BIRDING THE LUNE ESTUARY THE FOREST OF BOWLAND AND BEYOND..................................................SPOTTED REDSHANK RIVER CONDER HOWARD STOCKDALE

Wednesday 27 April 2022

Birding On Your Doorstep....

....but first the Short-eared Owl.

Thanks to Howard Stockdale for the header image, which shows what looks like what can only be described as a twig protruding from the birds right armpit. I'd suggest this is the possible cause of the inability to fly any distance, and is the reason the owl has remained on Conder Pool for two months now, since it was first seen here on 27 February....I've seen no reports of sightings of the bird in the past few days.

A visit to Lancaster Cemetery was primarily for more evidence that the Nuthatch are breeding in the Cypress Tree. Eventually I got the confirmation, when a bird emerged from the nest hole as I was leaving the site. Earlier I had trained my camera on the tree, if only to get the recording of a bird in the area, with a song new to me. I was confused - nothing new there, as I'm easily confused - but hey, a fellow birder threw in his opinion, and we had a result. 

 
Sound On

....'Song of male Nuthatch a uniform series of loud notes, very variable in tempo, from drawn-out whistling notes slowly repeated, to very short notes rapidly repeated'....BWP

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On my next visit, more evidence of the breeding Nuthatch, when the bird came to the tree and went to the nest hole and appeared to feed a grub to the sitting female.

Other interest in the visit, up to 3 Chiffchaff and singing Blackcap heard, 4 Nuthatch, 2 Jay, and a Goldcrest. Butterflies, 8 Orange Tip, 3 Speckled Wood, and 2 Red Admiral.

Tree Wasp. Pete Woodruff.

Also in the cemetery, this 22cm queen Tree Wasp is common, but with the grand scientific name Dolichovespula sylvestris.

Common Carder-Bee.

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This Bumbus pascuorum seemed to take a liking to the garden insect hotel before flying off.

Common Tern.

Common Tern Conder Pool 24 April. Howard Stockdale.

A Common Tern returned to Conder Pool on Sunday morning, hopefully to breed successfully for the ninth year. It is the second April date for first arrival, quite amazingly on the same April day as last year. The previous six first dates have been in May, with the first Common Tern record for Conder Pool being on a late date in July 2014....

02 July 2014
22 May 2015
06 May 2016
08 May 2017 
07 May 2018
05 May 2019
02 May 2020
24 April 2021
24 April 2022

4 comments:

  1. I love a bit of data. Always interesting to see information like this. Keep up the excellent site.

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  2. For your interest, one became two Common Terns on Conder Pool Tuesday....Thanks for compliments Marc.

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  3. It's not often that I find a photo that is both beautiful and disturbing, Pete, but Howard's shot of the SEO is just that. It makes me wonder how such a thing can happen, and how the owl, with such a flexible neck, is not able to extract it with its beak. I hope that the owl manages to survive.

    I enjoyed the sound and vision of the Nuthatch clips.

    I join Marc in being impressed by your statistical data!

    Stay safe - - - Richard

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  4. Good point about the owl not having removed the object from its wing. Thanks also for echoing Marcs compliments Richard.

    Regards....Pete.

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