News of an adult Stilt Sandpiper near Maghull, Lancashire on Friday afternoon had a few looking up when the last one had been recorded, it was in 1967, so it would surely attract a lot of attention. The sharp ones amongst you might think that the location might be in the dreamed up county of Merseyside, well dream on, its in the real county of Lancashire. A check of the respective bird news early on Saturday morning revealed that the bird was still present at Lunt Water Meadows LNR, so a trip along with Kevin C was planned. On a bright morning we set off and as we arrived on site lots of cars filled the carpark and lane leading up to it. The bird was soon located mainly feeding close to Black Tailed Godwits and a nice size comparison was made. The birds delicate feeding habits were also noted. Lots of birders from Greater Manchester/ Rossendale were seen with John R joining us for the rest of the day. Amongst other birds seen were: - Grey Partridge, Garganey, Ringed Plover, Common Whitethroat, Cettiss Warbler, and Sedge Warbler. Its certainly turning into a great little reserve and as the reed bed develops who knows what might be found next?
A quick call at Marshside RSPB at Southport revealed a Wood Sandpiper, nicely found for us by John R. Next stop was Clifton Marsh near Preston to try to find a couple of Temminck`s Stints that had been reported from there. Upon arrival and with Craig B already there, he told us that the stints had been feeding on a small island not 20 yards away just before he arrived! Both birds had flown much further away! Anyway after a bit of searching we could see one of them happily feeding on the waters edge in the distance, not ideal but it was identifiable. A few more birders began to arrive on site, one of them was Jean Singer from Leeds a fellow twitcher who had accompanied our team on numerous trips.
Or final call was Preston Docks to search for the nesting Common and Arctic Terns that are benefitting from the tern boxes on the floating pontoons in the docks area. It involved a walk around the dock area but well worth it in the end. I had a lapse of memory with regard to Common / Arctic Tern identification, but I was soon put right by John R! After 20 minutes searching through the various tern boxes and just finding Common Terns, John R picked an Arctic Tern up as it flew in and promptly landing almost in front of us, a nice end to a great day out in Lancashire even though we did miss the first half of the cup final!!
