Seven set out for a walk along country lanes round Catforth, under grey skies. We enjoyed a nice sighting of a kestrel early on. A flock of thrush-like birds flew over – there was conjecture they could have been redwing, but we didn’t get a good enough look at them, before they went out of sight. A small skein of 7 pink-footed geese also flew over. Unfortunately the rain which had been forecast, came in earlier than expected, which rather put a dampener on things, and the birds were few and far between. We did get a nice mixed flock of finches – chaffinch, goldfinch and greenfinch. There was also quite a variety of fungi in the verges and under the trees. We also spotted a hare lying down quite still in the grass. As the rain wasn’t letting up, we cut short the last bit of the walk, and returned early back to the village hall.

Species: Great tit, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Pink-footed Goose, Kestrel, Jackdaw, Chaffinch, Goldfinch,
Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Pied Wagtail, Magpie, Common gull, Lesser Black-back, Collared Dove,
Long-tailed Tit, Woodpigeon, Crow, Coal Tit, Starling
​Hare

6 members started out on a walk from the car park at Lunt Meadows Nature Reserve, Merseyside at 10.30 am. Weather was fairly mild for the time of year, but quite overcast and cloudy. Paths were very good and dry, with plenty of viewing platforms and a hide which, sadly needed to be accessed by a coded padlock, due to vandalism. 
 
We walked around the perimeter of the reserve, observing hundreds of lapwing and black headed gulls. The many pools of the reserve were full of various ducks and geese, including teal, gadwall, shoveller, mallard, tufted duck and pink foot geese – along with moor hens, coots, grey herons and a single mute swan and her two large cygnets. 
 
Half way round we sat on the side of the River Alt for lunch and enjoyed the views over the fields and watched various flocks of geese fly over, a busy, hunting kestrel and a buzzard in a nearby field. 
 
There were large areas of teasels, which attracted charms of goldfinch, which gave us some superb sightings, along with great views of reed buntings amongst the reed beds.  We observed, what initially we thought was a large number of starlings, but after debate amongst the group, the scope we used to home in, revealed them to actually be a large flock of twite. The scope was also very useful when zooming into a large mixed flock, where a golden plover was identified. 
 
As we made our way round the reserve we were constantly teased by the sound of the illusive cetti’s warbler, as well as the calls of the water rail. 
 
We were back at the cars at 15,30, having enjoyed an eventful, peaceful Autumnal walk with 38 species of birds. 
 
 A full list of all the bird species seen on the walk can be found below: 
 
Lapwing 
Black Headed Gull 
Herring Gull 
Teal 
Mallard 
Gadwall 
Shoveller 
Tufted Duck 
Moor Hen 
Coot 
Grey Heron 
Mute Swan 
Cormorant 
Pink Foot Geese 
Water Rail (h) 
Red Shank 
Golden Plover 
Oystercatcher 
Little Egret 
Carrion Crow 
Jackdaw 
Magpie 
Wren 
Robin 
Goldfinch 
Long Tailed Tit 
Meadow Pipit 
Blackbird 
Starling 
Twite 
Skylark 
Stonechat 
Cetti’s Warbler (h) 
Reed Bunting 
Woodpigeon 
Kestral 
Buzzard 
Pheasant 
 
 ​

An enjoyable first walk of the season started at Osbaldeston, taking us through woodlands and fields to the River Ribble. We were rewarded with a good number of species seen, the highlight being the dazzling blue of the Kingfisher that perched for us on the Ribble, allowing for some great views.
A full list of the species seen can be found below:

Mute Swan 
Canada Goose 
Mallard 
Goosander
Pheasant
Little Egret
Grey Heron
Common Buzzard
Moorhen 
Swallow 
Black Headed Gull
Wood Pigeon
Collared Dove 
Kingfisher 
Great Spotted Woodpecker 
Carrion Crow 
Magpie 
Jackdaw
Rook 
Goldcrest 
Blue Tit 
Great Tit 
Coal Tit 
Chiff Chaff 
Nuthatch 
Wren 
Robin 
Blackbird 
Dunnock 
Pied Wagtail 
Grey Wagtail 
Chaffinch

On Friday evening September 12th a group of 15 people led by Charlie Liggett from Merseyside and West Lancashire Bat Society enjoyed a Bat walk in Hurst Grange Park Penwortham. We were lucky to have a rain free mild evening and were rewarded with sightings of Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle and Noctule bats. Our detectors also picked up Daubenton's as we walked close by one of the small ponds in the park. 

Charlie patiently answered all our questions and enhanced our enjoyment of the evening by sharing his extensive knowledge of the life cycle and habits of bats and gave us a good introduction to the bats we are likely to encounter in our region. 

Our grateful thanks to Charlie for sharing his expertise with us and thanks to those who participated and supported this event. A £30 donation will be forwarded to the Bat Society to support their bat conservation work. 
Clare Matthews

​

A full list of species seen on our final Monday evening walk of the season can be found below:

Common Buzzard 
Lapwing 
Swallow 
Black Headed Gull 
Wood Pigeon 
Carrion Crow 
Jackdaw 
Magpie 
Blue Tit 
Long Tailed Tit 
House Sparrow 

A full list of species seen on this slightly quiet warm evening can be found below:

Grey Partridge 
Swallow 
Black Headed Gull 
Wood Pigeon 
Carrion Crow 
Magpie 
Starling 
Robin 
Blackbird 
House Sparrow 
Goldfinch 

On a fairly windy Monday evening, we enjoy a walk around the fields near the area of Ulnes Walton. The fields occupied several Crows, Woodpigeons, Gulls and a couple of Lapwing. But the highlight of the walk was certainly the Yellowhammers that sang the surrounding hedgerows. They allowed us some fantastic views as the sun glistened off their yellow plumage. Sadly due to the winds, many birds seemed to stay hunkered down, but the swifts certainly delighted us by flying very low to the ground, perhaps due to the flying insects being lower down out of the wind.

A full species list can be found below:

Lapwing 
Swallow 
Swift 
Black Headed Gull 
Lesser Black Backed Gull 
Wood Pigeon 
Carrion Crow 
Rook 
Starling 
Blackbird 
Goldfinch 
Linnet 
Yellow Hammer 

Brown Hare
Roe Deer 

A full list of species seen on this walk can be found below:

Canada Goose 
Mallard 
Cormorant 
Grey Heron 
Common Buzzard 
Ringed Plover
Kestrel 
Swallow 
Black Headed Gull 
Herring Gull 
Lesser Black Backed Gull 
Wood Pigeon 
Stock Dove 
Carrion Crow
Magpie 
Goldcrest 
Chiff Chaff 
Nuthatch 
Tree Creeper 
Blackbird 
Pied Wagtail 
Grey Wagtail 

Grey Squirrel 
Roe Deer 

17 members attended the moth morning on 26 July. Three traps were opened up and moths identified
using a variety of guide books, ID charts and AI. These were then verified by Steve & Carolyn Palmer,
our invited experts. We had 100 species of moth – slightly down on last years total of 110.

Interestingly, despite the number of species being similar, there was only 42 species the same over the 2 years. Whilst we didn’t count the number of each species this year, there seemed to be many yellow underwings and flame shouldered moths found in the traps. It took over 3 hours to to empty the traps and identify the moths – an enjoyable morning for all.

A full list of all the moth species from the morning can be found below.

A full list of species found on this walk can be found below:

Pheasant 
Little Egret 
Grey Heron
Common Buzzard 
Oystercatcher 
Lapwing 
Swallow 
House Martin
Black Headed Gull
Wood Pigeon 
Kingfisher 
Great Spotted Woodpecker 
Carrion Crow 
Raven 
Blue Tit 
Chiff Chaff 
Tree Creeper 
Starling 
Blackbird 
Goldfinch 

Brown Hare
Roe Deer