The hide was a bit busy at Marshside this afternoon, but that didn't stop the Water Rail squealing away underneath it.
Even so I decided to walk up to Polly's Creek and spent a bit of time watching the Water Rails and Snipe in the rushes beneath the bank.
The rails were really frustrating - typically showing really well for a few seconds before scuttling back into the reeds again...sneaky little weasels.
At least a single Snipe was a bit more forthcoming.
There was a minimum of three Water Rail in the area around the channel, could have been more I suppose....if tonight is as nippy as forecast, they could show better tomorrow morning.
Earlier a quick look at the bottom of Marshside One produced about 100 Pink Feet, with more on the shore off Hesketh Road, and plenty of Wigeon and Black Tails.
Mount Baker was pretty quiet, apart from a couple of Blackbirds, finches, Wrens, Robins etc, and this poor old rabbit, on its last legs with myxomatosis - haven't seen one with the disease for quite a while.
I should have whacked it I suppose, but I wimped out and left it to enjoy a few last hours blindly nibbling at the vegetation before it became crow/fox food.
Two Merlins on the outer marsh, too far away to get a decent pic - but when has that ever stopped me?
Kestrel, three Little Egret and distantly, five Whooper Swans in flight too. A few hundred Pink Feet were in the drying grasses, and there were more around Polly's Pool.
Two more Little Egret on Marshside Two/Crossens Inner, and 11 Pochard on the Sandplant Pool.
The Glossy Ibis and Green Winged Teal were still about, but I saw neither, nor did I manage to catch up with the Hen Harrier Graham Clarkson had in the morning - but that's the way it goes sometimes.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Hi John
My brother, a resident of sunny Birkdale, was jogging on the beach near Fishermans Path last Thursday (8th) and reckons he saw a dead Walrus!
I said seal - he said big tusks about 3 inches long!
Do you know anything about it apparently it was on the NNR foreshore.
Dave
Hi John had a trip to the Wirral 11/11/07 near Leasowe lighthouse and was rewarded for getting soaked earlier in the day with my first sighting ever of a Grey Phalarope. Cracking views close in and my first ever sighting of a Red Throated Diver actually doing what it does best.
Lots of Turnstones about, Redshank, Bar Tailed Godwits, Oystercatchers, Curlew, Knot, Dunlin, Cormorant, Great Crested Grebe and thousands of gulls.
What a great place just after high tide.
I've not heard of any dead Walrus David - I think there are only two or three records of Walrus dead or alive in UK waters, way up in the northern isles.
My guess, like you, would it's a dead Grey Seal -if the body was in bad nick and its gums had gone (picked clean no doubt by fishies and Carrion Crows on the beach), the teeth would be exposed and look longer than they would in life, but you never know, stranger things have happened at sea....
12.11.07: Seawatch Formby Point, 9.30am to noon:
Red Throated Diver 45
Great Crested Grebe 35
Eider 19
Scaup 4
R B Mergansers 12
Common Scoter 1400
Plus FIVE Snow Buntings on Ainsdale Beach.
Hi Fisons (D.McGrath) - sure it wasn't a Grey Seal with an overbite??
Firecrest, Lord Derby's estate, Knowsley Village a.m. in larch plantation outside homefarm buildings.
Hiya John, I haven't been out birding for a short while but saw this entry mentioning the rabbit with myxomatosis.
I am involved with animal rescue to varying degrees and I have a friend that nurses 'mixie' rabbits back to health... it's not fatal unless left untreated.
There are loads of 'mixie' rabbits around Merseyside/Lancs and she does a great job... all with her own money... nursing them back.
If you want contact details for her, please let me know. I'm sure she would be happy to help.
Lisa
Thanks Lisa, I'll remember that for next time...