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.

Better late than never...

Far too many pressing commitments prevented me from getting down the patch for a few days so a brief early evening blast around was much needed. Despite the rain...

8 swift were feeding over Freeman's Wood and Pools with good numbers of sand martin plus the odd house martin a few swallows.
16 coot were on the pools but little else. 2 adult little grebes were seen but no young.
A sparrowhawk was being mobbed by a magpie.

3 green sandpiper were at the Wildfowlers' Pools.

An further 3 green sandpiper were on The Flood along with 5 snipe and a redshank.

3 little egret were on Aldcliffe Marsh.

No Meds amongst the birds at Gull Bank.

JonC

Midday, walked past Freeman’s Pool, on my way to do WeBS, and there was a Little Grebe with one chick on the upper pool.
SteveW

All About Grebe

There was nothing left of the little grebe nest on Freeman's Pools this evening though the good news was that the birds do have 2 chicks. A bit of a repair job was going on in the sunken nest vicinity.
There was no sign of the single chick with the pair on the upper pool, one of the adults was diving frequently while the other was snoozing - I suppose its possible that the youngster was on this birds back? Do little grebes do that in the way larger grebes do?
4 swift were over the pools and the female roe deer was again grazing by the water's edge.

3 green sandpiper & 2 snipe were visible at the Wildfowlers' Pools plus the kingfisher was still present and successfully catching small fish.

Another green sand was on The Flood with a further 4 snipe.

1 little egret was on the marsh.

A good number of swallow were moving through.