Local patch

Barton Clough

Today's plan was to take advantage of the good weather and take a walk over Chat Moss but I just didn't have the energy for it. After a lazy day I had a stroll round the local patch.

It was late afternoon so everything was winding down. Good numbers of Winter blackbirds working their way through the Pyracanthus berries and a sparrowhawk whizzed through on its way to Lostock Park.

I'm no good at identifying fungi

Leighton Moss

Leighton Moss

A visit to Leighton Moss on a bright sunny day. One of those days when the reserve suffers from its own success. I've written and deleted a long rant about some of the visitors, it was cathartic but not really the sort of things I want in this blog. After a couple of hours I grabbed a sausage butty and called it a day.

Leighton Moss

The recent floods had receded and the paths were passable but their effects could be seen all over. In particular, I've never seen the reedbeds on the way to the Griesdale and Tim Jackson hides looking so open.

Nice to see a great white egret on the Eric Morecambe pool. Duck numbers are starting to build up, particularly at the Lilian's and Griesdale  hides. A couple of Cetti's warblers were singing near the sky tower. They, and marsh tit were my prime targets for the day, I'd hoped for bearded tits but it was a bit late in the morning to connect with them.

Teal, Lilian's Hide

I got the train to Barrow, taking advantage of my Over 55's Explorer ticket. I intended doing a bit of Morecambe Bay watching from the train then do a quick reconnaissance to see how easy or not might be to get to South Walney. Alas, after seeing the afternoon's cancellations to come it became apparent I'd best get the next train back from Barrow to be sure of getting home at a sensible time. Even so, another cancellation at Lancaster nearly had me kicking my heels for a couple of hours.

Banks

Greenland white-tronted geese, pink-footed geese and whooper swans

A whole bunch of American vagrants, and a few UK regulars I still don't have on the year list, had been reported from Banks over the past few days so I decided it was more than high time I spent the best part of a day there and get to grips with it properly rather than fitting in a quick shufti on a visit to Crossens.

It was Monday so of course Northern Rail had a meltdown. Anyway, I got to Southport and went to get the bus. My mistake here was to get the X2, not the 2. The X2 goes into Banks then turns and heads off towards Mere Brow and Tarleton, whereas the 2 carries on past Banks Marsh thence to Hundred End and Hesketh Bank. Not to worry: it was a nice walk from Mere Brow, I bumped into my first fieldfares of this Winter, four buzzards soared overhead and the bus I should have waited for only passed me a few minutes before I arrived at Banks Marsh.

Ribble Marshes from Banks

The most obvious thing walking down Marsh Lane was a field full of whooper swans. It was only as I got closer that I could see the pink-footed geese further back in the field. Working my way across the field with my binoculars I noticed two dark shapes in the middle of the swans which turned out to be a pair of white-fronted geese. I got a better view of them further down the road and managed to identify them as Greenland white-fronts.

Whooper swans

Whooper swans

Whooper swans

Something was spooking the jackdaws, woodpigeons and starlings feeding in the next field but I couldn't see anything flying about that might account for it.

From the embankment overlooking the Ribble the most obvious birds were the pied wagtails chasing each other about the mud immediately in front. Further out there were plenty of shelduck, wigeon, teal and mallard and little egrets were scattered about the creeks. Waders included lapwings, redshanks and dunlin and a modest flock of golden plover wheeled about the far bank. An Egyptian goose was a surprise. Three birdwatchers with big telescopes were trying to identify a bird which might have been the weekend's white-rumped sandpiper but with no success. It was too far away for me not to have been kidding myself at any identification. After a bit I decided I was jinxing it for the others and left them to it.

There was a lovely bit of cloud iridescence above the field of swans on the way back.

Cloud iridescence

The journey back was horrendous: I should have walked back to Crossens and picked up a bus there. The number 2 bus from Preston to Southport turns out to be horribly unreliable.

On the plus side, Greenland white-fronted goose brings the year list to 200.

Stretford and Chorlton

Hardy Farm

A combination of Sunday public transport timetables and family commitments limits the options for what you can do with a sunny Sunday so I ended up taking a walk round the local patch (which was considerably quieter than yesterday) then getting a bus and walking down from Hardy Farm back to Stretford.

It was a busy family Sunday so most of the bird life was being heard but not seen. A few mixed tit flocks worked their way through the hedgerows. The ring-necked parakeets were being invisibly shrill. A low-flying buzzard swooped over the path and quickly on over Chorlton Ees. Walking through Chorlton Ees it occurred to me that I've never seen a heron on any of the bits of water or brooks here, it's purely a roosting site for them.

Grey herons

The River Mersey was very high still and both Hardy Farm and Chorlton Ees were very damp underfoot. Just how damp became evident when I got to Turn Moss.

Rain stopped play (for nearly everyone)

A couple of hundred black-headed gulls were playing in the puddles together with a couple of dozen common gulls and a handful of lesser black-backs and herring gulls.

Dawlish Warren

Sketch map of Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve

Dawlish Warren Nature Reserve is a spit of land almost closing the Exe Estuary at its mouth. The combination of location and variety of habitat in a small area make it a birdwatching hot spot. The open sea to the South and the more sheltered estuary with its creeks  and sandbanks to the north provide for a variety of seabirds, waders and wildfowl. At time of writing the official 2019 year list for this site is 175 species.

Most of the reserve is sand dunes, grassed over and covered with light scrub in places. There is a small patch of woodland near the visitor centre and around the Greenland Pool which is next to it. In some points storms have pretty much destroyed most of the dunes and taken old paths with them so you'll need to walk along the beach to get out to the furthest point.

The old sand dune path to the hide. This path was washed away in storms.

I usually walk down past the amusements to do a bit of seawatching from the wall and Langstone Rock. The sea bed is gently sloping here and you'll usually find a couple of shag hunting for dabs and you might strike lucky with a great-crested grebe or red-throated diver. Further out you'll almost certainly see kittiwakes and gannets and perhaps a flyby skua or two. There are some mussel beds at the end of Langstone Rock and these attract eiders and scoters. It's worth checking out any stray individuals, I've seen surf scoter and velvet scoter here.

Langstone Rock

Red-throated diver

Between the amusements and the visitor centre there's a roughly-grassed area crisscrossed with decked paths and a very small wooded patch with rough paths working their way through it. This area's quite good for passage migrants, highlights for me over the years have been black redstart, yellow-browed warbler and Siberian chiffchaff.

Black redstart

Passing through the gates just past to the visitor centre, on your left there's the Greenland Pool surrounded by reeds and a bit of woodland, dead ahead it's sandy heath, and to your right there's some dunes and the beach. There are rough paths (and a couple of less rough ones) starting at this gate splitting off and becoming roughly parallel to each other then converging on another gate a few hundred yards along, where the golf course meets the sand dunes.

Greenland Pool

I generally go clockwise round the pool and follow the paths nearest the golf course. The hawthorn bushes on the boundary are popular with finches, sometimes with large flocks of linnets and goldfinches. Cirl buntings can be found in the nearby farmland so it's worth looking out to see if any are about here.

Linnets

Once you get into the open area you start to see more meadow pipits and there's usually a pair of stonechats about and every bramble thicket has its dunnocks, robins and wrens. There are plenty of rock pipits on the beach and dunes to add to the small brown bird collection.

Stonechat

Rock pipit

The gate at the end brings you onto the dunes. Until recently there was a path here running along the boundary with the golf course then turning and dropping down into the bight and on to the hide. This has been destroyed by storms so you now have to drop down to the beach and walk down to Groyne 18 near the end of the point.

Sanderlings

The beach is good for a bit more seawatching — the river cuts a channel out  to sea and the deeper water brings kittiwakes and sea ducks closer to shore, and sometimes you might find a great northern diver. A Bonaparte's gull was a Winter fixture here for a few years.

Ringed plovers, sanderlings and dunlin can be found on the beach around high tide. Further along these may be joined by grey plovers. Gulls — mostly herring and black-headed — loaf about at the end of the point.

At Groyne 18 the grassy dunes drop down to the beach. There are a few rough paths leading into what is almost a small island of sandy heath. I was once lucky enough to find a Dartford warbler in one of the hawthorn bushes a few years back so I always look twice at any dunnocks lurking about.

One of the paths leads nearly straight to the golf course and down towards the hide. It's a two-story hide facing up the estuary, on a clear day you can see up to Countess Wear. The water's calmer on this side of the Warren and the bird life is different. Wintering brent geese feed and roost here. Wigeon and teal can be seen in the salt marshes on your left. The mound directly in front of the hide is a roosting point for waders at high tide. Sometimes the number of oystercatchers and knots here is huge. Looking out into the deeper channels in the estuary you might see red-necked mergansers and in Winter if you look over to the left towards the railway line you've a good chance of seeing "the usual" Slavonian grebe (I've no idea if it's always the same one every year).

Oystercatchers and cormorants from the hide

Brent geese from the hide

The hide's best at high tide, though you have to time your journey carefully now the only path is via the beach. At low tide it's less productive and most of what's around is pretty distant, but every so often something special will tag along with the linnets, pipits and wagtails feeding on the mud. My best bird from this hide was a Richard's pipit, donkeys years ago, being chased around by pied wagtails here at low tide. More usually it's wheatears.

The way back is the way you came, though there are enough paths around for you not to have to exactly retrace your steps all the way.

Seawatching weather at Dawlish Warren

The excellent Dawlish Warren blog provides latest sightings and past records, as well as useful links to other Devon wildlife blogs.

Local patch

Lostock Park

An afternoon stroll round my local patch after the rain. It's been a very quiet few weeks here and I almost didn't bother but I was getting as stir crazy as the cat so I went for a wander. It turns out it was a good idea: we'd obviously had an influx of passerines with the bad weather:

• Black-headed Gull 7
• Blackbird 18
• Blue Tit 16
• Bullfinch 1
• Carrion Crow 2
• Chaffinch 1
• Collared Dove 1
• Dunnock 1
• Feral Pigeon 4
• Goldcrest 2
• Goldfinch 49
• Great Tit 10
• Greenfinch 3
• Herring Gull 1
• House Sparrow 1
• Jay 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 4
• Long-tailed Tit 18
• Magpie 18
• Mistle Thrush 1
• Robin 6
• Starling 11
• Woodpigeon 31
• Wren 6

Interesting that this is the first single-figure count of pigeons this year.

Longford Park and Rye Bank Fields

Longford Park and Rye Bank Fields

Longford Park's a fair-sized urban park in Stretford, Rye Bank Fields in Chorlton used to be Manchester Metropolitan University's recreation ground and is now a patch of "waste" liable to have a housing development put on it. From a birdwatching perspective neither is spectacular — "just" the usual parks and garden birds you'd hope to expect round here — but Rye Bank Fields does seem to be a regular point for passage migrants to stop of for a day to rest and feed.

Longford Park

Longford Park

Redwing, Longford Park

Goldcrest, Longford Park

Spotted flycatcher, Rye Bank Fields

Long-tailed tit, Rye Bank Fields

Rye Bank Fields

Rye Bank Fields

There are lots of entrance points to both and the boundary between the two areas is very porous. If you're coming in from elsewhere:

• The 15 bus travels between Manchester and Flixton via the University. If you're travelling from Manchester you want the stop on The Quadrant (a big roundabout filled with trees) where Greatstone Road crosses Kings Road), the entrance to Longford Park is next to the community centre by the bus stop. From Flixton the stop on Kings Road immediately before The Quadrant just round the corner and across the road.

• All buses going between Stretford and Chorlton go down Edge Lane. There are bus stops by the entrance at the southwest corner of Longford Park, the stops near the southeast corner are a couple of minutes' walk away.

The entrance to Turn Moss and beyond into this stretch of the Mersey Valley is on the other side of Edge Lane halfway between the bus stops.

Stretford and Urmston

Goldcrest

After a lazy morning where I decided to bin the planned outing because I couldn't be doing with a long train ride I bobbed over to Longford Park.

Grey squirrel

Squirrels and woodpigeons were busy in the leaves under the trees in the park, pretty much oblivious to passers-by. A couple of mixed tit flocks worked their ways high up in the trees, a third was doing the rounds of the conifers in the rock garden.

Longford Park

One conifer had four goldcrests flitting about in the gloom of its lower branches. One male broke off from feeding every so often to make sure the others knew it was boss.

An uncooperative goldcrest

I moved on to Rye Bank Fields which was pretty quiet save for a flock of house sparrows in the hedge by the sports stadium and yet another mixed tit flock at the North end.

Rather than retracing my steps I was going to get the 15 bus from The Quadrant back to Stretford but then changed my mind and stayed on the bus down to Woodsend to visit Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve. I've not been before so this was by way of a reconnaissance.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

After a false start finding my way in I spent an hour doing a circuit of the reserve. It's one of those "left behind" corners of land bounded by the Manchester Ship Canal, Davyhulme water treatment works and a housing estate. Most of it is wooded parkland with a few small ponds dotted about. The sun was getting low so I didn't follow the path down to the canal this time.

Davyhulme Millennium Nature Reserve

It was late in the afternoon so there wasn't a lot of activity: the usual woodland subjects, including a great spotted woodpecker, and a few mallard on the large wooded pond near the entrance. I'll come back for another look soon, it's pretty easy to get to by bus.

Martin Mere

Kingfisher

A wander over to Martin Mere before the weather changes.

The walk down from Burscough Bridge Station was fruitful and despite a glowering cloud overhead there was not a drop of rain. A couple of stubble fields were still flooded — it was easy to spot from a distance which ones they were by the hordes of loafing gulls, mostly black-headed with a few common gulls and a couple of herring gulls. I was watching a small flock of tree sparrows busy in a field of mangolds when some more small brown birds flew in, it took me a while to realise it was a dozen corn buntings. There was a definite passage of skylarks going on: at least fifty were flying over at one point.

Greylag

Geese dominated the scene at Martin Mere. If it wasn't the greylags lining the mere it was the hundreds of pink-footed geese either flying over or calling from the fields beyond the reedbed walk. Plenty of ducks but not yet Winter numbers, rather more from the Ron Barker Hide than from on the mere. A couple of marsh harriers spooked the teal on Vinsons Marsh. One made a couple of return visits, it looked as if it had an injured foot.

Black-tailed godwit

Aside from lapwings waders were thinner on the ground: a handful of black-tailed godwits on the mere and a green sandpiper on Vinson's. A pair of kingfishers showed well as they hunted in the ditch in front of the Ron Barker Hide. The male divided his time between the fence and the "usual" dead branch, the female was a way away to the right of the hide.

Kingfisher

The Janet Kear Hide seemed to be being popular with young families on their half term hols. There were enough finches and tits on the feeders to keep them entertained though everything went very quiet when a young male sparrowhawk swooped by. Luckily he didn't stop and the show resumed where it left off.

I only had a quick sken at the geese from the United Utilities Hide as I'd just noticed the time (I was planning on going home via New Lane and didn't want to miss the train and have to wait three hours for the next one). A few hundred pink-footed geese together with fifty-odd lapwings. The next few months will be spent going bog-eyed working my way through huge flocks of pink-footed geese and teal hoping to spot something special hiding in plain sight amongst them.

Walking through the little wooded path to Marsh Moss Lane I was surprised to be buzzed by a migrant hawker. Yesterday's wasn't my last dragonfly of the year after all!

My walk to New Lane Station was accompanied by the sound of skeins of geese commuting between Martin Mere and the fields around Burscough. It's one of my favourite sounds, even though it does make me want to button my overcoat up against the cold.

Pink-footed geese, New Lane

Pennington Flash

A quiet afternoon stroll round Pennington Flash while the weather's behaving itself nicely.

Mute swans

The water was still high in the Flash, looking out from the Horrocks Hide a good part of the spit was underwater. This was fine for the mallards and black-headed gulls but the half a dozen lapwings that had decided to stick around didn't look too impressed by it. The cormorants that usually hang around at the end of the spit were a lot closer than usual.

Grey heron and cormorants

Black-headed gull

Most of the tufted duck were out on the open water, there were a few pairs of gadwall from the Edmondson Hide and rather more from the Ramsdale Hide with plenty of teal. A couple of pairs of shoveler lurked in the background.

Coming out of Ramsdales Hide my first four redwings of Winter were feeding in the hawthorn bush on the corner. Summer wasn't entirely over, though, as a minute later a hawker dragonfly flew over the same bush.

Redwing

There was a lot of activity on the feeders by the Bunting Hide with one of the willow tits showing well hopping in and out of the hollow logs immediately in front of the hide. Sadly, too close and too gloomy for any of my attempts at getting a photo to be any good.