Pennington Flash

Pennington Flash: a white poplar living up to its name

A dreich sort of a day. There'd been reports of a first Summer Arctic tern at Pennington Flash over the past couple of days as well as the return of the regular Egyptian geese and a common sandpiper. As I haven't any of them on the year list I decided this was as good an excuse as any to visit. I held off until mid-afternoon to avoid the worst of the rain.

Walking in from St. Helens Road there were plenty of blackbirds and wrens singing, together with singles of blackcap and chiffchaff. Otherwise, small passerines were unusually inconspicuous even by the standards of this time of year. A nuthatch calling from the car park was unusual.

House martin

The flash held all the usual suspects. There was a large flock of roughly two hundred swifts feeding over the water in two groups, one near the car park and one over towards the Plank Lane end. A dozen or so sand martins were feeding over the sailing club side of the water and half a dozen or so house martins on the car park side.

From the side of the Horrocks Hide I could see a dozen lesser black-backs loafing at the end of the spit with a cormorant, some mallards and a few black-headed gulls. More black-headed gulls were loafing about near the entrance to the pool by the Ramsdale Hide. There were a few more great-crested grebes than I saw on my last visit but still not as many as usual. A couple of pairs of oystercatchers were feeding on the spit.

On the pool across the path from the Tom Edmondson Hide a pair of moorhens and a coot were fighting over the ownership of an old coot's nest. A reed warbler sang from the reeds here and a small flock of house martins fed over the water.

Spot the common sandpiper!

The pool by the Ramsdale Hide was busy with mallards, lapwings and dabchicks. A pair of coots were accompanied by three very young chicks. No sign of the little ringed plovers this time but I managed to spot a common sandpiper before it disappeared behind a screen of vegetation. There were a few more warblers here: a couple of blackcaps, a willow warbler and a chiffchaff sang from the trees and the usual Cetti's warbler sang from the rank vegetation at the corner where the paths split.

Juvenile great crested grebe

Walking back I had a squint around the screen at the Tom Edmondson Hide and was rewarded with a couple of juvenile great crested grebes and a willow tit.

I finally saw the Arctic tern halfway out from the sailing club when I'd given up on it and was having one of those last casts round before heading for the bus when it started circling a yacht. Definitely a first Summer "commic tern," as it drifted closer the dusty grey upper wings without strong dark markings and the pale primaries said Arctic. Another Cetti's warbler sang out from the other side of the flash near the East Bay Hide.

Two additions to the year list and a long bus ride home.

There was a sign of the change of season when I just looked out over the school playing fields over the road: the first post-breeding flock of black-headed gulls, just two dozen harbingers of Autumn.