A Sunny Day

It was a bright sunny day so although I did some birding, I concentrated on getting a few pictures while the light was helpful.

At Lane Ends I heard at least two Willow Warblers calling from the trees below the car park, but there is so much cover at this time of year I can’t imagine those two are the only ones there. I also heard a Kingfisher call once from the pool that no one can see thanks to Wyre Borough and The Environment Agency failure to maintain the place; a single call means a fly past usually. All was not lost as when I walked to the east pool the Kingfisher sat on the fence in the nearest corner, but flew back to no man’s land as soon as it spotted me. There seemed to be a movement of both Swallows and House Martins as small parties arrived from the marsh, fed for a few minutes then moved on. The now resident Kestrel was pretty obliging today so I took a few shots whilst it fence hopped. The Woodpigeons here get used to the comings and goings of cars so I stopped to get one in the half sunlight as it preened the mass of feathers.

Kestrel
Kestrel
Woodpigeon

At Pilling Water the wildfowler’s pool held 200 Teal, flushed by the chap on the quad bike with his sack of duck grub; the Teal fly off to the shore, the Mallards will find how the free grub system works in two weeks’ time. The Green Sandpiper also came off the pools and settled briefly on the near pool before it skittered off with its weird melody and not a hope of a photo.

I sat on the stile and watched a couple of Little Egrets along the ditch when one decided to fly towards the wildfowler’s pools, not knowing quad man was there. The egret circled back in mid-air and re-joined the other one, so Little Egret picture number 140 coming up. There was a single Wheatear again today, which could be the one that has been around for a few days considering how it avoided me. Wheatears are harder to come by, less predictable in both numbers and dates in autumn than spring. April and May will see a rush of birds with falls on the west coast of small groups, tens and twenties, sometimes many dozens but in contrast the autumn passage is more protracted through July, August, September and October. I did catch up with the Wheatear for a fresh picture, where else but the wheatear rocks? I also snapped a Brown Hare, muddied fresh from a run through the saltmarsh.

Little Egret
Wheatear
Brown Hare

I counted more Linnets this morning, with 30 or more here and a similar number of Goldfinch. Like at Lane Ends there were parties of both Swallow, about 30 with similar numbers of House Martins.

On my way to Bank End, where I had a single Greenshank and nothing else, I called in at Hillam where I found a flock of 80 Linnets, 2 Grey Heron, 2 Buzzard, 40 House Sparrow, 9 Goldfinch, 2 Pied Wagtail, 25 House Martin and 20 Swalllow.

House Martin
House Martin

That was a nice morning, with a few pictures in the bank too.