Blame It On The Northwesterlies

A hoped for second morning of ringing was cancelled due to the stiff northwesterly wind, so I headed for Rossall to watch the tide. I knew it would be poor because of the wind direction but it was the fact that it was a morning tide that had me heading out. It wasn't as early a start as it would have been if we had been ringing but a 5.15 a.m. alarm call was early enough!

As expected there was very little on the sea and all I had were 22 Common Scoters, a Gannet and 6 Sandwich Terns. After about an hour of 'nothingness' Ian said there had been a nice selection of returning waders in the week, so we went to have a look at the small, but increasing daily, number of waders roosting on the shingle. We were treated to stonking views of 68 Sanderling, 13 Ringed Plovers, 46 Turnstones and 3 Dunlin.

 Sanderling

Turnstone

On the way home I called in at the Nature Park and had a quick look on the pools. Totals included 33 Mallard, 5 Little Grebes, 35 Coot, 8 Tufted Ducks and 4 Pochards. A flock of 29 Goldfinch were feeding on site and that was about it. I've got a busy week this week at work so pre-work early morning sessions will be limited, but as ever I will try and squeeze one or two in!