Back up north again before the beast from the east struck

The Safari has done little in the way of braving the elements this week as the 'Beast from the East' struck with plummeting temperatures and a ferociously strong biting wind. Luckily on the Fylde coast we were spared the snow, only getting a light smattering.

Last Sunday just as the Beast was gathering momentum on the continent we had a scary motorway drive to Rochdale to visit Wifey's nephew at his new abode. Scary in that we now prefer to travel the motorways at rush hour when everyone knows where they're going and when they have to be there...Sunday travel was full of gimmers doing 45mph instead of the 70 - (Illegal) 90 and dangerously baulking the faster traffic, so much so that we didn't feel at all safe until we hit the much loathed 50mph restricted zone.

At least we arrived safely and had a big bonus at our destination overlooking the picturesque Hollingworth Lake. Many many years ago we unsuccessfully applied for a job at the country park there. 

Star of the show all winter here has been a 1st winter Glaucous Gull. when we arrived it wasn't in its favoured spot of the slipway fighting off the Mute Swans and Canada Geese for the copious amounts of bread been heaved at them by copius amounts of duck feeding public. We were told it had been there only a short while ago and was now roosting far out on the lake - far too far for our 300mm lens we brought today.

We hung around for it before it was time to let Monty have a walk, have a family catch up and hit the pub for some lunch. The walk through the county park was pleasant but birdless apart from the feeders around the car park which gave us splendiferous views of a Nuthatch and a Long Tailed Tit.

At the pub we sat outside in glorious sunshine with our coats off, the building sheltering us from the wicked wind. In the distance on the sailing club pontoon we could see our quarry. After a drink or two we wander back into 'town' and up to the sailing club for a closer view of the 'Beast from the North'.

Head and shoulders above the rest of the bread competition

We spotted another slightly closer vantage point to get a better shot but still against the light. Never mind it's always good to see one of these beasts, Glaucous Gull (113, PYLC #89)

We had a brew and a big bag of chips indoors and from AF's sofa we were able to take this blurry pic through his sitting room window, what an awesome 'Visiting the Relatives' tick!

Back out at the sailing club we took a few more pics adding Black Headed Gull (PYLC #90), one we could have easily have added on 1st January but have been waiting for them to attain summer plumage as we posted a winter plumage pic in last year's challenge and this year's 'rules' state 'better or different' to last year.

We'll probably replace these with something a bit different later - we have a cunning plan but at least for now they are on the tally.

We got a better and different shot of Jackdaw to replace the one we already posted back at #41.

All to soon it was time to head off the hills and back to the coast down the dreaded Sunday afternoon driver filled motorway - thankfully it wasn't that bad on the return trip.

Monday saw us doing a bit of garden repair with CP and as he arrived a Siskin (114, Garden #16) was heard flying over us, a hint of cold weather movement in advance of the Beast from the East perhaps.

Tuesday saw a change of plan, instead of heading south to a site with little shelter we headed north with CR to Leighton Moss again. We stopped first at Sizergh Castle to see if the Hawfinches were going to show themselves, the might have done but there was no chance of us seeing them as the carpark had a tarmac gang busy laying hundreds of tons of the black stuff right where we wanted to be. That's twice in consecutive weeks we've been thwarted by workmen!...there's a thing happening here! We tried to sneak through the fields and round the back to the little feeding station but there was no way through...totally thwarted we headed down to the Moss wit the intention of getting some 'Otter on Ice' pics. When we got there that plan was thwarted too as the pools weren't frozen just a bit slushy round the edges certainly not thick enough ice to support the weight of an Otter.

Still although cold it was relatively sheltered from the wind and we had a good few hours there. The main feeding station by the visitor centre was very quite, not even a Pheasant to be seen so we wandered round past the impromtu feeding station at the twisted tree on the edge of the reserve which was lively. 

We'd apparently juts missed the Water Rail and it was still in the ditch although all we could see was the back end of a Moorhen, was that a beginners mistake or was the Water Rail hiding? A Marsh Tit gave us the run around, nipping in and out far to quickly for us to lift the camera. Thankfully a Nuthatch and Treecreeper performed properly for us, the latter giving some of the closest prolonged views we've ever had!

At the first hide there were plenty of Snipe but a photo still eludes us. We scoured the margins of the pool for a Jack Snipe but if there were any of these wonders of camouflage we couldn't find them.

At the next hide it was somewhat odd to find a Great White Egret fishing along the edge of the slushy ice on the pool. This is a species we associate with much warmer climes like the Mediterranean rather than freezing north Lancashire in the depths of winter, never in our wildest dreams when we saw than down on the Med at the end of the 70s did we think they'd be a winter regular 'back home'.

It caught a good number of 3-spined Sticklebacks

After a while it had had its fill and walked up the bank but sat just too far away from the Little Egret in the top pic to be able to get them in the frame together for a comparison pic.

It had a preen then stood on one leg and went to sleep.

With no Otters for us we moved back to the hides at the other end of the reserve. Distant views of a couple of interacting Marsh Harriers were our top sighting and we got one rubbish pic of one of them.

With the reserve fairly quiet and no sign of any Otters we headed out to the saltmarsh...which turned out to be fairly quiet too.

Best was a small flock of Black Tailed Godwits and a few Lapwings but they were out in the pool a little to our right in in poor light and too far away. One of the godwits was almost in 'full sum plum'.

We have lift off

A Raven was sat well out on the marsh but we missed the two that flew right over the hide! Nothing for it but to have a look in the nearby old quarry to see if they had gone there.
We soon found the nest but there was no sign of any activity. 

But from time to time loud cronking was heard coming from the other side of the ridge, they were teasing us!. After a cold 45 minutes we gave up and pu the cameras in the boot of the car only to see one fly in...would you believe it!!! Our cameras came  back out of the boot in a hurry and a few hasty shots were taken as it flew round the quarry before swooping on to the nest and huddling down out of sight. 

With Raven on the challenge tally at #91 and no sign of any falcons it was time to move on, we still had time before having to pick Monty up so we took the long route back via Over Wyre where we found a large flock of Black Tailed Godwits and Golden Plovers, the latter looking rather splendid in the afternoon sunshine.

CR was able to stop the car at a convenient gap in the hedge for us to get a pic but even our best stealth mode getting the camera out of the boot flushed them although fortunately they only flew a couple of circuits of the field before settling down again - we don't like to disturb birds (or any other wildlife when they really need to conserve their energy in these conditions even a little disturbance and hence wasted energy can be the difference between life and death!). We did get a couple of flight shots before they settled and we left them in peace but we'd have preferred to have got on the ground shots and not have them fly round at all.

Aren't they stunners!

Golden Plover (PYLC #92)

Our drive back to Base Camp took us through the lanes looking for day hunting Barn and Little Owls and we had our fingers crossed for last week's Red Kite but we had no joy with any of them.

During the rest of the chilly week we had a couple of looks for the local Kingfisher again without success but did see a Lapwing on the golf course by the zoo, we've never seen one on there before, definitely a cold weather mover and had good views, but still no photos, of Snipe in the Kingfisher's ditch, again we've never seen one of those there either. A Woodcock (114) got up from an odd scratty bit of scrub right by the path near the zoo, almost the last place you;d expect for one to lie up given the serious amount of doggy disturbance in that area. 

The rest of the week we've met up at Mossom Nature Field with JW as it's frozen solid enough not to get Monty totally mud up but there hasn;t been anything of note there, we had hoped the Alder trees might have attracted some Siskins or Lesser Redpolls escaping the harsher conditions to the east but they haven't - yet!

Where to next? More Kingfisher hunting but we're not sure where else we'll get out on safari as we have a few appointments next week
In the meantime let us know who's the beast in your outback