Categories

Useful links

Archives

Sponsored links

Latest Posts...

Ol' blue eyes is back...

Posted by on July 30, 2008 6:05 PM | 

daw307.jpg

Sorry about the cheesy heading for this blog entry - I fully appreciate it may spark a whole new outbreak of Bazzo warbling, but it's a risk I have to take - and anyway, Jackdaws have got blue eyes, and it's my birthday.
So there.
Watched a family group of Jackdaws feeding beneath the platform on Hesketh Road at Marshside this afternoon, flipping dried cowpats and probing a discarded yoghurt tub (the Jackdaws, not me).

daw2307.jpg

Unfortunately it was that quiet, but Jackdaws are engaging in their own malevolent way.
A Common Sand on the pools along with a small roost of Blackwits, the usual BHGs and Moorhens.

wits307.jpg

Further up the road, it wasn't much busier in front of the Sandgrounders Hide - Polly's Pool had a small gull roost (BHGs, Commons, LBBs), at least two Dunlin, Curlew, a Common Sandpiper and a loose group of Lapwings.
Two young Little Egrets flew in for a bit of pre-roost argy-bargy at about 5pm.

egret1307.jpg

Dontcha just love pix of white birds digi-scoped in bright sunlight?
Quickly they settled down for a spot of half-hearted wading about and preening.
Met John Aitchison, who told me he'd had seven Little Egrets on Polly's Creek last night - so numbers are obviously building back up again.

egret2307.jpg

Meanwhile the Sandplant compound and walls were quiet, bar a few Mipits, Goldfinches and Gringoes and there was no sign of the Ibis while I was there anyway.
Ruddy Duck and Tufties on the Sandplant Pool, and the biggest herd of feral geese in the world grazing Marshside Two.
Single Pink Foot with three Greylags by the Junction Pool.
Peacock butterfly and two Small Tortoiseshells along the bank, while at Dempsey Towers, Holly Blues and Cabbage Whites on the wing, with the odd Comma.
Right gotta go and get ready for a bit of bad birthday behaviour.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies....

Comments (7)

Peter wrote...

Hi John, Many Happy Returns hope you didn't get up to too much bad birthday behaviour. Enjoy your blog, read it most nights. Keep it up.

Peter.

Posted by: Peter  | July 31, 2008 1:00 AM

Bazzo wrote...

Winds should turn south-west early tomorrow, perhaps too late for good seawatch, but straight westerlies from Saturday to Monday, moderate to fresh in strength. Formby Point's gonna be "My Kind of Town" for next few days.

Posted by: Bazzo  | July 31, 2008 10:27 AM

Phil Smith wrote...

Two Green Sandpipers (new site record?) and a Whimbrel at Cabin Hill on Thursday afternoon, but the plants are even better!

Posted by: Phil Smith  | August 1, 2008 10:51 AM

ron jackson wrote...

Leave it out Bazzo! We've had far too much wind this year. Hopeless for most "normal" birdwatching and worse than that for us would be video-photographers.
6 Green Sands at Banks yesterday, maybe a Ribble record. All in the same gutter (spoil gutter west of Old Hollow) but split into two separate trios when flushed. A singleton present there for most of this year and all of last, Lancs. status "scarce non-breeding resident"?

Recent rains have flooded the otherwise dry flashes. Presumably not much yet by way of invertebrates to attact and hold any waders. (Vertebrates there last year as I filmed the GW Egret catching and eating flatties, presumably Flounders.)
However a couple of peep flocks were zooming around this morning, one of which and probably both comprising Dunlins, but, like Bazza, we can but live in hope of birds if not any more wind, puleeeeze!

Ron


Posted by: ron jackson  | August 1, 2008 2:32 PM

Jim Irvine wrote...

Hi Phil, my wife wants to know "Where is Cabin Hill?"

She's the plant guru in this house.

Jim

Posted by: Jim Irvine  | August 1, 2008 7:32 PM

Lisa wrote...

Happy Birthday John! Only birds of note I have seen in past couple of weeks was a Med Gull at Seaforth Reserve through the fence and a flock of about 2000 Knot on the beach by Seaforth Reserve yesterday evening (31st).

Posted by: Lisa  | August 1, 2008 9:02 PM

john wrote...

Jim - Cabin Hill is just south of Formby, the reserve and dunes are sandwiched between Range High and the Altcar Training Camp.
Always a great site.
You can get to it by walking down the farm track just before Range High, or coming in from the northern side past Shorrocks Hill (or whatever the place is called now) just past St Lukes Church (Albert Road?)

Posted by: john  | August 2, 2008 12:01 AM

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)