The gale was still ripping across Marshside, but mercifully the rain had stopped, so I paid a quick, if uneventful visit today.
The Barnacles and a handful of Whitefronts were visible, but distant on Crossens Inner, and the high winds guaranteed raptor action was restricted to a Peregrine and a few Kestrels.
Luckily the hard winter sun meant the Teal looked mighty fine under Sandgrounders hide, with some males getting decidedly fruity, squabbling over females and sticking as close as possible to them.
A few Golden Plover and Ruff in with the Lapwing, and skeins of Pinkies about, but little else - even the Water Rail was playing hard to get, so with a positively windswept Bazzo, I nipped across the road to scan the outer marsh, where a big flock of Starling (c2,000 birds) were wheeling about and four Whoopers batted out towards the estuary mouth - it looked hard work as they headed into the teeth of the hooley.
Another Whooper was with the grazing Pinks.
Nowt in the compound, so we headed up to Crossens Outer, where a first year Kittiwake emerged from upriver, flying low over the marsh and out to sea - wonder how many other knackered seabirds are about after a storm system like that?
Little Egrets there, but no sign of the big fella, so with fading light, we called it a day.
Quick stop-off at Weld Rd as dusk crept in revealed the Twite flock still feeding just north of the car park, but no sign of the Glauc - there weren't many gulls there though, so it could easily have been dozing further down the Green Beach.
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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Saw the Glauc at 4pm today at Weld Road, then it flew out to sea!!
Meanwhile a colour ringed adult Herring Gull at Weld Road on Jan 3rd (black ring, yellow lettering, "R4RS"), was ringed as a fledgling by Dave Sowter on the Ribble Marshes on July 1st, 2006.
Two Bullfinches in Aughton on Saturday afternoon. Lots of activity at the Junction Pool at Marshside but the afternoon was so gloomy it was difficult to pick things out. The RSPB scope at the Sandgrounders hide afforded great views of a Snipe though.