Another double stop on the Southside

The Safari picked up CR and headed off over the Ribble to rendezvous with IH again. We had a couple of targets in mind both at different sites to those we visited last time out. Our first stop was the huge Crosby Marine Lake immediately north of Liverpool docks, IH was otherwise engaged for this venue but had already seen our quarry the previous day during his monthy WeBS count he does there.

So what had drawn us over the river again? Towards the end of the previous week news filtered through that a juvenile Black Throated Diver had taken up residence on the lake, seeing how it had hung around a few days already and the weather forecast was poor and not condusive to it going anywhere soon we decided to take a punt and go and see it. It's not a species we see often the last one being a few years ago and not one we see often they're usually a distant dot in the telescope. However, photos of this one on t'interweb suggested it showed really well, not just well but really really point blank well at times - too good an opportunity to miss. We parked up and walked into the marine park and immediately spotted several birders looking at something so we wandered over to join them
. Oh no not again - "You should have got here five minutes ago, it was just down here" said a lady pointing to the water by the toes of her boots. "Now it's over there" She pointed in the general direction of Dublin! Yes there it was away on the far side of the lake, although it could have been worse it could have been in the far right corner not just directly oppositie where we were stood. 

It was a miserable grey, dingy, dirty December day, the sort that dcoesn't really get light so mega distance photography was always gping to be more than tricky. Still it would be a new one for our Internatioanl Photo Challenge so we gave it our best shot (that should probably be our best 200 shots and hope one was in focus and identifiable at the same time) Not sure this one counts but it was the best of a (very) bad lot.

 

But the bird did us a big favour and continued to swim to the left although it was hard to follow spending much nore time underwater than at the surface. The good news was that leftwards was also nearer!

Much more identifiable now even if a Great Crested Grebe and then a Cormorant made for identification issues through the view finder.

After a while we spotted a birder binning it at close range from the path the dog walkers were using, nothing else for it but try to get round there. We worked on this site when it was under condtruction during our brief career as a tarmacer way back in the very early 80s but at that time the huge cafe building didn't exist so we weren't sure if the way round but another birder told us to follow him and off the three of us went. By now the diver had swum further to its left and we intercepted each other as we rounded the last of the little woodland that's grown up in the intervening years. (It might havev been planted - we've no idea, but it certainly wasn't there in the early 80s). The light was still grotty but at least the bird was close enough to see some details so we spent some time with it.

Great views of a Black Throated Diver, the best we've ever had and #179 for our challenge. 

Time was moving on and so did we, off to Martin Mere WWT we headed, passing an immature Stonechat on the grass verge by the scratty woodland and car park which hopped off its dead Dock stem a nanosecond before we pressed the shutter button. Hastening back to the car as the weather was closing in and looking ominous a Mistle Thrush flew out of seemingly nowhere and landed on a lamp post right abover our heads. Sadly not a species we see at all regularly these days.

The drive to Martin Mere was a dark wet one, at lunchtime too, which didn't bode well for the afternoon's viewing. Once we arrived the rain eased from heavy to not so heavy and we settled into the empty Discovery Hide to eat our butties and await the arrival of IH. After no more than two bites of cheese n tomato we spied the afternoon's target species, the Red Breasted Goose. It was sat not too far away with a multidude of other waterfowl on a little island a little to our left.

Nice one, #180 for our Challenge, and even better easy to point out to IH when he arrived, although it wasn't - it wasn't there! A quick panicky scan found it swimming towards the bank a bit further to our left - panic over.

It'd deffo a bonny bird and we've seen far fewer of these than we have Black Throated Divers but where has it come from? The powers that be have it down as "of unknown provenance". It first appeared in a large flock of Pink Footed Geese on the outer marsher of the estuary which is possibly a good sign as a Russian White Fronted Goose hailing from the same part of Siberia appeared not too far to the north a few days later. However, there are feral populations on the near continent just to confuse things and there must be some free flying birds in collections both in Britain and on the continent. Our brother, also in the Challenge, photographs one under a bridge in Geneva and that's deffo a feral bird. Still its fully winged and unringed (banded for those readers on the other side of the Atlantic). It has a decided limp too, pricked by gunshot on its migration??? Sincerely hope not as these are quite scarce birds and classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN.

Once on the bank it came towards us to avail itself of the free food lashed out by the wardens to encourage the birds close to the hide for the punters to enjoy....and we did!

After it had eaten its fill it took off back to the little island for a snooze. We took the opportunity of a break in the worst of the rain to move on to the Feeding Station to have a look at the small birds there, one of which might be a Willow Tit (fingers, toes, buttocks crossed) although reports so far this winter have been few and far between.

Once in the hide the rain came down heavy again - good of it to wait until we were under cover! The light was atrocious as you'll see. There was a little bit of a shock when we saw the feeders had been upgraded and the opportunities for the ever-entertaining Rats had been removed with the new feeders hanging out over the water so no chancce of spilled seeds for them. The usual selection of woodland/garden birds were lively though. All the usual suspects were there, Blue Tits, Great Tits, infrequent visits from a Coal Tit which got our excitment levels up a bit until we saw the diagnostic white nape, Robins, Dunnocks, Goldfinches, a few Greenfinches, lots of Chaffinches (we said it was a shame none of them could morph into a Brambling - then guess what turned up not 48 hours later - dohhh - - so near yet so far) and a pair of Reed Buntings.

A Treecreeper appeared but wouldn't show itself for a pic although to be fair it was at the back of the pool so any pic wouldn't have been much more than a few gloomy pixels. The Great Spotted Woodpecker was nearer but that managed to keep itself well obsured by twiggery. A Sparrowhawk sped through at break-neck speed and scattered the diners but not for long the feeders were soon back to lively.
A couple of Grey Squirrels were much better at keeping the birds off the feeders, when they were feeding the birds hung around the fringing bushes not wanting to come near.

It's good to see the feeders are metal and hopefully fairly squirrel-proof but our next visit will tell all and we expect the squirrels to have found a weak point and got in through the palasytic tube somewhere - we'll see. It's also not good to see Grey Squirrels at a feeder in this vicinity as there are Red Squirrels not too far away and some of those tiny populations have recently been devasted by Squirrel Pox which the Greys carry and are immune to but is sadly lethal to the Reds. Maybe the Rangers should get some 'control' measures going - maybe they do 'after hours'.

On the pool there's always a Moorhen and if there's a Moorhen we'll always take its picture - not that we're addicted to them or anything.

Nice with the droplets of drizzle on its back. And then it climbed up a fallen log, even more photogenic!

They Turkey Tail-type Bracket Fungus was nice too.

But what about the Rats? Yes, they are still there and if anything even more fun than before.

Why more fun than before? Well they now swim a bit too

And why do they swim? Well they swim out to under the feeders then dive like furry scuba-divers to bring the spilled seeds up to eat, absolutely brilliant to watch.

We now had an hour or so left before it got properly dark so mooched on round to the otehr side of the reserve in the hope of seeing the Barn Owl now the rain had eased a bit. A Barn Owl would be good, as would one of the fairly regular Stoats or even the Bittern that's been seen from here a couple of times. We're not fussed we'll look at and enjoy owt what turns up.

Settling into our seat we looked over into the big bull's field in case any Cattle Egrets were strutting around him - alas not today, but there was a lot of Blue Tit activity by the gate close by. We soon realised that the Rangers had put some seed in the hole at the top of the rotting gate post - it was non-stop in and out of there and before long a pair of Great Tits had joined the party.

IH spotted a distant Marsh Harrier in the air, a good sign now the rain had stopped. Before many minutes had passed another three were in the air with it, great to watch. IH also had a Peregrine and then a Kestrel appeared, the end of the rain certainly brought the raptors out in force. A Carrion Crow jostled with a Sparrowhawk close to the hide but there was still no sign of the hoped for Barn Owl.

Down the ditch in front of us there was a Little Egret and a Heron. For some reason we under the illusion this ditch to be deep enough to swallow your average Blue Whale but today the Heron was stood in the middle of it only up to its knees - illusion duly shattered!

A second Little Egret flew in and began stalking the edge of the ditch in front of us. It did the shaky leg shimmy thing to stir out any small fish from the margins without success.

After a while it climbed out on to the bank and showed us its snazzy yellow feet

Darkness was coming down quickly now and we had to leave before the Barn Owl put in an appearance, well there's always next time. Despite the weather it was still a grand day out on safari.

All that remains is to wish you all wherever you are a Merry Christmas (or better still Solstice) and a very happy wildlife-filled New Year.

Where to next? We might get a chance of a short safari over the holidays but we'll certainly be back in business in the new year.

 

In the meantime let us knwo who's got the snazziest feet in your outback.