At the beginning of August I like to visit a favourite wader roost near to Southport. Around this time the waders are beginning to return from their Arctic breeding grounds. A couple of weeks ago there was a favourable tide and I was looking forward to a return to the coast hopefully to catch up with the returning waders. I arrived about an hour before high water and I could see in the distance the unmistakeable flocks of waders as they flew around as the tide advanced up the beach.
It was quite a long walk to reach this quiet part of the coastline and as access was difficult it meant that there was not a lot of disturbance from the usual dog walkers etc. It turned out to be an excellent session with many thousands of waders present most of these being knot. A lot of the knot were still in summer plumage and looked splendid in their summer finery.
I was able with a careful and quiet approach to get quite close to the large concentrations of knot and obtain some excellent images. A man approached from the opposite direction with an Alsatian dog but they were both well behaved and there was little disturbance. A good number of grey plovers and bar tailed godwits and one or two groups of sanderling were also present.
The birds gradually moved away as the tide began to ebb and I left them to enjoy the peace and the food waiting on this rich stretch of the Lancashire coastline.Thanks for looking in and I will return soon with more from my travels.
Brian Rafferty
I am based in Preston. Lancashire. This central location enables me to travel easily to a wide variety of habitats in the North of England. I tend these days not to travel very far as I find that there is plenty to see not very far from home. On my own doorstep are a wonderful variety of habitats - natural woodlands, open fells and hill country, unspoilt river valleys and I have easy access to the delights of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. As you will see from my bird images much time is spent at the wonderful coastal sites forming part of Morecambe Bay and the Ribble Estuary e.g. Marshside and Leighton Moss. In recent years Digital Photography has taken over from Video and as time has moved on I have acquired more and more equipment - as you do!!
Leave a Reply