Gave Marshside a good seeing to with Bazzo today - colder than I expected, and a bit grey and misty, but still plenty to look at.
Several reasonable gull roosts (on the shore, Marshside One, Polly's Creek and Crossens Inner) but the oddest thing we could come up with was this semi-albino Black Headed Gull at the bottom of Marshside One from Hesketh Road.
Plenty of wildfowl still about, especially Shovelers, hordes of Wigeon and a good few Pintail.
A single female Goldeneye was with the gulls at the south end of Marshside One, presumably it had hopped off the Marine Lake...
Merlin, Peregrine, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk and a fine female Hen Harrier on the outer marsh (see distant shot at the top), but far fewer Pink Feet out there.
The usual four or so Little Egrets were in and out of the ditches and channels.
The real bird numbers were up on Crossens Inner, where 33 Ruff fed amongst about 1,000 Lapwing, 2,000 Black Tailed Godwits (probably up to 5,000 on the reserve at the moment), and droves of Wigeon.
Five Stock Dove there, and a further four on Crossens Outer was a good count for this declining species.
61 Pochard on the Sandplant Lagoon, plus about 15 Tufties.
Not a bad few hours, and on a whim we headed up to Banks Marsh as the light was fading, where after an embarrassingly long wait we had 17-20 Twite.
Took a few shots as they came in, but it was all very grainy by then (not that good light would have improved my pix).
Always nice to see Twite on the Lancs coast these days...a feeding flock of Pied Wags and Mipits here too, but as the light faded we left before we got a b*ll*cking from Farmer Palmer.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Derek Williams wrote...
Latest from Haskayne...
Big counts from flooded fields in recent weeks here - 835 Common Gull; 350 Black Headed Gull; 54 Herring Gull; 1,300 Starlings; 152 Teal;180 Jackdaws; 75+ Skylark; 267 Lapwing; 7 Shelduck.
More recently, 8 Grey Heron; 6 Tufted Duck; 3 Yellowhammer; 36 Corn Bunting; 3 Tree Sparrow at Carr Moss Lane and 14 Stock Dove at Shirdley Hill.
Posted by: Derek Williams | January 28, 2008 9:19 AM