Female / immature Long-tailed Duck on the River Lune at Lancaster.
Digiscoped shots of Waxwings in Warrington. The grey, overcast skies of November (how I hate this month in the year) don't do these spectacular birds justice.
The usual Buzzard loafing around on a pylon in Waterworks Lane, Winwick
This is the Pink-footed Goose that was recently on Moat Lane pools, Rixton. Very grainy and poor digiscoped record shot - it was going quite dark by then...
Monday 12th November
Off work for most of this week and had planned to disappear somewhere distant. A cock up by the garage fixing my car combined with the failure of the central heating system put paid to that idea. I had no hot water or heating for 4 days so maybe I should just have disappeared off somewhere....
Messed about locally today and writing this a few weeks later, I can’t remember much of what I saw (or where I went for that matter). There were 49 Tree Sparrows at my feeding station plus a decentish flock of 52 Linnets in the field opposite. Near dusk I popped over to Rixton where I found a single Short-eared Owl flying high over Holly Bush Lane, being mobbed by Crows. Presumably one of the birds that Jonathan saw leaving Risley Moss.
Tuesday 13th November
A further increase in Tree Sparrows at the feeding station today with at least 60 birds present. When I arrived, there was just one bird in sight (the look out) but lots of noise from the thick hedge which suggested the Tree Sparrow flock was all in residence. I find it fascinating that these birds will just chatter away to each other when they are not otherwise engaged in finding food...I wonder what they talk about? I think we still have a lot to learn about bird communications and I also t hinkthat these communications are far more complex than most people suspect.
The Linnet flock was still present in the fields opposite the entrance to Highfield Farm. I later headed off to Milner Street in the centre of Warrington to view the Waxwing flock that has been present for a few days. Nice to bump into Brian Baird again and had very good views of up to 66 Waxwings though the lighting conditions were appalling for photos. Couldn’t be bother going anywhere else afterwards – still very much in disinterested mode.
Wednesday 14th November
This morning I headed up to Richmond Bank and spent 2 hours or so viewing the gull flock prior to high tide. The lighting conditions were perfect, there were large numbers of gulls and the birds were evenly spread out all over the bank and were quite settled. I was rubbing my hands in expectation. The result 2 hours later when high tide pushed the last birds off the mud – nothing! A big fat zip! Not even a single Yellow-legged Gull.
Time to cut my losses, I then headed north and arrived at the River Lune in Lancaster and soon found the female / immature Long-tailed Duck which was showing very well. A quick mooch around the Caton area looking for Meds proved fruitless.
I finally headed over to Leighton Moss, stopping briefly to scan Warton floods on the way where good numbers of Pintail were in residence. Next stop was the Morecambe / Allen complex. On arrival at the Morecambe Hide I could see the pools were full of ducks and waders and I settled down in expectation of finding some decent birds. Sadly a couple of minutes later the pools were empty, courtesy of a local farmer who was rounding up his (presumably stray) sheep which had hidden, previously unseen, beside the hide. Sod’s law. I did see a female Sparrowhawk as I walked back to the car, not much consoltation though.
Next stop was to park up on the road above the reserve for the last hour. Good numbers of Starlings failed to really perform, preferring instead to drop straight into roost and not budging even when a Sparrowhawk glided directly over the roost. A Peregrine and two Marsh Harriers were also seen. 76 Little Egrets and a single Great White Egret came into roost.
Thursday 15th November
A day of messing around today. Not much at the feeding station and HGF was equally quiet so eventually I headed off to Burton Mere. On arrival I found the main hide packed with picnickers and not much on show in the bird world. I then remembered that I don’t like this place so I left without exploring the other hides and parked up at Denhall Lane. From the usual parking area I walked up towards the Decca Pools. Although the light was good back home when I set off, at Burton Marsh there was a weird haze which made viewing virtually impossible after 150 yards or so. Also a strong wind got up out of nowhere which made the likelihood of owls or harriers being out somewhat remote. This was not going to plan.
I then headed back home and after more messing about (my favourite phrase at the moment) I wandered over to Risley Moss for a lock in. Dave Beetham was already there and we watched the moss for the last 90 minutes or so of daylight. Quite a few birds about, two Short-eared Owls being the highlight. Both got up, 30 minutes apart, and headed high towards Rixton while being mobbed by Crows. A Merlin also appeared and flashed across the front of the viewpoint. Two Kestrels were also seen and a calling Tawny Owl heard. As usual there were lots of small brown jobs flitting around which didn’t call and stayed distant. A flock of 11 birds were most likely Linnets, the rest probably a mixture of Yellowhammers, Chaffinches, Reed Buntings and Meadow Pipits. As dark descended (Dave had left before the second owl appeared) around 22 Snipe flew off calling and three Woodcock were seen.
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