Hest Bank, Morecambe

Today Sarah and I went for a drive up the motorway to Hest Bank near Morecambe.  Sarah had been wanting to see the Judges' Lodgings and Courtrooms in Lancaster Castle for ages and so the deal was that we'd go and do a spot of coastal birdwatching first at Hest Bank, and then come back into Lancaster later.

When we arrived at Hest Bank it took a while to decide exactly where the RSPB site was - in fact we never did find it!  We crossed over the railway line at the level crossing and parked up in the free car park overlooking Morecambe Bay, before returning to a small cafe for a cup of coffee and to ask for directions to the RSPB site.  After asking several people seems no-one round here knows where it is either!  It seems as if the RSPB may own an area of the shoreline here, but there is no actual visitor information or focal point.

After a coffee and a cake in the cafe, we set off for a short walk along the salt-marsh shoreline in search of birds.  Here's what we saw that we could identify:-

• Curlew
• Oystercatcher (in their hundreds)
• Great Black-backed gull
• Herring Gulls
• Swallow
• Starlings

There's nothing I like better than hearing the sound of curlews calling on the shoreline and today I wasn't disappointed - we saw at least eight of them here.  I did want to positively identify some Knott or Dunlin but although I think I did see some, they weren't clear enough for me to be absolutely sure.

By the way, the hour guided tour around the Courtrooms and prison cells in Lancaster Castle was excellent, but lack of time meant we only got a brief glimpse of the Judges' Lodgings.  Strangely, Sarah didn't complain too much about this, probably because we'd had a good day out.  No pictures today though - it was a bit too dull and windy for most of the time.