Squeezed in an hour's seawatch over the tide today from Ainsdale in between coastal ranger duties, and while it wasn't a patch on Bazzo's stint down at Formby (see comment on previous entry), there can be few finer ways to spend your lunch break than seawatching.
Sea was flat calm, with a bit of shimmer out at the horizon, and most birds were heading south.
Gannet 27
Arctic Tern 18
Common Tern 11
Sandwich Tern 23
Razorbill 3
Great Crested Grebe 3
Common Scoter 2
Manx Shearwater 6
Dropped off my totals to Corinne in the Ainsdale Discovery Centre.
She's sticking any wildllife news she gets on a board outside now - go see her, she loves telling people about the coastline - then it was back to rangering - great fun, tootling round in a Land Rover, tidying up, speaking to folk etc... if you see me, say hello, I'm usually easy to spot in a yellow hi vis jacket with the word "Ranger" emblazoned on the back.
The jacket is brighter than a Serin's backside.
Mute Swans have three cygnets on the Sands Lake now.
Thanks to the stalwarts still putting comments on my entries - I love getting other birders' news and it makes doing the blog worthwhile.
Hint, hint.
Should be good for seawatching again tomorrow.
Finally happy birthday to Mrs D...we're off out for a big Indian celebration, hurrah!
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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6 Greater Black backed snacks outside Sandgrounders hide tonight, plus Wheatear out on the marsh and Whitethroat trying to be heard over the wind and traffic noise on the corner of Marshside Road
Marshside: Two Curlew Sandpipers from Nels Hide this morning.
Marshside RSPB reserve; Rimmer's marsh breeding bird survey 6.15 a.m. - 9.15 a.m. 58 lapwing, 17 redshank, 18 avocet, 4 oystercatcher, 9 male gadwall, 6 male shoveler, 9 male mallard, one male tufted duck, 12 moorhen, 32 coot. Singing passerines; 12 reed warbler, 7 sedge warbler, 7 whitethroat, 3 meadow pipit, 22 skylark, 4 reed bunting, 9 linnet, 2 goldfinch, 4 wren ,1 blackbird. Other interesting stuff; 215 black-tailed godwit, 1 female ruff, 2 curlew sandpiper, 12 dunlin, 5 hares, 2 water voles. Buzzard over HGC mobbed by pair of sparrowhawks, pair of mute swans with 8 cygnets of HGC.
Hi John, Four-Spotted Chaser on Hesketh Golf Course this afternoon.
Mike.
Sutton's and Crossens Inner marsh breeding bird survey, 6.30a.m - 9.40a.m ; 1 brood of mute swans, 5 broods of canada geese, 1 brood of shelduck, 4 male gadwall, 20 male mallard, 3 male tufted duck, 1 grey partridge, 16 moorhen, 11 coot, 11 oystercatcher, 95 lapwing, 24 redshank, 4 avocet, 30 skylark, 3 meadow pipit, 2 pied wagtail, 10 wren, 2 dunnock, 2 blackbird, 19 sedge warbler, 15 whitethroat, 6 magpie, 3 carrion crow, 7 goldfinch, 18 linnet, 5 reed bunting.
Other things of interest; spotted flycatcher in scrub along edge of crossens inner, also male chaffinch there (very worn plumage), two female wheatear on Crossens inner, adult female marsh harrier on Crossens out marsh close to road.
Hesketh Out Marsh 12.00 - 13.30; Male and female Marsh Harrier, 46 Avocets, 34 Common Terns, 1 adult Med Gull, 3 Eiders (1m, 2f), 1 Common Sandpiper.
Marshside 14.30; Buzzard over suburban Marshside, 2 Pink-footed Geese with feral Greylags.
Now that summer has finally arrived, can I remind bloggers that the Dragonfly Atlas survey for Lancashire, Greater Manchester & North Merseyside is up and running for another year. For details on how to take part, visit the Atlas web-site at www.dragonflies.org.uk.
Thanks to climate change and improvements in water-quality, we now have 23 dragonflies and damselflies in the region, compared with only 12 thirty years ago.
Chances of finding a new species for the Northwest are good; who will be the first?
6 drug users and nine motorcyclists on the former Sandwinning Plant today.
There was a steady stream of Painted Lady butterflies this morning as I walked from Crosby Baths to Hightown between 10am and midday.
All were very pale, worn individuals mainly flying northwards parallel to the coast but several came in off the sea over the high tide and headed inland without stopping. Meanwhile there were several Mother Shipton moths flying around in the flowery rough grass ajacent to Crosby Coastguard.
Hey Simon G - I dipped them! Don't think the RSPB have any jurisdiction over the Sandplant at present?
Don't worry John, I can show you the video if you like! I'm not suggesting that the site is currently leased to the RSPB. You know the score ... If people were doing this on the street outside your house and although it was affecting your family and visitors, would you do nothing about it because you don't have jurisdiction over the highway? The disgruntlement is with the whole sorry situation over this "transitional" period until such time as we all expect it to be leased or otherwise passed to the management of the RSPB - it's a shambles!
The photo reminds me of a story a birder living in Texas told me recently: apparently, thousands of Peregrines hang out on the Gulf of Mexico oil rigs and wait for tired little migrants to flap past; picking up easy meals with very little fuss.
Do you know of any evidence for something like that in the North Sea?