Cockerham at Easter!

Finished college on Friday and came straight up to the caravan at Cockerham. Have been here for two weeks and it's been so good. The weather has been a right mixture; sun, wind, rain, mist, snow and hail. It was unusually misty for four to five days and only seemed to be here and no where else. I tried to get out birding everyday and also did some beachcombing.

WHOOPERS

I went to Abbey to try and see the Little Owl. Didn't see it unfortunately, but I did find some owl pellets in this spot I know of. There was a Great Tit skull, 2 mice, 7 shrews and 12 voles in the 7 pellets.

GREAT TIT

I went to Conder Green a few times and managed to find a Mute Swan skull (minus the top beak) and a Pink Footed Goose skull. There were Redshank, Teal, Little Grebe and many other waders on the pools. I keep trying to see the Spotted Redshank which is usually there, but I haven't yet distinguished it from the other Redshanks. At Glasson, there wasn't many 'good' sightings. There were the usual swans and Mallards but not much else.

 

LAPWING AND KESTREL

On one occasion I walked left, past Cockersands and Bank End. I saw loads of mermaids purses but I'm under strict orders not to pick anymore up. Although I did take back a partial Gull skull, which is puzzling me with its true identity.

 

FRESH TORTOISE

The rest of the time I spent at Cockerham Sands itself. I went on many walks along the beach and found many more skulls (2 Guillemots, 2 Rabbits, a Herring Gull and a Greylag Goose). Along with over 70+ mermaids purses and 8 Oysters. I got to see my first Swallow of the year on the 8th April flying around the caravans. I got a close encounter with a female Reed Bunting, which wasn't really looking too well.

 

REED BUNTING

On one of the sunny days I walked left from the site along the wall, taking macro shots of the mini critters, which had some iridescent colours being hit by the light. There were loads of Drinkers, Spiders, Ladybirds and Beetles climbing up the grass stems, so it was hard to get the camera focused on them.

 

DEW DROP DRINKER

On the Friday before I went home, I bumped into Pete Woodruff, well I say bumped. Truthfully my grandad dragged me over to talk to him. As we were talking, small groups of Snipe left the marshes as the tide was pushing up the sands. He told me the Wheatear are back near Plover Scarr and that he hadn't seen much else. What we both didn't see coming was that following Monday. I had gone home and he informed me he was following a Wryneck around the caravan site!! A Wryneck in April!!! Here's his post on it... http://woodruff4.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/a-pain-in-neck.html