Leighton Moss ... Egrets

This week the count of roosting egrets at Leighton Moss broke previous records with a staggering 182 birds present.These were of course mostly little egrets but there are still 3 Great White egrets present.During the day the birds tend to use  the area down at the Morecambe and Allen pools for feeding .The Great whites also use the area at Lilian's hide to feed and commute between the two.

The egrets make great subjects for the camera as they fly and feed.Being large birds it is not difficult to obtain correct focus and I tend to underexpose when taking images so as not to burn out the white plumage of the birds.Hopefully I have succeeded with the images shown above of some of the action from Leighton Moss. The Great Whites are the first group of images with the little egrets bringing up the rear.Hope you enjoy my efforts and in my next posting I will show some of the many waders currently enjoying the muddy conditions at the Eric Morecambe hide.Thanks for looking in and enjoy the weekend.  

Geese Galore

It is that time of the year again when pink footed geese arrive in Lancashire to spend the winter months with us.The farmland of West Lancs is rich in pickings for the geese with remains of the vegetable crops left for them.This last week or so has seen a large influx of geese as the weather conditions have been favourable with settled conditions. A north westerly wind has also helped them on their way from Iceland and they have arrived in their thousands.The current estimate of numbers is well over twenty thousand.

One of the best places to see pink footed geese is at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust reserve at Martin Mere. I have made a couple of visits recently and have been treated to some spectacular views of the large flocks arriving and settling in for a long stay through the winter months. I think some of the geese use Martin Mere as a staging post before flying on to Norfolk and other parts further south.

I have shown above a few images of the geese as they arrived and flew around the reserve.It is indeed a spectacular sight to see many thousands of geese in the air together.Another wonderful aspect is the sounds the geese make as they communicate coming into land.It is difficult to convey in words and images and you really have to be there to experience what is one of nature's memorable and exciting events. If you can I recommend a visit to Martin Mere to witness this annual spectacle.Thanks for looking in and more from Lancashire's wildlife soon.

Leighton Moss...New Book

A week today a new book about Leighton Moss will be launched.The book is about the history of Leighton Moss from the Ice Age to the present day.The author is Andy Denwood an author and journalist living in North Lancashire.The book is published by Carnegie Publishing of Lancaster.
I was approached by Carnegie to see if they could use one of my pictures of red deer at Leighton Moss on the cover of the book.I was obviously very pleased and readily granted permission.

I have shown above an image of the cover of the book.The cover image is a clever combination of two images.The silhouetted marsh harrier was photographed by Ben Locke a freelance who often works with BBC Springwatch.My image is of running red deer taken from the Grisedale Hide in 2011.Ben's image is shown above in full and is a lovely image in glorious light of a marsh harrier over Leighton's reedbed .I have also shown my image in full and was one of a series taken as a number of red deer charged across in front of the Grisedale Hide in August 2011.

I have been invited to the book launch next Saturday at Leighton Moss by the publishers and look forward very much to meeting the author and of course to seeing my image in print. If you visit Leighton Moss in the coming weeks look out for this very interesting new publication.Thanks for looking in and I will be back soon with more of Lancashire's wildlife.