Short Session

36 hours (so far) of rain and wind in Lancashire has meant no posts on Another Bird Blog. This morning’s rubbish weather restricted birding to an hour with the incoming tide at Knott End before the rain rushed in from the south west to send me scurrying back home. In the circumstances this is but a brief report from which there are a few good counts from the sixty minutes, but not too many bright new pictures from the grey overcast morning.

At the jetty I could see 10 juvenile Eider and 4 Cormorant loafing at the point where the construction tails off into the estuary. As the tide ran in and the 9am ferry arrived from Fleetwood the birds all took to the water, Eiders upstream and Cormorants out to the deeper waters of the bay.

A number of terns and gulls arrived on the beach with the rising tide, 41 Sandwich Tern, 4 Common Tern and 130 Black-headed Gull, where they joined 270 Oystercatcher, 2 Whimbrel, 1 Bar-tailed Godwit, 2 Knot and 7 more Cormorants. Coming from the direction of Preesall Sands I counted 1100 Dunlin, 9 Ringed Plover and 4 Golden Plover, all heading upriver to the Barnaby Sands roost.

Golden Plover
Dunlin and Golden Plover

Luckily, I got a half decent picture of a Sandwich Tern a week ago when an adult bird accompanying a fully-fledged youngster came to warn me off when I approached too close. The second picture which appears to be black-and-white was actually taken this morning in the grey, cloudy, overcast conditions. However, autumn is a great time to watch terns in the local area as they breed some distance away from the Fylde coast.

Sandwich Tern
Sandwich Tern and Common Tern

When the rain came with more force, I took to the car and sat out the rain for a while as the ever present gulls waited patiently for bread hand outs from parked vehicles. The gulls might have had a longer wait than normal today, a day for not venturing out.

Lesser Black-backed Gull