In And Out Of The Fog

Martin picked me up Friday a.m for a trip to see a high tide wader roost at Southport. The weather on leaving Preston was promising with blue skies and sunshine. As we arrived at Marshside a wall of fog greeted us and all of a sudden things didn't look good. We made the decision to carry on and make the walk out to the wader roost about a mile from the car park. Over the next few days there was a series of ten metre tides which usually concentrates the waders along this stretch of coastline and provides great opportunities for observing and photographing the thousands of waders that are very often present.
As we arrived at the roost area we could see some birds through the mirk and gloom and could only hope that the sun would burn off the fog. At times the sun was just visible but always seemed to lose the battle and the fog prevailed. Even so we did have some views of vast flocks of birds as they were disturbed by a dog walker and we did manage to grab a few images in the poor light. As the tide dropped back we decided to retreat back to the car. Driving back past Marshside we could see good numbers of waterfowl out on the marsh and decided to have a look.
It was a good decision as there were lots of ducks in front of Nel's Hide and we had the comfort of the hide to enjoy the spectacle. The light was still not good but from time to time it briefly improved to give us opportunities to photograph the pintail, wigeon ,teal and gadwall which were on show. It was very enjoyable for a time and both Martin and myself were kept busy trying for action shots of the many birds present. As we came out of the hide the fog was thickening up again but as we joined the main road home we were back into blue skies and sunshine again. Such is the unpredictability of our weather. We had however enjoyed the day out and had managed to return home with something to show for our efforts. The results of our day out in the fog are shown above, a couple from the wader roost showing some of the vast numbers of birds present and a few from in front of Nel's Hide at Marshside.