Crosby Coastal Park, Boating Lake - 3.1.20
I'm keen to get out but the weather's been pretty dire in recent days but today it all looks good but where...decisions, decisions. With options in north Wales, north west Lancashire or even south Yorkshire as possibilities I decide to opt for the easy option and head over to Merseyside for the the long staying Long-tailed Duck on Crosby Marina finishing late afternoon at Lunt Nature Reserve for the wintering Short-eared Owls....perfect.
This will be around my fifth visit to Crosby Coastal Park located alongside sand dunes that flank Crosby Beach where you can also find Antony Gormley's army of statues facing out to sea, well worth a walk in it's own right just makes sure its not weekends with the hundreds of walkers with their free range dogs !
Current reports are the Long-tailed Duck has relocated to the smaller of the two lakes making it much more likely of getting closer for an image, well thats the plan. With a cold wind blowing and light cloud cover its a short walk down to the lake, a scan picks out a few Mallard, usual group of gulls but no sight of the LTD, then close in to the wall edge near the far end of the lake I locate the Arctic breeding duck not at all obvious with it's mainly brown plumage camoflarged on the dark grey water.
The sun tries its best to make an appearance the best images always being when the sun's light is diffused by the light cloud but still not great for photography. After a couple of hours I have the best images I'm going to get on the day and decide to head the short drive to Lunt Nature Reserve for wintering Short-eared Owls.
I'm not going the dwell too much on the visit other than to say due to the high water levels the owls reported off the reserve in fields near the bridge for people that know the area and a no show whilst I was there.
Another time maybe.
This will be around my fifth visit to Crosby Coastal Park located alongside sand dunes that flank Crosby Beach where you can also find Antony Gormley's army of statues facing out to sea, well worth a walk in it's own right just makes sure its not weekends with the hundreds of walkers with their free range dogs !
Current reports are the Long-tailed Duck has relocated to the smaller of the two lakes making it much more likely of getting closer for an image, well thats the plan. With a cold wind blowing and light cloud cover its a short walk down to the lake, a scan picks out a few Mallard, usual group of gulls but no sight of the LTD, then close in to the wall edge near the far end of the lake I locate the Arctic breeding duck not at all obvious with it's mainly brown plumage camoflarged on the dark grey water.
The sun tries its best to make an appearance the best images always being when the sun's light is diffused by the light cloud but still not great for photography. After a couple of hours I have the best images I'm going to get on the day and decide to head the short drive to Lunt Nature Reserve for wintering Short-eared Owls.
I'm not going the dwell too much on the visit other than to say due to the high water levels the owls reported off the reserve in fields near the bridge for people that know the area and a no show whilst I was there.
Another time maybe.
Long-tailed Duck
