Ribble Estuary...Lytham

Last week I made a couple of visits to the estuary of the River Ribble. I did most of my photography from the jetty which adjoins the Ribble Sailing Club on the promenade at Lytham-St-Annes.Surprisingly it was somewhere I hadn't visited with the camera but following my recent visits it is certainly somewhere I will return to on a regular basis.As the tide drops away it is easy to have access across the salt marsh to the muddy banks of the River Ribble.On my visits there was plenty of action with waders and wildfowl coming and going across the estuary and commuting to the marsh and sands on the Southport side.

Most impressive were the large skeins of pink footed geese which were still arriving from the North.A recent  survey estimated there are currently around ninety thousand pinkfoots in Lancashire.A nice number of knot were also present on the Lytham side enjoying the rich pickings in the estuary mud.From time to time groups of canada geese would come across and I was pleased with the shots of them crossing the iconic Lytham windmill.

I stayed on to watch the sunset on one of my visits and was very pleased with the images I managed to capture.I have shown above images of the geese arriving over Lytham and the waders and herons along the River Ribble.I enjoyed very much my visits to the Ribble estuary and you can be sure I will return on the next series of suitable tides. Thanks for looking in and I will return soon with more of Lancashire's wildlife.