A trip to Leighton Moss in the teeth of Storm Abigail provided some nice views of a limited selection of birds.

On a windy Thursday evening we saw very little at the Eric Morecambe and Allen hides, a single Curlew close up being my highlight, but little Egrets and Herons were about too. Earlier in the day, Peregrines and Buzzards had been spotted from the car, and Sparrowhawk and Ravens were the highlights of the pub car park in Warton.

On Friday, the weather was better than expected with ony a couple of hail showers. A good few pochard dotted Pine Lake where we were staying. At Leighton Moss, the best sighting of the day was probably the adult female Marsh Harrier which provided majestic views from several hides, often stationary in the stiff breeze to provide excellent scope views.

In front of the Causeway/Public Hide, three Greenshank and a Redshank cowered in the hail, cormorants stretched their wings, and a Great Crested Grebe made a lazy circuit.

The wooded path to the Lower Hide was home to Chaffinch, Bullfinch, and tits including Marsh Tits. I was pleased with myself for identifying the latter with confidence, not knowing that this species is common at Leighton Moss (I was almost disappointed to see more Marsh Tits on the feeders at the visitor’s centre the following day!). And of course, it’s not possible to pass along the road between the Visitor’s Centre and the causeway without seeing a woodpecker: today’s was Great Spotted.

We returned on the Saturday morning, hoping that an earlier start would bag us Bearded Tits and Otters. We remained out of luck in the former case, but got to see an otter fishing in front of the Causeway hide. The last bird of the day was a Great White Egret flying over.