More Favourites

The weather is still very wintry and I can't summon up the enthusiasm to venture out with the camera gear. So I thought I would post a few more favourite images from previous months. The local marine lakes at Fleetwood and Lytham were the places to be in September and October of this year. There had been some very stormy weather,the remnants of an Atlantic hurricane,and this had driven birds to the Lancashire coast to shelter from the very disturbed weather out at sea.

The first of these birds was a full summer plumaged red throated diver which was found on the marine lake at Fleetwood. This lovely bird attracted many admirers and the local bird paparazzi turned out in force to see this bonny bird. Unfortunately the bird was not well and sadly died. It did however give much pleasure to those fortunate enough to see it and one of my images is shown above.

The marine lake at Lytham St Annes was the place to be in September and October when following more stormy weather a grey phalarope followed by a slavonian grebe spent time on the lake feeding before leaving when the weather finally settled down again. Again these birds provided some wonderful opportunities for the many photographers present during their stay.I have shown above two images of each of these fabulous little birds which were very confiding and gave great close up views.

Next up are a couple from Leighton Moss showing a preening teal and one of the many snipe present at the beginning of November. I had wanted images of snipe and the large number of birds present provided many excellent opportunities for portrait shots of these shy birds.The teal was preening and enjoying some welcome late afternoon sun and the snipe was also preening and showing off it's not very often seen tail feathers.

The images heading this posting are of birds going to roost against a setting sun.One of them shows thousands of pink footed geese crossing The Fylde on their way to the roost out on the sands at Pilling. The final image is of the many thousands of starlings which roost at Blackpool's North Pier and provide a nightly spectacle not to be missed at this time of the year. Hope you enjoy my selection and I hope to get out again before the end of the year. Thanks for looking and I wish all my followers a Very Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.