Heysham & Leighton Moss 11-04-09

Headed up to Heysham having read the observatory blog, hoping to see some new species. Well we got chatting to a guy in the nature reserve car park (thanks whoever you were) and it turns out we should have gone up first thing in the morning. Anyway undeterred we took his advice and moved further around the power station and headed out onto the front. Plenty of small birds in the woodlands around including greenfinch, chaffinch, chiffchaff, a single Marsh Tit as well as Magpie and Carrion Crow.

Out on the sea front and on the jetty we saw Cormorant, Shag, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Black Headed Gull, Oyster Catcher and 50+ Turnstone.
After a couple of hours in the sun headed up to Leighton Moss, (thanks for the idea Cliff) to see if there was anything interesting. Didn’t have much time so just headed for the public hide and we weren’t disappointed as we walked down the path to the hide 2 Marsh Harrier appeared. Sightings from the hide included a 3rd Marsh Harrier, 8 Greylag, 2 Pairs of Tufted Duck, and 3 Great Blacked Backed Gull.

We’d parked the car on the main road and on the way back decided to stop and have a look around in the woods and again not a disappointment along with a Song Thrush singing its heart out we sighted Wood Warbler, Chiffchaff, Tree Creeper, Pheasant amongst the usual woodland birds.

Will definitely try Heysham again but will make it an early start next time.