Appleton Reservoir, Warrington

Gadwall 50+

Wigeon 9

Tufted duck 15

Kingfisher 1

Mute swan 2 adults

Eccleston Mere

Tufted duck 35

Pochard 1 male

Coot 140

Kingfisher 1

Possibly the largest flock of tufties I've seen at the mere this year.

Appleton Reservoir, Warrington

Gadwall 56

Wigeon 12

Shoveler 9

Tufted duck 15

Chiffchaff 2 calling

Mute swan 2 ads

Leighton Moss

Great white egret 3 (2 at Lillian's hide, 1 at Eric Morecombe hide)
Little egret 30
Little stint 7 (5 at Lillian's hide, 2 at Eric Morecombe hide)
Curlew sandpiper 3 (Eric Morecombe hide)
Greenshank 1 (Eric Morecombe hide)
Cetti's warbler 1 (singing near Eric Morecombe hide)
Snipe 20

Eric Morecombe hide

Eric Morecombe hide

 Lillian's hide (with a little egret in the background!)

Second great white egret at Lillian's hide.

Jenny Brown's Point, Silverdale

Great white egret 1
Little egret 13
Black-tailed godwit 500
Redshank 200
Curlew 50
Oystercatcher 500

Lots of birds on the sandbank at Jenny Brown's Point just after the high tide today, including yet another great white egret.

Cyclamen, Silverdale

I found a small group of wonderful cyclamen growing on the edge of some woodland near Silverdale. Cyclamen are not native to the UK, but they are members of an exclusive club of plants which take my breath away when I see them. Other plants in this club include wild crocus, gentians and most tiny alpine plants. Way back in September 1989 I found wild cyclamen growing on a large boulder on the island of Thassos in the Aegean sea. It was a bulb about 3cm diameter, from which a leafless culm grew with a single, beautiful purple flower. It was hard to see where the roots went or how the plant got it's nutrients perched in it's precarious position, but it was just a stunning sight and these plants today brought back memories of that day.

Houghton Green Flash, Winwick

Common sandpiper 1

Teal 2

Little grebe 1

Burton Mere Wetlands

Cattle egret 1

Little stint 3

Spotted redshank 5

Water rail 2

Ruff 5

Pink footed goose 50

Little egret 1
Wheatear 1
 

Eccleston mere

Kingfisher 2

Chiffchaff 2

Tufted duck 20

Grey wagtail 1

Coot 140

More from an Irish bog

Red grouse 8

Golden plover 5

At one time Irish red grouse were considered to be a different race to those in the rest of the UK, but I believe that recent research has found no evidence to back this up.

 Just a few short weeks ago I was admiring Devil's bit scabious on dry, limestone grassland on the Burren, where it grows to a height of 1m. Yet here it is in full flower, no more than about 5 cm heigh, growing on the edge of an acid blanket bog in the company of sphagnum, bog bean and bog asphodel! I guess it's actually just another Burren oddity. The plant normally prefers acid soil, but it certainly also thrives on the limestones of the Burren.

The ochre coloured sphagnum at the bottom of this photo is the very distinctive, Sphagnum papillosum.

Here it is a bit closer.

This is my NVC quadrat. NVC surveys are plant community surveys, which involve identifying every plant in the quadrat, including all forbes,  but also grasses, mosses, sedges, rushes and lichens etc. The composition of the plants in this quadrat when taken in associaton with other quadrats allows a community type to be assigned. Plant communities form the basis of habitat conservation and protection. I'm currently working on a mosaic of bog and heath communities in Ireland. Really interesting stuff!

I was quite surprised to find this lone bog asphodel in flower. Most of the rest are well over.

Larne Lough, Northern Ireland

Greenshank 5 (Glynn station)

Kingfisher 1 (Ballycarry bridge)

Little egret 5

Curlew 20

Red breasted merganser 30

Hooded crow 15

Redshank 10