A great day - wall to wall sunshine on the mosses, which, now the main shooting season seems to have stopped, are slowly getting better and better.
Drove out onto Plex today, then round onto Haskayne and Formby Mosses, before doing the Withins and Altcar Moss.
Several groups of Stock Doves about - including 18 on Plex, where there were still three feeding parties of Fieldfares and Mistle Thrushes.
25-30 Corn Buntings were in the overgrown sprout field to the west of the burnt-out for sale farmhouse on Plex Moss Lane, just across from the new-ish pool.
A bit flighty, occasionally they perched up in the strip of hawthorn by the field, and two of them even began "singing" if you can describe Corn Bunting noise that way.
Daffs flowering by the roadside, and fresh leaves on some of the hawthorn hedges, but the wind was still mighty nippy.
A flock of 190 Lapwings were between Carr and Plex Mosses. Parties of Skylarks were still in the stubble too.
Despite the bright sunshine, there weren't many Buzzards up - one here and there and a party of three together over Rosemary Wood, Haskayne.
On the other side of Plex, I lucked onto a pair of Grey Partridges right by the road, and after some outrageous and painful contortionism managed to get a few shots of 'em from the car.
Nice birds, when you get up close to 'em.
From there I headed over onto Haskayne Moss following a skein of about 2,500 Pinkies in the blue sky.
A Great Crested Grebe was still with the Coot on the fishing pool at Haskayne, and the geese were feeding right by the road at the western edge of Formby Moss.
More contortionism and I was able to give 'em a good scoping from the car, before low flying planes spooked them all and they went off onto the fields behind Formby Hall, and out of sight.
Did manage a single adult Eurasian White Front before they went though, which was very nice.
The Withins and Altcar Moss were fairly quiet, apart from Buzzard, Kestrel, Starling etc, but I did get stunning close up views of a hunting ringtail Hen Harrier.
A wing tagged, bird, presumably from Bowland (come in number 17), I didn't dare get out of the car as it drifted past me.
Later I found it eating prey in a stubble field on Altcar Moss - hopefully the blown-up shots below may help harrier freaks identify the individual, or "No. 17" as it is probably known.
What a bird, been a while since I've watched one on the deck for so long, and a great way to end the day.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Jim Irvine wrote...
Having an hour to spare on Friday 15th I tried Plex Moss Lane (Halsall) for the first time. After a short walk I found c. 20 Fieldfare, 12 Corn Bunting and 6 or so Mistle Thrushes all feeding in the field just west of the bridge over the cutting.
There was the large flock of lapwing also. So far so good.
There were also 2 raptors flying around just a bit further west. I'm not good on birds of prey especially when they are quite high up and silhouetted against the sky
They were circling around but I didn't think they were Buzzards as the wings seemed too narrow and they looked to be too small; the general shape of them I thought was more hawk-like.
The most unusual feature was an occasional irregular kind of wing action, almost like shivering.
Any ideas?
I then managed a quick trip to Mere Sands for the Night Heron and a very nice Nuthatch on the bird table near the visitor centre. A very productive lightning trip!
Posted by: Jim Irvine | February 16, 2008 9:22 PM