Seismic activity at HOM & lots of Linnets

I visited Hesketh Out Marsh for a couple of hours late morning. I was surprised to find some kind of drilling rig in the field right next to the car park entrance. The chaps manning the rig weren't the friendly, chatty types but assured me that the rig was for installing seismic measuring equipment. Presumably to measure the earthquakes the fracking will cause.Don't panic, it might be nothing to do with fracking......

Plenty of birds on show; an adult and a juvenile Avocet pranced around the Scaup pool, where they had eight Greenshanks and six Dunlins for company. Three Little Egrets and eight Grey Herons were too busy sleeping off a hard mornings fishing to worry about earthquakes. Six Kestrels and a Buzzard hunted the outer bank. A single Arctic Tern hung around for most of my visit and I flushed a pair of Grey Partridges on the seawall. Flocks of Linnets were busily feeding on grass seeds and getting flushed by Kestrels; I counted 65 on the reserve and 120 on the NNR at Hundred End. Lots of Small Tortoiseshells nectaring on thistles towards Hundred End - I reckon maybe 60.

The seismic measurement equipment might not have anything to do with fracking.

Dodgyscoped record shot of an Arctic Tern at HOM this morning