Fairhaven Lake

I decided it was time to pay Fairhaven Lake a visit another new spot for me, although I have heard about it after a Red Necked Grebe appeared there some years ago, this time it was of the Red Throated variety that was luring me in.

The weather forecast was for it to be overcast till 11 and then to brighten up in the end it rained till about 11 and then just stayed grey! So well done BBC on getting that totally wrong.
Any way after first turning up me and Gem were soon watching a small group of Knot feeding with the odd Redshank thrown in for good measure, having successfully bagged these it was off to find our main prey the Red Throated Diver, my one and only ever tick of this bird had so far been a rather distant bird at Kinmel Bay in North Wales so the chance to get up close and personnel was hard to resist.
I found the bird asleep at the end of the Lake near the Spitfire on a plinth which is quite a nice feature as monuments go.

As the bird seemed to be in no mood to wake up I decided to pop into the RSPB Ribble Discovery centre and see what was what, turned out they had a very tame Turnstone that was even known to pop into the shop looking for something to eat.

Heading back down to the far end for lunch the diver had actually woken up and had come quite close in shore allowing for a few shots.

A passing walker with the usual dogs spooked the bird and it headed back off to the far bank by the island so that was that.

As the weather never bucked up we had a coffee and ice cream and headed off home.