Southport again

Fairly unsuccessful afternoon's birdwatching at Southport. No luck finding twites near the marine lake and no joy finding the long-billed dowitcher that's been on Crossens Inner Marsh this past few days. 

It was a high tide so I had hopes to find a flock of twite somewhere round the seaward side of the marine lake but there wasn't any sign of them — or even any linnets — anywhere. Aside from a couple of meadow pipits and a reed bunting it was slim pickings for passerines.

There was a flock of a couple of hundred golden plover and upwards of a hundred lapwings scattered about Crossens Inner and  flock of about sixty black-tailed godwits flew in. Every so often I'd catch sight of a possible dowitcher hiding behind a tussock and every time the bird would turn out to be a redshank when it came into proper view. As the light waned it became a lost cause so I carried on walking down the causeway towards Marshside Road.

Marshside sunset

Flocks of greylags came flying in to roost amongst the sleeping teal, wigeon and mallard on Marshside. Just the one, small flock of pink-footed geese came in, I assume the rest were on the outer marshes.

Still, it's been a nice day and it's a pleasant walk down the back of the marshes from Crossens to Marshside watching the sun come down.