Still fairly wild

The wind was swinging into the west and dropping slightly at lunchtime at Ainsdale today, before picking up again this afternoon.
Despite this, the beach was covered by water a full hour before high tide (and another surge of approximately one metre is expected tomorrow) and I spent much of my time asking walkers and dog owners to keep a reasonable distance away from the wader roost, which was already flighty as hell in the high winds.

Didn’t get the opportunity to check for rings or flags as the Sanderling, Dunlin, Knot, Grey Plover and Barwits were being blasted about in the gale, but I tried a bit of wibbly wobbly video anyway.
You can see that on YouTube here.
After a time I headed up onto the dunes for a seawatch, which was predictably more about getting sandblasted than seeing anything.
Seasick Common Scoter, a single Red-Throated Diver and a few Cormorants was the best I got, although 40+ Pintail were flying south in small groups – odd here, but not unexpected as the tide was presumably covering much of the Ribble to the north of me..