Enjoyed a peaceful hour or so at Marshside this evening, as the dark clouds threw a big moody blanket over a day of blazing sunshine.
Whole place was pretty serene, apart from the midge-tastic insect assault around the Sandplant walls.
Just one Wheatear out there, with a few Mipits, Kestrel and plenty of Swifts hawking overhead.
Greenshank calling far out on the outer marsh, but it was hard to hear over the yelping Redshanks, and the female Marsh Harrier was still quartering about up near Crossens, putting the fear of God into the young Starlings which are starting to flock on the outer marsh now.
Peregrine out there too, but only one Avocet in front of Sandgrounders - the rest were down on Rimmers Marsh/Marshside One leaving a brood of six young Shelducks to milk the "ahhh" factor on Suttons/Marshside Two.
Whitethroat and Sedgies blasting away, and plenty of Blackwits about.
Earlier I got in a quick seawatch over the high tide from Ainsdale during my lunch break, even though the beach was mobbed with Bank Holiday crowds soaking up the sunshine, and leaving me lots of litter to clear up.
Not surprisingly in such benign conditions, there wasn't much moving offshore, but I still managed six Gannets and a single close in Fulmar alongside the regular Sandwich Terns and Cormorants.
Most unexpected sight today as I drove up the beach in the Land Rover was a Painted Lady fluttering north over the sand - which makes a nice change.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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SUNDAY May 24th.
Interesting birding day spent speedily perambulating around the County Palatine of Lancashire in pursuit of a mega one-day tickfest accompanied by the deaf and one-legged Mike Stocker and the delightful June Watt.
The weather was glorious, so much so that I burnt the back of my neck, which has never happened to me on my regular SA jaunts !
Highlights included ALL regular warblers - Sedge, Reed, Gropper, Willow, Chiffchaff, Garden, Whitethroat, Lsr Whitethroat and Wood Warbler, Pied & Spotted Flys, displaying Redpolls, Marsh Tit, Common, Sandwich and Arctic Terns, Black Guillemot, Redstart, Whinchat, Marsh Harrier, Little Egret, Peregrine and Raven.
At 7:00 pm, nineteen hours after we had started, we called it a day after dipping on guaranteed Yellow Wags - we were ONLY going to get around 135 species - not the 142 target we had set ourselves. We had also forgone a sea-watch at Squires Gate (tick potential six/seven species) due to a plague of Bank Holiday Candyflossitis, which had attracted grackles from far and wide - all flocking to the delights of the Golden Mile's radioactive beaches!
Wonderful day out, unbelievable weather, excellent birding and interesting new sites, with Croasdale looking particularly inviting. (Intriguing raptorial rumours of the wasporial kind for the Gisburn Forest).
Lancashire has a lot of superb birding on offer, but there are far too many people out there, especially on a sunny Bank Holiday weekend. Slaidburn village resembled downtown Osaka during the annual Festival of Super-Heavyweight Sumo Wrestling.
Have to do my Hill tetrads this week; so will keep my neck to the beck and eyes out for wasp-eaters.
Bellies to the Marram !
Hi John,
Seen a couple of Painted Lady in Bowland the past couple of days. Apparently there's been a big movement, most evident in the south of England lately and prior to that in Europe. See http://bogimages.blogspot.com/2009/05/please-forgive-me-for-posting-item-that.html for more details.
Colin
Hi all,
I'm an exiled West-Lancs-ite down here in Sandwich in deepest, darkest south-east Kent and we had a huge influx of Painted Ladies over the weekend.
There were reports of streams of 1000s heading across the fields near the coast and off inland.
Wish I'd seen that, but lovely to see the ones flitting around Grove Ferry and Stodmarsh whilst watching the Black-winged Pratincole :)
Cheers,
RM
Painted Ladies had reached as far north as Silverdale by 9.00am Sunday. Good to see you're following in my sandy footsteps down on the Sefton Dunes John.
cheers
Dave