First Visit next Monday ,7 October 2013

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the RSPB! You've had a great introduction with Old Moor, it is a great site.

October is a great month to come and visit us. There is lots of wonderful wildlife to see, but I would say the stars of the show at this time of year are:

The red deer - autumn is the time of year that the males begin to challenge one another for the right to mate with the females. Our red deer stags can be heard bellowing across the reedbed at one another, and if you're lucky, you may see them clashing antlers. The best place to look for red deer is at Tim Jackson and Grisedale hides (you can either download a map from the website, or collect one at our welcome desk when you get here-one of our team will be happy to point you in the right direction).

The bearded tits – these are one of our star bird species. They particularly need reedbed for their home. They are here all year round, but October is the best month to see them, so you’ve picked a good time to come. Bearded tits are unusual in their feeding habits. In the summer months they eat insects, but in the winter, they change to eat the seeds of the reeds (so that they don’t have to migrate like other insect eaters such as swallows). Because they don’t have teeth, they eat grit, which goes into a pouch in their chest (a bit like a chicken does) and this helps them to break up the seed to digest it. To help them (and so that our visitors stand a chance of seeing these otherwise elusive birds) we put out grit on trays (a bit like mini bird tables) on part of the reserve, where the bearded tits come most mornings through October to collect grit. It is just off the causeway (big path that runs through the middle of the reserve, and again, our team will happily point you in the right direction). I would recommend being here before 11 am in order to see try and them.

We get large starling flocks in the autumn. They won’t have built up to their largest numbers when you visit (there is likely to be just a few thousand as opposed to the up to 100,000 we get through November), but if you stay on the reserve after hours, the starlings will start to come in around 6.30-7 pm and may do a mini display.

It is always worth keeping an eye out for our otters. They tend to appear most often at Public and Lower hides, but one has been seen very close to Grisedale hide recently too. They tend to be seen most early morning and late evening, but have been known to come out in the day too recently.

Our full name is RSPB Leighton Moss and Morecambe Bay nature reserve (we look after an area of Morecambe Bay the size of 2,500 football pitches). Morecambe is particularly famous for its lovely mud, and it is the mud that attracts a range of waders and ducks (about 250,000 of them) every year. Autumn is a great time for a number of different waders, and the best place to go and see these is at our Eric Morecambe and Allen hides, which are roughly a mile from the main centre, but have their own car park to drive down to.

We look forward to seeing you on the 7 October and hopefully our wildlife will be nice and visible for you!

Thank you for the superb response it will be a great help

It appears we may require more than 1. Visit

I will post for all my days experiences after the visit

Looking forward to meeting some of you too

Steve

Morning Steve, you lucky people!  Visiting Leighton Moss is always a great experience whichever time of year you come, so I can say with confidence now is a great time.

There is so much to see and do its difficult to prioritise, so I will describe what I would do with a full day on the reserve which might give you some ideas.  

I would be making an early start and go straight to the Lower hide.  The light is better in the morning and at that time of day it’s one of the best places to see our resident Otters.  There are likely to be plenty of waterfowl on view and keep an eye out for a female Marsh Harrier who has been seen around the reserve over recent days. Look in the larger trees at the back of the mere for other birds of prey; you never know what might turn up.  There is a parking spot (SD 487 758) on the road just by the gate to the Lower hide which will make your walk a little easier, (download a map from the website before you come).  Just a little further along this road, on the way back to the main visitor centre there is another parking spot at the end of the main causeway.  I would probably nip down to look at the grit trays (on the right of the causeway 100 yds down), Bearded Tits like to refill their crops here and they are just getting back into the habit of visiting the trays regularly.  Another 50yds and I would pop into the public hides just to see what is about.

I would then make my way to the main visitor centre and enjoy a walk down to Tim Jackson and Grisedale hides.  The Red Deer rut is really getting going now and you might just catch a view of sparring stags; you should certainly hear them barking at each other if nothing else. Again there will be plenty of waterfowl on view and remember to keep an eye out for that Marsh Harrier.

Returning towards the visitor centre I would call in at Lillian’s hide.  By now the light should be better there and again there will be waterfowl and wide vista of the meres and extensive reed bed which makes Leighton such a stunning place.  

By now I will be ready for a coffee and rest, or even some lunch.  Time to call in to the visitor centre café and refuel!  There is a sightings book which gives some up-to-date info of what has been seen more recently.

Returning to my car I would make my way over to the Morecambe Bay hides.  This time of year there are some great waders on view and a resident Kingfisher is showing really well flying past the front of the hide at regular intervals.

If I had the time to stay until dusk I may well return to Lillian’s to watch the Starlings murmur around the read beds in search of a night-time roost.  Lillian’s is also a good place to see otters at dusk as well.

I hope this itinerary gives you some ideas about your day, as you can see there are so many opportunities to see fantastic wildlife it’s difficult to know where to start.  The only answer is to come as often as possible!

Good luck on the 7th I hope all goes well.

JKJ

Thank you so much,we now have a plan, only 7 more sleeps.

As we live so far away, we cannot come very often, but on holiday and staying near the ribble head viaduct, hence grabbing the opportunity

Hope to see you there,Ill buy the coffee..

Thanks for all the suggestions,sorry for the late reply, we did go last Monday,as planned.

Well almost, got up as planned to find that the heavens had descended upon us, literally, low cloud made visibility less than 50 meters ,so we were somewhat later arriving than expected.

We met several very nice people,some cleaning windows in a hide, who kindly pointed out a harrier to us.

We saw many water fowl, mallards, teal,widgeon,and the highlight of the day was the most chirpy robin we have ever met,sang me a beautiful love song, bless.

Breakfast,as expected was superbly presented.

We had a great walk round, did not see anything rare, but many things we considered special.

Many thanks once again.

Hope to see you again in the not too distant future

Steve

Glad you managed to get to Leighton Moss, Steve, its quit a big place to get round in one visit I was there last Thursday and like you saw nothing special but did see a Curlew down on the saltmarsh that gave a good show, like you I have a long drive to get there myself :( not sure if its still alive but a Robin did get very friendly with people waiting to see the Bearded tits down by the grit trays and would land on there hands for food.

Jim  

Really glad you enjoyed your visit Steve, and saw some special wildlife. It's a great excuse to come and see us again to try and spot the things you didn't see this time :)