It was a beautiful sunny day for our trip to Leighton Moss, where we were delighted to welcome back Lorna. On arrival Julia dropped off a party of 7, who proceeded to walk down the lane to the shore hides, whilst the remaining 3 of the party carried on to the reserve. The Eric Morecambe hide proved to have the greatest concentration of birds but identification was made extremely difficult because of the reflection of the sun on the water and even with the scope we gained little advantage. The one bird that was new to many of us was a cattle egret, standing on one of the small islands next to a little egret. In fact over the course of the day we saw all 3 species of egret, encountering a great white egret which we viewed from Lilian's hide later in the day.
The walk back to the reserve was taken in the full heat of the midday sun so on our return we spent some time sitting in the shade and enjoying a very welcome ice cream. Time was then taken viewing the woodland birds at the nearby hide, where we were duly rewarded with the sighting of a marsh tit. By this time our party had split up and 4 of us proceeded down the boardwalk heading for the causeway hide. Here we met with Alice and Lorna who told us to look out for water pepper on our return journey. The hide produced an abundance of dragonfly activity with migrant hawkers providing a mesmerising aerial display. Birds seen included gadwall, coot, heron mute swan, mallard, little grebe and pochard.
Alice's plant list had 63 species in flower plus 3 ferns. The dominating umbel was angelica but special note was made of the bittersweet berries which augmented the burgeoning crop of food available in the hedgerows. Butterflies on the wing were predominantly speckled wood, although red admiral, peacock and small white were also seen. A cricket and a froglet were spotted by Angela in some undergrowth.
Many thanks to our driving team of Julia and Kevin who negotiated the winding country lanes with their usual skill on a day when we were blessed with wall to wall sunshine.
Sally Tetlow