I'm glad all the festive celebrations are over, and we can get back to normal. Apologies to those of you that enjoy the mid-winter festivities, however you celebrate!
It was Boxing Day before Gail and I could get out, and after all the family had departed, we managed an hours walk after lunch along the Wyre estuary from the Quay. It was a very grey day, one of those days where it seems to barely come light, but at least it was calm, and therefore didn't feel too cold.
There were a few waders out on the mud in the quay, namely 35 Redshanks, 11 Oystercatchers, and 11 Knot. We had a group of 19 Teal, plus four other birds (two pairs) that were doing what I call 'sledge feeding'. This is resting their breast and belly on the mud, and pushing themselves along with their feet, as they move their heads from side to side feeding. It is of course just filter feeding, but the sledging helps them to feed.
Out on the Wyre we noticed a hundred Lapwings, and 150 Golden Plovers get up, and we assumed they had been flushed by the pair of Peregrines that were knocking about. A group of 50 Wigeon were on the edge of the river, and that was it for birds.
We found some Smooth Sow-thistle that was flowering, and some Vetch and White Stonecrop that looked particularly verdant, making us think that spring was just around the corner, when we know there's a fair bit of winter to get through yet.
Since I last posted, Gail and I have been keeping our feeding station going, but haven't managed to have a ringing session as yet. A couple of days before the end of December, after we had topped all the feeders up, we had a wander through the woodland that the feeding station is next to on our good friend's farm. It was nice to have a wander amongst the trees, and in the process we flushed three Woodcocks, and a Tawny Owl heard us coming and made an exit before we got anywhere near it. Interestingly, it was fairly close to a box that was used by Tawny Owls last year, so that could be promising.
We found some lovely examples of Birch Polypore on some fallen Birch dead-wood. It is a very common fungus, and according to my Collins Fungi Guide, one of the commonest in England, but spectacular nonetheless.
We didn't get out on New Year's Day, mainly because the weather wasn't great, but managed a walk in the crisp sunshine along the back of the golf course to Rossall Point, and back along the shore.
Going back to the 1980s, the back of the golf course, or behind the sea wall, used to be regularly frequented by flocks, yes flocks, of Snow Buntings and Twite. Not today alas, just a Meadow Pipit and Pied Wagtail foraging around the wet flushes and rank grassland.
The tide height was over 9 metres, and this had pushed 91 Oystercatchers onto the golf course, where some roosted, and others fed. As we reached the dunes, we were greeted by a pair of Stonechats that were feeding along the interface between the sea wall, that faces south into the sun, and the dunes. They were using the fence posts to perch on, and sally forth from on their feeding sorties.
On the shore, over a couple of sections of beach, and out on the new stone groynes, 161 Turnstones, 70 Ringed Plovers, 60 Sanderlings, a Dunlin, and a Purple Sandpiper roosted. We didn't have a 'scope with us, so all we recorded on the sea were 20 Eiders and a Red-throated Diver that headed west.
On the way home, we had a look through the Pink-footed Geese, c. 500 of them, that were feeding in the farm fields, but we couldn't find any other species lurking amongst them.
We were back at the Quay a dew days ago, and the complete cloud cover was keeping all the cold in, and the south-easterly wind was biting. Not quite as many Redshanks and Oystercatchers this time, just 15 and 9 respectively, but the Knot numbers had increased to 21.
No sledge feeding Teal today, just 12 hauled out on the mud. A group of 22 Mallards were feeding in the creeks of, and on the saltmarsh, and 60 Wigeon were on the river. A Great Spotted Woodpecker along the edge of the old ferry car park was a good record.
On the way home we had a look through the Pinkies again, and there were 700 of them, and nothing else. The forecast is looking not too shabby for the next few days, but typically I've got various things on. I think it's called Sod's law!
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