Made my third visit to Leighton Moss today. Better weather than on my last visit , a mixture of sunshine and a few showers. Unfortunately the paths to several of the hides were still flooded from last week's rain , so they were only accessible if you had wellies. It's a big reserve so we probably wouldn't have had time to visit them all anyway.
This is the view from the first hide we went in. Lillian's Hide.
There was a Marsh Harrier hunting at the far side of the lake but it never came close enough for good phot0s
After circling a couple of times it landed on a tree stump.
It sat there for quite a while preening and looking around.
In front of the hide was a young Great Crested Grebe , A couple of Shovelers , lots of Teal and more Coots than you could count.
Moving on from there we went to the saltmarsh hides. This is the view from the band new Allen hide.
This is the interior of the new Eric Morecambe hide.
Lots of waders , mostly Redshanks I think
Greylag geese and some ducks , possibly Gadwall and Teal.
Mergansers
Gadwall ?
Greenshank
Apparently the menu was rather restricted today. Everything was eating crabs
Crow
Sandpiper
... and a Curlew flew in for another crab
Finally , a Heron waiting for his lunch to arrive
My gallery here
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I like Leighton Moss reserve very much. We go mid November as a general rule. The new Eric Morecambe hide looks very splendid. When in the area we also go to Glasson Dock and Codner Green where the waders are very close up, and where we see fantastic aerial displays of knots and lapwings if the tide is right. Have you tried that, Galatas?
That is a lovely set of photos, and I really like the curlew in flight, but my favourite is the third geese one with the upside down goose! It's a brilliant capture.
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
The new hide looks very upmarket,must be time for another visit.The tree stumps have been favourite perches for Marsh Harriers for a number of years now.Nice pictures.
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can
Thanks Seaman and Linda.
Yes I know Conder Green very well Last time I was there the estuary was full of waders just as you say.
The new hides are very nice but the windows are a little odd. Instead of opening inwards and hingeing up , they open out and down. Rain drips off the opening onto the shelf inside. Traditional designs are often best : they're the way they are for a very good reason. They've been tried and tested for generations.
I wonder if 'elf and safety are behind the changes ? To prevent idiots hitting themselves on the head perhaps.
The design of those new windows is crackers in my opinion. Apart from the shelf inside getting wet, people will drop the windows down and risk breaking them.
Thanks for the comments. Sorry about the number of pics , Alan. I sometimes get carried away.
Thinking about my window remark ; opening in and up or down and out shouldn't make a difference to the drips. Perhaps the size and position of the drip rails needs looking at.
I see quite a few comments about problems adding photos but it has never happened to me at all.
Galatas said:Instead of opening inwards and hingeing up , they open out and down
Are you sure they had the plans the right way round ?
Galatas said:I wonder if 'elf and safety are behind the changes ? To prevent idiots hitting themselves on the head perhaps
Maybe one or two might benefit from that !!!
Paid another visit to Leighton Moss today. It's turning out to be a bit of a bogey reserve for me. Either the light is poor or there's little birdlife to be seen , as was the case today. The sun didn't come out until afternoon and there was little to be seen except hundreds of Black-headed gulls.
Here's a few I did manage to see though.
This panorama gives you some idea of the distance to the Marsh Harrier.
The Harrier was mobbed by gulls and possibly a Raven
Pochard
Godwits
Avocets
Hey Galatas,nothing much to complain about there some nice photos and most reserves are starting their quiet period about now.When we visited Leighton on a regular basis B.H.Gulls always seemed to take over in breeding season it is the same on our own local reserve.
Hi Galatas,
I would have been pleased to see that lot, let alone take those photos. Lovely.
We were at leighton Moss last week, but as it was a very hot day we couldn't leave Lola the dog in the car so were confined to the public footpath. The intention was for me to be dumped in the public hide whilst hubby took Lola a longer walk, but as it happened I couldn't get as far as the hide and we had to turn back. Not to worry, there will be other times next winter when there is far more to see. We went to Hest Bank instead and were delighted to watch at close range a pair of skylarks, one of which did the hovering trick about 10 feet above and about 10 feet infront of us. Beautiful.