Thursday 7 January 2016

Askam in Furness Cumbria

It was a wet start with the ground underfoot saturated with overnight rain. The calls of Pink footed geese , Oystercatcher , Widgeon and Curlew were ringing in my ears, a great way to start any day.
A couple of Bar tailed Godwits flew up the estuary and soon followed by a flock of Dunlin one Sanderling was hidden in with them.
  A flock of 500 + Pintail was drifting in the turning tide with the same amount of Shelduck just behind them..A flock of dark geese turned out to be Barnacle Geese 62 in total.In with these was a Blue Morph Snow Goose its white head and orange/ pink bill sticking out in the crowd. Was it from
across the pond or from the local farm.??? It was great to find and observe whatever.
   Soon after this a Juvenile female Peregrine was seen powering down the estuary and  'wack'  straight into a male Goldeneye , the Goldeneye fell in to the water..Then the Peregrine landed on top of the Goldeneye and held it underwater till it was dead. At this point all  the commotion caused the attention of 3 GBBgulls to move in on the juv.Then out of nowhere an adult male Peregrine started bombing the Gulls again and again till they moved on.The juv then took the  Goldeneye to the sand bank and started to pluck it.........
    

5 comments:

Bradshaw Rambler said...

A gruesome tale there Andy!
John

AndyC said...

Indeed but great to watch..

David Sutcliffe said...

You will be getting spoilt with so many birds and interesting incidents !! - nice one Andy

AndyC said...

Its ok Dave , I went round Queensbury and Northowram today....back to earth with a bang.....carnt find many passerines at all/////

David Sutcliffe said...

Just a few Chaff's about and that's about all.