Clear skies and bright sun meant it was a joy to be out at Marshside up at Southport yesterday - wildfowl numbers were down a bit in Marshside One (approx 5,000 Wigeon, 110 Pintail and 70 odd Shoveler), but they could have been lurking somewhere else on the reserve I suppose.
A very obliging Kingfisher on the golf course ditch next to Marshside allowed me to try a bit more digi-scoping - okay, I know the pictures are bloody awful, but I'm only starting out.....
What was odd was the way Great Tits and Robins mobbed the bird as if it were an owl (which leads me to bitch about Tawny Owls at Dempsey Towers - they've started up squawking, hissing and hooting for the Spring again, which means no sleep when they're on the tv aerial at three in the morning...)
Merlin hunted the outer marsh as usual, and a good roost of Golden Plover (see more shocking digiscoping attempts below) was on Marshside Two.
A Water Rail swam around the reed edges, 60 odd Pochard were on the sandplant pool and over 4,000 Dunlins roosted at the end of Hesketh Road.
193 Cormorants were at the end of the "lorry road".
It clouded over and looked stormy as hell, so I nipped off home via the gasometer, where both male and female peregrine were perched up - time for a go with the camera again - so what if they're blurred, at least you can tell what this one is........!
Later out on Churchtown Moss I watched 30 odd rooks feeding with jackdaws - rooks are still quite unusual in the Southport area.
There were shedloads of woodpigeons out on Churchtown Moss, too.
Blackbird, Song Thrush, Great Tit, Robin, Collared Dove and Dunnock all singing now.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies.....
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Arthur Walsh wrote...
A pleasure to see your photographic attempts, especially the Peregrine on the gasometer. My sister lives near there and everytime I visit I keep a keen eye out for them, in the past I have seen a pair with their offspring.
Posted by: Arthur Walsh | January 28, 2006 3:57 PM