Trip reports
Birdwatching Weekend
Friday, 19 October 2007
Leighton Moss was at its autumn best with trees turning gold and brown and looking beautiful in the low autumn sun. The reserve yielded good views of a bittern at the public hide and excellent leisurely sightings of a great white egret at the Eric Morecambe hide (a lifer for many of us). Other good ticks were kingfisher, greenshank, pink-footed geese, whooper swans and little egret (now becoming commonplace). Unfortunately we dipped on bearded tits (which had been seen by others earlier in the day) and the Cetti's warbler.
A visit to Woodwell, hoping to see hawfinches, was fruitless but gave us all of the corvids except chough. Jays were flying back and forwards along the canopy and a raven, heard before it was seen, slowly flew across the car park giving us the chance to see the heavy bill and characteristic wedge-shaped tail. At Jenny Brown's Point we saw our first winter thrushes with good views of both redwings and fieldfares. The extensive panorama over the bay was splendid in the late afternoon sun and would have been worth the visit even if there had not been the waders and duck and the evocative haunting calls of the curlew, redshank and oystercatchers.
Sunday morning arrived bright and fair. An excellent day for a trip to Sunderland Point. The early travellers in the group were fortunate to get close views of a kingfisher. Other specials were red-breasted merganser and a distant view of a peregrine. The field just behind the car park yielded pied wagtail, tits, fieldfare, female blackcap and a yellowhammer. After lunch we visited the sea wall near the heliport in Heysham. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the weekend. Besides close views of waders such as redshank and turnstone we were able to closely examine the winter plumage of a few Mediterranean gulls. The absence of black on the wings and of the black spot behind the eye was obvious. Less easy to see but equally discriminating was the grey appearance of the back of the head which was in marked contrast to the white head of the accompanying black-headed gulls. The pleasure in seeing these gulls so well was superseded by the joy at seeing tens of thousands of knot arrive in a great swirling mass. They swept along the shoreline and many dropped on to the small island immediately in front of us. For many of us it was the first time we could note the dark eye which is a feature of these birds. A later visit to the Heysham Nature Reserve was relatively disappointing but the reserve has potential and would be worth a further visit.
Monday morning was again perfect. A little colder but bright and so allowing good views of birds in good light. We visited Glasson Dock and walked along the sea wall. Among the, by now, routine oystercatchers and redshanks one eagle-eyed member spotted a little stint, our first of the weekend, whilst another member identified some distant ducks as goldeneyes. This brought our total species count to 96.
As we disbanded we all felt we had had an excellent weekend for which we thank Jenny, not only for the considerable effort in arranging accommodation for us but also for her local knowledge and contacts who guided us to the choice birding spots in the area. It left us wanting more and a further weekend away is already on the drawing board.
Photograph courtesy of Robert Dodd, Oscar Photography and Group member