[pauco]

Set of for a morning at marshside-RSPB,took the scenic route
out of leyland, the main back road is called cocker bar lane,
and is open fields very rare these days.anyway i had gone about 2 miles when i
caught sight of movment out of the corner of my eye, it was very quite on the
road so pulled over stopped, and what a lovely sight! one Barn owl flying up and
down the hedgerows, watched for about 5 mins and thought is this a good omen
for the rest of the morning? set of feeling on a real high. got to Marshside 9am.
I don`t think that i have ever had such a good day at this sight, first hide
called nells hide.
Blackheaded gulls.
to many to count.
4 Lesser blackbacked.
1 herring gull.
Lapwings again far to many to count.
Teal 100+
Pintail 10.
Wigeon 20+
poachard 30+
1 Pair Tufted ducks.
Mallards in very good numbers.
Shellducks 30.
Black-tailed Godwits 12.
Redshank 4.
Common-Snipe 2.
Cormorants 6.
Female reed-Bunting 1.
Male Stonechat 1.
Now the Real Icing on the cake.
Raptors.
Shorteared owls 3.
Hen-Harriers 2.
Merlin 1.
Sparrowhawk 1.
Kestrel 1.
Peregrine 1.
As I said it is the best morning that i have ever had on this site, and just goes to show, conditions and luck help. the weather was dull, cold, with slight wind.
Also there were 3 coaches there, 1 from Cockermouth, 1 from Rochdale, the other not sure. but from the conversation they were all on a high. I just hope they all got as much enjoyment out of it as I did.
bert.

[Elizabeth Bigg]

Hi Bert - looks a pretty good day to me - if I'd seen all those birds I would have thought I was in heaven!! Had to Google to track down Marshside and find it is near areas where I used to cycle 50 years ago (lived in Thornton L23). I reckon it will have changed a lot since then?