Fairhaven feathered friends

Dune activity

There’s much flitting, chasing, squabbling and territorial activity going on in and around the beach and dunes by Fairhaven Lake. Reed buntings, stonechats, meadow pipits and linnets are all active in the dunes, scrub and saltmarsh. The saltmarsh has been flooded after extremely high spring tides, leaving behind debris full of seeds and insects for them to forage. But beware little birdies, there’s a male kestrel in stunning breeding plumage on the lookout for easy prey.

Flooded saltmarsh

Oystercatchers jostle for space on the almost submerged “lobster pot” – a redundant sewage outlet – and gulls grapple for a perch on a grounded tree trunk that we walked past the other day!

Stonechat

This little female stonechat hasn’t got a tail. A male with his eye on her doesn’t seem to mind.

Pied Wagtail

Waggling around searching for morsels.

Buntings

The solitary snow bunting is still here; reed buntings (2 male/1 female) survey the soggy scene.

Fairhaven Lake

Lakeside residents always ready for a snapshot.

Receding tide

The receding tide exposes the saltmarsh leaving behind brackish pools – watery larders for herons, little egrets, redshanks, shelducks, snipes and curlews. Snapshot opportunities for another day – if you’re lucky!

Snow Bunting – Fairhaven Beach

Who are you?

I’d seen this chaffinch-like bird flitting about on the sea defence steps at Fairhaven Lake and managed to get a few snapshots. I wasn’t sure if it was a snow bunting. On checking with those knowledgeable birders at Fylde Bird Club they confirmed it is indeed a snow bunting.

Snow Bunting

This solitary bird has been around for 4-5 weeks. It pecks for seeds and insects in the debris left by the tide and is quite approachable. In fact, he seems to like our chats and doesn’t mind me chasing him along the beach for a snapshot!

It’s fascinating to think that these little birds are winter visitors from Greenland/Iceland/Scandinavia. They also breed in Scotland on high mountains among scree and boulders.

I hope he finds a flock to join before flying back home around March in readiness for the breeding season when his plumage will change dramatically to a striking white head and black wing and tail feathers.

Until then it’s quite exciting looking for him. I’ll miss him when he flies north.

Butterfly watching

Big Butterfly Count

Being a citizen scientist for the Big Butterfly Count is a great opportunity for being aware of what’s flitting around in the garden, parks, countryside and seaside.

It’s a snapshot challenge hoping the little blighters will stay still long enough before taking off. (Memo to subject: And while you’re posing, please keep your wings open!)

Not exactly “butterfly season” in December, but here’s a reminder of what we have to look forward to.

Red Admiral

Six-spot Burnet, Speckled Wood, Common Blue

Eyed Hawk Moth

This was a “first” for me. What I thought was a crinkly leaf clinging to the wall was a stunning quivering Eyed Hawk Moth. Scary and fascinating.

Why are my fuchsias being eaten alive?

Further investigation revealed the culprits. Four Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillars, the size of my index finger, feasting to burst before hunkering down for their long metamorphosis.

You looking at me?

Butterfly forecast

Not so good at this time of the year.

Date for Diary

Big Butterfly Count 12 July – 4 August 2024.

Bird watching

Pinkfeet

It’s not just holiday makers that like to visit the Fylde Coast. Thousands of “pinkfeet” fly here for their winter holidays – all the way from Iceland and Greenland. The chattering as they fly over in skeins at night is goose-bump-making! They’ll hang around until April/May and return to the Arctic summer to breed, raise goslings – then do it all again.

Heron

Like a prehistoric creature flying across the Ribble estuary.

Redshank

Pretty, peep-peeping waders with their distinctive bright red legs. Often out on the estuary or in the saltmarsh searching for morsels.

Stonechat

Thanks Mrs Stonechat for hanging around long enough for a snapshot!

Mute Swan

Always majestic. This one had been preening for ages. I knew it would have a stretch if I waited long enough. Thanks Mr Swan! (Males have a more pronounced knobbly bit above their beak than females.)

Bird watching forecast

Good around these parts.

Weather-watching

My snapshot-taking mojo has been absent for some time, so I dusted the cobwebs off my camera and have been out and about weather-watching. We’ve had all sorts chucked at us these past few weeks.

Frost

A stonechat perches on the frosty saltmarsh.

Sun

Sunrise brightens a chilly morning.

Rain

A dismal day on St Annes Beach.

Clouds

Dramatic clouds over the dunes.

Blue skies

Vapour trails and wispy clouds.

Weather forecast

Not good round these parts!

Thrills and spills – St Annes beach

Great T-shirt

Sickly perfumed vapes mingle with fusty tobacco and whiffs of cloying spliffs. Sausages, burgers and chips sizzle in hot fat. The Runaway Train chugs around the fairground. Burning fuel belches from the exhaust pipes of revving machines.

Fun and entertainment for all as the Cheshire Grasstrack Club returns to St Annes for the British Sandmasters Racing Championship 2023.

An obliging spectator – but he didn’t share!

On your marks. Get set. Go!

Strong winds and shifting sands make conditions challenging for the competitors. They lap it up.

Go!

Sand-storming racing at its exciting best

Kite-boarders in the distance harness the wind as quads, bikes, side-cars kick up a sandstorm.

Quad bikes

Side-cars

On track

Another lap

They’ve gone home and the beach breathes again.

The jetty – St Annes Pier

Just birds

Life without a camera

Camera suffered a nasty tumble at Hadrian’s Wall a couple of years back and has been struggling ever since. A recent accident in the muddy Ribble Estuary sent it to its untimely death.

Buy new or get it repaired?

Decision time – to buy a new camera or get the old one repaired?
Panasonic recommended DKAVS so I packed it up and sent it for an estimate.
The repair = £120.
A new camera = £600.
A no-brainer.
Cannot recommend DKAVS highly enough.

Time to take it on a test run

Several outings later, pleased to report camera up and running.

Avocet – Newton Marsh

Avocet chicks – Newton Marsh

Redshank – Newton Marsh

Stonechat – St Annes dunes

Kestrel – St Annes dunes

Heron – Lytham Hall

Robin – singing at full volume – Fairhaven Lake

Moral

In these times of economy and eco-friendliness – glad to have had my camera repaired.
(Just need to make sure it’s strapped firmly round my neck so it doesn’t suffer any other operator mishaps!)

Hedgehog Awareness Week – 1-7 May 2022

British Hedgehog Preservation Society

Organised by the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, Hedgehog Awareness Week is taking place from 1-7 May 2022. It’s a brilliant means of bringing to our attention the problems hedgehogs face and how we can help. The website is full of downloadable informative leaflets, posters and colourings-in for youngsters.

Nocturnal visitors

Our nocturnal visitors are doing very well since they came out of hibernation. Since early March we’ve been putting Mr Johnson’s hedgehog food in the hedgehog feeding station. All gone the next morning.

If hogs visit your garden, there’ll be signs – deposits (that resemble slugs) left on the lawn and garden path!

Yum!

Mr Johnson’s

Suppertime

Tea for two

Perfect dining!

How we can help hedgehogs

Create a hedgehog highway

Hogs travel up to 2 miles on their nightly wanderings. Give them access to your garden through a hole in the gate or fence, and be charmed seeing them shuffling through the shrubbery.

Hedgehog highway

Provide a feeding station

Ours is basic and works. A few bricks, access in and out – but not for larger night-prowlers – and a lid to keep the food dry and the hogs safe. Fresh water is essential, particularly in dry weather. But no bread and milk. Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and milk could kill them.

Feeding station without lid

Feeding station with lid

Make dens

Create safe havens. Piles of logs, sticks and leaf litter will give hogs a place to rest during the day, and somewhere to consider for hibernation later in the year.

Hedgehog hunting

It’s great fun to go hedgehog-hunting in the garden after dark. If startled a hog will stop in his/her tracks until the assumed danger has passed, and then shuffle off into the undergrowth.

Mating time

May is mating time. If you hear loud huffing and puffing it’s likely to be a male courting a female. She’ll give birth to 2-6 hoglets any time between May and September. After 6-8 weeks they’ll leave the nest and begin their solitary nightly explorations.

Hedgehog help

If you see a hog out during the daytime s/he needs help. Capture the creature (wear gardening gloves), gently place in a cardboard box, cover with an old towel and get in touch with your local hedgehog rescue centre or contact the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

The gardener’s friend

Let’s do all we can to give our prickly friends the help they need to survive.

One of last night’s hungry visitors (18/04/22)

Newton Marsh

A584

We trek along the A584. A dirty, noisy dual carriageway called Preston New Road.

Why?

To find Newton Marsh. The OS map shows the marsh running alongside the A584. We’re not sure of access so park in a layby on the outskirts of Freckleton, and tramp over a mile along the A584. It’s horrible! Carling, Costa, Red Bull, Guinness, Johnnie Walker and other detritus gathers in the verges, along with a dead pheasant and mangled hare. We reach a turning to find industrial units, huge lorries and even more rubbish.

Then what?

It gets amazing. Whistling teal, pochard, wigeon, shovellers are all busy dabbling. The males are resplendent in their finest breeding colours. Lapwings swerve, tumble and dive over the marsh calling “peewit”. Golden plovers join in. Black-tailed godwits roost. A buzzard “pee-ows” in the distance. This is the attraction of Newton Marsh.

Newton Marsh – Freckleton beyond

Black-tailed godwits, pochards, wigeons

Black-tailed godwit – in breeding plumage

Private land

Newton Marsh, close to the River Ribble, is privately owned with no access other than to view from the fence. It’s popular with regular birders, some with scopes, others spying through binoculars from their car window. One chap tells us there’s a snipe on the island. It is so well camouflaged we can barely see it – and then it moves its head.

Find the snipe – centre of pic wedged between the rocks

We’ve been back again, twice. Certainly not for the walk! On each occasion we’ve seen something amazing. Avocets today.

Thankfully we’ve found a layby only a quarter of a mile away. Roads, laybys, industrial estates – not our first choice for a walk – but worth it for the rewards of Newton Marsh.

Lytham Hall – woodland walks and snowdrops

This enriching woodland walk
through the grounds of Lytham Hall
has become a real favourite

Imposing Lytham Hall

Swathes of snowdrops – a woodland carpet

Lily Pond

A quiet oasis

Residents on the Lily Pond
include Mr & Mrs Teal
mingling with moorhens and mallards,
and high up in the treetops
nesting herons

Mr Teal tending his coat of vibrant colours

Heron’s eye view

Male and female heron in process of nest-building

Herons lay 4-5 pale blue eggs
Incubation 25 days
Fledging 50 days
Maybe end of April
to see/hear their squawking young?

Ramshackle boathouse
tumbling into
the Lily Pond

Boathouse – restoration imminent

Another thing to look forward to –
the restoration of the boathouse