Breezy Like A Friday Morning

Red darvic ringed Canada goose

Inspired by yesterday's impressive haul down the road at Fairhaven Lake, Lytham St. Anne's (two barred warblers and a wryneck!) I stepped out on to the patch with an air of über-optimism this morning. Who knows what might be lurking in the mass of Aldcliffe hawthorns and elders?
Who indeed. Not me, that's for sure.
The wind (although theoretically coming from a helpful direction) was pretty stiff and the vast majority of songbirds were keeping a low profile.
In some sheltered areas I was able to find a few birds, but alas my hoped-for scarce migrant remained decidedly scarce.
Here's the best I could do in a couple of hours:
Freeman's Wood - 2 Blackcap, 1 willow warbler, 2 chiffchaff.
Walled Meadow - redstart, 2 willow warbler, 3 chiffchaff and a common whitethroat.
Upper cinder track - 1 lesser whitethroat, 5 chiffchaff.
Small numbers of swallow were moving, plus a group of 6 sand martin passed through.

A green sandpiper and 3 little grebe were at the Wildfowlers' Pools while a greenshank was heard calling from somewhere out on Aldcliffe Marsh.
3 wigeon, 2 gadwall, 7 little grebe & 22 coot were on Freeman's Pools.

Common darter - immature male (I think!)

The large flock of Canada geese were grazing by Frog Pond and I was able to 'scope the letters on a few of the red darvic rings. As ever, a few had to remain unread thanks to them being mud-smeared or simply too deep in the grass to read. Oh, and the bloody wind didn't help either.
 
When the sun came out, good numbers of speckled wood were evident plus plenty of common darters, a few migrant hawkers and a couple of brown hawkers were seen. 

Jon