Lunchtime dash to the Quarry

Female Common Scoter at Brockholes today (thanks to Zac Hinchcliffe). It spent most of its time sleeping in the Coot flock. Little else to excite us here at the moment - water level's too high to attract any waders. Hopefully the Lancs Wildlife Trust have some ideas to make this site even more attractive for birds in the future?

"Summer" on the Ribble?

Glossy Ibis at Newton Marsh (above) and a view of Granny's Bay near Fairhaven.

June and July 2007 will be remembered as very wet months with the UK suffering severe local flooding. With so few dry, sunny days the butterfly and dragonfly days have been few and far between and the moth trap hardly used since mid June. So concentrating mainly on local birds in the mid summer may not seem so exciting at first, but it's been surprisingly good.

The long-staying Glossy Ibis spent most of early June on the north Ribble marshes and on one fine sunny day I managed to see it and a Red-necked Phalarope at Martin Mere WWT. A few days later we travelled up to the Scottish Solway, but not for our usual liesurely birding circuit of one of our favourite bits of the UK. The breaking news of a White-tailed Plover at Caerlaverock had us scooting up the M6 and securing great views of one of my most wanted birds. Osprey as a 'D&G tick' was a bonus too as we're normally up here in the winter months only. The fact that the plover made its way to Lancs at Leighton Moss allowed us second looks slightly closer to home.

July started well with a local Caspian Tern twitch at Knott End but I was even more pleased when I discovered it on my Ribble patch off Fairhaven Dunes on 5th! Unfortunately it only stayed for ten minutes or so, but what a thrilling moment none-the-less. As July closes the Pectoral Sandpiper at Marshside RSPB (above and below) is getting a fair bit of attention. Hopefully there'll be something else on the estuary before I depart for Brazil early next month.

Pectoral Sandpiper from Nell's Hide at Marshside RSPB 24 July 2007.