Pine Lake

Ring-necked duck, Pine Lake

The plan today was to get an old man's rail ranger ticket, visit Pine Lake for the ring-necked duck then follow on to Leighton Moss for a wander.

At Pine Lake the Ring-necked duck was keeping its distance. This is the best photo of a bad bunch: a combination of bad light, lots of camera shake in the strong wind and very choppy water hiding the bird had me beat. I've a lot of the top of its head behind waves. The picture that best shows the bill pattern also includes some phenomenal unintentional camera shake.

Ring-necked duck, Pine Lake

There were plenty of goosander and goldeneye out in the water. Small rafts of tufted ducks and pochard were quite close to the shore.

Tufted duck, Pine Lake

Pochard, Pine Lake

I'd got the 555 bus from Carnforth Station to Pine Lake (it's quite handy from the train, runs once an hour and is just the one stop) but decided to walk back as I was getting a bit too windswept and interesting to be waiting half an hour for the bus back. It's not a bad walk, straight down the A6 then turn down Market Street and down to the station, but crossing the A6 at the roundabout just outside the Pine Lake resort needs a bit of care.

Another Monday on Northern Rail: the train to Silverdale was cancelled and the next train, an hour later, was being reported as 47 minutes late. Hanging round for the best part of two hours to get to Leighton Moss in the dark didn't appeal. The train to Morecambe was due any minute so I decided to have a trip to the seaside.

By the time we got to Morecambe the weather had taken a turn for the worse as the wind had brought the rain in from the sea. It was high tide so I thought I'd stroll up the prom and have a look at the roosting waders on the breakwaters. A few dozen turnstones and redshanks were sheltering in the lee of the wind with a few dunlin and a couple of knots. A pair of shelduck and a curlew joined the ranks of oystercatchers on the seaward side and three great crested grebes were out on the sea. There wasn't any cover for a prolonged sea watch.

Looking across Morecambe Bay

Defeated again by the weather I went and got the train home.