Ribble Estuary and Witch Wood

Glorious evening tonight and the light was wonderful!  With high tide after dark I decided to walk through Witch Wood first before heading onto the Estuary to give the tide as long as possible to come in.

Witch Wood:

Blackcap (2)
Song Thrush (2)
Chiffchaff (2 heard)

NO SIGN OF TURKEY VULTURE

Even at low tide there was plenty of activity on the estuary but only small numbers of passage waders.  The main spectacle was c90 Eider in a pool of very close to the Jetty.  A few birders and photographers were there taking advantage of the sight.

Ribble Estuary:

Meadow Pipit (10)
Knot (1 - appeared lame)
Ringed Plover (8)
Dunlin (8)
Eider (90)
Cormorant (4)
Grey Heron (3)
Little Egret (1)
Swallow (4)

Ribble Estuary - Passage Waders

Granny's Bay

Swift (1)

Ribble Estuary - 'Cocklers Cobbles'

Dunlin (c200)
Turnstone (c150)
Ringed Plover (c150)

Ribble Estuary - RNLI

Wheatear (1)
Linnet (2)

Ribble Estuary

An hour along the estuary three hours after high tide.  Walking from Windmill to 'Cocklers Cobbles'.

Linnet -  Feeding on the green amongst the Sparrows
Grey Heron - 8 seen in total but 5 within a couple of hundred yards of each other
House Sparrow - Female next to RNLI station
Turnstone - C60 by 'Cockers Cobbles'
Dunlin - C250
Ringed Plover - C60 mixed with Dunlin and Turnstone
Eider - 8 pairs passed along the estuary with many more on the Southport shore
Meadow Pipit - 1 at Jetty
Cormorant - 2
Great Black-backed Gull - 1

Earlier in the day I saw what I thought was a flock of C60 Golden Plover at Granny's Bay.  The scope was maxed out and light not 100% but I got a relatively good view for a couple of seconds before the flock flew.  This one bird amongst the flock had the contrasting black and grey / golden parts separated by a distinct white 'S' shape.  My view was so brief that I started to think I may have just see a Dunlin in a funny light at a distance but when the flock flew it was clear to see that these were much larger waders.  I looked for a back axilla but saw none, there also didn't seem to much of a distinct wing bar.  The conditions weren't ideal and of course my inexperience didn't help.  It may be just a wader but I like these moments - always an opportunity to improve.  

Ribble Estuary

High tide was at 20:30 today about the same time as sunset.  An initial look out from the Windmill showed very little.  A few Curlew, couple of Meadow Pipits and Oystercatcher scattered about the place.  As the sun was getting low it was blinding, it was also very breezy but I had the wind behind me as I walked in the direction of Fairhaven.  At the RNLI Jetty I saw 5 Linnet that took flight as I approached and flew onto the green to join the Starlings.  I also saw a White Wagtail, Female House Sparrow and appx 1000 Dunlin flying and settling on the water line.

As I approached 'Cocklers Cobbles' the sun dipped making visibility much better.  A  flock of around 500 birds swarmed passed showing too much clean white on the underside to all be Dunlin.  Luckily they landed and a quick look in the scope showed a mixed flock of Turnstone and Ringed Plover.

It's funny to think that if you don't know what you're looking for you would never know there were hundreds of birds here!  You'd just think they were stones on a beach! 

 I stayed there for a while and more birds arrived, settling quite close giving me the chance to get some photos.  On the way back I saw a couple of Bar-tailed Godwits off the Jetty and managed to get a phone-scoped image.

Ribble Estuary - Terns and Turnstone

Today I visited the Lytham stretch of estuary at high tide and watched from the three usual places:  The Windmill, Jetty and 'Cocklers Cobbles'.

From the windmill I saw 14 Sandwich Tern which was nice.  These are fast becoming my favorite bird at the moment.  Last Spring I'd only been birding for a few months so didn't really have a clue what I was looking at or for.  It's nice to have a bit more of a clue about what I'm looking at and why it's there.  Whilst watching the Terns roosting on the bank a small sail boat passed them and must have been a couple of metres away but the the birds did little but stretch their wings and settle again.  There were also a few Eider and a couple of Black-tailed Godwits present.

From the Jetty I saw 3 Swallows and a few Meadow Pipits.

The 'Cocklers Cobbles' had the usual Turnstone, 80+ of them.  They looked like very scratty - molting into summer plumage?  Anyway, they looked very different to how I'm used to seeing them.  I put the photo on a bird ID Facebook page and got this very helpful response, "These are northward bound migrants now moulting through to their spectacular summer plumage, hence the scruffiness. These are likely heading for Greenland or Arctic Canada, where they breed as far north as there is land, up to 83 degrees North"

There were two dogs on the beach that were very close to the birds and at no time were they flushed, which I thought odd considering how wary the Turnstone there usually are.  There were also mixed flocks of Ringed Plover and Dunlin about.

Witch Wood and the Estuary

Today I took a wander through Witch Wood.  Admittedly it was more of a quick walk than a 'wander' as I wanted to get to the estuary and make the most of the light!  Most notable birds were:

Blackap
Long-tailed Tit
Chiffchaff
Greenfinch
Nuthatch
Great Tit
Wren

The estuary was a hive of activity and the light was just nice.  There were a few mixed flocks of Ringed Plover and Dunlin (c200) flying constantly, twisting and then turning back on themselves.  They would drop for a matter of seconds then repeat the process again.  This unsettled behaviour was interesting to watch.  Most of their activity was around the cocklers boats and vehicles on the water line.  The Dunlin were all in breeding plumage showing that lovely dark patch on the underparts.  The Ringed Plover were a pleasure to see in such numbers.  The large numbers of Eider I've been getting used to seeing were absent from the Southport shore - I just saw two in flight.  I checkout the scrubby / concrete area near the RNLI shop for Wheatear but no joy.  There were however 5 red-breasted Linnet.  A walk down the Jetty gave me good views of a beautiful Bar-tailed Godwit in breeding plumage and two Whooper Swan!  According to the Fylde Bird Report 2012 - the WeBS count for Whooper in April for that area was 0 and only 1 in the 2011 report.  I didn't have the camera so couldn't get any pictures of the Barwit or Linnet so a poor phone scoped picture of the Whooper Swans will have to suffice.

Isle of Man - April 2014 - Day 3

Smeale Beach

We started the day off at Smeale Beach in the North West which gave excellent views of 14 Sandwich Tern.  There were plenty of Skylark and Meadow Pipit around too.  The shore boasted large numbers of Sanderling and Ringed Plover.

Point of Ayre

We moved north to The Point of Ayre and added Stonechat and Razorbill to the days sightings.  Sadly we also saw a number of dead Shag that had been washed ashore.  As we were leaving we also saw a Redstart! (We're very excited about that.)  Also what I thought was a Sandwich Tern in flight (far out) the camera suggested was a Little Gull - although I'll obviously stand corrected. - I have since been informed that this is actually an adult BH Gull.

This fleeting visit to the Isle of Man brought in 7 lifers and 14 year ticks.  I hope to return to the Island soon and explore it in it's entirety.  There were a few things we missed, most importantly, a visit to the Ballaugh Curraghs and any sightings of Hen Harrier.