Merseyside

The weather forecast said it was going to be unsettled at first then sunny by lunchtime so I thought I'd get an old man's explorer ticket and take a meandering route over to Crosby beach and then have a mosey round Lunt Meadows.

High tide on Crosby beach

The spotted redshank and long-tailed duck that have been kicking around the boating pond at Crosby Marina were notable by their absence today. Any disappointment was put aside by my finding a juvenile shag swimming in the pond, the identification being tricky at first as it was spending most of its time underwater and bobbing up only for a second or two to take a breath. Eventually it hauled itself out and spread its wings out to dry, at which point a pair of carrion crows decided it would be fun to try and pull out a few of its primary feathers. Quickly exit stage right a very disgruntled shag.

Skeins of pink-footed geese passing overhead gave a hint of season's passing and when the clouds finally parted and the sun came out it started to feel like Spring. Then I got over the dunes and onto the beach and into the teeth of a strong, cold wind. It was an unusually high Spring tide so there weren't any waders on the beach, though plenty of gulls passing by, including an adult kittiwake blown close to shore. There were some biggish flocks of gulls flying far out amongst the wind farm turbines and a few smaller, darker birds flying low over the waves out there, neither were recognisable at that range.

Crosby beach

I finished the circuit of the marine lake by walking along the perimeter fence to Seaforth Nature Reserve. Lots of Canada geese, shelducks and black-tailed godwits and a hundred or more gulls loafing about, mostly herring gulls with a few lesser black-backs and common gulls and a couple of great black-backs. In a week or two there'll be wheatears on this grass and a couple of weeks on there'll be yellow wagtails.

A singing chiffchaff by the Adventure Centre was a nice end to this stage of the day out.

I got the 133 bus from Waterloo to Lunt and wandered down to Lunt Meadows.

Lunt Meadows

There was a good variety of waterfowl on the pools. Greylags significantly outnumbered Canada geese. Mallards, teal and shelduck were the most numerous ducks, with a couple of dozen each of shelduck, wigeon and shoveler. Gadwall were thinner on the ground and there was just the one dabchick. It looked like slim pickings for waders, too, just half a dozen black-tailed godwits and a couple of oystercatchers then I noticed that the reeds and the thick grass at the water margins were teeming with snipe.

Teal, black-headed gulls and snipe, Lunt Meadows

Dabchick, Lunt Meadows

Lungwort, Lunt Meadows

Oystercatcher, shelduck and teal, Lunt Meadows

133 bus to Kirkby and problems with the trains that meant no chance of stopping off at Orrell on the way in to Wigan for a nosy round the water park before it got dark.