Gull's

Mosses Gate Country Park - 14.12.2024

I'm not a gull's person, in fact I find the subtleties of identifying "grey" gulls difficult, they all look the same other than Mediterranean gull's like Slender-billed and Audouin's that look so different, so with that said I'm off to MGCP to try and find a juvenile Caspian Gull.

Caspian Gull's a variant of Herring Gull family but laterly recognised as a sub-species, but to me just another Herring Gull, so armed with my extensive gull knowledge I'm off to Mosses Gate to see what's on offer.

Arriving mid-morning it's like gull's city with locals throwing food for the water fowl, the gull's are going bonkers ! too many gulls all looking the same I decide to give looking for the Caspian Gull a miss opting to walk the perimeter of the lake for other opportunities.

On the far side of the lake the light behind is better with nice colour in the water, a row of posts at the water's edge provide resting for a variety of gull species, a good location to spend an hour and what's more I recognise some of the species, you know the usual stuff !

Common Gull

Black-headed Gull

Herring Gull - juvenile

Godwit Local

Elton Resevouir, Bury

It's not so often that a wader that you normally see on the UK coastline turns up inland and thats exactly what this wader has done fifty miles inland on a reservoir in Greater Manchester.

Work in progress...

Bar-tailed Godwit  

Black-headed Gull

No-headed Gull 

Birtle Morning

Birtle Lodge, Rochdale  - 2.11.18

The sun's out this morning so I've decided not to waste the opportunity to spend to spend a couple of hours around the lodge up at Birtle, the last time there was a small group of Wigeon were present giving some good photo op's and theres always a change that Goosander will drop in.

As I only have a couple of hours free I have a quick scan to see what's about before I go to the trouble of unpacking all the gear, the Wigeon are still present dabbling on the surface weed amongst a group of Canada Geese so it's back a short distance to the car to collect the gear.

It's windless and the surface water flat calm, the light is reflecting some nice autumn colours in the water so all looks good for some decent images. The Wigeon arm't for are coming close but a pair of Little Grebe happily cruise close by occasionally diving and popping up only meters away when you least expect it.

The quiet of this small Birtle lake is a contradiction to all the hustle and bustle of a large metropolitan borough, the piece only occasionally broken by the squabbling Coots or the Black Headed Gulls looking to dive bomb and rob the grebes of there catch, some times it's all you need to do on days like this is to sit quite and watch.

Click image and view in full

Little Grebe

Birtle Lodge

Blackheaded Gull...