Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Round Up

A trip around a few local spots is the sum of this morning’s blog post. 

Read on while not forgetting to “click the pics” for close-up views. A new feature on Another Bird Blog is “Crosspost” whereby clicking the “Crosspost” button in the right-hand corner of any picture will allow a reader to share it to Facebook and Twitter. Go ahead, give it a try. 

During recent months I’ve rather neglected Knott End after the bad weather and ultra-high tides made it difficult to do any birding there, so to put things right I paid a quick visit today. It was a sunny and still morning, the low to medium high tide concentrating a few birds, but a number of them still out at the water’s edge. Redshanks were in in good numbers with a minimum count of 160 scattered along the estuary, 24 Turnstones concentrated near the jetty and 1500+ Knot staying at the tide’s very edge. Wildfowl numbers came in at 12 Eider and 18 Shelduck. The male Shelducks are now in particularly fine breeding plumage. 

Redshank

Shelduck

As usual I headed up to Pilling Lane Ends and Fluke Hall for a look. Fluke fields held a good number of mixed Golden Plover, Redshank and Lapwings, the recently arrived migrant “goldies” at 210+ outnumbering the 135 regular Redshank and 40+ but dropping in numbers Lapwings. 5 Pied Wagtail, 8 Meadow Pipits and 15+Skylark accounted for passerines on the flood. The wild and wary plovers stayed a long way across the still flooded maize field 

Golden Plovers

On the wildfowler’s pools/sea wall were 23 Teal, 30 Shelduck, 3 Little Egret and 600+ Pink-footed Goose; in the woodland - 3 Stock Dove, 2 Jay and 1+ Siskin. 

A whistle stop at Lane Ends via Backsands Lane gave a Kestrel, singing Chiffchaff and Reed Bunting, and on the pools 2 Little Grebe. 

Kestrel

More Golden Plover at the Cockerham, Braides Farm where another flock of this time 260 birds stayed their distance. Two Little Egrets, 3 Pied Wagtails and 8+ Skylarks here. 

Heading north again took me to Conder Green where I rounded up the usual suspects of 1 Spotted Redshank, 4 Wigeon, 2 Little Grebe, 8 Goldeneye, 22 Teal, 2 Little Egret, 24 Shelduck and 5 Cormorant.  Possibly “new in today” were 1 singing Reed Bunting and 1 Grey Wagtail. 

Spotted Redshank
 
 Black-headed Gull

Join me soon for more bird news and photographs via Another Bird Blog.

Linking today with Eileen's Saturday Blog .

15 comments:

Dział Przyrody MŚO said...

Great blog with lots of interesting information. Beautiful images of birds. Greetings / Michał and Piotr - ornithologists from Poland.

Carole M. said...


the Nthn Lapwing blog-header is most impressive. An interesting feature, your Crosspost addition, though I don't FB or T myself, many will be able to use it with that quick access link. Beaut' lighting for the Redshank leader photo and nice variety you picked up on the day Phil.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Great account of some fine birding. One day I gotta come with you!

eileeninmd said...

Great outing, Phil! I love the Redshank, Shelduck and the cool Kestrel shot.. Awesome birds and great photos. Happy Birding!

Sonja said...

Lovely shot of the Kestral, and I can just imagine the Redshank calling!

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

All the birds are wonderful; you seem to be able to persuade them to pose perfectly. The shelduck is so beautiful. And the golden plovers are perfectly named...they just shine.

Russell Jenkins said...

Some lovely views in good light, Phil. I feel I've had a nice outing with you today, thanks very much. The shelduck is especially handsome. I'll have to check if they're in Japan.

Mary Howell Cromer said...

Those are some lovely birds Phil! I started to share on FB and something came up about Symphony and I just finished having computer cleared up and was told not to do that, so...I could not share your beautiful image at top of your post...I wanted to though. We had a 7 th tree come down Wednesday, and we are all so very weary in this house, very weary~

WordsPoeticallyWorth said...

Some nice shots.

Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.

Jen said...

My favorite is the reflection shot of the Spotted Redshank.

eileeninmd said...

Phil, thank you for linking up with Saturday's Critters! Have a great weekend and happy birding!



Unknown said...

Beautiful birds. The kestrel is my favourite. Enjoy your weekend.

carol l mckenna said...

Beautiful shots ~ favorite is the Kestrel ~ happy weekend to you ~ xxx

artmusedog and carol
www.acreativeharbor.com

Adam Jones said...

Great close up of the Kestrel Phil, but I love the Spotted Redshank. Hope to catch up with another of those this year.

Karen said...

Terrific shots! My faves are the Shelduck and Kestrel.

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