Today I met up with an old college friend who was across from Yorkshire, visiting family. Bryan arrived at my home at 7am and then we set off for a morning’s birding locally.
The first area we planned to visit was Grune Point. Grune Point is a long peninsula of land that sticks out in the Solway Firth giving shelter to Moricambe Bay. This nature reserve has a history of rare birds, and is always worth a look.
On arrival, we made our way along the long track to the point where we recorded Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcaps, Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Barn Swallows along the hedgerows and fields. The marshland and mudflats were home to several Little Egrets, Cormorants, Shelduck, Wigeon, Oystercatchers, Dunlin, Ringed Plovers, Ruddy Turnstone and a couple of Curlew. Not a bad selection for a low tide at this site.
Ringed Plovers showed relatively well on the mud near to the shingle banks. I managed to take some digi-scope shots through my scope using my smartphone and considering the windy conditions I’m reasonably pleased with them, always room for improvement though.
After a quick coffee stop in Silloth we followed the Solway coast to Campfield Marsh RSPB reserve. Here we observed Barn Swallows, Northern Shoveler, Eurasian Teal, feral Greylag and Canada Geese, several Little Egrets, Marsh Harrier, Osprey, Redshank, Northern Lapwing and Reed Bunting amongst some of the other expected species.
We finished the morning’s birding of at Port Carlisle harbour where we had great views of four Little Egrets feeding around the tidal pools. I never tire of seeing these striking herons.
Tree Sparrows, Siskin, Greenfinch, Lesser Black-backed Gulls and Barnacle Geese all put in an appearance as did a very sleepy Whimbrel.
All in all a great morning of birding and it was really nice to catch up with Bryan again.
