Bullfinch Brightens up the Day

The recent high temperatures dropped away today and coupled with a stiff westerly wind there was a definite chill in the air. I had a relaxing morning around the house before a quick visit to Rossall Point early afternoon produced a single Gannet (yeartick) flying south but not a lot else. Clearly the best time to be there is the morning as auks were passing by at a rate of 500 per hour early today and there were 3 Pomerine Skuas off Heysham at 8:30. Hopefully I will be down there early morning either tomorrow or Thursday.

In an attempt to tick off a few more year birds I headed across to Myerscough Quarry where 9+ Little Ringed Plovers were seen the other day, but of course today they had all disappeared and there was absolutely no birds of note present. Slightly disheartened by this I remembered that I was relatively close to Preston so my dad agreed to take me to Cottam Brickworks where I hoped to catch up with my most glaring omission for the year, Jay! Walking around the site a couple of singing Chiffchaffs were located and several Swallows passed overheard north, but none of my target species were found; however just as I was heading back a flash of red out of the corner of my eye made me turn round and set my eyes on a gorgeous male Bullfinch (yeartick). This was my first Bullfinch for 6 years in the Fylde and takes my British yearlist up to the 150 mark, and 147 for the Fylde. The photo above was from Leighton Moss last year.