Nicky Nook

Exactly one year ago today I reported on flushing woodcock from moorland in the Southern Uplands of Scotland, in a habitat where I had never seen them previously. Amazingly today we were walking near to the summit of Nicky Nook in Lancashire when we once again flushed a woodcock from moorland habitat. The bird just flew a short distance and then dropped down. Later we also flushed a jack snipe from The Tarn just below the summit, and this was my 200th species of what has been a relatively poor birding year for me (if we ignore the five weeks spent down under at the start of the year!).

Cattle egrets at the pig farm

Three cattle egrets and a few little egrets have been in a pig field at Ince, near Ellesmere Port recently. Cattle egrets are a lot commoner than they used to be and even breed at Burton Mere Wetlands these days so no big deal perhaps, but I don't recall ever seeing them with pigs before and they are certainly very photogenic in this setting.

Old Coach Road

A single golden plover flew over the Old Coach Road at Rainford, St Helens this morning as well as six snipe. Later three corn buntings and around 100 skylarks were near Inglenook Farm. There were several flocks of pink-footed geese over the area, but totaling only about 200 birds.

Caerlaverock

We called in at Caerlaverock WWT today and found it to be very quiet for the time of year. However, the journey between Bankend and Annan produced the hoped for barnacle geese, about 4000 in total in several flocks.