RSPB Marshside, Southport

We made only our fourth ever visit to Marshside yesterday and the weather gods shone on us! It was a lovely mild sunny day, a great day for a walk.

We started by parking up at the small reserve car park and crossing the road down to the visitor centre and one of two hides on the reserve. Our attention was drawn immediately by the locals and warden to the 4 or 5 Cattle Egrets dotted around the lagoon in front of us. While we have seen Cattle Egrets before on our travels these were the first we had ever seen in the UK.

So a really good start to a very good day! As you would expect at this time of year there were plenty of wintering duck around, mainly Wigeon,

but plenty of Teal as well,

but the Duck highlight of the day were the 20 or so Pintail that we found at the second hide:

In  addition to these were of course Mallard, some Shoveler and a few Shelduck.
On the wader front the only sightings were Black-tailed Godwit and

 Lapwing.

There were a few raptors about with all this free food on offer a couple of Buzzard put in an appearance, a Kestrel showed well,

and a Sparrowhawk gave us a hunting demonstration:

One of the reasons for visiting Marshside was to get our first views of Pink-footed Geese this Autumn and there were plenty about,

Other birds of note during the day were a Great White Egret, Water Rail and Tina had the briefest view of a Kingfisher as we left the golf course on the circuit of the reserve.

We also had some distant sightings of Brown Hare which was nice, so a lovely day out and a great days birding!

We finished the day by dropping by Martin Mere (WWT) on the way back for a final cup of tea and a doughnut as it got dark in the hope of seeing large numbers of Pink Foots and did we!!

RSPB Marshside

Recently we went up to Cheshire and then on to RSPB Marshside for the afternoon. We were at my sister in laws house by the River Weaver and before heading off to Marshside this lovely Grey Wagtail presented itself:

So off to Marshide, just over an hour away, but on the way we drove past the entrance to Marsh Mere Wood NR of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, so we decided it would be rude not to drop in and see what was there. We didn't have long so we used the facilities and just went to the two hides nearest the car park. The first hide gave us plenty of Teal, Wigeon, Black-headed Gulls, a single Cormorant, some Canada Geese, a Little Grebe and a Grey Heron:

A couple of Buzzards flew over just before leaving the hide which was nice, also a Kingfisher made an appearance but Tina and myself missed it, but both Jo & Jimmy saw it.... so they tell us! At the next hide it wes very quiet until a flock of Canadas turned up......

So on to Marshside, we began our visit at the visitor centre (where coffee was had!) followed by a circuit of the reserve. So I'll start with some pics from the visitor centre:
Teal:

This Kestrel gave us a good show, pouncing and hovering:

A good number of Black-tailed Godwit were to the right of the hide:

along with plenty of Wigeon

After spending some time at the centre, we set out for as walk around the reserve, finding some Curlew in the scrub.

By late afternoon there were plenty of Pink-footed Geese flying in:

 the numbers whilst not of Norfolk standards were in the hundreds. So with some Sparrows, Coot, Moorhen, Gulls, Jackdaw, Crows,a Mute Swan, two Sparrowhawks and a Wigeon flying past

adding to the tally we finally arrived at the next hide for Tea!
From here there were good views of Lapwing,

more Teal, Wigeon and Godwit:

and a Little Egret on the prowl:

A nice find were two Ruff among the other waders:

Finally a Greylag turned up and wandered through the pools:

On the way back down to Winsford we decided to stop by Martin Mere arriving for the incoming Pink Foots, the reserve was already closed bu good views were had from the Car Park and neighbouring countryside when the staff threw us out of the Car Park!

So a lovely day out yet again!

RSPB Marshside

We had been to Marshside only once before on a very cold and windy New Years Day a couple of years ago. A bit of a repeat performance on Monday, it was very windy and probably only just a bit warmer than that New Years Day!

We started off at the Visitor Centre Hide, where the highlight was this Ruff:

and two summer plumage Black-tailed Godwit that flew off before I could point the lens at them, they joined a group of other Godwits, some distance away:

I then saw a pair of Pintail fairly close, but they did a 'Godwit' before I could alert the others and take a photo! The Avocets though gave a fine showing with two pairs nesting just in front of the hide;

although worryingly both did leave the eggs unguarded for quite longs spells;

We left the visitor centre and went along to the Nels hide in search of Garganey but of those there was no sign, of course others in the hide said that they had seen them.... (Don't believe them!)

Anyway the Shelduck and Tufted Duck came to have their photo's taken;

After this we went on a circulkar walk through the golf course, where we had another 'aahhh' moment with these Greylag families:

There were a few Brown Hare about, but this is the best photo that I could manage (This ones for you Jimmy):

We did saw a couple of UK year firsts;
Swift:

and a Meadow Pipit:

So a a nice day, bringing our UK total for the year up to 114. A long way to go yet before reaching last years best of 185, perhaps a trip to Suffolk next week will add to our tally and finally see us seeing a Bearded Tit for the first time. Fingers crossed. (A Dartford Warbler wood be nice too!)