BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND......................................................MEDITTERANEAN GULLS CONDER POOL PETE WOODRUFF

Tuesday 20 August 2019

It's The Little Things!

It takes just a little to fire me up, doesn't need a MEGA, just the odd wagtail, one or two waders, a seriously impressive falcon, and some good counts on Conder Pool.

AC was instrumental in where I started a decent days birding yesterday, when I responded to a text from him and went to Bank End to see a Yellow Wagtail. OK, this is just one bird, but one with no regular breeding site in our area that I'm aware of, and only regular on autumn passage at coastal north Fylde, and good enough to get me off to a start with a spell of birding with a buzz.

After the visit to Bank End, Conder Pool kept me occupied for a while, when I found one, then two, then three Ruff. Seen as another bird with a scarce tag in winter, no better than an uncommon spring passage migrant, but does improve slightly in it's rankings, to become a fairly common autumn passage migrant, as indicated today on Conder Pool.


Common Sandpiper Pete Woodruff. Clik the pik

The count of 14 Greenshank is an all time high in my book for Conder Pool, with 11 Little Grebe seen. There was 5 Common Sandpiper roosting at high tide, and 150 waders dropped in from the estuary to join another 150 already present to make up c.300 Redshank, and 6 Greylag noted.

There was a commotion over the creeks, when I looked round, a Peregrine Falcon was bombing through, it singled out a Lapwing which escaped with a lucky manoeuvre, and the falcon was lost to view. Ten minutes later it returned to rocket through Conder Pool, clearing out the entire area and disappeared over the canal.

On the way back to Lancaster, I called in at Aldcliffe to find 2 Green Sandpiper on the flood, a Little Grebe with 9 Teal and 13 Mallard on the Wildfowlers Pool. Butterflies seen, 3 Speckled Wood and 16 Painted Lady brought my tally to 315 this summer.

On Sunday it was good to find 5 Little Grebe on the old Moor Hospital reservoir at Fenham Carr, seen as two adult and three juvenile. I found the first Little Grebe here 18 November 2013, but despite several visits to Williamson Park since, I never saw it there again until today.

2 comments:

  1. I don't think I've ever seen 5 Common Sandpiper together, Pete. What a splendid sight!

    Best wishes - - - Richard

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  2. Good numbers here annually in autumn, but not quite lived up to its reputation this year.

    I appreciate your continued support for B2B Richard.

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