LANCS: Winter Thrushes and lingering Waxwings.

Birding has been restricted this week despite the fine and frosty conditions. Anyway, it looks like the weather's about to change (up here at least if the BBC website is to be believed) so might as well round up the week so far.
On Tuesday 9th I finished the day on the outer Ribble Estuary at Warton Bank on "harrier watch" again. It was hard to believe that a nice male Hen Harrier would fail to appear on such a clear afternoon but that's just what happened. A couple of Peregrines, single Merlin, 27 Whooper Swans and mixed flocks of winter thrushes kept me (reasonably) happy though. There were about 50 each of Redwings and Fieldfares on the Hawthorns there.

Going to the local stationery stores for stuff in town has never been so exciting as 7 Waxwings over Preston proved on Wednesday (10th). I had a quick look around with envelopes etc under my arm but couldn't locate any feeding. Ten Blackbirds together on berries was all I could find, but that's a pretty good total for "town". Plenty of winter thrushes around home as well with several Redwings overhead as I parked the car.

Today I had another go for the Hen Harrier at Warton at lunchtime as it could be the last decent weather we get for a few days. Still no luck but the adult Glossy Ibis was back on this side of the Ribble on its favourite patch of saltmarsh. At least 8 Little Egrets were out there today - they always are I just sometimes forget to mention them nowadays. Single Merlin and a couple of Sparrowhawks were spooking Snipe, Redshanks and Meadow Pipits and there were at least 30 Whoopers in with the distant Mute Swans. Bit of an increase in thrushes too I reckon with 200+ Fieldfares and 50+ Redwings along the hedges on the bank.
I checked Newton Marsh on the way home and it was packed with birds once again, most noticeably 450 Black-tailed Godwits (a mid-winter record for me here I'm sure). Wildfowl numbers were predictably down with the pool still partially frozen, but 300+ Wigeon, 25+ Teal, 15 Shoveler and 25 Mallard is not to be sniffed at. Shelducks have appeared too with 3 birds on the pool.