Ribble Estuary Birding

 This was a morning visit with my daughter Katherine.  We started at Marine Lake and then called in at Marshside RSPB, Crossens and Banks Marsh.  There were staggering numbers of wildfowl, Geese and waders present.  Photography was not easy due to the distances.

Goosander - A 1st winter bird on Marine Lake.

Smew - A 1st winter drake seen on Marine Lake

Pintail - Large numbers of this species were seen on Marshside RSPB

Teal - 1000s of Teal were present in the area.

Marshside RSPB seen from Crossens Road. 
Thousands of Lapwing and Golden Plover were present as well as the wildfowl.

The following video shows just a few of the 50,000 Pink-footed Geese that spend the Winter on the Ribble Estuary.  The video was taken at Banks Marsh.  Sorry about the shaky video.

Hesketh Bank and Banks Marsh

 

A visit to Hesketh Marsh late in the day with daughter Katherine.  We did manage to see Hen Harrier, Merlin, Peregrine, Ruff, Curlew and lots of Pink-footed Geese.

Hesketh Bank RSPB Reserve

The following day we visited Banks Marsh which is just a short distance from Hesketh Marsh.

Banks Marsh

Twite - We were hoping to see some Twite and sure enough a party of about
50 landed reasonably close.  

Also seen were Little and Great White Egret, Curlew and about 5000 Pink-footed Geese.