The Ribble Cycle Diaries

A blog dedicated to the River Ribble, one of Britain’s last great wilderness areas, full of wild beauty, with many moods and seasons as it meanders through its Green Belt and Floodplains.

Save The Ribble

Dedicated to preserving the beauty of the River Ribble, and opposing the Riverworks ‘vision’ to build a barrage and develop green spaces, causing damage to wildlife and the environment and increasing the risk of flooding to our homes.

Digiscoped Wood Pecker

As Martin Mere is only a few miles from our front door we decided to pay another visit to this fantastic bird reserve owned by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that sometimes the birds are just too far away to see or photograph. Well on Friday we finally did it – we purchased a fieldscope (small telescope) from the very helpful Andy at the In Focus shop, it really does make a huge difference being able to set up many ‘scopes’ onto the same subject at the same time so that you can compare them. We ended up with an Opticron GS665 with a 20 – 40x magnification eyepiece, a tripod and a clamp for using it within a hide. After using it until the light failed we are both very pleased so far with our purchase.

The photo of the Great spotted woodpecker was taken as an experiment – I focussed the scope onto the bird then took a photo through the eyepiece of the scope using our digital camera. Not brilliant but not bad for a quick trial. After searching round the internet I’ve found this is called ‘digiscoping’ and there are brackets made for holding the camera in place so I might give that a go eventually.

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.

WWT, The Wildlife and Wetlands Trust
The UK’s only specialist wetland conservation charity and home of Martin Mere, the location of Autumn Watch.
The RSPB, The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Working to secure a healthy environment for birds and wildlife which helps create a better world for us all.
The Mersey Basin Campaign
Helping improve water quality in the rivers and waterways of England’s Northwest and encourage high quality waterside regeneration.
National Trust, Formby
Offering miles of walks through the woods and dunes. One of the last places in England where visitors may catch a glimpse of the rare red squirrel.
Red Deer Research on Rum
One of the star attractions of this years Autumn Watch was watching these magnificent animals in such beautiful surroundings.

Plus a couple of new sea fishing ‘blogs’

Seaforth Sea Fishing
A new website designed for north west sea anglers. Through the months there will be pictures and reports on what is caught and where.
East Anglia Sea Angling
A blog by Ian, who lives in Norfolk, recounting some of his sea fishing experiences.

Mere Sands

I was determined to get out for a walk on Sunday even though the weather was a bit overcast so I paid a long over due visit to one of our local nature reserves, Mere Sands Wood, which is managed by the Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside.

This reserve has always been a favourite of mine, not only because it’s almost on our doorstep, but due the the huge variety of flora and fauna that can be seen without the use of any special equipment.

As I was in no hurry I meandered up and down all the paths and went into all the bird hides to see if any of the winter visitors had arrived yet.

The Great crested grebes were still looking after some chicks that looked large enough to fend for themselves and all the usual water birds were present but no signs of the winter species yet.

Still Waters

Apparently a few rarities had been spotted earlier in the week but I’m not dedicated enough to sit staring through a pair of binoculars for hours on end for that one elusive glimpse.

I’d rather wander around and just enjoy the peace and quiet.

Mere Sands Fungi

Autumn is one of the prime time for mushroom and other fungi spotting and there were so many it was difficult to work out which ones to photograph, let alone identify them. I have no idea what these are but they were a beautiful orange colour and they were everywhere.

As a quick note, never eat any mushroom or other fungi that you have collected unless you are absolutely sure you know what it is, some of our native fungi are poisonous and not all of them are brightly coloured to warn you away.

So another wonderful place re-visited, there are a couple of other local nature reserves that I’ve been meaning to have another look at and after walking around Mere Sands I’ve been re-enthused (if there is such a word) about our immediate area.

As I started making my way back to the car I looked out across the countryside to see the clouds looming. I made a bit of a dash to beat the rain but it never fell – typical Lancashire weather, always doing the opposite of what you’d expect.

Mere Sands - Storm Approaching