Just myself and Bob K having a little tour around seeing what we could find at this, generally, exciting time of the year. We started at Sizergh Castle looking for the Hawfinch without any joy (the sharp ones amongst you will say its in Cumbria) We called in at Pine Lake and had great views of the first winter Little Gull, even I got a decent picture of it. Then we had a good look around Leighton Moss after calling to see the Ravens at Warton Cragg. It was, in general, fairly quiet then we found, tucked up in a corner, Craig Bell from our Rossendale group waiting for an Osprey to pass through. Are you still there Craig? A small passage of 20 + Sand Martins were seen, up to 3 Marsh Tit also. The reed beds remained strangely silent. A couple of Knot on the Allen Pool along with Black Tailed Godwit, Redshank and various wildfowl were seen in the area.
As we headed south, supposedly going to see the Great Grey Shrike on Chat Moss, I saw a sign, just as we got onto the A6, that said Cutacre Country Park There has been an Iceland Gull present here for a while so I thought it was worth a call. What followed was one of the funniest and painful walks that we both had done since the Pacific Swift at Trimley Marshes, Suffolk in 2013. The area was visited in 2010 to see a Shorelark, but it bears no resemblance to the area now, gone are the slag heaps and coal spoil areas. Its been landscaped and footpaths have been laid and seemed like a nice open space to go into. If you are in unfamiliar place its best to ask so, after walking for what seemed an age I decided to phone one off Greater Boltons finest birders, Phil Rhodes. He said Why are you walking in from that end, its a long way to the large pool where the gulls bathe after some great directions and a further call we reached the pool, but alas, the bird was not seen, a Green Sandpiper helped a little. The long walk back to the A6 car park was made easier with the sighting of a female Wheatear and around 4 Grey Partridge. Two tired birders fell into the car and after checking the bird news headed towards Chat Moss as the shrike was showing.
Its at times like this when you realise that you should never give up, even though you feel bad! After Bob K had opened the level crossing gate on Rindle Road and we got onto Twelve Yards Road with great plumes of dust following us, we could see birders in the distance, were they watching the shrike? We said hello and were told that it hadnt been seen for about an hour. We searched all the various vantage points that the bird could perch on then, after around 45 minutes the bird could be seen albeit, distantly, sat on the telegraph wires. Cracking bird to watch, Bob and myself had enjoyed a long, tiring days birding, but if you put the work in you usually get the results out.
