Another summer update

Things are ticking along nicely and both patches have added nice birds which ae not easy to get. First WOW has thrown up a little gull, and a little egret and teal and snipe have returned. We have up to 4 common sandpipers, black and bar-tailed godwits, greenshank and dunlin. Common tern chicks are starting to fledge and there is always the chance of roseate, arctic or sandwich terns turning up. All three have been seen recently by lucky observers. The following photos give a flavour of recent activity. The greenshank was a 2022 tick, I have no idea how it wasn't seen on January 1st in Strangford Lough!!

Common sandpiper

Common tern  with fish refusing to pose

Common terns

Hooded crow and lunch (Black-headed gull chick)

Two black-headed gulls, a lesser black-backed fledgling and a little gull - the wee one with the black head

Five snipe and a black-tailed godwit

Greenshank (record shot!)

I also saw a kingfisher at Kinnegar, a hard bird to see. That puts the WOW list up to 78 for the year. 

A week in England was not productive for birds but I did add a pair of  Egyptian geese in the car park at Pennington Flash. These are common further south but not usually seen in Lancashire. 

The coastal path added a common tern and a patch megatick in the form of a treecreeper in Strickland's Glen. I have struggled with this for a long time as it is a good habitat, but have never managed to see one until today. There has been a Himalayan balsam problem for years and a local group "The Friends of Strickland Glen" have been  slowly clearing it. Today we cleared a large amount quite close to the beach which had been hidden by a recently removed fence. It was on the way back up to the car park that I saw the treecreeper - a little happy moment! As Gerry said, "You're better to be lucky than good". I like to think it was God's way of saying you did very well and worked very hard, here's a treecreeper. 

Before

Before

After

After

2022

146: Chough

147: Egyptian goose

148: Litttle gull

149: Greenshank

NDCP

60: Common tern

61: Treecreeper

WOW

76: Little gull

77: Kingfisher

78: Greenshank