Mainly Snipe

Last week's weather had been very wet with days of persistent rain. At last towards the end of the week things began to improve and Martin and I decided on a trip to Leighton Moss. I had not visited " The Moss " for some time and was looking forward to a good day out. We later met up with Geoff and we toured the hides both on the main reserve and down on the coast. There was plenty of variety and in particular good numbers of waders were present at the Morecambe Hide.
For this post I have concentrated on the waders and particularly the snipe which were present in good numbers at the Eric Morecambe Hide. I had not seen snipe up close for a long time and this was an ideal opportunity to obtain some images for the portfolio. Also present were a few spotted redshank and again they presented great photographic opportunities as they fed close to the hide.Other waders included a good number of knot,a bird I had never seen before at Leighton Moss plus lots of redshank,lapwings and some black tailed godwits all feeding close to the hide. Martin,Geoff and myself were kept very busy with the cameras and we went away very pleased with the results.
We did have a look round the main part of the reserve hoping for a sighting of an otter but were unlucky as they had been seen prior to our arrival at the Lower Hide. A visit to the Griezdale Hide also proved fruitless in looking for red deer stags which could be heard roaring around the reserve as they warmed up for the rut. One bonus was a first sighting for Martin and Geoff of a couple of bearded tits as they visited the grit trays on the public causeway. All in all it had been a super day at Leighton Moss and I hope my readers enjoy the images above which are mainly of snipe with a couple of the spotted redshanks. More will hopefully follow when I visit again and maybe next time the red deer stags will be on show to delight the visitors.