Natural Selection

This blog has something of an identity crisis, but one of the things it hopefully does is show that there are natural treasures to be enjoyed even in a densely area like Blackpool. The last week I’ve seen the following in the town as we are on the cusp of spring:

• a cloud of 130 Whooper Swans heading north west over the sea, beginning their journey from Martin Mere back to Iceland
• two porpoises breaching close in on a flat calm sea, presaging the arrival of bottlenose dolphins in a couple of months
• the crooning courtship scoter ducks that have spent the winter on the waves, a sign they will also leave soon under cover of night
• Forty Sand Martins descending on Marton Mere at dusk tonight, they’ve never taken to the nest bank here but do breed not far away
• A Peregrine sat on a perch giving an imperious view over the town to enable it to pick out pigeons it could prey on
• Close encounters with the shorebirds that roost on the walls of the go kart track, some aloof some cadging bait off nearby anglers

Redshank, Turnstone and Purple Sandpiper

https://twitter.com/StephenDunstan2/status/1637007144309477378

Link to record video of the porpoises

Birding is partly about the unexpected and the rare. If that’s all it is however then perspective has been lost. Appreciating the everyday and the seasonably predictable is just as life affirming, probably more so.