A trip to Fleetwood

Sanderlings and surf.

I've been reading a grownup bird blog (by which I mean, conscientious, high quality, and seemingly popular) Hakodate Birding, and it inspired me to try out a more reportage-style entry here. I take a lot of photos on a proper hike, many of which are good, but never make it onto Flickr, this blog, or my Twitter feed, sometimes simply because I don't want to spam people with too many shots at once, or too many that are similar.

So here I'll put some of those that didn't make the cut. It's a fairly representative example of what you might see if you do a similar walk at this location, although my priorities are slightly different to those of 'birders' (I dislike that term), who tend to go for number of species seen, and have the ability to see further, with binoculars or a scope. Bird photographers are much more limited in range as a rule, plus I tend to focus on species I've not seen before, or ones I want better shots of than I got previously. Anyhow...

So on Sunday I went up to Fleetwood. It's a medium-sized town at the northern end of the Fylde coast in west Lancashire. Used to be a big fishing port, and before that a Victorian pleasure town, but it's suffered from a lot of deprivation in the last twenty or thirty years. Nonetheless, it's a pleasant place to go, with some nice local shopping areas, and at least one good real ale pub; it also has a great location, with views across Morecambe Bay to the Lake District, and nice coastal walks. More importantly, it's a good place for birds.

I was hoping to see a stonechat. Sightings had been reported there on and off for a couple of weeks, but I was out of luck. I walked through the much-deforested Memorial Park (they're apparently making it better, but it's involved the felling of a lot of trees to start with) to the Marine Lakes, a pair of large artificial bodies of water just behind the north-facing seafront. It was high tide, so a lot of waders and ducks congregated there. However, to begin with, I saw very little. Three red-breasted mergansers were a highlight, including two males, which I've never got close to before.

 

 Is the third one an immature male, given the darkness around the eye (adult plumage coming through?) - or a female?

But no waders that I could see - they were my backup plan, if I didn't see the stonechat. I've photographed many before of course, but I can always get better shots. I searched in vain for anything but gulls - there were plenty - and was getting pretty dispirited (often the case), until I finally found a flock of roosting sanderlings. Around a hundred birds, huddled together on the shingle. Just as I was setting up to photograph them, a dog frightened them off - there were a lot of dog walkers, and of course they tend to eschew leashes on the beach, which can be very frustrating. However, I welcomed the opportunity to get some in-flight shots, although they weren't great. The birds settled back down nearby, and I got down low and took a great many shots. After a while, I started hoping another dog would come along, so I could try again, as they looked pretty static for the most part, but eventually I gave up waiting. Just then, they took off, and I just managed to shoot a series of photos as they swept past me - some were pretty good (including one shot that was selected as the BBC Nature photo of the day, which was nice). They were dazzling, alternating between bright white bellies and dark backs, sweeping back and forth. Examining the shots later, I discovered a single dunlin amongst them, and later noticed a couple of the sanderlings had leg rings - I emailed a Dutch researcher, who I think may be responsible (the ringing took place in Greenland and Iceland), and although they couldn't be sure, said it was possible.

Roosting...

...and in flight. Alternating between dark backs...

...and pale bellies. The effect was much more striking than these shots suggest.

Then back, searching the shrubs for stonechats (and failing), before walking along the other side of the lakes. Finally, I saw some more waders - a few turnstones on the grass, where they usually are, and then a flock took off from a small island in the lake. The shots were poorer, as I was further away, but good enough to identify two purple sandpipers amongst the turnstones - a pair roost on the coast here most of the winter. Then I found a bunch of redshanks on the other side of the island.

A rather impressionistic shot - two purple sandpipers, left, and a turnstone.

Other birds were, predictably, feral pigeons, starlings (which abound here), various gulls (common, black-headed, and herring; I didn't look closely for others), magpies, and oystercatchers (in the park). Pink-footed geese were still feeding on the fields just south of Fleetwood (opposite Rossall School). But no passerines - although a skylark and a snow bunting were seen on the golf course by somebody else.

Not a bad day, but if it weren't for the sanderlings, I would have been pretty disappointed.

Redshanks, as far from people as they could get.