Blackleach Country Park

Whilst out following my other pursuit of geocaching I visited Blackleach Country Park, a little oasis of nature about half a mile from Walkden.  It was a beautiful autumn morning, cold and frosty but bright and sunny.

I'd never been here before and I was quite impressed and whilst out I saw the following birds:

• Cormorant (over)
• Mute Swan
• Mallard
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Canada Goose
• Robin
• Magpie
• Carrion Crow
• Various Gulls

Nothing really special here today then, but still a very nice place to visit and who knows, there may be some interesting visitors at other times in the year.

Rindle Road and Moss Lane

The Manchester Birding Forum has gone very quiet about the Rindle Road and Astley Moss areas, but as it was so sunny when I got home from work tonight, I just had to go out somewhere and this is closest to home.  I also combined it with dropping off a geocache, but that's another blog.

I started off as usual by going down Moss Lane and on the way down a large bird of prey flew out of a tree and over the field next to 'Cobs and Plod's riding school.  I didn't quite catch what it was but I suspected it was a buzzard due to its size, colour and broad wing shape.

After dropping off the cache I continued down to the bend in the road near the end of Moss Lane where I normally park up and walk back along the through the trees.  It was here that I first saw a Little Owl earlier in the year.  Tonight however there was a large lorry loading stuff for the new pipeline and making a lot of noise and activity, so there were no birds to be seen apart from the odd Woodpigeon.  So I decided to go back to the place where I'd seen the bird of prey earlier.

I parked up just off Moss Lane and walked down a footpath on the edge of the wooded area alongside the field.  After a few minutes a large brown bird with broad wings appeared again briefly overhead, barely 20 metres away.  It was definitely a Buzzard and the closest I've ever come to one -  a great sight, but too fast and difficult to photograph as it flew straight into the sun.  Well it was worth stopping just for that view.

I then moved on to Rindle Road, parking up at the feeding station.  After a quick scan around with my binoculars I first thought there was nothing of note to see, but then I noticed a large flock of what I first believed were Mistle Thrushes on the ground in a field towards the railway line.

Upon closer inspection I realised they weren't Mistle Thrushes but something else - a brownish body with a reddish brown speckled breast and lighter underparts - were they Fieldfare?  Well,  yes it was (later verified by Ian McKerchar of Manchester Birding Website fame). I was quite excited by now as I hadn't seen Fieldfare before and there were a lot of them.  I attempted a few snaps with my camera to take record shots for later identification purposes, but they really were too far away to get anything decent, so I moved on.

I went down the path towards Rindle Woods and could here various types of Tit and then something else singing in the trees at the start of the wood.  I went for a look but couldn't see anything.  But as I stood at the entrance the wood and looked round I noticed in the distance that the flock of birds I'd seen earlier had taken off.  At first they looked a little like a flock of starlings and then I thought their flight looked a bit like a dove or pigeon.  They moved left and right in a flock of 50 or more birds - I kept wishing they would come my way for for a long while it didn't look as if they would.

But then suddenly turned and as they got closer I realised they were something new for me.  I fired off lots of shots in rapid fire mode, varying the zoom to try to get some wide shots as well as closeups.  I was quite surprised that in the excitement of seeing the birds, I did get one or two half decent shots as shown on this page, especially as they were quite high up and moving.

After this I walked down the path through Rindle Hedge and although I disturbed a few LBJ's and Woodpigeons, there was nothing much to see.  I took a few photos of the view across the fields towards Winter Hill which looked great in the evening sunshine.  But now it was starting to get cold and so I headed back to the car.

I'd put everything away and was sitting in the car casually looking down the drainage ditch to see if there were any bank voles in view. I was just about to start the engine when in the corner of my eye I noticed a splash in the water about 100 metres away and a bird fly up and sit on the nearby fence.

I reached for my binoculars off the back seat and as I was doing this the bird flew even closer and landed about 15 metres away in a Hawthorne bush.  It was difficult to see it clearly in the fading light but I recognised some of the familiar features of a Sparrowhawk.  I sometimes still have difficulties in separating this bird from a Kestrel when in flight, but with a close-up view there was no doubting that this was a female Sparrowhawk. As this was the closest I'd ever come to a wild one in the field, I just had to get a photo of it, but I knew it would fly off the moment it heard me or saw me move.

Very slowly I leaned over to the back seat to get my camera and then set about shooting as many pictures as I could through the car window.  Sometimes the camera would focus on the window and sometime on the trees, but I managed to get a few record shots of the bird, which thankfully stayed in place for a few minutes.  I thought I might as well try to get some pictures from outside the car and so I slowly opened the door and actually managed to stand up before the bird flew off!  I fired a few shots off in hope as it flew low across the next field and into the distance and that was that.  As I packed up for the second time I thought, "I should have just wound the window down instead of getting out of the car - I wouldn't have got any closer".  Next time maybe.

Well, in spite of not getting any really good photographs of the Sparrowhawk, I had a great closeup view of the bird and it was a fantastic end to a short spell of birdwatching on a cold October evening.

Pennington Flash, South Side

The view across Pennington Flash from the South Shore

This morning I decided to have a look at the south side of Pennington Flash as I'd only been down there once before and not for watching birds.  I'd checked out the sightings on the Manchester Birding Forum last night and so I was expecting to see some Goldeneye and perhaps a Black Necked Grebe as well as the usual suspects.

Rivington Pike and Winter Hill from Pennington Flash

Parking at the first car park and using OS Memory Map and the SatNav on my PDA phone, I traced my way along the public footpaths towards Sorrowcow Farm on the south shore of the Flash.  I'd decided to leave the spotting scope at home as I was carrying my large zoom lens and binoculars as well as the PDA phone and that was enough!

A juvenile Great Crested Grebe still showing its stripes

I first came across and the usual suspects for Pennington Flash: some Coots, a single juvenile Great Crested Grebe and some male and female Tufted Ducks.

A female Tufted Duck -  a common sight at the Flash

After a bit of searching with binoculars I found two female Goldeneye a little further out in the Flash.  At first I thought they were Tufted Duck but closer inspection revealed their true identity.

Two female Goldeneye

Just having a stretch

Ruddy Ducks are a bit of a problem for me as the birding world is divided over them  Apparently they are not a native species and were introduced from America in he 1930's to enhance captive wildfowl collections.  However, they now breed here and hybridise with the White-headed Duck and for that reason there has been a cull on them.  But not everyone agrees that there should be a cull and so reports of sightings are usually kept to a minimum.  This little fellow will be well-gone by now as I didn't include this picture until several weeks after I spotted it - and what is a native species anyway?  Let's hope they don't start on people.

Female or Juvenile Ruddy Duck?

I also got a good view of a Grey Heron which flew over me and circled round for a while.  I've been quite lucky with getting pictures of Herons recently as I'm managing to get a little closer with every shot.

Heron banking to the right

Grey Heron through the trees

But perhaps the highlight here was a group of four or five Cormorants which were gradually moving towards me with just their heads and necks visible, like a fleet of partially submerged submarines showing only their periscopes.

Cormorants pretending to be U boats

Occasionally they would DIVE-DIVE-DIVE and then reappear in a new position a little later. And then one by one they took to the air in a series of great splashes as they paddled with their feet to take off - a great sight.  I took some photos of all these birds but they were all a little far out to be of any real quality.

A cormorant taking off

Just as I was moving off I noticed a group of three darkish birds landing in the middle of the Flash.  I fired off a few frames on my camera in the hope of catching them, but it was set to Aperture Priority mode from my previous shots rather than Shutter Priority mode which is necessary to freeze the movement of moving objects - so unfortunately the shots are all a little blurred. Later on I found out what species they were from a fellow birder.

Three Common Scoter coming to land

Moving a little further down the shore towards Leigh Sailing Club and Green Lane, I met Rob Thorpe and later David Broome, who I'd not me before.  Rob wasn't too well and so we didn't talk much but he did tell me the three blackish birds were Common Scoter and they had only arrived recently - another first for my tick list!  He let me look through his scope where I got a much better view.  I asked Rob about the Black Necked Grebe but he hadn't seen it today over here. After he left I chatted to David for a little while and he told me about a few of the sightings he'd made recently in this area - nice bloke.

Pochard from near East Bay Hide

On my way back to the car I stopped close to East Bay Hide as I spotted something else in the water.  After taking a few pictures and zooming in to them, I decided that they were Pochard in amongst the Tufted Ducks - another positive identification first for me!

Reedmace (No, not Bulrushes!)

It was a nice change to see a different side of Pennington Flash and I'll certainly be back, probably with my bike next time to do a full circuit of the Flash.

There were some other types of bird around too.

My Garden Highlights of the Week

This week I had a family party of about eight Long-Tailed Tits on and around the feeders in the Hawthorne tree at the bottom of my garden.  There was also at least one Coal Tit and one Great Tit in amongst them and I suspect there may also have been a Blue Tit or two.  There were certainly lots of birds making lots of noise for a five minute spell and then the phone rang.  When I returned with my camera they had all gone.

The second highlight for me was when I had my first Goldfinch on a feeder in my garden.  It's only this year I've really noticed Goldfinches around this area and I can now recognise their song and flight patterns without much trouble.  In summer this year I've seen them regularly calling from the next door neighbour's TV aerial, eating insects out of a spider's web on another neighbour's shed and a pair briefly paid a visit to the thistles in my front lawn (when I had one - it's now gravel). But mostly they've been flying over my garden without actually stopping off,  so to find one spending some time at my feeders was a highlight.

Sorry, no pictures of any of these as they didn't hang round long enough.

Moses Gate Country Park, Bolton

Moses Gate Notice Board and Site Map

As it was still sunny when I got home from work tonight, I decided to go out to Moses Gate Country Park in Farnworth because I hadn't been for a while.  When I got there the trees were clearly entering their Autumn phase and many were covered in red and golden leaves.

Sycamore Autumn Colours

There had been some reports of a Gannet there although I was not holding out too much hope for it still being present, especially as some birders seem to think it was not at all well.  I also combined my trip with some geocaching in the nearby Farnworth Park.

Grey Heron posing on fence

On this visit I managed to get really close to a Grey Heron, which just appeared only 15 metres away on the boardwalk in front of me as I walked round one of the rear lodges.  It jumped up onto a fence and hung around for over ten minutes whilst I took several bursts of photos and then crept slowly closer after each batch.  Eventually it flew off and my only disappointment was not managing to get any decent flight photos - but I'm really pleased with some of the others I took.

As close as I've ever been to a Grey Heron

The other highlight of the trip for me was getting fairly close to a solitary Great Crested Grebe, which was happily mingling with all the usual ducks, swans and geese being fed by the visitors.  I'd never seen this before and was amazed by how close it actually came.

Great Crested Grebe on main Crompton Lodge

I did have one problem whilst out and about which was saved from being an absolute catastrophe by my darling wife Sarah - My glasses spontaneously sprung apart and both lenses fell out whilst I was using my binoculars to view the Heron - I always take them off when using my bins.  It seems that both screws which keep the lenses in place had worked loose. Without my specs I'm pretty useless and I certainly wouldn't be safe to drive home - some say I'm not even safe with my glasses on!  So I phoned Sarah and asked if she would drop my spare pair off which she duly did despite being full of a cold - what a dear!

Great Crested Grebe

So what's surprising is that I took most of tonight's photos without my glasses, just relying on the autofocus to do it's job, which it seems have done OK.  Good stuff!

Pennington Flash

I popped out to Penny mid-morning today whilst the rest of the family were out playing badminton in Bolton.  The highlight of the trip was seeing my first Nuthatch close up, but I also enjoyed seeing a group of six Snipe, a Grey Heron which flew right over me and some female Goosander which had returned after breeding.  Here's a summary of today's sightings in the order I visited the hides:

Bunting Hide

Nuthatch at Bunting Hide Feeding Station

• Nuthatch
• Chaffinch
• Greenfinch
• Bullfinch
• Robin
• Magpie
• Moorhen
• Mallard
• Willow Tit
• Great Tit
• Blue Tit

Puffed up Blue Tit at Bunting Hide Feeding Station

Teal Hide

Two female Goosander and a male Shoveller at Teal Hide

• Goosander
• Shoveller
• Tufted Duck
• Lapwing
• Coot
• Gadwall

Male Gadwall at Teal Hide

Ramsdale's Hide

Juvenile Black Necked Grebe

• Juvenile Black Necked Grebe (thanks to Rob Thorpe)
• Gadwall
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Mallard
• Mute Swan and juveniles

Juvenile Mute Swan at Ramsdale's Hide

Horrocks Hide

Six Snipe in front of four Canada Geese

• Common Snipe
• Teal
• Cormorant
• Lapwing
• Great Crested Grebe
• Canada Goose
• Various Gulls
• Grey Heron

Grey Heron Flying over Horrocks Hide

There was nothing much to see at Pengy's, Lapwing and Tom Edmonson's Hide whilst I was there today. I'm sure there were other birds around, but none that I could identify on my own.

Rindle Road and Moss Lane

Here's a short summary of what I saw today on beautifully sunny September Sunday:

Kestrel perched on telephone wires near Rindle Road

Kestrel hovering over scrubland near  Rindle Road

• Kestrel
• Jay
• 3 Buzzards soaring
• Great Tit
• Family party of 8 Long Tailed Tits
• Loads of wood pigeons
• Cormorant over

Cormorant over Moss Lane

Male Pheasant in field off Rindle Road

• Loads of male and female pheasants (probably destined for the pot!)
• 2 blackish ducks over
• Loads of gulls over
• My first Stoat

Stoat in Astley Moss SSSI

Hope Carr Nature Reserve (Again!)

Twice in one week, eh? Must be good!  What happened was that I sent a plea to a member of the Manchester Birding Forum for a guided tour of all the good spots here and Ray Ashcroft very kindly showed me round tonight.  I decided not to take my camera tonight so I could concentrate on getting my bearings here and talking to Ray without distraction.

Whilst I was waiting for Ray to arrive at the agreed time of 6pm, I spotted a Jay in the trees near the filter beds - all on my own too!  Ray arrived promptly at 6pm and we set off immediately on a route in between the filter beds.  Before we knew it four Green Sandpipers took off from bed 9a - at least Ray said they were, I wouldn't have been able to tell myself.  He pointed out the characteristic wing shape and white marking on the back - and then another one flew out from right beneath us!  This time I got quite a good  look and saw the markings quite clearly.  Five Green Sandpipers is a good tally for this time of year, so Ray was pleased, but we were obviously far too noisy for this bird which is easily spooked.

Ray then showed me round the rest of the area pointing where he'd seen various birds including Kingfisher along the River Glaze and the famous Grey Phalarope of 2007 on one of the filter beds.  We finished off by having a look at the main lake and as well as the usual suspects there was a Little Grebe swimming in and out of the reeds on one of the banks.

All in all an interesting location and one to which I'm sure I'll return in the future.  Thanks Ray.

My Back Garden

Tonight a flock of around eight to ten tits arrived in my back garden making a lot of noise.  They were mainly Long Tailed tits but I'm sure there was a Great Tit and perhaps a Coal Tit in with them.  I only managed to get a half decent photo of one of them however.

Long Tailed Tit in my back garden Hawthorne bush

Hope Carr Nature Reserve

Tonight I ventured out to a small nature reserve on my doorstep but somewhere I had never been before.  It is called Hope Carr Nature Reserve and it gets the odd sighting reported now and then on the Manchester Birding Forum.  After reading the blurb on the aforemention website I printed out the hand drawn map and set off down the East Lancs Road towards the Greyhound Hotel behind which lies the Hope Carr area.

The nature reserve is next to a water treatment (sewage) farm owned by United Utilities.  Not a pleasant environment you may think but actually many of the filter beds are overgrown with vegetation and are obviously no longer in use (although others still are used).  As one who regularly passes the sewage works in Davyhulme near Urmston I was expecting the worse but there was no unpleasant sewage smell when I visted to night.

Apparently this Nature Reserve is well past its hey-day in the 1980's and 90's. Although the main path is still clear and accessible, many of the lakes, ponds and filter beds have become overgrown or colonised by trees and vegetation somewhat restricting the views.

Although I set off a bit late and it got dark quickly, I did get to see the following birds either along the path or on the main lake tonight:

• Kestrel
• Grey Heron
• Gadwall
• Mallard
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Canada Goose
• Magpie
• Carrion Crow
• Woodpigeon

I also saw what I first though was a Blackcap although I am by no means sure, as well another small warbler type of bird.  I had a good sighting of about ten Canada Geese flying overhead and then landing with a great deal of splashing in the main lake.

On the way back to the car I came across a young lad who was waiting for his mate so that they could go fishing together.  I asked him about where he goes and the paths around the area.  He told me that he had seen Kingfishers and many other birds here but often in areas where you were not 'officially' supposed to go. I smiled and thanked him for his help. Just before I got back into the car I had a quick look round the working filter beds - this area looked a lot more promsiing for waders and the like, so I'll need to have a good walk round at a future date.

On returning home I sent a message to one of the birders who posts sightings for Hope Carr on the Forum asking if he might show me round the places he goes to see Green Sandpipers and other waders - I now think the filter beds are where I should be looking for these.

Looking forward to another visit during the day when I have more time to look around in daylight hours.  Too dark for pictures today.

Anglesey Again

On what turned out to be a disastrously short overnight stay in Anglesey on Bank Holiday Monday, Sarah and I managed to see very few birds and certainly many less than I had intended.  We had gone to do some geocaching and birdwatching and had carefully planned our route up the western side of Anglesey before cutting across to Holyhead - however, it seems it just wasn't meant to be.

The first proper birdwatching location was Llanddona Beach on the southern side of Red Wharf Bay. Here there were three Little Egrets in and around the marshes on the edge of the beach .  The first bird we saw was on the marshland and a little distant but quite clearly a pure white Egret.  But we had a really nice view of two more flying over us as we waded through the stinky swamp.  Unfortunately I didn't have my Nikon camera with me and so there are no pictures of the birds, just my sodden feet taken on my Canon compact!  The only other birds I spotted there were various sorts of gull.

We left Llanddona heading for our next location and then disaster struck as we approached Pentraeth - when we stopped the car, the rear driver's wheel was smoking with horrible fumes and it had got red hot.  The brakes were either seized or had failed in some way. After letting it cool down for a while we tried to reverse and got a terrible clunking sound as the wheel didn't want to turn round.  After waiting a little longer, I decided to try to free it by driving back and forth in short bursts and it seems this made things a little better.

We then planned an alternative route to as directly as possible to Holyhead where at least we had a bed for the night. Sarah drove in short bursts whilst leaving the window open for the smell of burning, and every so often I got out to check the wheel temperature and see if it was smoking again.  In this way we thankfully managed to limp to Holyhead with the promise of a hotel, hot meal and hopefully repairs at a garage in the morning.

In the morning I was up 7am to look for garages - unfortunately the one right next to the hotel had shut down for good and the next nearest didn't open until 8.15am.  So I went back to the hotel still wondering if I could get it fixed in time to get home for a medical appointment I had that evening in Wigan. When I returned the garage said it could be fixed today but not before five o'clock - therefore I'd need to go home by train at 12:30am for my appointment. Whilst in Holyhead I didn't even have time to look for the Black Guillemots in the harbour and so I was really miffed about that.

As I had waited for nearly four weeks for the appointment (and couldn't get changed) I got the train home on my own whilst Sarah waited for the car to be fixed at the garage in Holyhead.  On my train journey home I managed to see some Oystercatchers and either Curlew or Whimbrel on the beach at Talacre in Flint - and that was about it I'm afraid.  Still, it was nice to see the landscape from a different view for once - you get to see so much more on the train.

Pennington Flash

A quick summary of what I saw today at Penny.

Teal Hide

• 3 Green Sandpipers
• 3 Partridges
• Shoveller
• Lapwing
• Heron
• Coot
• Tufted Duck

Bunting Hide

• Bullfinch
• Chaffinch
• Willow Tit
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Greenfinch
• Magpie
• Wood Pigeon

Tom Edmonson's Hide

• 3 Heron
• Mute Swan
• Great Crested Grebe and young
• Tufted Duck
• Gadwall
• Coot

Ramsdale's Hide

• Black Necked or Little Grebe with 3 young
• Pochard
• Gadwall
• Coot

Horrocks Hide

• Cormorant
• Lapwing
• Great Crested Grebe with young
• Moorhen
• Coot
• Gulls !?!

Pictures to follow ...

Horrocks Flash, Wigan

Tonight I arranged to meet Rob Thorpe so that he could show me around Horrocks Flash in Wigan. We'd met by chance earlier in year in Abram at Dover Basin and he'd taken me over to Lightshaw Flash to look for the unusually large flock of Black-Tailed Godwit which were there at the time.

As Rob had listed quite a few species here I'd asked him to show me where he goes to see them and he very kindly agreed.  We met up at about 16:25, a little later than planned due to some traffic problems I'd encountered in getting there.  I found Rob's parked car but as he was not around, I sent a text to let him know that I'd arrived - he 'phoned me back immediately and it turned out he was just across the railway line using his scope to look out over the Flash.

Soon we were walking on the path around Horrocks Flash. The first new sighting for me was a single Snipe in the far distance and later we had much better views of several of them together.  Rob also saw a Green Sandpiper but I missed it.  At this point I panicked because I went to look at my OS Memory Map of the area and couldn't find my PDA phone.  As I'd just used it at the car park, I thought I might have dropped it there, or even left it on top of my car. I decided to go back and look for it whilst Rob kindly waited for me - needless to say I found it in the boot of my car, just where I'd put it whilst getting my camera equipment out. Panic Over, but senility is arriving faster every day!

We carried on round the Flash until we got to the canal where Rob noted Willow Warblers, Chiff Chaff and a Kingfisher calling, but again I saw or heard none of them clearly enough for identification. We did get some excellent views of eight more Snipe from the canal and some Mute Swans with this year's downy cygnets, now quite large came over to us obviously looking to be fed.

Later a guy we met whow as walking his dog thought he'd seen a bird with a long curved beak and long thin legs which I immediately thought was a either a Whimbrel or a Curlew.  Rob worked hard trying to find it using both his scope and binoculars to no avail.  He did however come up with a single Black-Tailed Godwit and eventaully thought this might have been what had been seen.

As the dusk approached we climbed up the path from the canal to meet the railway again and got a good view of a flock of starlings getting ready to roost on the power cables of a electricity pylon. The full moon was now visible across the Flash and the light was fading fast. Our final sighting of the evening was that of a juvenile Hobby being mobbed in the distance - at first I couldn't see it, but then it flew across the water and right over the top of us.  A great sight to finish off the walk.

An excellent circular (actually more triangular) route with lots of different habitats to attract variety of birds - Thanks Rob, I definitely be back!

Pictures to follow ....

Marshside RSPB, Southport

Today I finally got to Marshside RSPB reserve in Southport - not the best time to go perhaps but at least I got there.  At first I was a little disappointed with the birds I saw,  but later I was quite satisfied.  I combined the trip with taking Sarah and Cathy shopping down Lord's Street in Southport whilst I nipped off for a spot of birding.  What a good idea that was!

I started by parking at the sand works car park and walking across the road to the first viewing area.  Here I saw mainly gulls and Mallard, but there was a white Little Egret in distant view for a while.  I thought I'd walk up to Nell's Hide and get a better view of the Egret on the way, but unfortunately the next viewing point was too far past it.

I'd been told there were good views of the Avocets nesting with their young at Nell's Hide earlier in the year - not surprisingly they were no longer there today, but I wasn't expecting to see them.  All I could see today were four Mallard which all looked liked females and some wood pigeons.  Later a few Lapwing landed with what I think were some starlings amongst them.  There were also some good views of blue dragonflies.

From Nell's Hide I walked back along the path to the Soundgrounder's Hide, stopping briefly at the first two viewing points to have another look - nothing there though  There were swallows along the way and I when I got close to Sandgrounders I could see a large flock of birds standing in the shallow water in front of the hide.  A quick look through the binoculars revealed them to be Black-Tailed Godwit with a few gulls mixed in.  This was the biggest flock of Godwit I ever seen and I was very impressed.

I carried on to the RSPB Hide and met two guys in there who told me lots of things about the birds in the area, including the fact that the male Mallard were now in 'eclipse' (moulting) and so looked quite like females and couldn't fly whilst their feathers were renewed.  This explained why I thought the Mallard I saw at Nell's hide seemed to be four females - there were probably two males and two females.

Whilst I was in the hide the guys got quite excited by a Sparrowhawk that had flushed some of the birds and which was chasing something in the distance, but I didn't actually see it.  I did however, get a good view of a Common Sandpiper though and two Black-Tailed Godwit which came very close to the front of the hide, but my photos are not too sharp for some reason - it maybe due to the cheap filter I've bought for my large zoom lens - I think I might remove it in future.

After meeting back up with Sarah and Cathy, I had an ice cream and we went for a nice walk along the pier.  I took a few pictures of gulls on the beach, a row of starlings and the mass of mute swans and coot on the inland lake (does it have a name?)  All in all a great day out and thoroughly recommended.

Pictures to follow....