You know it's quiet when Birdline Ted suggests that you should watch TV tonight to see a report on breeding Cattle Egrets in Somerset!!???
Prefer to go looking for the birds than watching TV Ted, so off I went to Marshside for an hour or two in the afternoon to see what I could see...
Answer: Not a great deal, but there were single Common Sandpipers on Polly's Creek, in front of Nels Hide and on the Junction Pool - or just one bird following me around.
Up to 75 Blackwits on Polly's Pool too.
The Glossy Ibis had been about, and on the Sandgrounders lagoon, gazillions (I gave up counting after 100) of Canada Geese and Greylags.
A pair of Ruddy Duck with one fledged young and 10 Tufties on the pool.
Annoyingly any attempts at a peaceful afternoon were shattered by a Royal Navy Reserve helicopter buzzing up and down the coast and a Dorkus Maximus in the Sandplant compound playing with a radio controlled car.
The thing made more noise than 5,000 wasps in an echo chamber - if only the chopper overhead had been a gunship...
Quite a few Curlews feeding on the marsh now, but no sign of any Avocets today.
Teal, Shoveler and Mallard mooching about looking eclipse miserable.
Luckily Nels hide was much more peaceful, with up to five Brown Hares grazing on the mown areas of marsh, plenty of Curlews, a single sick-looking Dunlin and several young Lapwings.
For once a Stock Dove was happy to sit in digiscoping range (just) at the back of the pools - one of several feeding with the Woodpigeons.
A Pink Footed Goose to the north of the hide too - slightly damaged right wing.
A single Small Tortoiseshell along the path down to Nels, and a female Sprawk circling over the golf course.
Sand Martin and House Martin over the water here, and earlier in the afternoon, good numbers of Swifts hawking around the Seaforth flyover and Coast Road at Ainsdale.
Maybe I should have stayed in and watched TV after all.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Jim Irvine wrote...
Common Sandpiper at Seaforth too - plus Dunlins and a nice Med Gull.
Posted by: Jim Irvine | July 23, 2008 6:22 AM