A misty day in Southport

Long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitcher at Crossens Inner Marsh, second time lucky. Cracking views as it foraged along the fox-proof fence on the marsh. The fence spoils the pictures a bit but never mind.

Long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitcher

Long-billed dowitcher

I can see why there was some discussion about this possibly being a short-billed dowitcher, the bill's a lot shorter than the others I've seen and the bird doesn't look like it's going to fall on its face any minute now. (I'll admit, I'd struggle very badly trying to identify a short-billed dowitcher if I ever met one.)

I'd walked down the (very muddy!) seawall from Marshside and carried on down to the end, crossed the road and walked down Marine Drive to see what was on Crossens Outer Marsh. It was too misty to see very far: the pink-footed geese at mid-distance were all just ghostly silhouettes and the long grass on the salt marsh were just a memory (I'm told I missed out on some barnacle geese and a vagrant Canada goose). There were hundreds of teal, lapwings and starlings and easily over a thousand wigeon, together with a few dozen each of golden plover and black-tailed godwit (it turned out that most of the godwits were on Rimmer's Marsh on Marshside). An egret that loomed out of the mist turned out to be a great white.

Great white egret

I carried on down to Marshside. There were plenty of wigeons and godwits on the marsh but the heavy mist made it hard work. The highlight there was a couple of scaup, though it took me a while to be convinced I wasn't using the poor visibility to indulge in a bit of wishful thinking. An obliging tufted duck drifted into the same view to provide a useful comparison.