With the rugby season under way again Reece is finding it hard to accompany me on the trips out with training on a Saturday morning and a game on Sunday.
He plays for Chorley Panthers U13’s and having won their first match away I had high expectations when I received the phone call at full time for but to my dismay they lost 16-20 with Chorley having a good try disallowed! Well heads up they have a good squad this season so let’s hope that’s their only defeat. It’s a shame to he missed out on the trip as he’d have had 2 lifers but more of that later.
I headed up with a friend of mine, Howard to Leighton Moss and the Eric Morecambe and Allen Hides. There were at c50 Black-Tailed Godwit roosting in the middle of the pool with c50 Redshank scattered around mostly feeding. In front of the hide on one of the little islands sat several Greenshank and a single Dunlin made a brief appearance.
The Little Egret were around in numbers with c12 the most I’ve seen anywhere, with Snipe across both pools to a total count of 10. Teal were around in small numbers, a large flock of Greylag flew in. Raptors included a single Buzzard being mobbed by Lapwing and 3 Kestrel across different areas including one sat on a post at the far side of the pool. The star of the show wasn’t the single Spotted Redshank (thanks for pointing it out whom ever you were I would have never spotted it sleeping amongst the Redshank), it was the 2 Curlew Sandpiper that seemed very skittish and made several brief appearances during my visit.
NOT THE PINKFOOTED I'D HOPED FOR
We made a brief visit to the Public Hide more because there was very little to see than lack of time. We should have guessed as the hide was empty when we showed up and with the usual numbers of Coot, a single GBB Gull, c10 Pochard and 4 Gadwall we soon moved off. I’ve given up looking for the Bittern and Bearded Tit as having visited 3 RSPB sites that have both birds and still yet to see them both I’ve decided they’ll show themselves to me when they are good and ready.
With a little time to spare we decided to try Conder and after stopping at Glasson Dock for an ice-lolly and a cup of coffee we set up to see what was around. A familiar face was pretty much all I saw, a fellow birder that I’ve bumped into on several occasions most notably last week when he hit on the Sabine’s gull. I will get your name next time we meet. Things were pretty quiet with 3 Little Grebe on the pool along with 8 Mute Swan and not much else. The creek wasn’t much better either but the tide wasn’t due in for another 4 hours we were lucky to see several Redshank, a single Curlew, a female Kestrel feeding on a vole I’d watch it catch and again a large flock of Goldfinch by the boat.
The lifers missed out on? Spotted Redshank and the Curlew Sandpiper but never mind I’m sure he’ll catch up with both soon.
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