Marshside saltflats

I found myself down at Southport again today, this time, to take Treakle for the walk of his life. We figured that, at the age of 10, he's probably never seen the sea, so we took him for an epic walk on the Southport saltflats. Of course, I took my 12x50 binoculars to see what was around.
A bracing wind blew against us on the walk out towards the sea. GBB, LBB and BH gulls scattered around in the area. A few curlews called as they moved away from us. Golden plover still in summer plumage and shelduck were also present. Thousands of waders flocked closer to the shoreline, the majority were dunlin but there was probably many species in there. Treakle also disturbed a 200+ flock of adult and juv starling feeding on the "salt truck" road.
On our return to the car park, I nipped over to the sandgrousers hide to see if there was anything new since my visit on sunday.
Ruddy duck, mallard, blackwits, coot, moorhen and a flock (a "charm" is the collective noun) of circa 50 goldfinch were all easily visible.....as was the Glossy Ibis! Typical eh? the day that I havent got my tripod and scope and its just standing there closer to the hide than it was on Sunday. A kestrel, greylag and canada geese, some heron and a little egret again too.
So nothing new for my year list but a nice long walk for us and the dog.

Typical!!! I arrived back at lunchtime....checked BIRDGUIDES BIRDMAP and the leighton moss great white egret is reported at Marshside...just afew minutes after I left! AAAaaarrrggghh

The tawny owls are back!

Or indeed they've probably just got better at hiding from me. I haven't seen them for about a month, but then I've not been up to their corner of the field for a while. As usual, one of them is still quite shy and flies off to hide in a different place, but this one still likes to pose for photos.

(Click on the photos to view a larger image)

Glossy ibis at marshside
Jill and I went to Southport for the weekend for aunty Annes birthday. This was a great opportunity to visit RSPB Marshside, to look for the GLOSSY IBIS that has evaded me for the past year.















After only 10 minutes at the "sandgrousers" hide, the ibis came out of the long grass for me. Only showing for a few seconds at a time but I eventually managed to dodgyscope it.
















10 minutes later I scored another 2007 tick in the form of a LITTLE EGRET. One of half a dozen reportedly found around marshside, but I havent seen one since RSPB vane farm in 2006. Managed another couple of dodgyscopes.




























At a closer range some shots dont turn out too bad.
This common sandpiper was scoped from 15 meters away.














Snipe














Lapwing, redshank and juv starlings















Herring gull















Juv white wagtail















Redshank













Eclipse male wigeon

I've been busy with our new house in the last week, not much chance for wildlife watching or blogging, but I am making plans to attract wildlife to our new garden in Billington.

The sun is back out this week, so plenty butterflies - peacock, small tortoiseshell, speckled wood and 1 small copper. Also 2 new moths this week, Ann (Jills mum) found a satellite.....















and Jill found a Svennsons copper underwing (which took a while to ID).















There have been nuthatches calling in the oak trees this week and bullfinches enjoying the many brambles and berry trees that are fruiting. The cuckoo pint (AKA lords and ladies) are budding in the shade of the hedgerows.


Southern hawker and common darter dragonflies have been flitting around the ponds.














I even found this common hawker in the new garden too. Apologies for this photo as I only had my phonecam with me at the time.

Camping near Edinburgh

Jill and I have been camping up in Scotland at the weekend. We stayed at a semi-wild campsite in Inverkeithing, just over the Forth from Edinburgh. The real reason for the trip was for the Scotland v Ireland rugby game at Murrayfield and to see some shows at the Edinburgh fringe festival.
The campsite (click here to link to the website) has a badger watching hut, plenty woodland and wildflower meadows. Unfortunately we didnt have time for any badger watching but I did find a family of sparrowhawks in the wood near our tent.
We were too preoccupied with our other entertainment, but we will return here to camp and enjoy the wildlife.

A good walk over Pendle hill

My friend Phil came to visit over the weekend from my home town, Hamilton in Scotland. We went on a walk from Barrow, through Wiswell, Pendleton and Wellsprings to Sabden, sampling the real ale on the way.
The first bird of interest that we saw was a nuthatch, a bird that we dont see up in Scotland, but Phil got to see this one at very close range.
















Continuing on, we saw a weasel cross the road just after Pendleton and then just before Wellsprings (the mexican restaurant on Pendle hill) we found a huge caterpillar on the road. Unfortunately the photo didnt come out too well (I took it with my phone) but it was enough for us to ID it as an Emperor moth caterpillar in its 5th stage.














We stopped at Wellsprings for a pint on the balcony. A glorious day, but the only birds to be seen here were a juvenile stonechat and the swallows that nest under the buildings eaves.



















Over the hill to Sabden we found a 5 spot burnet moth on a thistle. This was the last look we had at the wildlife of Pendle hill before turning our attention to the real ale "Pride of Pendle".