Snow Bunting at close range on the beach and sea wall opposite Pleasureland this afternoon.
Also thousands of Pink-feet over at dusk flying out towards the estuary. Quite a spectacle and members of the public all just stopped and watched as skien after skien passed overhead. Also quite a few feeding in the salt marsh close by.
15.00 Southport Pier area - following my visit to Marshside decided to have a quick look around the shore & reeds near the pier where there was good numbers of Redshank & Shelduck with a single Little Egret, but the highlight was 7 Twite that landed right near me on the sand feeding in the debris.
Just so theres no confusion, the middle image shows 5 Spoonbills basically in a line, 2 on the left, 1 in the middle and 2 far right, with a few Little Egrets lower down.
I was working the Ormskirk / Southport route, one of my customers Trattoria 51 was on the Promenade at Southport Marine Lake so I literally glanced over to the islands.
- 6 Eurasian Spoonbills
5 birds in view in the treetops of the main island. Then a 6th bird kept popping its head up. There was a bit of a breeze picking up and a few of them had to keep steadying themselves. Looks like a prime spot for them with a good roosting area with little or no interference, and good feeding areas with the vast salt marshes and Marshside a few 100yds away. One of my images shows 5 visible birds, the 6th was hidden.
A few Little Egrets dotted around roosting in the trees too.
Early afternoon - Hesketh Park near Southport centre. I saw a report in the morning of a female Greater Scaup with over 250 Tufted Ducks so seeing as though I was passing it I thought Ill try and find her. Well she stood out a mile amidst the shed load of Tufted Duck on a little lake slap bang in the middle of the park. Beautiful!
-- Edited by Rob Creek on Tuesday 20th of October 2020 11:59:55 AM
Driving from Ormskirk, I was just coming into Southport along Woodmoss Lane yesterday lunchtime when I noticed 4 Swans in a small flood in a field near the roadside.
I hadn't been feeling great this week, but despite that, I wanted to try and get out for the morning.
Originally I wasn't going to go and see the Kentish plover, but after seeing a few pictures of it I thought- why not!
I arrived close to 9am and there wasn't anyone else around. Scanning the area with my binos, I thought- yup, I need my scope. So as soon as i started scanning with my scope - BINGO! On him straight away.
He gave some belting views and i was glad i came as not only did i get out for a bit, but I've now got an extra lifer bird. One thing that I was cautious of before is I didn't want a very distant view and I wanted to be sure it will be worth the effort. I needn't had worried!
After an hour, I headed to Marshside to see if i could photograph the cattle egrets - No chance. So based on how I felt and the threat of persistent rain, I caught an earlier train home than which I'd planned.
So 1 new Kentish plover!! yeaee!!)
Other highlights included:
Grey plover Knots Ringed plover Oystercatcher Black tailed godwits Redshank Lapwings Pink footed geese close to the cycle path towards Marshside
Popped up to Southport this morning to try to catch up with the Kentish Plover that has been there for a few days now. The best area to start at, the area that it is favouring, is the slipway signed 'Beach' off the Victoria Park roundabout on the coast road by the south end of Pleasureland. Everyone present stayed on the slipway by the cars (probably a good idea as it is double yellow lines!!) and the birds were undisturbed. The immature Kentish Plover was not too far out (but best viewed with a scope) amongst Ringed Plovers and a good number of Grey Plovers. I know GM birders were spoilt by the fabulous bird at Audenshaw, but this is still a nice bird to see for our yearlists
yeaee!!
