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.

Leighton Moss

Shovelers 

I reckoned I was good for another gentle potter about on a pleasant November day so I got me an old man's explorer ticket and headed North. I was very tempted to go after the pallid harrier at Croston, either the third or fourth bird in the Northwest this year, but I reminded myself I've seen nearly as many pallid harriers as marsh tits, and infinitely more since March. I headed for Leighton Moss.

I stayed on the train as far as Ulverston. The train had some engine trouble there and, remembering my last trip, I bailed out to wait for the Lancaster train here. Along the way the tide was lowish and the birds thinly scattered across the muds of the Kent and Leven. A few black-headed gulls and redshanks, curlews out on their own and cormorants fishing in river channels. A couple of redhead goosanders fished the Kent, a flock of wigeons cruised about on the Leven. There were plenty of mallards and teals with the rooks, jackdaws and woodpigeons at the Meathop end of the Arnside viaduct, little egrets and jackdaws peppered the salt marshes, herring gulls the fields outside Cark and mute swans that pool near Holker.

The herring gulls were camping out at Ulverston Station. Overhead there was a lot of noisy to-ing and fro-ing of rooks and jackdaws. A family of mistle thrushes shilly-shallied between the trackside trees and the trees in the car park over the other side. I'd become so blasé about them that I almost overlooked the blackbirds at the trackside and entirely overlooked the handful of fieldfares in a treetop by the road until they started rattling at the mistle thrushes.

The trip back to Silverdale was pretty much the same as the trip up. I looked in vain for pink-footed geese on the salt marshes by the Leven, there was just the one greylag flying out into the estuary.

House sparrows and robins were fussing about Silverdale Station. I walked round to the Leighton Moss visitor centre, passing a few carrion crows in the field by the corner. The feeders still weren't out at the Hideout, which didn't stop robins and a pair of mallards occupying the seating area, just in case. I had literally just taken my first step in when a marsh tit flew up into the twigs by my head, sneezed at me and flew into the ornamental maple in the garden. Which would have made a lovely picture had it not dived immediately into its depths. I quickly lost it, distracted by the long-tailed tits, great tits and coal tits bouncing through the bushes by the path.

From Lilian's Hide 

Teal

Lilian's Hide was busy of both people and birds. A family of mute swans and a small raft of coots cruised midwater. All of the ducks were at our side of the pool. The reason being that a big dog otter was hunting over the other side. Every so often there'd be a dark muzzle poking out of the water then it would disappear with a flick and a splash of the tail.

Gadwall 

Shovelers, gadwalls, pintails and mallards dozed on the banks while teal fussed and dabbled at the bankside. A snipe was almost lost in the crowds.

Shovelers and gadwalls 

Teal

Shovelers and pintails 

Teal

Gadwalls,  wigeons and shovelers

Teal

Pintails, shovelers,  teal and gadwalls

Something put up the shovelers and teals, but only the shovelers and teals. They did a panicky circuit of the pool and settled back down again. Nobody could identify the cause, it certainly wasn't the three buzzards I could see catching the thermals over the hillside a mile away.

Shoveler 

Gadwall, teal and shovelers 

Shoveler
I'm not sure of this one, he may be a first-Winter in scruffy moult but he has a look of the hybrid shoveler x cinnamon teal that used to be a fixture.

Walking through to the reedbeds 

Lungwort 

The walk through to the reedbeds was pretty quiet. An invisible nuthatch called from a treetop over by the railway line. Robins, long-tailed tits and wrens fidgeted in the undergrowth and a chiffchaff squeaked at the corner. The reedbeds were very quiet, I expected to be too late for seeing bearded tits on the grit trays but there were only a couple of robins along the path to the Griesdale Hide.

At the Griesdale Hide 

I had the hide to myself. Pintails, teals and a mute swan quietly grazed on the pool. A dozen gadwalls were being frisky with a lot of excited whistling and self-satisfied quacks. Just as I was telling myself that it didn't seem to be my day for marsh harriers a female-type drifted over and did a lazy circle of the reeds over the way then just as it started settling into the reeds a second one drifted over and joined it.

Teal

I walked round to the Tim Jackson Hide, passing a couple of teals dabbling amongst the drowned willows. The hide and the pools in front of it both were heaving. The pools were chock-a-block with teals, shovelers, mallards and pintails, all busy feeding. Directly across from the hide three red deer, a stag and two hinds, were grazing in the reeds.

Red deer hinds

Red deer stag

At the Tim Jackson Hide 

I wandered back and got the train home. I was a lot more tired than I had any right to be but it had been a pretty good day out.

By the visitor centre