Skipool Creek

Skipool Creek

I fancied doing some seawatching on the Fylde but couldn't make the train connections work so I had a look to see if I could find anywhere interesting in walking distance from one of the stations on the Blackpool North line. I noticed that Skipool Creek isn't far from Poulton-le-Fylde Station. I've seen reports from there that suggest it's worth a wander so I got an old man's explorer ticket and headed off for an afternoon stroll.

It was a dead straightforward walk: turn right out of the station, straight down, over the roadworks for the bypass and first left down Wyre Road and all of a sudden there you are. I had a nosey round, walking down to the bottom of the road, down the track past the yacht club and back.

Skipool Creek

It was high tide so the water was up to the banks of both the river and the creek. A few mallards were dabbling around the boats moored in the creek. Further out, where the creek meets the river a dozen lapwings were almost invisible in the long grass (I thought there was only a couple of them there until they all rose up and flew across the river about quarter of an hour after I passed them). A ringed plover and a couple of dunlin sat on a tiny bit of mud by the bank. The same dunlins, I think, flew down river when I was looking out from the yacht club.

River Wyre

Over on the other side of the river there were a couple of wider patches of mud. On one a couple of dozen black-headed gulls loafed with a couple of oystercatchers and a greenshank. A couple of redshanks flew over, landed briefly then moved on downstream. A dozen lesser black-backs and half a dozen herring gulls loafed on the other, wider, patch of mud.

Little egrets

I spent a while enjoying the scenery and scanning over the river. Over opposite the yacht club car park seventeen little egrets sat in the reeds waiting for the tide to turn. As I retraced my steps I noticed the greenshank fly off upriver. As I watched it on its way it was joined by a couple of green sandpipers. They soon disappeared out of view behind the bank of the creek.

All in all a very nice introduction to the place and another site well worth a repeat visit.