With those thin fingers of light pushing into the outer reaches of the late afternoon, I couldn't resist a quick visit to the Sands Lake when I got home from work today (it beats watching the closing stages of Dole TV).
There was very little light left, but I still managed to count 108 Tufties, 17 Shovelers, and maybe the scruffy drake Pintail asleep at the north end of the island but it was hidden by a bank of comatose Shovelers and the encroaching gloom.
Plenty of Mallards of course, probably 40+ (and the Mute Swan family).
The Water Rail was still squealing away, but there were no gulls - all asleep on the beach I guess.
I passed a large gull roost on a flooded field to the west of Formby by-pass, just past the Red Squirrel put earlier in the afternoon. Mainly BHGs.
At the Sands, Goldcrest and Song Thrush calling in the sea buckthorn, and five Pochard bobbing about.
That most majestic of birds, the Coot, was at its irritable best, with pre-spring hormones seeing them chasing each other all over the water even more often than usual.
What a bird. What a call. What a nightmare.
Clearly I'll have to wait until the end of the month before the Nocturnal Birding Club murk begins to lift sufficiently enough for afternoon birding.
Anyone seeing anything else?
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »
Chris Tynan wrote...
Hi John,
There was an adult Med gull in the car park at Lifeboat road yesterday morning.
Posted by: Chris Tynan | January 10, 2008 11:18 PM