Friday 24 December 2010

Seasons Greetings

At this time of peace and good will to all men during the pseudo Christian/Pagan festival that we all get 'sucked' into, I was once again incensed by some of the irresponsible dog walkers on my patch at Rossall Point. As I walked on to the front this morning, the picture below is what greeted me. I have said this before, but why can't these filthy people take their dogs shite home with them?! Some poor Council worker will have to clear this and why should they?!?



Anyway, I didn't intend to start my Christmas Eve posting with a rant! So, let's rewind and start again. I went to Rossall this morning to watch the incoming tide and when I arrived at 9.00 a.m. the tide was a long way out and the muscle beds to the east were exposed. On these a number of waders fed and I could see that there were about 530 Oystercatchers and 1,050 Knot.

As I was estimating the number of Oystercatchers and Knot 30 Woodpigeon flew east and so did 2 Redwings. I expected a few more cold weather displaced passerines this morning, but these were the only ones. In addition to the Oycs on the muscle beds I had a further 164 and other waders included 22 Dunlin, 27 Turnstones, 13 Redshanks, 39 Sanderlings and 4 Grey Plovers.

As of recent weeks Cormorants still poured into the bay and this morning I had 606, which is a record count for me. It was fairly quiet on the sea and all I had were 130 Eiders, 7 male Red-breasted Mergansers, Great Crested Grebe, 8 Common Scoters, 3 Mallards and a Red-throated Diver. Walking off the 'Point' I bumped into Ian and he put me onto a nice flock of 27 Whooper Swans on the sea drifting into the bay on the incoming tide.

On the way home I stopped in a layby on Amounderness Way to look at the Pink-footed Geese feeding in the pastures of Fleetwood Farm. I had a good look through the 2,000 'Pinkies' but couldn't see anything else amongst them.




I would like to wish all my fellow birders, ringers, bloggers and readers the Seasons Greetings and if you can get out birding on Christmas Day. I know I will!

3 comments:

alessia said...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS! :)

Anonymous said...

Hi FB. Many thanks for becoming a follower of my blog. Very much appreciated, Cheers.

All the best for christmas & the new year.

The Hairy Birder said...

All the best to you both. By the way I got out birding this morning, but will post later.