A long time coming

The Safari saw news of a Pallid Harrier heading north this morning, at lunchtime it was reported again on Anglesey. We can see Anglesey, or at least a small part of it, from our watch point at Patch 2, but would the harrier be able to see us and turn up an hour later somewhere on the Ribble estuary? It was last seen turned back southwards and not reported from anywhere in the afternoon :-( 

We were outside loading stuff for a display this evening into the back of the Land Rover when we heard a Goldfinch (P2 #60), just how long has it taken us to get that 'simple one' on Patch 2!!!

Other news from today is rather limited. A few Gannets, all horribly distant apart from one this evening during a rare third watch of the day while waiting to go to our meeting. Two single Grey Plovers whizzed past while several Sandwich Terns fished a way out offshore but we could still see the glint of light off the small fish in their beaks after a successful dive.

The evening session also gave us a Manx Shearwater, a Red Throated Diver close in on the sea and another distant flying south and the best of the session about two dozen Arctic Terns grcefully swooping to pick lorsy knows what from the sea's surface.

A wander round the kitchen just now with the mobile phone gave us our first moth of the year flying across the garden, either a Hebrew Character or perhaps an Early Grey..how late is that for the first moth of the year...trap might come out over the weekend.

Where to next? More Patch 2 scrutiny and we might get an hour at the nature reserve around lunchtime as we need some habitat pics for a project.

In the meantime let us know if your outback bettered our Goldfinch for its top sighting.