Another busy day, with some incidental birding along the way - thousands of Pinkies around the Hightown Bends early morning and at dusk, Sprawk and Kestrel hunting the much underrated Rimrose Valley (240 acres of meadow, reed, scrapes and scrub, largely courtesy of Eugene McCann's dedication to potential - what sneaks through there unseen?), 3 Stonechats south of Hall Road, Crosby, and seven Swallows through along the dunes.
Managed a half hour scoping the Mersey mouth at lunchtime, with not much passing, until two skuas "sheared" north at 12.30pm - a bit distant, one light phase, the other dark, but they looked mighty like Poms to me.
Redwings calling in the night sky several times, and Little Egrets dropping onto the northern island on Southport's Marine Lake at dusk to roost...oh lordy, can this herald the return of the "Nocturnal Birders Club"?
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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A host of VIPs gathered on the Ribble Estuary on Friday 9 October to mark the opening of a new nature reserve, which will offer valuable new habitat for thousands of breeding, wintering and migratory birds, as well as playing an important role in flood protection.
RSPB Hesketh Out Marsh is made up of over 150 hectares (370 acres) of restored saltmarsh, a grassland habitat which floods at the highest tides.
Hesketh Out Marsh was originally part of the saltmarsh of the Ribble Estuary but was transformed into agricultural land nearly 30 years ago after it was enclosed by a private outer sea embankment.
For the past four years, the RSPB has been working with the Environment Agency to return a large part of the site to saltmarsh. This project has also been supported by Lancaster City Council, the Lancashire Rural Recovery Action Plan, Natural England, Biffaward and The Banister Charitable Trust.
The first major milestone in the restoration took place in September 2008, when the Environment Agency breached the 1980s outer sea embankment, allowing water to enter the area at high tide. This began the process of recreating the saltmarsh and reconnecting the area to the estuary.
Based on aerial photographs of the original site, a series of creeks and channels were excavated. This has encouraged the rapid creation of a new ecosystem with the tide bringing in a multitude of creepy-crawlies, fish and plants that thrive in saltmarsh.
The half a million tonnes of earth, excavated during the creation of the creeks, were used by the Environment Agency to upgrade the original publicly owned sea embankment to protect 10 sq km of farmland to the east of Hesketh Out Marsh. Combined with the new saltmarsh, which absorbs the energy of the tide, these measures will reduce the risk of tidal flooding to the surrounding area.
Present at the opening ceremony were Ian Darling chairman of RSPBâÂÂs council; Andy Brown, deputy chairman of the Environment Agency and Liz Newton, Natural EnglandâÂÂs director for the Northwest region.
Ian Darling said: âÂÂThe Ribble is one of the most important estuaries in the UK for birds. This inspirational project is further enhancing that importance by providing a fantastic area of new saltmarsh. We are very grateful for the support of our partners in helping us to create a wonderful, wild landscape.âÂÂ
Andy Brown said: âÂÂHesketh Out Marsh is a great example of where managing flood risk and enhancing conservation can go hand in hand as a result of working closely with the natural environment.âÂÂ
Liz Newton said: âÂÂI am delighted that Hesketh Out Marsh has been officially opened today. The new reserve will deliver major new habitats for the amazing wildlife of the estuary, sitting alongside Natural EnglandâÂÂs existing Ribble Estuary National Nature Reserve. Natural England has long been working to protect and enhance the estuary in close partnership with the Ribble Coast and Wetlands Regional Park and we have helped to develop and fund this new reserve through our Wetland Vision grant scheme. This project has only been made possible by a strong and effective partnershipâÂÂ.
Hesketh Out Marsh is now open and free to the public. Daily opening hours are 8am to 6pm or dusk if it is earlier. There is limited car parking but information on bus and cycle routes are available on the RSPB website
http://www.rspb.org.uk/heskethoutmarsh
The new reserve will offer a new, inspiring recreational asset for the local community and visiting walkers, as well as providing an exciting new venue for wildlife tourism in the Ribble Coast and Wetlands Regional Park.
'A host of VIP's'..cough, No invite for you John?
Should be great though!
John: I was invited, but sadly cudnae make it.
Yeah, and the VIPs were? I hear David Gest's been around the locality ....
Steady trickle of Redwings over Meols Hall tonight.
49 Little Egrets on the north island of Southport Marine Lake at 8am today.
Everyone was invited to the open day on Saturday - lots of folk turned up and had a great time looking around. Friday was good too.
Just read on Birdguides c30 Snow Geese over Blackpool! If this is a genuine report surely they won't all be escapees?
11 Redwings over Ravenmeols, Formby today {Sunday}.
My thanks to two local birders who corrected me on an ID faux pas. There really was a Greenshank roosting on the lagoon to the right of Sandgrounders and it certainly went north. However, the bird called by me and another birder on Polly's pool was a Ruff. No excuses for this, I just have a blindspot with Ruff and keep forgetting the species even exists. I have no pride (or ego) so it was nice to get it right in the end.
No sign of the Dowitchers 11.30-12.15 today (Tues). Good numbers of Golden Plover, a few Dunlin, single Little Egret, lots of Pied Wags, otherwise fairly quiet. A few Redwings around the Round Hill (Birkdale Common) area earlier on.
Jack Snipe showed for 5 minutes at Nels Hide last Sunday.