I did manage to get a few shots of Lapwings as they flew in from the marsh but by the time the Pick footed geese did their nightly V-shaped fly-by the light level was too low to get any decent photographs.

Cow, ignoring the Lapwings and Widgeon... "Can't you see I'm eating?"

There were plenty of other birds in the area; Widgeon, Teal, Godwits, Oyster catchers – all the usual Autumn suspects but the only time they came within camera range was when the Sun hid behind the clouds forming over the sea to the west.

Evening sun lights up a flight of Lapwings at RSPB Marshside

Needless to say as the light level returned and the Sun bathed the area the golden glow the Geese were nowhere to be seen, the only evidence of them being their calls echoing from the surrounding fields.

Light… a photographers best friend and worst enemy…

RSPB Marshside

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.

Ducks Hiding

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.

Godwits at Marshside

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.

Whooper Swans

The tides were not suitable for sea fishing at any of our favorite marks last weekend so after a lazy Saturday we woke on Sunday to glorious sunshine. After having a quick look at the days weather forecast we decided to brave the crowds and go and give the Wildfowl & Wetland Trust reserve of Martin Mere a visit.

This is where last months BBC programme, Autumn Watch was broadcast from and as it’s only a short journey from our front door after packing a flask, some snacks, binoculars, new camera and a good bird book we set off and arrived at about 11am.

Even though it is only a few miles away we’ve only been here a couple of times and pulling into the car park we remembered why, it was packed! We quickly entered and made our way as far from the crowds as possible.

Red Crested Pochard

Martin Mere consists of 2 main areas; the ornamental wildfowl section which is all fenced off and contains many different birds from around the world and the ‘meres’ which is where the main action is.

Every year tens of thousands of wildfowl use this area as their wintering grounds and the reserve is well know for the huge numbers of Pink-footed Geese and Whooper Swans that can be seen from the hides.

Even though we are still in Autumn the numbers of wildfowl is still impressive and as the colder months approach these number will steadily increase.

On our walk from hide to hide we managed to see all the usual suspects that are listed on the Martin Mere website but the most spectacular thing about this reserve is the sheer quantity of birds.

They were everywhere. From the smallest wading birds such as Ruff, tiny Teal and Widgeon, massive flocks of Lapwing through to the hundred plus Whooper Swans and the thousands of Pink-footed geese. It’s impossible not to be moved by such sights.

We managed to coincide one of our hide visits to a feeding session where grain is put out for visiting Whooper Swans.

Feeding Time

It was hard to believe that these were completely wild birds that only a few days ago were in Iceland. As the girl approached with a barrow full of grain they were almost climbing in to get at the food and it wasn’t long until it was almost impossible to see the ground beneath the feet of so many different birds.

We saw that quite a lot of cygnets had arrived since Autumn Watch and it was amazing to watch what can only be described as a riot break out amongst the birds as they squabbled to get a good feed.

We made our last circuit of the hides and thanks to some very helpful people who let us use their telescopes we saw a Merlin perched on a fence, a Buzzard on a gate post and then right at the end we saw a Marsh Harrier effortlessly patrolling the area.

To see three species of birds-of-prey only fifteen minutes from our doorstep made the entire trip worthwhile. We’ll certainly be going back but maybe when the crowds have died away and winter has set in.