It was my penultimate day at work and as I had half a day's holiday left I decided to take it and sort out a few things at home before Christmas. The snow has been problematical these last few days - the hill from our house proving an insurmountable barrier if I hadn't gritted it and yesterday we ran out of grit! Fortunately I have decided to park the car at the top of the estate so that I had a fighting chance of getting on the road.
The bird proved to be quite confiding if approached carefully. Dog walkers didn't bother it too much as it fed actively. Thanks to Tony Cooper for finding and reporting it! I must try to get to Rishton Res tomorrow afternoon (after I leave what's been my place of work for 29 years for the final time) and see if there is any open water there. Then it'll be back to job-hunting!
As luck would have it, I'd just finished my lunch and the ever-reliable Bill Aspin left me a message about a Velvet Scoter on Barrow Lodge. Well it's only about five miles away, so having successfully traversed the skating rink I got on the main roads and slithered to a halt at the lodge. Allen Holmes and Pete Morris were viewing the bird, a female, as it dived repeatedly on the only open patch of water in amongst lots of Mallards and Black-headed Gulls.
Having done my usual informative talk with some of the locals, I joined up with Allen on the far bank where we got great views of what is normally a distant sea bird. To get one in Lancashire is rare enough, but on a small lodge in the east - unheard of, I think.
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