Photos:
Sandwich and Common Terns sheltering at Seaforth in high winds plus one of the resident Little Ringed Plovers
Thursday May 26th
Had a mooch round to Seaforth after work. I couldn’t believe the wind – at one point walking towards the main hide the wind stopped me dead in my tracks and almost pushed me backwards. The plus side was that lots of birds were sheltering on the leeward side of the spit. Most impressive was the number of Common Terns – I counted 1350 when they stayed still for long enough! I scanned this flock thoroughly several times – the only other birds of note were 2 Sandwich Terns. A couple of Little Ringed Plovers were messing around in the pool left of the hide and large numbers of gulls were present, primarily immature and adult Lesser Black-backed and 2cy Common Gulls. 6 Dunlin flew over.
HGF this evening was generally quiet. Kestrel and Buzzard seen plus 2 Little Ringed Plovers. The incubating Great Crested Grebe is surviving so far – I expected some scrote to have sent his dog over by now….
Pair of Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrow in the garden.
Friday May 27th
Pretty much same as at HGF this morning inc the 2 LRP’s. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew over the northern end of the pool and at least 5 Buzzards were up at various points around the pool. In garden there was the Yellowhammer pair and a Tree Sparrow there first thing.
After work and on the way home I did a side trip to Wigan Flashes. I was surprised to find the water level in Pearson’s Flash to be quite low with several mud banks showing. On one of these was perched the long-staying Knot which barely moved an inch while I was there. I suspect this bird may end up the way of the Norwegian Blue! A first summer Little Gull had joined the resident Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns in hawking for insects. The air was full of Swifts and hirundines! I would have liked to have a good wander around for a few hours, sadly though I ran out of time.
Had a mooch round to Seaforth after work. I couldn’t believe the wind – at one point walking towards the main hide the wind stopped me dead in my tracks and almost pushed me backwards. The plus side was that lots of birds were sheltering on the leeward side of the spit. Most impressive was the number of Common Terns – I counted 1350 when they stayed still for long enough! I scanned this flock thoroughly several times – the only other birds of note were 2 Sandwich Terns. A couple of Little Ringed Plovers were messing around in the pool left of the hide and large numbers of gulls were present, primarily immature and adult Lesser Black-backed and 2cy Common Gulls. 6 Dunlin flew over.
HGF this evening was generally quiet. Kestrel and Buzzard seen plus 2 Little Ringed Plovers. The incubating Great Crested Grebe is surviving so far – I expected some scrote to have sent his dog over by now….
Pair of Yellowhammers and Tree Sparrow in the garden.
Friday May 27th
Pretty much same as at HGF this morning inc the 2 LRP’s. A couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers flew over the northern end of the pool and at least 5 Buzzards were up at various points around the pool. In garden there was the Yellowhammer pair and a Tree Sparrow there first thing.
After work and on the way home I did a side trip to Wigan Flashes. I was surprised to find the water level in Pearson’s Flash to be quite low with several mud banks showing. On one of these was perched the long-staying Knot which barely moved an inch while I was there. I suspect this bird may end up the way of the Norwegian Blue! A first summer Little Gull had joined the resident Black-headed Gulls and Common Terns in hawking for insects. The air was full of Swifts and hirundines! I would have liked to have a good wander around for a few hours, sadly though I ran out of time.
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