Sunday 9 December 2007

East Lancs birding - 9th December 2007

Gulls at Whinney Hill Tip

The view of the Corus Roof at Fishmoor
Kestrel
A Trip to East Lancashire Mid Morning was to catch up with the ever present Glaucous Gull. First a stop at Whinney Hill Tip, off junction 7 of the M65. Here there were quite a lot of Gulls, but noticably more were flying away from the tip. A 45 minutes search amongst the gulls produced only a single Great Black Backed gull. This was the only bird that wasn't indifferent.
I thought there may be a chance that because it was Sunday, and the work on the tip has stopped, there may be a chance it had already gone to the roost. A trip to Fishmoor was in order. Here there were few birds - 75- Black Heads and c30 Herring as well as 5 Lesser Black Backs and a single Great Black Back. Other than Gulls there were 12 Goosander, which suddenly increased from the original 3 in front of our very eyes! Also 2 Reed Bunting and a Kestrel were present off the water.
A trip to the local site of Corus, where the Gulls roost on was to be our final point of call of the day. Here there were c125 lapwing and a varying number of Herring Gulls and 5 Great Black Backed Gulls
An Educational and enjoyable trip, with the additional dissapointment of another White Winged gull dip!

No comments: