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Little Ringed Plover, Houghton Green Flash

Pochard, HGF

Little Tern, Seaforth

Arctic Tern, Seaforth

Common Tern, Seaforth

Common Tern

Common Blue, Seaforth

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Bit of a wrench leaving Northumberland, however now that we are back I couldn't wait to visit HGF this morning to see if there had been any changes at my local patch. The first thing I noticed was the four broods of Lapwings. The pair with the 3 juveniles on the lawn were still present (and juvs now quite big) - they had been joined by a slightly younger juvenile and a very young brood of four. Also by the pool was another young brood of three - 11 juveniles in all. It will be interesting to see how many survive.

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Continuing the juvenile theme were wagtails. There were four broods of Pied Wags (2,2,2, and 3) and also a brood of three Grey Wags which spent most of their time perched in the top of the east hedge. A Little Ringed Plover and a Redshank were patrolling the edge and 13 Pochards (12 drakes) had joined the Tufties. A pair of Yellow Wags were feeding on the west bank, a male Whitethroat was singing from the east hedge and a Buzzard flew low over the pool. Nine Great Crested Grebes there, however conspicuous by his absence is the summering drake Wigeon. There was no sight or sound of either of the male Corn Buntings either.

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This afternoon I nipped over to Seaforth. Unlike Northumberland where I had watched hundreds of Arctic Terns with Common Terns being anything but up there, at Seaforth around 870 Common Terns were making lots of noise. Also present were 1 Little Tern, 1 Arctic Tern and 1 Roseate Tern. The latter was hard to pick as it kept sleeping - on two occasions I got onto the bird only for the colony to flush seconds later. Still makes up for dipping them on the Farnes though. A Little Ringed Plover and around 40 Black-tailed Godwits also there - I then nipped round to Crosby Marina to have another look at the Pallid Swift which showed with around 60 Common Swifts just ahead of a thunder storm.

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In the garden today a Stock Dove was feeding with the Collared Doves. Five Long-tailed Tits and a Coal Tit on the feeders along with a juvenile Goldfinch - the first this year.