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