Autumn is upon us...

It's been quite some time since I've been to Pickering's Pasture on account of the road closures due to the new bridge. But even though the bridge is not open yet(due soon...), I decided to take the long way round and see what I've been missing.
It started off being quite a dull day and with not a great deal to see at the bird hide, apart from a buzzard which was sitting on a fence post way out of range of my camera, it looked as if it was going to be a short stay. You already know that I have little patience to sit around and wait for things to come along!
But as I was about to leave, it started to rain, so I stayed at the hide(which is just a screen really with a couple of benches behind, and no roof!) to shelter under the trees, and along came a couple of birders with the same idea.
With the tide on the river Mersey going out, the birds began to arrive in numbers and the tally of species began to rise - cormorants, Canada Geese, Grey Herons, white egrets that came to fish on the pond, and then a huge Great White Egret was seen - they are so much bigger than their counterparts. A few redshank, a dunlin, an Egyptian Goose, plenty of black headed gulls and a couple of curlew were also seen in the river or on the wetland fields.  A greenshank dropped in on the pond and at last, the kingfisher showed itself for a few minutes. By this time, the rain had well and truly stopped and the sun had come out. A successful morning's birding, but all a bit too far away for my camera. Stupidly, I had not brought my long lens with me, so all I have to show for today are some Sloe berries(I think) and a rather sleepy hare(I think) who very kindly perched on a log for a few seconds.
Arrived home to catch the end of the Grand Prix which was a nice surprise, and am now sitting down to see if I can find myself a new laptop.

Thank you all for continuing to visit my journal and for sending my nuthatch on to the second page of populars. I am so thrilled you liked it so much.