Pretty as a Picture

Following last week's red throated diver another uncommon bird came to visit the Lancashire coastline. A juvenile grey phalarope was found on Fairhaven Lake at Lytham St Annes. This again was a casualty from last week's very strong winds and had dropped in at Lytham to refuel before continuing it's migratory journey. As is often the case with birds from Arctic regions it was very tame and was a photographer's dream and was often too close to focus.
I joined many others at Fairhaven Lake and we had a bonanza and many thousands of images must have been taken of this very photogenic bird. It was nice to meet up with local birdwatchers and photograhers and we enjoyed some better weather and at times the light was perfect for photography. It was still quite breezy and this put a nice swell on the water and with reflections from surrounding buildings made for some great opportunities for the many lenses present.
As I write this blog the bird has departed the lake and has not been seen today. It did however once again give much pleasure to those lucky enough to see it during it's brief stay and gave the photographers many lovely images to add to their collections. I have shown some of my images above and I hope my readers enjoy looking at this special little wader.

Good News / Sad News

The good news was that last week a summer plumaged Red Throated Diver had turned up on the Marine Lake at Fleetwood and was giving excellent views. Mike and I were having a day's birding on the Friday and couldn't decide whether to go for the RTD at Fleetwood or travel up to Heysham where a Sabine's Gull was also showing well.Just before we set off I had a phone call from Paul Foster who was at Fleetwood watching the diver at very close range. So it was, an hour later, we arrived at the Marine Lake and could immediately see the diver showing close to the side of the lake. The light was not good following some persistent drizzle but it slowly improved throughout our stay and we had some excellent views of the bird.
The news had spread via the internet and a good number of local birdwatchers and photographers came to see the bird. At one point the diver disappeared and we all thought it had flown out to sea. As Mike and I were thinking of moving on it reappeared and once again gave wonderful close up views as it patrolled around the lake. It seemed unconcerned by all the attention and due to the way it was behaving gave some cause for concern. It drifted about lazily with it's eyes closed for much of the time and was inactive and didn't once dive to search for any fish that may have been about unlike the cormorants that were also present which would occasionaly catch flounders . I managed a nice shot of a cormorant with a flounder which is shown above.
Mike and I decided to move on and our next port of call was the estuary of the River Wyre at Skippool Creek. Here the tide was going out and waders were coming to feed on the exposed mud . There was a nice little group of waders present in one of the creeks containing a couple of greenshanks which I managed to photograph as they fed in the now pleasant afternoon sunshine. With this improvement in the light we decided to return to Fleetwood to see the diver again. More photographers were present and the diver was posing very close to the side and at times was almost too near for the camera to focus. Again some wonderful images were obtained in the much better conditions which showed off it's wonderful plumage to full advantage. The unusual behaviour of the bird continued as it scrambled out of the lake and onto the concrete surround and sat down to enjoy the pleasant late sunshine. With this we decided to call it a day and head for home after a super day out.
Now for the sad news...As suspected the diver was not well and I learned yesterday evening that it had been found dead on the Sunday following our visit on the Friday . This was indeed very sad news as although not feeding the bird appeared to be mobile and from time to time it would flap its wings which also seemed undamaged. It had however in it's last days provided some wonderful memories and images for those lucky enough to be in it's presence at Fleetwood's Marine Lake. As usual I have shown above some images of this fabulous bird and some of the action from around the lake on a day that will long remain in the memory.

More Waders

Following on from my last posting I am showing some more wader images obtained during last week's high tides at Southport and Rossall. Most of the ones shown above are from Rossall Point at Fleetwood. At Rossall the waders roost very close to the promenade and at times the sanderling particularly came extremely close to the camera and were not put off by the human activity on the prom. Virtually all of these sanderling were juveniles recently returned from their birthplace in the high Arctic and probably from Greenland. This may have been their first encounter with humans and like many birds from the far North they can be very confiding.
Fellow wildlife photographer Martin and myself had a wonderful time photographing the birds and explaining to some interested passers by what they were and where they had come from. Most people had not seen the groups of birds roosting on the beach and went on their way ignorant of the long distance travellers that had made it to the Lancashire coastline on their very long journey from Arctic breeding grounds. Martin and I were reluctant to leave on what had been a very pleasant day's session with the cameras and enjoyed in some very nice late summer weather.
Most of the images shown above are of the very obliging sanderling which at times came too close for focusing !! A couple of images are shown above of turnstones one resting and showing the lovely colours of the plumage, and the other of a turnstone actually in the act of turning over a stone. Also posing nicely for the cameras were lots of ringed plovers ,the ones above are juvenile birds which were present in large numbers. A roosting dunlin also shows off the lovely rich colours of it's plumage.
Hoping my readers enjoy my latest selection of images and thanks for looking in. There are more very high tides at the end of this month and I look forward to returning to capture the beauty of the mass flocks of waders which grace the Lancashire coastline at this time of the year.

Wader Watching...Red Knot

It has been a while since I have posted any images. This last week however has seen me back in business. There has been a series of high tides coinciding with some warm late summer weather, ideal conditions to revisit some of my favourite locations on the Lancashire coastline. I made two visits to the coast at Southport and one with good friend and photographer Martin to Rossall Point at Fleetwood.
There were good numbers of waders present particularly at Southport where a large wader roost provided me with many opportunities to capture some excellent images. For this first post I have concentrated on the Red Knot. Knot were present in very large numbers and packed together at high tide to form a large carpet of birds. Many of the birds were still showing signs of their red breeding plumage and one particularly handsome bird is shown above in it's breeding finery after which it is of course named. Most however were showing typical grey winter plumage but amongst them were some juvenile birds with lovely feather detail again shown in close up above.
The knot were disturbed from time to time by dog walkers and others who seemed determined despite my protests to walk right through the roosting flocks and send them all up into the air. This did however present opportunities for some impressive flight shots also shown above. As the high tide retreated so did the birds going further out onto the feeding grounds on the beach. I followed a group of birds and managed to get close to a mixed group of knot, dunlin and sanderling. Again close ups of these birds were obtained in very nice afternoon sunshine and I was very well pleased with the results.
I have shown above various images of the knot on the roost and in flight and hope they convey some of the excitement of witnessing one of Nature's great spectacles. Further posts will concentrate on the other waders seen during this week's high tides when I was able to get up close and personal with sanderling,dunlin,ringed plover and turnstone.... Watch this space !!!

Local Viewpoints

This week I have not been out with the big lens photographing the local wildlife owing to very poor weather and other commitments. I did however carry a small compact camera with me and this week by way of a change I am showing some of the local scenery in this part of Lancashire. One super viewpoint not very far from home is at Jeffrey Hill on the northern slope of Longridge Fell. Here from the roadside you have a magnificent view across the Vale Of Chipping to the Bowland Fells to the north east of the lovely village of Chipping. This is a popular spot with motorists and on a fine day there can be few better views in Lancashire.
The second viewpoint demands a little more effort and a climb to the summit of Clougha Pike at just over 1200 feet. On the way up and from the summit there are magnificent views across Morecambe Bay to the Lake District Fells and across to the three Yorkshire Peaks of Whernside, Ingleborough and and Pen-y- ghent. Currently the heather is coming into flower and swathes of purple enhance the journey to the summit of this delightful Lancashire Peak. The images above show views of the Bowland Fells from Longridge Fell and finish with views from the heather covered slopes of Clougha Pike. If any of my readers have the opportunity to visit either of these viewpoints you will not be disappointed with some of Lancashire's finest scenery.

Deer Watching

Last week I made a long overdue visit to Leighton Moss. I had heard that the red deer were showing well and so I arrived at the Griezdale Hide deep in the reed beds around mid afternoon. I could immediately see a number of deer both hinds and stags and all were lying down in the reeds and grass to shelter from the very warm afternoon sun. There was little activity until something spooked all the deer and I was treated to a magnificent sight as a number of stags charged across an open area and into the dense reedbeds in front of the hide. Needless to say I fired off a salvo of shots with the camera hoping to capture the fast moving action. The stags soon vanished into the reed beds and didn't reappear during my stay and so once again I had been in the right place at the right time and was pleased with the images I obtained.
The rest of my stay until early evening was spent watching the red deer hinds and their fawns which were feeding and showing well in an area to the west of the Griezdale Hide. It was a very pleasant scene as they chewed the cud and fed on the reeds and grasses close by. From time to time the fawns returned to their mothers for a feed , still dependent on mother's milk to help them through their early months of life in the reed beds of Leighton Moss. It had been a very interesting few hours spent at Leighton Moss and I returned home well pleased with the images I had managed to capture of these magnificent red deer.The stags in particular looked wonderful showing off their sets of antlers.These will be put to good use in combat in the months ahead when the reed beds at Leighton Moss resound to the sights and sounds of the annual rut. It was a privilege to witness and I hope I have managed to convey some of the excitement I experienced in my images shown above.