Tuesday 5 August 2008

In the zone...

The post-work visit today was somewhat inspired by my earlier discovery of rain-dropped wheatears at Morecambe and I thought I'd better check out the Aldcliffe chat-zone, which although sounds like a premium rate phone service, is the area south of the Walled Meadow and Cadaver Corner - consistently the best place to look for wheatears, whinchat, stonechat, bluethroat (!) etc. However, today was not the day and, in fact, buggar-all was present.
Otherwise, a pair of peregrine were hunting in tandem around the whole area this evening causing mass panic amongst the lapwing, curlew etc.
2 green sandpiper were visible from the metal gate overlooking the Wildfowlers' Pools as were 3 snipe.
A very bright willow warbler was accompanying a long-tailed tit flock further hinting at the arrival of autumn...
The number of Canada geese seems to have suddenly doubled with up to 60 on Heaton Marsh.
Just 1 com darter and a hawker sp. (migrant or common) were at Freeman's Pools, as were a group of 20ish swift.

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