Update And Diary Date

With the BBC’s dire forecast still fresh in mind I set out to find the reality was marginally better, managing to fit in a few hours birding before the rain arrived yet again. Here’s a brief summary. 

The usual fare at Lane Ends/Pilling Water included 20 House Martin, Blackcap, 2 Reed Bunting, 2 Pied Wagtail, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Little Grebe and still 2 Corn Bunting plus 3 Meadow Pipits today. The June oddities today were a fresh in and singing Whitethroat on the edge of the plantation, plus a Ringed Plover on the shore. 

Ringed Plover 

I found yet another Skylark feeding young in a silage field, that’s at least 5 pairs along here which are at a similar stage. The nests will contain small young for a few more days yet, and hopefully survive the farmer’s cutting regime, probably due once the rain stops and the grass crop dries out. As far as I can tell there no pairs nesting on the sea wall just yet but the birds may choose to have their second broods there once the silage is laid bare. 

With the impending rain, I drove to Pilling Moss to check out a Sparrowhawk nest of late. Although ladderless and unable to climb to the nest, I found both adult’s behaviour suggestive of hatched eggs. Back home I checked Fylde Ringing Group’s IPMR database for previous dates of ringing Sparrowhawk chicks and found our earliest date to be 22 June, with the majority of the c40 chicks normally ringed in the first week of July. A note in the diary now marks July 1st 2012. 

Sparrowhawk

Looks like it will be Sunday before the weather improves.

Sunday Weather