Trip reports

LEIGHTON MOSS

Saturday, 4 July 2009

Sixteen of us, led by Allan Rimmer, who must know Leighton Moss like the back of his hand, arrived to hear the racket made by the black headed gulls from the car park. The actual centre was closed for refurbishment to the café. There were the usual chaffinches, greenfinches, blue and great tits, bullfinches and a couple of marsh tits on the feeders. Some birds were still brightly coloured but others were looking rather worn after a season of feeding young.

We made our way to Lillian's Hide with the noise from the black headed gulls getting louder and louder. On a visit just a month before, the chicks were tiny, fluffy things mostly hidden by the vegetation. Now they were as big as their parents but with brown and white plumage. We saw wigeon, gadwall, shelduck, tufted duck, greylag, coot, moorhen and mallard from here and Griesdale Hide.

On the way to Griesdale hide we met a volunteer who was searching for a bittern. On the way back Jean found it lying in the reeds; a pity it was a wooden one! We also saw a great spotted woodpecker.

On the way to The Public hide we watched a pair of pied wagtails which Allan said were nesting in the barn and a sedge warbler. Its song is more varied than that of the reed warbler although it is sometimes hard to tell the difference.

From the Public Hide we watched a male and female marsh harrier quartering the reed bed together with one juvenile. We also spotted a buzzard and pair of great black-backed gulls with one chick.

We then made our way to the Lower Hide where a hobby was spotted, posing for all to see on a dead tree. The red plus-fours could be seen through our telescopes.

We then took the cars round to the estuary and made our way to the Eric Morecambe Hide. We had a 'field day' with 4 dunlin, black-tailed godwit, oyster catcher, little egret, greenshank, lapwing, cormorant, heron, little gull, 2 spotted redshank, 3 snipe, teal and redshank being observed.

Dunnock, house sparrow, robin, treecreeper, willow warbler, chiffchaff, reed bunting, blackbird, crow and swift were also seen or heard.

Article by Anne Rogers

The library photograph is of a snipe