Got up (having slept in till 9am) and the wind had dropped right down...no point seawatching today.....so what to do?
My indecisiveness was quashed by a quick call from Jellyhead, who was up on Mount Baker, moments after disturbing a couple involved in the sauciest kind of clothes-on jiggerypokery you can imagine.
Never mind "Debbie does Dallas", when are they going to film "Mandy does Marshside"??
Jellyhead also had a Wheatear, so I figured nothing ventured nothing gained, and headed down to the marsh for the high tide.
Tropical caught up with us too, and we wandered down the lorry road to meet the tide - it was a big 'un, but with a strong south easterly, was never going to be that dramatic.
Still, we had up to five Greenshanks, Little Stint and a Curlew Sand on Polly's Creek, a Short Eared Owl had been around earlier on, and the larks were twittering everywhere as we wandered out to have a paddle at the end of the track.
As ever, the tide rippled in behind us and we were soon up to our ankles in muddy Ribble estuary brown water.
Oh dear.
Plenty of Shelduck in the shallows with BHGs, and impressive numbers of Common Snipe rising out of the spartina as the tide seeped in.
A few Grey Herons were taking advantage of the tide to pick off various invertebrates etc, and Meadow Pipits were "bleeping" everywhere.
A Peregrine tazzed thro' Marshside One, before repeated forays all over the marsh, spooking the usual waders with predictable regularity.
Small flocks of Pinkies on Crossens Inner, and on the outer marsh we got good views of Little Egret, and one, possibly two, distant Marsh Harriers....cue dodgy pics.....
Egret was clearly a juv bird - check out the bluey bill - visible even on my long distance shots, and the Marsh Harrier, which was much further away, was a youngster too.
A few groups of Swallows went through earlier on, and we had a Clouded Yellow at the end of the lorry road.
Other bugs today included Peacock, Red Admiral, Migrant Hawker and Common Darter.
Graham Clarkson had Water Rail squeee-aling at the top end of Marshside One, and a Curlew Sand.
Still no more gen on the Purple Sandpiper claimed yesterday.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »
Hi John
Sounds like my weekend was very similar to everyone else's - I didn't get to see L Egret or Marsh Harrier this w/e, but 3 Little Stints, 5 Greenshank, juv Curlew Sand both in Polly's Creek and at Nels (same bird I think), Peregrine overflying sandplant and one spectacular kill of a Teal right in front of Nels, f & m Sparrowhawk, 3 Kestrels, 9 Grey Heron, female Wheatear just S of sandworks, vast numbers of Pinkfeet throughout, a score of Greylag on the small lagoons on the coast side N of sandplant, 1000+ Blackwit, 40 Canada Geese on floods on Crossens outer, 50+ Redshank on Saturday (none on Sunday), Swallows and House Martins (Sat only), hundreds of Lapwing, ditto Starlings, Wigeon, a few Pintail, 16 Linnet flocking, Golden Plover, plenty of the usual suspects ... Didn't go down the sand road for high tide either day (only got out mid pm both days) ... and then walking from Nels to the Plough roundabout around 6pm last night I was escorted almost all the way, firstly by a Short-Eared Owl, then by a Barn Owl.
Not bad at all ... no sign of Purple or Green Sandpipers though (heard both reported), nor Water Rail (which continues to elude me.)
Place was packed though, undoubtedly the Autumnwatch effect. Much discussion of the film of the peregrine taken at Marshside being passed off by the Beeb as being filmed at Martin Mere.
Simon
Hi John,
Just to add that we recorded three L. Egrets viewed simultaneously from the NE side of the sandworks at around 11.40am. Good views for around 15-20 mins.
Tim