I finally decided that the grass had grown long enough and it was bound to rain soon - two completely dry weeks had changed the back lawn from bog to lawn at last. The Plums are over now - wonder what the wasps are going to feed on now. Well the apple tree is heaving with fruit - great big Bramley apples ready for tuning into various yummy puds!
There were very few finches aboutbut Coal Tits were very much in evidence but wouldn't pose for the camera.
Meadow Pipits called overhead as a cople of parties flew over. A couple of Grey Wagtails were probably local birds but you never know really. Unexpectedly, a Chiffchaff sang briefly.
I was just contemplating starting on the pile of ironing when a text message came to my rescue - Nightjar roosting on the grit trays at Leighton Moss. What? I couldn't believe what I was reading - the only Nightjar I've ever seen in Lancashire was 34 years ago - a corpse picked up off Plex Moss Lane one spring.
A quick call to John Wright and we arranged a quick mini-twitch. An hour later we pulled up at the end of the causeway, jumped out of the car and walked 'purposefully' towards a small group of birders. It was still there; still being the operative word.
Bearded Tits pinged around us, unsure of the interloper on their feeding stations. What a lovely bird. Many of its admirers had never seen a Nightjar perched, including me. A fantastic sight.
Once we'd had our fill we could see more people arriving so we decided to give up our space and search for the reported Great White Egret from the Warton Crag viewpoint. Unfortunately, we couldn't see it - 35 Little Egrets, 3 Grey Herons, 3 Grenshanks, 3 Little Stints and a host of other birds covered the pools. A Kingfisher perched up for us and Buzzards and Ravens soared over us - a very pleasant end to our quick sortie - John had to get back for some council work.
Anyway - east coast tomorrow. Lots of stuff over there and hopefully the weather will be cloudy enough to trap them there for another day.
There were very few finches aboutbut Coal Tits were very much in evidence but wouldn't pose for the camera.
Meadow Pipits called overhead as a cople of parties flew over. A couple of Grey Wagtails were probably local birds but you never know really. Unexpectedly, a Chiffchaff sang briefly.I was just contemplating starting on the pile of ironing when a text message came to my rescue - Nightjar roosting on the grit trays at Leighton Moss. What? I couldn't believe what I was reading - the only Nightjar I've ever seen in Lancashire was 34 years ago - a corpse picked up off Plex Moss Lane one spring.
A quick call to John Wright and we arranged a quick mini-twitch. An hour later we pulled up at the end of the causeway, jumped out of the car and walked 'purposefully' towards a small group of birders. It was still there; still being the operative word.
Bearded Tits pinged around us, unsure of the interloper on their feeding stations. What a lovely bird. Many of its admirers had never seen a Nightjar perched, including me. A fantastic sight.Once we'd had our fill we could see more people arriving so we decided to give up our space and search for the reported Great White Egret from the Warton Crag viewpoint. Unfortunately, we couldn't see it - 35 Little Egrets, 3 Grey Herons, 3 Grenshanks, 3 Little Stints and a host of other birds covered the pools. A Kingfisher perched up for us and Buzzards and Ravens soared over us - a very pleasant end to our quick sortie - John had to get back for some council work.
Anyway - east coast tomorrow. Lots of stuff over there and hopefully the weather will be cloudy enough to trap them there for another day.
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