Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Last Thursday was a hell of a stormy day. As the tempest raged all around the stowed away barbecue and gas bottle blew across the patio with an almighty crash while the grandkids’ Wendy House relocated to the furthest extremes of the garden. Thankfully there was no structural or personal damage and the break in birding allowed me to complete other tasks.
Then my back started to give me grief stopping my birding activities for a few days. So today I was determined to get out come what may, so swallowed took a few painkillers and set off for Pilling.
There was evidence of the storm all along and the sea wall, smashed fencing, piles of debris and broken trees swept up the embankment to come to rest at the newly claimed high water mark. There’s a Whooper Swan picture centre. In fact there were 13 Whoopers, 45 Shelduck, 22 Pink-footed Geese and a couple of Jackdaws on the pools, all except the swan flying off at my arrival.
High Water Mark - Pilling
Whooper Swan
Whooper Swans
The hedgerow, the maize and stubble field revealed more: 1 Reed Bunting, 40 Linnet, 6 Skylark, 3 Meadow Pipit, 28 Redshank, 70+ Black-tailed Godwit and 2 Little Egret.
Reed Bunting
Further along the sea wall I found both Skylarks and Linnets feeding in piles of tide wrack, but nothing more exotic than still 100+ Red-legged Partridge. I get the impression that more of the things have been released in recent days to restock after the fortnightly shoots took their toll. Oystercatchers are on territory along a regular stretch of shore; do they know it’s just two weeks to the shortest day and almost time to reclaim the most sought after lookout posts?
Oystercatcher
At Pilling Water pools were a number of Redshanks, more Egrets, 40+ Pintail, 30+ Teal and about 15 Wigeon, the wildfowl flying mostly high and out to the marsh.
Pintail
At Fluke Hall I found several Tree Sparrows near the boxes, a Great-spotted Woodpecker, a female Sparrowhawk and a Chiffchaff.
The old pills worked fine for a couple of hours but I may need a more traditional remedy this evening. Look in soon to soon and find out if it worked.
Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.