Crosby and Barley - Lancashire and North Merseyside - 3rd May 2009

Today saw a double twitch of a British Rarity and a Lancs Scarcity. We Started off at Crosby, Merseyside to see the Pallid Swift Apus pallidus which has been hawking over Seaforth and Crosby Marine Lakes for a couple of days now

Onsite I spotted the Bird almost straight away, with the help of the birders present. I was hawking with c30 Swift in the southern end of Crosby Marine Lake over the Carp Park. It showed incredibly well for at least 20 minutes mid afternoon and allowed me to note most of the key features of a very nice bird, e.g. Pale appearence, bold pale throat patch, translucent primaries and secondaries into the sun and occasionally at very close views, the scaled body feathers. It even called whilst onsite. A fabulourly educational bird. I also met Chris Batty onsite who really got me into bird watching in the beginning, which was great. [British Lifer too]
Next stop was Lower Black Moss Resr near Barley, Clitheroe. Here I twitched the Female Smew Mergellus albellus that was found this morning by John Metcalfe. The Bird was again located very swiftly after my arrival and fed actively on the northern end of the Res near to the inlet. This is a very good bird in Lancashire nowadays and certainly in May this is a fabulous record, however, i somewhat doubt its credibility as a true wild bird. For now however, this is an overdue Lifer!

This constitutes my 3rd and 4th Lifers for 2009 and in 2 weekends. My List now stands at 256 BOU