Catching up with the past few weeks !

 

Hi it has been a few weeks now since I last posted anything on here. So this is a quick attempt at catching up with things. Plenty of
good birds have been visiting the North West whilst the whole of our country has enjoyed a long and fairly hot summer.
It has been a good season for many reasons and let us all hope that many bird species have been able to fledge many broods this year. It has been a long while since I have seen so many Butterflies and Dragonflies. The last Swallows have not moved southwards yet as I write this. Today 14/10/2013 two Swallows have been seen in the east Lancashire area.

Visiting Spurn point on the east coast is always special and my last trip was memorable for all the wrong reasons. Whilst down at Sammy's point I fell off a wall breaking the back of my camera and cracking a couple of ribs as well as bruising my pride.
Though on a good note I did catch up with two Wryneck, a possible Barred warbler, and a superb Sparrowhawk strike yards in front of me. Other birds seen were Whinchat, Stonechat, Spotted and Pied flycatcher, Little Egret all before setting off towards Hull accident and emergency department.

Leighton Moss has been superb on the wader front this past few weeks with Pectoral Sandpiper, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Ruff, Greenshank, Spotted Redshank, Green Sandpiper and Wood sandpiper.

A quick visit one evening with Gary Waddington ( check out his blog)! Produced good numbers of waders along with Marsh Harrier, Kingfisher and few minutes of decent Otter watching. That evening we counted 75 Little Egrets coming into roost. Whilst walking back to the car we had  numerous Bats swooping around our heads. I believe Leighton Moss holds 8 of the 16 species of Bats that are found in Britain, I think that is quite impressive.
Spotted Redshank photo taken at Leighton Moss RSPB.
Wood sandpiper photo taken at Grimsargh reservoir, Longridge.
Closer to home we have had Black necked grebe that I was unable to find when I visited Alston reservoirs, Little stint at Lower Foulridge reservoir, found by Gary Waddington. Two Yellow browed warblers found by John Metcalf and Russell Carter. I was lucky to catch up with one of the warblers one evening and a Ring necked parakeet the same evening.
The past week or so just outside of what I would call " our local patch" we have had four Glossy Ibis at a place called Doffcocker near Bolton. I visited yesterday and found nothing, nowt, not a damn thing. I scanned the fields from 3.30pm and checked every blade of grass. Then around 5.30pm I poured myself a drink from my flask and contemplated going home when all of a sudden all four of them wizzed past me from right to left and out of view before I could even put my brew down. Bugger !
This morning I was up with the early birds and back off towards Doffcocker. Shortly after arriving at the same spot I noticed four Curlew like birds busy feeding in a field 100 yards or so to my left...I set off in my best stalker mode.

Though at first the light was poor and the birds quite distant I waited and waited until they marched slowly towards my camera.
A great bird in this area and I did manage to get all four in frame at once, before the drizzle started to descend  and the Glossy Ibis moved further away.
I believe these birds breed mainly in eastern Europe around the Danube delta, Yugoslavia and northern Greece. Wintering in Africa Sahara region.
So overall it has been quite good here in the north west over the  past few weeks. Autumn is now here and the Redwings have arrived and Whooper Swans have been spotted.  Lots of birds have left us but new ones will arrive for the winter. Lets hope that we get some good ones.

My next post will be about my friend Anne, and her photos from her days out and holidays !