Crimbles!

I saw plenty of birds to see this morning, in fact it proved to be a really excellent and productive morning of birding but rather trying in the photography department with too few new pictures. Sometimes it’s good, mostly it is hard work to keep coming up with new pictures. 

A Barn Owl hunting near the A588 at Pilling gave the briefest of views as it sped across the fields and then out of sight behind hedges and buildings. The choices were, sit and wait for the owl to do a circuit, try in a fashion to follow the bird across roadless fields, or drive on. I drove on hoping that another Barn Owl might show between here and destination Glasson. 

 I stopped at Crimbles and waited for a while with no sign of Barn Owls, just a Raven heading out to the marsh and several Curlews and Lapwings on a pool fashioned by the recent high tides. I took a detour to a Crimbles farm where there are owls and a favoured wooden fence. Bingo, a Little Owl. 

“Crimbles” is a rather strange place name and nothing to do with cakes or Christmas. It is probably a very ancient Lancashire dialect description of the locality with origins in the Domesday Book. I need to do some research and get back to readers. 

Little Owl

Once again I decided that Glasson would get the early shift and Conder Green the post-breakfast going over. A Common Tern was hunting the basin and the dock where it plunge-dived with great efficiency and lifted small fish from below the water. 

I watched the tern swallow a whole fish while in flight but its next catch it kept hold of and then flew directly above the road on the shortest route to Conder Green where later on I saw the female waiting for breakfast and the male arriving from the direction of Glasson. As suspected a few days ago, the male travels a mile or two in the course of hunting at Conder Green, Glasson Dock and the River Lune, and there are at the moment but 2 Common Terns and not three. 

A Kingfisher put in a late and brief appearance by landing on the stern of a moored boat, taking a look around at the busy dock before then whizzing off elsewhere - no pictures of it today. 

On the water, a single Great Crested Grebe, 5 Tufted Duck, 22 Coot and 25 Mallard with along the towpath 2 Grey Wagtail, 2 Pied Wagtail, a Chiffchaff in song and 1 Grey Heron. 

Five Little Egrets flew over as they headed off the river and in the direction of Cockersands. Later I was to see another six at Conder Green, a goodish total of 11 for the morning’s effort. 

On scanning the creek at Conder Green there was another Kingfisher, 75 yards away, a tiny blue and orange marker attached to a mid-stream and lifeless remains of a tree. The Kingfisher dived from the bare limbs and splashed into the shallows several times without success before flying off towards the railway bridge; it was time for a count or two. 

These current higher tides make for low water levels in the creeks, just an inch or two of water in places and ideal for waders so giving a healthy count of 160+ Redshank, 15 Oystercatcher, 6 Common Sandpiper, 2 Black-tailed Godwit, 4 Curlew, 1 Greenshank and 1 Spotted Redshank. 

 

Redshank

Greenshank

There were the aforementioned 6 Little Egret plus 2 Grey Heron, plus a family party of 9 Shelduck, 3 Little Grebe, 2 Wigeon and a more than reasonable modern day count of 30+ Swifts. 

Grey Heron

It appears that we are in for record temperatures on Thursday and Friday quickly followed by thunderstorms and downpours at the weekend. Goodness, it looks like I may have to go out birding again tomorrow. 

Meanwhile, I’ll see what I can cook up about Crimbles.

Linking today to The Run a Round Ranch Blogspot.