We found Cliff when looking for some background details about the Starlings that gather around the piers at Blackpool, and stumbled on his excellent online photo archive of Fylde Coast wildlife.
As you can imagine, we were curious to find out more. What had led Cliff to this interest, what had he discovered, and maybe his enthusiasm and knowledge would inspire others to develop their hobby too.
Cliff and his Fylde Coast Wildlife
Here’s Cliff’s story about his Fylde Coast Wildlife:
I’ve always had a hobby; in my younger days it was more energetic pursuits like football, squash & tennis, which progressed to golf as I got into my thirties. After hacking my way around many of the Fyldes golf courses for a number of years, without ever really improving, I returned to my old childhood pursuit of fishing. I would spend many a Saturday with a couple of buddies in what was really an excuse to have a huge picnic & chinwag, with the occasional fish interrupting our social gathering.
I started to get bored of fishing, but was still enjoying the food and company so carried on going, but my attention was getting more and more drawn to the wildlife around the lake where we fished. I’d see a bird or a butterfly and not being sure what it was would try to look it up when I got home, but thumbing through my little wildlife ID guide I could never quite remember just what it was I’d seen.
At this point, which was about eight years ago, I decided to buy a half decent (bridge) camera so I could snap the wildlife I saw whilst out fishing. I could then check my photographs back to my ID guide & figure out just what I was actually seeing. It was at this point the shoots of a new hobby started to emerge.
After a few months I decided that by trying to combine fishing and observing/photographing wildlife I wasn’t paying either discipline the attention it needed – so I packed in going fishing altogether and focused all my attention in the pursuit of wildlife.
Growing up in West Yorkshire on the edge of farmland and countryside I’ve always been interested in wildlife, but my wildlife ID skills were appalling. Take butterflies as an example, the only butterfly names I knew were Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral & Cabbage White, the first two ID’s were randomly given to anything reddish, the latter to anything white. Now, as a result of my passion for wildlife photography I have seen, photographed and can identify over 30 species of butterfly, including some real beauties right here in Blackpool – just where were they all hiding before my eyes were opened?? My bird identification skills were equally poor and, again as a result of getting out and taking photographs, I’ve been amazed at the wonderful variety of birds that be found in and around the Fylde coast.
Soon after taking up the hobby I upgraded my bridge camera to my first DSLR, followed by a zoom lens and, as my new hobby started to become more of an obsession, a macro lens too so I could photograph the mini beasts that are all around us. I signed up to a wildlife photography forum and the good folk there mentored me, teaching me how to use my new kit and improve my photography skills.
Unlike fishing, which I pretty much only got to do on a Saturday, I can find time most days to grab a few photographs. My camera is often with me whilst out working, so if I spot something of interest I can pull up and grab a few shots, if near a nature reserve at lunchtime I spend an hour in a bird hide, camera in one hand and pie in the other, or when I get home I can spend an hour in the garden photographing birds or insects.
I soon started to build up quite a large portfolio of digital images and you’re then faced with the problem of what to do with them all? I shared many with my peers on the photography forum, and would also bombard my wife with photos from every conceivable angle of my latest sightings whilst she’d try to look interested. To be fair, she’s been very supportive and does like to see photos of, say, a Kingfisher or an Owl, but isn’t quite so bothered if I try to show her a weevil or a snail – strange girl!
I then came up with the idea of a website that, in the main, features the wildlife that can be seen here on the Fylde coast and where you can go to see it. It was then that http://www.fyldecoastwildlife.co.uk/ was born. The website gives me somewhere to store all of my photographs and I hope it also serves as a useful reference source to anyone searching the internet for information about wildlife in the area.
The venues featured include StanleyPark– for such a busy park it’s amazing just how much wildlife can be seen there. We’re so lucky here in Blackpool to have the heronry on one of the lakes islands. The Grey Herons can be seen at their nests usually from February onwards and their young, complete with punk hairstyles, will start popping their heads out of the nests by spring, making a real racket as the adult birds fly in with food or nesting material – they’re fantastic to watch.
Stanley Park is also great for getting Treecreeper, Nuthatch & Great Spotted Woodpecker sightings – put some crushed peanuts out and you can often attract the latter two down to feed on them – as long as the pigeons don’t get there first. My favourite annual sighting at the park is the mating rituals of the Great Crested Grebes, I never tire of seeing them go chest to chest whilst flicking their heads from side to side, and as I watch & photograph them I see many park visitors walking by oblivious to this wonderful spectacle going on right under their nose – in fact I used to be one of those blinkered passers by.
A real jewel in the Fyldes crown is Marton Mere nature reserve, a real oasis for wildlife on the edge of town. In winter the reserve plays host to hundreds of ducks, such as Teal, Gadwall, Wigeon and many more. The teal numbers alone can reach a thousand and just listening to their whistling call, or seeing them all take flight as a raptor flies overhead spooking them is a real thrill. The secretive and very elusive Bittern is also a winter visitor to the Mere, hiding away in the reedbeds and only giving observers an occasional glimpse as it flies from one hideaway to another, or occasionally in winter one will step out onto the frozen mere giving slightly longer views. Long-eared owls also regularly roost by day at the reserve over the winter months. In spring the warblers arrive & treat us to their wonderful chattering songs from atop the reeds.
Of course another excellent wildlife resource is the Fyldes coastline. The Ribble & Wyre estuaries and surrounding coastline is massively important for supporting huge numbers of wading birds such as Oystercatchers, Dunlin & Sanderling. A good place to get close views is Fleetwood, find a likely spot an hour or so before high tide & wait for the incoming tide to push the waders closer and closer to you.
The Fyldes farmland is also excellent for wildlife. Over the winter months you can expect to see Short-eared owls, Barn owls, thousands of Pink-footed Geese and beautiful Whooper Swans.
The more I discover about wildlife the more I feel I want to learn. My passion for getting out to discover and photograph wildlife is now greater than when I started pursuing the hobby eight years ago, in fact it’s the first hobby that’s captivated me for so long and I can’t envisage my interest waning.
My granddaughter now has that old ID guide of mine, along with a few others I’ve handed on and she loves coming on field trips with me. There can’t be many eight year olds in Blackpool who have seen Adders (not locally – 30 miles away), held Slow worms and Newts, stroked the back of Silver Y moths feeding in our garden at night and fed rescued Pipistrelle bats with milk from a paintbrush – and I hope she continues to share my love for wildlife. My own wildlife reference library has grown from that one book to probably 30+. I do still miss those picnics from my fishing days though.
For anyone wondering what to do with their days off, rather than trail round the shops – get out and take in the wildlife here on the Fylde coast, it can be breathtaking!
A large flock of Starlings gathering before roosting at Marton Mere nature reserve
Cliff’s selection of his favourite photos.
You can see many more on his website at
www.fyldecoastwildlife.co.uk
A White letter Hairstreak Butterfly, not much bigger than your thumbnail, this is one of a small colony at the urban park at Devonshire Road Rock Gardens.
A Cormorant juggling with an eel at Marton Mere nature reserve
A pair of Great crested Grebes performing their courtship display at Stanley Park, Blackpool
A Dragonfly emerging from its exuvia at Marton Mere, Blackpool
A Barn Owl in flight, photographed on farmland near Pilling
Other posts you might be interested in:
- A Day in the life of Homer
- Andy and seafaring sayings
- Bobby Ball – in memory
- Cliff and his Fylde Coast wildlife
- John Barnett – High Sherriff of Lancashire
- Michelle Harris and Brian Hughes – Local History Authors
- Peter’s Make Music Live – Busk 2018
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