Good Game, Good Game

On Sunday I set off for Cockersands and Conder Green where an early tide might do the trick in bringing a few birds closer. 

Like lots of birding sites in June the area of Conder Green is proving remarkably consistent in species and counts. Regular readers or those looking for something to catch up on might notice a few “goodies” in amongst the regular “dross” of 15+ Swift, 2 Reed Warbler, 2 Sedge Warbler, 5 Reed Bunting, 4 Whitethroat, 2 Meadow Pipit, 2 Tree Sparrow, 2 Little Egret, 2 Grey Heron, 8 Lapwing, 1 Greenshank, 1 Grey Partridge, 2 Curlew and 1 Great-spotted Woodpecker. 

Yes, the Curlew are possibly fresh-in with the Greenshank definitely new and either “late going” or “early coming back”, depending upon someone’s understanding of the breeding cycle of northern waders. I favour the early returning scenario, especially since a number of Lapwings appeared hereabouts today. 

Whether the Grey Partridge is “real” rather than a from £13.80" sub-species is anyone’s guess.  And yes, in case anyone is wondering, even an expensive and reintroduced Grey Partridge is literally "fair game" to a shoot.

Grey Partridge

There seemed to be lots of Lapwings in the Cockersands area too, with a total count of 80+ and a single count of 35 in one field. The Lapwings easily outnumbered the 15+ Brown Hares, several Oystercatchers and 2 Red-legged Partridge with which they shared the fields. On the circuit also, 4 Sedge Warbler, 5 Whitethroat, 2 Reed Bunting and 5 Tree Sparrow. 

 Lapwing

Lapwing

Eiders have bred close to Cockersands again. From the path I could see a single pair with 5 young on the edge of the tide with other adults in attendance and ten birds in total; more youngsters could well emerge in the next days and weeks.

Breeding hereabouts is a regular occurrence now as an offshoot of the colony of 700+ pairs just across Morecambe Bay at Walney Island, until recent years the most southerly breeding colony in England. Quite where the females nest around here is anyone’s guess as not only do they possess incredibly cryptic plumage, they are renowned for sitting amazingly tight, not vacating their nest until stood upon. I recall gull ringing expeditions to the Walney Island dunes, grabbing hold of reluctant Lesser Black-back and Herring Gulls while at the same time treading carefully to avoid standing on invisible Eider ducks.

Eider

Along the shore some newly arrived Black-headed Gulls, 2 Little Egret and a small number of Ringed Plover and Dunlin mixing freely on the shore and pebble beach. These latter species have been around for a week or two, part of their strong passage north, and unlike species like Greenshank and Spotted Redshank which return early, if these loiterers don’t get a move on soon they will meet themselves coming back. 

 

Ringed Plover and Dunlin

It was 10am, the Sunny Sunday crowd out and about, so time to head home after a good morning’s birding. 

Join Another Bird Blog soon for more of the same game.  

These Sporting Times

I like to think of myself as a “proper” birder. Like most dedicated bird watchers I made a contribution to the just published British Trust for Ornithology BTO Bird Atlas 2007-2011, the very latest in a long line of awe inspiring BTO publications. This is the culmination of four years of fieldwork whereby over 225 million birds of 578 species were recorded online. 

 The Bird Atlas 2007-11 -  BTO Bird Atlas

There are seriously worrying statistics in this book, many related to declining farmland species which I mention frequently on this blog in an attempt to draw attention to their plight in the part of Lancashire I live. I make no apology for returning today to a couple of those species and a topic which concerns me greatly. 

On Wednesday I discussed with a fellow birder whether he should enter into his notebook the 7 Grey Partridge he’d seen that morning. Knowing of both the serious local decline in Grey Partridge plus the fact that numerous partridges are now released for sport by the shooting fraternity, most if not all of the releases undocumented, I suggested he err on the side of caution. As recently as 2011 in the final year of the Atlas surveys, I was recording Grey Partridge, but I no longer do so locally as I believe that our native species is to all intents and purposes locally extinct. 

Grey Partridge - Photo credit: Langham Birder / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

The BTO Atlas tells me there has been a 91% population decline of Grey Partridge in the UK between 1967-2010, during the Breeding Atlas of 1968-72 and the Breeding Atlas of 1988-91. “Local extinctions may be masked in some areas by the release of captive-bred birds onto shooting estates: about 100,000 captive-reared Grey Partridges are released in Britain each year”. The Atlas gives no figures on the number of captive-bred birds subsequently shot for sport; neither does it give any indication of how any surviving birds impact upon any truly wild Grey Partridge population. Given that the species is in any case a secretive and difficult species to study, any such investigation would by now be almost impossible to conduct. 

The problem is further complicated by the release into the same environment of Red-legged Partridge, a picture I know only too well from local farms.  

"As more farms diversify into shooting, the number of Red-legged Partridges released has increased and this is illustrated by the National Gamebag Census, where numbers shot quadrupled between 1990 and 2005 (Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust 2013). It is estimated that 6.5 million partridges (Grey and Red-legged) were released across the UK in 2004, and 2.6 million were shot. There has been little research on the impacts of released birds on native species, but there is some evidence that shooting operations based on large-scale releases of Red-legged Partridges could be implicated in local extinctions of Grey Partridges.” To my unscientific but daily birding eyes that last sentence would seem to be a gross understatement. 

Red-legged Partridge

Turning to the non-native Pheasant, the Atlas tells me that the numbers of captive-bred Pheasants released into the wild has increased fivefold since the early 1960s to around 35 million birds annually. Some 15 million Pheasant are shot annually. “High densities of Pheasants potentially have negative effects on native species, but these have been poorly studied. Indirect effects possibly include modification of the structure of the field layer, the spread of disease and parasites and competition for food. Recent research indicates that infection with caecal nematodes from farm-reared Pheasants may be contributing to the decline of Grey Partridge.” When I watch hordes of young Pheasants thundering through late summer fields and woodland edge there is no doubt in my mind that their effect on the environment is wholly negative. 

Pheasant

The entire picture is a sad and sorry one worthy of proper debate but the BTO cannot be seen to take sides in this matter. 

“The BTO is an independent charitable research institute combining professional and citizen science aimed at using evidence of change in wildlife populations, particularly birds, to inform the public, opinion-formers and environmental policy and decision-makers. Our impartiality enables our data and information to be used both by Government and NGO campaigners. Our long-term monitoring data on the status of UK birds sets the standard worldwide for understanding the effects of environmental change on wildlife. Over 40,000 volunteer birdwatchers, in partnership with professional research scientists, collect high quality monitoring data on birds and other wildlife. The combination of professional ecologists, long-term datasets some in excess of 50 years, and volunteers participating all over the country gives the BTO a unique, impartial and knowledgeable voice in nature conservation.” 

I’m left trying to think of an organisation that might be willing to take on the vested interests of landowners and the sporting fraternity in ending what is a national disgrace? 

Browse sample pages and then buy a copy of the BTO Bird Atlas 2007-11 here. 

Mainly Buzzards With A Few Questions

I can’t decide which is harder at the moment, finding birds to ring or finding birds to watch, as both activities are decidedly difficult. Following a slow morning’s ringing on Wednesday, this morning I decided to have a walk out Pilling Way in the hope of seeing a few birds, so stocked up with a new supply of meal worms hoping even a Wheatear or two might appear. 

But no Wheatears again when there should be a more than a few around, so maybe our UK birds suffered the same fate as most low down nesting birds this year. In about a month’s time the geese will arrive from Iceland and it will be interesting to see if more Wheatears appear then. 

Enough waffle – here’s the short list and a couple of photographs compiled from a few hours slog along the sea wall. Little Grebe, Chiffchaff, Grey Heron and Sparrowhawk at Lane Ends. A number of Swallows, about 70 feeding at Pilling Water, with a single Sand Martin, but no Swifts in evidence. 

 Barn Swallow

A single Common Sandpiper around the wildfowler’s pools plus return of the Teal with 8 flighty birds. Passerines: 2 Pied Wagtail, 24 Linnet, 15 Goldfinch, 2 Greenfinch and 2 Skylark. Two Buzzards over Fluke Hall put on a bit of a show, circling and calling in the bright sunshine. 

Buzzard - Buteo buteo

Buzzard - Buteo buteo

Buzzard - Buteo buteo

After watching the Buzzards, and then a day or two ago seeing Grey Partridges being reared for “sport” it set me thinking of a number of questions for The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), a government department which earlier this year wished to spend £300,000 of taxpayers’ money on looking into ways of controlling the Buzzard population. 

 Grey Partridge

Here are few questions to be going on with, I’m sure readers can come up with more. 

What research has DEFRA funded into why the UK population of Grey Partridge has plummeted until the species is now listed as of RED Conservation Concern? 

Why does the Government of the UK allow millions of non-native Red-legged Partridge to be released willy-nilly into the wild? 

Before we release any captive bred partridge species into the countryside should there be research into the possible effect on any remaining wild Grey Partridge populations? 

Stay tuned, more soon on Another Bird Blog.

Showery Session

A forecast of April showers saw me avoid the open coast and instead head inland to Out Rawcliffe where if need be there’s a few trees to provide shelter. I topped up the Goldfinch’s Niger feeders and then scouted around for “owt about” and a possible ringing session on Thursday. 

It was still fairly quiet in our plantation although the male Willow Warblers had arrived in recent days, with 3 singing away in the annual spots but otherwise just the tinklings of several Goldfinches. I put a few nets up and then meandered around, and from the top of the moss surveyed the landscape in all directions, hoping for some “vis mig” which might involve the redpolls of late March starting up again. 

The views from here are good to the east, south and west, less so to the north, and with little traffic noise its usually quiet enough to hear birds overhead in spring or autumn. I caught 4 new Goldfinch and a recaptured a Willow Warbler first ringed here in 2011, but no more of our annual and now serial visitors yet. In fact as heavy clouds rolled in from the west I decided discretion to be the better option so took the nets down; in the nick of time as it proved when a heavy hail storm turned quickly into substantial rain just as I stuffed the nets in their bags. 

Willow Warbler

My wanderings produced a good mix of birds but nothing in the way of overhead migration and no Lesser Redpolls, just a single Siskin. On the recently ploughed fields I found 16 Fieldfare together with 2 pairs of Grey Partridge and 60+ still flocking Woodpigeon, and on the grassy fields, 40+ Curlew, 4 Lapwing, 2 Skylark and 12 Shelduck. Raptors entered in the notebook were 3 Buzzard, 1 Sparrowhawk and 1 Kestrel, with one Little Owl at the barn early doors. 

 Grey Partridge

Little Owl

 

Other singers this morning included a trio of farmland buntings in 3 Yellowhammer, 1 Reed Bunting and 1 Corn Bunting, the latter singing in the April rain from a broken off stem of last year’s maize crop. 

 Corn Bunting

The forecast is slightly better for Thursday and whilst as the saying goes,“April showers bring May flowers”, birders prefer to believe that April showers bring May birds in early, so stay tuned for more news and pictures soon.

Late Lasagne

It was Saturday evening but even Sue’s Legendary Lasagne washed down by a glass or two of grapey Shiraz would have to wait a while; Will and I had hastily arranged a spot of ringing, a session which by 930pm proved just as fruitful as Aussie’s best, with a handy total of birds ringed plus two or three scarcities seen.

Before we even put up nets the evening started on a real high with sight of a Cuckoo, a species now as rare as hen’s teeth here in Lancashire, and a bird which has become something of a major target for year listers. So infrequent are Cuckoos that after both mine and Will’s many, many hours of local birding and ringing this year the single juvenile Cuckoo represented our first and possibly our last local sighting of the year.

Cuckoo

After feeding close by for a short while the Cuckoo flew off towards the strip of woodland where we originally saw it. We then turned our attention to ringing and the hoped for Goldfinches from the nearby roost. In all we caught 24 birds, 21 new and 3 recaptures which included several more juvenile Goldfinch and more Sylvia warblers. New captures; 10 Goldfinch, 4 Whitethroat, 3 Willow Warbler and 1 each of Garden Warbler, Blackcap, Chaffinch and Great Tit. Recaptures: singles of Willow Warbler, Goldfinch and Whitethroat.

Blackcap - Sylvia atricapilla
Garden Warbler - Sylvia borin
Whitethroat - Sylvia communis
Willow Warbler - juvenile
Chaffinch

The numbers of Goldfinch going to roost had fallen slightly, with perhaps 80/90 birds overall, so our catch of 10 new ones proved worthwhile. Once again our captures were all juvenile birds, leading us to speculate once more that this is indeed a roost of juveniles only.

Goldfinch - juvenile

As we watched between net rounds we clocked up 2 more scarce species with a single Marsh Harrier heading off to roost in a distant barley field, and then brief glimpses of 3 Grey Partridge, an event which set off a discussion on the rarity value of the two species. We came to the sad conclusion that whilst Marsh Harrier is now fairly common following its population expansion of the past twenty years it still has adequate prestige to set the pagers buzzing; conversely the once common, but now threatened with local extinction Grey Partridge can probably never achieve such heights of birding fame.

Grey Partridge

Swallows have proved very interesting this last week. We counted approximately 700/900 birds during the course of the evening as they flew in a south easterly direction towards a local roost, probably in the extensive and now quickly growing maize fields. The number was way down on our count of several thousand Swallows a few nights ago, a period during which the massive Fleetwood roost also dispersed. So it appears that huge numbers of Swallows have imperceptibly headed south in the last week or so: equally there are many more to come from the north and/or east and Swallow roosts are dynamic, ever changing in composition, with the result that roost numbers will almost certainly build up again in the coming weeks.

Swallow

Other birds seen in our few hours: 25 Linnet, 1 Corn Bunting, 1 Tawny Owl, 2 Buzzard, 2 Great-spotted Woodpecker, 30 Tree Sparrow and 40 House Sparrow.

The lasagne? Yes it lived up to its mythical status, but this ringing and birding lark certainly works up a thirst and that bottle of plonk proved a life-saver.

The Plans Of Mice And Men

This morning’s 0630 start for Will and I was similar to Saturday whereby from the off another cold easterly breeze looked likely to frustrate our hopes and schemes, despite the preparation of setting nets in the most sheltered westerly parts of the plantation.

We took another bash at catching finches and early season migrants but as we suspected the grey, overcast sky didn’t produce much in the way of new birds and a very slow session saw us catch 9 only, the saving grace being that all were target species: 3 Meadow Pipit, 2 Goldfinch, 2 Lesser Redpoll and 2 Chiffchaff, both of the latter birds males as might be expected on this still fairly early arrival date.

Chiffchaff

The Niger feeders put up here just a couple of weeks ago have now been responsible for a catch so far of 37 Goldfinch and 16 Lesser Redpoll, so that little strategy did the trick so far.

Lesser Redpoll
Lesser Redpoll
Goldfinch

Visible migration of passerines was almost non-existent this morning, with counts of approximately 30 Meadow Pipits, 1 Siskin and 2 Lesser Redpoll, a few of which may have been birds we caught.

“Other” birds consisted of 150+ Curlew on nearby fields, several probably local Linnets, 2 Great-spotted Woodpeckers drumming and 1 Fieldfare overhead.

At 10am we packed up the ringing gear and there followed the usual tortuous, bouncy drive off the rough farm track of the moss, avoiding the tractor made holes in the peaty soil. Fortunately the leisurely journey gave both time and opportunity to watch the 11+ Buzzards spiralling over nearby woods into the warming air: also 2 pairs of Grey Partridge, and several pairs of displaying Lapwings in residence, and yet again 2 pairs of Little Owl. Hopefully we’ll soon get to ring some little Little Owls and pint-sized peewits.

Grey Partridge
Lapwing

More dry days look possible for Monday and Tuesday before rain arrives later in the week. Let’s hope our next visit coincides with a change in wind direction to warm southerly winds carrying migrant birds from Africa, and then we’ll see what happens.

Opening March

It was out to the moss today, the real beginning, the first of our spring ringing proper and a chance to weigh up if the Niger feeders put up two weeks ago had done the trick for small finches. It was a dull, grey start and nil wind, good for ringing but not necessarily for seeing March migrants but with luck in between ringing a few Goldfinch, Siskin and Redpolls we might see a few more species heading north.

The feeders had certainly worked because we caught 16 Goldfinch, 15 new plus a recapture from last week, a single new Great Tit and other recaptures of a Dunnock and Great Tit, but unfortunately no more variety than that.

Goldfinch
Great Tit

Besides approximately 30 Goldfinch seen the plantation was as quiet as we expect in early March, with other species limited to 3 Reed Bunting, 6 Chaffinch, 2 Wren, 2 Long-tailed Tit and a couple of Blackbirds.

The birding was reasonably interesting with a good SE to N passage of approximately 35 Meadow Pipits in mainly twos and threes, and singles of Siskin and Alba Wagtail. We also saw a flock of 40 Fieldfare come from the south west and fly strongly to the north east, calling as they went. A couple of flocks of Curlew also went north, 30 birds in total. “Usual” stuff around the fields comprised singing Skylark and Corn Bunting, still a flock of 90 Woodpigeon and just 2 Buzzards, neither of them venturing skywards on such a dull morning.

On the way off the moss I saw a pair of Grey Partridge and once again found the two pairs of Little Owls now well and truly “at it” in their respective territories and holey trees.

Grey Partridge
Little Owl

A respectable morning’s work for 16th March and from now on the days can only get busier.

Patience Is A Virtue

I held fire through the constant rain of Saturday, lasted out this morning’s downpour, and then ate lunch in the conservatory to the torture of more rainfall on the glass roof. Finally at 1330 the rain eased a little, the battleship sky turned a lighter shade of grey and I got out birding for an hour or two. I suppose I could have gone out in the rain, birding of sorts, driving around likely spots with all the other dudes looking for the “stakeouts”, the Bradshaw Lane buntings, the grebe in genteel St Annes, the diver diving in the dock, the Preston Gull, the plastic goose, etc., etc., but what’s the point of that?. It’s much better to do your own thing, that’s my philosophy: or as Thomas Edison is reputed to have said as he waited patiently for his electric light bulb to shine out – “Everything comes to he who waits”.

I got to Rawcliffe Moss via several flooded dips in the road but nothing too dramatic, except that near both Town End and Cartford Bridge the level of the River Wyre looked on the high side. The farm road was also pretty wet but nothing the Suzuki couldn’t handle.

Already the Little Owl had broken cover and sat in the usual spot even though the rain still spat out its final drops. Then almost immediately I got onto a little party of 5 Grey Partridge walking alongside the road towards the car, only to be frightened off by a Merc hurtling through the spray towards them, but just time to grab a photo of one in the grass.

Grey Partridge
Little Owl

Down the main track through the flooded potholes there wasn’t much to see but I parked up, donned wellies and struck out. Across the fields and over the wood Jackdaws battled it out with a Buzzard, and together they put to flight 70 Fieldfare, 5 Stock Dove and about 130 Woodpigeon. Down the track and 90+ Tree Sparrows, 5 Yellowhammer, 2 Reed Buntings, 2 Blackbirds and perhaps 10 or 12 Chaffinch, so difficult when they all fly off more or less together, but the soft flight call of the yellow bunting stands out from chippy calls of the finches and sparrows or the wheeze of the Reed Bunting.

Yellowhammer

At the big field I found the flock of Chaffinch that have used the same spot through the winter, but only 45 today, plus a couple of Linnets and one more Reed Bunting. Over towards the houses I located a Mistle Thrush, in the holly tree they always commandeer despite it now bearing almost no fruit – maybe they will build a nest in it in a week or two like the early nesters they are. I hadn’t seen the next Buzzard sat on the distant trackside post, not until it lifted off and flew west towards Pilling Moss and the safety of its regular wood and unvarying tree. The little plantation was quiet with a couple of Chaffinch and 4 Magpies, then 4 Roe Deer startled into action by me when they shot off at great speed, through the tree cover then over the adjacent field.

Magpie
Roe Deer

It wasn’t a bad couple of hours birding, a bit of a bonus while having withdrawal symptoms for a day or two and suffering in silence, just as blokes do.

Soccer Free Zone

This morning called for a quick change of plan from ringing to birding when within the space of 1/2 day the weather outlook changed from a ringer friendly “fine” with a 7 mph southerly wind to one of a birder unfriendly “rain” with 25 mph westerly. Nothing for it then but a walk up Pilling way once the early morning rain cleared but the wind still blew.

I planned a walk towards Ridge Farm but it still drizzled with rain so I stopped in the gateway along Fluke Hall Lane where 3 Whitethroats dodged about and a Reed Bunting still sang. It was very blustery but brightened a little so I parked up and walked across to the sea wall with several Swallows and 2 Sand Martin whizzing over the crops. It seems that the dry spring and summer this year has been a good one for breeding Sand Martins, which explains why I and other birders have been seeing them recently along the coast and inland away from colonies, but equally they are quite early returning migrants.

Near the sea wall a single Corn Bunting sang where only now does the growing crop offer anything. Just along from the song post I disturbed 5 Pied Wagtails that fed unobtrusively on the path but noted that Worm Pool was completely dry, despite all the rain of the last few days. I found 2 Skylarks carrying food, one with small items which indicated small young but with the wind howling around my ears and the adults acting warily, I couldn’t locate the nest. A second pair carrying large amounts of food were obviously feeding large young, perhaps even out of the nest so I didn’t follow the adults back.

Skylark

Skylark
Skylarks have an intensely fast breeding cycle, one of the shortest of any British bird. Chicks can leave the nest when only about eight days old, fledge to independence at 18-20 days of age, and are fully independent at 25 days. The whole cycle lasts 37 days.

I stumbled across a nest I’ve never found before, a Red-legged Partridge, where the adult sat tight in a clump of stinging nettles. What a shame that this gun fodder now outnumbers our native Grey Partridge, which is a species I haven’t seen for weeks and weeks and is perhaps a casualty of the severe winter.

Red-legged Partridge
Grey Partridge
Continuing up towards Pilling Water I watched 2 Kestrels surveying the marsh as the lowish incoming tide only just filled some of the ditches, but enough to flush out waders like the building numbers of Curlew which I counted as 420, and Lapwing as 70 today. From the direction of Fluke Hall I heard the call of Whimbrel, early returns indeed as five flew along the tideline towards the wader and gull roost where a single Golden Plover mixed with 20+ Redshank and 7 Dunlin, but I did hear a Snipe before it flew over me and inland.

I approached Pilling Water warily because the Common Sandpipers that hang about along the tidal channel are just so distrustful; always flicking off if anyone so much as pops a head over the wall, but the first bird along the channel today was a Little Ringed Plover - most unusual out here. But I did see 4 Common Sandpipers and 8 more Pied Wagtails, then looking out beyond the channel, 600+ Black-headed Gulls, 2 Great-crested Grebes and the beginning of duck city with more than 30 Mallards.

I estimated the same passerine numbers I have seen about here for a few weeks now, 10 Linnet, 6 Greenfinch, 8 Goldfinch, 2 Reed Bunting and 2 Meadow Pipit, so it looks like returning waders are making most of the running at the moment.

Snipe
Little Ringed Plover

Tuesday looks a possibility for ringing, but up here in the North West we aren't getting the settled weather that the south of England still enjoys.

A Full Page

I ended up with an almost full page in my notebook today. Nothing extraordinary as I might expect by visiting the usual spots, but it was just a good variety of birds, some nice totals, whilst enjoying a very pleasant morning in reasonable weather. Anyway it’s no good just sitting in reading the blogs and web pages, it’s much better to go out and actually do it?

First port of call Conder Green. Maybe it’s about due to turn up something a bit out of the ordinary again. Very occasionally I just stumble across rarities, and at Conder Green only in the month of July every 20 years – White–rumped Sandpiper in July 1984 and Pectoral Sandpiper in July 2004. The “pec” was really strange because the morning I tripped over the Pectoral Sandpiper was the day after I finished “work” as a civil servant and the beginning of my new career as a full time birder/layabout. Roll on July 2024. In the meantime I did find something of a rarity today, more of that later.

The pool and creek were as deceptively quiet as ever but with a little looking, a tiny bit of patience I found: 2 Little Grebe, 2 Greenshank, 1 Kingfisher, 2 Common Sandpiper, 2 Grey Heron, 1 Cormorant and 11 Teal. Passerine wise I saw PW’s flock of Goldfinch in the centre of the marsh, but they later split off to leave about 40 here and the remaining 300 or so flying over the working areas of Glasson Dock then out towards the marsh. I walked over the footbridge where I saw and heard a fruity Chiffchaff in the immediate bushes, then some distance out on the marsh, a Merlin sat upright on a piece of debris. A single Grey Wagtail flew calling overhead in the direction of the pool I had just left. In the creek below an additional 5 Greenshank stayed together as the tide ran in slowly around them. I did manage to get a photo of a Redshank, just the most easily spooked species ever.



A quick count at Glasson gave me 14 Tufted Duck 14, 52 Coot and 8 Great Crested Grebe, together with the aforesaid Goldfinch.

“Good” I said, as looking from the road up to Cockersands, the track over the beach appeared deserted; it was only as I turned the corner below the cottage that I saw it wasn’t. A lunatic with a household axe was very slowly, but systematically destroying and loading into his car and trailer the remains of a large tree that had lain on the beach for months. When he nodded “good morning” to me I pretended not to notice but kept a safe distance away. Me, I think I would spend a few quid to buy some firewood then go birding.



Whilst the noise echoed around the estuary I made my way to Plover Scar where I took a shot of what appeared to be a slightly sick Ringed Plover then counted the following: Oystercatcher 1100, Ringed Plover 7, Redshank 195, Wheatear 2, Meadow Pipit 6, Linnet 11.



The Mad Axeman was still there when I retraced my steps so I made my way to Jeremy Lane.

It was here that I found that local rarity Grey Partridge, a “covey” of 4, if four still constitutes a covey. They stood nervously waiting to enter a field full of Black-headed Gulls who were probably more preoccupied in robbing about 700 Lapwing and 120 or so Golden Plover of their food items to notice a few Grey Partridge. They did go in the field eventually but quickly disappeared out of sight below the hedgerow.



Nearly the end then, just time for a stop at Lane Ends to see a couple of Little Egret, 2 Wheatear and a Grey Wagtail.

Pilling Water wasn’t on the cards today as this was the first shoot of the season in the adjacent fields and outer marsh. But from Lane Ends car park I could see many of the released duck meet an untimely end as the sportsmen forced them to fly up from their nursery and over the guns.