6th may, 4.30- 9pm

1 glossy ibis, eventually & distant, I was stood at junction pool scoping the area & the ibis was right down the far end near hesketh road. it was preening & there was a chap with a camera pointing it in the direction of the ibis so I thought it seems settled & thought I might as well take a walk down there & get a closer look but unfortunately it was gone when I got there & the chap with the camera, I scanned around but nowhere to be seen
2 scaup, male & female showing well from junction pool.
2 little gull, feeding amongst the hundreds of black headed gulls on the pools near sandgrounders.
1 common sandpiper
40+ avocet
27 dunlin
lapwings, oystercatchers, shelducks, black tailed godwits & redshanks spread all around.
4 wigeon
tufted duck, shoveler, gadwall.
4 little grebe
2 wheatear
14+ sedge warbler
1 reed warbler
5 whitethroat
few swallows
3 house martin
several little egrets around.
plus all the usuals.

A very excellent day with a superb 59 species found and with some usual suspects absent. Highlights include; 2 Scaup males with 1 female (found at the far southern tip viewpoint- opposite the golf course), Three white fronted geese (thanks to a fellow birder), male white wagtail, 4 Mediterranean gulls, and thanks to the high tide, 16 eider ducks was a major surprise and 3 Jack snipes.Also to note was Golden plover (most now in summer plumage), grey plover, avocet, great and lesser black backed gull, wheatear and pintail. Now on my way back to get something for tea.....

10.30-15.00

Old Sand Works

1 Rock Pipit  

Several small flocks of Meadow Pipits were along the edge of the marsh, no sign of Skylarks though. 

8 Little Egrets were on the saltmarsh, and there are still large numbers of Pink Footed Geese feeding there too.

Sandgrounders

14 Avocets, 100+ Black Tailed Godwits, 2m Pochard, 2 Snipe, 10 Curlew and 6 Little Egrets. 

The Black Headed Gulls are noisily setting up their breeding colony again.

Nels

The marsh is 95% flooded, with masses of Wigeon, Shoveler, Teal and Pintail taking advantage of it.

Also there, 4 Little Grebes, 2m+1f Scaup, 16 Avocets, 3 Great Black Backed Gulls, 1 Buzzard (Only raptor seen) and 10 Curlew.

1 huge 2nd winter "Argentatus" was really bullying the other gulls.

The Scaup were at the Hesketh Road end associating with a group of Tufted Ducks. Cettis Warbler heard briefly by the screen on the path down to Nels.

 

 

on route to marshside along the beach from the pier a small flock of gulls came from over the road from the direction of the marine lake & a stonking white winger was with them & flew over my head but was heading away from me towards the pier, I put it out as a adult Iceland gull from the pale mantle but forgot to judge the actual size of the bird to the others with it & it ended up flying away on its own, I did get the yellow bill but only briefly. I wasn't quick enough to get a pic either

outer marsh..

800+ pink-footed geese
7 meadow pipit
5 skylark
1 little egret
8 ringed plover along the beach

nels hide..

31 avocet
1 ruff
5 snipe
hundreds of black tailed godwit
lapwing
teal
wigeon
shoveler
pintail
few redshank & shelduck

2 drake scaup from junction pool

sandgrounders hide...

1000+ golden plover
2 avocet
2 little egret
lapwing
teal
wigeon
shoveler
pintail
1 sparrowhawk
plus usuals around.

A very quick visit to Marshside RSPB due to lack of time produced 2 Great White Egrets out on the marshes from the Visitor Centre. The birds were as ever elusive at times when down in the ditches but showed well too, out in the open & in flight. I managed to show several visitors the birds through my scope, the unusual thing was that no-one had seen them yet as I entered the centre and one was out in the open, although quite a distance away!! Pintails were showing nicely in the nearest 'cut' of water to the centre, always a nice bird to see, the most elegant of ducks

Tues Jan 26th. 16.00 hrs.

With Ian Lyth.

Sheltering from the wind in Lillians hide.

Duck counts would be roughly the same as Shannons.
Pink-footed Goose over 1000.
Black-tailed Godwit and Lapwing well in the 1000's.
2 Great White Egret flew past at 16.45 as the light was fading.

Also 80+ Twite feeding on tide line between Marshside and Southport around 15.00 hrs.

A good day out with masses of birds and sound.

Roger.

Day out with the LOS... 1 great white egret 2,000 black tailed gotwit 100 golden plover 8 redshank Big numbers of wigeon, teal and pintail Little egret Curlew

9.30-11.30 with High Peak rspb. Highlights :

Ross's Goose

Merlin

2 Peregrine Falcon

Sparrowhawk

Goldeneye

2 Reed Bunting

Huge wader flocks out towards the sea throwing their shapes.

24th Monday from 09.00 to 10.30 - my first drop in to Marshside for many months.

The landscape and maintenance work at Sandgrounders Hide has apparently resulted in sparse bird life there for a while but it is good to see it "bedding in" and becoming more populated again. The predator fence seems like an excellent idea! There was a very nice Ross's Goose swimming with the Mallard and looking much the same size.

En route to Nel's, and not enjoying the morning traffic passing, I glance over the marsh an just caught the spectacular sight of a female Merlin catching a small bird in midair, and flying off with it for breakfast. And all in full view of the morning commute, if anybody had been looking!

I estimated at least 1500 Black Tailed Godwit from Nel's Hide - they were going up in clouds every time something spooked them. An amazing sight.
Otherwise nothing massivley unusual to report but I was en route somewhere else so didn't spend a vast amount of time at Nel's.
Good views of Shoveler, Pintail, Teal, Moorhen, Lapwing, Mute Swan, Curlew.

Late post for yesterday (27th) walk from main car park north along road with kids and although we had missed the tide, still productive.

singles of Merlin and Peregrine, 3 Marsh Harrier, small numbers of Pintail, 28+Little Egret, large flocks of Skylark, Linnet and Meadow pipit. Best of all though Great White Egret, asleep on cow field at North end with 3 Little egret, a new species for my self found list!

and both kids enjoyed it too ( might even be able to talk them in to going back when the tide is right!)

Day spent around here and its environs today; highlights were:

Main reserve pools itself, seen from Sandgrounders hide, the hill around the car park and along the path running parallel to the main road:

Meadow pipit, pied wagtail, linnet (one in song!), greenfinch, goldfinch, skylark, swallow, house martin.
100+ teal (the vast majority of ducks being this species)
2 little grebe
4 greenshank
10+ black-tailed godwit
10+ ruff
3 snipe
20+ lapwing
2 little ringed plover
1 little egret
3 grey heron
1 merlin
1 kestrel
1 great black-backed gull

Took a walk down the path from the car park out onto the mudflats at high tide:

c7,000 knot (putting on quite a display)
c1,000 grey plover (associating with the knot; obviously the numbers differentiation between the two is an estimate)
c5,000 oystercatcher
200+ dunlin (those that could be discerned away from the large flocks or seen in flight; undoubtedly more hidden)
c10 curlew
400+ herring gull
20+great black-backed gull
c500 cormorant (quite a sight!)
6 shelduck

Walking along Marine Drive with the reserve on your right, there's a small layby and concrete track on the left hand side (with a Ribble Estuary Nature Reserve sign up); below here is a series of pools that held:

4 linnet
c150 starling
100+ lapwing
31 golden plover
4 (at least) ruff
1 little egret
60+ wigeon
1 teal

Stunning day for it, too. :)

Decided to work today and made the most of some birding opportunities in Southport.

Tried for the Wryneck around Garstang Rd area, literally seconds from Marshside, but no reports on any sightings sites, and no sign of any birders or birding activity on that road so went to Marshside.

Sandgrounder's Hide.
- Hobby, came flying low over the marsh and perched on a fence post for over half an hour, was still there when I left. The RSPB guys thanked me for spotting it and said they'd never seen one at Marshside before in all their years of birding. It was distant but good scope views, it did a lot of preening and watching Swallows.
- lots of Swallows through
- 1 House Martin
- 1 Dunlin
- few Ringed Plover
- few Black-tailed Godwits
- few Meadow Pipits
- 1 Peregrine circling high up beyond the Hobby, saw this when leaving the hide
- few Ringed Plovers and Lapwing from Junction Pool Screen
- 4 Curlew from viewing screen near Nel's Hide

Nel's Hide has been closed until further notice because the pools have no water and virtually no birds present.

I spent a pleasant couple of hours or so today at Marshside,from about 1 pm until 3.30pm
I visited Sandgrounders hide, some Mallard and Tufted ducks a flock of about 50 Lapwings flying a few Greylag Geese and a few Great Cormorants and Grey Heron,as well as Barn swallows and House Martins flying around. I then walked on to sit on Pollies Bench and had great views of a Common Snipe and 11 Black- tailed Godwits, and my highlight of the day a Curlew Sandpiper,walking along the edge of the muddy creek,and then into the water feeding,it still had a small amount of reddish colouration around its breast area,great to see.Later on walking back towards Sandgrounders hide I saw a Curlew Sandpiper flying,it was at the dune side,and do not think that it was the same one but it could of been,as well as a small flock of Goldfinch.
I was told a Peregrine Falcon and a Merlin was seen earlier in the day.
All the best and Good Birding.

-- Edited by Mark Dean on Monday 17th of August 2015 09:45:54 PM

Quick visit yesterday with Simon Gough after reports of a Little Gull and us not being far away.

-No Little Gull for us sadly but lots of Black-headed and usual larger suspects
-No sign of the Garganey which could be the new Martin Mere bird today
-1 Little Egret
-4 Black-tailed Godwit
-a Dunlin flock of around 40 birds putting on a flight display
-plenty of Avocet
-Lapwing
-Redshank
-Shelduck
-Gadwall
-Shoveler
-1 House Martin (again)
-few Sand Martin
-lots of Common Swift
-lots of Swallow
-few Linnet about
-Goldfinch
-Greenfinch
-REED WARBLER without doubt the best views I've ever had of these and Simon agreed too. I reckon at least 6 were seen in the close vicinity. 2 were chasing each other about, whilst another 2 were exceptionally close right outside Nel's Hide with a couple more seen just beyond them. Fantastic!

1 Pectoral Sandpiper
2 Ruff
8 Avocet
10 Black-tailed Godwit

Richard Thew wrote:

---

Went in the expectation that (according to the rspb site for marshside) the avocets were super close to the sandgrousers hide as they have been on previous years. So imagine my shock to walk in there and find no birds but mostly a muddy mess due to some work that had been done on it...

---

I hope it's okay that I update on the above info here since several others were interested in what was happening at Marshside . The rspb have emailed me saying work was carried out between April 2nd to 7th to create a better barrier by erecting a temporary electric fence to prevent fox predation. Unfortunately, They haven't had chance to finish erecting the permanent fencing which was started in last winter with the messy part done in early January by moving the ditches. This is why the work was done so late on and was just unfortunate that things didn't go quite to plan. They will be waiting now till the summer to finnish replacing the temporary fencing with permanent fencing. They have also told me that visitors are of upmost important to them and that they had overlooked informing and updating visitors on the work being carried out. They had much appreciated me in bringing this to their attention and have adopted a new system to make sure they keep visitors upto date on any further potential work in the near future. You can now read the updates now on their website "rspb reserves, marshside". the avocets are now back on their island in front of the sandgrousers hide but the area is still somewhat bare. (Simular work was done at Leighton moss a few years ago with a similar problem of foxes, the recent years of success with their avocets shows how successful the fence work should be also reflected at marshside).

They tell me they have had regular sightings of Mediterranean gulls, common sandpiper, black tailed godwits, little egret and redshank. If I get chance, I may visit in autumn as I won't get an opportunity for a while now. Wish you all the best and many thanks!! Either way, I will definatly look forward to visiting the next time!

First Willow Warbler of the season singing outside Nell's Hide.
Avocets plentiful.
Black-Tailed Godwits and Golden Plover both in magnificent breeding plumage.
Little Grebe [4] very active.

Jonathan Platt wrote:

---

Richard Thew wrote:

---

Thanks for the extra info sid I'd thought I'd also mention here that I decided to send them an email anyway to them to make them aware that there could be a problem to visitors expecting the avocets settling down outside the hide and not knowing that any previous work was done (or perhaps work still being carried out). Ta!!

---

Marshside is a nature reserve and, as such, is managed. I'm sure the work that's been done is essential (think it might be to clear silted channels) and has been done at a time to cause the least disturbance possible. We should, perhaps, remember that reserves are there to serve the birds, we are simply spectators. I think there are record counts of Avocets at Marshside this spring - they must be doing something right

---

Jonathan I have sent you a PM.

Thanks for the extra info sid I'd thought I'd also mention here that I decided to send them an email anyway to them to make them aware that there could be a problem to visitors expecting the avocets settling down outside the hide and not knowing that any previous work was done (or perhaps work still being carried out). Ta!!

Ps. They have worked nice and hard with what they do but, this was only about the miss-leading information and no update on essential conservation work thats on their web page. Many thanks.

-- Edited by Richard Thew on Friday 3rd of April 2015 11:34:13 AM

Went in the expectation that (according to the rspb site for marshside) the avocets were super close to the sandgrousers hide as they have been on previous years. So imagine my shock to walk in there and find no birds but mostly a muddy mess due to some work that had been done on it . Main highlights from the other hide was a little grebe very close, a few ruffs developing their breeding plumage, a common redshank pair mating, at least 200 black tailed godwits with 50 avocets a little way out and a close encounter of a skylark. By lunch, I had enough and took of to martin mere for the rest of the day....

Originally posted yesterday by Mike Berry:

49 species in under two hours: 12.00-1.45
Highlight was 25 Avocets

Walked round the northern half of the reserve this morning after dipping on any Bewick's or Whooper Swans at Hundred End earlier on (and later!).

On the reserve -

Uncountable numbers of Wigeon - goes without saying really.
Also large groups of Lapwing
mixed in with Golden Plover
Lesser number of Black Tailed Godwit

Shoveler
Pintail
Shelduck
Mallard
Jackdaw
Carrion Crow
Starling
Pied Wagtail
1 Little Egret
Curlew
Pink-footed Geese

Crossen's Marsh

7 Little Egret
1 Great White Egret
1 Male Sparrowhawk
Shelduck
Mallard
Pink-footed Geese
Several Canada Geese over


On the sports field of the school east of the reserve

60 Curlew
9 Black Tailed Godwit
numerous starlings
all feeding voraciously on the mown turf - must be a good source of worms! A slightly surreal sight really.

11-00-15.00

Old Sand Works area

A flock of 15 Reed Buntings, a mixed flock of 7 Linnets + 9 Goldfinches, also 4 Skylarks and 3 Song Thrushes.

Saltmarsh

2 Great White Egrets, 10 Little Egrets, 2f Sparrowhawks, 1 Buzzard, 12 Curlew and 1m+1f Kestrels.

Also masses of Pink Footed Geese with lesser numbers of Canada Geese.

Crossens Inner/Sandgrounders

The Ross's Goose is moving around with a group of Mallard. I counted a flock of 580 Black Tailed Godwits, but then realised there were

many more mixed in with the mass of Wigeon and Teal.

Nels Hide/ Junction Pool

Again masses of Teal, Wigeon and Black Tailed Godwits, but also here lots of Shoveler and Pintails too.

Also 15 Redshanks and 11 Snipe. At one point a female Sparrowhawk flushed everything, although they all settled again after she had passed.

Hesketh Road Platform

4 Black Tailed Godwits, 2 Curlews plus more Wigeon and Teal.

a walk along the beach as the tide came in, waders inc...

oystercatcher
knot
dunlin
redshank
grey plover
golden plover
lapwing
curlew
majority of the smaller birds on the marsh were skylark with few meadow pipit
60+ linnet
3 greenfinch
hundreds of shelduck & lots of wigeon were flying onto the sea.
there was also a fishermans net on the beach with a lot of dead dogfish in it, not a very pleasant sight & smell

nels hide..

1200+ black tailed godwit nice & close so great viewing, with only 1 redshank amongst them
several lapwing
big numbers of teal & wigeon
few shoveler & pintail

sandgrousers hide.. 1 teal

crossens outer marsh...

huge numbers of pink footed goose with lots more coming in at dusk.
21 little egret
no raptors.

1 stoat