A long but enjoyable day

A fairly early walk with the Westies this morning, and we watched the sun rise on the patch. 3 Lapwing on the remains of the flash, and that was about it.

Not Stumpy the Med Gull, but Stumpy the Black-headed Gull. Is there something in the water over on the west coast, I've also seen  Common Gull over there with a gammy foot.

Myself and Mrs W had our first stop at Workington harbour looking for Purple Sandpipers and Med Gulls, no luck on both counts.

Whooper Swans Siddick.

Next we moved on to Siddick were we saw the above, 1 Bittern, 2 Snipe and a shed load of Goosanders again.
Next we called in at Maryport for lunch before moving on up the coast finding Turnstone.

Turnstone

Turnstone

And this nice little group of Redshank at Silloth water front

We drove as far as Skinburness, where we could see at a great distance 1000's of Barnies again, then Mrs W pointed up and there was a Kestrel hovering above the parking area.

Kestrel

Leaving Skinburness we retraced our steps stopping only to try and get some shots of Sanderlings, but the pics are poor as they were too far out.

Sanderlings.

Our last stop was on the way home and as it was getting on for 4-45 we called in at the Broughton dump to join 4 other like souls for a spot of owling. It took a while before the show started, but when it did boy was the stop worth it. A count of up to 10 Short-eared Owls, at least 2 Barn owls, 3 Woodcocks. and an owl perched in a tree a great distance, we couldn't decided which species, but it wasn't a Short-eared.
          I left the group to see more but as temps fell below freezing in fading light, and Mrs W was sat in the car on her own, i decided to call it a day, and what a day.