A trip to Southport with Paul, Brendan and Dave. Crossens Marsh our first destination and 1st winter/adult Baikal Teal our target bird. After about an hour of viewing a distant group of Teal another group of birders "called" the Baikal Teal. We made our way to where they were standing and after some desperate searching of the large number of Wigeon we all connected with the Baikal Teal. Although the bird was quite nicely marked the distance and poor light gave it quite a dull appearance. This in turn made it quite difficult to pick out. We enjoyed decent scope views for some time and then headed off to the nearby Marshside RSPB. At Marshide we soon connected with a single Barnacle Goose. Then back to Crossens where we stopped off near the pumping station, the Baikal Teal was a bit closer and the light had improved, however, after a few seconds of "showing well" the Baikal Teal decided it was time for a sleep. We watched it sleeping for about half an hour before deciding to head in the direction of home but not before a stop at Pennington Flash . Other noteworthy birds at Crossens/Marshside; Great White Egret, Little Egret, Merlin, Peregrine, Pintail, Pink-footed Goose, Black-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Golden Plover.
At Pennington Flash we made our way to the "Bunting Hide". Willow Tit are dead easy to see here, however, none showed in the hour we spent in the hide. The area in front of the hide was alive with birds and the feeders really well stocked along with several sprays of millet. 5 Bullfinch (3m and 2 f) were the stars of the show here, showing really well very close to the hide. Also seen from the hide; Greenfinch, Nuthatch, Great-spotted Woodpecker, Stock Dove and Redwing.
My top quality sleeping Baikal Teal pic and Paul's Bullfinch pics below.
No comments:
Post a Comment