Going For Gold

I enjoyed a couple of hours bumbling around the patch in glorious sunshine this morning. Many of the common resident songbirds were in good voice, and the lapwings were displaying like billy-o over the stubble fields.

Goldeneye at Freeman's Pools

On Freeman's Pools it was business as usual with snoozing wigeon and gadwall on the still mostly submerged island, and at least 6 little grebes present. A coot pair have got a nest on the go, with one of the birds already sat on it.
A group of 18 goldeneye was a pleasant sight - we rarely get such large numbers on these pools.

The light-bellied brent goose was still consorting with the single barnacle goose on Colloway Marsh. There were approximately 1,000 pinkfeet scattered around the estuary. 
The ringed whooper swan was still hanging with the mutes on Aldcliffe Marsh. This bird, a male, was ringed in the summer of 2011 in Iceland.

The little ringed plover was still on the Flood, though there was little else to be seen. 
The only other 'summer' migrant was a singing chiffchaff along the cycle track.
There was a scattering of off-passage meadow pipits here and there plus a handful of north-bound skylark. There were also singing skylarks over the marsh and maize fields.
49 black-tailed godwit were roosting on the Lune, off Marsh Point, prior to the tide coming in.


Jon