The 3rd Birding.UK.com Annual Forum Outing 2011

It's hard to believe another year has gone by and I am blogging my 3rd B.UK forum trip which was, as I'm sure most of you know, held at Lancashire's premiere birding hotspot, Leighton Moss.

British Rail behaved itself and I arrived as scheduled at 07.50 just as Stuart (Astafjevs) and Annette (his partner) arrived at the reserve entrance to collect me and the rain began to spit!

The meet & greet over, we headed off to the Allen and Eric Morcambe salt-marsh hides.

Peter B was due to be waiting for us in the car park and sure enough, there he was. We re-enacted the meet & greet (scene 2) and once we had prepared ourselves and our respective kits (Peter's behemoth lens over his shoulder), we set off along the path to the hides.

What a great start to the days birding it was too. The salt-marsh hides provided the first 21 species (of what was to become a list of 47) the highlights being several Greenshank, Ruff and Spotted Redshank. Annette spotted and called a Kingfisher - I managed to register the blue flash going by!

We headed back to the main reserve for around 09.30, presented our membership cards and stood outside admiring a Nuthatch on the feeders. Ironically, Peter was using the facillities when a Dunnock appeared and had to have it pointed out to him

Within a few minutes we were approached from stage left by Dave H and his wife, Gill. We re-enacted the meet & greet (scene 3) and by a unanimous decision, headed off to the public causeway to see the Bearded tits.

Annette proved herself to be the champion spotter of the day, finding a beardie low down in the reeds. Unfortunately for myself and Peter, we were further along the causeway so missed it!

After spending some time in the public hide, we set off along the woodland path to the lower hide.

A juvenile Bullfinch was seen along the way, I heard a Chiffchaff and Stuart was fairly certain he'd heard a Cetti's warbler. Upon checking the LBWS website later that day, a Cetti's Warbler was seen along the causeway, so all credit to Stuart!

Lower hide provided distant views of a juvenile Marsh Harrier perched in a dead tree. Soon enough it took to the air and hunted over the reed beds for a while, it's flight impressively effortless.

We headed back to the main reserve and soon came to a tree, full of life, everywhere you looked were Coal tits, Blue tits, Chaffinches, a Marsh tit and a delightful Treecreeper to name a few!

We had a half hour pit-stop to re-fuel ourselves and then made for the main hides where the Marsh Harrier put in another appearance and some Pochards, Tufted ducks, Coots and Mallards were the main attractions.

Stuart and Annette headed off just before 2pm, courtesy of Bristol Rovers V Morecambe, Peter headed off about 5 minutes later, coutesy of a 4 hour drive and I hung around with Dave and Gill until heading off myself at 2.30pm, courtesy of British rail time tables.

After a really enjoyable days birding, our total sightings were:

Wigeon
Teal
Redshank
Greenshank
Spotted Redshank
Grey Heron
Pheasant
Starling
Lapwing
Black-tailed Godwits
Curlew
Little Egret
Greylag goose
Gadwall
Carrion Crow
Kingfisher
Pied Wagtail
Kestrel
Linnet
Swallows
Dunnock
Nuthatch
Chaffinch
Coal tit
Mallard
Bearded tit
House Martins
Coot
Cormorant
Great Crested Grebe
Mute swan
Tufted duck
Bullfinch
Robin
Marsh Harrier
Great tit
Marsh tit
Blue tit
Treecreeper
Greenfinches
Collared dove
Magpie
Pochard
Moorhen
Jay
Shoveler

I decided to go to Morecambe Bay for a couple of hours on the way home, so changed trains at Lancaster.

I had no new sightings for the day, but I did see about 30+ Curlew, 200+ Oystercatcher, 100's of Lapwing, Many redshank, a small group of Starlings, Herring gulls galore, a smattering of Lesser Black-backed gulls, one or two Greater Black-backed gulls and a gathering of Black-headed gulls.

Here are a few images. The Ruff is one I took, all other images are by Peter - they are far better than mine

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