Irritating enough that the wind had dropped away to nothing, but worse that the sun then came out, making an after-work seawatch from Ainsdale impossible today - by late afternoon in clear conditions the sea is just a mess of sparkles and shimmer, so I gave it a miss and headed down to Marshside.
Pleasant enough, with Swallows and House Martins hawking about, a few Kestrels and a very tired looking Common Sandpiper in front of the Sandgrounders hide, plus a Migrant Hawker buzzing around the door.
Two Greenshanks were on Polly's Pool, but the water level was so high after the torrential rain earlier, they were resting in the long grass.
Four Little Egrets were preening away on Marshside Two, with a fifth bird fishing a creek further back.
They must have got soaked earlier.
Sandplant compound looks a bit like the battlefields of the Somme now, but there were two Wheatears in there and about 40 Meadow Pipits.
The Wren family was still ferreting through the grass at the base of the peninsula, where they bred this year.
Three Blackbirds around the Forest of Bale.
Junction Pool had eight Avocets with the roosting Blackwits, and while I didn't schlepp down there, there was clearly a large roost of Blackwits and Redshanks in front of Nels Hide too.
A hooley of monstrous proportions is meant to blow in tonight, but by the time I'm out tomorrow, the wind looks like being in the north east - frankly seriously pants for seawatching on our coastline.
Before I forget, does anyone know if the Stinky Minke is still on the beach down at Formby today?
By now it must be ranker than a van full of Marshside's Finest after a week on the road.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Jellyhead Jackson wrote...
Believe there was a young Red Necked Phalarope from the Ronnie Barker hide at Martin Mere today.
Posted by: Jellyhead Jackson | September 5, 2008 6:57 PM