Late afternoon we decided to head over to Rishton reservoir to try and get some better record shots of a Black Necked Grebe that has been showing well for nearly a week now. As is usual when we turn up at any site hoping to see or photograph anything of interest the Black Necked Grebe decided it didn't want to make an apperance even though whilst there we were reliably informed it had been showing well earlier in the day. Never mind 5+ Goosander, 9 Cormorant, 3 Tufted Duck, 50+ Canada Geese, Lapwing and a Sparrowhawk that we breifly saw taking an interest in a Mallard kept us entertained in the cold. Oh sorry forgot to mention the large Gull roost there also, as you may well know we arn't the best at Gull identification but Black Headed, Lesser Black Backed, Common and Herring Gull were certainly amongst the 500+ roosting.
Next was on to Mcd's for a warming coffee then up to Fishmore reservoir to see if we could pick out the 1st winter Glaucous Gull that had been seen the previous evening. Having doing a little reading we thought it would be reasonably easy to pick it out from the other Gulls roosting but after nearly an hour scanning the area we couldn't pick it out, if it was there at all this evening. There must have been at least 3000 Gulls roosting and more coming in as we left. Also sighted was a small flock of Canada Geese which disturbed a large area of Gulls as they flew in and 3 Goosander. We've decided to invest in a good Gull id book (have you seen the price!!) and hopefully improving our identification skills.
1 comment:
'Gulls of Europe, America, Asia, etc', (Helm Guide), available for £32 on Amazon. Any good? I agree, they are difficult to sort out without a good reference. Mike
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