Lancashire wildlife

Today was a day full of high drama on the Bay, a life and death situation in which the emergency services attempted to rescue a deer which had lost its way and had become stranded out on the sands. Involved in the rescue where the Police, Fire Brigade, RSPCA, and the RNLI. At about 0915 Paula my wife called from our breakfast room (which is on the first floor of the house) to tell me that one of our guests had spotted a deer out in the Bay. As I entered the breakfast room all of our guests had left their tables and were looking through the bay window watching the deer. I looked through the binos we provide for our guests and saw the deer heading towards the race hut, its graceful movement restricted by the deep mudflats of the Bay, nevertheless it struggled on, but I eventually lost sight as it passed the slipway near the hut. There was an air of anxiety in the dining room, both Paula and I, and our guests aware now that the tide had turned, and the sea had begun its inexorable advance inland, returning to flood the sands of the Bay once again. Still there was a good four to five hours before high tide, which hopefully would give the rescue services enough time to drive the deer towards dry land. I ran to the race hut with my camera to get some footage and when I got there a small crowd had gathered along with the police and the RSPCA. The deer was sat on a firm mound of sea grass about 300m out in the Bay, no doubt exhausted by it efforts to negotiate the saturated mudflats it had just crossed. I stayed at the race hut for a short while then returned to the guesthouse, confident that probably in an hour or so the deer would be at rest in some shady glade in the countryside.

Having finished our work Paula called me again from the dining room around 2-45pm, the deer was now out in the Bay about 400m from the prom opposite the Broadway Hotel. I couldn't believe it! This unfortunate creature had been running up and down the shore all day, the emergency services unable to drive it to dry land, it must have been exhausted. I left the house and headed to the Broadway, and from this viewpoint the deer, (now about 400 metres from the prom) was sat motionless on a strip of skeer about 200m long and 10 feet wide and completely encircled by the tide and rapidly disappearing as the water covered it. I had walked along this skeer many times with Bess at Low tide and the surface is very hard, so if the deer decided to make a break it would have a good platform from which to cut through the water. The deer waited till the water was almost upon it then made a run for it, leaping and bounding with great power through the water and back along the shore towards our guesthouse. Indeed it came to stop directly opposite our house and skirted the the length of the right side of the groin (looking from the prom) and out towards the deep channel in the Bay. It reached the end of the groin then swung left swimming against the tide, its head just about visible beyond the furthest rocks of the groin then vanishing completely. At this point I didn't hold out much hope for its survival; it had been in a state of stress all day, it was caught in the main channel and was swimming against a very strong tidal current. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, an still no sighting. I thought the Deer's only hope now would be to somehow clamber on the rocks on the blind side of the groin and hold out there, but with the tide fully in, it would have been impossible for the deer to scale the wet, seaweedy rocks.

By now a crowd of about 2 hundred people had gathered on the prom opposite our guesthouse, along with the police, the RSPCA, and personnel from the RNLI. I spoke shortly with the RSPCA officer directing the rescue and asked him if a dart would be used in the rescue to which he replied in the negative, (no doubt this would cause complications to an already exhausted animal).

There intentions of the rescue party were to use the RNLI speedboat to get close to the deer and get it on board. Within a matter of seconds the RNLI rescue boat appeared in the distance and made its way speedily to the end of the groin, on board were four personel at the ready. I now returned to the guesthouse and positioned myself on the roof of the extension where I had a birds-eye view of the unfolding drama. The deer now emerged from behind the end of the groin, swimming with great strength from right to left into the tidal current and for the next ten or fifteen minutes the lifeboat, like a sheepdog, attempted to herd the deer towards the shore. The deer didn't give them an easy time of it and was determined to escape its would be captors. Leading the lifeboat crew a merry dance the deer swam back and forth and from side to side in its attempts to evade capture. Despite the tension, the sight now on view for all to see was quite a comical caper, very much reminiscent of a scene from the Keystone Cops. Inevitably the show came to an end as it all became too much for the poor deer, which by now, totally exhausted, slowed almost to a standstill, its energy drained. The lifeboat gently came aside the deer and together all four crew heaved the exhausted animal aboard from where a hood was immediately placed over its head; speaking later to one of the lifeboat crew, all four of them had to physically sit on the deer to restrain it, a testament to its strength and courage to escape even when captured. When the deer was pulled aboard someone from the crowd shouted "They've got it!", and the crowd threw up a cheer and started clapping. The crew eventually brought the deer to shore where it was placed in a container, and from conversations heard between the RSPCA officers it appears that a Lancaster vet was on call to attend.

No news is good news and I hope the deer has recovered. No doubt the local paper will have news of this and I will give a full report as soon as I hear anything, but for now it's late and I'm ready for my bed.

The month of June has been extremely warm and dry with little rainfall on the Bay, however the guesthouse has been busy and I have had litle time to explore the Bay and its goings on. There is scant birdlife, however the Herons are still on show and our Cormorants have returned to the sea guage opposite the house at the end of the groin. On solstice eve Bess and I managed to scramble to the end of the groin and get a great photo of three roosting Cormorants silouhetted on the guage against a magnificent milky sunset sky. One evening Bess and I came across what appeared at first to be a flat, shapeless mass of light blotchy brown fluid with a radius of about ten inches on the sand. On closer inspection it had what appeared to be veins and other transparent blotches over its body and what also looked like shrivelled tentacles. Its body was about one quarter to half an inch thick. When I realised what it was I remembered reading about stinging jellyfish in Cedric Robinson's book Sandman of Morecambe Bay in which he describes on page 14 a stinging jellyfish that has a '...brown decorative frill around the dome', its sting '...about ten times as strong as that of a nettle...' I was almost certain this was the stinging jellyfish Robinson was referring to so I immediately called Bess to me fearing her relentless search for food would lead her to sample a portion of this stinging creature and several hours of pain and discomfort, to which she came and sat nonchalantly next to me, oblivious of the present danger. I studied the creature with interest for a little longer then moved on. The Bay in Summer changes from misty morning haze which is burnt away by the hot June sun to reveal the Lake District fells which are now covered in great patches of dark deep greens and browns, and as late afternoon arrives so do the Bay's big blue skies, the clouds blown inland to Bowland. By evening the undefinable colours of the Morecambe Bay sunsets leave you speechless and in awe at one of nature's most sublime and beautiful displays.

Not having much knowledge of coastal marine life and the birds I have made some interesting observations and spotted birds I had not seen before over the last few weeks. About three weeks ago I spotted a lone female red breasted Merganser about 300m beyond Bare pool, it had a 'Mohican' type plume on a purpley head, a very long pencil like beak proportionate to its head, and was about the size of a Mallard, with white markings on the shoulder area with a brownish body? One thing which surprised me was the speed of movement of the shrimp, they are like lightning. I see them in the small puddles left by the tide, whether they are young or old I'm not sure, they are transparent anyway. Also in the puddles I see what appears to be a seawater version of a Devil's Coachman, jet black and all creepy-crawly - yuck I'm not touching that! Walking along the beach leading to the Broadway hotel there have been an awful lot of dead crabs this week compared to other times of the year, not sure why though, could be the hot weather drying out the Bay and frying the crabs, they did look very bleached as a matter of fact. Indeed yesterday the mud near the Broadway groin was so dry it could be walked on and had the appearance of parched cracked desert just like you see in the wildlife docs. Today I saw a Cormorant out in the Bay it looked as though it was having some difficulty swallowing as its neck was bulging and it kept making a swallowing movement, it was focusing on this and didn't seem bothered about the current taking it out to sea. This evening at low water I walked out on the skeer to the cockle beds with Bess which takes me about 600m into the Bay from the prom and to the edge of a deep-water channel which I think is the Keir. The sunset was stunning and in the bright evening light I saw a flock of about 300 Oyster Catchers feeding near the waters edge, whilst looking inland I saw a Heron about 1km away on the bank which was being mobbed by a couple of gulls. The gulls didn't hang around for long and the Heron went about its business stalking in the water looking for food, its body towering above the water and its neck long and stiff angled at about 45 degrees then - stab!! a catch! On my way back from the skeer I almost walked on four tiny brown birds (the brown stones and mud of the Bay gave them excellent camouflage)who probably saw me before I saw them - anyway they flew of rather alarmed but were to fast for me to get a better description.

Yesterday (Wed) was warm and sunny in Morecambe and was the first time I'd worn my coat without a fleece since about September last year. It could easily have been a Spring day in April, there was a bright blue sky, however the fells, lightly dusted with snow told you that it was February and Winter was here for a little while yet. Today was very different - cold, damp, and drizzly all day. Tonight was quite special though. I took Bess on her evening walk around 9pm, heading from the house to the sunken gardens at the town hall, on to the prom and along to central beach. Clambering over the boulders near the slipway at the old lifebout station I began walking along the beach in the darkness, Bess scurrying and sniffing behind me. The Bay is fascinating at night and the ever changing weather and the state of the tide makes it all the more exciting. There are times when it can be perfectly still and not a sound to be heard from any of the birdlife, other nights you can hear birds far out in the darkeness of the Bay chattering away - the noise drifting in and out on the night air. Tonight the tide was out and the night air was quite still but damp. After following the waterline between the sand and the mud for about 200 metres I saw what must have been a line of what could only have been a huge flock of Knot about 200m from where I stood. The Knot were extended in a line of about 50 metres, and at a depth of the same distance. The flock was perfectly still and silent as they fed and its white mass appeared in diamond formation against the darkness of the Bay - this was just amazing. On all the night forays I'd never seen a gathering of anywhere near this size - absolutely incredible! I managed to advance 30m through the mud and onto a skeer to get a closer look and this alerted what must have been sentries who gave out the alarm signal - half of the flock rose up and drifted in formation left, then right, for a short while, retreating about 20 metres then settling again. I watched for a while in complete awe then made my way back through the mud to the sand. Bess had stayed on the sand the whole time watching in silence. Nature at night - a special sight - only in Morecambe Bay!

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Lovely February - fresh, dry and cold, the wind was an easter and fairly blowy moving lovely fluffy grey clouds west to Barrow with lots of blue sky and bright sunshine interspersed - my favourite weather; the Bay had an aqua-greengray tinge to it as the tides came and went and today the Oyster Catchers dominated its muddy flats; Knots flocked, flected, and shimmered in the winter sun. Walked along the edge of the bay near the old lifeboat station and sadly discovered a dead Knot - this was the first dead bird I had seen on the shore of the Bay since we moved here almost four years ago, there were no obvious signs for its demise and its passing had been fairly recent - within hours I suspected from the state of its plumage. Took our Bess to the Stone Jetty today. Read the plate on the old lighthouse - jetty built in 1853 for travellers to Ireland and the Isle Of Man. I stood at North on the giant compass laid out on the jetty and if you follow an imaginary line from its point your first reference point is the Cormorant on the railings immedieately ahead, then you speed across the Bay and through the Kent estuary, by-passing Grange to the left and then up to the fells to the mighty Patterdale on the horizon. From the breakfast room I saw the Sunset smoke a clear blue sky with soft glowy oranges - a sight to behold - only in Morecambe Bay.

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Impressive tide today in the Bay - looked ominous when the council started to put the emergency barriers in the sea wall gaps this morning - thought they were just checking if they fitted alright but as things went it was a darn high tide! Got to our first floor breakfast room overlooking the Bay and the stone groin was completely submerged except for a few Knot and Dunlin occupying the few stones not covered. Checked the tide timetables for the high tide which was to reach 10.41 Metres at 13:20. Mmmmm a little concerned now - groin completely covered, sea-water steadily rising up the slipway only feet from the prom path, and there's still half an hour to go! - alarm bells a ringling and a dingling - visions flashing before me of all our lovely worldly goods floating in our basement apartment! Relief. 13:20 came and the tide started to turn making a slow retreat from the prom and eventually back to the Irish sea. Oh yes. Lovely. Than God. Time for tea and biscuits to assuage the trauma. Saw the same huge branch in the middle of the Bay as the tide was receding, this time it was being taken back out to sea whereas yesterday morning it was riding high and heading inland towards Hest Bank - wasn't sure what it was at first, could have been a boat, got binos out and it was a very very big tree branch - cool. Bye bye Mr.Branch might see you on the high tide again tomorrow.

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Sun is drenching the Bay, I have noticed the Cormorants are hanging around on the depth post at the end of the stone groin. Summer time is quiet for our feathered friends, generally they are off having their families. We have loads of sea bird that overwinter in the Bay; Oyster Catchers Dunlins, Shellducks, Curlews, Red Shanks, Knots etc.

During spring it was interesting to watch the transition of the Little Gulls markings from the spot behind the eye, which makes them look so pensive, to the full dark head they exhibit during breeding season.

We have a fabulous bird sanctuary called Leighton Moss on the Bay many of the birds that use this sanctuary also spread out along our shores to feed following the tides in and out busying about like frenzied shoppers in the January Sales!

Our Morecambe B&B Website

Our Morecambe B&B Website