Hesketh Out Marsh to the River Douglas - 15th October 2011

With the weather being so nice I decided to spend the day on the south side of the Ribble Estuary mainly at Hesketh Out Marsh but I did manage a walk down to the River douglas for the first time. A few passing Redwing passed over at HOM as well as numbers of Skylark and Meadow Pipit. 4 Little Egret were feeding on the nearby pools and 4 Snipe dropped in whilst I was watching with another 2 over. A Kestrel was hunting along the enbankment and I flushed 4 Grey Partridge as I walked west along the reserve. A worrying sight was a single Avocet which surely should have headed south by now, it was sat on the end of one of the nearby pools to the west of the reserve. Walking East towards I brought Linnet, Starlings a further 2 Kestrel,  A Buzzard, Carrion Crow and on the walk back a Marsh Harrier and Merlin.

ABOVE SNIPE IF I HADDN'T SEEN THEM DROP IN I PROBABLY WOULDN'T HAVE SEEN THEM AT ALL

 ABOVE LITTLE EGRET AND BELOW A MEADOW PIPIT  

My first visit to the River Douglas was a little disappointing as I was hoping you could get nearer the river and explore its embankments a liitle more. I watched what is the mouth of the river as it joins the Ribble with Curlew, Lapwing and Redshank in large numbers as well as well as Cormorant a mix of Gull species including GBB. A Buzzard tried to find the thermals in the distance and 2 Raven croaked as they passed over. As the tide came in a few fishing boats started to pass through flushing a large flock of Canada Geese which included a Greylag and a small number of Widgeon. The best view though and worth the wait was a Peregrine as it flushed the Curlew and Lapwing. I didn't see it at first but as the Lapwing rose into the sky as one I knew something must have flushed them and I watched for 2 minutes as it chased round dropping low over the Douglas chasing a Curlew. On this occasion it was unsucsessfull and I last saw it dropping low into a distant field further up the river. 

ABOVE WIDGEON

NOT THE BEST PHOTO BUT I NEVER TIRE OF WATCHING PEREGRINE IN ACTION (click the photo to make it larger)

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 

Back to Birding! - 26th September 2010

Things have been very quiet for me at least on the birding front since I got back from Tunisia. It's not that there hasn't been plenty around as a few lifers have past me by in the last few weeks but I just haven't had the time to get out. All changed on Sunday when I had a few hours free and decided to to head out to Heysham docks and call in at Conder, Pilling and Bradley Lane on the way home. I wasn't looking for anything in particular I just wanted to see what was about and hopefully get a few photos.

ABOVE 1ST WINTER HERRING GULL (I THINK!) AT HEYSHAM

ABOVE AND BELOW A LONE PURPLE SANDPIPER ON THE SHORELINE AT HEYSHAM

ABOVE LINNET AT HEYSHAM

ABOVE LITTLE EGRET AT CONDOR POOL

ABOVE REDSHANK BELOW CURLEW BOTH ON CONDER CREEK

ABOVE AND BELOW KESTREL AT BRADSHAW LANE