Gone with the wind!

And some showers to dodge....

River Conder. Pete Woodruff.

When I rounded the corner by the Stork Hotel at 11 o'clock this morning I was more than a little surprised to find I thought I'd read the tide table wrong but no, this was the River Conder in spate the likes of which I've personally never quite seen before. The shot above of the river going under the A588 road bridge shows how it would look at the height of a c.8m tide, yet that had been nearly five hours earlier at just after 6.00am.

I never expected to find any birds in the creeks with this volume of water racing down, but my second surprise of the morning came just a few minutes after the first when  I found 5 Greenshank and 2 Spotted Redshank all feeding on the edge of this torrent of water. Also noted was a single Bar-tailed Godwit, on Conder Pool the number has increased to 5 Little Grebe on here, a Common Sandpiper had me wondering when to start thinking this may be this years wintering individual, and 3 Wigeon, c.40 Goldfinch were over by the old railway bridge.

Spot the Spotted. Pete Woodruff.

The Lune Estuary also gave the impression of high tide and amazed me at the volume of water racing down past Glasson Dock to the sea around the corner. Here the birds were very thin and no sign of the previously reported Curlew Sandpipers, but I noted on what little mud was above water c.350 Redshank, c.20 Dunlin, and 2 Goosander were distant dots. A return here two hours later gave me 2 Spotted Redshank one of which is in the pic above - it's the one in the centre behind the Lapwing - but I couldn't help thinking these could be the two earlier birds seen at Conder Green.

Juvenile Knot. Brian Rafferty  

At Cockersands where one or two gusts of wind were almost of blow you over force, through a very shaky telescope I eventually found 2 Curlew Sandpiper in company with c.65 Ringed Plover, 40 Dunlin, 6 Turnstone, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit, and a juvenile Knot.

Mega News. Courtesy of RBA. 

Yelkouan Shearwater. Copyright  Dave Appleton 

Some recent 'Mega Birds' in the UK have been, a Yelkouan Shearwater past Cley, Norfolk 29 Aug, a Fea's Petrel past Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire 31 August, a Black-browed Albatross past Kilnsea, East Yorkshire, 1 September, and a Madeiran Petrel past Pendeen Watch, Cornwall 6 September....wonder where all these four birds are now.

Thanks to Dave Appleton for the brilliant photograph of the Yelkouan Shearwater.

Rainy days and Mondays!

I don't like rainy days and certainly don't like wet and windy ones in which today fitted the category to perfection.

So....no birding, and I've nearly run out of blogging time but having noted 105 Long-tailed Skuas past Saltcoats Harbour in Ayrshire, Scotland this afternoon, so I dug out this excellent video showing the bird as it would be seen on a sea-watch, though there are better videos of the birds on land which don't carry with them the same excitement as this one in flight.

Interestingly a Black-browed Albatross was reported on the RBA pager service recently, which was also seen flying south past the same Saltcoats Harbour, the video below is an excellent example of some good filming over the ocean, albeit the most common and widespread of the family, it is pelagic and spends months on end at sea but sometimes spending summer months on Gannet colonies in Scotland. 



I also have some brilliant photographs in my library thanks to some equally brilliant photographers/birders I happen to know, like....

Silver-breasted Broadbill. Kah Wai.

The Silver-breasted Broadbill, a brilliant little bird photographed at Bukit Tinggi in Malaysia by Kah Wai whose website always has some interesting notes and photography HERE

And....

Little Bustard. Mike Watson. 

The Little Bustard is just one of many brilliant birds seen on MW's latest trip accompanied by some interesting accounts of his visit to Catalonia in Spring.

Birding tomorrow and....I have a plan.