We’ve had a lot of rain. On Thursday we had a month’s average rainfall in less than a day. Fifteen miles from here the River Conder burst its banks just south of Lancaster and flooded the village of Galgate. The story made the national TV news.
When I set off birding this morning I ran into still partially flooded roads that criss-crossed acres of waterlogged fields. Three miles south of Lancaster and on the other side of the River Lune the fields surrounding Cockersands Abbey (circa 1184) were some of the worst. That’s the tiny ancient abbey in the centre of the picture with Mute Swans installed on the flood.
Slack Lane, Cockersands
B&W of Slack Lane
Cockersands Abbey
As might be expected the floods held lots of birds looking for food washed from the ditches, dykes and already saturated ground following historic summer rain.
Too many to count and scattered far and wide were Starlings, Lapwings, Golden Plovers, Curlews, Redshanks, Mallards, and a couple of Grey Herons.
A stop and look found 40 Meadow Pipit, 14 Goldfinch, 8 Tree Sparrow, 4 Greenfinch, 3 Chaffinch, 3 Pied Wagtail, 2 Reed Bunting and 2 Skylark. The Golden Plovers spooked at nothing and then wheeled around, twisting and turning in unison before they settled again among Lapwings, Redshanks and paddling Starlings. The morning sun lit up the plovers' pale bellies against the shower filled sky.
Curlew
Meadow Pipit
Meadow Pipit
Grey Heron
Golden Plover
The herd of Whooper Swans picked a well-drained field in which to spend their days. They are more scattered across the field but still in excess of 400 individuals and ever wary to passing cars that slow or stop for photographs. The now well-trodden field grows muddier by the day but the swans’ method of feeding leaves them looking less than white.
Whooper Swans
After the Deluge
I called at our Linnet field, waded along the net ride and dropped seed into the nearby vegetation. With a little luck the 140+ Linnets will stay around and we’ll get a ringing session when it stops raining and our seed stops washing into the adjacent ditch.
Linnet
Back home I was greeted by a calling Nuthatch, one of the few birds in the garden just lately.
Nuthatch
Even the Goldfinches have mostly deserted us after weeks and weeks of cascading water.
Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog.
Linking today to Anni's Birding Blog and Eileen's Saturday Blog.