Scarborough

Scarborough Harbour from South Cliff

It was scheduled to be another nice, if cold, Autumn day and I had a mind to have a bit of an excursion. The East coast is in the midst of a mad Autumn passage bonanza so I headed thataway to try my luck with the Hume's warbler at Scarborough.

The train journey to Scarborough went without a hitch. We rolled past landscapes dazzled by a clear November modelling light and I finally twigged that the reason why there's not a lot of birdlife to be seen on the stretch between Marsden and Huddersfield is that there's not a lot of trackside railway furniture for it to be sitting on. Past Leeds the fields suddenly got busy with birds: carrion crows hung around in pairs, rooks and jackdaws were in their dozens, woodpigeons tended to keep to the corners. I should be used to red kites in Yorkshire now but was still surprised to see one hanging in midair over a train maintenance depot. Every so often a kestrel would fly past, buzzards lumbered out of trackside trees and just before the train passed Strenshall a raven — a lot of beak with an excess of crow behind it — cronked defiance at the train before flying off in disgust.

Usually when I visit Scarborough I go straight for the harbour, have a nosy at the North Bay then call it quits. Today I'd be visiting the South Cliff where the Hume's warbler had been seen in the municipal gardens. It was a nice walk down and one I should have done years ago.

South Cliff

Heading into the trees 

I passed the Italian garden and followed a path into the trees that appeared to be part of a braided network of paths that lead down the cliff side. A chiffchaff squeaked from a bush by the roadside, which bode well. The Hume's warbler had been reported as being near the top where stands of sycamores, holly and willow sit in a sheltered hollow. In fact, exactly the sort of place you'd want to pitch up if you were a small passerine that's just crossed the North Sea. It was certainly busy enough: wrens, robins, dunnocks and blackbirds fossicked about in the undergrowth with a lot of grey squirrels while blue tits and great tits bounced about in the tree canopy. Most of the movements catching my eye were leaves detaching themselves from twigs.

Looking for a warbler 

Then I heard an unfamiliar call. When I was reading up on the ID features of Hume's warbler last night I thought I'd best listen to a few recordings of the call, too, as I generally hear warblers calling before I see them. It's a good job I did. This was a two-note squeaky call structurally similar to a yellow-browed warbler's squeaky wheelbarrow call but louder and cleaner, with an almost finch-like quality about it. I tried to find the bird, the call was coming from some sycamores at the bend of the path. I was so intent on finding the bird it didn't occur to me to try and record the call until it had shut up. A coal tit-sized bird with a superficially plain head, no titmouse at any rate, bounced into one of the sycamores and I lost it as a flurry of falling leaves caught the breeze. A couple of minutes later I heard the call further along the path but when I got there there was neither sight nor sound.

I gave it an hour before giving up. A large mixed tit flock including a couple of dozen long-tailed tits gave me hope but no Hume's warbler.

The Italian garden in the rain

I walked back up to the road to find a cold North wind had picked up and was bringing a band of rain with it. It was only ten minutes' worth but enough to persuade me that I really needed a cup of tea so I walked back to the station.

The golden hour was spent watching red kites drifting over the North Yorkshire landscape while roe deer browsed in the fields.

I got the bus home from Manchester.

Fylde

Pink-footed geese, Skipool Creek

It was going to be another nice day, I decided I'd catch up with a few more places and have an afternoon at the seaside. I got me an old man's explorer ticket and set off for Poulton-le-Fylde for a walk up to Skipool Creek.

Skipool Creek 

It was late morning, the tide was high and the creek was lapping its banks. A dozen drake mallards dabbled on the water by Wyre Road. Over on the river black-headed gulls bathed and squabbled, little egrets stalked the waterside and redshanks called from the rank grass on the banks. A couple of pairs of wigeons flew in and settled on the water. Herring gulls and a couple of lesser black-backs loafed on the far bank. Overhead, waves of pink-footed geese flew inland.

River Wyre

I decided I'd get the 75 bus to Fleetwood to see if the juvenile great northern diver was still on the marine lake. So instead of taking the short footpath going straight to Skipool Road and emerging by the bus stop with ten minutes to spare I took the wrong one, found myself in Little Thornton and only just managed the catch the bus. I wondered why the sheep were looking at me funny.

I just missed the ferry to Knott End

Arriving in Fleetwood I got off the bus on Dock Street and walked round to the Esplanade. A couple of loud toots told me I'd missed the Knott End ferry. It hadn't occurred to me up to then that I could have got it, had a look for the Siberian chiffchaff that had been reported over there earlier then got the ferry back for a look at the diver. Ah well. There's only so much you can fit into a November afternoon, I probably saved myself a stressful time missing both.

The birdlife on the Knott End side of the river was busier than the Fleetwood side. Little egrets, black-headed gulls and redshanks fussed about the waterside and one of the few mudbanks emerging from the water was packed with herring gulls and a handful of oystercatchers. On this side a few herring gulls and a lot of black-headed gulls wheeled about the lifeboat station and more herring gulls paddled on the ferry beach while a couple of pied wagtails beachcombed.

The Heysham ferry, off to exotic parts

The walk along the esplanade was delightful but not especially productive of birdlife that wasn't pigeons, herring gulls, carrion crows or black-headed gulls. I kept an ear out for meadow pipits or linnets and found half a dozen goldfinches in a bush.

Great northern diver

I got to the marine lake, sat down and had a look round. The low November modelling light that made for splendid views of Morecambe Bay was fighting me now. Silhouettes of mallards, Canada geese and mute swans jostled in one corner where a lady had a bag of bird food. A couple of cormorants and a redhead red-breasted merganser were fishing nearby. Something chunkier was fishing under the bridge. The second time it bobbed up I confirmed it was the great northern diver. It was doing a lot of quick, shallow diving, not staying up or down for very long. A chap I was talking to later told me that there were a lot of crabs in the lake and during the Summer holidays kids find it difficult not to catch one just by dangling a length of string from a stick. I expect that's what the diver was feasting on.

The diver was drifting closer and the sunlight was making it harder to see. I wandered over to the bridge where the views were better but distant. For a while it mingled with the cormorants, which had the same fishing strategy, and it was a job working out which it was that had just surfaced before it was back underwater.

The marine lake 

I looked at the time. I'd had two very nice walks, the birdwatching was low key but rewarding and there wasn't a lot of daylight left. I had one last look at the lake, found half a dozen dabchicks and another merganser then got the 74 back to Poulton and the trains home.

What can I say about the state of Manchester Oxford Road save that I got home more than an hour late and that if the departure boards had any semblance to reality I'd have got home quicker on the bus. I'd had a better day than the train crew who had been kicking their heels for hours waiting to see if any of the trains they'd been assigned were actually running.

Reservoir Tuesday

Dunnock, Hollingworth Lake

It's odd how even after all these years I still get that wave of depression on getting the Rochdale train at Victoria. Some baggage stays with you, my own fault as I stayed twenty-five years too long. The fug lifted as the train left Rochdale, I was getting off at Smithybridge for a walk round Hollingworth Lake.

Hollingworth Lake 

It was a splendid November morning and the lake was being ridiculously picturesque. Black-headed gulls squawked around the beach. I always think the beach should be the haunt of wagtails and perhaps also meadow pipits and I'm always disappointed to just find carrion crows and black-headed gulls. Until today: a couple of male pied wagtails were fidgeting about the waterline.

By the Southern shore

A flock of jackdaws was being very noisy in the fields to the South of the lake. I had a short wander along the path that heads towards Deep Lane and the caravan park, the hedgerows and the small plantation by the path were busy with great tits, robins and blue tits. 

Walking down the lane

Goldfinches

Walking back to the lake I made sure that the flock of goldfinches and chaffinches were goldfinches and chaffinches. The mutterings in the holly trees by the ice cream shop were redwings and blackbirds feeding on the berries.

Teal

About a hundred each of lapwings and black-headed gulls loafed on the shore by the hide in the company of about a dozen herring gulls, handfuls of lesser black-backs, cormorants and common gulls and a lot of very busy moorhens. A couple of great crested grebes fished out in the water. There was just the one duck mallard with the dozen or so teal on the pool by the hide and a heron lurked in a far corner.

Lapwings, herring gulls, black-headed gulls and lesser black-back

I had a wait to leave the hide. A blackbird, a dunnock, a great tit and a grey squirrel were busy having a rummage about on the path and weren't for giving me a bit of room to pass.

Blackbird

I'd only seen one Canada goose on the lake so far. Another was grazing on a field by Rakewood Road. I've noticed a lack of Canada geese in their usual haunts the past couple of weeks, I've no idea where they've got to.

Hollingworth Lake Visitor Centre 

I got the 458 from Hollingworth Lake to Wardle Village Church and walked up Ramsdales Road to Watergrove Reservoir.

Watergrove Reservoir 

The water on the reservoir was very low. Black-headed gulls and herring gulls bathed on the not so very far shore. A scan round for ducks found half a dozen teals looking remarkably like the muddy stones they were dabbling round.

Grey wagtail

I half-expected to find a grey wagtail at the outflow of the reservoir and found two and a pied wagtail.

Grey wagtail

The waterway

I wandered round, tempted for all of two minutes to walk over Slack Lane into Whitworth then common sense prevailed. I walked down by the waterway and headed into Wardle. I'd missed the bus by two minutes. Luckily they're every half hour but this time of year there's not a lot of afternoon daylight left to play with. I put the plan to visit a third reservoir on ice, much to the relief of my knees and wind. For all their complaints I'm getting some of my stamina back after that damned cold. There are worse things in this life than having two very pleasant Autumn walks.

Amberswood

Amberswood 

I thought I'd start the week gently with a look at the local patch then play bus station bingo 

It was a proper November day. Woodpigeons and magpies rummaged in the leaves by the park gate. Every other big tree had a male blackbird in it. Looking over the big field I could see that the usual pair of mistle thrushes were back. And there was another with them. And also half a dozen redwings, a flock of finches and at least one fieldfare. I headed over to that side of the park to try and identify all the runners and riders but a bloke took his dog for a walk through the flock and it dispersed.

I didn't pick up any of the thrushes as I walked up the lane from Old Hall Road. There were plenty of goldfinches and a chaffinch high in the poplars so they might have been the flock of finches. A mixed tit flock was a lot of long-tailed tits with some blue tits. A pair of great tits muttered in the elderberry bushes on the corner of the United Utilities land.

Barton Clough

A walk along the old freight line was picturesque but not especially productive. The blackbirds have already stripped all the berries from the Pyracantha bushes.

I got the 250 to the Trafford Centre and played bus station bingo. The next bus was the 132 so I went for a stroll round Amberswood.

Amberswood 

The walk into Amberswood was quiet-busy again. A mixed tit flock bounced between hedgerows, a couple of goldcrests in a willow tree seemed to be independent agents. Woodpigeons and magpies quietly barged about in the treetops, jackdaws and black-headed gulls made a racket as they passed overhead. A passing sparrowhawk was ignored by the coal tits I was watching in a gorse bush.

Amberswood Lake 

It was eerie quiet on Amberswood Lake despite the fidgeting flocks of goldfinches and chaffinches and the mixed tit flock fussing about the feeders at the corner. A Cetti's warbler has a bit of a sing but it didn't sound like its heart was in it. Black-headed gulls bathed; a family of mute swans, the cygnets more white than beige, cruised about and a dozen mallards lurked in the corner at the Liverpool Road end. Although there were plenty of moorhens fossicking about in the reeds I didn't see or hear any coots. The great crested grebes were also notably absent.

Low Hall 

I wandered over to Low Hall where the pond was busy with teals and mallards and a pair of mute swans were demanding bird food with menaces. As I didn't have any on me I got a good hissing-at from the cob, which was only just short of standing on my boots. Pleasantries thus exchanged, I moved on. Looking over from the hide I noticed a pair of gadwalls drift out from the reeds and a water rail squealed from the depths.

Mute swans 

I checked the bus times and decided that this time on a November afternoon I'd be best off walking back to Manchester Road and getting the 132 back to the Trafford Centre. I don't enjoy the walk up Liverpool Road so I crossed over and had another walk through Amberswood.

Amberswood 

The titmice and chaffinches were going to bed, the very occasional contact calls coming from the depths of bushes. Carrion crows and magpies were very busy on twilight patrol. The path I'd taken looped back to the lake where a Cetti's warbler and a water rail were making up for quieter times in the reedbeds earlier. And a coot chugged across the lake. Robins and wrens marked my passing as I had a brisk walk through to Manchester Road. A couple of cock pheasants were having a punch-up in the field across the way, the horses could scarcely contain their indifference.

The light finally faded in the couple of minutes I had to wait for the bus. It had been one of those low-key November walks but the weather was good and there was plenty about quietly going about its business.

Longendale

Grey wagtail

Though the cough is decidedly better I'm still not 100% and was exhausted by yesterday's modest efforts. I thought I'd best have a gentle toddle today so I got the train to Hadfield for a walk along a stretch of the Longendale Trail. A group of Russian white-fronted geese had been reported on the fields above Bottoms Reservoir so I had a definite something to look out for.

Going under Padfield Main Road 

It was a grey and misty sort of a day,  the sort of a day where you keep wiping your camera lenses convinced they must be dirty. I was only properly convinced when I got out into the open and saw how blue the hills above Tintwistle were.

The hedgerows at the start of the trail were very busy with blackbirds and robins. Dunnocks, wrens and a song thrush fossicked about in the undergrowth and a grey wagtail rummaged about the drain by the side of the path.

The first of the mixed tit flocks fussed about the elders and hawthorns by the main road bridge. They were joined by chaffinches and goldfinches as the landscape opened out.

The fields above Bottoms Reservoir were busy with jackdaws and rooks. A flock of black-headed gulls was bathing in the reservoir. About a dozen Canada geese grazed by a dry stone wall. The white-fronted geese were loafing under a tree at the end of one of the fields. Even in this light the pink beaks identifying them as Russian birds were obvious.

Russian white-fronted geese

Russian white-fronted geese

I toddled along as far as the seat that overlooks the dam between Bottoms and Valehouse reservoirs, accompanied by robins and goldfinches and a family of long-tailed tits. A couple of rabbits scampered past the rooks and molehills in the field. It was all a bit quiet, but okay quiet. It'll get a lot quieter with Winter.

Longendale Trail 

I checked the trains. If I put a bit of effort in I could catch the next train back to Manchester. I decided not to. I'd enjoy the scenery and the birdlife on the walk back instead. It was typical November birdwatching, grey and damp with intimations of Winter to come, and the white-fronted geese were a nice addition to my Derbyshire list.

Merseyside bumper bundle

Snow bunting, Southport

I completely missed any snow buntings at the beginning of the year so the arrival of one back on the beach at Southport decided me on where I was going today. I woke up too late to not miss the train into Oxford Road that allows the connection for the Southport train so I got the train to Liverpool South Parkway with a view to heading up the Sefton coast.

The Northern Line between Hunts Cross and Moorfields was closed for maintenance works so I was on the rail replacement bus from Liverpool South Parkway. I was tempted to skip off for another look at the great-tailed grackle instead but that can be for another day. It was interesting to see bits of Dingle and Brunswick I just didn't know and I was reminded it's been an age since I've had a nosy at the Albert Dock.

Crosby Marine Lake 

I got the train at Moorfields and on a whim I got off at Waterloo. The records had it that the snow bunting was more than usually skittish and was splitting its time between the beach and the field across the road. I thought I'd best get some birds in the bag to keep morale up, just in case.

Little egret 

It was a grey, heavy day and the light could have been better. Black-headed gulls crowded the play area though only a couple were feeding on the ground. A couple of common gulls loafed at the lakeside and a little egret was shrimping from the rocks. Out on the lake a couple of cormorants were fishing. The small birds on the water by the dunes turned out to be a raft of a dozen dabchicks, most, if not all, first-Winters. A bit further along a male Goldeneye bobbed up from a dive.

Black-headed gulls 

Common gull

As usual, the near end of the boating pond was thick with herring gulls and coots. There was a complete absence of Canada geese. Pigeons and starlings rummaged about on the bankside. A drake tufted duck was being shadowed closely by a couple of herring gulls intent on pinching anything it brought up. In the end it dived and came up a few yards away then chugged away to join the others at the other end.

Scaup

A handful of pochards kept the tufties company. A First-Winter drake scaup kept to itself.

Pochards

For all these intimations of Winter a Cetti's warbler was singing lustily from the stand of sea buckthorn at the corner.

The tide was out, the beach peppered with carrion crows and herring gulls. Lesser black-backs and a great black-back loafed at the tideline. A few oystercatchers and a couple of turnstones sat on one of the breakwaters, I don't often see turnstones here. Most, if not all, of the waders dotted about the puddles were redshanks. I wasn't sure about some waders at the tideline which looked smaller, and was none of wiser when they flew off away from a galloping dog.

Linnets

Pied wagtail s and a flock of linnets were working the top of the beach. I checked all the linnets, just in case.

Seaforth Nature Reserve 

The walk along the fence by Seaforth Nature Reserve was fruitful. Blackbirds and linnets rummaged about in the buckthorns at the corner. Redshanks, shelducks and a handful of black-tailed godwits fed on the large pool, a couple of dozen cormorants loafed on the bank and a couple of dunlins flew in. Most of the noise was provided by herring gulls, lesser black-backs and, especially, black-headed gulls. I could hear Canada geese but it took me a while to find any of them. Carrion crows and magpies rummaged about on the grass or socialised in trees or on the fence tops, calling me names as I passed by their bit of the fence.

Magpies

A grey phalarope had been reported on the reserve half an hour earlier. The reported location was probably the least visible from the fence, I wasn't unduly crushed to not be able to find anything that might have been it. 

A small mixed tit flock bounced through the little nature reserve by the sailing club and a small flock of goldfinches worked the tops of the alders.

I felt very tired after only a couple of miles' walking and was glad of the rest afforded by the train ride up to Southport. Duly refreshed, I walked over to the marine lake and thence to the beach.

Great crested grebe
I don't know what the black blob was but the herring gulls were very keen on trying to snatch it.

The marine lake was busy with herring gulls, mute swans and pigeons. A few coots and mallards pottered about. A great crested grebe was doing well fishing by the bankside until the herring gulls noticed how well it was doing and chased it off trying to steal its catch.

Herring gull 

Coot

A few black-headed gulls and a couple of rabbits fed on the field on Princes Park.

It was very grey on the beach South of the pier, the mud and puddles echoing a heavy sky. The mud was being worked by dozens of redshanks and black-headed gulls and a few pied wagtails flitted about. Starlings bubbled and squeaked from the lamp standards along Marine Drive.

Black-headed gull and redshanks

I walked along, keeping an eye out for the snow bunting, then noticed a knot of people with binoculars about a hundred yards ahead. I made a note of where they were looking and walked towards them. I was particularly watching to see the bunting take flight as a couple were walking their dog that way along the bottom of the seawall. The dog was very well-behaved and on a lead but it's my experience that snow buntings don't care about people but don't like dogs. They passed by, the knot of birdwatchers settled back to talk amongst themselves and compare photos but I hadn't seen anything fly off.

Southport Pier 

One chap was further along and was taking photographs of something. I passed the others and scanned the seawall below the photographer. The snow bunting was halfway up the wall vigorously rummaging about a line of dried vegetation. Unlikely as it looked, it was evidently finding something to eat in there.

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

Snow bunting

I walked up under the pier and had a sit down to scan the salt marsh. Maintenance works are going on at the pier, half the props were draped in scaffolding. The redshanks took no notice South of the pier but kept their distance North of the pier, presumably because the equipment would have been driven in from this end by blokes in hi-viz gear.

The tide was still out. I could identify distant shelducks but the waders would have been guesswork. I'd looked in vain for pink-footed geese in the fields on the way up, the only pink-feet of the day was a skein of about twenty flying over the water. A pied wagtail bobbed over to keep me company.

Pied wagtail 

Pied wagtail 

I headed back for the station. As I crossed the Marine Way Bridge I had a scan across the marine lake. Plenty of mute swans and gulls. A big raft of coots, a couple of dozen dabchicks, a few mallards. Greylags and Canada geese are usually very conspicuous on here, not today.

It was an uneventful journey back to Manchester right to the end where, having given up on trying to make the one-minute connection with the train home at Deansgate I had all the time in the world for it as it was being held at Oxford Road waiting for the express train.