23/12/2023 Crosby Marina, Sefton, Merseyside

Black-throated Diver: With Christmas fast approaching I have been keen to get out and bird, it won't be long and I will be back in work so decided to meet Kristian and had out loacally starting with the long staying black-throated diver at  Crosby Marina Lake.

Black-throated divers are large waterbirds, larger than a great crested grebe but smaller than a cormorant in size. They look smart in their summer plumage, with a black throat, silky grey head and neck, and a black and white-chequered back. In the winter, black-throated divers turn a very dark grey above and white below, with an obvious white patch on their rear flanks. 

In their summer plumage they have vertical white stripes at the side and a short collar of white spots, resembling a barcode. Out of breeding plumage black-throated divers have grey-brown backs with white spots and a white patch on their flanks. They have grey crowns and napes and white forenecks bordered with fine black lines.

It took a short while to relocate the bird, walking in the opposite direction din't help. one we found it the bird was far out from the Activity Centre. 

Eventually the bird kept diving and swimming closer and closer and showed really well. 

If I don't manage to post before the big day let say Happy Christmas to all my blog readers, hope you all have a great day and again, thank you so much for liking on my blog links and reading through my posts. 

03/12/2023 Southport, Merseyside

Red-breasted Goose: Every year migratory wintering geese make the 500-mile journey from Iceland to spend the next couple of months feeding on the arable fields around Southport and east Lancashire. Most of the pink-footed goose population will spend the majority of the winter down south. However, they’ll take a break in their long journey here in Lancashire so that they can refuel for a few weeks before they continue.

On occasion these large flocks of migratory pink-footed geese can pick up and pull in other rare geese species.

There are fewer than 40,000 red-breasted geese in the world and the species is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.

Red-breasted Geese are highly sought after in wildfowl collections and are now becoming more prolific in captivity. They have a beautiful and bold pattern of black, white and chestnut plumage and are the smallest of the northern geese.

There is ways discussions of a bird wild validity but this bird is being pulled in with a decent carrier species and associations well with pink-footed geese it looks good so far. 

Snow Bunting: I like Bank Marsh and envy the likes of Stuart Derbyshire (who found the RBG) and who has Banks Marsh as their local patch, not only do they have the chance to find rare geese like this RBG, but they get to see such great spectacle of tens of thousands of geese flocking over the marsh and forming large grazing carpets of geese. 

The long walk down from the car park was pretty productive as we had some large flocks of twine moving between the marsh and the arable fields before connecting with Beth RBG and watching it as it flew around with around five thousands pinkies. 

From here we walked back to the car and drove down to Southport Pier where a single female snow bunting had taken up residence. The Birx has been around for about a. week or so favouring the area of the beach infant of the KFC north of the Pier. 

Carl found the bird foraging within the strand line vegetation and in typical snow bunting fashion it wasn't particually shy of the camera, or dog walks and passersby. 

Although the mountains regions where they breed and migrate from have a resident population augmented by high altitude winter visitors, the snow bunting is better known to birdwatchers as a winter visitor to the chilly coasts. 

And with the low lying snow and frost dusted over the strand line and sandy-shingle beech the bird looked perfect in it setting, opposite KFC in the middle of Southport. 

A great winters morning birding with Kris and Carl and we were back home intimate for lunch, in the warm, here's to next time lads.