Third time unlucky

Mute swan cygnets and mallard by the Bolton and Bury Canal

I was running an errand that way so I thought I'd bob over to Elton Reservoir to see if the third time would be the charm and I'd get to see the bar-tailed godwit that's been hanging round these past weeks.

Anyway…

I decided to get the Trafford Centre tram home rather than the Altrincham tram. I thought I'd see what there was in the way of gulls and waterfowl on Salford Quays. Roughly a hundred gulls, mostly black-headed with a couple of dozen lesser black-backs and a few herring gulls; ten mute swans and a handful of coots and mallards.

The tram stopped at lights in Trafford Park Village. "There's something odd about that pied wagtail on that roof," I thought to myself. There was nothing odd about it except that it was a female or first Winter black redstart. I've seen reports of them round here over the years but it's the first time I've seen one.

Mosses

Kestrel, Hepzibah Farm, Irlam Moss

This being the last day of the week without any rain weather warnings I had a walk over the local mosses, the plan being to walk up from Irlam Station, have a nosy round Little Woolden Moss and walk down for the Urmston train from Glazebrook. The weather forecast was for sun, showers and wind, in the event the showers were short and light and caused no hassle.

Irlam Moss

Walking up Astley Road onto Irlam Moss I was trying to work out who was who in a mixed tit flock in the hedgerow when I accidentally disturbed a female sparrowhawk. She flew off in high dudgeon with half a chaffinch in her claws. Further along a flock of half a dozen fieldfares and a few redwings were finishing off the last of the berries in a couple of hawthorn bushes. 

Fieldfares, Irlam Moss

The fields of mown turf are usually deserts save the usual couple of kestrels. Today was different: one held a flock of seventy-odd pigeons; another had three dozen lapwings, twenty-odd black-headed gulls and a flock of sixty starlings. A stonechat on the fence in one of the paddocks was good to see.

Grey wagtail, Irlam Moss

Pied wagtails had been flitting round between the fields from the first, I was surprised to find a grey wagtail feeding along the path as I approached the motorway bridge. I was impressed by how the colours of a grey wagtail match the wet greys and yellows of leaves on mud.

Kestrel, Irlam Moss

Scanning the field just before Four Lanes End I found a couple of stock doves among the woodpigeons. As I was watching them I noticed a kerfuffle further down on the other side of Twelve Yards Road with woodpigeons, jackdaws and black-headed gulls whirling about in a panic. It took me a while to find the merlin that had put the wind up them as it zoomed off into the distance. I'd expected a peregrine but I wouldn't put it past a merlin to have a go at a larger bird. (Of course, there might have been a peregrine as well but I didn't spot one.)

Little Woolden Moss

Little Woolden Moss was odd. Flocks of fieldfares and starlings flew over, meadow pipits, wood pigeons and carrion crows flew over in ones and twos and a mixed tit flock worked its way along the birches by the path. Halfway down the path a skein of 250+ pink-feet flew overhead, three dozen of them peeling off and flying over towards Glazebury amid much noise, the rest heading off towards Astley. But on the water there was nothing, even on the bunds at the Western end of the reserve. Three ruddy darters hawking round the dead bracken by the path are likely contenders for last dragonflies of the year.

Female stonechat, Little Woolden Moss

First Winter male stonechat, Little Woolden Moss

I'd got to the end of the path and was approaching the nursery beds thinking I'd made a mistake in not turning into Twelve Yards Road and walking down to Barton Moss. Then something orange caught my eye and disappeared just as quickly. This was joined by another something, and another. They moved closer to the path and slowed down a bit, pausing here and there to have a look round before dashing off again, then coming back. A family of stonechats: an adult pair and two first Winters. I watched them awhile as we all moved on, last I saw of them they were making a mockery of the bird scarers on one of the nursery beds.

Stonechats, Little Woolden Moss

Male stonechat, Little Woolden Moss

Five buzzards were feasting on worms on the field opposite Little Woolden Hall while a sixth flew off into the trees. I've never seen that many in one place before. I didn't have to wait long to repeat the experience: as I walked into Glazebury there were another five buzzards sharing a field with a couple of dozen black-headed gulls and rooks.

Little Woolden Moss

I'd missed the train so I walked down into Cadishead to get the bus to Irlam to get the train home from there.

Wirral

Snow bunting, Leasowe

All the weather forecasts said wet and windy but not as bad as yesterday so I decided to have a day at the seaside while sensible people stayed at home.

After having a carriage to myself into Liverpool I just missed the West Kirby train at Lime Street Station. The new Merseyrail timetables are running every half hour so I got the next Wirral-bound train, which was the one to New Brighton.

It had been raining all the length of the journey from Manchester, on arrival at New Brighton it was sunny. As it happens, it only lasted half an hour before the wind brought in some filthy weather but the light was brilliant for photography.

Carrion x hooded crow, New Brighton

The tide was in retreat and most of the gulls on the beach were black-headed and lesser black-backs, the herring gulls were loafing by the shoreline. Just singles of great black-back and common gull. As usual there were a few dozen redshanks and just under a hundred oystercatchers. 

One of the crows flying into the beach was interesting. When it landed it looked like it had a scruffily-moulting breast with lots of pale underfeathers showing. When in flight it looked quite different: a grey breast and grey back like a badly defined short tabard. A carrion crow/hooded crow hybrid. I bump into birds like this perhaps once every other Winter.

Redshank, New Brighton

Little egret, New Brighton

I moved on to Leasowe, the idea being to have a nosey round Kerr's Field and Leasowe Lighthouse, have a quick scan of the beach then jack it in before I got too wet.

Walking along the Birkett from Leasowe Station it was certainly wet and windy though the trees provided some cover. (I'm always a bit nervous of willow trees in high winds). No ducks on the river, just a few moorhens, and a juvenile raven high up in one of the willows made it quite clear it didn't like me.

Grey wagtail, Kerr's Field

The weather calmed down a bit as I approached Kerr's Field. A flock of mallards dabbled in the big puddles in one of the horse paddocks. The paddock that's a magnet for yellow wagtails and wheatears in Spring held three lapwings, a small flock of starlings and a dozen pied wagtails. Scanning round the edges of the field I also found a mistlethrush and a nice female grey wagtail.

It had become sunny though the wind was blowing a hooley so I headed straight for the walkway along the sea front to see what was out there. Hundreds of oystercatchers and dozens of redshanks and herring gulls were the most immediately obvious birds. A few minutes' scanning round found a dozen each of little egrets and curlews, a pair of shelduck and half a dozen cormorants far out on the shoreline. I was musing to myself that come the cold weather this would be a good place to find snow buntings when a couple of small birds hopped off the sea defences and onto the path by my feet.

Snow buntings, Leasowe

Snow bunting, Leasowe

Snow bunting, Leasowe

Snow bunting, Leasowe

The buntings might have been a pair: one, possibly a male, had a distinctly paler head with a wider white collar. Both were ridiculously tame and accompanied me on my walk for the best part of a mile, only parting company with me just before the groyne. The big problem I had was that they were too close for the autofocus on my camera and my eyesight's none too reliable for focussing manually, still I got some passable photos. The buntings didn't mind people walking past but flitted well out of the reach of any dogs coming along the path. Their alarm call was an odd little trill that reminded me of that of a turnstone though softer and more mellow.

As I approached the groyne there were odd ones and two of knot feeding on the mud and a couple of turnstones feeding on stranded seaweed. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realise the bird fossicking round in a wet hollow was a greenshank, my first for the year. Another surprise was a female goldeneye which suddenly flew up from behind the sea defences.

The other side of the groyne there was less variety but more birds. Between the groyne and the end of Meols Parade there were a couple of hundred knots feeding close by accompanied by a few dozen oystercatchers and redshanks and a couple of little egrets. A small party of dunlin were skittering around the creeks and pools a bit further out and a hundred or so oystercatchers were loafing out in the mid distance. There were a couple of curlews feeding quite close in, with a dozen or so feeding out in the distance.

Knot, Meols

Knot, Meols

Curlews, Meols

Curlews, Meols

Walking along Meols Parade I spotted an oddly dark sandpiper feeding on its own close by the sea wall. As I got closer I realised it was a purple sandpiper. I don't often see them this early and it was nice to see one away from New Brighton for a change. I had the same problem with this bird that I had with the snow buntings; luckily not all of the photographs are out of focus. We kept in pace awhile until it found something particularly interesting in between some rocks and I left it to it.

Purple sandpiper, Meols

Purple sandpiper, Meols

It had turned out to be a very lovely afternoon. I like walking by the sea this time of year: the light's brilliant, the birdwatching's usually good and I don't mind if the wind's fierce so long as it's not raining too hard. As it happens the wind was blowing heavy rain in but always half a mile or so inland of where I was walking.

Shelduck, Meols

I'd only intended walking halfway down the parade then getting the train from Meols Station but I ended up walking on down nearly into Hoylake and got the train from Manor Road. As the sun set slowly in the West and just before I set off for the station I got one last cherry on the cake as a flock of brent geese flew across the horizon towards Hilbre.

A better day's birdwatching that I'd expected. I'd only walked about five miles in total though it felt more as nearly all of it was walking into a strong headwind.

Meols beach

Stretford

Meadow pipit, Stretford Meadows

Definitely an Autumnal Sunday but seeing as it was likely to be the only dry day for a while I decided to go for a stroll over Stretford Meadows and Stretford Ees.

Stretford Meadows was in quiet Winter mode: a complete lack of warblers, squadrons of woodpigeons and jackdaws overhead, magpies and meadow pipits on the meadow. A buzzard soared overhead, joined briefly by a flock of pigeons which did a slow circle round it before continuing on its way over the motorway. Just the one kestrel today, the big female spending most of her time hawking from the saplings at the Newcroft Road side of the meadow.

Buzzard, Stretford Meadows

It was a busy afternoon so I spent more time dodging cyclists than birdwatching as I walked down along Kickety Brook. A mixed tit flock accompanied me part of the way, disappearing into the undergrowth just before Chester Road. Over on the other side it was difficult to hear anything over the noise of a dozen or more magpies (it was difficult to be sure of the number, they were skittering about in the trees). A couple more buzzards soared overhead, these headed off slowly towards Sale Water Park.

Stretford Ees, the terminus of Kickety Brook

I followed the brook through Stretford Ees, accompanied by another mixed tit flock and a few goldfinches. A family group of carrion crows split their time between the treetops by the cemetery and the river. Overhead was busy with jackdaws and woodpigeons, a couple of black-headed gulls flew by and a raven cronked its way over towards Chorlton.

I wasn't up for spending much time with Chorlton on its Sunday constitutional so I walked over Turn Moss, accompanied by yet another mixed tit flock most of the way along Hawthorn Lane.

Hawthorn Lane

Home thoughts

I didn't make a conscious decision to take most weekends off from birdwatching, it started as an avoidance of crowd scenes and it sort of settled into a pattern. Days like today don't help break the pattern: all today's weather is good for is sitting in a bus shelter on a wet promenade trying to do a bit of seawatching with the aid of a lot of anti-misting wipes.

It's been quiet in the garden, partly because this is a time of plenty on the railway embankment, partly because the blackbirds and thrushes have had every berry off the rowan tree, and partly because the feeders are nearly empty after the sparrows have eaten me out of house and home. I've been out and bought a big bag of sunflower seeds and two huge pine cones laden with fat and seeds so that should see them and the tit flock through the week.

Lots of things seem early this Autumn but not the Winter starlings. The local breeding flock dispersed to take advantage of the local farmland in mid-August and there have only been odd ones and two floating round since. Ordinarily I'd have expected a dozen or so to have lingered on the school playing field but this year numbers of everything are down on there. It isn't often I'm seeing more than a dozen rooks and gull numbers are low for the time of year. The twenty-two black-headed gulls seem to be a fixture but the larger gulls seem to be mostly passing through. There's usually a couple of common gulls — today there's a couple of adults and a first-Winter — and less than a handful of herring gulls and lesser black-backs. Today it's four herring gulls, yesterday it was three lesser black-backs and a herring gull. This time of year I keep an eye out for yellow-legged gulls, there's usually a thin passage of first- and second-Winter birds through Greater Manchester and if I'm lucky one of them will stop here for an hour or two. The other day I thought I caught sight of an adult but it went and landed on one of the buildings in the middle of the site and you can't go pointing your binoculars at a school.

I'm trying to work out the effect of our moving into "Pandemic Tier 3." Looking at the letter of the regulations and advice it seems that as far as my going birdwatching is concerned it's still business as usual though it would be sensible to be careful about the use of public transport and continue to avoid the rush hour and school kicking-out time. Now the weather's changed and buses are more likely to become badly-ventilated places there'll be a lot more care to be taken whatever tier we sit on.

Horwich

Belmont Road

I'd overslept and so was too late for the planned visit to the seaside (it was too late to get my money's worth for the train tickets) and I didn't fancy the hanging round for the best part of an hour for the Southport train to have a wander round Marshside or Martin Mere (I haven't worked out a way round that that doesn't take just as long for more effort). So I decided to go and have a wander up to Horwich to give my knees and wind a bit of a workout.

I got the 125 bus up Old Chorley Road to Georges Lane and walked up the lane. The weather wasn't sure what it was doing except that it wasn't doing it for more than five minutes at a time. The one constant was the wind blowing straight across the lane from the West Lancashire Plain. A family of carrion crows divided their time between playing in the wind and harassing either of the pair of kestrels that were hunting over the fields. 

Kestrel, Georges Lane

A raven cronked overhead as I approached the edge of Wilderswood. A couple of jays and a blackbird called from the woods and a carrion crow scared a flock of half a dozen fieldfares out of one of the hawthorn bushes down the hill.

Further along another pair of kestrels were hovering over the moors, another couple of targets for marauding crows. I got myself a cup of tea from the cottage shop and sat to admire the view. Just down the hill a mixed flock of rooks and black-headed gulls fed in a field that held sheep on my last visit here. A large flock of gulls — black-headed and a few common gulls — rose up from Lower Rivington Reservoir but I couldn't see what set them up and they floated back down fairly quickly. Shortly afterwards a first-Winter great black-back flew over, pursued by a carrion crow.

The view from Georges Lane

Cup of tea over I wandered up Belmont Road to have a look over the small conifer plantations in the hope there may be a few crossbills still around (there weren't). Windswept but still interested I decided that on the way back down Georges Lane I'd take a detour down the path that forms the Southern boundary of Wilderswood then down Factory Hill to Old Chorley Road. I think Wilderswood would definitely be worth a bit of exploration in its own right come Spring.

I bumped into Bridge Street Local Nature Reserve before I got to the main road. It's a small stretch where a couple of streams intersect in a narrow ribbon of woodland and a pleasant ten minutes' wander.

Back home for a pot of tea and the earthly consequences of spending an afternoon listening to hillside streams gurgling and bubbling along the lanes and paths.

By Belmont Road

Etherow Country Park

Mandarin ducks

It was pouring down with rain but I was feeling fidgety so I bobbed over to Etherow Country Park to take pictures of mandarin ducks hiding from the rain.

Mandarin duck

I haven't seen the place this quiet before, it gave me the opportunity to properly enjoy the beech woods along the canal.

Etherow Country Park

Etherow Country Park

Ernocroft Wood from across the river

Bar humbug

Bolton and Bury Canal, Radcliffe

It was rankling with me that I still haven't got bar-tailed godwit on the year list and that the long-standing individual at Elton Reservoir has evaded me. So I toddled off to have another try. Long story cut short: "It was showing well up to ten minutes ago then an idiot shouting into his mobile 'phone scared it into hiding." I gave it twenty minutes to reappear and gave up. I've an errand to run near there later this month so I'll have another go then.

A bright sunny day and quite warm until the clouds rolled in. Needless to say, after a bright morning it started raining when I got to the station. A small flock of fieldfares over Trafford Park Station was another hint of Winter. 

Nay matter, it was bright enough when I got off the tram at Radcliffe. I wandered down the canal and waved and exchanged "How you doings" with a friend I bumped into. The sheep in the fields on the other side of the canal were accompanied by Canada geese and black-headed gulls. Blackbirds were busy in the hawthorn hedge by the towpath and a family of house sparrows chattered noisily in the bushes by the Withins Lane bridge. A few yards ahead a dozen remarkably quiet redwings flew overhead in the direction of Bury town centre.

Goosanders, River Irwell

A quick nosy at the River Irwell was rewarded by a heron and a trio of goosanders.

A pair of kestrels hovered over the field approaching Elton Reservoir. About a hundred black-headed gulls and a couple of dozen lesser black-backs were on the reservoir and I was glad to see a dozen great crested grebes about. I scanned the rafts of coots and tufted ducks for anything out of the ordinary and saw lots of coots and tufted ducks.

I had a look at the flooded field the godwit has been reported as being on. Lots of jackdaws and black-headed gulls with the horses (and for the first time ever not a single pied wagtail), no godwit. I noticed a couple of birders on the bank of the reservoir who looked to be staking out the field. I asked them if they'd had any joy with the bird. Ah well. I thanked them and wished them luck.

There's always the next time.

Johnny Brown's shrike

Brown shrike, Johnny Brown's Common

I thought I'd have an adventure before we go into a new lockdown so I went over to South Kirkby to see if the weekend's brown shrike was still about.

It's a nice trip out to the nearest station, Moorthorpe. The National Rail web set recommends going via Leeds but I find that if I go via Sheffield it's five minutes slower but just over a pound cheaper and instead of trying to navigate Leeds Station I get a trip through the Peak District.

I got to Moorthorpe Station and made my first mistake: instead of relying on my memory of earlier visits I followed Google Maps' directions which led me to a footpath that only exists if you climb over somebody's garage. (Google Maps is very good on public transport directions but hit-and-miss on pedestrian travel.) My second direction was to follow some birders down an apparent shortcut along a path through a field of potatoes. Unfortunately it didn't lead into the field further along, it ran very close to the bushes the bird was frequenting. So I turned back and went the long way round, which was no hardship.

Looking at the shrike

It was a very good-natured twitch, a couple of dozen people trying to keep a social distance while helping newcomers find the bird. Which turned out to be easy once you knew to look by the big hawthorn bush on the field margin.

I watched it for half an hour. A lovely bird but a bugger to try to photograph in a very fussy backdrop from a hundred yards away! (That's my excuse for a lot of inartistic record shots.)

There'd been a suggestion earlier on that the bird was a red-tailed rather than a brown shrike. I'm unfamiliar with both these birds — either would be a lifer — so I took notes in the hopes of being able to clinch the ID from references at home.

• Definitely a shrike
• Brown above, wings darker, russet wash to crown, no white patches on wing
• Bright dove-grey underparts, contrasting white throat, warm salmon flanks
• Black mask, pale supercilium
• Bill dark, big
• Rump and tail coverts paler, redder than back and mantle
• Tail brown, only slightly darker than rump, some of the tail feathers looked slightly bleached at the base
• In the field the tail had a tawny cast to it, in photographs it looks redder

I'm no expert and entirely open to correction but I think the whole dark wings, the high contrast between throat and breast, and the lack of contrast between tail and rump seem to confirm brown shrike.

Brown shrike

Brown shrike

I had a wander round the common to see what else was about. There had been a lot of black-headed gulls flying high overhead, fifty of them were on the pond with a dozen coots, a family of mute swans and a single first-Winter common gull. I walked under the railway bridges towards South Kirkby Green. The duck pond held a couple of dozen mallard and a handful of shovelers dozed by the margins.

A nice trip out and an interesting puzzle of a bird.

Southport

Greylag, Marshside

I decided to have a wander round Southport while it's still an option and the weather should be behaving itself. (As it happens, it was a bright sunny day right to the moment I stepped off the bus.)

All the signs were encouraging as I walked down Marshside Road: the fields were damp, gaggles of Canada geese and greylags and small flocks of wigeon were feeding on the grass, and small parties of pink-footed geese flew over. Once I got my eye in I could see a few dozen curlew in the long grass and groups of teal nestling by the pools. There were a couple of herons about and a dozen little egrets were dotted about the landscape. I'd hoped for cattle egret amongst the cattle today but no joy: one of the white blobs by their feet was a little egret, the other a Tesco carrier bag.

There was some work being done near the Sandgrounders Hide but that didn't seem to be bothering the birds on the marsh. I'm not sure what they're doing at the corner of the road, they've cut down the bushes and done some excavation but I couldn't work out why. I'm still wondering what removing the hawthorn hedges from the side of the road did except remove cover and nesting places for small birds.

Black-tailed godwits, Marshside

Black-tailed godwits

There was literally nothing on Junction Pool so I wandered down to Nels Hide. A huge flock of black-tailed godwits lined the far edge of the pool, with a more feeding in the grass beyond with lapwings. Nearly all were now in their Winter greys though some still had rusty tinges to their heads and necks. Something scared up the greylags in the field, which scared up the Canada geese and this, in turn, scared up the godwits and lapwings. Usually this is caused by an aircraft but I couldn't hear or see anything. All the birds settled back down again but ten minutes later the godwits and lapwings were back up, probably in response to a bird of prey but I couldn't see one if one there was. 

Canada geese and greylags

Black-tailed godwits being photo-bombed by a herring gull and lapwings

Greylags

Black-tailed godwits

All the while the ducks — wigeon, teal, shovelers and gadwall — just went about their business as if nothing was happening. A couple of pintails flew in and settled down amongst the shovelers.

Wigeon

Shoveler

The usual reaction of a shoveler to the camera

Pintails

Black-headed gulls

Sandgrounders was quiet: Canada geese on the big pool, teal, wigeon and gadwall in front of the hide.

Marshside Outer Marsh

I walked down the path alongside the Inner Marsh. There were more ducks in the creeks and pools along here, mostly teal and mallard, with a family party of tufted duck and a couple of pairs of shelduck. Over in the Outer Marsh I could see lots of small groups of pink-feet dotted about, mostly hidden in the long grass except for the tops of heads of the geese on guard duty. There was probably a couple of hundred geese out there but it was a struggle to see more than a couple of dozen. Far out, approaching the shore line, a marsh harrier floated over the reeds, much to the dismay of small black dots that may have been meadow pipits or skylarks.

Pink-footed geese, Marshside Outer Marsh

Pink-footed geese, Marshside Outer Marsh

Crossens Inner Marsh is still drier than it used to be so no golden plovers about. There were plenty of lapwings and wigeon about and teal and mallards in the creeks and pools and a flock of black-headed gulls on the big pool by the waterworks. A flock of fifty or so starlings bustled about between the feet of the lapwings and wigeon.

Wigeon, Crossens Outer Marsh

Wigeon, Crossens Outer Marsh

There weren't many geese on the outer marsh and what there was was in the far distance. A few shelduck and a couple of little egrets were a bit closer. A couple of buzzards sat on fenceposts a respectable distance from each other. A herd of bullocks were grazing but no birds accompanied them. Approaching the old wildfowlers' pull-in there was a flock of a couple of hundred wigeon, at least half of them ginger headed first Winter drakes. There was a bit of a kerfuffle as a merlin flew past but it wasn't stopping. Fifty or so teal joined the wigeons near the stream.

Teal, Crossens Outer Marsh

I was hoping for ruff, or even curlew sandpiper, as I headed down the path along the bund at the back of the inner marshes. As it was, the only waders around were lapwings and blackwits. I did meet some friendly dogs. 

I checked the bus times and not wanting to hang around half an hour at a bus stop in the rain I walked down the path through the golf course onto Hesketh Road. I was hoping that any cattle egrets that may have been about would have been with the cattle feeding near this path, sadly not. Looking out on the pool from the Hesketh Road platform there were plenty more black-tailed godwits and shovelers and a party of half a dozen pink-feet were accompanied by a tundra bean goose that was making great play of being bigger and broader than the rest of the crowd. I'm guessing this is the same bird that's been hanging around after it injured its wing last Spring.

Tufted ducks, Hesketh Park

Having walked this far and the rain having eased I decided to walk over to Hesketh Park to see if the female scaup that had been reported was still hanging round with the tufted ducks but no joy there either.

A longer than intended walk, in less Clement weather than I'd expected, and I was knackered by the time I got home but it was a very good day's birdwatching. On the way home, staring out into the twilight in the vain hope for a passing owl I was pleased to be proved right in my prediction that a flooded field near Bescar Lane would have a few whooper swans on it by nightfall.