Aldcliffe and beyond

Monday midmorning. Steve W.

Freeman’s Pool
Little Grebe with chick top pool.
Usual Coot

Wildfowler’ Pools
Common Sandpiper 1
Teal 18/20
Usual Moorhen
Grey Heron 2

Flood saw Green Sandpiper 2, Curlew 4
Black-headed Gulls 200+ in field near walled meadow.

Marsh
Peregrine 1 possibly 2
Sparrowhawk 1
Kestrel 2
Wheatear 4
Little Egret 2
Reed Bunting 3

Plenty of Swallow throughout area.
Goldfinch 25

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Finally had a bit of time on my hands for a while today and had a trawl around the patch and on to Conder late morning - mid afternoon.

Freeman's Pools
Little grebe on the upper pools still with growing chick. 2 adults on the main pool.
14 coot, 3 grey heron, 8 snipe, 6 mallard, 4 moorhen plus nearby kestrel, sparrowhawk and raven.
2 lesser whitethroat were in the hedgerow.
Female roe deer.

Wildfowlers' Pools
3 green sandpiper, 10 teal, 2 shoveler.

A little egret was on the marsh and an adult winter Med gull was amongst 150ish BH gulls at Gull Bank.

Steady trickle of swallows through plus the odd house martin.

Went through the few gulls from behind Glasson bowling green but couldn't see any yellow-legged or Med gulls. Nothing amongst the 300ish dunlin feeding on the shore here either.
A peregrine kept spooking the waders, which made looking for anything amongst the commoner species all that bit easier (in theory!)
4 greenshank, 2 spotted redshank and 2 common sandpiper were on the Conder. Water levels on the river were high and consequently there were no edges on the east side of the road bridge for any waders, though a reed warbler was heard grunting away here.

Jon C.

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Last swifts?

Met up with Aldcliffe veteran and old birding chum Greg Potter on Saturday and had a blast around the patch.

Not too much going on...

Freeman's Pools: Usual stuff, though up to 5 swift moving through with mixed hirundines was notable.

Three newly-hatched moorhen chicks were a bit of a surprise on Darter Pool - wasn't even aware of a second nest!

Just a lone green sandpiper seen at the Wildfowlers' Pools, plus a shoveler.

2 little egret and a single wheatear on the marsh but little else of note.

Common buzzard, sparrowhawk and kestrel seen.

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Sunday

After a morning trying to flog 30-odd year's worth of accumulated crap at a car boot sale near Milnthorpe (2 tree pipits south @8.20am - an obvious highlight) I managed a mid afternoon visit but it was even quieter than yesterday.

A common sandpiper was at Freeman's upper pools area - no sign of little grebe & sprog for the second day...

Two green sandpipers at the Wildfowlers' Pools (looks like the others have moved on, unless high water levels has just displaced them temporarily) plus 5 shoveler & 6 teal.

1 legret on Aldcliffe Marsh.

Gave the gulls on the Lune a good grilling but found nothing amongst them.

August gets gusty

A quick blast around after work just as the wind got up and the rain piled in. Well, it wasn't quite as bad as all that but it did suddenly turn very autumnal...

Freeman's Pools were quietish - the usual coot, odd mallard & moorhen plus the 2 adult little grebes (minus young, it appears that our celebrations were short-lived) while an adult on the top pond was still in the company of one chick.

Good numbers of swallows around.

A single green sandpiper was visible at the Wildfowlers' Pools, as were a pair of teal but little else.

Five green sandpiper & 2 pied wagtail were feeding on the Flood.

Nothing of note seen on Aldcliffe Marsh.

Wet, Windy Wednesday....

Aldcliffe am. A wet and blustery morning. There was a number of Wheatear on the marsh today.

Freeman’s Pool
Usual Coot
Little Grebe with chick upper pool.
Quite a number of Swallow, gathering on new fenced areas.

Track.
Reed Bunting 2
Goldfinch 8
Wren, Dunnock, Blackbird, Robin.

Wildfowler’ Pool
Teal 17
Snipe 4
Green Sandpiper 2
Little Grebe 1
Little Egret 1
Pied Wagtail 1

Flood
Mallard 4
Curlew 11 in field

Marsh
Raven 1
Wheatear 7
Lapwing, Canada Geese, Curlew etc.

SteveW

A taste of things to come..?

Met Steve W at the patch after work and we had a quick check of the main areas.

Around 200 Canada geese were on the main Pool at Freeman's - pushed off the marsh at the very high tide earlier? Do Canadians eat Canada geese? It's Thanksgiving there in October...
Coot numbers were much the same and 2 little grebe were on the main pool, again no young were seen.
A lone adult dabchick was in the company of its sole chick at the upper pool.
A pair of little egret circled the pools a few times then headed off, over our heads, to the estuary.

At least 4, possibly 5, green sandpiper were visible at the Wildfowlers' Pools where there were also 3 snipe and a common sandpiper.

Just a pair of pied wags & a lapwing on the Flood and nothing of note on the marsh.