A Red Letter Day

Yesterday was one of those days where things just got better and better and birds seemed to be everywhere. On Monday a Little Grebe at Hollingworth Lake CP near Manchester was re-identified as a Pied Billed Grebe, the first British record for 8 years! Typically I had to wait 5 days before I could try and see it so I was praying it would stay till Saturday, which much to my relief it did. Me and my dad arrived at around 11:30 at the visitors centre which was packed with birders and their cars so this was a good sign that the bird was still present. The walk around the east side of the main lake took about 10 minutes before I spotted the crowd of birders next to the hide by the nature reserve lake. In the centre of the lake was a single bird but the size of it was twice that of a Little Grebe so I didn't think it would be interesting until I got it in the scope and it was in fact the PIED BILLED GREBE (lifer 252).
The size of the bird was immediately obvious as not a Little Grebe, and the bill, although not at its full colour still had the black and white contrasting bands. It showed on and off fishing for the next hour to a crowd of over 50 birders including Kane Brides (link on the side), Mark Farrar (local fylde birder) and the Rose family. A pair of Bullfinches in the car park when we got back were also a nice surprise.

Since we were both hungry we stopped off at a McDonalds just round the corner from the lake; the traditional lunch while birdwatching for us; when my phone went off with a text from Paul Slade. Now usually when I get a text from Paul I don't want to open it because I'm usually at school and means I can't go see the bird in question, however since it was the weekend I was optimistic and even more so when it revealed that a Grey Phalarope was present on a flooded field on Lytham Moss. This became top priority so it was a quick finish to eating my lunch before dashing back to the Fylde and Lytham. Driving along the road through the moss we spotted a small group of cars parked next to a flooded field and a few birders stood on a track viewing it. We parked up and walking along towards them the Grey Phalarope (lifer 253) became obvious feeding on it's own in the field, going round and round in circles like a mad man. It showed down to 20ft at times to he small crowd of birders including Paul Ellis, Paul Slade, Stuart Piner and Maurice Jones. A fabulous bird and the second Phalarope I have seen in Lytham this year!
The final stop of the day was at Fleetwood Marine Lakes to try and get good views of the Great Northern Diver that had been present for a week. I saw it at dusk on Wednesday however the views weren't very good so I was determined to get some better views and shots. Upon arrival the bird was on the far side of the lake so I headed round there and noticed Zac Hinchcliffe already present with his camera. Unfortunately 2 very loud and fast remote control boats were being driven around the lake which disturbed the diver quite alot but at times when they stopped it came to within 15ft of the bank where we were giving stunning views in the sun light.