Woke to grey skies and rain and not a hint of the sun the weathermen had promised us for today. Decided to go out whatever the weather had in store as I was reasonably confident the sun would put in an appearance. Made my way to Crosby marina on the hunt for 69 Scaup, Snow buntings and any Little gulls that might be passing through. Wasn’t sure how easy the scaup would be to find but didn’t have to worry as they were the first thing I saw as I arrived. A huge raft of male and female scaup, drifting far out on the main lake and nearly all of them were fast asleep. Sadly they were too far out for a decent photograph and it didn’t look like there was going to be any kind of real activity soon. Also on the lake there were plenty of Goldeneye. These were far more accommodating and I got some lovely views of them.

Further up on the smaller lakes there were more golden eye and quite a few tufted duck. Lesser black backed and Common gulls are very common here but there was no sign of any little gulls today. A ring billed gull had also been recorded often but I wouldn’t know one if it jumped up and showed me his entry in my pocket field guide. On the grass banks next to the lakes there was a large flock of approximately forty redshank, that quickly took flight and flew off over the lake, a dozen black tailed godwits and several oystercatchers. Decided to brave the beach for a little while to look for snow bunting that were seen there yesterday. Have to say though that the wind was blowing so hard my search wasn’t very thorough. I had had enough of the cold wind and decided to find a place that was more sheltered.

 

Ended up at Mere sands Wood, a favourite place that I have enjoyed going to recently to photograph the birds at the feeding station. Lots of birds around today and lots of bird song. All the usual birds could be seen including the water rail that frequently ventured out. The long tailed tits were great today. I found a pair that appeared to be nest building in the gorse and I watched them gathering woollen fibres off the gorse thorns. There were also many more of these birds busily feeding in the alder trees and I was able to photograph them well. I never tire of photographing these birds.

Entering the hide that overlooks the main lake the first bird I saw was a kingfisher as it flew low, flashing its neon feathers, in front of us and landed on a far branch where it proceeded to fish for quite some time. It was a male bird but was too distant to get a good photograph. Took a record shot and will have to be content with that until I get a closer view. Also on the lake there were several teal and shoveler. In the trees round the edge there were jays, chaffinches, more long tailed tits, wren a tree creeper and a bird that was flushed and which I am pretty sure was a woodcock.

The weather just like bird watching can be very frustrating. My time that afternoon was limited and during my time out the skies had been heavy and grey. Now I had to leave and the sun was coming out! Leaving Mere sands the clouds were breaking up and showing great swathes of blue sky. By the time I had driven over the moors it was the best part of the day. How typical was that!