MIDSUMMER IN EAST LANCS IS USUALLY QUIET like this. It is becoming difficult to add to the little year total and my wanderings this weekend did not produce anything special but more notable sightings included 31 Common Crossbills at Gannow Fell, some of the red males singing. They were roaming around the moorland this time rather than migrating and were feeding on both spruce and Scots Pine cones. Also here was a Common Cuckoo mobbed by Meadow Pipits, a pair of Common Stonechats with at least 2 juveniles but there wasn't anything on the move over the fell today. The curlews still seem to have young but there was also a dead young jay by the roadside. Yesterday morning produced an amazing brood(s) of 18 Goosanders being tended by one mother on the river at Alston, one LRP and four Gadwall at Alston Wetland where the Lesser Whitethroat was still singing on both days along Pinfold Lane. Common Whitethroat was also still singing there. However, the low point was not managing to catch up with the Common Scoter on Clowbridge, which had moved on but the time I got there. Plenty of time left for that one though!