Wirral

Cormorant, New Brighton
(A carbo bird)

Yesterday was cold and windy and I really didn't feel like battling against it so I had a writing day. Which finished just after 3am when I noticed the time. Today was cool rather than cold, probably because the wind had lessened considerably, so I headed over to the Wirral to see what was about. I've seen very few reports of purple sandpipers at New Brighton this Winter but you never know your luck so I'd go there first. Once I'd finished there I could the go over to West Kirby to see what was on the marine lake.

Turnstone, West Kirby

At Liverpool I just missed the New Brighton train so I headed over to West Kirby first. It was a very high tide, high enough for kayakers to ride over the seawall to the lake with plenty of clearance. Turnstones fussed about the car park end of the lake unheeding of people and not particularly fussed about dogs. Herring gulls and black-headed gulls bobbed about on the water, rather more herring gulls sat on the rooftops in town.

Red-breasted mergansers

Scaup

Walking down the promenade I soon started picking up red-breasted mergansers, half a dozen of them in total. Most were cruising about the seawall end but one pair steamed across the lake shadowing a group of goldeneyes. A drake scaup lead the way for a while until he dived and re-emerged where the goldeneyes had been half a minute ago.

Little Eye, Middle Eye and Hilbre from the marine lake

I carried on walking to the end of the lake, just in case anything else had drifted in, because I was feeling greedy. Nothing had but there were half a dozen common scoters out in the middle of the river. A couple of small flocks of knots and a few redshanks flew downstream to roost on Hilbre. Walking back I could see that Little Eye was covered with cormorants and a pair of great black-backs.

Dunlins and redshank

Redshanks and dunlins

I'd had my lunchtime walk so I headed over to New Brighton where the tide was on the point of turning and the redshanks were leaving the pontoon roost to chase the retreating tide. A few turnstones stayed behind and scuttled about amongst the black-headed gulls and herring gulls, a handful of dunlins caught up with their sleep. There was no sign of any purple sandpipers. A flock of starlings bustled about the promenade and pied wagtails skittered about the car park.

New Brighton 

The emerging beach was dotted with black-headed gulls and redshanks. The sea defences to the lighthouse were littered with oystercatchers and cormorants. I walked down past Fort Perch to the river. The sea defences there were crowded with cormorants. All the dumpy waders scuttling about were turnstones. Upstream three sanderlings and a dunlin played tig with the tide.

Cormorants
(The adult on the left is a sinensis bird.)

Great black-back, cormorants and herring gulls

On the way back I noticed that the herring gulls were joining the black-headed gulls on the beach. I'd noticed a very noisy first-Winter bird begging from its parent on the cinema roof when I arrived. They'd moved down to the tideline and it was still nothing doing as far as a free meal was concerned.

Herring gulls
A first-Winter begging from a parent.

Herring gulls
A pair, female on the left. They'd been doing heads-raised courtship displays just before this picture was taken. I waited for them to resume the display but they'd other plans.

It was still early afternoon, I felt I should be able to fit another site into the day's itinerary but I hit a wall of weariness. Thinking that quarter of an hour's sit down might get me a second wind I got the 411 bus to Hamilton Square Station. It didn't work, I called it a day. I went back home via Wrexham. Like you do.

Mersey Valley

Great tit, Chorlton Ees

It was a bright, sunny day so I thought I'd have a walk through the Mersey Valley from Turn Moss to Princess Road. I've only skimmed through Chorlton Ees so far this year and haven't walked the stretch of the river from Jackson's Boat to Chorlton Water Park. It's about time I did.

Ivy Green 

Hazy clouds had drifted in by the time i got to Turn Moss. Walking down Hawthorn Lane the ring-necked parakeets, carrion crows and magpies were competing to see which could make the most noise in the treetops, drowning out the robins and titmice in the wayside. The damp nights have taken their toll of the paths across Ivy Green. As I slid and squelched my way across the mud there was a definite "My God, not this again!" vibe from the old knees. The green itself had been strimmed to an inch of its life and was for all intents and purposes a desert, even the magpies and crows couldn't be bothered with it.

Chorlton Ees 

Blackthorn 

I crossed the brook into Chorlton Ees where the footpaths were better, if still muddy, and the bird life less subdued. The parakeets were very vocal but couldn't drown out the great tits and robins. Blackbirds and song thrushes bustled about in the dead hedges, titmice bounced through the hawthorns and jays were uncharacteristically quiet as they scuttled about the treetops. A heron flew low over the hay meadow but didn't stop. 

Blackbird

The Mersey was running fast and high past Jackson's Boat. Pairs of mallards loafed on the banks, complaining loudly as they took to the water every so often to avoid dogs intent on getting themselves soaking wet. A line of black-headed gulls drifted down the middle of the river snatching at emerging midges. As each drifted too far for the snacking it flew upstream and joined the end of the line.

Black-headed gulls

The trees and bushes on the Lancashire side of the river were quietly busy with magpies, jays, bullfinches and goldcrests. The goldcrests were very confiding but made sure there was a twig in front of their faces every time the camera got them in focus. 

Jackson's Boat 

Things changed beyond Jackson's Boat. There were far fewer people and dogs and, at first, fewer birds in the hedgerows. The gangs of Canada geese and mallards on the riverbanks made up the numbers.

Long-tailed tit

I was checking the larches on the edge of the golf club for finches, in vain as it happens as it looked like all the cones had been worked out. As I was looking up a troupe of long-tailed tits came giddying across the hedgerow with a few blue tits in tow. Even by long-tailed tit standards the action was frenetic, the lean times seem to have come early this year with everything being out of synch and this cold snap after a mild start to the month can't be helping. Further along as the river ran beside Barlow Tip wrens, robins and bullfinches sang in the trees and another troupe of long-tailed tits passed by.

Cormorant

A couple of cormorants dried their wings on the far riverbank in the company of a few mallards and a redhead goosander floated downstream. The water was too high for the grey wagtails to be in any of their usual haunts, if they were about they were more likely to be fossicking about under bridges than up on the banks. Bailey Bridge, which connected Chorlton Water Park and Kenworthy Woods, had been condemned as unsafe and has now been removed completely. Fingers crossed for its replacement coming soon.

Barlow Tip 

The metalled path into Barlow Tip was very wet indeed, the surrounding ground was even wetter so I didn't wander from it. There were plenty of blackbirds, magpies and dunnocks about. Robins, carrion crows and song thrushes sang and bullfinches wheezed from the trees, a mixed tit flock bounced through the undergrowth and another heron flew overhead. I couldn't work out whether the squeaking from a gorse bush on the rise was a great tit or a chiffchaff, it went quiet almost as soon as I heard it and I wasn't for walking up the cascade of muddy water to try and get a visual on it. Every so often even I can recognise a fool's errand. 

The tufted ducks were easier to see here than at Lymm

Chorlton Water Park was busy with people, birds and dogs and roughly in that order. Rafts of tufted ducks, mallards and black-headed gulls drifted about the island at the Barlow Tip end. It took me a while to find the great crested grebes, they were cruising about just off the island. 

Chorlton Water Park 

There was a much bigger raft of black-headed gulls, inevitably, off the landing stage by the ice cream van with a lot of mallards, coots and pigeons. The Canada geese were very vocal but there were only a handful of them and there were only a few mute swans about. Half a dozen goosanders drifting midwater here included a very salmon-pink drake which evidently knew where all the best shrimps were. Cormorants sat on the island at this end drying their wings and the trees were full of gulls. There were a few common gulls about and they spent most of their time chasing black-headed gulls to try to pinch whatever they'd found to eat.

Black-headed gulls and common gull

I rejoined the river and walked down to Princess Road. Parakeets, magpies and carrion crows called from the woods. Titmice and goldfinches fidgeted through the hedgerows on this side of the river. A coal tit sang from one of the gardens and house sparrows fussed about by the children's playground. I walked down, joined the road and got the 87 into Greenheys and got the 15 back home. I need to remind myself to do that walk more often, it's just the right length for getting the knees working properly and it's very productive for birdwatching, even on a half-term holiday afternoon.

Looking over the river to Kenworthy Woods 

Lymm

Tufted ducks, Manchester Ship Canal

It was one of those early mornings overcrowded with filthy weather that invite you to pull the bedclothes over your head and pretend it hadn't happened. 

By mid-morning the weather started settling down and it began to look like the plans for the day might be feasible after all. There had been reports over the weekend of a female lesser scaup amongst the tufted ducks on the Manchester Ship Canal at Lymm. I've seen a handful of lesser scaups and only ever seen females in the company of drakes. I wondered if my ID skills were up to it. I checked the weather forecast. Sunshine and showers over lunchtime, it said. So off I went.

Common gull, Humphrey Park

Sunshine and showers it was. The wind was brisk and in the fifteen minutes it took to walk to the bus stop on Stretford Road there were three intervals of brilliant sunshine and three heavy showers. It was ideal worm-charming weather for the gulls. I got the 255 to Partington and from there I got the 5A into Lymm. Along the way the rain stopped, replaced by varying degrees of bright and gloomy as the clouds sped by overhead.

The last report of the lesser scaup had it near the inlet North of Statham Pool. Looking at the map there was a path that ended at the canal close by. I got off the bus at Barsbank Lane and walked up, under the Bridgewater Canal where it becomes Star Lane, past the abandoned Altrincham to Warrington line which is this stretch of the Transpennine Trail, across the road and it becomes Pool Road, dead straight all the way and not very far at all yet umpteen names.

Statham Pool 

I had a quick nosy at Statham Pool. A pair of mallards dozed on the banks. Great tits, chaffinches and goldfinches fussed about in the bushes and a nuthatch called from one of the trees. I walked down what was now Statham Lane and watched a pair of great spotted woodpeckers courting in the treetops.

Statham Lane

The road became two diverging paths and I took the one to my right. To be fair, the sign did say: "Restricted footpath," it was proper February walking. Luckily, feet had passed that way before so I meandered across the thick, sticky mud and deep puddles treading in their footprints wherever possible. I was relieved when the path veered away from a farm gate and became a thin avenue of wet grass. And all of a sudden I was at a dead end.

Manchester Ship Canal 

The Ship Canal was visible beyond a thick curtain of tall reeds. It had become a bright, sunny lunchtime but the visibility wasn't great through the reeds without using my binoculars to blur out the foreground. When I did, there was a small raft of tufted ducks and they were all tufted ducks. There was another, slightly larger, raft just downstream. A couple of great crested grebes, an adult and a first-Winter, cruised by. I returned to the nearby raft of tufties, there were more this time. And something else. A first-Winter drake pochard. There were five of them, with an adult drake, they drifted into view and then were hidden by reeds again. There was a big raft of about fifty tufties upstream. It slowly dawned on me that there were upwards of a hundred tufted ducks on this stretch but at no time was I seeing them all at once.

After about fifteen minutes I saw the lesser scaup. She was with a small raft of tufties — more ducks than drakes — that had drifted out into view from the near bank and was slowly drifting downstream. I nearly missed her, not just because she spent so much time underwater. About half the female tufties had white blazes on their faces. The lesser scaup didn't look to have much white on her face at all so she blended into the crowd until she bobbed up in front of a drake tuftie and I got a better look at her. She didn't have the boxy shape of a tufted duck and her head was appreciably darker than the rest of her body, as though she was wearing a hood. I watched a little longer, to make sure I wasn't indulging in wishful thinking, until they drifted out of sight.

A female scaup, a greater scaup in this context, had also been reported. I had no luck with her. She was reported about half an hour later upstream from here.

As I turned to walk back I wondered if I should walk the Transpennine Trail into Heatley or else into Grappenhall. It started pouring down. The hint was taken: I was catching the bus back from Lymm. Returning to the gate I noticed a footpath along the edge of a field  back to Statham Pool. Keen not to indulge in another mudfest I took it, which turned out to be a good idea.

The path between the pools

The unnamed pool

Beyond the field the path ran along a causeway between Statham Pool and a fishing lodge on the right and a larger, wilder pool filled with drowned willows on the left. Titmice, chaffinches, blackbirds and robins were busy in the trees. Teals called from the pool though it took me a long while to find them. A group of drake shovelers were considerably easier to pick out amongst the willow roots.

I followed the path round and into town. The sun came out so I walked a few hundred yards of the Transpennine Trail just so I could say I did it.

Lymm Dam 

I had half an hour to wait for the bus so I had a look at Lymm Dam. Mallards loafed on the banks, a mute swan cruised the side, black-headed gulls squabbled and great crested grebes barked at each other. My knees voiced their objections to all that sliding about in the mud earlier so I had a sit down and enjoyed the view until it was time to hobble over and get the bus. It had been a far better day's birdwatching and walking than I'd expected.

Lymm Dam 

My Birdwatch Year

It's that time of year when the people at BirdTrack send me a summary of the records I've submitted the previous year. I submit nearly all my records to BirdTrack, I try to get them all submitted at the time but inevitably there's something I miss. Even so, I hope I'm providing useful data for people to work with.

The day I recorded the most species was June 28th when I visited Hodbarrow and Leighton Moss and found 73 species. I recorded at least 50 species in a day 78 times, which isn't bad going given the way I do my birdwatching. 

Unsurprisingly Martin Mere was the place where I recorded the most species last year (93). Checking my records the runners-up were Leighton Moss (83), Pennington Flash (82) and Marshside (81). These are the four front-runners for me every year. My garden list came to 40 species, I'd have guessed at the high twenties.

I was the only person providing records for one 10km² square, the Carlisle train crosses the tiny bit of land in the corner of that square as it goes between Silecroft and Bootle and I record what I'm seeing as we pass by. Whoever submitted data for that area in 2024 didn't last year. I hope they do this year.

It turns out I submitted breeding records for 12 species monitored by the Rare Breeding Birds Panel. I think I've worked out which they all were this year.

Like I say, fingers crossed the data's of some use to somebody. Collecting it gets me out of the house.

Mosses

Blackbird, Irlam Moss

It was a bright, sunny day, surprisingly mild after a bitingly cold night. I wondered what I was going to do with it and decided I was due another wander over Irlam Moss and Chat Moss, perhaps having a look at Little Woolden Moss, too.

As I stood waiting for the train to Irlam the clouds started rolling in. It didn't look like it was likely to rain, though, and nor did it even though it got progressively cloudier as the afternoon went on.

A coal tit sang at Irlam Station when I got off the train. Woodpigeons, blackbirds and goldfinches sang in gardens, I was nearly out of town when the first robins started singing.

Blackbird
The same bird as above. I was standing at the side of the road a while letting cars pass and she was happy to pose.

The hedgerows on Astley Road were fizzing with small birds. Robins and goldfinches sang; great tits, blue tits, chaffinches and greenfinches bounced about the treetops; blackbirds, robins, song thrushes and wrens rummaged about the undergrowth. These hedgerows haven't been that busy in months. 

Looking over towards Roscoe Road 

Out in the fields carrion crows chased each other about, or chased magpies, or were chased by gangs of magpies. Four cock pheasants held a beauty contest in a corner of a field over by Roscoe Road. The usual kestrels were notably absent. Unfortunately, for some reason the road was very busy with cars today so I didn't always give the birdwatching my fullest attention. I'd otherwise timed my visit right: Roscoe Road is closed for resurfacing next week and this stretch of Astley Road is closed the week after.

Astley Road 

As I stood on the verge to let a convoy of cars pass by at Prospect Grange I was joined by a party of long-tailed tits which spent the time tutting at me before moving on to investigate some hawthorn bushes. One of the drivers was a chap I bump into quite often who is very keen on owls. He told me he'd just visited Holly Bush Lane, just the other side of Rixton, and had seen lots of corn buntings and skylarks today. Which is encouraging, locally corn buntings are becoming in very short supply.

Astley Road 

Crossing the motorway the road got quieter, and so did the hedgerows. A goldcrest was the first small bird I saw in the trees, there weren't many titmice or robins about until the stable and paddocks further along. A few carrion crows and magpies rummaged about on the turf fields, there were only a couple of pied wagtails and they were staying on a farmhouse rooftop.

Jelly ear fungus

When I got to Four Lanes End the first thing I saw was a couple of woodpigeons perched on the telephone wires. The second thing I saw was a short-eared owl hunting over the ground below. The owl floated about at knee height before rising and powering across the field. It wheeled back and floated down whence it came, suddenly stopped, spun round on a wing tip and plunged into the long grass just below. The pounce was unsuccessful, it rose immediately and started quartering the field. 

Short-eared owl

Short-eared owl

As it approached the far corner, where there was a small crowd of spectators on the edge of Little Woolden Moss, another owl rose from the grass. There was no obvious direct communication between the two birds but they kept their distance from each other as they hunted over the field. At one point the second bird dropped down and was immediately joined by a kestrel. Kestrels often steal catches off short-eared owls, this time they both went away empty-handed.

I watched the owls a while from the corner by Astley Road, decided not to join the people in the other corner, turned and made my way along Twelve Yards Road.

Twelve Yards Road 

It was late afternoon and the jackdaws and woodpigeons were going to bed and the song thrushes were singing. A flock of skylarks rose from a field of rough and headed over towards Little Woolden Moss. A flight of mallards appeared from Heaven knows where and followed suit.

Chaffinches were gathering to roost in the hedgerows by the farmhouse while robins and great tits retired to the brambles in the land drains. I thought more chaffinches were coming in to roost in the willow plantations by the road and was surprised to find it was half a dozen redpolls. Overhead lesser black-backs headed for Woolston Ees, mallards headed for the pools on Croxden's Moss and magpies flew in to roost in a copse of oak trees.

False turkey tail fungus

Song thrushes, robins and woodpigeons were having one last song before bedtime as I turned into Cutnook Lane. A flock of chaffinches disappeared into the trees, blackbirds and titmice into the bracken. By the time I got to the bottom of the road there were just a few carrion crows and a mistle thrush in the fields. I crossed over the motorway and struck dead lucky getting the next 100 bus to the Trafford Centre. It's nice when things turn out.

Cutnook Lane 

Lightshaw Meadows

Russian white-fronted geese, greylags and Canada geese

It turned out that I didn't have to do a complicated logistics exercise to get Russian white-fronted geese onto the year list after all. A fellow birdwatcher's excellent deductive reasoning led to the report that there was a flock of them on Lightshaw Meadows, roughly halfway between Pennington Flash and Abram. Thanks Colin! 

Mallards

The geese were on the meadows near the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. As it happens the walk along this stretch of the canal between Plank Lane and Abram was already on this year's to-do list so I got it done today. I got the 588 from Leigh Bus Station to Plank Lane, joined the canal and walked westwards down the towpath.

It was a very pleasant walk, though a bit quiet birdwise. A few mallards puttered about in the canal or loafed on the far bank. Woodpigeons, magpies and robins were busy in the trees, a small flock of siskins bounced through a stand of alders. 

Leeds and Liverpool Canal 

I passed under Greggs Bridge, the first of two I had to pass to get to my destination. Blackbirds, great tits and blue tits joined the robins in the wayside. The second bridge was unnamed, Google Maps had told me to follow the road leading to it rather than walking down the towpath. I'm glad I chose my own way, the path from the bridge to the towpath was fenced off, I think it's a private road for the nearby farmhouse. It was a shame, though, as the rise to the bridge would have given the best views of the geese.

Russian white-fronted geese, greylags and Canada geese

I could see the Canada geese in the field and hear the greylags a long time before I could see the white-fronts. They were largely hidden by trees and I had to shuffle up and down the towpath to see them. There were at least twenty of them in total. Their most striking, and in some ways surprising, feature was their small size. I'm used to seeing white-fronted geese in the company of pink-footed geese, which aren't a lot bigger than mallards (though they're a lot chunkier). Consequently I think of white-fronts as being fairly big birds. They're not when they're in the company of greylags and Canada geese.

The white flashes on most of their faces and their pink bills provided easy confirmation that they really were white-fronted geese and that they were Russian white-fronts. I've never seen so many in one place before and it was nice to see them so close to hand.

Russian white-fronted geese and greylags

Russian white-fronted geese and greylags

Russian white-fronted geese and greylags

Having had a long look at the geese I carried on walking down the canal. It was good walking though there was a sharp edge to the wind. My eye was caught by the bright yellow patches of witch's butter on some of the alders by the wayside. This is an odd fungus that feeds on wood-rotting fungus.

Witch's butter

I was most of the way to Abram when I noticed a path dropping down from the towpath into the meadows. Checking the map I found it ran Southwest in a straight line to Wigan Road just North of Golborne, emerging close to a bus stop. I followed the path down out of curiosity and was immediately grateful to get out of the wind.

There was a big pond behind the trees here. Tufted ducks, coots and at least one pair of goosanders puttered about on the water. Titmice, robins and bullfinches bounced about in the trees in front of me. A pair of coal tits made rude noises as they bounced out of a willow thicket and nearly collided with me. I could hear moorhens in the brook running near the path but I was blessed if I could see them.

This one corner of the pond wasn't half-hidden behind layers of trees

Lightshaw Meadows 

Blackbirds and robins were busy in the path verges, not bothering to move very far out of my way as I passed by. There were still haws on some of the hawthorn bushes and they attracted more blackbirds and a couple of redwings. A pair of greylags on a pond a couple of fields away outshouted the birds closer to hand.

The path to Wigan Road 

I had ten minutes to wait for the 360 which goes from Wigan to Warrington. I reckoned to get that to Newton-le-Willows and get the trains home. I hadn't reckoned on its being twenty-five minutes late. Had the information online been any better I'd have walked into Golborne and got a bus to Wigan or Leigh. So it was that I was sat at Newton-le-Willows Station for forty minutes counting chaffinches and goldfinches in the trees. But for once the trains behaved impeccably and I was soon pouring a pot of hot tea down me after a good afternoon stroll. I think this is another of those walks that would do well in late Spring for warblers.