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Slim pickings

Posted by on November 22, 2007 5:26 PM | 

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Went for a walk down Ainsdale beach south from the Discovery centre with Mrs D today - all very pleasant, with a bracing north westerly picking up.
Good acclimatisation practice for potential seawatching duties this weekend.
Birdwise it was pretty quiet - Common Scoter and Great Crested Grebe offshore, small groups of gulls, Grey Plover and Oycs on the wind scoured sands.

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No sign of the Snow Buntings today (although I did hear a suspicious little trill coming from the dunes at one point), but the Linnet flock is still about.
At Dempsey Towers, loadsa finches coming in now, and I found a dead Greenfinch under the feeders last night - hope its not that killer-finch-virus thingy....
Probably just shocked to death at the greed of the Starlings, which have shifted a whole feeder full of fat in less than 24 hours.

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Tawny Owls calling away most nights.
Raven over Old Hall Street in Liverpool yesterday afternoon, which was nice, but hardly compared to the Pechora that Neill and Tropical caught up with in Pembrokeshire yesterday morning.
Their text messages of triumph said it all.
Neill: "Yes yes yes yes!"
Trops: "Big P in my pants"
I hope Tropical was referring to the pipit.
Looks like a superb bird and is still there today - could it stick till the weekend?, Pechora pix can be found on Neill's site (link on the right).
Well done boys.
Also thanks to Paul Allison, who sent me these shots of the Red Fox that has been living in the alder wood at Freshfield's Squirrel Reserve for the last year at least - I believe it even featured on "Autumnwatch", not that I saw it.

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Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...

Comments (3)

Neill wrote...

Hi John,
still 3 Snow Buntings about a mile NORTH of the beach car park feeding amongst the razor shells on the high tide line, loads of Linnets out there too.

Posted by: Neill  | November 23, 2007 5:58 PM

derek forshaw wrote...

A day out and about today in glorious sunshine, but what a cold start!
Began at Formby in a cold northerly wind that according to the forecast was supposed to be a 2mph breeze, but in fact was more like 15 mph.
Certainly the sea was very choppy.
2 Red-throats, a single Great Crested, 6 Mergansers and 3 Eiders were the only fly-bys of any interest. I was surprised by the Eiders - a species I've never seen at Formby before.
After this had fine views of c3000 Pinkfeet on Downholland Moss which contained a superb adult Tundra Bean Goose. Didn't see much around Altcar - 3 Buzzards and 2 Stonechat. After this to Plex Moss, where another big goose flock of 4-5000 birds which contained a juv Greenland Whitefront. c100 Whoopers and 7 Bewicks fed in the same fields.
A flock of 135 Linnets on overhead wires nearby.
I wish the Short-eared Owls and Hen Harriers would come back.
You used to see them nearly every time you went out. These birds were the spirit of the mosses - the icing on the birding cake. Every time I go out I hope against hope I'll see one, but I never do.
Finished off at Taggs Island where I had 5 Jack Snipe, as well as 9 Commons, plus a Stonechat. Not a bad day at all (despite no owls or harriers!)

Posted by: derek forshaw  | November 23, 2007 7:16 PM

Tim Vaughan wrote...

Good to hear that the Tundra Bean is still around. It is a superb bird and was first seen on the mosses on 17th Nov. For photo see http://crosbybirding.blogspot.com/

Posted by: Tim Vaughan  | November 25, 2007 5:48 PM

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