TIP OF THE DAY......If you're railroaded into going shopping at Sainsbury's in Lancaster and you profess to being a birder then you really must make sure you take at least your binoculars with you, I always do and today - not for the first time - I was rewarded by an adult Mediterranean Gull just upstream from Greyhound Bridge. As a bonus I was able to get a half decent pic of the bird above. So as you go out the front door of the house you ask yourself two questions the most difficult one being......how am I going to tell the wife I'm going to do some birding whilst she gets the shopping?......and......have I got my binoculars in the car?
Along with the British Birds magazines I mentioned in the last post on the blog I also found some old Bird Notes magazines, not quite as old as the BB's but 44 years old all the same and the pic of the one above is the January 1965 issue and has on the cover - as do all six copies I acquired - a picture from a painting by C. F. Tunnicliffe. I'm not too well up on the history of this magazine but it is obviously a RSPB publication. The magazine cost two shillings then and in this issue on page 33 is a section under the heading 'Notes from the Reserves' and these are a few extracts from the one called Leighton Moss, Silverdale, Lanc's, with some comments from me in brackets.
A public hide has been erected on the causeway giving good views over one of the meres on the reserve. A clearance has been directed into improving the Grasshopper Warbler habitat where the willow scrub was advancing very quickly. Duck numbers reached a peak of around 1,000 in late September, mainly Mallard, Teal, and Shoveler, with smaller numbers of Gadwall, Wigeon, Pintail, Tufted Duck, and Pochard. A Marsh Harrier was seen on 21 September (well I'd say that was interesting) Black Tern's were present until 12 October (and that sounds interesting too) and Redpoll and Goldfinch were abundant this autumn (and so does that).
Some fascinating reading in these old books and I must keep my eyes open for more.
Oh dear the gaps there again!
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