19th June - 3rd July summary

I've got a back log of 2 months worth of posts so I'm going to try and squeeze them all into a few summarised posts.

19th June

The mid June lull was upon us with nothing but the most common birds being around and no whiff of a rarity about. So this was a good time to go and check up on the progress of the expanding Common Tern colony at Preston Docks. After 2 pairs nested the previous year the Fylde Bird Club installed some tyres on the breakwaters in the dock in the hope of attracting more to the small colony; and it was a massive success with 6 pairs nesting to date (I think). When I arrived I could see the adults hunting around the dock and heading off down the entrance to the river Ribble. 3 young heads could just be seen sticking out over the rim of one of the tires whenever and adult flew overhead.

At least 10 adults were around and 3 young were on view but more could have been hidden.

On the way back we stopped off at Lytham Nature Reserve to see if any migrants had taken a rest in the bushes. At least 4 Whitethroats were on show and being very noisy along with large numbers of Reed Buntings of Meadow Pipits. Skylarks were singing overhead and a Willow Warbler was singing from a patch of bushes before falling silent as a Kestrel flew over.

26th June

A simple yeartick, at this time of year there's no such thing. A small window of opportunity to get out birding so I thought Bispham Marsh would be a safe bet to add Mandarin to my yearlist as up to 5 had been seen regularly in the previous months. However like my other earlier to trip to try and see them they slipped through my fingers and refused to show themselves while I was there. I decided to try and photograph the Great Crested Grebes instead which were coming closer than usual to the banks, probably in search of more fish. A few of my shots are below.

3rd July
An afternoon of frustration trying to photograph Swifts on the air at Fleetwood Nature Reserve didn't turn up many good pictures but I'll let you decide that for yourselves. 16+ Little Grebes was also a great count for me at this site.