By Royal Disappointment

 Never mind Lancashire hotpot it was more a case of Lancashire notspot when my brother David and I made an ill starred attempt to see the wintering Belted Kingfisher at Roach Bridge near Preston. To add insult to injury it was as drippy as it was dippy as the northwest lived up to its reputation by delivering a day of rain and wall to wall grey.

Greenland White-fronted Goose

Having managed to park at the second attempt we were met by the news that the star turn had not performed so far. Undaunted we continued up a trail where the glutinous mud had the colour and consistency of something that might have dropped out off a sick animal's arse! We reached the recommended viewing spot and took up station for our unsuccessful vigil enduring a very quiet wait. Conceding defeat we headed back towards the road from where we continued our search. Two ordinary but still attractive Kingfishers brightened up the gloomy surroundings as they sped past but we still couldn't find their more exotic cousin. In the end we gave up and moved on to nearby Brockholes nature reserve which has hosted the Belted on several occasions.

Russian White-fronts (with friends)

Brockholes supplied us with expensive food but no kingfisher, the only things of note were a Green Sandpiper, several Snipe and a flock of Dunlin. A check of RBA revealed that a flock of White-fronted Geese were within about ten miles of us so in a desperate attempt to retrieve something from the day we headed in their direction. The geese turned out to be far more obliging than some birds I could mention and we got some half decent views. True to the reports we saw eighteen Russian and one immature Greenland White-front grazing in a field with a selection of Canadas, Greylags and even a Swan Goose! It wasn't easy to pick out the bird as the bill colours of all looked rather similar but we did find it eventually, it was only the third time that I've seen this subspecies. With rain continuing to put a dampener on proceedings we abandoned plans to head to Martin Mere and cam home instead.