Bird watching at Rossall Point and FleetwoodThursday 16th October 2008 |
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Birdwatching on Thursday 16th October took us
to Rossall Point and the Fleetwood nature reserves. Thirteen members
turned out on a not very promising day which drove others to stay home,
but the weather was kind (if windy) to us and we were only caught by one
shower.
At Rossall the wind was bracing and the
waves crashing in as the tide rose. At first it looked as if we were
too late to see anything, but we soon found Turnstone and then, a
real bonus, a late wheatear (female, of course!). Later we saw a
flock of about 30 sanderling with a few dunlin and about 20 ringed
plover. The sea watch was difficult as anything out there could hide
in the troughs of the waves. We did find two eider.
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After lunch sitting in the sunshine at the
picnic tables, we moved to Fleetwood Marsh Nature Reserve which is
squeezed between the rubbish tip (the landfill site where Lancaster now
sends its refuse), the River Wyre and Freeport shopping centre. However,
there were some good pools for wildfowl and gulls and some open area
which gave us 6 skylarks.
From there we moved on along the Wyre,
first to Stannah where the birding was not too good, partly due to
the jet skiers on the river, and then to Skippool. At Stannah we
paused to refresh ourselves in the cafe before returning to our
birding. At Skippool we walked along the Wyre path to the Sailing
Club, peering between the boats at birds out on the mud left by the
falling tide. In the distance over Pilling, we could see skeins of
pink-footed geese coming in to land.
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Finally, on the way home we stopped to check
out Conder Green pool where we found 7 little grebes and the Conder
river where there was a female merganser.
A long day produced 40 species: little
grebe, cormorant, heron, mute swan, pink-footed geese, shelduck,
teal, mallard, pochard, tufted duck, eider, red-breasted merganser,
ruddy duck, kestrel, moorhen, coot, ringed plover, lapwing, knot,
sanderling, dunlin, snipe, black-tailed godwit, curlew, redshank,
turnstone, black-headed gull, common gull, lesser black-backed gull,
herring gull, great black-backed gull, woodpigeon, skylark, meadow
pipit, wheatear, magpie, crow, starling, greenfinch, goldfinch. Not
everyone may have seen all these, and some may have seen others.
Thank you to the drivers.
Jeff Butcher
Photographs by Jeff and Tina
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