The weather wasn’t promising, but 7 of us gathered in the car park at Crosby, all togged up prepared for rain. It was already raining when we set off up the coast keeping as close to the beach as possible. The tide was already part way out, but there still seemed plenty of birds about. We immediately saw 4 black-tailed godwits probing in the mud, quite close in. Whilst viewing was difficult with rain spots on glasses and binoculars we soon saw oystercatchers, curlew and a single turnstone. Then followed grey plover and ringed plover with plenty of dunlin scattered about. The rain wasn't heavy or constant and we had the wind behind us. It was obviously windy on the beach as the sanderlings ran even quicker than usual and were quite comical. As we approached the spit a third of the way up the path we could see a flock of Lapwings which occasionally rose up in agitation before settling down again. As the tide went further out flocks of pink-footed geese flew over to land in the distance at the waters edge to feed. Moving further up the coast the rain eased off, and we stopped to admire the sea buckthorn with lovely orange berries. We dropped onto the beach itself and made our way up to the where the river Alt comes out from the mainland at the firing range. Here there were shelduck feeding on the mud, and more curlew and several redshank. Retracing our steps we stopped for lunch at the picnic tables by the sailing club. As we walked back the light had improved, but we were now walking into the wind. There were still quite a few birds about, but nothing new, so we set a faster pace on the way back. As we neared the coastguard station the Antony Gormley statues could be seen – a welcome sight, just as it started to spit again.

Species - 22:
starling, black-tailed godwit, curlew, dunlin, ringed plover, turnstone, redshank, grey plover,
sanderling, great black-back gull, black-headed gull, herring gull, lapwing, shelduck, pink-footed goose,mallard, moorhen, pied wagtail, wren, crow, magpie

Six of us met in the car park on a grey dismal day. We already had 8 species from the car park looking out over the main flash, including a pair of goldeneye. We walked to the first hide looking over one end of the flash and the spit. Here there were about 40 lapwing at the end of the spit with a single oystercatcher and a couple of teal hunkered down in the grass. Cormorants hung out on the posts and 3 herons stood solemnly at the edge of the water. Further out on the flash we spotted pochard, and great-crested grebe including a couple of juveniles, then a couple of little grebe popped up. A couple of pairs of goosander surfaced near the spit, the males looking particularly clean and dapper.

We carried on to the next hide – a great white egret immediately stood out at the back of one of the smaller flashes. There were also a number of gadwall and shoveler. As we progressed around it started to drizzle. We walked through an open area surrounded by trees – birds were flitting about, but it was difficult to see as the light wasn't great. A small flock of long tailed tits worked their way along the tree line and we caught glimpses of medium sized birds, which we eventually got a clearer view of and identified as redwing. We also got a brief view of great spotted woodpecker. Some of the group walked up to the canal and saw a kestrel.

We continued round and the rain was heavier for a time. There was fungi in various places including candle snuff, jelly ear and turkeytail. We visited the other hides – the water was quite high, so there weren’t any waders, and the birds were similar to previously, with plenty of teal and gadwall. The hide with the feeders only had fairly common birds to view. The last hide didn’t bring us anything new but we enjoyed looking out at the colours, with the dogwood showing off nicely.

Species 33: tufted duck, mute swan, coot, black-headed gull, goldeneye, Canada goose, moorhen,
cormorant, herring gull, grey heron, lapwing, oystercatcher, teal, wood pigeon, magpie, crow, goosander, pochard, mallard, great crested grebe, little grebe, great white egret, shoveler, gadwall, redwing, long-tailed tit, great spotted woodpecker, blue tit, chaffinch, kestrel, dunnock, great tit, robin