Friday 19 October 2012

Lapland Bunting, Pendle Hill Oct' 19th 2012

A genuinely rare bird in East Lancashire, this being only my second in the area.
And with a gap of around ten years since my last east Lancs sighting, i made
the effort to try and find it.

Found by Steve Grimshaw the day before, but seen poorly and briefly, i knew
it would be a 'needle in a haystack' scenario to locate. Luckily, after not too
much searching the bird was with a loose flock of Meadow Pipits and
although it was very difficult to see on the ground, eventually, it showed well
enough for some images to be taken.

The bird was present till at least 16:00 last seen by Martin Naylor. Hopefully
it will stay around for others to enjoy.














Wednesday 17 October 2012

Marshside Magic, 17th Oct' 2012

A good high tide today sent the rising water, spewing out over the banks of
the Ribble. A great place to witness the displacement of birds is at the old
sand works and the sky was full of birds flying in every direction!

I was tripping-up over Merlin sightings, Short-eared Owl, Peregrine, Kestrel
and Sparrowhawk were all hunting over the the banks. In addition, many
thousands of Pink-footed Geese and Wigeon, along with waders, Skylarks,
Meadow Pipits and Starlings. I simply didn't know where to look, what a day!



Pink-footed Geese


Black-tailed Godwits

Curlew

Skylark







Merlin

Tuesday 16 October 2012

Kingfisher, 14th October 2012

Some images of Kingfisher taken from the Eric Morecambe Hide.

Fish thrashing


Posing on the 'Kingfisher perch'









Saturday 13 October 2012

Ring Ouzel, 13th October 2012

A pleasant surprise to find a couple of Ring Ouzels and my first Fieldfare
of the autumn at Clowbridge this afternoon. The birds were feeding in the
hawthorn hedge near Limey Lane and in the fields.

with Fieldfare and Mistle Thrushes



Tuesday 9 October 2012

Shanks

Spot' Red, Greenshank and Redshank taken from the rebuilt Allen Hide
part of the Leighton Moss rspb reserve October 7th.