Waxwings @ Barrow - 30th October 2010

I first heard about the flock of Waxwings at Barrow near Clitheroe on the Friday afternoon whilst at work when a text came through from Mike. A quick call back and I was told a flock of 70+ was feeding amongst the Rowan trees in the middle of the village but I was unable to get there until the following lunch time. When we arrived there must have been 25+ long lenses pointed into the trees and plenty of birders milling around but no sign of the Waxwings! Was this going to be another of our famous dip? Well after a wait of about 5 minutes a small flock circled the area and headed off back over the roof tops, TICK.
This continued to happen for a further 10 minutes, personaly I think with so many people hanging around they were a bit cautious about coming in to feed. Eventually a small flock of around 8 landed on the far end. Not having much time we crossed the road and took a few long range shots from behind the car when luck came our way and they moved to the tree opposite. A few reasonable shots and it was time to head off home finally catching up with a bird we'd been after for the past couple of winters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Out & About in Lancashire - 27th October 2010

To start lets put the previous posts identification to rest - they are Linnet!

Well its been a while, weekends being busy with Reeces rugby but I took the day off work and decided to visit a few places across Lancashire to see what we could find. We started up at Heysham north harbour with the hope of seeing some Twite but it took a second visit later in the day to find them. Nothing unusual found with Oystercatcher, Redshank, Curlew, Turnstone, various Gulls though we couldn't pick out the Med Gull that is hanging around up there, Pied Wagtail and Goldfinch rounded the visit off.

ABOVE BLACK HEADED GULL

ABOVE A GULL DROPPING A MUSCLE ON THE ROCKS BELOW

ABOVE 1ST WINTER HERRING GULL 

ABOVE PIED WAGTAIL & BELOW ONE OF A LARGE FLOCK OF GOLDFINCH

Next stop was the Eric Morcambe and Allen hides at Leighton Moss with 100+ Redshank, 8+ Little Egret, 2 Greenshank, Goosander and Wigeon the only birds of interest. 

ABOVE & BELOW LITTLE EGRET 

 

ABOVE WIGEON BELOW REDSHANK 

BELOW ROOK TAKEN BY REECE 

From there we headed back to Heysham where we picked up the Twite before passing through the Trough of Bowland in hope of catching site of the Great Grey Shrike that has taken up residence just north of the Moorcroft pub at Waddington. As is usual we missed out on the Shrike but we didn't have that much time to stay to se if it would make an appearance but we did manage a flock of Brambling along with some Chaffinch and a 100+ Fieldfare on route.

ABOVE TWITE WITH A SINGLE GOLDFINCH 

ABOVE BRAMBLING AND CHAFFINCH BELOW FIELDFARE 

Mistaken Identity!

  After posting last week I recieved an email from Mike suggesting my Linnet photograph may be a Twite. I had labeled it a Linnet as they are frequently seen at Heysham and I just presumed they were juvenile because of the slight grey seen on the head. After doing a little research I now agree with Mike on his Twite ID and thanks for correcting me (not for the first and I'm sure not the last).

TWITE TAKEN ON THE NORTH HARBOUR APPROACH ROAD AT HEYSHAM

As usual I've been walking our 3 collies at Stags Lodge (Cuerden Valley Park) come rain or shine. Recent sightings include Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Carrion Crow, Jackdaw, Kestrel, Malard, Blackbird, Black-headed Gull, Song Thrush, Long-tailed, Blue and Great Tit. A single Moorhen has appeared on the pond after none being there all summer, a Buzzard has been around on more than one occasion over the past week and the number of Robins has increased over the last week. All the summer migrants seem to have moved on including the Coots that were quite successful this year.