A young sabine's gull was found among the gulls during the Wetland Bird survey today at 12.15 pm by David Mower. It was seen at Warton Slag tips (up past the stock cars, at the top of track turn right and it was on the saltmarsh area). http://blx1.bto.org/birdfacts/results/bob5790.htm
After last night's downpour it was nice to see some sun today. And some fantastic news: we had another sighting of a bittern from the Public hide yesterday.
Today, a cetti's warbler was heard calling on the opposite side of the Causeway to the grit trays and we were visited by a kestrel. Five otters were seen from the Lower hide too.
Over the weekend i went for a wander down to the Griesdale hide and a red deer stag was warming up his vocal chords. It's quite eerie hearing their bellows echoing across the reedbed as we head into the rutting season.
For anyone who has yet to see the bearded tits -otherwise known as reedlings - here is a picture
Today was the first day of our new RSPB Phoenix Group which is fantastic news!
The group will meet once a month on a Sunday and there will be loads of wild things being planned throughout the year.
If you're aged 13 to 19 and fancy joining in then come along on Sunday 23 October from 1 to 3 pm. We would love to see you!
For more information please email phoenix.leighton@gmail.com
Here's a quick picture I took of some of the leaders...they are a really friendly bunch!
Here's a quick catch up of what's been about Leighton over the last few days...
Large groups of bearded tits are continuing to gather at the grit trays on the Causeway. Generally, between eight and twelve birds have been seen at a time.
A black tern has reappeared and was seen at the Lilian's hide on Thursday and Friday where we're also still getting sightings of two marsh harriers, one of which is a juvenile. Over at the Griesdale hide there was a bittern sighting on Friday.
Four otters were seen at the Public hide on Friday and they also seem to be venturing slightly further afield as we had a sighting of one at the Griesdale and one at the Tim Jackson hide that day too.
Over at the Eric Morecambe and Allen pools we've got 10+ ruff, five spotted redshanks, good numbers of snipe (often over 10 are seen together), and lots of black tailed godwits (over 600!). A kingfisher seems to have made itself quite at home down here too as we're getting very frequent sightings. We also had a curlew sandpiper this morning.
... but the birds were not snoring today.
The marsh harrier was seen at Lilian's along with a fantastic nine bearded tits on the grit trays.
At the Eric Morecambe hide the waders were driven in by the strong winds. Five spotted redshanks, some greenshanks, 16 ruff, a knot and a kingfisher were seen.