Stretford and Sale Water Park

I'm half convinced that the blue tits have given up on the nestbox at the bottom of the garden and moved on, though I'd be happy to find out I'm wrong. The first of the young house sparrows made a fleeting visit yesterday, I think it's one of the silver team family. Judging by the adults' hard work gleaning aphids in the sycamores there are plenty more mouths to feed.

Goldfinches

Between the sparrows, titmice and goldfinches the feeders are taking a bit of a hammering. I've been buying huge pine cones that have been steeped in fat and sunflower seeds and they've been a great success, not least because they don't disintegrate and leave a carpet of useless fat crumbs on the ground like the fat blocks do. Even the dunnocks can't be doing with the fine detritus from the blocks and it just kills off any vegetation on the ground. So I'll be sticking with the pine cones for the foreseeable.

I took advantage of today's downpour to go on a proper walk, the traffic on the footpaths was more like a usual weekday afternoon. Walked down to Stretford Ees, explored a path I didn't know that took me to Crossford Bridge the wrong side of the canal and tram line to where I was planning to go, down the canal back to Stretford Ees to Sale Water Park and thence to the other side of Chorlton for the bus home.

The trees and bushes about Stretford Ees and Sale Water Park were full of singing blackcaps, chiffchaffs, robins and wrens and there were a lot of blackbirds in evidence. A lone whitethroat sang from one of the hawthorns by Kickety Brook. At this point I almost turned tail to go home the rain was so bad but I decided I'd got that far and couldn't get a lot wetter so carried on.

Broad Ees Dole was more productive than usual. A reed warbler singing by the Teal Pool was a first for the year, ditto a sedge warbler singing from the ditch by the path. Looking from the hide there was a group of five goosanders, a pair of tufted duck and two pairs of teal. Two pairs of coots had young.

Goosander, Broad Ees Dole

Another couple of reed warblers were singing from flag iris clumps in Sale Water Park and more chiffchaffs and blackcaps were singing from the willows. A pair of crows took great exception to a passing heron which suggests they had a nest nearby but I couldn't spot it. Mind you, they could just be doing it out of spite. They didn't bother about the small flock of ring-necked parakeets that hollered their way past at the same time. As I was approaching the (closed) car park I noticed a young heron keeping its head down in the rain.

Juvenile heron, Sale Water Park

The rain started getting heavy again and I'd had a good walk so I decided not to carry on walking up past Jackson's Boat and Hardy Farm for my bus home, opting instead to get the tram for  a stop to catch the bus at Barlow Moor Road. As I set off for the tram stop a willow tit flew across the path. It's always nice to see a willow tit.

Stretford

An uncooperative whitethroat, Barton Clough

A stroll around the local patch came up with four singing whitethroats, my first of the year. There were also four singing blackcaps and three chiffchaffs. It was nice to hear a song thrush in full flow, they've been a bit quiet lately.

• Blackbird 13, 5 singing
• Blackcap 4 singing
• Blue Tit 5
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chaffinch 1
• Chiffchaff 3, 2 singing
• Feral Pigeon 14
• Goldfinch 10, 3 singing
• Great Tit 3
• Greenfinch 4
• House Sparrow 6
• Long-tailed Tit 1
• Magpie 12
• Robin 3, 1 singing
• Song Thrush 1 singing
• Whitethroat 4 singing
• Woodpigeon 22, 5 singing
• Wren 8 singing

On a whim, instead of going home I headed over to the canal and walked through from Bridgewater Way, past Kellogg's factory, down to Stretford tram station and thence home. The towpath was heaving with cyclists, I can't wait for the current crisis to end so we can have our footpaths back.

A few lesser black-backs and a lone black-headed gull drifted overhead and there was a single herring gull perched on a roof by Stretford Marina. Plenty of chiffchaffs, blackcaps and wrens singing by the canalside and there was a pied wagtail on the little cut by Kellogg's. One of the pairs of Canada geese had a couple of goslings. No sign of any buzzards today but a soaring male sparrowhawk and a kestrel warning a carrion crow off (presumably trying to keep it away from a nearby nest somewhere in the work yard on the other side of the canal) more than compensated.

Home

Wren

We're in that phase of the year where everything in the garden is busy but quiet most of the day. The sparrows are visiting the feeders in odd twos and threes in between prolonged bouts of aphid gleaning in the trees. (Even as I was typing this a dozen arrived mob-handed!) A pair of goldfinches make a couple of visits and the pair of great tits call in late afternoon. The robins, coal tits and long-tailed tits are virtually mute invisible, just momentary shadows if I'm lucky when I glance outside. The blackcap's been singing its head off in the sycamores on the embankment. The past few weeks the wren's been very vocal but virtually invisible, he's out and about a lot more now, too busy for skulking round.

I think the blue tits have claimed the nest box at the bottom. They've been very vocal and active around it the past couple of days but a lot quieter today. The male's very busy on greenfly patrol so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

House sparrows in the rowan tree

One of the lads from "Silver team"

I went into Urmston for the week's big shop. Waiting for the train at Humphrey Park I noticed that the work on extending the platforms is nearly finished. I also noticed that there's no chance of whitethroats nesting in the thick scrub here because there ain't any.

On a more positive note, the first black-headed gull for a month flew over the school while I was counting woodpigeons on the field.

Spring fever

I went out to put my bin out last night and found my neighbour craning his neck over the garden fence. "Are those hedgehogs doing what I think they're doing?" he asked. "Not yet, but by the sound of it they will be in a minute." And so they did.

As I was going to bed I thought I'd have one last look at the outside world. By one of those random coincidences a fox was trotting down the pavement on the other side of the road. It stopped opposite my house to have a snuffle round the base of the elder bush at the base of the fence. After a couple of minutes it turned, gave me a quick glance and trotted off on its way.

The blue tits have been busy in the garden today, with lots of chunnering at magpies and squirrels. I saw one of them visiting one of the nest boxes, an old one that was used by tree bumblebees a few years ago. It seems slightly late but I hope they are going to use it this year.

I nipped round to my dad's with some veg and on the way back the first swift of the year swooped overhead and over the school, bringing the year list to 130.

Home

I was counting jackdaws in the field across the road when I noticed a black cruciform shape circling high overhead. At first I thought it was a distant plane then I realised it couldn't be making that circle unless it was fairly close but high. Catching it in my bins I was surprised to find it was a cormorant. I've never seen one soaring like a bird of prey, I associate them with conspicuously powered flight like a duck or a diver. I spent a few minutes watching it, a surprisingly graceful effort.

Four ring-necked parakeets just flew over the garden, heading off in the direction of the Trafford Centre.

Stretford

Heron, Stretford Ees

My word I needed that walk, just long enough to get past the painful joint barrier and get everything moving the way it's supposed to. Down to Stretford Meadows, past Kickety Brook, through Stretford Ees and back round from the river to Turn Moss and back again. I had a look at going over the motorway and following Ousel Brook to where it meets Kickety Brook because I've not done that bit of walk but the motorway bridge was closed for the duration.

My first willow warbler of the year was singing from the paddock next to the garden centre alongside a chiffchaff and a couple of blackcaps, when all weren't being drowned out by wrens. I wasn't far down the path when a buzzard flew low over and on towards the town centre.

Reed bunting, Stretford Meadows

I had hopes of getting the first whitethroat of the year on the meadows but no joy today. Nice to see a reed bunting flitting around the bushes on the first rise. On the open meadow all the birdlife was overflying: a handful each of swallow, jackdaw and stock dove and a couple of lesser black-backs.

Following the path down by Kickety Brook the trees were busy with blue tits and great tits and more singing blackcaps, chiffchaffs and wrens. The path itself was thick with cyclists. Passing under Chester Road and into Stretford Ees most of the birdsong was robins (they've been quiet at home the past couple of days). A couple of jays flew by and a great spotted woodpecker called and flew off towards Hawthorn Road.

Moorhen, Stretford Ees

The ground becomes more open on the other side of the Bridgewater Canal aquaduct, a pair of herring gulls were fussing about on the field on the other side of the brook. House sparrows and robins were busy in the little hawthorn bushes. Walking along towards the pool at the end of the brook a couple of blue tits shot by and the small flock of goldfinches twittering in the trees by the pool suddenly went quiet. A brute of a female sparrowhawk cruised past and then rose over the river, only to be chased off by a carrion crow that flew in from Turn Moss just for the pleasure of doing so.

A moorhen was mooching round on the pool and a heron was hunting along the far side near the wall. I almost missed the pair of mallard asleep amongst the flag irises. The psychological impact of seeing my first mallard for over a month isn't to be sniffed at!

Stretford Ees, the pool at the end of Kickety Brook

I dropped down to the path by the river, which was considerably more well-behaved than the last time I saw it. A pair of grey wagtails were working their way along the riverside and a couple more mallard dozed on the water.

I decided against continuing on to Chorlton Ees and then either Sale Water Park or Chorlton Water Park, partly because I'm just getting back into the hang of having longer walks but mostly because it was so busy with people. I walked past Turn Moss along Hawthorn Lane and then back home.

Railway journeys: the Furness Line

Sketch map: Morecmabe Bay and the Furness Line

Travelling around a lot by train as I do (or did before the current unpleasantness) I've learned that I can see a lot of birdlife from through the window as we move along. In fact it's easier than by car or bus because there tends to be more open space around the line and chugging along on local lines involves a lot of stopping for points and stations and a leisurely pace between them. Mind you, as I get older my reaction times and eyesight aren't what they used to be so a lot of small brown jobs have to remain small brown jobs these days. Even if the balances are tilted towards larger birds it can still be very rewarding. Travelling on the Furness Line to Barrow is a case in point. I'd spotted the potential travelling to Millom to visit Hodbarrow Reserve and since I found out about the old man's cheap day explorer I've taken to tagging this onto a visit to Leighton Moss.

I'll only be mentioning these key birdwatching sites in passing in this post:

• Pine Lake (a mile from Carnforth Station)
• Leighton Moss (five minutes' walk from Silverdale Station)
• South Walney (about two and a half miles from Barrow-in-Furness Station, I've not done this yet)
• Hodbarrow (about twenty minutes' walk from Millom Station)

Starting from Lancaster make sure you've got a window seat on the left-hand side. These are a few highlights:

• Just after you leave Lancaster the line goes over the River Lune. There are always gulls kicking about, keep an eye out for waders at low tide. The ducks always seem to be mallard.

• Just after the junction with the line to Bare Lane and Morecambe the line comes close to the shore at Hest Bank. You've a fleeting chance of seeing much but there may be curlews, oystercatchers or little egrets in the fields between here and Carnforth,

• Leaving Carnforth the train passes by a stretch of salt marsh which opens up into the pools that you can see from the Eric Morecambe Hide at Leighton Moss. You can get a fair view of these pools as the train slows for the level crossing and Silverdale Station. Shelduck, greylags and little egrets are the most obvious birds along this stretch and pied wagtails can be surprisingly easy to spot. Anything much smaller than a lapwing or redshank will be a challenge. Wigeon, teal and pintail can be seen in the Winter, in the Summer you may find an avocet or two though these are usually on the Allen pool which is a bit further out from the line with a line of trees in the way. You may strike lucky with a great white egret or even one of the Foulshaw opsreys on its way out for a fishing expedition.

• As you leave Arnside the line crosses the Kent Estuary then runs along the salt marsh into Grange over Sands. Gulls, shelduck and little egrets tend to be the easiest to see from the train. The views can be rather nice, too.

Arnside

Approaching Grange-over-Sands

• The line carries on besides the salt marsh between Grange and Kents Bank then runs inland over to Cark. Not long after Cark you return to a long stretch of salt marsh then the long bridge over the River Leven. Most of the waders will be redshanks and oystercatchers, if it's low tide check the muddy creeks close to the line just in case. You might find a couple of red-breasted mergansers in the deeper channels and you may also see the odd group of eiders.

Leven Estuary

From here on in it's inland through farmland and small towns to Barrrow in Furness. If the train times are kind you may be able to make a connection for the Cumbrian Coast Line to Carlisle. It's a short hop on here to Millom where in Summer you can spend a couple of hours walking round Hodbarrow for the little terns that nest in the mixed tern colony.

Local patch

Kestrel, Barton Clough

First "exercise walk" and shopping trip for over a week (I feel a fraud for having gone into lockdown for hayfever!)  What I hadn't counted on was just how stressed-out I'd become leaving the house: it was a good ten minutes into the walk before I stopped feeling anxious about going out (helped a lot by the first two swallows of the year flying overhead). If I hadn't had the walk first I'd be back at home shaking. A nice walk and everyone — including me — being perfectly sensible and friendly.

It was mid-afternoon so fairly quiet birdwise. A pair of robins fussed around the base of one of the poplars and a great tit called further down the avenue. There were a few woodpigeons about and half the usual contingent of magpies. I didn't see any blackbirds until I got to the end of the path.

Carrying on it looked at first as if it was going to be just as quiet in the old cornfield. It took a while but in the end I found three chiffchaffs, though only one singing, and three singing blackcaps. A buzzard very quietly floated into the copse by the school. Birds flying over head included a kestrel, a couple of lesser black-backs and the third swallow of the day.

On the way home back through the park the kestrel was calling from one of the sycamores and a chaffinch was singing from the bowling green pavilion.

Grisly goings-on

A fairly quiet day. Both the crow's nest and the magpie's nest seem to have been abandoned with nothing doing the past couple of days.

A couple of lesser black-backed gulls spent half an hour on the school playing field, making a racket and displaying to each other. They disappeared for ten minutes then reappeared, one of them carrying what looked like a mole. It made a bad fist of trying to swallow it whole in flight and dropped it on landing. The two of them spent a good half minute staring at the dead lump of meat on the ground then set to a couple of minutes' tug-o-war, eventually getting half a meal each.

Milestones

Mallard

These are strange times. It's been exactly a month since I last saw a coot, mallard or mute swan.

Have had a few very noisy lesser black-backs over, and a couple landed on the school playing field to tussle with a carrion crow over what looked like the remains of a chicken dinner.

Home alone

Woodpigeon

I've concluded that the coughs and sniffles are the usual Spring overlay of allergies onto asthma but I'll still stay in full lockdown until next week just to be on the safe side. Not for the first time I envy people who live very close to prime birdwatching spots!

Start of the day was a dozen house sparrows hunting for aphids on the roses and boysenberry near the living room window. A couple of cock sparrows had a rummage round the window itself, picking off spiders. I hope they missed the zebra spider, I was getting quite fond of that.

I noticed the female coal tit quietly coming into the garden at lunchtime and slipping back out just as quietly, unlike the male who makes both a noisy entrance and noisy exit. He came in slightly later than usual, nearly quarter to four.

Been a week since I've seen the long-tailed tits, which I hope means they're busy nest-building somewhere. The jackdaws have given up on nesting in the chimney pot because they get too much hassle from the woodpigeons. There's no animosity there, it's just the woodpigeons' favourite singing perch.

The rooks have definitely taken over the crow's nest and the magpies seem to be tidying up their old nest.

Collared dove

Home

Male starling

A lone lesser black-back on the school playing field this morning. And thirty-two woodpigeons combing the grass clippings for oddments.

I had thought a pair of woodpigeons had been nest-building in the conifer at the end of the garden but this weekend's atrocious winds don't seem to have dislodged anything so either I was mistaken or I've sorely underestimated the quality of nest building of your average woodpigeon.

Blackcap, song thrush, wren and blackbird are still singing lustily. The robin's cut his singing down to dawn, dusk and mid afternoon, which suggests he's busy. As are the sparrows: they're spending most of the day frantically scouring the sycamore buds for aphids. One of the coal tits comes into the garden regularly between quarter-past and half-past three every afternoon.

A common blue in April seems a bit early but given the mildness of the Winter it's not altogether surprising.

More soap opera

Pear blossom

It looks like the rooks have managed to evict the carrion crows from the nest after all. A pair of them were fussing round it this afternoon. The original pair of crows were hanging round in one of the trees in the corner nearest the railway station in the company of the other pair that have been kicking about (no, I can't tell which is which).

I was putting some garden trimmings in the compost bin when I noticed a bird of prey flying North. I couldn't identify it by eye and by the time I got my bins it was fairly distant but just identifiable as a rather pale buzzard.

The song thrush that had been a regular element of the dawn chorus hadn't been around for a few days but it's back today, which is good news.

We've been having butterflies in the garden for over a week: peacocks, a couple of commas and a few green-veined whites. The first orange tip of the year turned up today.

Self-isolation

Woodpigeons billing and cooing

Over the past couple of days I've acquired a new cough. The school playing field across the road was cut on Thursday, ditto the little playing field on the other side of the railway line, and everybody and his dog was mowing the lawn on Good Friday so in any other circumstances I'd assume it was just an allergic reaction and the catarrh was making me cough. These aren't normal times and according to the NHS site a new cough could be a COVID-19 symptom so I'm self-isolating for a week (at least) so's I don't run the risk of infecting anybody. A pain in the arse but better safe than sorry.

Yesterday as I was giving the cat her breakfast a couple of lesser black-backed gulls were making a commotion on the field across the road. This morning it was a pair of herring gulls. There's definitely some sort of passage of large gulls going on. A lone Canada goose flying over at rooftop height was a surprise.

A blackcap has set up camp on the railway embankment at the end of the garden. I always struggle to get my ear in properly with warblers every Spring. The blackcaps' practice runs at song sound very much like those of the robin and it's only when they first properly start singing that I'm sure of them. When the whitethroats arrive later I'll wonder what I'm listening to until one starts churring at me. And then I'll bump into a garden warbler and spend ages trying to work out whether it's a blackcap or not. Strangely, I don't have a problem with lesser whitethroat. It's a problem that'll be postponed this year: the blackcap's here now, we probably won't have the usual whitethroats at the railway station this year as they had to clear a lot of the scrub to get the equipment in for extending the platforms and we only get the occasional garden warbler and those usually singing in June.

Home

If I'm being honest I'm struggling a bit psychologically with this bright sunny weather. The local open spaces are full of people desperately trying to keep their distance from each other and I don't really want to be adding to that pressure (suburban planning doesn't work well in these circumstances as it's predicated on the assumption that most of the time people will be elsewhere at school or work or shopping or meeting friends out and about so there's not really all that much open space per capita when everyone's got to stay within a short walk from home).

I'm not sure who the permanent occupiers of the crows' nest in the alder tree down the road are going to be. A pair of carrion crows set up shop and then saw off another couple of crows who've gone to the other corner of the school and built a nest in one of the oak trees. This week a pair of rooks have been showing an interest in the property. I'd bet on a carrion crow against a rook in a fair fight but rooks are the better at wars of attrition, I suspect in the end the crows will win over, I wouldn't put it past the rooks to take over the magpies' old nest despite the magpies' keeping a proprietorial eye on it.

Judging by the saucy goings-on along the back fence and the sudden interest of the magpies the woodpigeons have set up a nest in the conifer at the bottom of the garden. Most days now when I look out over the school playing field there'll be between twenty and fifty woodpigeons feeding out there with a couple of dozen jackdaws. The other day it was given the first grass cutting of the year which seems to have been the signal for the last of the Winter starlings to make a move and we're now down to the usual half a dozen pairs. The house sparrows seem to be busy with nests, too: most of the day a couple of posses of males do the rounds, the hens joining in full family visits early in the morning and again late afternoon.

While I was standing at the front door counting jackdaws and woodpigeons a couple of tiny specks caught my eye as they floated across the edge of a cloud. It turned out to be a pair of buzzards soaring high over Trafford Park . This triggered an irrational impulse to spend ten minutes scanning an otherwise empty sky for swallows, martins or perhaps an osprey or one of the Isle of Wight's white-tailed eagles or something. I didn't expect to say this but I can't wait for some bad weather so I can go for a walk.

Postscript: I'd just posted this when a blackcap flew in and started singing. Perhaps it's not so bad after all.

Crosby Marine Lake and Seaforth Local Nature Reserve

Sketch map of Crosby Marine Lake

For a small area this can be very productive birdwatching even though for most of us access to Seaforth Nature Reserve is limited to seeing what we can see through the perimeter fence (I've no idea how you get a permit to get in). It's also extremely accessible: trains call at Waterloo Station every quarter of an hour and there are plenty of buses between Great Crosby and Liverpool running through this area, as well as the hourly bus to Lunt and thence to Kirkby. From the station or the bus stops just walk down to the end of South Road (the main road), cross the road at Marine Terrace and you're at the lake. It can get quite busy with walkers and families having a day out but this doesn't seem to bother the birds as much as you'd expect.

This is the only walk I always do counterclockwise. I think it's partly a matter of getting my eye in at the little "boating pond" by the marine lake but mostly because it seems to fit the weather conditions better.

The "boating pond."

Once through the gates and past the café I take the path on the right leading onto a big pond (I've seen this referred to as "the boating pond," and while I've never seen anyone playing with model boats on it it's as good a description as any). As far as birdwatching's concerned there's more action on this pond than there is on the lake itself (but check the lake out anyway, you never know your luck). Mallard, mute swan, Canada goose coot and tufted duck are resident; there's usually a goldeneye or two in Winter and every so often a long-tailed duck will spend the Winter (I think this Winter's female is still there). The gulls are always worth checking, just in case. Back when ring-billed gulls were regular Winter vagrants and hung around for a bit you had a fair chance of picking one up here but those days seem to be long gone. There is a significant Spring passage of little gulls up the Sefton Coast and you've a good chance of finding one or two hawking for midges over the pond. There's a much smaller Spring passage of black terns, I'm nearly always a day or two too early or late for catching one here.

I nearly trod on this grey phalarope when it visited the boating pond back in September 2018. It was quite happy to run around people's feet entirely oblivious to anything above the ankle.

At high tide gulls and a few waders roost on the far side of the pond (unless disturbed by dogs or walkers). The waders are usually oystercatchers and black-tailed godwits, sometimes the odd redshank or turnstone. The far end of the pond slopes into the dunes, the little bit of "beach" at the margin sometimes attracts smaller waders and the occasional spotted redshank. It's worth checking the shore of the lake at this point for the same reason.

The small passerines around here are mostly goldfinches, linnets, pied wagtails, meadow pipits and skylarks. This is the start of a long stretch of sandy grasslands along the Sefton Coast which even now is densely-populated with skylarks. There's usually a pair of stonechats somewhere amongst the sea buckthorns and the occasional reed bunting. In Winter it's worth checking the dunes and the beach for snow buntings, they're usually just passing by but once in a while one will stay a few days.

One of the "Another Place" statues

When you get to the beach one of the first things you'll see, but not necessarily recognise at first, is the beginning of a huge Anthony Gormley installation called "Another Place." It's an arrray of life-size statues stretching the length of Crosby Beach. They're a bit unnerving at first, especially the ones standing out at sea when the tide's coming in.

Crosby Beach and the coastguard station.
Before the security clampdown post 9/11 you could walk down to the station. It was a good point for watching Leach's petrels in the mouth of the Mersey.

Most of the time you'll be seeing waders as distant dots on the beach unless you walk out towards the tideline. Even when the tide's coming in the waders don't come in close, they go straight to roost on Seaforth Nature Reserve. Most of the waders are oystercatchers, redshanks and dunlin with a few curlews dotted about. In Winter there are usually sanderlings running through the tide like clockwork mice. Gulls and, in Summer, terns move around between the sea and the nature reserve. Most of the terns are common terns with a few Sandwich terns, you might find an Arctic tern or two. Strong winds in late Autumn and Winter may bring a kittiwake or a great skua close enough to shore to identify. Looking further out, towards the wind farms, you may see Manx shearwaters skimming over the waves.

Sanderlings, Crosby Beach

At the end of the beach there's a path leading to a locked gate. Back before the security clampdown after 9/11 you could walk down the path here, checking out the bit of damp grassy gravel at this end of the nature reserve in the hope of finding a little stint amongst the ringed plovers and doing a bit of Autumn seawatching looking out for Leach's petrels. Instead now you have to walk away.

The good news is that you walk most of the length of the boundary fence and get a fair view of most of the pools in the reserve and a much better view of the stretch of rabbit-clipped grass by the fence than you can get from within the reserve. Finches, mostly goldfinches and linnets, chatter around the bushes. In Autumn it's a good idea to spend a bit of time scanning the bushes round here for warblers, particularly as there's always a possibility one may be a yellow-browed warbler. The dunes and grassy areas round here are best in Spring when there's a passage of small passerines, mostly wagtails and wheatears. At this time of year white wagtails easily outnumber pied wagtails and can be very confiding. Yellow (and, if you're very lucky blue-headed) wagtails keep their distance on the other side of the fence, as do the wheatears though they'll occasionally go down to feed on the seaweed on the beach. (Just to complete the set, grey wagtails do visit occasionally.) At high tide there's a patch of this area that will have large groups roosting curlew and black-tailed godwits. Depending on the weather there may also be a group of loafing large gulls, mostly herring gulls. There are usually plenty of lapwings to be found dotted round the reserve.

White wagtail, Crosby Marina

Wheatear, Crosby Beach

Blue-headed wagtail, Seaforth NR
I think this is a "Channel wagtail" type.

The pools are a bit distant from here and quite a lot is obscured from view by ridges and vegetation but as you walk along you'll see a fair bit of them though the light might render everything on the pool closest to the coastguard station into silhouette. The most obvious birds year-round are the cormorants, Canada geese and shelduck. The wader roosts at high tide will be mostly oystercatchers, redshanks, black-tailed godwits and curlew. Less frequently you may see bar-tailed godwit or whimbrel. The small waders are more difficult to see and identify, unless they've been spooked by a merlin or peregrine. Most will be dunlin, in Winter there could also be knot. In Summer the place is heaving with common terns, you might find an Arctic tern or two and there'll also be a few Sandwich terns around. Little gulls and black gulls pass through on Spring passage and if you're lucky in Summer a little tern will drop by.

Eventually the bushes get too thick for progress and you have to drop back down to the marine lake. As you're walking along keep an ear out for finches and warblers in the trees between the path and the reserve. Just before you get to the car park there's an opening in the fence that lets you walk across the grass into the nature area. This is a small, shallow pond surrounded by trees and a boardwalk. A good spot for getting chiffchaff, willow warbler and sedge warbler onto the visit list.

Stretford

Victoria Park, Stretford

I thought I'd best extend today's walk because I (physically and mentally) needed the exercise. I considered a stroll over Stretford Meadows but I want to save that for when I need to go into Stretford for the shops (the plan being to go over the meadows, past Kickety Brook then along the path on Stretford Ees to come back onto Chester Road and thence the shops).

As a compromise I decided on a route that took me through a couple of little parks and then a loop back. So I crossed over at the station, walked down to Moss Park, then down to Victoria Park and then back home. A mile and a bit each way, with the advantage that I'd be recording for three one-kilometre squares on BirdTrack. It's eerie walking down nearly empty streets, like going for a stroll very early on a Summer's Sunday. The parks were modestly busy but it was easy enough for everyone to keep their distance from each other.

Nothing desperately exciting about but a nice change. The most striking thing was the number of chaffinches: half a dozen singing in each park whereas it's been a couple of weeks since I last saw any at all in Lostock Park. It's odd that our being in a small triangle bounded by the railway, Trafford Park factories and the motorway should have such a bearing on the presence — or not — of chaffinches. It was also nice to hear a nuthatch, though frustrating not to be able to find it in its ash tree despite the lack of foliage for them to hide behind.

The thin passage of lesser black-backed gulls continues, just odd ones and twos, all drifting generally Southwards.

Local patch

Mistle thrush, Lostock Park

I waited until teatime for a walk around the local patch in the hopes of missing most of the visitors to the park. By the time I arrived at the park most were on their way home  and by the time I was leaving there were just three of us: me, the bloke walking his dog a field away and the jogger who barged me off the path.

Eighteen blackbirds about, which got me thinking. I've been assuming that the couple of dozen or so blackbirds I'd be seeing on a Winter visit would be mostly migrants from the continent come over with the redwings and fieldfares but it could be that a good number of them are residents after all. Seven singing robins, seven singing wrens and three singing greenfinches bode well. Just the one singing chiffchaff again, the one over by the flyover, and that was spending most of its time making its contact call.

Besides the inevitable pigeons and woodpigeons the only overflying birds were lesser black-backs and a couple of herring gulls. It seems strange to not be seeing any black-headed gulls.

Magpie, Lostock Park

Closer to home, I noticed a second crow's nest on the corner of the school by what used to be the library. The magpies over there will be pleased.

Back home the inevitable happened: the first ring-necked parakeet made a fleeting visit to my garden.

Signs and portents

I was counting the jackdaws on the school playing field opposite when I heard an unfamiliar "cronk." Looking up I saw a raven flying in from Trafford Park. It then wheeled and headed off back where it had come from. I shouted for it to wait a minute while I got my camera but it obviously didn't hear me. They're once in a blue moon birds round here so it was a nice surprise. They're fairly regular visitors to the local mosses but I think Wigan's the closest nesting location (I'd be happy to find out I was wrong).

Long-tailed tit

Things seem to be settling down in the garden with regular visits from pairs of long-tailed tits and goldfinches and the pair of great tits that took residence over Winter have reappeared. The coal tits and blue tits are still around but their appearances are more irregular than they have been, which suggests they may be busy elsewhere. I'm averaging about a dozen house sparrows coming in to feed. There are a few males coming in on their own away from the family parties, I'm not sure if they're a teenage lads' group or if they're supporting hungry nests.

I might be wrong about starling numbers as there's consistently been a couple of dozen of them feeding on the school playing field and at least four of them have been going back to possible nest sites. If I am wrong it might be an idea now to get the orders in for suet blocks to feed the youngsters.

Lockdown

Species accumulation 1st March 2020 — 3rd April 2020

See if you can spot the point at which I went into self-isolation!

Last year on 4th April I was visiting Crossens and Marshside.

Avocet, Marshside

Pine Lake

Sketch map: Carnforth and Pine Lake

Pine Lake is a small holiday resort just outside Carnforth chiefly notable for its Winter ducks which may include smew or even ringed duck.

Pine Lake

Starting from Carnforth Station, it's a short walk to the bus stop on Hawes Hill, by the side of the Station Hotel. The 555 bus between Lancaster and Keswick runs hourly during the day and it's just one stop to Pine Lake. Alternatively you can walk down Market Street and turn left onto the A6 Scotland Road, past the little roundabout by the truck stop and on to the big roundabout where the dual carriageway to the M6 joins the A6. The road to Pine Lake is the second exit. Take care crossing here, the roads can be very busy.

The lake is surrounded by holiday chalets though there are a few places where you can sit by the water's edge. For all that you're in a little island stuck between the A6 and M6 it can feel quite secluded.

Pochards

Tufted ducks

Northwich Flashes: Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash

Sketch map: Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash

Ashton's Flash and Neumann's Flash are part of a complex of woods, lakes and flashes just North of Northwich which eventually lead on to Marbury Country Park and Budworth Mere. The flashes are the result of subsidence caused by salt mining and they were used by the salt and soda industries. It only recently occured to me that they are fairly easy to get to and even then it took the presence of the long-staying Siberian stonechat to bounce me into finally making the trip. Consequently I've a far bit of catching up with it as a birdwatching site and I dare say I'll be coming back and adding to this post.

The hourly local stopping train from Manchester to Chester stops at Northwich Station. Leaving the station through the car park, carry on down the main road, Middlewich Road, to the big roundabout, taking the pedestrian crossing along the way. You're essentially wanting to go straight ahead onto Leicester Street, remember how you got there because it looks more confusing on the way back and you can end up walking into the town centre rather than towards the station. Walk down Leicester Street until you see the sign for the recycling centre down Old Warrington Road. Walk down past the recycling centre and you reach the bridge over Wade Brook. The entrance to Ashton's Flash is on your right just after the bridge.

The paths round the flashes form a figure of eight with the path over the narrow bund between the two forming the cross piece. Ashton's Flash is a collection of small pools set in open, largely scrubby, land. On the Western side there are reeds and scattered bushes. The Eastern side, next to New Warrington Road, is lightly wooded. If you walk clockwise you get to a gate through to the bund between the two flashes.

Ashton's Flash

Shovelers, Ashton's Flash

The bund is thickly planted mostly with birch trees. There are a couple of paths leading off to hide screens overlooking Neumann's Flash. You'll have to follow the rough tracks through the trees to the fence to check out this side of Ashton's Flash. The Siberian stonechat spent most of its time in the scrub on the other side of the fence.

The path along the bund between Ashton's and Neumann's Flashes

Neumann's Flash

Neumann's Flash

Neumann's Flash is larger, more open and possibly deeper than the water on Ashton's Flash. In Winter there are good numbers of wigeon and teal as well as tufted ducks, gadwall and shelduck. Continuing the clockwise path round the flash the wooded areas get thicker, with paths leading off into the Nortwich Woodlands on the Western side. There are a couple more screen hides along the way, one on the Eastern side of the flash and one on the Northern side.

It's worth spending a bit of time checking out the trees around these flashes. Last time I visited a chap showed me a photo of a lesser spotted woodpecker he'd seen round there just half an hour earlier. Needless to say I had no luck finding it myself, but I was more than happy with the visit as I'd finally seen this lovely little thing.

Siberian Stonechat, Ashton's Flash

Home thoughts

After saying pink-footed geese leave the scene quietly in Spring a small skein honked its way overhead last night bound for cooler climes, or more probably the Ribble Estuary for a pit stop.

Starlings

The dawn chorus is starting about 4:30am now the clocks have gone forward. The blackbirds start singing well before dawn, the robins joining in as daylight beckons. The collared doves, woodpigeons and wrens seem to need convincing it really is daytime before they start singing. My garden's well within a robin's territory this year so I'm only seeing the resident pair and no fisticuffs along the fence. I'm not sure if I'm on the margins of blackbird territories or if there's just a stray male trying to muscle in the resident's action. They spend large parts of each morning skipping round each over on the roof of next door's garage before skittering off on the arrival of one of the squirrels or magpies.

Most of the starlings are only coming in for breakfast then spending the day working the school playing field across the road. Otherwise its just the odd one or two of the residents popping in to give the fat balls a bit of hammer. I bought a couple of huge pine cones that had been crammed full of seeds and lard and these have proven very popular with the titmice and long-tailed tits. Their other benefit is that they can't be pecked into disintegration by the starlings so the fat stays on the feeder and not blanketed on the ground beneath.

The carrion crows are still sitting on the nest in the alder tree down the road, which might explain why the magpies seem to have given up on using the usual nest this year. It's only a few trees away from the crow's nest so they might be thinking they'd have been tempting fate. I  have an uneasy feeling that a pair of jackdaws have decided to nest in my chimney. It's spooky enough when they shout down the chimney, I shudder to think how begging youngsters will echo down the house.

Local patch

Woodpigeon

An hour's walk around the park and the waste ground, mostly dodging dog-walkers. One consequence of the lockdown is that places that would normally be very quiet are heaving with people who would ordinarily be at work or out shopping or a hundred other things and are now, like me, only allowed out for their one piece of daily exercise.

• Blackbird 12, 1 singing
• Blue Tit 11
• Carrion Crow 3
• Chiffchaff 1 singing
• Collared Dove 1
• Cormorant 1 overhead
• Dunnock 2 singing
• Feral Pigeon 43
• Goldfinch 12, 2 singing
• Great Tit 6, 3 singing
• Greenfinch 1 singing
• House Sparrow 8
• Jay 1
• Lesser Black-backed Gull 2 overhead
• Long-tailed Tit 2
• Magpie 15
• Mistle Thrush 3, 1 singing
• Robin 10, 8 singing
• Song Thrush 1
• Starling 3, 1 singing
• Woodpigeon 28
• Wren 6 singing

The bit of waste ground behind Barton Clough School

Just this once I'm showing you how narrow this patch really is. On the left the bed of the old freight line and the engineering works. The dark band running centre right is the concrete fence separating this ground from a strip of land owned by United Utilities.