Fleetwood Marshes

With the prospect of seeing some Bearded Tits without legs rings, I set off for a quick trip to Fleetwood Marshes this afternoon.  This is a new site for me and so I asked for instructions from Leonard Poxon, whose photos I'd seen on Facebook recently.

Armed with my new satnav, a birthday present from my wife last week, I set off on a cold and windy but very sunny afternoon. I found the location without any difficulty thanks to Leonard's excellent instructions and I was soon on the bridge overlooking the golden reed bed that he had described in his post. I waited over an hour without seeing them before deciding to have a walk down to the river Wyre estuary.

There was nothing much there either and the going was quite tough across the marsh so I soon head back to the reed bed. Another hour and no definite sightings of Bearded Tits. A few Reed Buntings came and went but even those were impossible to photograph as they quickly descended into the reeds as soon as they had landed.

I did think that I might not even get my camera out, but on walk around the small lake I cam across this female Tufted Duck which looked so beautiful in the golden afternoon light - I just had to take a picture! And so I spent the next hour taking photos of common and garden wildfowl and a few Gulls, whilst frequently checking the reeds for the Beardies, but with no luck today,