A wet day up north

The Safari had a somewhat wet day out with our chums from the Southside. After some discussion as to where to meet we meet we decided on Leighton Moss. A good choice as the hides aren't too far apart which is handy on a day of heavy drizzle.
We arrived a few minutes before the others and bunked into Lillian's Hide to wait for them. Crikey it appeared dire, a huge expanse of water and barely a bird to be seen.  The water level was very high too, not far off the highest we've ever seen it at 'the Moss', probably due to the very heavy rain earlier in the week. A quick count gave us the stupefying totals of eight Mallards, a Black Headed Gull, a Coot and a Moorhen - yes it was as good as that! A few more Mallards dropped in to make 14 and we found two more asleep on the far bank with a very well hidden Teal. One more each of Moorhen and Coot crept out of the reeds too. Two wisps of Snipe flew round totaling about 20 birds.
The others turned up and we challenged them to find the snoozing Teal. They found it before too long and discovered there were a couple of others secreted in the cut reeds too. A Marsh Harrier drifted in to view which we weren't really expecting with the weather being so miserable. It wasn't the only raptor on the wing either, one Peregrine shot through and kept going then a second one came in to view speeding one way then the next, finally getting mobbed by the Marsh Harrier with two others in the bins field of view together. We've been coming here since the early 70s and today's awesome raptor sighting was one of the best wildlife experiences we've ever had there.
Roaming round the reserve in the gloaming we caught up with almost all the usual suspects, Red Deer, two rather wet hinds in the distance, no Bearded Tits on the grit trays but we did hear some and see a couple flit over the Causeway close to the grit trays. Marsh Tit didn't fall until we hit the path to the Lower Hide, but did have a bit of a wait to see the Otter we missed by a few minutes earlier. While waiting for it to show we watched a Cormorant struggle with a rather large Tench - what a shame, Tench are our bestest favouritest fish and one anyone other than anglers rarely see. A small flock of Redshank flew in and one of them was a Spotted Redshank which we were able to get all the other birders in the hide on to it. More Redshank came in flushed off the salt marsh and landed on the little island, a huge flock of Black Tailed Godwits circled around a few times but didn't land.
We'd just about made the decision to move on when the Otter decided to show itself over to the far right not far from where the Cormorant and Tench had been.
All in all a cracking day out with good friends and great wildlife even though the camera didn't see light of day, sometimes it's just good to look and observe rather than try to get that 'perfect' pic.
Just about the only birds we didn't see were the Bittern(s?) but none had been seen by anyone else and a Garganey that one keen eyed observer had found hiding in the large number of Teal at the Tim Jackson Hide. One lucky birder had had seen a Yellow Browed Warbler a little way down the road but off the reserve.
Our final new bird of the day was a pair of Bullfinches spotted by IH on the feeders just out the front of the Visitor Centre as we were saying our goodbyes and about to go to the car for the journey back to Base Camp.
The following day dawned sunny and we met up with CR for a wander round Marton Mere. Compared to recent visits there wasn't much about and no visible migration happening overhead apart from the occasional Skylark heard calling. Down at the Fylde Bird Club Hide all was quiet with just a couple of Mallards sitting on the goalposts and a few Teal scattered about. A Cetti's Warbler snag loudly from the reeds in front of us.

TS joined us and as we were chatting the call of 'Bittern' went up again - this time the camera didn't fail us. It came from the left somewhere near the scrape and landed right opposite us.

As soon as it landed it had a look round in typical Bittern head pointing skywards pose before turning round and walking in to the depths of the reeds.

After the earlier camera malfunction there was palpable relief when Bittern was added to our PYLC at #174.
TS left us to it but we stayed pput a few more minutes. Something unseen flushed a few ducks out of the reed edge and in view. We saw a few more Teal, some of the dozen or so Wigeon that are on site

and then we noticed that one of the Teals wasn't a Teal it was a flippin Garganey, (MMLNR #87),  not the latest recorded here over the years but not far off; if it has to stick around due to bad weather it could end up breaking the late record.

All too soon it swan across the gap and was lost to sight behind the reeds on our left. How mad is that though, didn't see Bittern or Garganey on a major reserve all day yesterday and them come down to our local reserve for a couple of hours the following morning and nail them both.

TS had mentioned there were a lot of Pink Footed Geese in the first field and that scoping through them might just throw up something of interest among them. Neither CR nor us had a scope with us so the only thing to do was to take lots of pics of the flock and check them from the comfort of the living room later...lots of images were taken but no sign of anything other than Pink Feet unfortunately.

A small part of the flock which numbered about 750, maybe as many as 1000 allowing for any hidden in the dip in the ground to the left of the pic

The rest of the reserve was a bit of let down with very little finding its way into the notebook.

In the afternoon we had a visit from this splendid little chappie. As often as not they just shoot through but this one was settled on one of the sticks holding up the anti-Heron net over the pond. It was looking around but was it looking for lunch? No - it was going to have a bath in the ornamental waterfall...does it come often and we don't see it cos we're out or was it a one off??????

We had to very carefully get from the kitchen to the sitting room to get the camera and then sneak back without disturbing it and were very worried it would see us as we poked the lens through the kitchen blinds - it did see us but wasn't too bothered fortunately.

We couldn't get a pic of it bathing, which it did for ages as the netting was obscuring it and it was always facing away.

Today we did something we've not done since the early 80s...we joined one of the local volunteer groups and dug up then replanted a load of Marram Grass on the dunes to help stabilise an area of blowing sand.

We could only stay with the group for two hours but in that time the group was able to completely fill up the blow-out area. The pic is from about half way through., the planting eventually reaching the yellow trugs by lunchtime.

We had a great time catching up with HS and she told us some really encouraging news about a sometimes very frustrating conservation project we worked on for about 5-6 years before we retired - it's come to fruition but we're sworn to secrecy for the time being, but suffice to say it has to be one of the most important and exciting conservation projects we've been closely involved with since we left uni as an 'ecologist' in 1980! We hope to be able to divulge the secret in the next couple of months.

Where to nest? We don't have any safaris planned until next week when we may get further afield again, although we are doing something batty for a local children's centre tomorrow.

In the meantime let us know who's having a bath in your outback