One of the benefits of getting up at 5am at this time of the year is the dawn chorus _ it was mindblowing this morning _ hordes of Song Thrush, Blackbird, Blackcap, Dunnock etc
Made up for a slightly disappointing trip to the marsh yesterday _ good birds are about (drake Garganey at the bottom of Marshside One, with Little Ringed Plover, and young Lapwing and Avocet wobbling about in the creeks), but it was kinda quiet _ it maybe better today, with such a misty start, migrating birds should be grounded.
White Wag, Common Sandpiper and four Wheatear around the Sandplant Pool, and a pair of Ruddy Ducks looking very sneaky nearby.
Three Sedge Warblers were singing around the corner of Marshside Road and the Coast Road and the Whitethroats are all back on summer territories and displaying like crazy.
Shame the Black Kite over Lytham yesterday didn't call in at the marsh, although perhaps this was a good thing as I'd left by the time the bird was seen over the Fylde.
About 150 Dunlins in the mud of Marshside One now, always worth checking for a rarer wader over the next week or two.
Perhaps there was more happening later in the day?
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies....
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John, Undertook my WBBS survey on the canal at Downholland Moss Sat morning. Three singing Corn Bunting, loads of Whitethroat, one cuckoo, more Lapwing than previous years, one Oystercatcher and one! Yellowhammer (but no Tree Sparrow). The biggest thing of the weekend though was a Buzzard overflying our house in downtown Liverpool Fri through Sun; the first ever in our 16 years here. Note to the County Recorder me thinks.
As I walked up from Burscough Bridge to Martin Mere on Saturday I saw one (and heard more) corn bunting in the field on the left of the road near Curlew Lane (where I saw yellow wags but not the reported blue-head which the Four Yorkshiremen of the Apocalypse were hunting ...)
At the Mere I saw the stilts (forgive me father, for I have twitched ...), pec sandpiper, male garganey and much else, including the tawny owl in the tree (and possibly a greater red-headed blogger ?!) then strolled down to New Lane in the company of a far wiser man than me, albeit from Wigan, who revealed the profundity of my ignorance of birdsong en route. Thence, still on foot, to the Farmers Arms for a few jars where the swallows were magnificent over the canal.
Arrived at Marshside around 5.30pm where avocets were copulating the in the rain at Sandgrounders, wheatear were in abundance and I watched a whitethroat nest-building to the south of the sandworks.
Sunday, and after the odd experience of seeing so many birders charging round West Lancashire in cars the previous day I confinded myself to a late afternoon walk in the drizzle through the pinewoods from Ainsdale to Freshfield, further impressing on me how little I know about birdsong. Nothing much to report as I didn't see a lot.
Excellent SiG excellent....the swallows at the Farmers Arms sound great, as do the hirundines in the same place. The mere and its environs were certainly on form on Saturday.....
As for the pinewoods, all I'll say is learn the call of crossbill...you never know when it may come in handy down there.