Had to go for a walk it was so sunny this afternoon, so checked out the Sands Lake and northern dunes.
The only problem was that everybody in Southport (and their dogs) had had the same idea.
Such is life.
Earlier Stephen Menzie called me as I was playing trolley dodgems in the supermarket after he watched a Greenland Whitefront in with the Pink Feet on the fields on the seaward side of the Formby by-pass (between Ince Blundell Woods and the Weld Blundell Pub).
There's been a few geese in there over the last month or so, and it was good to know there was something out of the ordinary with them.
Thanks Stephen.
Anyway back to the Sands Lake, where the usual suspects were out and about.
Nine Shovelers, a Little Grebe, about 40 Tufties (numbers are falling now) and two Pochards.
North of the lake in the slacks there was a nice pair of Stonechats and a flock of 15 Linnets.
Seven Fieldfares flew in and dived into cover and two or three Robins were singing.
Out on the beach, thousands of gulls were strung along the tideline - the roost maybe worth checking at Taggs tomorrow.
Best of all as I walked back to the lake I flushed the Water Rail out of the overhanging branches at the north end and it fluttered in front of me to denser cover.
Good, but brief views as it flapped clumsily through the branches.
Depressing to find that a lot of the trees at the entrance to the car park have now been cleared away - and it looks like more are going to go too.
Not good news for the passerines that breed in the cover there.
No sign of any House Sparrows there today - I wonder why.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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sarah dempsey wrote...
Gosh, I thought you would have filed today's entry on the blog. What have you been up to?!
Posted by: sarah dempsey | February 18, 2007 3:58 PM