Wyre Estuary 13 February 2010 .

Following the recent “little ice age” the members of Rochdale Field Naturalists were well muffled against the cold when they set off by coach to Knott End on the Wyre estuary. Approaching the car park large clumps of flowering snowdrops were glimpsed and there was a complete lack of wind – promising to be a benign day for birdwatchers.

They were greeted by a fine view over the estuary, dominated by the snow mantled peaks of the Lake District in the distance. Immediately there were sightings of ducks and waders, including eider, wigeon and turnstone. Turning south on the Wyre Way the group was in place to see waders forced into the air by the incoming tide. Oystercatchers, redshank, knot and dunlin patrolled the muddy margins of the river and its many tributary creeks. Hundreds of lapwings flocked overhead in ever changing formations before landing on an adjacent field where a brown hare was seen scampering across.

Closer scrutiny of the salt marsh revealed a Little Egret, once a rare bird in Lancashire but now spotted regularly, and also the dainty teal, with its striking blue-green patches. Numerous reed buntings, a skylark and occasional linnets flitted through. Only the low drone of circling small aircraft from Blackpool interrupted the natural pipings of redshank and oystercatchers and the honking of geese and with huge skeins of Pink- Footed geese and flocks of curlew overhead it was an idyllic rural scene. But the peace was interrupted in dramatic fashion when a Peregrine falcon chose to swoop down to the water’s edge, hunting for prey.

A leisurely return through fields and woodland added woodpeckers, partridge, pheasants, jays, winter thrushes and many other woodland birds to the group list which finally totalled over 60 species. The woods also revealed some fungi and hazels adorned with catkins.

Sightings.

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Images by Peter Stevens and Peter Francis