Purple Sandpiper 3 Rossall Point
Twite 50 Cocker's Dyke
Peregrine 1 adult Cocker's Dyke
Red-breasted merganser 4 males Rossall Point
Common scoter 7 females Rossall Point
Sanderling 20 Knott End, 20 Rossall Point
Knot 20 Knott End, 40 Rossall Point
Dunlin 1000 Knott End to Cocker's Dyke
Pink-footed goose 200 in fields behind Cocker's Dyke, 1500 flew up distantly towards Fluke Hall.
I walked to Rossall Point and then onto Fleetwood where I caught the ferry to Knott End and then continued on to Cocker's Dyke and Fluke Hall on Pilling Marsh, and then back to the car the same way. It was a really impressive day, with lots of waders, but I was particularly pleased to see the Eider flock at Rossall Point. It was a calm day and the air was full of the sound of the males "whoooooing" the females in display, and they're in fine plumage now. On the rocks there was a nice selection of waders, including three Purple sandpipers.
At Cocker's Dyke, a flock of 500 Dunlin suddenly took to the air in panic and wheeled around, changing direction and height in perfect formation, like one large living organism. Looking up I spotted an adult Peregrine just as it started its stoop. It dropped like a rocket into the middle of the flock and without too much difficulty emerged carrying an unfortunate victim. It flew about 50m more before landing on the beach with its meal. A crow landed alongside it and the Peregrine flew off again with it's prey and was lost to sight, sparing me the gruesome detail of its table manners! Meanwhile on the saltmarsh in front of me, a nervous looking flock of Twite scurried around and occasionally flew up and called out their name, "tveeiht".
Purple sandpiper and Turnstone. Perhaps surprisingly, Purple sandpiper is a Lancashire (including North Merseyside) tick for me. I suppose though, there is not a lot of rocky shoreline between Liverpool and Arnside, so perhaps it's not so surprising after all.
Pink-footed geese.
Twite.
Little - the Fleetwood to Knott End ferry.
Large - the Heysham to Ireland (?) ferry, with Coniston on the other side of Morecombe Bay.
Blackpool from Bispham.
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