250 up with a Long-tailed duck - Marshside

For the past few weeks I've been putting off going to Leighton Moss for the long staying Long-tailed duck. First I didn't want to meet the Autumn watch team, then it was the weather, then something else would come up, I just couldn't get round to going.

Then on Thursday I saw the semi p at Knott End which put me on 249 for the year, and I decided that I just had to go this weekend to avoid the risk of not reaching 250 this year. I was all set to go, then news came out yesterday of a Long-tailed duck at Marshside. Thankfully it was still there this morning, and saved me a long drive! A nice little bird, it was constantly diving. Also at Marshside, at least 500 Black-tailed godwits and a few thousand Pink-footed geese and wigeon, plus the 1st winter Ross's goose..... 251????

Year 250 (Long-tailed duck)

Juvenile Long-tailed duck on junction pool. It always surprises me how small they are, those are Pintail up-ending in the background and even though you can only see half of them, they are still clearly much bigger than the Long-tailed duck. This was my second LTD at Marshside but the previous one was 31 years ago, on 12th December 1982, on my first ever visit to Marshside with my Dad. That bird was also on Junction pool, and there has been at least one other on the same pool which I did not see. There's clearly something about the pool they like!

I'm not sure what that is sticking out at the back of the duck, but I promise you it's not it's tail! Only adult males have long tails, this is a juvenile. Perhaps it was stretching its wing when I took the photo. The Pintail seemed to be permanently up-ended, on just about every photo I took today they looked like this!

Eccleston Mere

Pochard 5 (3 males, 2 females)
Gadwall 5 (2 males, 3 females)
Tufted duck 6 (1 male, 5 females)
Snipe 1
Grey wagtail 1
Great spotted woodpecker 1

Semi-p at Knott End

I was back on the Fylde this morning, checking up on a Pink-footed goose mitigation scheme. There were thousands of geese in the area, and also at least 200 Whooper swans.

Just as I was packing up to head back to the office, I got a text from the boss telling me that there was a Semipalmated sandpiper at Knott End, just a few miles from where I was! I immediately headed for the esplanade where I found a group of about ten birders watching the bird on the sands with a group of Dunlin and Ringed plovers!  Only my second semi-p, or perhaps it was my first! The "first" was the disputed bird at Hoylake last year. Looks like I'll be coming down on the side of Western sandpiper with that bird then!

Year 249 (Semipalmated sandpiper)

A family party of Whooper swans on a flooded field. Notice the white bills of the juveniles and the mud around the base of the bills of the adults. Unlike passerines, all wildfowl migrate in family parties, and the juveniles are taught where to go by the adults. That's why feral geese are mainly resident even when they mix with their wild counterparts on their wintering grounds such as here in Lancashire, and it's also why fit and healthy wild birds will remain in this country over the summer if one of their parents gets injured over the winter and cannot return north.

I wonder if one of the consequences of this behaviour could be that species might forget about particular wintering grounds over a period of time. Take for example the Bewick's swan. Twenty years ago there were more Bewick's at Martin Mere than Whoopers, with up to 800 regular in winter. These days it can be a struggle to get them on your year list, largely due to milder winters, which mean that the Bewick's tend to stay on the continent rather than come here. Since the swans are taught where to go by the adults, could it be that over time, even if the winters became colder again, the species might simply forget about Martin Mere and might never return in such big numbers?

More Whoopers.

Birders on the beach watching the semi-p.

Knott End

Lytham to Blackpool

We parked at Lytham station, near the windmill, and walked the nine miles or so along the coast to Blackpool Tower. On the way we walked over sand dunes, saltmarsh, beach, rocky shores around Fairhaven Lake and through the illuminations.

Birds included 2000 Knot and some very approachable Sanderling and Redshanks.

Lytham windmill.

Redshanks.

Sanderling.

Partial alibino Jackdaw, or, as I prefer to call it, a partially melanistic Daurian Jackdaw!

Starling.

The Ribble Estuary.

Looking south from Blackpool Tower.

Dairy Farm Road

3000 Pink-footed geese in the field with the cattle. As always, a great sight, but not much else of note in driving hailstone.

Eccleston Mere

Tawny owl 1
Kingfisher 2
Gadwall 6+ (2 males, 4 females)
Little grebe 1
Pochard 1 male

Pennington Flash

Cetti's warbler 1 Ramsdales
Water rail 2 heard in Ramsdales
Willow tit 2
Goosander 1 redhead
Goldeneye 5
Nuthatch 1 on the feeders

I had a brief lunchtime visit to Pennington Flash and was rewarded with two new ticks for the place, Cetti's warbler and Nuthatch. The Cetti's was in Ramsdales reedbed and was heard singing several times, but was a bit of a so-and-so to see. Eventually though I did get a good, if brief view of the bird, singing in a wild rose bush about 5m in front of me. Cetti's warbler is one of those birds which has really spread in recent years, at one time they were a bird you had to travel to East Anglia for, or the south coast, but todays bird wasn't even a Greater Manchester tick for me.

Ramsdales.