Fylde

Black tern, Fairhaven Lake 

It was a cool, misty morning but the Met Office reckoned the mist and fog was inland so I reckoned on heading for the seaside. I've barely touched the Fylde this year and a couple of young black terns have been haunting Fairhaven Lake for a fortnight so I decided to go there then have a look round Skipool Creek and thence have a wander round on a bus before wandering back home.

Canada geese, Fairhaven Lake 

I'd dressed for the morning I'd set out in which was unfortunate as it was a warm sunny day when I got off the train at Ansell & Fairhaven. Robins, great tits and a coal tit sang in a churchyard as I passed by and there were cabbage whites all over the shop. The lake was like a shining mirror, unruffled even by the Canada geese and black-headed gulls on it.

Fairhaven Lake 

It took less than a minute to find the two black terns as they wheeled about above the lake. And very nice they were, too, but a beggar to try and photograph as they were doing a lot of tight wingtip turns that made it well-nigh impossible to focus the camera on where they were going to be.

Black tern, Fairhaven Lake 

Ironically, the best shots I got came when they flew overhead and disappeared over the beach. I felt disappointed and a lot guilty that they'd been here all that time and chose now to leave.

Black tern, Fairhaven Lake 

I had a walk round the lake, which was very agreeable. Robins sang, blackbirds and wrens rummaged in bushes, great tits and blue tits bounced about in the trees. A few Southern hawkers patrolled the edges of the tree canopy. Mallards and a little egret lurked on the banks of the islands in the lake while Canada geese and mute swans cruised about.

I bobbed over the bank onto the seawall promenade. I was tempted to take a walk up to St Anne's but the path was very busy and I decided to stick to the original plan. It was lowish tide so most of the birdlife was shimmering in the heat haze some distance away. Cormorants and shelducks were easy enough to identify but the distorted silhouettes of oystercatchers and curlews needed a bit of help by their calls. Most of the gulls loafing out there were herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs and a couple of great black-backs looking even huger than usual in the haze. A couple of redshanks and a ringed plover were a bit closer, their silhouettes undistorted.

Juvenile great black-back, Fairhaven
At first I was more puzzled by this bird than I should have been. It was on its own and I thought it was smaller than it was.

Juvenile great black-back, Fairhaven 
I got the scale right once it approached the dead oystercatcher.

Juvenile great black-back, Fairhaven 

Fairhaven 

I followed the walk round. Redshanks and black-headed gulls dotted the wet mud, a couple of pied wagtails skittered about and a little egret was shrimping by the side.

Redshank, Fairhaven 

Little egret, Fairhaven 

I returned to the lake to get an ice cream cornet and was relieved to see the terns were back, though even more difficult to photograph as they were sticking below rooftop height.

Black tern, Fairhaven Lake 

I got the train back as far as Kirkham and Wesham, changed there for Poulton-le-Fylde and walked down from the station to Skipool Creek. I don't know what it is but that walk always seems longer than it is.

Skipool Creek 

The trees down Wyre Road were busy with robins, great tits and chaffinches. Magpies fussed about and mallards dabbled in the creek.

Little egrets and heron, River Wyre at Skipool

Out on the river loafing gulls stood in lines on the mud banks, black-headed gulls near the bridge, herring gulls and lesser black-backs downstream. Little egrets stood in groups, lapwings fussed about, Canada geese and greylags bathed in the river. A few curlews and redshanks fossicked about on the mud.

Herring gulls, black-headed gulls, Canada geese and greylags, River Wyre at Skipool 

I spent a while trying and failing to find any other waders and called it quits. It was too nice a day for stressing myself out looking for things that weren't there. I had a leisurely wander back then caught the 74 bus for a meandering ride back to Preston visiting bits of the area that were new to me. At Preston the next train was the Manchester Airport train that connects with my train home, it would have been an act of folly to snub a piece of luck like that.

That's the 200 reached, I can stop fretting about it now.

Skipool Creek