Never Give Up On A Good Thing

Eno didn’t give much hope of decent weather this morning. In fact I nearly didn’t go to Pilling except that about 0930 the spots of rain gave up and sun came out instead. 

 Eno's Warning

"Don't go birding"

At last, a guest appearance by Wheatear with just a single juvenile along the sea wall so chance to give the meal worms a day out in the sunshine, and ten minutes later the bird was literally in the bag, then ringed and measured at 93mm wing length. 

Wheatear - juvenile

Wheatear - juvenile

The wildfowlers' pools held a good number of duck today with more than 150 Teal, 4 Wigeon and many Mallards, most of the latter ex-layers now put out to grass. The Green Sandpiper and Common Sandpiper of late are still about, unlikely to be seen in the deep ditches unless startled into flight by spooked Teal. A number of the Teal flew back and forth to the marsh where 2 Peregrine awaited them, and I watched one of the pegs return to the edge of the sand after taking a half-hearted dash at a group of the duck. Teal have such tremendous flying ability, fast, twisting and unpredictable changes of direction that for photographs it’s a case of point and shoot then hope for the best. 

Teal

Peregrine

 Little else to report: 15 Shelduck, 450 Curlew, 3 Great Crested Grebe, 1 Sparrowhawk, 1 Skylark, 4 Linnet, 10 Goldfinch, 30 Swallow heading south. 

It proved a short outing because to be fair to Eno and the BBC, the rain came back, enough to wet me through on the return walk to Lane Ends where I finished on Little Grebe, another Sparrowhawk and 2 Pied Wagtail.