The Camera Never Lies

Hello-- Dan here! good picture, eh?

As the sun broke through early afternoon I rang Steve W to suggest a bit of Aldcliffe migrant raptor-watching. Glad I did!

I picked up the first osprey within a couple of minutes of being in the magic parish. It was over Snatchems above a furore of gulls and it headed N-Westish from there.
Steve, having been distracted from the serious business of sky-watching by a little ringed plover displaying over Freeman's Pools, managed to get onto the raptor with only thirty seconds to spare.

Sensing that another good raptor was on the cards, we were onto a second osprey within about fifty minutes. Something had vexed the shelducks, oystercatchers and curlews downstream and a minute or so later the culprit cruised right over our Stodday vantage point at about fifty metres. Great views.

This one headed N/NE towards Lancaster, without so much as a flap.

We hoped for a hat-trick of inter-continental fish-botherers, but had to be content with a westbound common buzzard, a thermalling female sparrowhawk and two peregrine falcons.

Other highlights included a flock of eleven wheatears around 'the chat wall', a trickle of sand martins and 4 or 5 chiffchaffs, one of which was creeping around in the hedge on 'upper track'.

A brilliant male brimstone butterfly was patrolling the edge of Freeman's Wood.

No doubt Jon will be along shortly with a crepuscular update!


* Indeed he will. Not much to report though.
I decided, having seen the LEOs yesterday I'd have a later visit in the hope of determining whether the barn owl was still in the area. Arrived around 7.35pm (a bit late for the long-eareds) and hung around for just over an hour when it became a touch too dark to see much. No barn owl was seen.
2 LRP were on the island, numerous snipe were noisily leaving the pools as the light went - presumably off to feed, a small scattering of sand martin were moving up river but otherwise it was business as usual.
The doe roe deer was showing well and good numbers of pipistrelle were tazzing around.

Dan, are you sure that pic's not of a swallow tailed kite or booted eagle?

Incidentally I had what looked very much like a house martin bombing over my backyard just before 6pm...

All ears.

A post-work visit revealed 9 gadwall still on Freeman's Pools plus a pair of tufted duck, plus the other usual stuff. Of particular note was the total absence of nest prospecting black-headed gulls.
A quick check of some nearby fence posts proved that long-eared owl is still present in the area and I had excellent views of it catching and eating a field vole.
Approx. 600 pinkfooted geese were grazing in the upper fields.
A little egret was on Frog Pond, then Darter Pool where a pair of little grebe remain.
Another little egret was at the Wildfowlers' Pools but nothing else of note.
On The Flood a green sandpiper was feeding alongside a pair of redshank.
A quick check of the marsh implied that any wheatears that may have arrived in association with the Heysham/Morecambe late morning influx had moved through.
Returning to the Freeman's Pools area I was somewhat surprised, and thrilled, to see two long-eared owls.
Maybe as exciting(ish) was the appearance of the ermine stoat - at last - though disappointingly it is now only about 50% white, so I don't suppose it really counts...
A single swallow came through, my first of the year.
Unfortunately I didn't have time to hang around to see if the barn owl was going to put in an appearance and left around 7.20pm.

In the week...

The “un-springlike" weather came up with a surprise Greenshank, and me wishing I had more layers on!
On the 26.03.09 bumped into Pete Woodruff who said he had a Greenshank on Freeman’s Pool, took the scopes there and confirmed indeed a sheltering Greenshank. Not for long however, as a rather hefty shower agitated it enough, and me, to get it moving, watched it for another few minutes striding up the pool edge, then it flew off. There were 9 Gadwall on the island, that’s the most I have seen there. Pete saw a Green Sandpiper on Wild Fowlers’. Checked Flood for LRP’s but no joy.
27.03.09. Went to the Flood to see if LRP’s were there, and I was in luck, two of them very static, mind you it was blowing a gale, didn’t stop the Meadow Pipits though, about 15 of them being buffeted across the flood field. 300 or so Pink-footed Geese in the fields beyond. Little Egret and 12 Shelduck on Wildfowler'.
Stevew


Cheers for the updates Steve, been unable to get down this week and was away in Scotland at the weekend.
Jon

Late afternoon visit

Continued domestic chores only allowed for a couple of hours on the patch this afternoon.
The little-ringed plover pair were still at The Flood though just 3 pied wags and a handful of meadow pipit remain.
At least 700 pinkfeet were unhelpfully spread over Aldcliffe Marsh - all at a distance and many feeding and/or resting on the troughs meaning that a thorough check was not only difficult but thanks to the relentless wind, also rather unpleasant. Needless to say, I couldn't find anything else amongst them.
Little egrets were seen on Frog Pond, the marsh and 2 were on Bank Pool.
Green sandpipers were at the Wildfowlers' and Freeman's Pools.
9 gadwall now at Freeman's Pools as well as the usual little grebes, tufted ducks, drake shoveler etc.
The Freeman's Wood kestrel (male) was busy hunting all over the place.
Lots of stuff pairing up all over the place, it'll be interesting to see what happens this coming week with the decidedly 'un-springlike' weather on its way...

Osprey jam

A bit of very lucky timing allowed me to jam into an osprey as it headed north over Aldcliffe just before 2pm today.
With only an hour or so to spare I had a quick reccie around the patch checking Freeman's Pools first - all the usual stuff was present ie 8 gadwall, 4 tufted duck, 1 shoveler, 2 little grebe, 1 green sandpiper etc. A couple of silent chiffchaff were feeding in the pathway trees.
A little egret was fishing in Darter Pool and the little grebe pair were still busy nest building. A 5th little grebe was on Frog Pond.
Just 2 pair of teal were visible on the Wildfowlers' Pools.
Heading along the upper track to check The Flood I bumped into a birder who had seen 2 little-ringed plover there. They were still present along with 40+ meadow pipit and 9 pied wagtails when I got there. As I was checking through the pipits I heard the cacophonous sound of panicking oystercatchers and curlews and looking up I saw the osprey flying low-ish over the fields heading in the direction of the Priory.
I've seen osprey take this route here before, cutting off the bend in the river and heading over Lancaster. Mind you, I think this is the first year I've seen osprey before wheatear...!