Brief sortie south of the river

The Safari had to head over to the Southside this morning. A new pair of wellies for the Land Rover sure made the wallet a good bit lighter and slimmer.

After the boots had been fitted had just enough time for a very brief visit to a well known reserve with a similar name to our own nature reserve and got two year birds in the pouring rain, Bewick's Swan (96) and Ruff (97). Such was the weather that we didn't even bother nipping the couple of hundred yards round the path to the feeders where Tree Sparrows would have been a certainty nor go a hundred yards the other way where another small feeding station has held a Willow Tit recently - maybe we should have done this one...Willow Tit could be tricky to catch up with - impossible on the Fylde - can feel another trip to Moore nature reserve coming up in the early spring,,,but will we successfully avoid the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers there again? we aren't worried about the Tree Sparrows are still plentiful hereabouts (thankfully).

Where to next? Wouldn't mind somewhere to give the new tyres a test in the sticky stuff but it'll probably be another safari round the nature reserve.

In the meantime let us know what you didn't have time for in your outback.