Blackpool

Herring gulls, Stanley Park

The day was set for scorching hot and today's scheduled task was, thankfully, cancelled so I grabbed myself an old man's explorer ticket and headed off for Blackpool. I reckoned I could have a lunchtime stroll then nip over to Starr Gate for some high tide seawatching.

The problem, as ever, was finding a working bus stop near Blackpool North Station. Google Maps was even less use than the information on the streets so I headed off towards Stanley Park in the hopes of picking up a bus along the way. In the end I didn't fancy hanging round an unsheltered bus stop in the midday sun for half an hour and walked all the way.

Stanley Park 

It was a fiercely sunny day with a very welcome breeze. Stanley Park was busy with people and woodpigeons. One corner of the lake was heaving with herring gulls and Canada geese.

Stanley Park 

I crossed East Park Road and took the path down to Marton Mere. The brambles and nettles were busy with large whites, red admirals and commas. Migrant hawkers zipped around the trees and bushes and brown hawkers patrolled the meadow. A ruddy darter was a surprise, it's not the sort of landscape I associate with them. A frenetic chase as a brown hawker pursued and almost caught a migrant hawker was a reminder of how fierce these small predators really are.

Goldfinches twittered in the treetops while great tits, robins and chaffinches called from deep cover. A couple of swallows flew overhead, they'd been conspicuously absent in the countryside of my train journey. As I approached Marton Mere I watched a flock of Canada geese rise up and fly over towards Stanley Park and greenfinches were fussing about in the hawthorn hedges.

Common darter, Marton Mere

There was a fine array of dragonflies at Marton Mere, you couldn't move without bumping into them. Most were common darters and migrant hawkers with a few Southern hawkers hunting round the apple trees and brown hawkers over the reedbeds. A black darter was unexpected, I forget that the Fylde is drained mosslands.

Common darter, Marton Mere

I'd been struck by the smell of cider on my visit here last September. The breeze was stronger this time so the smell only lingered in sheltered spots here and there. The red admirals took advantage of any rotten fruit, as did lots of wasps and flies. I kept an hopeful eye out for small birds but aside from a few wrens and robins in the undergrowth and goldfinches and greenfinches in the treetops I didn't have much luck.

Marton Mere 

None of the hides were helpful in looking over the mere itself and most of the views from the path were distant. A couple of hundred loafing herring gulls dominated the scene with a few coots, mallards and a mute swan dozing and feeding to one side. There were half a dozen lesser black-backs among the crowd and a single great black-back cruised alone just outside the pack. A Cetti's warbler assayed a snatch of song from the reeds but it was a bit half-hearted.

I looked over to the farm buildings by Preston Road hoping perhaps for a glimpse of little owls but finding nesting stock doves.

A last scan round of the mere found a pair of sleepy shovelers by the edge of the reeds.

I walked through the caravan park and into Mereside to catch the 18 bus to Squires Gate. I got off at the station and walked down to the sea front at Starr Gate.

Sandwich tern, Starr Gate

It was high tide and what beach was left was busy with people enjoying the sun. I walked onto the promenade and actually managed to find some seats facing the sea. (The orientation of the seats along here is eccentric to say the least. The set behind where I was sitting had a magnificent view of a high metal wall two feet in front.) 

Unsurprisingly there were a lot of herring gulls about. The sun was almost dead ahead though still high and the reflected light off the sea was fierce. Young herring gulls looked very dark and the handful of young lesser black-backs that were about looked almost black and their wings looked unusually long and thin, a trick of the light as it shone through their flight feathers. In the distance cormorants and yet more gulls passed by in twos and threes and a couple of small rafts of common scoters occasionally took to the wing and settled back down onto the water almost immediately.

Herring gulls, Starr Gate

A couple of Sandwich terns flew in and started surf-fishing. They'd fly off every so often and come back a couple of minutes later and every so often they'd be joined by three or four more terns. A couple of the juveniles still had smudgy wing markings, unlike the pure white plumage of the adults.

Sandwich tern, Starr Gate

Staring out to sea one distant bird caught my eye as being a bit different somehow but I couldn't work out why. I was on the point of dismissing it as another very dark looking lesser black-back when it turned slightly in the wind and the light caught a slightly paler panel at the end of the wing. I realised that it wasn't dark looking, it was all dark save for that wing patch and I was looking at an arctic skua as it flew off out of sight.

I'd done more midday walking than I'd intended and I was feeling a bit fried so having got the train back to Preston I shelved any ideas of having a teatime wander anywhere and went straight home for a much-needed pot of tea and a cool down. It had been a relatively quiet day's birdwatching but very pleasant and the arctic skua brings the year list to 199.