Magnificent Marshside - Birdwatch

The weather forecast yesterday was horrific with almost 40mph winds and heavy rain so we cancelled our sea fishing trip and hence didn't get any bait. Imagine my frustration on waking this morning to a light breeze and glorious sunshine - oh well, British weather, what can you do?

Not wanting to waste the fine weather I went walking around the Marshside RSPB reserve, near Southport, Merseyside. The drive took about 15 minutes and as I approached the car park down the coastal road I spotted a few bright white shapes on the seaward marsh. I quickly parked the car and raced back to the spot and got out the binoculars in time to see 4 Little Egrets, a first for me! To far a way for a good photo - I took a few but the birds were far to small in the images to make out.

I slowly walked back down the coastal road, enjoying the huge flocks of Lapwing and Starlings until I got to the nearest hide. By now the wind was getting stronger (thank goodness I wasn't fishing after all) so it was good to be in some shelter for a while.

Marshside is an amazing place if you stop for a while and look carefully at what you perceive to be empty fields. Most people will see the flocks of Lapwing flying overhead and the Pink-footed geese arriving in huge numbers to feed but look carefully and you will see thousands of small ducks; Widgeon, Teal, Pintail and Shoveler to name a few.

I spent a good hour just watching, being somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of winter visitors to our coastline.

At the second hide, which is about 500m further down the coastal path, the land is more open shallow water with the odd island. This is a favourite roosting patch for the many wading birds that visit our shore line as it provides a good safe refuge when the tide is too high for them to feed.

Again the area was covered in small ducks with many of the larger Shelduck present but as the tide reached it maximum height for the day huge flocks of Black-tailed godwits arrived. These will stay here until April when they travel to continental Europe to breed.

There are, however, a few breeding pairs that stay in the UK, three pairs on the Fylde Coast on the River Ribble estuary at Newton Marsh. These are the most northerly breeding birds in the UK out of a total of about 50 so are nationally very important to the species.

I made my way back to the car after a very enjoyable couple of hours doing nothing but watching birds - great!

I'll leave you with a couple more shots just to tempt you into a visit.

Black-tailed godwits arriving as the tide pushes them off the beach.

A mixed flock of Lapwing and Starlings.

Tags: birding, black tailed godwit, lapwing, little egret, marshside, merseyside, pink footed goose, pintail, river ribble, RSPB, shelduck, shoveler, southport, teal, widgeon, wildlife

First Cod of the Season, Fleetwood, Lancashire

After checking out the weather we decided on joining some of the guys from Blackpool and Layton Angling Society (BLAS) on Blackpool North Wall to fish in a competition. On arriving (after driving through some sleet!) the choice was made to move the match to a more sheltered venue at Fleetwood, known as the Cadet Base, where the Sea Cadets have a building as the wind and hence the surf was too fierce.

The match was started at 8pm and scheduled to finish at 11.30pm. Wendy and I had been looking forward to the first Cod sea fishing session of the season and on my third cast I managed to snare a plump little codling of 1lb 12oz (42cm long), using a big lugworm as bait.

The weather stayed fine for most of the evening except for a very heavy hailstorm halfway through the session. I was the only one to catch a Codling but a few large Whiting came out as well as a small Rockling.

The top rod of the evening was Dave who was managing to pull in Whiting 2 at a time towards to end of the match using big chunks of Mackeral as bait.

The top bait for us was Blow Lug as we were primarily after Cod but we experimented with using Mussels as well which seemed to catch Wendy a few fish. It's difficult to know if this was due to the Mussels or not so we'll keep trying until we figure it out. The top bait for the night and the match was fresh Mackeral.

To catch the first Codling of the season during the first Codling session was great and it's currently being prepared and cooked for tea - fantastic!

Tags: beach fishing, cod, fleetwood, lancashire, lugworm, mackerel, mussel, sea fishing, whiting

A Plan for Cod, Fleetwood or Blackpool?

Well finally we're getting a bit of cooler weather and this coming weekend the signs are good for our first proper Cod hunt up at either Fleetwood or Blackpool, Lancashire.

Three different weather websites are giving almost the same forecast of strong westerly winds dropping slightly on Saturday night with no rain. The tides are going to be high and the peak of high water is at about 9.30pm. Westerly winds, lo-pressure and a night time high tide - a Cod hunters dream on the North West coast.

We'll make the final choice tomorrow after checking the weather so hopefully on Sunday I'll post a few pictures of some Cod!

Tags: beach fishing, blackpool, cod, fleetwood, lancashire, sea fishing

Winter Approaches and a Few Cod Arrive

With it being the Guy Fawkes celebrations during last weekend we didn't get out sea fishing or fell walking as we spent a very enjoyable time at my parents.

I did manage to go out on Sunday with my father, his two labradors, my youngest brother and his girlfriend. We went for a gentle stroll around Beacon Fell which as always was wonderful while Wendy and mother prepared a feast for our return. A very relaxing weekend.

There have been some signs in both Lancashire and Merseyside that the cold weather is finally bringing the Cod and the larger Whiting down from their Northern summer feeding grounds with Cod up to about 3 pounds being caught around Fleetwood and a few almost the same size coming out of the River Mersey in last weekends sea fishing matches.

Hopefully next time we're out I'll be writing about Cod and chips!

Tags: cod, fleetwood, lancashire, merseyside, river mersey, whiting