Short But Sweet?

I did get out for a few hours this afternoon, but apologies for the short summary as I have to go a meeting in the Black Bull later.

Over at Pilling before I turned off Wheel Lane to Fluke, there was Great-spotted Woodpecker activity when one perched in a roadside tree followed a second one that flew across in front me from the direction of Fluke Hall itself. I notice how this species has become extremely noticeable and vocal over the last week or so as they sort themselves out for the breeding season.

Along Fluke Hall Lane there were plenty of Lapwings, as in 235 of them, 15 Golden Plover, 40 Redshank, 2 Dunlin, the single Ruff from the previous week or so, 2 Stock Dove and 10/12 Skylarks.

Lapwing

Ruff
At the entrance to Lane Ends I saw a single Fieldfare still working the buckthorn berries above the road, then from the top car park I quickly counted 44 Whooper Swan on the distant marsh, 195 Shelduck with 2 Little Egret closer in.

Fieldfare
I decided to check out Braides, partly as a preliminary to the wader survey work I have permission to do on there. It was fairly productive with counts of 210 Lapwing, 95 Curlew 12 Golden Plover, 9 Skylark, 1 Grey Heron, 2 Short-eared Owl and a high count of 11 Little Egrets. I will have to do a lot of my work from the gate, because although I have full access, by walking along the very open track I was extremely visible to all the birds, most of which gradually moved elsewhere.

Little Egret

I met a farmer up at Cockerham who gave me a ring GC75867 he found about a month ago on a dead roadside owl which he said was a Tawny Owl. I’ll do the business on the BTO website and see what transpires.

Conder Green was well, Conder Green. Greenshank 1, Spotted Redshank 1, Snipe 2, Teal 40 (are numbers going down a little?), Grey Plover 1, Wigeon 7, Tufted Duck 8, and Grey Heron 1. Just as I was about to leave 6 Black-tailed Godwit flew in calling but landed on the far side of the pool and didn’t approach the road side screen – pity.