A Lancashire Bird Race - Saturday, 8th May 1999.

TEAM: TONY DISLEY, PHIL RHODES, NEIL HANCOCK, JAMES WALSH.

THE BUILD-UP.
We met up at 11pm on Friday 7th May in slightly inauspicious circumstances. Our personal preparation involved only sporadic staking-out during the previous week.

Our information was limited only to our own knowledge, a few phone calls during the week and a few pager messages.

Our one and only planning meeting had been held just a few hours previously.
We were a new team - we had never raced together before, I was racing outside Cheshire for the first time and Phil was taking part in his first ever Bird Race.

Three very long-staying American waders (the Lesser Yellowlegs at Banks, and the Long-billed Dowitchers at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve and Marshside Marsh RSPB reserve) had decided to leave Lancashire just prior to the race.

We were faced with an uninspring weather forecast, and to add to that, the lure of a twitchable Slender-billed Gull in Kent.

However, in our favour we had a plethora of local knowledge, a Landrover Discovery for the day (many thanks to Neil), a couple of over-wintering rarities still hanging around, 4 very alert pairs of eyes and a number of Lancashire birders promising to contact us with local information during the day.
So, it was with some degree of optimism and excitement that we set off into the mist and rain!

THE BIG DAY.
The light rain had dampened the spirits of most night-birds, but we did manage to record 2 species of OWL - LITTLE and TAWNY - during the first couple of hours.

As the rain stopped we headed towards Leighton Moss RSPB reserve where we had decided to be pre-dawn. Here, the deep 'booming' of the 3 male BITTERNS and the 'squealing' from the local WATER RAILS carried across the reed-bed above the constant chatter of REED and SEDGE WARBLERS. In the half-light before dawn a WOODCOCK began 'roding' over the path to Lower Hide.

This was a good run and we decided to hit the coast for dawn and return to Leighton later. Being on the coast at dawn on a Bird Race made a change for me, as teams I have been on in the past have always made sure of being in the woods for dawn-chorus.

At Morecambe, we came across a small flock of EURASIAN WHIMBREL on the shore, a resplendent drake COMMON EIDER resting on a small stone jetty and a pair of RED-BREASTED MERGANSER diving just off-shore. A singing LESSER WHITETHROAT, in a garden on the southern outskirts of the town, was expertly picked up on call and we even managed to see the bird!

From the sea-watching hide at Heysham we logged 2 COMMON SCOTER flying south and c15 BLACK-LEGGED KITTIWAKE moving north, while a delightful adult LITTLE GULL in full summer-plumage was picked out amongst the COMMON TERNS on the outfall and a group of RUDDY TURNSTONE fed on the rocks by the pier.

Next stop was Woodwell, nr Silverdale and some classic, soul strengthening views of 3 HAWFINCH. These were complemented by other woodland species such as MARSH and COAL TIT, GREAT-SPOTTED WOODPECKER and a very vocal, showy pair of NUTHATCH. A quick stroll through Eaves Wood gave us our only GOLDCREST of the day and a 'yaffling' GREEN WOODPECKER.

Back at Leighton Moss RSPB reserve, a male MARSH HARRIER and several BEARDED TITS had woken up and we all managed to get on a COMMON SNIPE flying past Grizedale Hide after an initial panic!
With the sun warming up and the total 'ticking' along nicely, we continued to bird around Leighton. We were tipped off about a singing GARDEN WARBLER and a pair of BULLFINCH by the old blue gate. These duly showed after a short search.

To save valuable time we 'scoped the Morecambe/Allen Pool complex from Crag Road, Warton. From here we saw a beautiful drake GARGANEY and an adult MEDITERRANEAN GULL, plus PINTAIL, BLACK-TAILED GODWIT, COMMON SANDPIPER and STOCK DOVE.
Nearby, at the Quarry Nature Reserve our raptor list received a boost with a PEREGRINE FALCON perched on the rock face and 3 COMMON BUZZARDS soaring overhead.

Moving inland, we found a singing WOOD WARBLER in Knots Wood, but wasted quite a lot of time trying to find Goosander along the River Lune east of Lancaster.

We put this behind us with an excellent run of birds in the Forest of Bowland, starting with RED GROUSE, DIPPER, WHINCHAT and RING OUZEL in quick succession along the Catlow Fell road.

Whilst still on the road, Tony phoned up Bill Aspin to see if he had any recent information on Merlin or Hen Harrier. By amazing co-incidence, the second he got through Neil spotted a cracking male HEN HARRIER in the distance, flying over the moors in front of us. Billy was greeted with 'shouts of 'HEN HARRIER', 'Where?', 'There!', 'Over There', 'Yes - nice one!', then 'Sorry about that - we've just had a Hen Harrier!'
Now the day-list was over 100 species and we contemplated hitting the magical 150 barrier and started asking ourselves 'Would the weather hold?', and 'Would we drop lucky on the remaining possible species?' Only time would tell!

A GRASSHOPPER WARBLER sat out in the open, plus LESSER REDPOLL and CUCKOO at Stocks Reservoir and 2 very handsome summer-plumaged EURASIAN GOLDEN PLOVER on nearby Champion Moor suggested we might have that vital slice of luck on our side, but then spots of rain and a dip on Siskin suggested it might go pear-shaped!
The latter scenario started to seem more likely as we entered an early-mid afternoon lull (which seems to happen on many Bird Races). We spent a long time dipping Raven and Goosander (our bogey bird of the day), but managed to eventually see a KINGFISHER at Haughton Bottoms.

We were very lucky with a LITTLE STINT at Brockholes Quarry, which had been missing for most of the day, but re-appeared just in time for us to see it. 

With it being good weather the Leadmines Clough area had a lot of tourists enjoying the walks and picnic sites. The human activity had disturbed the avian population a little and as a result made birds such as TREE PIPIT and PIED FLYCATCHER a lot harder to see than usual. However, see them we did and we finally left for the south-west Lancashire mosses at 4pm.

We quickly added LITTLE GREBE and GOLDENEYE at Mere Sands Wood, but two bad dips in this area were Turtle Dove and Yellow Wagtail.
We managed to find the long-staying CATTLE EGRET (a phenomenal bird for a Bird Race in England) in fields near the Brandreth Barn and a singing CORN BUNTING was here as well.

Then followed a good run of ducks and geese - red-head SMEW, small flocks of WHOOPER SWANS and PINK-FOOTED GEESE, and drake MANDARIN DUCK all at Martin Mere Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust Reserve, and BARNACLE GOOSE at Marshside Marsh RSPB reserve near Southport, but we dipped on a frustratingly short-staying Brent Goose here.
 

We quickly dashed inland to find Plex Moss full of birds - the fields were littered with groups of GREY and RED-LEGGED PARTRIDGE, Whimbrel and WHEATEARS, and the piece de resistance - a delightful trip of 6 DOTTEREL (another superb species for a Bird Race in England).

By now, the weather had deteriorated badly with wind and rain coming in from the west. We thought this could be good for sea-watching and as we still hadn't seen several species of estuarine wader aswell we decided to spend the remaining hour of daylight at Formby Point and the Alt Estuary.

In the conditions - strong rain and westerly winds - we felt like it was September and we were looking for Leach's Petrels and Sabine's Gulls, but despite this we couldn't spot any new sea-bird species passing off-shore.
We did, however, manage to add 4 wading birds to the list - SANDERLING, GREY PLOVER, BAR-TAILED GODWIT and KNOT, which brought up the momentous 140 species!

We could have tried for a couple of more owls, but with the rain coming down we decided to call it a day and go and dry out our bins, have some food, re-orientate ourselves (anyone who's ever done a Bird Race before will know what I mean by this!) and reflect on what a brilliant day it had been!
We were 9 short of the North-West record of 149 set in Cheshire in 1992 by a team led by Hugh Pulsford.

It surely can't be long before a team eventually manages 150 on a single calendar day in the North-West which illustrates what a sensational area for birds it is.

James Walsh
envirowalsh@planet-save.com

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