Leighton Moss

Male chaffinch

The weather being set for July's own special brand of dreich I thought I'd take a chance of a visit to Leighton Moss. The trip up's straightforward these days and the trains are still only slightly busier than they have been. I decided that the fifteen swifts screaming over Humphrey Park Station were a good omen.

Juvenile chaffinch

The reserve was a lot quieter than usual, which made for a very pleasant walk within its limits (the path down to the Griesdale and Tim Jackson Hides is still closed). Nearly everyone was very good about giving people space to pass by on the paths and safely distanced in the hides.

The birds have obviously enjoyed the quiet Spring. The feeders by the garden were thick with finches — chaffinches, greenfinches, goldfinches and bullfinches — and tits, mostly great and blue with a couple of marsh tits. A curious thing: there's usually a bunch of robins and pheasants cadging for food off people here and both were absent.

The view from the sky tower

The sky tower's open so I decided to have a look round from up there while I had the chance, just in case Lillian's Hide was busy. There were a lot of coot, gadwall and mallard on the pool (with the usual challenge of picking out the differences between the not quite full grown ducklings of the last two). The black-headed gulls still had a couple of well-grown youngsters, which led to a bit of drama when one of the herons approached too closely and was chased off screaming by an irate parent.

Lillian's Hide was quiet so I didn't feel guilty about spending a bit of time scanning the reedbeds. A couple of dozen swifts and a handful of swallows hawked for insects over the water. A few more black-headed gulls flew in and squabbled noisily. At last, a female marsh harrier lurched out of the reedbed, circled lazily around for a couple of minutes and gently floated back down again.

I followed the one-way system down towards the stream by the visitor centre. This is where I encountered my first robin of the day. There was also a very fine goldcrest with a glowing orange crest popping in and out of the willows by the path.

The trees by the boardwalk to the public causeway are generally good for a couple of robins and a great tit or two. Today it was busy with an unusually early mixed tit flock including great tits, blue tits, a marsh tit family with a couple of youngsters and a treecreeper.

Marsh tit not posing for the camera

Walking along the causeway there were odd noises from wrens, blue tits and a reed buntings. Then, all of a sudden, three marsh harriers — a male and two juveniles — rose up and floated around low over the reeds for a minute or so. Of course they only ever do this when there's a tree and some very high reeds between you and the reedbed so you can't get any decent photos.

A great black-back steamed in a landed on the pool by the causeway. This was a prelude to what was to come when I visited the hide.

Great crested grebe
I think the monster catch is a rudd

Looking out from the hide the first birds to catch the eye were a few mute swans dotted about, a heron sitting by the hide, a distant raft of coot and half a dozen cormorants on the little island with an adult and juvenile great black-back. A few mallard were dotted about, the only ducks to be seen. There were a couple of great crested grebes, one of which swam across the pool proudly grappling with a huge fish which I think was a rudd. The grebe disappeared behind the reeds, I don't know if it had mouths to feed.

Another dozen swifts hawked over the water, joined by a small flock of sand martins. The juvenile great black-back decided to have a swim. The calm was suddenly broken by the calls of a pair of great black-backs which circled overhead calling all awhile. The young black-back quickly swam back to the safety of its very agitated parent. Their moment of mischief done, the miscreants flew off, replaced almost immediately by another pair which landed and settled on the water. The original pair returned and had a shouting match with the others, which prompted a third pair to fly in and join in the fun. After a couple of minutes of noisy posturing two of the pairs flew off.

Great black-back

Walking back along the causeway a Cetti's warbler was calling from the usual place.

I decided to move on. I'd checked the train times and at first it looked possible to max out my old man's explorer ticket with a visit to Millom, until I noticed that the only way back was either via Carlisle and the purchase of a ticket to Lancaster or else getting home in the dark. I also noticed that the trains back home from Barrow were every two hours and left five minutes before the train from Lancaster arrived, which meant mooching around in Barrow in the rain, which didn't appeal. So I decided to get the train out as far as Dalton-in-Furness and change there.

Getting the train was a good call as it started pouring down. It was high tide so there were large numbers of black-headed gulls on the salt marshes between the Kent and Leven. Just before Grange-over-Sands the train flushed a great egret which rose out of one of the little creeks, flew a little way out and disappeared into another creek. As the train crossed the Leven a raft of eiders floated upstream. The rain had eased a little on the way back, I couldn't see the eiders but I did see a herd of a dozen or more mute swans.

I'm glad I took a chance, it was a good day out.