Back off to Espanyol

Just a quick post of some wildfowl from the local very cold Cheshire Meres. We are off to Spain in the morning and should arrive on Sunday evening. We are driving through France as Scruffy is coming with us.  So watch this space !!  Once we have sorted the internet out we will post thick and fast. We have a few visitors booked for our four day tour and we will post a report as soon as we can. If anyone on holiday,  or living near Alicante is interested in a day trip just email me for more information and we will do our best to accommodate you.  We will be in the Alicante/Murcia region until May 2nd 2013.

Dash Across the Welsh Border

 Twite

 Scruffy 

Lesser Scaup with Tufted Duck 

Lesser Scaup 

Is it a bird ? is it a UFO ?  

No it's the biggest sarnie Al's ever had in his life !!

Despite the change in the weather from bright sunshine earlier this week to a rather dull day this morning we had decided to venture to North Wales today to have a look at the Lesser Scaup that has been showing at Shotwick Fields in Flintshire.  As we were so close to Flint Castle we headed towards there first to see if there were any Twite showing at a site we have previously used at this time of year.  An hour or so at the Saltmarsh rewarded us with 13 birds,  plenty of Linnet a single Brambling.  The real surprise was a single Great White Egret (everywhere we go at the moment we seem to see GWE). 

Scruffy (our dog) was all wet and tired from enjoying the fields at the castle we headed off to get her another lifer the Lesser Scaup !!   By the time we arrived the weather had turned really nasty, drizzle and cold, but thankfully its only a short walk to Cop Hole Pool.  The Lesser Scaup was showing well through the scope - another lifer for Alex and Scruffy and the first Drake I have seen of this species.

Pied billed Grebe finally

Since our last post we have all been ill so not much news. However, I felt well enough to venture out last Thursday Feb 28th.  On my way to my local patch I had a flock of 350 Pink-Footed Geese grazing. We usually get skeins passing over toward the Lancashire Coast but to get such a large flock on the ground was a pleasant surprise.

Friday 1st March decided to make the drive down to Somerset to Ham Walls RSPB where a Pied-billed Grebe had been on sight for around two weeks. We arrived just after first light and photographed a Great White Egret fishing out in the open which we watched from the first viewing platform.  It didn't take long to locate the Grebe which was really quite close to the second viewing platform.  We had good views using our scopes and then spent an enjoyable four hours on the Reserve.  Other birds worth noting included Bittern, a single White-fronted Goose and a drake Ferruginous Duck.