100 Dunlin distant upstream beyond the Conder mouth, 26 Little Egret, and a Black Swan was probably the regular bird returned to the area. 

From the coastal path, 18 Gatekeeper and 2 Speckled Wood, also a small flock of 6 Long-tailed Tit.

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The Greylag is Britain's only native breeding goose, and colour marking projects were undertaken to gain a better understanding of the movements of these birds.    

This Greylag was on Conder Pool a week ago, Orange collar marked SFY in June 2016, at Rayrigg Hall by Lake Windermere in Cumbria. It is always interesting to see the history of marked birds, and I'm grateful to Kane Brides for sending me this one. 

Ongoing computer problems mean I have no photographs appropriate for the blog, but the header is of the Speckled Wood on the coastal path at Conder Green on Friday.