Birding Group Visit to RSPB Leighton Moss 8 Oct 2024
The Birding Group had a visit to RSPB Leighton Moss on 9 Oct 2024. We were hoping to see Bearded Tits as it is about the right time of year to start catching them on the grit trays. Due to traffic on the motorway, some of the group were quite late in arriving. We could see Bearded Tits on the grit trays from the live tv monitor in the café, but would we get there in time to see them in the flesh?
Well, it took a while. At first we had to stand for about fifteen or twenty minutes amongst the throng of chatting photographers, then when that proved fruitless we went on to the Causeway Hide. There wasn’t a lot there to get excited about, so I returned to the grit tray and after another fifteen minutes we were rewarded by seeing two Bearded Tits in the reeds just by the grit trays. Although there were only two, the showed very well hopping up and down individual reed stalks one by one. Anne even managed to get a pretty good photo on her phone!
We did most of the other hides and got the usual birds. A nice view of a stag from one of the hides and a couple of Marsh Harriers but the best of the birding was down at the sea hides.
Unusually, the water was extremely low from both the sea hides – lower than we have ever seen them. This meant that there were not the usual numbers of birds, but we still got a couple of Greenshanks (a year tick) and a few Black-tailed Godwits. Seven Snipe were showing very well atop a mudbank, and we even got a single Curlew. No sign of the Spoonbills we have seen there a few times previously.
So, not the best birding day at Leighton Moss but we got our target birds and good views at that. We did drop in at Warton Crags but didn’t see any Peregrines. The rest of the group drove back home but we decided to stay overnight and had booked a room at The Mill at Conder Green which turned out to be quite nice with pleasant public spaces. The food wasn’t brilliant but the beer was ok and we did manage to get a bit of bird spotting done from there the next morning.
Bird Sightings : RSPB Leighton Moss 8 Oct 2024
| Species | No |
|---|---|
| Bearded Tit | 2 |
| Black-headed Gull | 40 |
| Black-tailed Godwit | 20 |
| Blackbird | 2 |
| Blue Tit | 4 |
| Carrion Crow | 8 |
| Cetti's Warbler | 2 |
| Chaffinch | 4 |
| Coal Tit | 1 |
| Coot | 40 |
| Cormorant | 12 |
| Curlew | 1 |
| Gadwall | 30 |
| Great Tit | 4 |
| Great White Egret | 2 |
| Greenfinch | 2 |
| Greenshank | 2 |
| Grey Heron | 1 |
| Lesser Black-backed Gull | 3 |
| Little Egret | 6 |
| Little Grebe | 2 |
| Long-tailed Tit | 10 |
| Mallard | 20 |
| Marsh Harrier | 2 |
| Mute Swan | 10 |
| Nuthatch | 1 |
| Pheasant | 2 |
| Redshank | 30 |
| Robin | 2 |
| Shelduck | 10 |
| Shoveler | 26 |
| Snipe | 7 |
| Teal | 30 |
| Wigeon | 6 |
| Wren | 1 |