Went down to Marshside for the first time in awhile today - the place was still frozen solid, so as you'd expect birds were few and far between.
Song Thrushes, Greenfinch and Blackbirds foraging in the bushes north of the Sandgrounders Hide, and a pair of squealing Water Rails squabbling away there.
Top marks to the Little Egrets, looking decidedly cheesed off and pondering the wisdom of northern expansion - four of 'em were still skittering about looking for somewhere to feed.
Surprisingly a handful of Blackwits and Lapwings were floating around - they usually head west pronto when it starts to freeze.
Quite a number of displaced Snipe about too.
Shovelers, Pintail, Teal and Mallard on the iced up Sandplant Lagoon. 31 of the former on the Sands Lake, which is also frozen up, apart from a small area of water by the island.
On the marsh, about 1,000 Pinkies on Crossens Outer, although most were too far out to really sort through.
The ones on the cropped turf were easier.
A flock of 25 finches out there may or may not have been Twite - they never came close enough to grill. Looked Twitey though.
Met up with Jellyhead Jackson, who picked out a nice big fat female Peregrine on the outer marsh, but we headed for the hills once frostbite started to kick in.
Plans to check the Sandplant compound were aborted with the arrival of a scrote on a scrambler bike - ah, the joys of the great British countryside.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Re. the Hen Harrier issue, the disgraceful persecution of these great birds must stop before we lose them completely. Imagine the numbers of wintering birds we would have on the Sefton/Ribble coast if these birds were breeding at maximum density in northern England. I've only ever seen 1 adult male at Marshside fly past Sandgrounders a couple of years ago at close range absolutely fantastic bird !
Mon 29th Nov Weld Rd am - Merlin , Little Egret, 6 Snipe. Queens Jubilee 1 Fieldfare, 2 Stonechat. North towards pier 20 + Linnet and at least 6 Twite with them. Dead Great Crested Grebe on beach here! pm - Barn Owl over Birkdale village 8.30.
On Sunday afternoon, 5 Blackcaps (3m2f) feeding on Buckthorn in the usual areas around Birkdale Common with plenty of common birds. Great views in the afternoon sun.
There was a Rough-legged Buzzard at Marshside this morning c11.30. First seen flying low along the bank south of Nels while I was driving along the coast road towards Southport. I turned into Hesketh Road and parked. I could see a large raptor with white on its tail drifting along the base of the bank close to Nels. It dropped to the ground and was hidden from view. Several crows and magpies were on its case, and were loafing around the bushes waiting for it to fly again. At this stage I didn't realise what it was. As it hadn't reappeared after a minute or two, and it was so cold, we decided to carry on the the north end of the marine lake to look at the array of wildfowl concentrated there on the ice free end of the lake. After a few minutes there was a partial dread of the wildfowl on the ice. We looked up and couldn't believe our eyes. There was a stonking Rough-legged Buzzard mobbed by two crows circling over the Coast Road. I fired off several shots, which are not great, but sufficient to confirm the ident. We watched it for several minutes as it circled and drifted south along the length of the marine lake towards ASDA. We leapt back into the car to try and pursue it, but by the time we reached Weld Rd it had disappeared and snow was threatening. I can confirm all the standard ident features, together with the correct structure and jizz for this species.