Due to the poor weather last Sunday we decided to have a trip out when the weather had improved on Tuesday. A 9-00am start on a cold morning had 4 of us getting into Bob K`s car and heading north to visit Sizergh Castle, to possibly connect with the Hawfinch that are usually in the area. Upon arrival it soon became apparent that with quite a few day trippers already on site our chances of seeing Hawfinch would be very restricted! After watching a few people arriving, slamming doors, shouting etc we decided to go. But not before watching a couple get geared up for an arctic expedition with bags etc and then calmly putting their car keys on top of their car tyre and heading away, good job we were not thieves!
We headed up into Grange over Sands to visit a new reserve for us all called Brown Robin Wood parking on a carpark in rather smart hotel grounds with a superb view over the estuary. We had found out that you could possibly find Hawfinch in this nice nature reserve. A short walk away from the town in splendid woodland was at first bird less, but soon became much better. Lots of Redwing, then Steve B saw two Hawfinch sat at the top of a tree and we were all soon enjoying them, if a little distant. We waited for better views but just a couple of flights were the best we managed.
The next port of call was Pine Lake near Carnforth to try to catch up with a first winter male Ring necked Duck that had been found there last weekend. After a good mooch around we found the bird swimming around and diving for food but, as they do, it put its head down and had a sleep making it difficult at times to pick out. A few Scaup were also noted along with a winter plumaged Great Crested grebe. Our final call was to be at Leighton Moss hoping to see the Bearded Tits on the grit trays in the late afternoon, we had no luck but a very showy Cettis`s Warbler made up for it. As we left we watched the gathering majesty of the large amount of Starling`s coming into the reed beds to roost in their murmurations, quite a sight for us all to finish on a nice day out.
