Now I know all the dude photographers will have spent the day trying to will will will the Wilson's Phal down to porn range at the Mere today, but it seemed rude to ignore Hurricane Bill's last attempts at attention grabbing.
Tried a sandblasted seawatch from Ainsdale for 45 mins over the tide this afternoon, but disappointingly not much was going through.
A Pom Skua in the Mersey mouth and a juv Kittiwake taking refuge from the wind in the Lifeboat Road car park at Formby (muchas gracias to the force of nature that is Joe Fennerty) suggested there were quality birds out there, but from Ainsdale the distant high tide, strafed with afternoon light, was birdless, apart from a thin trickle of LBBs.
Ten out of ten then to Birdblogger Keith Russell, who gave it half an hour with me, and actually seemed to enjoy the rather challenging conditions - stick with it Keith, birds do come past here - and to be honest, LBBs battling over mountainous seas beat a crowded hide of big lenses every time from where I sit.
Earlier in the day (8.45am), a nice gathering of 79 Ringed Plover, 35 Dunlin, 5 Sanderling, 1, possibly 2, Little Stint, 10-15 Meadow Pipit and 7+ alba wags, plus bizarrely, a Stock Dove off Weld Road, looked mighty fine.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies.
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Should have been on Bardsey today for a week. Due to farting and faffing and indecision and dislike of persistent westerlies I chickened out at the last minute. That's a ã130 donation gone literally west. Must've been a lumpy crossing this morning.
Went to MMWWT and filmed the phalarope at long range. Haven't checked the results but pretty sure they'll be in the "record shot" category due to wind shake and focussing via a 500 + 1.4x converter = 90 odd x magnification on my video camera.
Usual bletherskytes in Ron B's (I used to know Ron)
a/k/a in scouse as go- - - - - es.
Whinchat, Whimbrels c5000 Ringed Plover and two Black Swans on Banks Marsh this week. Must've been 30k plus waders there on Monday on top of the tide. Wigeons trickling in, mainly eclipse drakes, where are the dames, still looking after offspring?
Ron
Wilson's still at Ron Barker hide till at least 11:00 this morning. Also 1 swift from there as well.
Mega at Marshside at 5.45pm this evening! when I disturbed a FULMAR from one of the pile of stones, formerly known as Mount Baker, north side. It flew around the saltmarsh and across the road to Suttons - narrowly avoiding a white transit van - for about ten minutes, before eventually making its way out to the tideline.
At one point when it went to low over the saltmarsh pools, I had Fulmar, Grey Heron, Curlew, Wigeon, Marsh Harrier, Kestrel, Peregrine and three Little Egrets in my field of view, all at the same time.