Some days you know it's not going to work - got out of the city with a feel of Spring to the air (I know, I know, but I can almost smell the migrants now), picked up my gear and headed out to Plex Moss, only to find the track closed after yet another dweeb HGV driver had put too much faith in their SatNav and ended up in a ditch as a result.
Real men and women don't use SatNav, they put their faith in expert navigators like Tropical Thomason, who has consistently failed over the years to lead us to our destination in a direct line - but the journeys have been all the more entertaining for it...
Anyway, I doubled back and nipped over Downholland Moss, which was quiet bar singing Song Thrush and lazy Kestrels.
A few skeins of Pinkies in the air, but nothing major.
The Withins were quiet too, bar coveys of Red Legged Partridge, and a few small groups of Lapwings beginning to come back onto the ploughed fields.
One large flock of at least 300 Lapwings were heading out towards fields nearer Formby, and two Buzzards were hassling the pre-roost Starlings.
One flock of 200+ Common Gulls between Great Altcar and Formby and a large herd of Pinkies on stubble just before the Lighthouse roundabout on the by-pass, but no way of pulling over to check them.
And that was about it.
Before I forget, thanks and apologies to Austin Thomas, who kindly sent me this superb shot of a Blue Tit a week or so ago, which I completely forgot to put on the blog (too much on my mind at present...soz),so here it is...
Says Austin:
"Hi John,
I hope you are well.
Here is one that your viewers may like to see. It is not very often we
get snow so I thought I'd set about capturing some bird in flight
behaviour as they jumped around the feeders in search of food."
Link to Austin's site is on the right.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Now then John. Barry's little book suggests that inexperienced birders go through a spell of seeing Goshawks; I'm going through one of those spells!
Let me tell you about it - I had an enforced visit to IKEA this morning with wifey, who kindly let me out bird spottting this avo.
I decided to go and look for Willow Tits in my Burscough/Lathom hunting grounds. I arrived at Platts Lane and trudged through the woods, Ellerbrook valley and Platts Lane lake with little reward, except for singing Coal Tits and a calling Nuthatch.
I headed past St John's RC and stood on the ridge overlooking the valley and scanned for dispaying Buzzards.
Several Buzzards obliged, including a pair to the east over Lathom Hall, another largish raptor was soaring close by, it was clearly an accipiter and judging by its 'wide thighs' and wing shape was a Goshawk - nice.
The Gos suddenly dropped out of the sky in a Peregrine like stoop, from behind the trees emerged a cloud of panicking Gulls, Rooks and Woodpigeons.
The behaviour of these birds in response to the Gos was interesting to watch; the Gulls caught a thermal and circled upwards, the Rooks headed high and then down into the treetops, while the Woodies simply scattered.
I watched some of the Rooks as they circled downwards looking for suitable treetops, I noticed two much smaller birds with the Rooks, swept back wings with very fast wingbeats and doing the goose thing - wiffling to lose height quickly. What the bloody hell are they? I thought to myself.
Suddenly the penny dropped - Parakeets! I walked back to the car and headed for where I've been told some Ring-necked Parakeets favour. So I parked and walked up towards Lathom Park Chapel and straight away the high pitched shrieking of these exotic psittacines could be heard, they were actually in a garden, on feeders, but buggered off as I came into view.
Never mind, numerous Tree Sparrows were on the feeders, always good to see. I walked up towards the Chapel, regularly looking back towards the garden with the feeders.
Then as I'd expected, the Parakeets landed back in the tree tops, giving good views as they merrily shrieked.
I'd seen them a few times in Burscough over the past couple of years, but had been lead to belive this is were they liked to hang out and had actually bred; OK, so not exactly one for the purists, but nevertheless a pleasant byproduct of spotting a Gos!
The afternoon was nicely brought to an end by a drumming 'pecker and a calling Little Owl.
I need to get these bookshelves up in the morning but I'll deffo be out again in the afternoon - maybe Low Meadows and Rufford Park?
Mmmm...nice Peregrine gliding over Liverpool's Old Hall Street just now, drifted off towards Leeds Street.
Something's gonna get eaten!
Seawatchers...the season is about to begin!
Good tides and promising onshore winds at Formby Point from Sunday through next week, and it shouldn't be too cold for the more delicate amongst us.
Early movers in past years have included diver and grebe spp, Little Gulls, Gannets, various sea-ducks and auk spp.