Water, Water

A day at home for the Westies as Mrs W and my self made our way down to Leighton Moss. The sun shone the whole day but there was a thin North wind blowing. We parked first in the lay-by near the causeway and headed for the public hide watching the grit trays on the way there and also on the return but no sign of Beardies, they could be heard occasionally pinging in the reeds but no sighting.

There was still water on the causeway and there was still signs it had flooded the hide a week ago. I have never seen so much water in the Leighton area. From the hide a good mix of duck, large flock of Greylag, one Cormorant and a good scattering of Coot, 2 Buzzard circling at a distance , and that was about it. Next we made our way to the centre for a warming cup of coffee before checking the feeders and Lilians hide. as can be seen from the pics the was a good mix of birds on the feeders as well as the usual scavengers below the feeders eg. Mallard, Pheasant, and 2 not so welcome guests grey squirrels.

Next we made our way over to the marsh hides , too much water for anything significant, and anything that was there was now struggling against a strengthening wind coming straight out of the North. We didn't stay too long before making our way back to the centre for warming soup and hot chocolate. We drove home to great sunsets and clear Sky's , frost tomorrow!!!.

Out & about

Out and about yesterday during a brief lull in the wicked weather, Photo, Derwentwater in one of its quieter moments, I had a look at the Thacka flood first thing, slightly more active than of late but not overwhelmingly so . I could only find one Snipe , there was c. 130 Lapwing 20 or so Black-headed gulls and 8 Common gulls. Needed to be well wrapped up today as the was an icy feel to the wind so didn't hang around too much. There is now a dusting of snow on the lakeland fells and also the Pennines. Not the best of weather for travelling any distance, plus Mrs W has been going to work in the car due to all the wet weather and dark mornings. Roll on Spring.

Thacka flood, that's a joke its more like a small lake now and in the fields all around there are similar floods. but this is nothing compared to Keswick and the West of the county. I think everyone has by now seen the devastation around Cockermouth and Workington its heart breaking to see it .
           As regards birding at the flood, well there is very little to see, a lot of the usual stuff has either moved to the far side of the flood or other areas altogeather. With all this water lieing around they have a lot of places to choose from.  The pics are of the flood and Bowmans carrage horses.

The Westies and Thacka flood

 As you can see this is the Westies having fun, tug-o-war over a plastic container. Second picture Kyfer wins, Third picture Misty saying please give it to me. She is 10 month old now and had her first trim, not a full cut as we just wanted her to get used to the noise of the machines. We took her up to Newton Rigg college where it gives the trainee groomers the chance to work on different breeds of dog. She has also had her first season , and wasn't that fun (not) keeping the pair of them apart. If we breed them it won't be till her third season.

 Now back to birding , up at the flood this morning pretty quiet really , 1 Kestrel, a few Black-headed gulls on the water, plus 100 Lapwings and another 150 flying over, and 7 Snipe maybe more hidden, its always a pleasure to watch them preening and feeding especially when the sun is shinning as it did this morning for a while.

       Unfortunatly it was looking very black towards the west and the Westies and I got home just before the the heavy rain set in for the rest of the day.

Sat. 31 Oct. Thacka flood

It was a fantastic morning as regards the weather, really warm and wall to wall blue sky.
When I arrived at the flood John was already there, and nothing to report. there wasn't a great deal about apart from a few Black-headed gulls and Common gulls. Then suddenly John shouted geese and 3 were flying in they were Pink footed a first for the flood. Soon after this Roy joined us another local birder and He had seen Raven and Dipper further down Thacka. Next 6 Snipe flew in and settled in the usual place amongst the sedge.
In the afternoon I went up to the flood again and found at least a dozen Snipe two of which are in the poor pic. above also a couple of Pied wagtails.