A post work blast around the patch turned up the following:
Freeman's Pools
3 little grebe (inc 1 on nest), 2 heron, just 6 coot, the juv tufted duck & 5 mallard. Sparrowhawk.
Brown hare.
Darter Pool
Sedge warbler, the resident moorhen family.
Wildfowlers' Pools
Just 2 green sandpiper visible plus a juv little ringed plover (passage or locally bred bird?), 2 teal new in.
Broods of moorhen here included an adult with 5 fuzzy well grown young, another with a pair of slightly younger chicks and another with 2 recently hatched young.
Marsh, Flood & cycle track quiet.
Welcome to Aldcliffe & Freeman's Wood, Lancaster - an area of the Lune Estuary in Morecambe Bay, North Lancs.
Thursday, 30 July 2009
Monday, 27 July 2009
New 'chid on the block
Another of Tom's tip-offs yesterday concerned his having discovered a broad-leaved helleborine - a type of orchid - in the Aldcliffe area.
Now, I'm interested in orchids but I know little about them and to be honest I'd never heard of this plant so I made a point of going to look for it this evening and took a couple of pics - see attached.
Bird-wise, it was pretty much business as usual.
A single whimbrel was on the marsh by The Creek.
Wildfowlers' Pools: at least 4 green sandpiper and 3 snipe present.
Freeman's Pools: the tufted duck was still present. Up to 3 little grebe were on the pools. A common sandpiper and 3 redshank were on the island - the latter interesting as redshank have routinely ignored these new pools.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Wood sand - late breaking news...
Received a call from Tom Wilmer just before 8pm to say he'd found a juv wood sandpiper on the Flood about half an hour earlier.
I grabbed my bike, hoofed off and had bagged it by ten past. It was still feeding on the flood when I arrived but soon after it flew up calling and headed off toward the marsh.
Funnily enough I'd met another birder earlier (hi Chris) at Aldcliffe who had asked about the frequency of wood sandpipers in the area...
Cheers Tom - my second there this summer!
I grabbed my bike, hoofed off and had bagged it by ten past. It was still feeding on the flood when I arrived but soon after it flew up calling and headed off toward the marsh.
Funnily enough I'd met another birder earlier (hi Chris) at Aldcliffe who had asked about the frequency of wood sandpipers in the area...
Cheers Tom - my second there this summer!
First Med of the season
Following a morning getting soaked (and seeing no birds to speak of...) on a Cross Bay Walk it was a delight to manage a couple of hours (plus) on the patch late afternoon.
Freeman's Pools: juv tufted duck new in, 3 little grebe, 11 coot, 2 common sandpiper etc.
Wildfowlers' Pools: 5 green sandpiper. 1 wheatear (first 'post-breeding' bird).
Lune: juv Mediterranean gull (at last!) - flew in from Stodday direction to feed with a group of BH's just by Gull Bank.
At least 10 common sandpiper in The Channel. 1 little egret.
Yesterday's estimate of greylags would appear to have been a little on the low side. A couple of aircraft came low over the river and put them all up revealing a figure closer to 350.
Freeman's Pools: juv tufted duck new in, 3 little grebe, 11 coot, 2 common sandpiper etc.
Wildfowlers' Pools: 5 green sandpiper. 1 wheatear (first 'post-breeding' bird).
Lune: juv Mediterranean gull (at last!) - flew in from Stodday direction to feed with a group of BH's just by Gull Bank.
At least 10 common sandpiper in The Channel. 1 little egret.
Yesterday's estimate of greylags would appear to have been a little on the low side. A couple of aircraft came low over the river and put them all up revealing a figure closer to 350.
Saturday, 25 July 2009
Ladies day
Highlights from a morning's trawl around the patch this orning included the following:
Freeman's Pools: Pretty quiet, 12 coot, 2 mallard, 1 oystercatcher, 3 moorhen, 1 grey heron, 2 little grebe attending the new nest and another on the upper pools.
Unsurprisingly there have been no little ringed plovers present since the nest was predated.
A few hirundines were around (all species present), plus a handful of swifts.
The most notable thing was the number of immaculate newly emerged painted ladies, hardly a surprise given the huge numbers here in spring and the ensuing caterpillar-fest. Shame about the crappy forecast really as there will be a lot more to come.
Darter Pool: Moorhen pair with 2 young, 1 grey heron. 1 Emperor dragonfly and a common darter here as well as the numerous commoner damselflies.
Wildfowlers' Pools: 4 green sandpiper present. Absolutely naff all else, bar a brown hawker.
River Lune: 6 common sandpiper, 2 whimbrel, 1 little egret. Approximately 250 greylag now on the marsh. Still no Med gulls amongst the hundreds of BH's! A peregrine and a sparrowhawk were freaking out the large starling flocks.
Of note: at home later, Jenny called me into the back yard where she'd discovered some weird insect making a racket in a carrier bag full of garden waste... it turned out to be a startlingly huge woodwasp with a deadly looking ovipositer! Never seen one of those in urban Lancaster before, and we're miles away from any significant conifers. Is this a fairly common sighting?
Freeman's Pools: Pretty quiet, 12 coot, 2 mallard, 1 oystercatcher, 3 moorhen, 1 grey heron, 2 little grebe attending the new nest and another on the upper pools.
Unsurprisingly there have been no little ringed plovers present since the nest was predated.
A few hirundines were around (all species present), plus a handful of swifts.
The most notable thing was the number of immaculate newly emerged painted ladies, hardly a surprise given the huge numbers here in spring and the ensuing caterpillar-fest. Shame about the crappy forecast really as there will be a lot more to come.
Darter Pool: Moorhen pair with 2 young, 1 grey heron. 1 Emperor dragonfly and a common darter here as well as the numerous commoner damselflies.
Wildfowlers' Pools: 4 green sandpiper present. Absolutely naff all else, bar a brown hawker.
River Lune: 6 common sandpiper, 2 whimbrel, 1 little egret. Approximately 250 greylag now on the marsh. Still no Med gulls amongst the hundreds of BH's! A peregrine and a sparrowhawk were freaking out the large starling flocks.
Of note: at home later, Jenny called me into the back yard where she'd discovered some weird insect making a racket in a carrier bag full of garden waste... it turned out to be a startlingly huge woodwasp with a deadly looking ovipositer! Never seen one of those in urban Lancaster before, and we're miles away from any significant conifers. Is this a fairly common sighting?
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