A free morning

A walk from the estuary gate along the sea wall to freemans pool and back again along the cycle path revealed the following birds;

1 blackcap singing in the high trees again at estuary gate.
2 LRP's on the flood
Pair of teal on wildfowlers
2 lapwing chicks near wildfowlers pool - safe from any disturbance from the preparation of the stubble fields.
Present on the stubble fields and therefore not quite safe - another lapwing chick and a pair of grey partridge
10 singing common whitethroats, 2 singing sedge warblers, 2 lesser whitethroats and a willow warbler also.
Mute swans nesting on Freemans and darter pool.
3 oystercatcher pairs scattered round the area.
Displaying curlew near trig hill. This is an annual occurence in this area. Do they breed up there???


Guy

Saturday morning

Pleasant walk round the patch this morning. It's the time of year when this visual past time becomes virtually an audible puruit only.

4 sedge warblers at various spots round the area.
2 lapwing chicks near darter pool.
Common whitethroat present in the mid teens - it's my perception that these have been the most common warbler in the patch for a couple of years now.
Willow warblers (4)  and chiffchaff still singing.
Blackcap singing on top of a tree at the estuary gate car park was the best sound of the day.

Unfortunately it looks like the locals had spent Good Friday sunbathing at freemans pool. A kayak has been abandoned  poolside and a pile of tins, crisp packets and a football has been left. With a bit of luck, May will be cool, wet and windy to allow the local ground nesting birds to breed successfully.

Guy

Tuesday.......

A cloudless sky, hot sun and 10m+ tide. The 2 LRP were on Freeman’s Pool, along with Shelduck, Oystercatcher, Tufted Duck, Coot, Little Grebe and Gadwall. Plenty of Chiffchaff, Blackcap, Willow Warbler, Com/Les Whitethroat. Roughly 25 Swallow came through and 9 Meadow Pipits. The Flood saw 2 LRP, 2 Wheatear and 3 Pied Wagtails. The Wildfowlers’ Pool was quiet apart from a pair of Teal and Shelduck.

Aldcliffe Marsh saw 6 Wheatear. Later there was also half a dozen beyond chat wall, could have been same ones? Also I noticed 2 Buzzard in trees, possible breeding pair. At the pylon, the tide was high by this point; there was a Peregrine, also a Raven. Pink-footed Geese 900 or so still present. A Kestrel flew over. The high tide brought in 17 Eider which was good to see. Other birds were Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Long-tailed Tits etc. 2 more Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk but alas no Osprey, none that I saw anyway.

Steve

Thursday
4 Buzzard circling over Aldcliffe
Steve

New Day....

Had a quieter time today, apart from some nutter on a quad bike with 2 kids hurtling up to marsh point, crazy, great example for them eh!
Anyway, Freeman's Wood was more or less the same as yesterday, though to be honest that is absolutely fine, I could easily have spent all day in here, there is always something to see and hear. The pools saw 9 Shelduck, 4 Gadwall, Tufted Ducks, Coot etc. I made my way to the Wildfowlers' where I was pleased to see 2 LRP. There was also some Ravens hanging about, at least 5 I reckon, they were quite high and seemed to be in two small groups.
The Flood saw 2 more LRP and a few Mallard. Also of note were Orange Tip M&F, Peacock, Small Tortoiseshell butterflies.
Steve

Hovercraft horror

This was the last of four hovercraft on the Lune at Aldcliffe today.