Monday, October 18, 2021
After initial drizzle and greyness this morning the skies brightened allowing me a couple of hours birding at Pilling, where the colour green featured in the form of two wintering waders plus the appearance of more Siskins.
Waders were plentiful along Backsands Lane and Fluke Hall Lane with combined totals of 450 Lapwing, 110 Dunlin, 70 Oystercatcher, 22 Golden Plover, 45 Redshank and 250 Curlew.
At Lane Ends I surveyed the pools and the car park with the resulting 3 Goldeneye, 3 Tufted Duck, 2 Little Grebe, 18 Chaffinch and 2 Siskin. The Siskin were feeding in the alders, a sighting which continues the run of Siskins making an appearance in many places in the past week or so, and must relate to the early spring movement of the species, so very noticeable this time last year.
There’s not much to report from my walk west to Pilling Water - 5 Little Egret, 4 Skylark, 1 Merlin and 40 Teal, but the pools turned up another 25 Redshank, a Greenshank and a Green Sandpiper. It’s some weeks since I walked this stretch but the Green Sandpiper was about then and I think today’s bird is one of the two birds present in late 2011.
Walking the tideline I found evidence of a raptor meal, a neatly stripped breastbone plus the wings of a Redshank, probably the work of the aforesaid Merlin or a Peregrine, while a little further along were the remains of a long dead Whooper Swan. Otherwise nothing to report from a quietish walk.
No proper birding tomorrow, just counting Buzzards when I take the Suzuki up the M6 for its annual service to Kendal in the South Lakes, a route that is a hot spot for Buzzards. The Lake District is the probable origin of the healthy Buzzard population that now inhabit the Fylde.
