Conder & Cocker.

Yesterday it was interesting to note the wintering birds have departed for their breeding sites, and with a message from Boddi that 'the godwits are piling up here in Iceland' I saw just a lone Black-tailed Godwit on Conder Pool yesterday from seeing a few hundred there earlier in the month. 

Also to note on Conder Pool, up to 18 Avocet, with some sitting birds included, 9 Common Sandpiper, 3 Little Ringed Plover, 25 Knot, a Greenshank, and a drake Wigeon perhaps going to summer here, with 2 Pink-footed Geese perhaps doing the same, and a mixed group of c.20 Herring Gull and Lesser Black-backed Gull. Elsewhere at Conder Green, a Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler and an Orange Tip seen.

AC reported to me an egret at the east end of Moss Lane, I went to take a look and found 2 Cattle Egret there.

 

My photo of the Cattle Egrets on the spoil heap is about as bad as it gets, but good enough for the record book.

A wander around Cockersand, I found my first 4 Lapwing chicks, and from c.320 seen 11 April, the number had dwindled to 52 Golden Plover hanging on in the stubble behind Lighthouse Cottage. Following 250 on 18 April, no more than 15 Linnet seen here today. A Wheatear on Plover Scar with 5 Whimbrel seen off here. A Small Tortoiseshell was the only butterfly identified from three other sightings.

In the garden, 2 Common Blue, and high overhead soaring and acrobatics, 2 Raven. I'm reliably informed of a Cuckoo calling in the Birk Bank area on Monday 24 April.

The header image is vintage material of a bird seen many years ago on Newby Moor, where I made contact with Whinchat in good number over the years.