Here & There!

I took advantage of the high pressure sitting over us recently, with a few sunny spells, and lot of murky damp days thrown in, for a little birding here and there.

A couple of hours on the lower slopes of Hawthornthwaite had me find 2 Stonechat, seen as a pair chasing flying insects, my first recorded wintering chats on the fells. Also, 8 Red Grouse were seen as an indication of a healthy stock, and fodder for the shooting industry with their sick Victorian attitudes towards game birds and wildlife as a whole....No apologies for my brief two-liner rant.

On my customary wander around the Lune Estuary on Thursday, notes from Conder Pool included 12 Wigeon, 6 Little Grebe, 2 Goosander, 2 Snipe, and a Little Egret. 

On the Lune Estuary at Glasson, up to 1,750 Golden Plover were a sight for sore eyes, they were lined up below Colloway Marsh and put the comment in my last post in to context, when I saw two forlorn plovers on the north side below the bowling green, 'it would have been more expected to have seen at least 1,000 Golden Plover across on the north side below Colloway Marsh'.

At Cockersand, 136 Whooper Swan in the field off Slack Lane were 110 more than my last count of 26 here, and with 110 seen at Braides (AC) the same day, brings the total in the area to 246 Whooper Swan looking more like the expected for mid-November.

Flying south, 25 Pink-footed Geese, and later as I joined the coastal path at Lighthouse Cottage in brilliant sunshine, up to 250 Pink-footed Geese were flying north over the estuary.

Just 15 minutes after I saw the geese flying north in the sunshine, this was the scene at Cockersand which got progressively worse as I trundled along the headland, and remained so until I arrived back in Lancaster an hour later.

Cockersand Mystery.

This photo was featured in my last post, it was taken on 29 October and depicts the Hawthorn hedge laden with berries waiting for the winter thrushes to arrive.

This photo was taken 16 days later, and shows the same hedge void of berries. Perhaps a few hundred undetected thrushes have visited in the space of 16 days, and striped the entire length of fruit!

And Finally. 

I found this impressive looking Fungus in Bowland last week.

The Blusher Amanita rubescens Pete Woodruff

Common throughout much of Europe and Asia, and not quite the status I was hoping for....

Autumn Beech Tree. Pete Woodruff.

....but made a pretty picture on the carpet of autumn leaves below a stunning Beech near Tower Lodge.