Gary Gorner wrote:

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sizergh castle in the car park area is supposed to be good for hawfinch as well its somewhere i will be trying once the leaves have dropped it would be a lifer for me

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I've been three times but too many leaves during the summer - two quick visits to meet up with work colleagues but did see spotted Flycatchers in the formal garden bit during a family visit. I'm looking forward to bare trees and a few early morning winter visits!

Gary, we must have been in the Public Hide at the same time as you. Great views of the Bittern and all those Beardies - fantastic. We went on to Woodwell in search of Hawfinch but we only saw Marsh tits. We saw the GWE at the EM Hide and we also had fantastic views of the Kingfisher there. Lots of waders to study incl 6 Greenshanks, 2 Spotted reds and 2 Bar-tailed godwits.

Bearded Tits !!!

Sunday morning visit (4th October) produced the following:-

2 Marsh Tit at feeding station.

Amazing views of a Male and Female Bearded Tit on the grit tray with the added bonus of another 7 Bearded Tits in flight over the causeway.

1 Great White Egret from Eric Morecambe hide which was hidden well in a ditch but occasionally showed itself.

Female Marsh Harrier from Lower Hide.

Also several Greenshank amongst the usual others.

Popped in at Heysham on way home and although the weather was too good for any Leech's etc, we did manage to see:-

5 Eider
1 Guillemot
Oystercatchers (Huge flocks)
Knot
Turnstone
and finally great views of an adult winter Med Gull.

All in all, a great day's birding!!!

Best birding moment so far today when a flying visit to Leighton Moss saw me looking for a Great White Egret reported from the Grisedale Hide only to see another GWE land - eventually they emerged from the reeds to feed together and I got some OK shots [at 200m+] Even got reported on the pagers and it looks likely one of them which was colour ringed is a three year old bird from Loire Atlantique in sunny France and has been in Lancashire for at least a week.

Now as I knew one was there but I saw two, does the second count as self found...

I'll send Ian a shot for the Out of County section.

Dave, indeed a cracking picture - when did you take up photography?

I saw the bird at midday - what an amazing sight. There were loads of people there and I am surprised that it was not spooked. I believe though that Nightjars are very confident that they cannot be seen.

Another Nightjar was found with a broken wing in Silverdale a couple of weeks ago. It makes you wonder if there is breeding going on in that area, or whether it is a traditional migration stopover spot.

Apparently there's a Nightjar sat on one of the Bearded Tit grit trays today at the reserve. What a sight that must be! Oh, and a Great White Egret.
Henry.

12.09.09
Eric and Ernie hides were top notch water levels perfect and the birds didnt dissappoint either.We saw kingfisher,spotted,redshank,curlew,lots of redshank and black tailed godwits,6 greenshank and very close up views of little egrets ,the most ive ever seen here 20.
Snipe seamed to be evrywhere lots of juvs.
from the puplic hide we were more entertained with the migrant hawker dagonflies than the birds although we did see buzzard,2 egyption geese and great crested grebe .
The beardies wernt playing ball today on the grit trays
Vernon also had a great spotted woodpecker which i failed to get on but we saw chiff chaff and willow warblers just to remind us that summer is still here
Hows the stomach vern thatll teach you to pog apples and plums.oh and half pound of licorice,6 jam butties,6 fairy cakes,packet of crisp and an ice cream.


-- Edited by Gary Gorner on Monday 14th of September 2009 12:54:46 PM

This is for the Dragonfly enthusiasts out there.

Next time you are birding Leighton Moss a short detour to Middleton Industrial Estate near Heysham is recommended. Star attraction is the now well-established Red-veined Darter but there is also a good selection of other species.

11.00 - 13.00 on a windless, sunny day is best. See post on Manchester Wildlife 'out of county'.

Cheers, John

A day up in Lancashire with Jonathan

Morecambe Hide

Lesser Whitethroat behind Morecambe/Allen hides
Wood Sandpiper showing well - one of 16 species of wader picked up today, including sandpiper hat trick
3 Greenshanks and 2 Spotted Redshanks
2 Dunlin
7 Little Gulls
22 Blackwits
7 Little Egrets
1 Marsh Harrier (female)

At Heysham a Whimbrel was present

Later followed by a trip to Sunderland point where Barwit, Eiders, Red-breasted Mergansers and 2 Knot (one stonking bird in summer plumage) were the highlights

On way back down a brief visit to Brockholes Quarry produced good views of Hobby plus Common and Green Sandpipers.

Cracking day's birding!

Others included Egret and two avocets at least

great weather for raptors and plenty of banter fodder. First to bite the bullet was a fairly large young black headed gull which was already feeding on the water.When suddenly all its parents hard work came to nothing as it was viciously killed by a Great black backed gull, not for the squeemish.It carried its prey off to the island infront of the public hide to feed its own chicks.
It wasnt a good day for the blackheads as buzzards and marsh harriers also took chicks.All this action raised the noise levels to unbarable so we moved on.
Infront of griesdale hide was a flock of aprox 200 blacktailed godwits in their fine summer coats.
A visit to the peregrines saw 2 chicks along with both parents .The chicks are still in their white plumage with darker wing bars and are showing well.
At the eric morcombe site was a pectoral sandpiper but only one avocet chick, predation seems to be a problem here for obious reasons.
Quite a few redshanks about and a couple of avocets,also 4 little gull.
approx 300 oystercatchers at Jenny browns point.
little owl ,hobby,also seen on travels and kestrel which made 6 species of raptors in total.



-- Edited by Gary Gorner on Monday 8th of June 2009 07:15:39 AM

Well , the Marsh Harriers at Leighton Moss are pretty special to me. Not too many up north, unlike East Anglia where they are passed over as common.

Good birding there Sid.
Cheers. Henry.

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Friday 22nd of May 2009 11:06:58 PM

16.05.09
great days birding apart from the weather and the pepper pot
bittern booming from the back of the public hide
male and female marsh harriers and bearded tits, best seen from path up to grisdale the reed beds are just at the right hight.
marsh tits showing realy well from feeding station and now seem to be nearly as tame as the ducks around the picnic area
lesser whitethroat heared but not seen along path to eric and ernie hides rattling away.
2 little gull were a nice surprise here but a lack of anything else more interesting was dissappointing as the weather began to turn nasty.
2 peregrines also showed well


-- Edited by Gary Gorner on Sunday 17th of May 2009 07:28:55 PM

Sue and I went here today - we took her 10 year old daughter (Toni) for her first proper birding trip.
Jenny Browns Point - not a lot there apart from Redshanks and Blackwits. On to Leighton Moss where we had the following:

Marsh Harriers 2M 2F
Marsh Tits 2
Reed Ws 2 singing
Redshanks 200+
Blk T Godwits 1000+
Avocets 20+
Pintails 20+
Wigeons
Oystercatchers 10+
Whimbrel 1 (over car park at Eric and Allen hides)
Spotted Redshanks 3
Little Egrets 4
etc,etc.



-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Tuesday 21st of April 2009 06:18:46 PM

Far too quick a visit this morning [kids in tow again] my trick is to feed them [the kids that is] at each hide to keep them quiet!

Only went to western hides but really pleased to see three Bearded Tits [2m, 1F] - dispute over territory and close enough to see the coloured rings plus possible Spoonbill [which turned out to be a hunched up egret doing a spoonbill impression!]. Loads of egrets, sand martins, and noisy gull colony...

Also at the place which can't be named at this time of year - Peregrine pair getting friendly and some nice shots of the male displaying.

-- Edited by Pete Welch on Sunday 19th of April 2009 05:10:53 PM

saturday not a good start, got to Blackburn motorway turn off and had a puncture which set me and vernon back a bit , anyway got to the quarry and saw the peregrine but no sign of the ravens or little owldashed off down to the grit trays hoping for the bearded tits but it was going to be one of those days ,no signs of them after waiting three quarters of an hour.Then sombody comes with a big camera and says did you see the bittern just fly over your head, by now i was feeling souicidal and retreated to the public hide.Things picked up a little with a brief sighting of the kingfisher and the great black backed gulls were on guard.Two distant buzzards were displaying nice but dissapeared over the distant wood.
we also managed to dip on the marsh tit but by this time the rain was lashing down we managed 2 little egrets from griesdale hide and 1 snipe and a further 3 snipe from the hide next to griesdale.all the usual wildfowl and ducks were on show and 2 male goldeneye displaying to 3 females was nice to see.
morcome and ernie hides were also very quit apart from the force 5 hooley blowing across the bay small flocks of redshank about but couldnt find the spotted they all had their heads tucked in most of the time .a few blacktailed godwits and curlews also dotted about. had a a chat with a friendly and informative guy didnt catch his name but friendly with jonathan platt.
last stop back at the quarry to watch the peregrine doing abit of ariel display and the ravens came back to check if the peregrine had left any scraps .
We still managed 52 bird species on what was realy an awfull day but the company was great £100 for a new tyre

Arrived 9.15a.m. with Paul Topping(a new recruit to this forum)
From Erics hide, Redshank and Spotted Redshank, Greenshank, Little Egret,Black Tailed Godwit, Lapwing and thats about it.
Leighton itself; more Greenshank and Black Tailed Godwit, Teal, Shoveler, Gadwall, Mallard, Tufted Ducks, Little Egret but best of all was the juv Marsh Harriers messing about with pretend (I think) fighting whilst in flight. Brilliant views and made the day
Cheers Ian

Spent a pleasant afternoon. Went looking for the Cattle Egret that was spotted on Saturday. Unfortunately no sign. I don't think I'm going to get that one ticked off this year.

Did get 2 Marsh Harriers a Buzzard and 2 Spoonbills. Kept the other half happy with the Spoonbill. Lots of Avocets and BT Godwit.

Had a great day on tues at L M ,weather was superb, Female Bearded Tit was a tick for me ,superb views of Marsh Harriers and yes Gary we did find the quarry thanks and the views of the Peregrines were fantastic. I would recommend to anyone if your going to go to L M wharton crag is well worth visiting as well.

sunny day today but the easterly wind was litterally bringing down trees.only one or two sedges brave enough to show themselves, most birds keeping very low.
The peregrines were doing a few flyovers at the quarry but generally missing the local jackdaw population,the two chicks seem to be doing fine. unfortunately not so the little owls,poor mr blobby has met his maker:
probably a ford focus.hope mrs blobby can manage on her own with the kids
eric and ernie hides great veiws of one of the spoonbill feeding on the morcombe pool, along with avocets with chicks,redshanks,lapwings,gadwal and shoveller.allan pool was brimming with black tailed godwits and a flock of 10 knot.great watching the black headed gulls with their chicks but a few crows were making of with their eggs.
4 marsh harriers hunting about but even these elegant flyers were struggling with the hooley.also heared a green woodpecker but not seen.plenty of graylags around with chicks and 2 more spoonbills infront of grisedale hide.

Phil,
See Woodpecker hat-trick thread for info on Woodwell.
As for Bearded tits I have just seen my first one at leighton after 32 years of visiting so Good Luck.
Cheers Ian