Psilos Bird Journal
Thursday September 21st 2006
     
"A day by the seaside"
 
Knot
     
With the unseasonably warm weather continuing and with my son off school due to school closure I decided a trip to the coast was in order. One of my favourite places is Fairhaven Lake in Lytham, great for visitng rarities in the winter and just a great place to relax in summer. Late morning across on the beach and the tide was swiftly coming in. Thousands of Knot and Bar tailed Godwit were gradually being pushed further up the beach.
 
     
The fast moving tide was making them very flighty. Note the Bar tailed godwit in the top of the photo. Very soon they would all up and disappear looking for somewhere to land to wait out the high tide before they can go back and feed.
     

     

Over on the lake all the Tufted ducks that bred there this summer have moved on. There are just a few still hanging around.. Mallards, Coots, Moorhens ,Little grebe, Mute Swans and Canada geese are the only wildfowl on the lake.
     

     
Up the top end of the lake there are several interesting birds resting on the grass banking. To get close to them I move to the carpark at the top and lie down on the concrete overlooking them. Here there are a pair of Oystercatchers that are quite easy to get close to.
 
 
A preening Jackdaw also allows my close presence.
 
 

Coots are one of my favourite birds. They are very underated. A small group were feeding with a lovely foreground of daisies. Unfortunatly they were in deep shade and I had to wait patiently for them to move into the thin bands of light before I could photograph them.

 
 
Gulls on the water included Black headed, Common, Greater black backed and Lesser black backed including this juvenile.
 
 
After a couple of hours I go further up the coast. Stopping in one car park close by a cafe there are hundreds of starlings. Mainly juveniles their antics are a joy to watch. I feed them my lunch in order to bring them in close and even get to photograph them using my macro lens.
 
 
Further up the coast still we end up in Fleetwood. From the road we see a large flock of Turnstones by the side of a boating lake pushed up by the rsing tide. Walking round the far side we try to get closer but our attempts are foiled by the multitude of dog walkers that are around.
 
 
Chasing these birds is fruitless. In the end we settled down in the grass with the sun behind us and decided to wait until the birds are chased towards us. It didnt take long and when they arrived, within fifteen feet we had to work fast before they were off again.
 
 
Common and Lesser black backed gulls were numerous here also. One juvenile Lesser black could be heard crying for some time until the adult probably got fed up with him and flew away.
 
 
 
     
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