Dude birding
More birding today, I decided to fit in some relaxed Eric Morecambe pool-ing in between Chaplaincy services, in the hope of seeing the Spoonbill reported yesterday. The usual crowd of Avocets were kluut-ing around all over the place, and a summer-plumaged Spotted Redshank put in a brief appearance (and then proceeded to call from some distant corner of the pool where I couldn’t see it). About 10 Black-tailed Godwits (goodness, you didn’t want me to count them did you?). Growing tired of being “inside” on such a fantastic day, I decided to drive up to the Crag Road viewpoint. This proved to be a good move, as I then connected with the Spoonbill, the first I’ve seen for many years! It was happily spooning away at the far corner of the EM pool (possibly not visible from the hide, although I suppose it might have flown in while I was on my way up to the viewpoint). I then had the idea of killing two birds with one stone (it’s the way I tell em) and moving on to Warton Crag, where the local Peregrines showed extremely well (the male that is) and I had a nice chat with some day-tripping scousers (I even let them try my bins, and I was gratified to find my hubcaps still in place when I got back). Despite my need for a better camera (I’m considering the Coolpix 5000 just now), I got some reasonable shots of the male peregrine through the scope: they’ve been Facebooked here
