The First Hundred.

 Thank goodness the dry weather continues. I started by going to fill up the bird feeders on Cuerden Valley Park and then went to collect the SD cards in the two trail cameras I have in different areas of the Park. We surprised four roe deer that hadn't noticed us until we were about 20 yards away. We paused to allow them to go to a quieter part of the wood. This photo was taken by Bev Redman.

We left the lake which was fairly quiet. It only had some black headed gulls and two coot. On arriving at Stock Pond I saw a kingfisher, a Grey Heron and three Goosanders. This brought my list up to 62.

The following day I took a friend to check the high tide at Southport which was said to be thirty one feet. First we checked out the Sandgrounders hide the RSPB have and saw a plethora of birds. Little Egret and Little Grebe were the first ones to note. Scanning the pools and marsh we then noted Wigeon, Snipe, Teal, Gadwall, Lapwing, Black Tailed Godwit, Canada Goose, Mallards and Golden Plover.

wigeon 

Golden Plover 

 Since high tide time was approaching, we crossed the road to watch the sea come in. Pink Footed Geese, more Little Egrets, Skylark, Snipe, Shelducks a couple of Stonechat, a Peregrine and several waders trying to evade being the Peregrine's lunch. It was getting a little cool so we decided to move towards the pier. Someone had suggested we may see something exciting there. A short walk proved them to be correct. About four Snow Buntings feeding on the beach were a delight to see.

We then called in at Martin Mere on our way home hoping to spot the Brambling at Janet Kear hide. This time we were unsuccessful, but Pintail, Pochard, Whooper Swans and a Hen Harrier did give us a superb end to our day out.

Total now at 101